thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Donald Trump Cut Off By TV Networks For Falsely Claiming Voting Fraud

Donald Trump Cut Off By TV Networks For Falsely Claiming Voting Fraud
With Donald Trump’s reelection chances fading, the president faced an immediate backlash after falsely claiming that he had won the election and the race was rigged in a rambling press conference at the White House. Major TV networks in the US cut their coverage as Trump raised issues with postal voting without providing evidence.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--I Tried To Get Laid Before Lockdown. Here’s What Happened

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You’re reading Sex Diaries, a HuffPost UK Personal series about how we are (or aren’t) having sex. To share your story, get in touch on ukpersonal@huffpost.com.
When prime minister Boris Johnson announced a second national lockdown last Saturday, there was only one thing on my mind: sex.
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Having not had sex in three months, the longest I’ve gone in a decade, the prospect of 30+ days without touching another human being filled me with frustration. People often like to say that it’s easy for a woman to get sex, so I embarked on a mission to find out if it’s possible to get laid within the space of five days during a pandemic.
Let me preface this by saying two things. Firstly, 2020 has been a hard year for single people, who have been largely forgotten during the pandemic and banned from enjoying the physical pleasure of another person’s company, something I do not agree with. Secondly, I am not really a fan of casual sex (I’ve had a lot of it in the past and it no longer appeals) and so have spent the past seven months dating, in the hopes of finding love. In fact, I only recently ended a budding romance with a man I had been seeing for six weeks and still care for (we are hoping to pick things back up in a few months).
But I have needs, and so, back to my experiment. Sitting at a socially-distanced gig with a friend, I jumped onto Bumble and started swiping. Within minutes, I had 10 matches, to whom I sent the exact same message.
“So if I said, let’s meet before national lockdown 2.0 for a bit of fun… what would you say? Usually I wouldn’t but it’s been a long 2020.”
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“Clearly I was not the only one horny and eager to get in there quickly, before England shut down.”
Moments later, the enthusiastic messages started rolling in. Clearly I was not the only one horny and eager to get in there quickly, before England shut down.
Surprisingly, none of the replies were seedy and the men were delightfully honest, suggesting a day (or night) for us to meet up. I proceeded to scroll through the profiles with my friend before settling on a man we’ll call Josh.
My foray into this unusual type of speed dating had, at first, been a bit of a joke – I hadn’t actually thought that I’d find a man I’d want to sleep with – but Josh was friendly, cheeky and very attractive. A few hours (and drinks) later, I invited him over to my place.
Word of warning: if you’re going to try something like this, always be safe. I had shared this man’s profile with my friend and given her his details, confirmed his photos were real, spoken to him on the phone before he arrived and also have very good neighbours who will help at a moment’s notice, if needed.
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As for the sex, it was disappointingly mediocre, with Josh more interested in his orgasm than mine. As a sexually experienced woman in her early 30s, I have no qualms about telling a man what I want in bed and I demanded that he pay me the same attention I did him. I got my climax in the end but, frankly, I did most of the work.
The cuddles, however, were glorious. It’s what I have miss most about sex; someone snuggling into my neck, kissing my back as we wake up in the early hours for round two and take turns being the little spoon.
Sex isn’t just sex, and it’s precisely this that I think the government had forgotten when it imposed the restriction that only those in so-called ‘established relationships’ are allowed physical intimacy. Kissing, hugging, someone holding your hand – these are just as important as penetration and orgasms.
“This will likely be my last sex of 2020 – unless Santa Claus decides to send a hunky man down the chimney and guarantees he is coronavirus-free”
Josh left the next day with the promise that he’d call me before Thursday for another night of fun. He didn’t, and I wasn’t particularly bothered – nor did I call him myself.
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Aside from this night of mild passion, 2020 has been dry. There was the mind-blowing experience I had on my birthday back in July with a former lover and, back in March, a virtual relationship that lasted for nearly two months. We had phone and video sex regularly and I very nearly fell in love, but the lack of a physical connection meant that our relationship, however meaningful, soon fizzled out. My point? Sex is important, on many levels.
The experiment was a success and I have no regrets. Would I do it again though? Probably not. I didn’t feel fully satisfied – not just because the sex was a letdown but I just need more these days. Note that I say this with no judgement to those who like to get freaky with strangers, I used to be a big fan of it myself.
But for me, this will likely be the last sex of 2020 – unless Santa Claus decides to send a hunky man down the chimney and guarantees he is coronavirus-free. Until then, fellow single people, it’s just me, my vibrator and I.
Alison is a freelance journalist, writing under a pseudonym


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--'Like The Berlin Wall' – Manchester University Students Tear Down Covid Security Fences In Protest

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Furious students whose campus was caged in by their uni without warning tore down the fences in protest last night.
It came after weeks of growing anger and resentment that young people had been “lured” to universities across the country, at a cost of thousands of pounds, only to find lectures had moved online and that their halls of residence were anything but Covid-secure.
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The two-metre metal barriers went up on Thursday at the University of Manchester’s Fallowfield campus as a “security measure” to “help avoid the mixing of households”, the uni told HuffPost UK.
But the measure – which was not explained to students until the fences had gone up – was the final straw for students, who protested on Thursday evening and pulled the barriers down.
Handout photo courtesy of Joe Hindley of students at University of Manchester's Fallowfield campus, angered by fences put up around their halls of residence, who have pulled down the barriers in protest PA
One first year law student contacted HuffPost UK to say the campus felt “eerie… a bit like a prison”.
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The university subsequently issued an apology and said the fences would be removed on Friday.
Joe Hindley, a 19-year-old first-year maths student, told the PA news agency: “We’ve just been really frustrated. It feels like a kick in the balls.
“There’s no benefit we can see to them being up.
“They’ve said something about it increasing our safety but from what we can see it’s a complete waste of money.”
Handout photo courtesy of Ben McGowan of students at University of Manchester's Fallowfield campus PA
Manchester University have been forced to take down the fences because of student protests
Students I spoke to are livid, highlighting the recent death of a student suffering extreme anxiety about lockdown
"It's reprehensible that they ever thought to do such a thing," says one https://t.co/4BJgwGQaoY pic.twitter.com/esgJfBM4fz — Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) November 5, 2020
The fences were put up around the outside of the campus, with security checks on the way in, and between blocks.
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While they did not prevent students from entering or exiting the campus, they did bar passage between the different blocks of halls.
Ben McGowan, a first year politics and sociology student, said the reaction from students was an accumulation of frustration built up since they arrived in September, with students subjected to lockdowns and restrictions, with fines for some who broke the rules.
McGowan, 18, said he had been disappointed with how the university has handled the coronavirus situation, saying he felt there had not been enough support or guidance.
“I think there was a boiling point when they put up those fences,” said. “It was a final breaking point for most students.”
It looks like the berlin wall 😠☹😥. #ManchesterUniversity #lockdown needs to end. The pandemic was over 3 months ago and the govts resorting to anything to gain control cos they long ago lost it. Conservatives I hope will never get in again. — Rosie Pook (@Rosiep678) November 6, 2020
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McGowan said he was unimpressed with the apology and that it was “way too late”.
He added: “It showed just how badly thought through it was.”
In an email received by students shortly before 8.30pm on Thursday, the university’s president and vice-chancellor Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell apologised for causing “concern and distress” by putting up the fences.
“This was not our intention – in fact quite the reverse,” she said.
“The fencing was intended as a response to a number of concerns received over recent weeks from staff and students about safety and security; particularly about access by people who are not residents.
“There was never any intent to prevent you or other residents of our halls from entering or exiting the site.”
She added that the fences would be removed on Friday, and alternative measures “including additional security patrols” would be brought in instead.
This year’s freshers cohort lost out on months of teaching when the pandemic hit, cancelling the final stretch of their A-levels and ultimately all their exams.
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That led to a national fiasco that saw them instead given estimated grades by a faulty Ofqual algorithm that favoured wealthier areas, robbing many students of their first-choice university places and sparking a national outcry that eventually saw the government back down and deliver grades on teachers’ assessments instead.
Last month students at Manchester University – as well as others from Bristol – organised rent strikes to protest their treatment while in isolation.
Many complained of being sent unsuitable food boxes, either with not enough food or food that does not match their dietary requirements, and students who needed sanitary products not being given them.
Around 40,000 students attend Manchester University, which has a staff of around 12,500. It was the site of one of the earliest and largest spikes in student coronavirus cases after reopening six weeks ago.
In an update on coronavirus infection rates last month, the university said positive student cases had increased very rapidly from almost no cases to over 200 in just four days. It added that reported infections were now declining.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Steve Bannon Banned From Twitter After Suggesting He Would Like To Behead Anthony Fauci

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Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon has been permanently banned from Twitter after suggesting he would like to behead top US medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci.
During an episode of his podcast War Room: Pandemic, Bannon discussed the imagined beheadings of Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray, saying he would like to put their “heads on pikes” outside the White House as a “warning.”
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Fauci is currently protected by extra government security after receiving death threats.
Bannon’s twitter account suspended pic.twitter.com/8g44kDaF0k — Josh Russell (@josh_emerson) November 5, 2020
Steve Bannon has been permanently banned from Twitter. — Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 6, 2020
The former top strategist characterised Trump as a “kind-hearted man” who presumably would be opposed to such an action – but didn’t hesitate to promote violence himself.
“I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes. I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats,” he explained, as Media Matters for America first reported.
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“You either get with the programme or you’re gone ― time to stop playing games,” Bannon added. “Blow it all up.”
Bannon’s co-host Jack Maxey appeared to agree, indicating that the men were “traitors.”
“You know what, Steve, yesterday there was the anniversary of the hanging of two Tories in Philadelphia,” Maxey said. “These were Quaker businessmen who had cohabitated, if you will, with the British while they were occupying Philadelphia. These people were hung. This is what we used to do to traitors.”
“That’s how you win the revolution,” Bannon said. “The revolution wasn’t some sort of garden party. It was a civil war.”
Twitter has now permanently suspended Bannon’s account, and YouTube has removed his video discussing the imagined beheadings.
In the face of Trump’s constant minimising of the threat posed by Covid-19, Fauci – the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – has urged the public to follow strict measures to combat the coronavirus.
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More than 230,000 people have died of the virus in the US, and on Thursday officials recorded more than 100,000 cases in a single day for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
In August, Fauci said that Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s rhetoric had prompted “some of the crazies in society to start threatening me.”
He went on to cite “divisiveness in the country” for further abetting those making threats against him, even though he is just “trying to promote public health principles to save people’s lives,” he said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Bill Bailey Doesn't Want You To See Him As The 'Comedy Act' On This Year's Strictly Come Dancing

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Bill Bailey is determined not to be the “comedy act” on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The comedian, who is partnered with Oti Mabuse, has said that people perhaps expected him to try to amuse them with “jokey stuff”, but he insisted he is taking learning to dance seriously.
Last week saw Bill win praise from the judges for his Quickstep inspired Doctor Dolittle, having markedly improved from his debut performance a week earlier.
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Bill Bailey and dance partner Oti Mabuse BBC/Guy Levy
Appearing on Strictly spin-off It Takes Two, Bill said: “I think what I really wanted to do was pay real attention to the dance and the choreography because Oti is such a brilliant choreographer and thinks about the routines so well that I wanted to pay due diligence to that, and I wanted to give it my all.”
When asked about how he has been affected by being praised by the judges, he said: “I think if anything it encourages you to push more and to try and improve, and to constantly try to push yourself and really try to make the routine work.”
Bill won praise of his Quickstep last week BBC/Guy Levy
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Bill recently revealed his Strictly stint has had an impact on his home life, as he is forced to socially distance from his 16-year-old son while at home due to being in a bubble with partner Oti.
The pair will be performing a Paso Doble to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly by Ennio Morricone on Saturday’s movie special, which will also mark the first time there has not been a studio audience in Strictly’s 16-year history.
Earlier this week, it was announced the doors to the ballroom would be closed due to the second lockdown in England, with audiences not invited back until early December should they be permitted to do so under government guidance.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--10 Showbiz Moments That Made Us Smile In A Week Of Uncertainty | Good Vibes Only

10 Showbiz Moments That Made Us Smile In A Week Of Uncertainty | Good Vibes Only
The excitement of Kylie's Disco helped us through a week dominated by lockdown and the US election. And even in the serious news coverage, there were laughs to be had thanks to an unfortunate live TV blunder.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Who Is Winning The US Election? Here Are The Latest Results

Despite Donald Trump’s efforts to spread lies about electoral fraud, Joe Biden’s path to the White House is becoming increasingly clear – with the Democrat overtaking Trump in the key state of Pennsylvania early on Friday afternoon.
Just a handful of states are yet to be called, but these are key to determining the outcome of the election.
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Neither candidate has yet reached the 270 Electoral College votes needed to claim victory, but Trump’s possible route to a second term has narrowed significantly as the count progresses.
Here’s where we stand right now.
What’s happening in the remaining states?
Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes)
Biden has overtaken Trump in Pennsylvania by 13,220 votes, according to the Associated Press. Biden is at 49.5%, Trump at 49.3%.
Pennsylvania still has around 150,000 votes left to count, or about 2%. Those remaining ballots are either mail-in or provisional votes, and as such are likely to be in Biden’s favour.
Additional results from the battleground state are expected to come later on Friday, but it could take days for the race to be decided.
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Nevada (6 electoral votes)
Biden’s lead in Nevada has also increased to 20,137 votes ahead of Trump. Biden is at 49.7%, Trump at 48.1%.
There is still a considerably long way to go before all the votes will be counted in Nevada, with around 87% of votes counted. Many of those still to be processed are ballots postmarked on election day, and likely to be in Biden’s favour.
More results could be coming in later on Friday, but the vote count is expected to continue into the weekend.
Arizona (11 electoral votes)
Biden’s lead is continuing to narrow in Arizona. As of Friday morning, his advantage had contracted from 93,000 to 43,779.
With about 220,000 votes – or 90% – of the estimated votes counted, Biden is at 49.9% and Trump at 48.6%.
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More results are expected this evening, but it’s unclear whether it will be enough for a projection.
Georgia (16 electoral votes)
Biden is ahead by 1,558 votes, flipping what was once a lead in the tens-of-thousands for the current president. Some 99% of votes have already been counted.
The margin is very, very thin – Biden has a 0.03% lead (just over 1,000 votes) over Trump. This afternoon, Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said there would be a recount in the state “with a margin that small”. This would not start until the current count had ended, and could take weeks.
Many of the votes still being counted are coming from counties where Biden was in the lead.
North Carolina (15 electoral votes)
Trump currently leads by more than 77,000 votes, with around 6% of the vote uncounted – but state officials have said a full result would not be known until next week.
Trump is expected to win the state, but with up to 116,000 mail ballots left to count, the race is still too early to call.
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The state allows mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be counted if they are received by November 12, which is when more results will be released.
What are Biden and Trump’s paths to winning?
Biden still has a much clearer route to the presidency than Trump. He could claim victory by winning Pennsylvania alone, or two out of the trio of Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. Trump’s options are more limited – he needs to hang onto both Pennsylvania and Georgia while overtaking Biden in either Nevada or Arizona.
Most major US television networks currently give Biden a 253 to 214 lead in Electoral College votes, after he captured the crucial states of Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday.
What has Trump said?
The incumbent delivered a rambling speech full of misinformation on Thursday evening, during which he falsely claimed he had won the “legal votes”.
His comments were met with instant backlash, with several major US broadcasters cutting away from the speech to make it clear that there was no evidence for his claims.
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“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Trump lied, adding without evidence that there had been “historical interference from big media, big money and big tech”.
The president also raised several non-specific issues with postal voting, referring vaguely to “a pipe burst”, “people are using binoculars” and “paper on all of the windows”.
In another mark of just how misleading his speech really was, Twitter marked several clips posted by the president himself with a content warning stating: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
The press conference was the first for Trump since early Wednesday, when he addressed the media as the first wave of election results was being reported. Trump at the time baselessly declared victory and falsely claimed he’d already won several states in which a clear winner had yet to be determined. He also, without evidence, suggested that the ongoing counting of votes amounted to “fraud” and should be halted.
A reflection on President Trump’s comments last night:
The last President I covered who refused to accept the vote count in an election was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, 2009. — Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) November 6, 2020
Since then, the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in several states to halt vote counting and disqualify ballots. Judges in at least two states have ruled against his campaign.
What has Biden said?
Joe Biden wrote on Twitter shortly after Trump’s White House appearance: “No one is going to take our democracy away from us”.
In earlier remarks from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden expressed confidence he would win and urged calm as votes were tallied.
“Democracy’s sometimes messy,” Biden said. “It sometimes requires a little patience as well. But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years in a system of governance that has been the envy of the world.”
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The Biden campaign said Thursday morning that it believes “victory is imminent,” as it wrote on a slide in a video briefing.
“Our data shows that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said. Biden and Senator Kamala Harris are expected to give an address on Friday evening.
Voting concluded as scheduled on Tuesday night, but it’s not unusual for many states to take days to finish counting ballots.
The presidential election is really 50 different statewide elections, each of them governed by state laws which say different things about how the vote should be counted.
Covid-19 also means that huge numbers of people also voted by mail, making it likely the count will take longer than usual.
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What is going on at the polling stations?
As the count has rumbled on, the atmosphere at the polls across the country has become increasingly tense.
Trump has fuelled baseless conspiracy theories of wrongdoing during the counts, and Republicans have issued conflicting calls for some states to “stop the count”, while demanding others “count every vote”. There is no evidence that states have stopped counting prematurely.
In Detroit, about 30 observers, mostly Republicans, were barred from entering a vote-counting hall by election officials who cited indoor capacity restrictions imposed to prevent spread of the coronavirus. Police were called to enforce the decision.
Many of those excluded stood outside the hall voicing their protest and singing “God Bless America” while a second group of Republican observers who were denied entry held a prayer circle nearby. They also broke into chants of “stop the vote” and “stop the count.”
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, police are reportedly investigating an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Centre, where votes are being counted, on Thursday night.
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#BREAKING: Philly police investigating alleged plot to attack Pennsylvania Convention Centerhttps://t.co/1Vg6b8mq8v — Action News on 6abc (@6abc) November 6, 2020
6 ABC reported that police had received a tip about a group – potentially a family – driving up from Virginia to unleash an attack at the Convention Centre.
No injuries were reported, but media on the scene said they witnessed a man being taken into custody, though it is not yet clear if he was linked to the tip.
Police told 6 ABC they had recovered a weapon and believe they recovered a vehicle involved.
Misinformation continues to spread rapidly online, mobilising protests on the ground.
One nationwide organising effort centred on a Facebook group called “Stop the Steal,” which had more than 360,000 members by the time Facebook shut it down Thursday afternoon, less than a day after its creation.
The group promoted more than a dozen protest events in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina from Wednesday through Saturday — the majority of which remained on Facebook’s platform even after the main group was removed.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Davina McCall's Meme For If Trump Loses The US Election Is Seriously Inspired

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With Donald Trump currently trailing in the US election count, the possibility he will be kicked out of the White House is looking increasingly likely.
But it seems we’ve found the perfect person to oversee his eviction – former Big Brother host Davina McCall.
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The presenter shared a seriously inspired meme as she reacted to the latest election developments on Thursday evening.
Davina McCall Joe Pepler/PinPep Boots/Shutterstock
Sharing a picture of herself hosting the legendary reality show, she captioned it with a reworked version of her famous catchphrase.
“White House, this is Davina. You are live on Channel 4. Please do not swear,” she wrote. “Donald, I’m coming to get you.”
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Davina then thanked DJ Fat Tony for sending her the meme, which she shared with her 2.7 million Twitter followers.
The presenter – who was recently confirmed as the host of a rebooted Changing Rooms – fronted Big Brother from its inception in 2000 until it was axed by Channel 4 in 2010.
The show was later hosted by Brian Dowling and Emma Willis when it moved to Channel 5.
Davina was linked to a potential Big Brother reboot earlier this year, when reports claimed she had been approached to revive the show on its original network.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--A Minute Of Kindness: Saving Tonnes Of Food Waste From Landfill

A Minute Of Kindness: Saving Tonnes Of Food Waste From Landfill
With roughly two thirds of food going to waste, Too Good To Go connects restaurants to people who may want to buy that food at the end of the day, saving it from the black bins out back.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--CNN Anchor Stuns Viewers With Brutal Take On Trump's Latest Election Remarks

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CNN’s Anderson Cooper shocked viewers on Thursday with a particularly vicious take after President Donald Trump railed against the legitimacy of the democratic process, spread conspiracy theories and claimed victory despite still-uncertain election results in a remarkably dishonest speech to media.
“That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realising his time is over,” Cooper said following Trump’s Thursday evening press conference.
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“He just hasn’t accepted it and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country.”
Cooper: That is the President of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun... pic.twitter.com/0s9x0OqjjH — Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 6, 2020
Trump claimed during his address that “if you count the legal votes, I easily win” — falsely suggesting that the votes being counted now are illegal, which they are not. He added, without evidence, that the vote had been marred by historic election interference from “big media, big money and Big Tech.”
With his chance of reelection diminishing as critical swing states continue to tally votes, Trump has initiated legal challenges to disqualify or stop the counting of legitimately cast ballots. He has claimed baselessly that Democrats are trying to steal the election and falsely declared himself winner of several states where vote counts are not finished.
Cooper’s controversial remarks lit up social media. Some people called out the anchor for ableism and fat-shaming by referring to Trump’s weight. Others praised him for denouncing the president. Many were simply baffled that this is what it’s come to.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Mary Trump Unpacks What Her 'Desperate' Uncle May Be Feeling Right Now

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Mary Trump on Thursday weighed in on the predicament her uncle, President Donald Trump, finds himself in as election results show his chances at reelection diminishing.
She appeared on MSNBC’s “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell” several hours after her uncle made a wildly dishonest speech to the media in which he tried to delegitimise the results of the election, spread baseless conspiracy theories about electoral fraud and interference, and again suggested he won the race even though votes were still being counted in several too-close-to-call states.
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“Donald has never been in this place before where there’s nobody to bail him out, there’s nobody to buy him out. He’s desperate, he’s flailing and there’s literally nothing he can do legitimately except to watch this play out helplessly,” said Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist who this year published a critical tell-all book about her uncle, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
“This was Donald talking about an attempted coup. The leader of a country trying desperately to delegitimize an election. It’s obscene and somebody’s got to step in and stop him,” Mary Trump says about WH statements today by President Trump. pic.twitter.com/xD4XvCxDhX — MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 6, 2020
Mary Trump said her uncle’s recent remarks gave a good indication of what’s to come, “especially if Republican leadership continues to do nothing.”
″This wasn’t just Donald obfuscating or lying. This was Donald talking about an attempted coup. The leader of a country trying desperately to delegitimise an election. It’s obscene, and somebody’s got to step in and try to stop it.”
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Current Republican officials have been reticent to criticise the president directly despite his blatant attempts to damage the credibility of the democratic process.
Mary Trump also said that the facts that the GOP has gained seats in the House and appears poised to maintain its Senate majority will mean the president will experience a potential loss as a repudiation and rejection of him personally.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Shawn Mendes And Camila Cabello's New Puppy Is Here To Cheer Us All Up

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The domestic bliss that singers Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello have found just got cuter.
The two got a puppy, and Camila hailed the dog’s arrival.
“During uncertain times like this we need a reminder that sweet miracle things like puppies exist in the world too,” the Havana singer wrote on Instagram with a video of Shawn cuddling Tarzan in a blanket.
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Shawn, whose Wonder album drops next month, posted pics and videos of Tarzan a day earlier. But Camila also delivered a message of hope in the turbulent aftermath of Election Day.
“WE are the ones responsible for building the world we want to live in. the fight for BEING the society we want to see,” she wrote. “That continues after this outcome is decided. This is what I’m telling myself to soothe myself right now because it’s the only thing we actually can control. love you guys and Tarzan sends a big puppy lick.”
Last week, Shawn described life with Camila since they holed up together at her house in Miami during the pandemic.
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“When I got here, it was like the beginning of the album process and I was like in a full panic state,” he said. “I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to make music. This is going to be impossible.’


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--6 Stretches To Do First Thing In The Morning, According To Experts

At a time when many of us are sitting more than usual and (rightfully and responsibly) going out less, it makes sense that we’re feeling stiffer and less limber. Sitting all day, whether at a desk, on the couch or at the kitchen table, has serious consequences for our physical health.
Isabella Sprague, a sports physical therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told HuffPost that she is seeing a large increase in back, neck and hip injuries due to people sitting more and moving less.
“People are sitting in all kinds of crazy positions just because they have to adapt to these new work-from-home scenarios,” Sprague said. “We’re seeing a lot of postural-driven injuries that we used to not see as much of.”
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Starting the day, especially during the pandemic, with a few stretches is an ideal way to relieve stress and reduce sitting-induced pains that many people are all too familiar with.
“Consistent stretching offers a laundry list of benefits. This includes increased performance, faster recovery, stress relief and pain relief,” said Jeff Brannigan, program director at Stretch*d, an assisted stretching studio based in New York. “When you are at a certain level of inflexibility, you’ll be prone to all sorts of musculoskeletal problems — things you may not even think would be associated with stretching like cramping, nerve pain and spasms.”
Below, experts share the best stretches to do as soon as your alarm goes off in the morning:
Start your day with an open-book stretch.
Sprague tells her patients to start their day with an open-book stretch, which opens up the spine and the front of the shoulders while also increasing spinal mobility. This is especially useful before a day of hunched-over typing, texting or sitting.
“For this stretch, you would lie on one of your sides — you can do this in bed — and bend both of your knees up so they’re at about 90 degrees,” Sprague said.
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“You then bring both of your arms straight out in front of you on the bed, open up the top arm and twist your upper body away from your bottom arm while looking toward your hand,” she continued. “It’s basically an upper spinal twist. You hold it for a couple seconds and come back to a neutral position.”
She added that an open-book stretch should be repeated on both the left and right sides of the body.
Stretch your arms up above your head.
Stretching helps keep us mobile, especially since our tissue tightens after long periods of staying still or lying down, according to Kelly Roberts Lane, owner of Fix It Physical Therapy in Minnesota. She recommends doing a fairly simple stretch in the morning that is often done at the end of tough spin classes or high-intensity interval training workouts.
“Reach your arms all the way over your head and look up. Then, roll your spine down one vertebra at a time until you are touching your toes or are as close to them as you can get,” Roberts Lane said. “Let your head hang. Straighten one knee and then the other to get a deeper hamstring stretch.”
It’s important to hang in this position for a few moments, then roll back up and repeat this full stretch three times, she added.
Try a seated stretch ideal for combating back pain.
Two of the most important areas to address in the morning are the back and neck due to harmful sleeping positions, Brannigan said.
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“It’s very easy to have the spine off-kilter when sleeping in a side-lying position if you’re not using a proper pillow — while sleeping face down can put tremendous stress into the lumbar spine as it compresses the lower back,” he said.
To help with back pain, Brannigan recommends Stretch*d’s Twist & Dipp*r stretch, a seated movement where you put your hands behind your head, twist your torso as far as you can in one direction and then drop your elbow toward your knee. This stretch should be held for two seconds and repeated 10 times on each side.
Brannigan added that this stretch targets the quadratus lumborum, a deep abdominal muscle that is often responsible for back pain.
nadia_bormotova via Getty Images Doing gentle stretches in the morning can help undo the damage caused by sitting at a desk all day and weird sleeping positions at night.
Stretch your neck, which gets tense after a night of sleep.
One of Brannigan’s favourite stretches in the morning is the Maybe movement, a simple stretch that focuses on the neck.
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To do this, put your arm over your head and rest your hand on your ear. Then, gently push your head toward your bent elbow, holding the stretch for two seconds before returning to neutral. Repeat this movement 10 times on each side.
Complete a figure-four stretch on your back.
You might remember this stretch from gym class as a kid. Sprague favours a variation of this movement for start-of-the-day stretching.
“I would definitely recommend a figure-four stretch, but while lying on your back,” she said. “You would bend both of your knees up and you would take, for example, your left ankle and cross it over your right knee and then you would hold behind your right knee.”
Once you are in this position, use your left elbow to push the left knee so you are in a figure-four position. This movement stretches the piriformis muscle in the lower leg, a muscle that Sprague said is tight in many people who sit all day long.
She also noted that this figure-four stretch can directly release tightness throughout the lower back and the glute muscles.
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Stretch on the edge of your bed.
Variations of the figure-four stretch are crucial when stretching the body after a night’s rest. Roberts Lane proposed a quick stretch that is an additional variation of the effective movement.
“When you are sitting at the edge of your bed, put one heel on the opposite knee,” Roberts Lane said. “You can lean forward or put a bit of pressure on your knee for a deeper stretch. Repeat on the other side.”
This movement helps open and stretch the hip, she said. And for extra movement, you can choose to roll out your ankle as you execute this stretch. You may even want to repeat this a few times throughout the day.
“We have found ourselves sitting quite a bit more and missing out on the trips to the printer and the water cooler at the office during this pandemic,” Roberts Lane said. “It is a good idea to get up from your desk every hour or two and do a few stretches to keep your tissue pliable.”
Roberts Lane stressed the importance of stretching every day, especially given that many people are sitting so much more than they were a year ago. Regular stretching doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment — it can take as little as five minutes but still make a world of difference.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--What Parents Need To Know About Face Masks At The School Gate

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Face masks and coverings have become a ubiquitous part of life in the wake of the pandemic, but there’s one surprising place they’re rarely seen – at the school gate.
That’s despite the fact that if my experience is anything to go by, shepherding two primary-school aged children to our school in east London and back is by far the busiest and most interactive part of my day.
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Hordes of parents line the streets, chat in the queue and sit at opposite ends of the benches in the playground while waiting for kids to exit the classrooms.
When it’s raining, we huddle beneath the shelter of the ‘outdoor science classroom’ and congregate in the shed to help our kids collect their bikes and scooters. We pass each other on the narrow pavements, sometimes stepping off them for safety; but when it comes to social distancing, it’s virtually impossible – not least because the roads are packed with cars.
We do have staggered entry and exit times, and different gates according to school year groups, but we have to pick our kids up on time and leave immediately, which means there is a lot of passing (people) traffic.
So, when we’re all so aware of the risks, why aren’t more parents wearing masks? Should we be? And whose responsibility is it to mandate we do so?
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That was the question (gently) raised by a new parent in our Reception group WhatsApp on the first day of the second lockdown.
The dad wrote that following news of a confirmed case of Covid-19 at our school – an entire class of kids is now in isolation, along with their teacher – he was thinking of wearing a mask for the school run.
He admitted he’d felt “self-conscious” wearing it up until now, but said he felt it was for the best – and other parents agreed.
One mum said she was happy to wear a mask if it helped the school stay safe, open and running smoothly, and another admitted that even with markings on the floor to show parents where and where not to stand, she felt “uncomfortable” because of the proximity of other parents.
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But there was substantial confusion as to whether parenting wearing masks outside at school drop-off and pick-up times was a matter for the school or PTA to issue guidance on – or up to individual choice.
HuffPost UK spoke to the Department of Education to find out more about the latest guidelines.
A DoE spokeswoman pointed out the relevant section on face coverings, which states: “In early years settings, there is no change to the existing position. It is not mandatory for staff and visitors to wear face coverings.
“In situations where social distancing between adults in settings is not possible (for example when moving around in corridors and communal areas), settings have the discretion to recommend the use of face coverings for adults on site, for both staff and visitors.”
In our parents’ WhatsApp group, most people have decided that due to the combined effects of lockdown – plus our first confirmed case of the virus within the school – they’ll be wearing masks from now on.
“Cover them in kisses and then keep them safe,” one mum wrote, in summary.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--8 Gorgeously Cosy Interior Design Ideas To Up The Snug Factor

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Never mind hygge, we’re all about snug. What better time than this second lockdown to give your home a bit of a refresh, ready for forced hibernation.
Whether you want to create a space to curl to curl up with a book, a place to stretch out watching your favourite film or somewhere you can hunker down under a blanket and make the world go away, every home needs a cosy corner.
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Not everyone has the luxury of a box room to convert into a cocooning den, so we’ve scoured Instagram for some of the best decorative ideas whatever the shape and size of your home.
When in doubt add a Big Lebowski-esque rug. It really does tie any room together. Rugs also help breathe necessary warmth and homeliness into any room (even in modern and minimalist homes). A Persian rug adds character and charm to rentakit interiors.
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Don’t be afraid of colour, play with it. Choose deep, vibrant hues to create a living space that warms the heart after a long day. After being in the same place day-in-day-out, nothing beats unwinding in a space that radiates a toasty glow.
Wood adds natural warmth to a space. For those blessed with parquet flooring kiss it, lie close to it, never let it go. For those not as lucky, opt for warm wood shades such as oak, teak and walnut furnishings in different textures and finishes – it’ll add a charming modern farmhouse vibe.
Manipulate your space to ensure the best spot in the house has the maximum amount of natural light creeping in. Extra vitamin D and sunshine can do you the world of good. Picture this: you’re curled up on your favourite armchair, listening to a podcast or reading, cosy with the warmth of the sun on your face. Bliss.
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Strategically placing tall potted plants in a high-ceilinged room adds volume and interest, but reduces the draught and can take up empty corners or fill vertical space. Just be sure that any plant you add to your home gets enough light to survive. Dead plants do not make a living room – or any room – cosy!
Throw in a blanket and job done. Not only does it add texture, a pop of colour and of course, warmth – having a blanket nearby instantly makes a house a home. Plus, who doesn’t love having a big throw on hand to wrap yourself up in like a giant burrito when it gets a little chilly?
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Bookworms, now’s your chance to shine. Bookshelves and home libraries not only show off your collection, but add warmth and improve the acoustics of any room. For those with fewer books, you can arrange and add decorative items together with knick-knacks, prints and plants, to fill the void. Or, here’s an idea, buy a new read or two.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Kylie Minogue DISCO Review: The Dance Floor Is Dead, But Everyone's Invited To Kylie's Disco

“So let’s dance through all our fears, war is over for a bit,” Kylie Minogue sang on her call-to-arms gay anthem, Your Disco Needs You, 20 years ago.
Neither Kylie – nor anyone else – could have imagined just how poignant those lyrics would become in 2020.
While the war is far from over, and heaving dance floors still seem a long way off from becoming a reality again, it doesn’t mean we can’t create our own and throw some shapes like nobody’s watching (because they really aren’t).
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And if anyone is going to distract us from the hell hole that is 2020 by providing the playlist, it’s Kylie. Disco Kylie to be precise.
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Kylie and disco have history. Much of her output from the last three decades has been rooted in the genre, from hits like Step Back In Time and Spinning Around, to deep cuts like Disco Down and So Now Goodbye.
And many of the greatest disco tracks share Kylie’s unique brand of musical melancholy too. Never Can Say Goodbye, On The Radio, I Will Survive… I’m-sad-but-I’ll-dance-through-the-tears is her sweet spot. Kylie herself has acknowledged that some of the best disco is “really sad”. “And it’s dressed in sequins and it’s lit with coloured lights,” she said recently.
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And while there are tinges of that here, her 15th studio album is more concerned with having as much fun as possible. Kylie’s read the room and delivered after digging out her Earth Wind And Fire, Donna Summer and ABBA albums. The Swedish foursome were famed for their melancholy pop too, and also dabbled with disco on their 1979 album Voulez-Vous.
Apparently, Kylie re-watched ABBA The Movie during the recording of DISCO, and it shows. Their influence is there in the lyrics of the album’s first single Say Something, as well as the chorus of Last Chance – one of the album’s highlights.
Elsewhere, Real Groove sounds like it could have been lifted straight off Dua Lipa’s recent disco-tinged Future Nostalgia, while Supernova sounds exactly like a song called Supernova should sound: vocoder vocals, intergalactic lyrics and a huge hands-in-the-air chorus. It’s basically poppers in musical form.
Miss A Thing is Magic’s cooler, slinkier, grown-up cousin and one of the more straight-up disco songs on the album, but it still sounds thoroughly 21st century, which is the DNA of this album: it’s an homage to disco – a celebration of the genre, but brought bang up to date. In less experienced hands it could have all veered into cheesy pastiche territory.
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It’s also distinctly “Kylie” and yet still manages to sound unlike anything like she’s ever done before.
Where Does The DJ Go? Kylie asks on one of the most fun tracks, with the Aussie star channeling her inner Gloria Gaynor on the intro and name-checking her biggest hit, I Will Survive. Dance Floor Darling is a mid-tempo bop until it drifts gloriously into Chromeo territory and suddenly speeds up. It’s a theme that runs through the album: just when you think you can have a breather, you’re dragged back to Kylie’s shiny dance floor.
“We’re a million miles apart, in a thousand ways… Can we all be as one again?” she asks on Say Something.
Let’s hope sooner rather than later, but in the meantime DISCO is just the tonic 2020 needs.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Are We Seeing A Glimmer Of Light At The End Of The Second Covid Tunnel?

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You’re reading The Waugh Zone, our daily politics briefing. Sign up now to get it by email in the evening.
There was some much-needed good news for Boris Johnson today as the latest ONS analysis suggested the rate of Covid infections was slowing down in England and Wales.
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It’s still early days of course but the stats wonks’ line that “the rate of increase is less steep compared with previous weeks” – in the community (outside hospitals) at least – offers a glimmer of the PM’s famous light at the end of the tunnel that is the UK second wave.
Given that case numbers are a leading indicator, rather than a lagging one like hospitalisations and deaths, that suggests things could be getting better. The King’s College London Zoe App’s leaders also said that its flattening stats were a “positive sign that we have passed the peak of this second wave”. I understand that London’s public health director Kevin Fenton told hospital chiefs in the capital last night that cases are beginning to slow there too.
The bad news is that right here and now, the NHS is having to cope with the aftermath of that big spike of the past few weeks. This was a fact underscored by the decision of Birmingham hospitals on Friday to postpone non-Covid “planned procedures” in order to free up beds for coronavirus patients. An extra 355 deaths reported today makes grim reading too.
Yet while the argument will play out over whether Johnson acted too late in imposing the second national lockdown, Tory MPs are sure to claim that the apparent slowing down of the spread of the virus proves their case that the previous tiered structure was actually working. The PM himself hinted at this yesterday, while stressing he couldn’t risk further rises that would overwhelm the health service.
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Conservative backbenchers were emboldened too by No.10’s tacit admission today that it got it wrong with a key slide used last Saturday by Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty to justify fresh action.
The projection of 1,500 daily deaths (higher than the first wave) should have shown 1,000 daily deaths by early next month. No.10 insisted the underlying analysis was “correct” and the PM himself said that the data was “irrefutable”. And as Whitty put it himself this week, as a doctor he feels “uncomfortable” with others’ suggestions that 1,000 deaths a day is somehow low.
Still, any levelling off of cases will no doubt fuel the determination of Tory MPs that they will not agree to any extension of the current lockdown. Johnson has made clear that he intends to return to the tiered system on December 2, and in doing so perhaps for once he may hail rather criticise what’s happening in Wales and Scotland.
Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething said today that its own “firebreak” would end on Monday because to keep curbs in place would be a “massive breach of trust”. His boss Mark Drakeford always said that it would take weeks after the end of the firebreak to see if it had worked. In a few weeks’ time, Johnson will have to adopt a similar position too.
All countries will be heartened then at signs the tougher measures are working. In Scotland too, there are tentative signs that its own stricter measures (short of a national lockdown but tighter in key areas) are paying off. The bigger question is whether the extra time bought by the plateauing of cases can be used profitably to get test-and-trace performance and self-isolation numbers up.
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Some public health experts claimed today that the Liverpool pilot scheme for mass testing is misjudged and should focus instead on symptomatic cases rather than asymptomatic ones. The government quietly ditched rapid, mass testing in Salford and used it for local ‘hotspots’ of infection instead, so maybe that will happen on Merseyside too.
Higher statutory sick pay and isolation pay may still be the real solution to the public’s aversion to quarantine. Labour knows that ministers will fear that once the pay rates go up even temporarily, it will be politically difficult ever to reduce them again, and the cost could be substantial. Maybe that’s why Rishi Sunak is still holding out, but maybe his spending review next month could herald change on that, as well as on free school meals.
But the one group who really are isolating are NHS staff. Simon Stevens’ figure yesterday that 30,000 staff are off sick or self isolating because of a family member really does suggest that it’s time to prioritise resources on Jeremy Hunt’s plan to mass test the NHS rather than the wider public. The front line in the fight against this awful virus needs every help it can get.
And for all the tentative good news today, it’s worth putting in perspective just how many deaths the nation has suffered from Covid to date: 48,475. It’s easy to forget the sheer scale of that number, which is well past the civilian death toll from the Blitz in World War Two, terror attacks and soldiers lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. The figure for ‘excess deaths’ is even higher.
As the PM marks Remembrance Sunday this weekend, it’s time once more to think about erecting a permanent memorial not just to NHS workers but to all those who lost their lives in the war against the invisible enemy.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Photo From Donald Trump’s Lie-Filled Rant Goes Viral For The Most Obvious Reason

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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Jimmy Kimmel Points Out The One Thing Donald Trump Didn’t Do In His ‘Despicable’ Presser

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Jimmy Kimmel tore into Donald Trump on Thursday night over the president’s earlier press conference from the White House, in which he once again attacked the democratic electoral process and baselessly accused Democrats of rigging the vote as the 2020 election continued to hang in the balance.
The US talk show host described Trump’s “litany of lies” and threats as “just a despicable and incoherent attack on democracy in the United States”.
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“The only thing he didn’t do was pull off his wig and reveal that he’s been Vlad Putin all along,” the comedian joked.
“At the end of that speech, he should have been arrested,” Kimmel continued. “If they could have found handcuffs small enough to take him away, they would have.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Johnny Depp Quits Fantastic Beasts Series 'In Light Of Recent Events'

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Johnny Depp has announced he’s stepping down from his role in the Fantastic Beasts film series “in light of recent events”.
The US actor previously appeared in the title role of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, and was due to reprise his role in the follow-up film, which had been slated for release in 2021.
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However, in a statement posted on Instagram, he explained that he was leaving the series, which is set in the same universe as the Harry Potter films, at the request of the production company Warner Bros.
Johnny Depp at the premiere of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald in 2018 Karwai Tang via Getty Images
“In light of recent events, I would like to make the following short statement,” he wrote.
“Firstly I’d like to thank everybody who has gifted me with their support and loyalty. I have been humbled and moved by your many messages of love and concern, particularly over the last few days.
“Secondly, I wish to let you know that I have been asked to resign by Warner Bros. from my role as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts and I have respected that and agreed to that request.”
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He continued: “Finally I wish to say this. The surreal judgement of the court in the UK will not change my fight to tell the truth and I confirm that I plan to appeal.
“My resolve remains strong and I intend to prove that the allegations against me are false. My life and career will not be defined by this moment in time.
“Thank you for reading. Sincerely Johnny Depp.”
In their own statement, Warner Bros announced their intention to recast the role of Grindelwald, saying: “We thank Johnny for his work on the films to date.
“Fantastic Beasts 3 is currently in production, and the role of Gellert Grindelwald will be recast. The film will debut in theatres worldwide in the summer of 2022.”
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Johnny Depp in character in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock
Johnny’s initial casting in the Fantastic Beasts series was met with a backlash, due to allegations of abuse that had been made by his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Johnny has has always denied the allegations.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Give Young People Free Mobile Data To Boost Isolation, Sage Experts Say

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Young people should be given free Netflix, online gaming and mobile data to boost numbers complying with self isolation, government scientific advisers have said.
The Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) said compliance with coronavirus restrictions among 18-29 year olds was “substantially lower and declining” compared to other sections of the population.
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This is partly down to the fact that young people are more likely to work in occupations with high social contacts and less access to sick pay, which may undermine their motivation to seek testing and their ability to isolate if they have symptoms, Sage said.
In a paper published on Friday, the scientists said the government should be given financial and other support, for example, “free mobile data, streaming and gaming”, to boost compliance with orders to stay at home or isolate.
The recommendations from the SPI-B (Independent Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours) group also warned that young people’s motivation to follow the rules was “undermined by lack of trust in government and lack of clear information”.
Ministers were therefore urged to consider using trusted, outside sources such as charities, celebrities, sports clubs and commercial brands to deliver communications about Covid restrictions.
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Mass and social media campaigns should also use young people’s voices and be co-produced or piloted with young people, the paper said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Unison Leadership Contender Denies Anti-Semitism Claims As Labour Urged To Investigate

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A contender to lead Britain’s biggest trade union has been reported to the Labour Party for alleged anti-Semitism, HuffPost UK can reveal.
Labour Against Antisemitism has urged the party to suspend Unison assistant general secretary Roger McKenzie for sharing social media posts that compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Holocaust and that suggested anti-Jewish hatred was being exaggerated to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
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McKenzie has strongly denied that the posts he shared were anti-Semitic.
The left-winger is seen as one of the leading candidates in the race to lead Unison following the departure of general secretary Dave Prentis in the new year.
Roger McKenzie and Jeremy Corbyn HuffPost UK
The union official stands accused by the group Labour Against Anti-Semitism (LAAS) of breaching party rules on conduct that conflicts with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.
A lengthy dossier of allegations submitted to the party includes Facebook and Twitter posts shared by McKenzie that compared Israel’s “apartheid” and “Zionist colonisation” to the Sobibor concentration camp.
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Sobibor Concentration Camp post HuffPost UK
Other posts suggested anti-Semitism accusations were made to harm Labour in the local elections, that Jewish people were being used “as a political football to smear those against austerity” and that “no one gave a shit about anti-Semitism before Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader...except Jeremy Corbyn”.
Mike Sivier blog HuffPost UK
Corbyn anti-semitism defence HuffPost UK
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A further link directed readers of McKenzie’s Facebook page to an article by suspended activist Mike Sivier, which referred to a letter critical of Corbyn by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
The blog suggested voters were “being manipulated by unscrupulous people with an agenda to discredit the best chance we have of removing the Conservatives from power”.
Gaza cartoon HuffPost UK
Other posts featured cartoons depicting Gaza as a prison camp, a comparison that Jewish groups find offensive as it suggests a reference to the Holocaust.
A spokesperson for McKenzie said: “Roger has not been contacted by the party and condemns an attempted trial by media.
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“If necessary, he will contest any allegations that he has breached party rules and remains focused on his campaign for Unison general secretary and steadfast in his lifelong opposition to racism and antisemitism.”
It is understood that he believes the Facebook post about the concentration camp uprising was not in any way an attempt to compare Israel with Nazi Germany but was rather about taking inspiration from one struggle against oppression and applying it to another.
McKenzie, who was endorsed by Corbyn early on in his campaign, faces a tough battle in the election to lead Unison’s 1.4m members, with Christine McAnea and Paul Holmes his main rivals.
Corbyn was himself suspended from the party over his reaction to a critical report by the UK’s statutory human rights watchdog that found it had broken equalities law with its treatment of Jewish members and in its approach to Jew hate.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission found Labour guilty of “unlawful” harassment and discrimination during Corbyn’s four-and-a-half years as leader.
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Corbyn was suspended after issuing a statement that the problem had been “dramatically overstated” by opponents, and “for a failure to retract” his words.
The former leader reacted by calling the move “political” and promised to “strongly contest” it, but Keir Starmer insisted that the party was following its rules.
McKenzie made a passionate defence of Corbyn at an “I Stand With Corbyn” rally last week that was attended by former shadow cabinet ministers John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Jon Trickett.
He also wrote on Facebook that: “Actively fighting anti-Semitism is the duty of everyone concerned with a decent and just society.
“We should have been moving forward from the EHRC report tackling anti-Semitism together – now we are distracted and arguing internally once again while the Tories are able to dismantle public services and place public service workers in harm’s way during the pandemic.
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“I hope that the party lift this suspension and I hope that we can fight all forms of racism together.”
Allies of the Unison official point out that the EHRC report explicitly protects Labour members who “make legitimate criticisms of the Israeli government, or express their opinions on internal Party matters, such as the scale of antisemitism within the Party, based on their own experience and within the law”.
They add that David Cameron once referred to Gaza as a “prison camp” and a United Nations humanitarian aid chief called it “an open prison”.
The Labour Party has acknowledged receipt of the allegations. Its disputes team will consider the claims and if the case is deemed worth escalation it will be referred to the National Executive Committee’s disputes panel.
Euan Philipps, spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism, claimed the dossier provided “substantial evidence” that McKenzie had breached party rules on not sharing anti-Semitic views.
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“The Labour Party, the TUC, and Unison itself must intervene, or McKenzie should stand down,” he said.
“After the publication of the damning EHRC report last week that found the Labour party guilty of unlawful acts related to anti-Jewish racism, further failures to act on clear evidence will be extremely damaging,” he said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Black Mental And Physical Health

Black Mental And Physical Health

Black Mental And Physical Health
Hosted by Yinka Bokinni, Black health inequalities and advice to improve it are explored in this episode of ‘Black Voices HuffPost UK’. DJ, producer and actor Goldie is joined by Black Ballad head of editorial Jendella Benson.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Tributes Paid To Geoffrey Palmer Following His Death, Aged 93

His agent announced that the As Time Goes By star had “died peacefully” on Thursday at his home.
Geoffrey Palmer pictured in 2014 Karwai Tang via Getty Images
After news of his death broke on Friday, names from across the acting industry and beyond honoured Geoffrey online.
Comedian Eddie Izzard recalled working with the late actor, tweeting: “Very sad to hear that Geoffrey Palmer has left us. I was very excited to meet him once and then had the honour to act with him in the film Lost Christmas.
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“His work will stay with us and through that he can live on forever. Good work Sir. Rest in peace”
Many others also shared online tributes...
Very sad to hear that Geoffrey Palmer has left us. I was very excited to meet him once and then had the honour to act with him in the film Lost Christmas. His work will stay with us and through that he can live on forever. Good work Sir. Rest in peace https://t.co/lBgKN5rttr — Eddie Izzard (@eddieizzard) November 6, 2020
RIP Geoffrey Palmer - such a wonderful actor, such a lovely guy. Brilliant at his craft & just the best company: wickedly funny ... he did everything he did so well. Thanks for all the happy memories Geoffrey: we’ll cherish them as time goes by. pic.twitter.com/8nmvTVgphw — Gyles Brandreth (@GylesB1) November 6, 2020
Geoffrey Palmer years later during a radio play told me he’d just received a residuals cheque for Vorsprung durch technik. ‘I just called my agent & said they’ve put too many 0’s on the cheque.‘ After lunch he said ‘Apparently they haven’t’. His face didn’t change. — frances Barber (@francesbarber13) November 6, 2020
RIP GEOFFREY PALMER. He was such a gifted actor and enormously good company. We worked together several times, laughed a lot and he was kind and generous. I am much saddened. Love to his family. Sleep well Mr Palmer. — Annette Badland (@AnnetteBadland1) November 6, 2020
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Geoffrey Palmer, a beautiful actor and by all accounts a beautiful person. Our profession has lost one of its finest. pic.twitter.com/eiOoOeQFP4 — Jenna Russell 🕷 (@jennarusselluk) November 6, 2020
Grew up watching Geoffrey Palmer in so many shows. Reginald Perrin, Butterflies, Doctor Who (three different roles), and so much more. He’s sadly died aged 93. Leaves behind a wonderful, wonderful career https://t.co/nokiEtWcJM #RIPGeoffreyPalmer pic.twitter.com/ajKvvA82Ru — lizo mzimba (@lizo_mzimba) November 6, 2020
RIP Geoffrey Palmer. An immaculate singular actor, always brilliant in everything, but my favourite was always Ben Parkinson in "Butterflies". — Reece Shearsmith (@ReeceShearsmith) November 6, 2020
We’re sad to report the death of Geoffrey Palmer, who starred in The Silurians, The Mutants and Voyage of the Damned 💙💙 https://t.co/6bH1uJLceI pic.twitter.com/4lmX9McNIC — Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) November 6, 2020
Geoffrey was best known for appearing opposite Judi Dench in BBC sitcom As Time Goes By.
He played Lionel Hardcastle in nine series of the show between 1992 and 2005.
He was also known for roles in other sitcoms The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin and Butterflies.
Geoffrey, who was awarded an OBE in 2004 for his services to acting, is survived by his wife Sally Green, with whom he had a daughter and a son.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Jade Goody's Model Son Bobby Brazier Opens Up About Late Mum: 'I'm Always Told I Look Like Her'

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Jade Goody’s model son Bobby Brazier has opened up about his late mother, crediting her for his looks.
The 17-year-old – whose father is TV presenter Jeff Brazier – said he is “always” told he looks like the late Big Brother contestant, who died from cervical cancer in 2009 when Bobby was just five.
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In an interview with the Daily Mail, he said: “I look like my mum, I’m always being told that by everyone. I have her lips and smile – and her eyes.
“The rest of me is dad’s. As I grow up I’m starting to look more like him.”
Bobby Brazier walking the runway at the Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2020-2021 fashion show in January Victor VIRGILE via Getty Images
Bobby signed to the modelling agency Unsigned Group last year, shortly after finishing his GCSEs.
However, he admitted he wants to be successful in his own right, not just because of who his parents are.
Bobby and his younger brother Freddie with mum Jade prior to her death PA
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He said: “Obviously I’ve got an advantage and there’s no ignoring that and I shouldn’t feel bad about that, I’m very lucky and I’m blessed – and I’m not going to turn down a big pay cheque because I am the son of my parents.
“I just don’t want everything to come off the back of that, that’s important to me.
“It always feels better to work off your own back, rather than use your advantage. Not that it actually matters much having famous parents in this industry.”
At the beginning of this year, Bobby made his catwalk debut, modelling for Dolce And Gabbana at Milan Fashion Week.
Back in September, he then became the latest cover star for Man About Town magazine, following in the footsteps of Joe Alwyn, Jared Leto, Asa Butterfield and Andrew Scott.
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Bobby added that his 16-year-old brother Freddie could also follow in his footsteps by entering the modelling industry, revealing he has sparked interest from a number of agencies.
Last year, the boys’ dad Jeff spoke of how he would not let his sons watch a recent Channel 4 documentary about Jade’s life.
He said: “From a technical parenting point of view, whilst they are coming to the end of their childhood and they are able to take on board more adult themes, I don’t think they are quite ready to watch a large percentage of what has been shown.
“I don’t begrudge any of the content that has been used in making the documentary. It is particularly well-made and people have no issue with that.
“But in terms of is that something they could watch? It’s not like they would find out so much more about mum in a lovely or warm or memorial way, or just looking back and remembering it.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--John Legend Sings Georgia On My Mind As Biden Overtakes Trump In That State

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Grammy-winning musician John Legend performed his heart out on Georgia On My Mind in the early hours of Friday morning, as votes for Joe Biden overtook Donald Trump in that state.
The election development left the Democratic challenger with potentially another viable avenue to the presidency; other battleground states, like Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania, were still counting votes as well.
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A recount in Georgia can be requested if the margin between the rivals dips below half a percentage point in the end.
But for a moment, Twitter had Georgia on its mind, thanks to John Legend:
Georgia on my mind pic.twitter.com/QKvOjA2LL0 — John Legend (@johnlegend) November 6, 2020
In love with this song 10× over😍 — ifeoluwa (@Bossyify) November 6, 2020
No one should sound this great at 5am. John Legend, thank you. That was awesome. And thank you Georgia. — Letitia Jefferson (@bird_letitia) November 6, 2020
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Georgia On My Mind pic.twitter.com/SIXX6N6sQQ — victorhugo (@QueenBertRoyal) November 6, 2020
You are a real legend John 😂 — Mohsin Dasoo (@MohsinD10) November 6, 2020


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Trump Could Get Sued For Using 'YMCA' Without Permission

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Donald Trump could face legal action for playing the 1970s disco gay anthem ‘YMCA’ at his campaign rallies without permission.
Lawyers from the record label representing the Village People are set to submit a complaint “in the next few days”, according to Agence France-Presse.
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Jonathan Belolo, son of one of the band’s founding members Henri Belolo, has criticised Trump’s “illicit appropriation” of the song.
Widely considered a gay anthem, the song ‘YMCA’ has become a favourite of the president’s and has been played frequently on the Trump campaign trail.
In a bizarre two-minute clip released by the president himself on the morning of the election, Trump is seen dancing to the popular disco track in front of a crowd of supporters.
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The clip, which has more than 40 million views, was greeted with a mix of amusement, bafflement and disgust on social media.
Don't use The Village People's song, you homo- and transphobic orange ball. https://t.co/qpzqIusXUW — Shirodj Raghoenath (@Shirodj93) November 3, 2020
Sorry, but I can’t help thinking of him giving double hand jobs when he “dances” like this to YMCA...🤷🏿♀ pic.twitter.com/CjldCJe4bM — Mafalda “864511320”👍🏿 (@Bluemafaldita) November 3, 2020
A group of Trump supporters protesting ballot counting in Phoenix, Arizona, was seen breaking out into the ‘YMCA’ chorus.
“We’re sending this to our president,” one said.
Arizona's Maricopa County, the state's most populous county:
A sizeable protest of MAGA red-hat wearing Trump supporters — armed with weapons outside the elections office.. singing “Y M C A“...#2020Election #MaricopaCounty pic.twitter.com/vlNGqtpfIk — 𝔾𝕙𝕠𝕤𝕥_𝕘𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤🌘⚘🕊✩🌹⁎⚖⁎✨🌍❅⛈♪🌻✩🖤 (@_Ghost_glass_) November 5, 2020
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Trump appears to be rather a fan of the Village People, having also played another of their classics, ‘Macho Man’, at his campaign events despite pleas from the band to stop playing their tunes.
Belolo, who is also the president of the French record label Scorpio Music, said: “The beneficiaries of (band co-founders) Messrs Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, like the company Scorpio Music, owner of the work, discovered with amazement this illicit appropriation, which is more for partisan and electoral purposes of Donald Trump, which they would never have accepted.”
“This infringing use of the YMCA work will therefore be the subject of a complaint in the next few days, both in France and in the United States, against any initiator or accomplice of what constitutes outright theft of the property of others.
“As of now, they are banning anyone from disseminating the contentious video in question without their authorisation.”
Victor Willis, a singer of the band, recently clarified neither he nor the rest of Village People had ever endorsed Trump.
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He told the BBC in October: “I like hearing music at all times and I like the fact that fans of all kinds, Democrats or Republicans, they all like YMCA and that is something that is pleasing to me.
“As far as endorsing Trump, I don’t endorse Trump, I’ve never endorsed Trump, nor has Village People.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-06--Who Will Win The Election? This Is What The Latest Results Tell Us

Despite Donald Trump’s efforts to spread lies about electoral fraud, Joe Biden’s path to the White House is becoming increasingly clear – with the Democrat overtaking Trump in the key state of Pennsylvania early on Friday afternoon.
Just a handful of states are yet to be called, but these are key to determining the outcome of the election.
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Neither candidate has yet reached the 270 Electoral College votes needed to claim victory, but Trump’s possible route to a second term has narrowed significantly as the count progresses.
Here’s where we stand right now.
What’s happening in the remaining states?
Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes)
Biden has overtaken Trump in Pennsylvania by 13,220 votes, according to the Associated Press. Biden is at 49.5%, Trump at 49.3%.
Pennsylvania still has around 150,000 votes left to count, or about 2%. Those remaining ballots are either mail-in or provisional votes, and as such are likely to be in Biden’s favour.
Additional results from the battleground state are expected to come later on Friday, but it could take days for the race to be decided.
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Nevada (6 electoral votes)
Biden’s lead in Nevada has also increased to 20,137 votes ahead of Trump. Biden is at 49.7%, Trump at 48.1%.
There is still a considerably long way to go before all the votes will be counted in Nevada, with around 87% of votes counted. Many of those still to be processed are ballots postmarked on election day, and likely to be in Biden’s favour.
More results could be coming in later on Friday, but the vote count is expected to continue into the weekend.
Arizona (11 electoral votes)
Biden’s lead is continuing to narrow in Arizona. As of Friday morning, his advantage had contracted from 93,000 to 43,779.
With about 220,000 votes – or 90% – of the estimated votes counted, Biden is at 49.9% and Trump at 48.6%.
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More results are expected this evening, but it’s unclear whether it will be enough for a projection.
Georgia (16 electoral votes)
Biden is ahead by 1,558 votes, flipping what was once a lead in the tens-of-thousands for the current president. Some 99% of votes have already been counted.
The margin is very, very thin – Biden has a 0.03% lead (just over 1,000 votes) over Trump. This afternoon, Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said there would be a recount in the state “with a margin that small”. This would not start until the current count had ended, and could take weeks.
Many of the votes still being counted are coming from counties where Biden was in the lead.
North Carolina (15 electoral votes)
Trump currently leads by more than 77,000 votes, with around 6% of the vote uncounted – but state officials have said a full result would not be known until next week.
Trump is expected to win the state, but with up to 116,000 mail ballots left to count, the race is still too early to call.
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The state allows mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be counted if they are received by November 12, which is when more results will be released.
What are Biden and Trump’s paths to winning?
Biden still has a much clearer route to the presidency than Trump. He could claim victory by winning Pennsylvania alone, or two out of the trio of Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. Trump’s options are more limited – he needs to hang onto both Pennsylvania and Georgia while overtaking Biden in either Nevada or Arizona.
Most major US television networks currently give Biden a 253 to 214 lead in Electoral College votes, after he captured the crucial states of Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday.
What has Trump said?
The incumbent delivered a rambling speech full of misinformation on Thursday evening, during which he falsely claimed he had won the “legal votes”.
His comments were met with instant backlash, with several major US broadcasters cutting away from the speech to make it clear that there was no evidence for his claims.
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“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Trump lied, adding without evidence that there had been “historical interference from big media, big money and big tech”.
The president also raised several non-specific issues with postal voting, referring vaguely to “a pipe burst”, “people are using binoculars” and “paper on all of the windows”.
In another mark of just how misleading his speech really was, Twitter marked several clips posted by the president himself with a content warning stating: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
The press conference was the first for Trump since early Wednesday, when he addressed the media as the first wave of election results was being reported. Trump at the time baselessly declared victory and falsely claimed he’d already won several states in which a clear winner had yet to be determined. He also, without evidence, suggested that the ongoing counting of votes amounted to “fraud” and should be halted.
A reflection on President Trump’s comments last night:
The last President I covered who refused to accept the vote count in an election was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, 2009. — Christiane Amanpour (@camanpour) November 6, 2020
Since then, the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in several states to halt vote counting and disqualify ballots. Judges in at least two states have ruled against his campaign.
What has Biden said?
Joe Biden wrote on Twitter shortly after Trump’s White House appearance: “No one is going to take our democracy away from us”.
In earlier remarks from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden expressed confidence he would win and urged calm as votes were tallied.
“Democracy’s sometimes messy,” Biden said. “It sometimes requires a little patience as well. But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years in a system of governance that has been the envy of the world.”
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The Biden campaign said Thursday morning that it believes “victory is imminent,” as it wrote on a slide in a video briefing.
“Our data shows that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said. Biden and Senator Kamala Harris are expected to give an address on Friday evening.
Voting concluded as scheduled on Tuesday night, but it’s not unusual for many states to take days to finish counting ballots.
The presidential election is really 50 different statewide elections, each of them governed by state laws which say different things about how the vote should be counted.
Covid-19 also means that huge numbers of people also voted by mail, making it likely the count will take longer than usual.
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What is going on at the polling stations?
As the count has rumbled on, the atmosphere at the polls across the country has become increasingly tense.
Trump has fuelled baseless conspiracy theories of wrongdoing during the counts, and Republicans have issued conflicting calls for some states to “stop the count”, while demanding others “count every vote”. There is no evidence that states have stopped counting prematurely.
In Detroit, about 30 observers, mostly Republicans, were barred from entering a vote-counting hall by election officials who cited indoor capacity restrictions imposed to prevent spread of the coronavirus. Police were called to enforce the decision.
Many of those excluded stood outside the hall voicing their protest and singing “God Bless America” while a second group of Republican observers who were denied entry held a prayer circle nearby. They also broke into chants of “stop the vote” and “stop the count.”
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, police are reportedly investigating an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Centre, where votes are being counted, on Thursday night.
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#BREAKING: Philly police investigating alleged plot to attack Pennsylvania Convention Centerhttps://t.co/1Vg6b8mq8v — Action News on 6abc (@6abc) November 6, 2020
6 ABC reported that police had received a tip about a group – potentially a family – driving up from Virginia to unleash an attack at the Convention Centre.
No injuries were reported, but media on the scene said they witnessed a man being taken into custody, though it is not yet clear if he was linked to the tip.
Police told 6 ABC they had recovered a weapon and believe they recovered a vehicle involved.
Misinformation continues to spread rapidly online, mobilising protests on the ground.
One nationwide organising effort centred on a Facebook group called “Stop the Steal,” which had more than 360,000 members by the time Facebook shut it down Thursday afternoon, less than a day after its creation.
The group promoted more than a dozen protest events in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina from Wednesday through Saturday — the majority of which remained on Facebook’s platform even after the main group was removed.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Donald Trump Jr. Questions Joe Biden’s Votes And It's A Total Self-Own

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Donald Trump Jr. delivered yet another self-own on Friday when he attempted to sow doubt over the record number of votes cast for Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Donald Trump’s son – in his latest attempt at spreading disinformation about the election that continues to hang in the balance – asked on Twitter if anyone “really” believed Biden had this year “shattered” the number of votes cast for former President Barack Obama in 2008, when Biden was also on the ticket as the vice-presidential nominee.
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Obama in 2008 secured 69.4 million votes to Republican candidate John McCain’s 59.9m. As of early Saturday, Biden had reportedly won 74.8m. Trump’s tally stood at 70.7m, with four states still to be called.
Does anyone really believe that Joe Biden shattered Obama’s historic 2008 numbers?
Does anyone really believe that he did that mostly in big cities?
C’mon man!!! — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 6, 2020
Twitter users pointed out to Trump Jr. that the population of the United States has grown in the intervening 12 years — and explained exactly how his father had likely motivated more people to go out and vote against him:
Yes. — Jennifer Mascia (@JenniferMascia) November 7, 2020
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People hate your family *that* much https://t.co/m4E4NEIfJi — Alex Leo (@AlexMLeo) November 6, 2020
yeah we hate your dad https://t.co/pN6UiCTnXk — mollie (@mshaferschweig) November 6, 2020
Yes, I do. And history will show that turnout was driven largely by the desire to remove your father from the White House. — David Boardman (@dlboardman) November 6, 2020
Yes. He kicked your ass. Your dad is a loser. Go away. — Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) November 6, 2020
Weird how the US population continues to grow https://t.co/hukHLPaFEi — Jake 🧀 Gallant (@JHGallant) November 6, 2020
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U.S. Population 2008: 304 million
U.S. Population 2020: 331 million https://t.co/8K6hIm1FyJ — Laura Davison (@laurapdavison) November 6, 2020
That's how much we all hate your dad, champ. — Kristin Chirico (@lolacoaster) November 6, 2020
Yes. Easily.
A larger than 08 population; a growing unrest at state of affairs; postal voting. https://t.co/zvynjCkIhX — Stephen McIlkenny (@StephenBMcI) November 6, 2020
I'm reminded of this quote from a couple weeks ago about Dem turnout efforts in Philly... https://t.co/emHgQYId9e pic.twitter.com/TLUDleQ0An — David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) November 6, 2020
Yes. You’re welcome. — Emma Kennedy (@EmmaKennedy) November 6, 2020
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Trump spent 4 years trashing American cities as hellholes of crime and poverty, and then MAGA world wonders why he did so poorly in places like Philly and Detroit https://t.co/S3hsROHg2n — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 6, 2020
The Math Department at Trump University was severely underfunded. — Trumpy Trumpy (parody) (@outofcontroljb) November 6, 2020
Do you believe removing health protections, raising the deficit to its highest level since world war 2, driving unemployment to its highest level since the great depression, and losing 300k more lives than the average year was gonna be popular? — Jemaine Clement (@AJemaineClement) November 6, 2020
It’s really a testament to how much people dislike you guys — Dave (@lildickytweets) November 6, 2020
Yep. — Conroe Brooks (@ConroeBrooks) November 7, 2020
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Trump's Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows Tests Positive For Covid-19

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Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.
According to Bloomberg and ABC, Meadows reportedly informed several advisers of his Covid-19 diagnosis after election day.
Meadows was in the White House on Tuesday night with Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. and others, and attended a party there that had hundreds in attendance.
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Here is the footage of White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the East Room of the White House during President Trump’s election night speech earlier this week.
Meadows was not wearing a mask.https://t.co/n8NLSYWZPG pic.twitter.com/KDsfex6cWu — JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) November 7, 2020
Meadows also traveled with Trump to the Republican Party’s office in Arlington, Virginia, earlier on Tuesday. He stood just behind Trump as the president spoke to a crowd of people, and he did not have a mask on.
Bloomberg reported that a Trump campaign aide, Nick Trainer, also has the virus, as do four other White House staffers.
Meadows, who was a Republican congressman from North Carolina before becoming chief of staff in March, remained physically close with Trump through the president’s own case of COVID-19 last month, often working in the same room with Trump while he was being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre. During that time, Meadows defended speaking with reporters without a mask despite having been in the room with Trump.
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In June, Meadows teased reporters for wearing masks on Capitol Hill. He has repeatedly refused to wear one, going against the advice of the nation’s top health officials.
Trump was diagnosed with the virus in October, along with several other top Republicans, many of whom had been attending events together. Late that month, Meadows told CNN that the United States was “not going to control” the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 9.7m Americans have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and more than 236,000 have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 1.2m people have died of the virus worldwide.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Warning Over Scam Leaflets Offering To Remove 'Bacteria That Attracts Covid-19'

“Appointed corona removal officers are trained to remove and dispose of harmful and deadly bacteria.”
Scammers have used the pandemic to reach unsuspecting victims throughout 2020, with Action Fraud warning back in July that £11m had been lost to criminals exploiting the crisis.
The Charity Commission has also warned that scams targeting people who believe they are giving to good cause have risen sharply through the pandemic, urging wellbeing individuals to remain vigilant.
The commission said in October that 645 charities had reported being victims of fraud or cybercrime since the start of the pandemic in March, amounting to £3.6m in total losses to charities.
The true scale of fraud against charities is believed to be much higher, as fraud is known to be underreported.
Sarah Saunders, trading standards team leader in Bristol, said: “It’s very concerning to discover that this false and misleading leaflet is being circulated in Bristol, and we are now investigating these claims.
“If you receive a flyer, text message, email or phone call from somebody you don’t know who is offering cleaning services or anything else that claims to protect you from Covid-19, please be extra vigilant and contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline or call 0808 223 1133.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Little Mix's Jesy Nelson To Miss Final Of The Search Due To Illness

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Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson is to miss the final of the group’s talent show The Search due to illness.
She will also be absent when Little Mix host this year’s MTV EMAs on Sunday night, where the band are also set to perform.
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On Saturday morning, the chart-topping group’s publicist Simon Jones shared a statement on behalf of the band, which read: “Jesy is unwell and will not be appearing on tonight’s final of Little Mix The Search.
“She will also not be hosting or performing at tomorrow’s MTV EMAs.”
Little Mix statement:
Jesy is unwell and will not be appearing on tonight’s final of Little Mix The Search. She will also not be hosting or performing at tomorrow’s MTV EMA’s. — Simon Jones (@simonjonespr) November 7, 2020
Little Mix later tweeted: ”We’re so sad Jesy won’t be able to join us tonight, but we have such an amazing show in store for you all.”
Can you believe tonight’s the FINAL of @LMTheSearch!! We’re unbelievably proud of all 6 bands and we can’t wait to see the final 4 perform! We’re so sad Jesy won’t be able to join us tonight, but we have such an amazing show in store for you all x pic.twitter.com/JRKL008VXL — Little Mix (@LittleMix) November 7, 2020
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Auditions for Little Mix The Search were filmed at the beginning of this year, but didn’t end up airing until late September, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The first studio show was then delayed after a “small number of people” on the production team tested positive for Covid-19.
It returned the following week, but with band member Jade Thirlwall offering her critiques from home. In Jade’s absence, the group also performed new single Sweet Melody as a three-piece.
Last week’s semi-final was then postponed until Friday night, due to Boris Johnson’s announcement that England would be going back into lockdown.
Little Mix Newspix via Getty Images
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Little Mix released their fifth album Confetti on Friday, which features the previous singles Break Up Song, Holiday and Sweet Melody.
They’re also set to hit the road in 2021 in support of the album, with the winners of Little Mix The Search bagging a slot opening for them on their UK tour.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Chrishell Stause Dismisses Gleb Savchenko Romance Rumours As Dancer Announces Divorce

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Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause has spoken out to deny rumours that things have returned romantic between herself and Dancing With The Stars professional Gleb Savchenko, after he announced his 14-year marriage had come to an end.
Chrishell and Gleb were recently partnered together on the US version of Strictly, until their elimination earlier in the week.
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Chrishell Stause and Gleb Savchenko Kelsey McNeal via Getty Images
On Friday night, the Russian dancer announced on his Instagram page that he and his wife, Elena Samodanova, had chosen to end their marriage.
“It is with a heavy heart that I tell you my wife and I are parting ways after 14 years of marriage,” he explained. “We still intend to co-parent our wonderful children together who we love so dearly, and we will strive to continue to be the best parents that we can to them.
“We ask that you respect our family’s need for privacy and healing during this time.”
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Shortly after his announcement, Chrishell shared a post on her Instagram story, hitting back at claims that she and Glen were anything more than friends and dance partners.
“I am so saddened about the news of Gleb and Elena’s split,” she wrote. “It is unfortunate that this has caused rumours to swirl about my personal life. Having gone through a public split myself, I would not wish this on anyone.
“As you can imagine, the countless hours of training and dance rehearsals created a strong supportive friendship, but nothing more. I wish nothing but the best for both Gleb and Elena during this unfortunate time.”
A screenshot of Chrishell Stause's Instagram statement Chrishell Stause/Instagram
Until last year, Chrishell was married to actor Justin Hartley, with her divorce playing out in the third series of Selling Sunset, which debuted on Netflix earlier in 2020.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-11-07--Fiji's PM Congratulates Joe Biden Before US Election Result Even Announced

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The prime minister of Fiji has become the first world leader to congratulate Joe Biden – before the result of the US election has even been announced.
There are tens-of-thousands of votes yet to be counted following the election on Tuesday, with some states so close that several recounts are on the cards.
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Democrat hopeful Biden has said himself that he expects his campaign to win but there’s been no official confirmation of the result yet, and may not be for days to come.
The lingering uncertainty hasn’t delayed Fiji leader Frank Bainimarama from congratulating Biden on his (again, unconfirmed) success.
He wrote: “Congratulations, Joe Biden. Together, we have a planet to save from a climate emergency and a global economy to build back better from Covid-19.
Congratulations, @JoeBiden.
Together, we have a planet to save from a #ClimateEmergency and a global economy to build back better from #COVID19.
Now, more than ever, we need the USA at the helm of these multilateral efforts (and back in the #ParisAgreement — ASAP!) pic.twitter.com/mhX9HWR5HI — Frank Bainimarama (@FijiPM) November 7, 2020
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“Now, more than ever, we need the US at the helm of these multilateral efforts (and back in the Paris Agreement – ASAP!).”
Comprised of more than 300 small islands, Fiji’s future is gravely threatened by climate change and rising sea levels.
Fiji was the first country to ratify the Paris Agreement and Bainimarama has become a prominent climate change advocate, leading the COP23 climate change conference in Bonn in 2017.
Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement in the same year, with the country finally exiting the landmark accord just days ago. Biden has vowed to reenter the agreement on his first day in office, if he is elected.
With the result of the US election still unconfirmed, it is thought that Bainimarama is the first head of state to congratulate Biden.
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