thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Boris Johnson Wants You To Live 'Fearlessly' But 'With Common Sense' Amid Covid

LOADING ERROR LOADING
The British public should live “fearlessly” but with “common sense” as the Covid-19 pandemic gathers momentum again this winter, Boris Johnson has said.
The PM also defended the much-criticised test and trace system, saying it was “not perfect” but “outstanding” compared to other countries’, and said chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme, which has been blamed for a spike in infections, has saved thousands of jobs.
Advertisement
Speaking to BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show as the virtual Conservative Party conference gets underway, the prime minister also answered Tory critics who claim the leader has lost his spark and may be battling so-called “long Covid”.
“It’s not tittle tattle, it’s drivel,” he said, warning it would be seen as “totally inappropriate” to approach the pandemic with “buoyancy and elan” when lives were at stake.
Pressed on his health, after he spent time in intensive care earlier this year, he said: “No, I had a nasty bout, no question.”
Denying he had long Covid, which sees exhaustion continue for months, he said: “No, no, not in my case.”
Advertisement
He added: “It is not tittle tattle, it is balderdash and nonsense.
“I can tell you I’m fitter than several butchers’ dogs.”
The PM also sounded the alarm that the run up to Christmas could mean further lockdown restrictions.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on local restrictions: "I know people are furious with me and they’re furious with the government but… it's going to continue to be bumpy through to Christmas. It may even be bumpy beyond"#Marr #Covid_19 https://t.co/iUFQLFuY4J pic.twitter.com/YVAKc3CzuW — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 4, 2020
“I appreciate the fatigue that people are experiencing… but we have to work together, follow the guidance and get the virus down whilst keeping the economy moving,” he said.
Presenter Andrew Marr then interrupted and said “people are exhausted, they’re furious,” before Johnson replied: “They’re furious at me and they’re furious for the government, but… I’ve got to tell you in all candour it’s going to continue to be bumpy through to Christmas, it may even be bumpy beyond.”
He added the government was trying to strike a balance, adding: “What we want people to do is behave fearlessly but with common sense, to follow the guidance – whether national or local – get the virus down but allow us as a country to continue with our priorities.”
Advertisement
Johnson said the UK would be in a different position in spring, but pressed on whether his government had “overpromised and under-delivered” during the pandemic, he said it was important to offer “hope”.
He went on to say he does not “want to get people’s hopes up on the vaccine unnecessarily”.
He said: “It’s possible that we will make significant progress on the vaccine this year.
“I went to see the scientists at AstraZeneca in Oxford and those teams and they seem to be doing fantastically well.
“But I don’t want to get people’s hopes up on the vaccine unnecessarily because I think there is a chance but it is not certain.”
Asked about the Eat Out To Help Out scheme and claims that government was pressing people to return to the office earlier, Johnson said: “I think it was right to reopen the economy. I think if we hadn’t done that Andrew, if we hadn’t got things moving again in the summer, I mean we would be looking at many more hundreds of thousands of jobs lost.”
Amid claims the Eat Out To Help Out meal voucher scheme had spread the virus, Johnson simply said it was “important” to keep jobs viable.
Advertisement
He said: “I also think, I also think that it is important now, irrespective of whether Eat Out To Help Out you know, what the balance of there was, it unquestionably helped to protect many… there are two million jobs at least in the hospitality sector.
“It was very important to keep those jobs going. Now, if it, insofar as that scheme may have helped to spread the virus, then obviously we need to counteract that and we need to counteract that with the discipline and the measures that we’re proposing.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Amanda Holden Wows Viewers As She Performs On Britain's Got Talent – And Even Piers Morgan Was Impre

Amanda Holden Wows Viewers As She Performs On Britain's Got Talent – And Even Piers Morgan Was Impressed

HuffPost is part of Verizon Media .
We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through @ @ @ @ @ similar technologies , to display personalised ads and content , for ad and content measurement @ @ @ @ @ development .
Your personal data that may be used • Information about your device and @ @ @ @ @ IP address • Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps Find @ @ @ @ @ use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy .
To enable Verizon Media @ @ @ @ @ your personal data select ' I agree ' , or select 'Manage settings ' for @ @ @ @ @ your choices .
You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy @ @

LOADING ERROR LOADING
The tables were turned on Amanda Holden on Saturday night’s Britain’s Got Talent, as she took to the stage for a performance of her own.
The BGT judge wowed viewers as she sang a rendition of Not While I’m Around, marking her first solo performance on the show in her 13 years on the panel.
Advertisement
Amanda released her debut album, Songs From The Heart, earlier this week, and stepped out from behind the judges’ desk to showcase a track from it.
And for many people who had never heard Amanda sing before, she certainly impressed...
woah why didn’t I know amanda holden can sing ?! go queen wow — ella grace (@oooEllaGrace) October 3, 2020
2020 the year where I only just realised that @AmandaHolden can sing. What a strange year 🤣🤣 #BGT — Ryan Glendenning (@ryanG_tweets) October 3, 2020
Advertisement
Wow how amazing was Amanda Holden on #BGT tonight!!??👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 — Thomas (@thomas_matthewj) October 3, 2020
wait since when could amanda holden sing ?? either way she’s good https://t.co/P0BvtHKj8Y — justine (@justinebuckleya) October 3, 2020
ok so Amanda Holden can SING sing? I’m pleasantly surprised — rvz (@shehrvz) October 3, 2020
Advertisement
You can sing girl, wasn't expecting that. — Kwasi Ayo A. Lókosú (@Quasiloks) October 3, 2020
@AmandaHolden who knew? My dear lady, you can sing! — Riz (@sarumbear) October 3, 2020
How good is @AmandaHolden take a bow girl xx https://t.co/wUdMw215Gv — Craig Bailey (@CraigBaileySM) October 3, 2020
What’s more, Mandy even got the thumbs up from the usually-hard-to-impress Piers Morgan, who previously sat alongside her on the BGT panel from 2007 to 2011.
Advertisement
He tweeted a picture of her performance, simply writing, “Fabulous” along with some applause emojis.
However, some had questioned whether Amanda had mimed during the performance, prompting a BGT spokesperson to issue a statement.
“Amanda was not miming on tonight’s fantastic and enchanting BGT performance,” they said.
After the performance, Amanda called it “one of the most nerve wracking things” she’d ever done.
She tweeted on Saturday night: “The song was my for my girls. Singing live in front of the judges & team behind scenes who I’ve worked with for 15 was the most nerve wracking thing I’ve ever done!”
. This is the picture that came up at the end of my live performance on @BGT today. The song was my for my girls. Singing live in front of the judges & team behind scenes who I’ve worked with for 15 was the most nerve wracking thing I’ve ever done! pic.twitter.com/alatOnBNQK — Amanda Holden (@AmandaHolden) October 3, 2020
Advertisement
Amanda previously performed on the show as part of the cast of the West End musical Shrek, in which she played Princess Fiona in back in 2011.
Last week, Amanda issued a typically Amanda response after her choice of outfit on BGT sparked over 200 complaints to Ofcom.
Amanda issued this response on Instagram Instagram
Some viewers had doubted whether she’d had a wardrobe malfunction while wearing the dress, to which she responded on Instagram: “Mmmm really?! Who has nipples this close to their cleavage?!”
“FYI. A boned corset dented the girls all night,” she added, along with two fried egg emojis.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Massive Surge In Daily Reported Coronavirus Cases Due To 'Technical Issue'

LOADING ERROR LOADING
A huge surge in the reported number of daily coronavirus cases was due to a “technical issue”, the government has said.
Almost 13,000 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the UK in the 24 hours up to 9am Saturday, a jump of nearly 6,000 from the day before.
Advertisement
The official dashboard that records cases said the surge was due to a glitch and includes some additional cases from the period between September 24 and October 1.
It did not specify exactly which days the extra cases were from or how the previous counts were affected.
Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis was asked about a technical issue, telling the Sophy Ridge programme on Sunday morning: “Those numbers have been put in as of yesterday and as you say, has had that impact on the numbers.
“I would say actually this is a testament to how focused the Department of Health, Public Health England, the Test and Trace are around the system.
Advertisement
“We are being transparent about this, we’re publishing the figures daily.”
Lewis insisted the issue was being looked at “to ensure it doesn’t happen again”.
Experts have previously warned that describing the daily figure as a record could be “misleading” as it is not clear how many people were actually infected during the height of the first wave due to a lack of community testing at the time.
Saturday’s figure brings the total number of cases in the UK to 480,017, PA Media reports.
The government also said a further 49 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday. This brings the UK total to 42,317.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been nearly 57,900 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Other figures show there were 2,194 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England as of Saturday, up from 1,622 a week ago, while 307 Covid-19 hospital patients were in ventilation beds, up from 223 a week ago.
A total of 368 patients with confirmed Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals in England on Thursday, compared with 288 a week earlier.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--'A Me Too Moment': Exposing Islamophobia In The NHS Showed Just How Deep The Problem Is

Warning: This article contains some distressing anecdotes.
A HuffPost UK investigation revealing that Muslim medics believe Islamophobia is rife in the NHS has prompted a huge reaction, with many people sharing their own horrific stories of discrimination.
From being made to stand by while their colleagues laughed at deeply offensive “jokes” to being forced to remove a hijab, more frontline medics have revealed the shocking racism and xenophobia they have faced from their own colleagues.
Advertisement
“Two intensive care doctors I worked with met up on their days off and the team asked them if they were arranging a terrorist attack,” one woman came forward to reveal.
“Everyone was laughing to make it into a joke, but I saw their faces forcing themselves to smile at the awful ‘joke’. Racism is very much alive in the NHS.”
Their stories emerged after we published an investigation and did a HuffPost UK survey with the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) last month, in which we lifted the lid on how Muslims working within the NHS are subjected to taunts about bacon and alcohol and bullied for wearing a hijab.
An alarming 81% of the 133 surveyed told they had experienced Islamophobia or racism within the NHS and 69% felt it had got worse during their time at the organisation.
Advertisement
More than half – 57% – felt Islamophobia had held their back in their career progression in the NHS.
Islamophobia in the NHS
Since running our two-part investigation, HuffPost UK and BIMa have been inundated with messages and e-mails from people sharing their own tales of Islamophobia in the NHS.
One GP from South Yorkshire said Islamophobia in today’s NHS is usually subtle and based on unconscious bias rather than explicit racism. He said that in its most common form, it is the inferior treatment of Muslim staff members based on the perception that they are different.
“These stereotypes exist in everyday life, but perhaps people outside of the NHS find it shocking because prejudiced behaviour doesn’t fit the often cliched ‘hero’ narrative of NHS workers,” he said.
He said he had suffered many personal experiences of Islamophobia, particularly when he was doing his general surgical training.
Advertisement
One incident which sticks in his mind happened when he was doing a clinic with a consultant surgeon and a specialist nurse. “We took a quick break between appointments and the consultant announced he had a great joke to tell,” he remembered.
“He asked: ‘What do you call one Pakistani at the bottom of the sea? His answer was ‘A problem.’
“He then continued and asked: ‘What do you call all the Pakistanis under the sea?’ and then replied: ‘Problem solved.’
“The consultant laughed, as did the white English nurse. The worst bit was he specifically looked at me while telling the joke with a challenging and taunting expression which implied: ‘What are you going to do about it? You need my help to advance your career.’”
“He asked: ‘What do you call one Pakistani at the bottom of the sea? His answer was ‘A problem.’He then continued and asked: ‘What do you call all the Pakistanis under the sea?’ and then replied: ‘Problem solved.’”
The GP admitted although this incident wasn’t the only reason, he ended up rethinking his career options and quitting surgical training due to the “pervasive toxic atmosphere.”
Advertisement
The second part of our investigation revealed the appalling Islamophobia Muslim NHS workers face from patients – such as being described as terrorists, “Osama Bin Laden’s daughter” and told to “go back to your own country.”
Dishearteningly, 80% of Muslim medics revealed they had experienced Islamophobia from patients in the NHS and 43% of those we surveyed admitted they had considered leaving the NHS due to Islamophobia from either colleagues or patients.
Islamophobia in the NHS Getty images
Some Muslim NHS workers contacted HuffPost UK admitting that they had actually left the NHS due to the Islamophobia it experienced and the mental toll this took on them.
Others said they felt that Islamophobia had got worse in the NHS and they desperately wanted to leave the profession.
Advertisement
One doctor based in Birmingham said: “As a Muslim medic, I actively discourage any Muslim to enter medical training in the UK. I shall be hopefully leaving this nasty profession.”
Many people got in touch to say they had recognised many elements of Islamophobia described in the article as well as having witnessed situations of Islamophobia which are hidden under the guise of “banter” or “just a joke.”
One Muslim said they knew of an incident where bacon rind was left inside a Quran in an NHS building.
Another described how a colleague said: “Yum, you don’t know what you’re missing out on” while eating bacon in front of them.
“Two intensive care doctors I worked with met up on their days off and the team asked them if they were arranging a terrorist attack.Everyone was laughing to make it into a joke, but I saw their faces forcing themselves to smile at the awful ‘joke’. Racism is very much alive in the NHS.”
Advertisement
One NHS worker said: “I was once asked to work three consecutive Christmas shifts as I was told: ‘You guys don’t celebrate Christmas’ and I was once not invited to a Christmas get together as they thought I’d be offended.”
One HuffPost reader said: “My sister always tells me about her placements at uni and one time, a surgeon refused to let a student go into theatre unless she took off her hijab. Other staff even looked uncomfortable but couldn’t speak up because of his senior position.”
dragana991 via Getty Images
One Muslim woman said she had never experienced Islamophobia in her life – until she joined the NHS. She said: “HR brushed it under the carpet as the person was their friend.”
An NHS worker said that colleagues described Muslim colleagues as being on “hunger strike” during the month of fasting of Ramadan and questioned why they needed to take breaks if they weren’t eating.
Advertisement
One medical student working in the NHS said: “Scarily, this type of behaviour seems to be increasing within the NHS and hospitals.
“I have many colleagues who have been subjected to Islamophobia but chose to stay silent for fear of being blacklisted for whistleblowing, which in turn would jeopardise their careers.”
One female mixed-Black Muslim NHS worker told how she had genuinely considered changing her surname from a strongly Muslim identifiable one to a more culturally ambiguous one in an attempt to prevent incidents of Islamophobia.
Many HuffPost readers got in touch to express their horror and outrage at the revelations of Islamophobia in the NHS that Muslim health staff face.
“How can this be acceptable – and among so called highly educated, respected and caring people?” asked one person. “Disgraceful.”
Advertisement
Another said: “Reading this fills me with heartbreaking disbelief. Disbelief that members of the very organisation I work for, the organisation said to be built on equality for all, could be so cruel and so hateful. I am so angry.”
“This reality is a blight on all that the NHS stands for,” said another HuffPost UK reader. “Doing away with this nasty and hidden culture is the real and overwhelming challenge the NHS faces.”
“How can this be acceptable – and among so called highly educated, respected and caring people? Disgraceful.””
One Muslim reader said: “I think our prime minister has helped legitimise this vile racism and has a lot to answer for.”
“You’d think people working in the NHS would be more compassionate, understanding and intelligent” said one man. “But I guess they just reflect the Islamophobia that is rife in society.”
Advertisement
Salman Waqar, general secretary at BIMA and a doctor, told HuffPost UK the investigation had prompted a “Me Too type moment”.
Salman Waqar, general secretary at BIMA and a doctor Salman Waqar
“A lot of people have come forward to us after reading the pieces about Islamophobia within the NHS in HuffPost UK in a Me Too type moment describing how similar things have happened to them.” he said.
“Some have also contacted us and reflected on their previous experiences and realised that they had experienced Islamophobia but had not realised that’s what it was. Looking back, they can now see it was the reason the environment was so toxic and the reason why they didn’t get that promotion.”
He added that many people told them reading the HuffPost UK articles was “cathartic” and a recognition that their experiences of Islamophobia were real and that they weren’t alone in encountering it.
Advertisement
Emma Wiley, a consultant and equality lead at the Muslim Doctors Association, said the HuffPost UK Islamophobia in the NHS investigation has led to a sea change within healthcare workers that Islamophobia needed to be realised.
Emma Wiley, a consultant and equality lead at the Muslim Doctors Association Emma Wiley
“It has been a long time coming.” she said. “What was great about these HuffPost UK articles was that it raised the profile of the issue and legitimised people being able to acknowledge that Islamophobia exists within the NHS.
“I think too many people have been in denial about it for a long time and have brushed it under the carpet.
“Those who have not experienced Islamophobia themselves either didn’t know or believe it existed while those who had experienced it tended to minimise it or put it down to other things while others just accepted it as something they had to put up with.
Advertisement
“Most people within the NHS are uncomfortable challenging Islamophobia as they don’t want to make a fuss or are worried about repercussions.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Chris Rock Rips Trump In Saturday Night Live Monologue As He Appeals To Voters

Comedian Chris Rock got political in his monologue on Saturday Night Live, bashing President Donald Trump and pleading with viewers to vote.
First off, he addressed the “elephant in the room: President Trump’s in the hospital from Covid and I just want to say my heart goes out to Covid,” the comedian quipped to laugher from the programme’s first (reduced) live audience (in face masks) since March.
Advertisement
In the time of this pandemic, Chris suggested it’s time to “renegotiate our relationship to the government” — and rethink the whole president thing.
“I mean, what job do you have for four years no matter what?” he asked. “Like if you hired a cook and he was making people vomit every day, do you sit there and go, ‘Well, he’s got a four-year deal. We’ve just got to vomit for four more years.’”
Chris Rock hosted Saturday Night Live Screen Shot/YouTube/SNL
Chris added: “Hey, we’ve got to take this serious. We’ve got to get out there, we’ve got to vote. But... the government does not want you to vote. Why do I know they don’t want you to vote? Because Election Day’s a Tuesday in November...
Advertisement
“If this show was Tuesday Night Live, it would have got canceled in 1975,” he quipped.
But really, seriously, “we can lick this, okay? We can beat this, if we all work together,” he said.
Chris ended with a quote from writer James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it’s faced.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Alex Baldwin And Jim Carrey Aping The Trump/Biden Debate Is Scarily Accurate (And Very Funny)

LOADING ERROR LOADING
“Look man, I’m a nice guy, but if you give me anymore guff, I’ll rip your face off like a mad chimp,” says Jim’s version of Uncle Joe in the first cold open of SNL’s 46th season.
Advertisement
Referring to Trump’s hair, Jim taps into his inner Grinch and threatens: “I’ll rip that thing off your head and burn it and bury it in the pet cemetery where it came rom.”
SNL hosted its own presidential debate Screen Shot/SNL Twitter
But cool Joe quietly talks himself down: “The country’s counting on you Joe! Just stand here and look lucid.”
Fox News debate moderator Chris Wallace, played by Beck Bennet, kicked off the debate vowing to do a good job. Then Alec’s Trump snaps him down: “Tell that to my Adderall, Chris. Now let’s get this show on the road — and off the rails.”
Advertisement
Trump complains that the “China virus has been very mean to me in being a hoax,” adding: “That statement will probably come back to haunt me.” He pushes law and order, but admits there are “exceptions” — like his taxes. Maya Rudolph’s Sen. Kamala Harris eventually turns up to calm down the “boys.”
That’s when Jim wraps up the debate using a remote control that freezes Alec mid-sentence.
“Isn’t that satisfying?” Jim asks. “Just not to hear his voice for a single, goddamned second ... Let’s bask in the Trump-lessness.”
He woos: “America ... look directly into my eyeballs. Now just imagine if science and karma could some team up to send us all a message about how dangerous this virus can be.”
He peered at still-frozen Alec. “I’m not saying I want it to happen. Just imagine it did. So this November, please get on the Biden train ... we can all Make America Not Actively on Fire Again.”
Advertisement


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Questions Remain Over Donald Trump's Condition As He Releases Video From Hospital

LOADING ERROR LOADING
President Donald Trump said from his hospital room on Saturday that he felt “much better” but the next few days will be “the real test” of his treatment for Covid-19, capping a day of contradictory messages from the White House about his condition.
In a four-minute video posted on Twitter, Trump, looking tired and wearing a jacket and open-necked shirt, said he “wasn’t feeling so well” when he first arrived at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre on Friday.
Advertisement
“Over the next period of a few days, I guess that’s the real test, so we’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days,” Trump said, seated at a round table in front of an American flag.
However, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows briefed reporters soon afterwards and said Trump went through a “very concerning” period on Friday and that the next 48 hours would be critical.
Further adding to the confusions, the president’s personal physician Dr Sean Conley had said the president was fever-free, was not on oxygen and was not having difficulty breathing.
Advertisement
Dr Conley refused to say whether Trump had ever been on oxygen despite repeated questioning, but said the president’s symptoms, including a cough and nasal congestion, “are now resolving and improving”.
A source familiar with Trump’s condition told the Associated Press the president was administered supplemental oxygen at the White House on Friday before going to hospital.
There was also confusion over when the president tested positive, as Dr Conley initially suggested Trump was 72 hours into the diagnosis.
Dr Conley later clarified he meant to say “day three” instead of 72 hours, and said the president had been first diagnosed with Covid-19 on Thursday evening
He also said Trump had received a first dose of a five-day course of Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug sold by Gilead Sciences Inc that has been shown to shorten hospital stays.
Advertisement
The president is also taking an experimental treatment, Regeneron’s REGN-COV2, one of several experimental Covid-19 drugs known as monoclonal antibodies, as well as zinc, Vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin.
Dr Sean Conley, physician to President Donald Trump, briefs reporters at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The White House said the 74-year-old would work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to continue his official duties.
The president is at high risk because of his age and weight. He has remained in apparent good health during his time in office but is not known to exercise regularly or to follow a healthy diet.
A number of other prominent Republicans have also said they tested positive for Covid-19 since Trump’s announcement, including Republican Senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson, former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Advertisement
Christie said he checked himself in to a hospital on Saturday as a precaution due to his asthma, though he said he had only mild symptoms.
In consultation with my doctors, I checked myself into Morristown Medical Center this afternoon. While I am feeling good and only have mild symptoms, due to my history of asthma we decided this is an important precautionary measure. — Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 3, 2020
Soon after Dr Conley’s update on Saturday, Trump tweeted: “Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Centre, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!! Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE. With their help, I am feeling well!”.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said he was sure the president would “come through” his treatment “very well”.
Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!!Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE. With their help, I am feeling well! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020
Advertisement
Speaking to reporters on Saturday morning, Johnson said he rang the White House on Friday night and added: “I think obviously everybody’s wishing him and Melania the very best and hoping that they recover speedily and I’ve no doubt that he will, he’ll make a very strong recovery.”
When asked if he had any advice for Trump, Johnson added: “I think that he will be doing exactly what the doctors tell him to do and I’m sure he will be having the best care he can possibly get.”
Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis is the latest among world leaders, with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also having fallen ill.
Handout . / Reuters
Meanwhile in the UK, almost 13,000 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed – but the Government said a technical glitch had led to an under-reporting of figures this week.
Advertisement
The Government said that, as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 12,872 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus – almost double the previous day, when a further 6,968 lab-confirmed cases were reported.
The official dashboard said on Saturday that due to a technical issue, now resolved, there had been a delay in publishing a number of cases.
This means the total reported over the coming days will include some additional cases from the period between September 24 and October 1.
Experts have previously warned describing the daily figure as a record could be misleading as it is not clear how many people were actually infected during the height of the first wave due to a lack of community testing at the time.
The Prime minister has called for people to be “patient” as the Government seeks to stifle a second wave of outbreaks, with more than a third of the UK population now living under heightened restrictions.
Advertisement
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of having “lost control” of the fight against the virus and having no clear strategy.
Sir Keir said the PM should produce a new “road map” for navigating the country through the winter, including investing in NHS labs and university labs to expand testing, ensuring routine regular testing for all high-risk workplaces and high transmission areas, and a programme to ensure the manufacture and distribution of any vaccine.
Speaking to The Observer, he said: “The prime minister is governing in hindsight. So he charges forward, not recognising the problem, has a car crash, looks in the rear mirror and says ‘what’s all that about?’”
Meanwhile, Number 10 has vowed the prime minister will “not be blown off course” by the coronavirus pandemic from delivering his manifesto commitments.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has written to his Cabinet colleagues calling for “bold and ambitious” bills for the next Queen’s Speech, Downing Street said


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--What Do Chernobyl And Climate Change Have In Common? Quite A Lot According To David Attenborough

“There was a time where you’d wait at the baggage claim and he’d always lunge for the heaviest, biggest box,” remembers Jonnie Hughes, David Attenborough’s director-producer since 2000. “There’s so much kit on these shoots and he wants to help out, and he does,” Jonnie adds. “I’m 50, and I’ve got to be careful with most of those bags.”
Attenborough is now 94, so Jonnie and the crew have “trained him to stop” grabbing the heaviest luggage when they’re away filming, as they did in Kenya and Ukraine for their new documentary, David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.
Advertisement
“He takes this tiny little bag around with him. That’s his suitcase,” Jonnie says, revealing the only sign yet that the giant of broadcasting is making sacrifices in his nineties.
In the new 80-minute film, David gives what he calls his “witness statement” to an Earth being destroyed by humans.
Reflecting on his seventy-year career in broadcasting, he reveals soberly how he first experienced the beginnings of climate change in the late-seventies while filming with mountain gorillas.
Jonnie Hughes and David Attenborough working on the new documentary Supplied
Advertisement
David has long spoken about climate change, but this feels different. Rather than using tales of dwindling animal populations to illustrate his fears, David reveals how climate change has made him see his earliest, most formative experiences with nature in a new light.
“I look at these images now and I realise that although as a young man I thought I was out there in the wild experiencing the untouched natural world, it was an illusion,” he says in the documentary.
But rather than lamenting a lost past, Jonnie and David aim to change the way we think about climate change to help secure our futures. They say that if we want it to, it can feel joyous for us to save our planet, rather than a chore. Also that climate change has become a “communications issue” these days, rather than about needing to develop any shiny new tech. Most of the solutions already exist.
“We wanted to express that the sustainable future is an aspirational future. We should be looking forward to it, we shouldn’t be thinking of sustainability as a sacrifice, we should be looking at it as something to embrace, that should improve our lives,” Jonnie says. “The actual solutions we’ve got leads on and many of them are very progressed, so therefore it’s all about getting the will to do them, and that’s a communications issue - and David’s a great communicator.
“So this whole project really was about finding a platform in which David can do what he does best: communicate a story.”
Advertisement
Jonnie Hughes and David Attenborough in Kenya last year for the shoot Supplied
Scenes filmed in Chernobyl, the site of the nuclear blast in 1986 which led to 116,000 people evacuating their homes, bookends the film.
It’s a metaphor for humankind’s capacity for destruction. “We had an idea that Chernobyl could be the perfect physical manifestation of both the wreckage we can create but also the ability for nature to recover,” Jonnie says.
Now a mecca of biodiversity, Chernobyl is where animals run free among the abandoned laundrettes, riverfront coffee shops and public spaces. “You couldn’t get a better demonstration of how the world would recover if we weren’t around,” Jonnie adds weightily.
There was another reason for filming there. “It’s one of the few places that David had never been, so that was one thing that we could offer him,” reflects Jonnie of their week together in Ukraine. “You recognise all these things, the hairdressers, the cafe by the river, the municipal swimming pool, the hospital. All the schools with the books still on the floors and things like that,” he says of the Chernobyl scene-scapes.
Advertisement
Jonnie’s job as director-producer was to scope out the best abandoned scenes to make for good visuals, but for David Attenborough, the disaster site felt more bleak. “David said to me it felt like a place of real despair,” reveals Jonnie. “That’s the way he read it, but I guess maybe that’s because he was consciously aware of the power of us humans to get things so wrong.”
David spent about a week filming in Chernobyl, another few days with the crew filming wildebeest herds in Kenya, and a few days in Leicestershire near where he grew up as a young boy.
Back in the studio, the veteran broadcaster recorded what he has called his witness statements - personal, evocative monologues to camera relating exact moments from his BBC career to the timeline of destruction of the planet we all share.
Jonnie Hughes and David Attenborough Supplied
David directs his sentences like gentle but fatals blows into the camera. “Human beings have overrun the world. We’re replacing the wild with the tame,” he laments.
Advertisement
“I hope you found those really powerful, almost like you’ve never seen David before,” says Jonnie of the monologues. They were shot in six days spaced out over a whole year to allow David and the crew time to reflect on the pertinency of the sentences. Jonnie and his team would watch early cuts in a pre-edit and return to David to add new segments to his statement, which is being seen as a sort of legacy piece.
“We came back to it a few times,” recalls Jonnie. “We did a couple of days, leave it six months, come back to it, keep adding things, changing things, I asked questions, and then he asked to say more statements and we’d write things together.
“It was an ongoing construction if you like, like it would be with any witness statement. That’s really the body of the film I suppose, that’s what holds the film together, those interviews.”
Jonnie Hughes capturing shots for the new film in Kenya Supplied
The process was long but rewarding. “We kept developing it, which was the luxury, I suppose. We didn’t just have one day to do it, like a lot of people, because he was on board - it was his passion project.”
Advertisement
After filming, David likes to relax. “That’s the joy actually,” says Jonnie. “It’s such a privilege to work with David anyway, but it’s even more fun to finish a day of filming and then go back and have a glass of wine or something.”
David shares “so many stories, anecdotes” of an evening. “We can talk shop very happily, and natural history obviously he loves,” Jonnie says, “but we’ll talk about current affairs, and the state of politics, and economics, and education, and he’ll talk about broadcasting as a sort of endeavour...”
Maybe because of the more personal subject matter, Jonnie got to know the broadcasting legend better on this project than any of their past work over the last twenty years. He describes an omnipresent sense of “boyhood excitement” in the man.
“He’s got that still, that energy, just fascination with the world. You say something you discovered in a previous documentary or something that happened to you on a shoot and he’ll want to know all about it because it just fascinates him.”
Advertisement
David’s lack of interest in slowing down is epitomised by how, at 94, he joined Instagram last month. “I’m exploring this new means of communication... because, as we all know, the world is on fire,” he says in his first post.
Jonnie can’t imagine him ever stopping working, especially now A Life On Our Planet has set a new tone; more about explaining to multinational corporations how easy it is to move quickly than it is about lamenting the losses we’ve already endured.
We can make change, but now it’s about convincing the small majority to make the right big decisions and David, the great storyteller, alongside Greta Thunberg, his age-opposite, are perhaps best placed to keep delivering this message.
“We did talk just last week,” says Jonnie. “He said: ‘well, it’s kind of the end of this project Jonnie, what shall we do next?’
“And we don’t have an answer yet but certainly, he and I and everyone around us wants to tell this important story to as many people as possible by as many means as possible. So we will endeavour to find another outlet for that.”
Advertisement


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Coronavirus Has Universities Edging Towards Extinction

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Since 2010, when hiked tuition fees effectively put higher education behind a paywall, UK Universities have been operating a price fixing cartel.
They hold a monopoly on degree distribution and a controlling interest in our children’s futures.
By building up their brand, jostling for position in league tables and tapping into the lucrative overseas student market, universities commodified higher education so effectively that even Vice Chancellors could justify their exorbitant salaries without blushing.
Advertisement
But the spectacle of students stacked high in their celibate cells at university halls, where they’ll study through a wifi connection, feels like a surreal endgame.
The system has commodified higher education to such an extent that it no longer serves its students’ needs; instead, students exist to finance it.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
And the fact that universities are prepared to concede the physical campus and roll the dice on the virtual education open market smacks of desperation; it suggests that unless they go for broke, they very soon will be.
Advertisement
It’s a classic tale of boom and bust.
After a decade of unchecked boom, where universities massively outperformed their local economies, it was going so well that they could afford to ignore increased uneasiness about intake inequality.
In the past, universities were able unleashed the potential of poorer students but now their admissions procedures seem to privilege privilege.
Much of the university sector’s boom has been financed by tapping into the lucrative market of overseas students.
This pandemic has shown that to be a very exposed position. To paraphrase famed investor Warren Buffet, it’s only now that the tide has gone out that we can see that some of our most August universities have been swimming around stark naked.
The shortfall in funds from overseas students and the need to survive means that universities are about to accept that teleconferenced lectures, tutorials and seminars are as educationally valid as anything a physical campus can offer.
Advertisement
Perhaps they figure it’s a short term concession they can live with to keep hold of this year’s tuition fees and the wolf from the door.
But they would be well advised to tread carefully; there will be no going back.
By letting the edtech genie out of the bottle, universities are edging towards their own extinction because we’re about to discover the flexibility of distance learning degrees that can be accessed anytime, anyplace, anywhere, all for a fraction of the cost of the standard three-year, undergraduate, residential model.
Conceding the physical campus means that universities are about to lose their “ivory tower” hegemony that was their only competitive advantage.
In the already crowded massive open online course (MOOC) market place, they just won’t be able to compete.
“The real tragedy here is the way in which they allowed higher education to become just another commodity to be traded in the neoliberal market place.”
Advertisement
And when monopolies dissolve, consumers usually shop around. Future students will benefit from a “compare the market” approach to higher education.
We can expect to see future students taking accelerated degrees, with seasonal start times and even buying modules across different organisations so that they can advance their education and training and improve their circumstances, without incurring punitive debt.
And shifting learning online onto rich, multimedia platforms will streamline learning and is likely to improve the quality of education on offer.
Opening up your “product” to superior service providers, who can operate at a fraction of the cost, in a format that can be easily replicated, is not a sustainable business model.
But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the way universities lack entrepreneurial nous.
The real tragedy here is the way in which they allowed higher education to become just another commodity to be traded in the neoliberal market place.
Advertisement
That battle is best explained in Thomas Docherty’s superb 2014 book “Universities at War” where the campus became contested territory between two groups.
Neoliberals saw universities as economic engines that could be used to power private and personal enrichment, which in turn would produce progress and modernity.
On the other side were the traditional academics who believed that it was a university’s sacred duty to help young people become the engaged critical citizens that a modern democracy needed.
Until the covid crisis, it looked like the neoliberals had won. But now that debate will begin again and Docherty’s book should be placed in every fresher pack up and down the land.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--15 Best Halloween Films And TV Shows Streaming On Disney+

Disney/Shutterstock
When you’re looking for some horror to give you the creeps on Halloween, you’d be forgiven for leaving the House of Mouse as the last place to go searching. But as it turns out, Disney+ has got a plethora of shows and films to entertain and thrill this spooky season.
Of course, there are some family favourites in the mix – including some of the most iconic Halloween films of all time, no less – but thanks to their Star branch of programming and films, they also some genuinely terrifying horrors on offer, among their other more adult offerings (and yes, we’re talking about Rocky Horror).
Advertisement
Here’s our selection of 18 picks to watch on Disney+ as part of your Halloween festivities this year...
1. Hocus Pocus 2
Disney
New for 2022, the campest Halloween film of all time finally has a part two. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are all back for the second part of the Hocus Pocus story, reprising their original roles as the Sanderson sisters almost 30 years after the first film hit cinemas, this time with additional music numbers. Bring it on.
When the first Hocus Pocus film was released, it received a middling response, only growing a cult following as the years went on, so time will tell whether its successor will hold its own.
Advertisement
For those less convinced, though, the original Hocus Pocus is also available to stream.
2. The Simpsons (Treehouse Of Horror)
Disney
When it was finally confirmed in 2020 that the entire Simpsons back catalogue was coming to Disney+, we have to admit a big part of us was excited for a Treehouse Of Horror binge-fest when October finally rolled around.
That time is finally upon us again, and this year we’re revisiting classics like the Monkey’s Paw, The Shinning and *shudders* The Raven (the only Simpsons Halloween short that’s actually genuinely chilling).
Those who usually swerve the later seasons of The Simpsons might still want to check out the more recent Treehouse Of Horror episodes too, featuring parodies of modern films and shows like Stranger Things, The Shape Of Water, Jurassic World and The Hunger Games.
3. Muppets Haunted Mansion
Disney
Advertisement
With about 500 Christmas films already to their name, The Muppets tried out something new in 2021, delivering their first ever Halloween special.
Admittedly, after the mixed bag that was Muppets Now, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect when Muppets Haunted Mansion was first announced, particularly as it felt slightly like a way of shoe-horning the much-loved characters into what could have easily amounted to 45-minute advert for the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland.
So we were oh-so relieved when the special finally dropped, featuring all of the irreverence, silliness and actually-quite-decent celebrity cameos we’d hope for in a modern-day Muppets project. Bring on on the Electric Mayhem mockumentary, we say!
4. The Nightmare Before The Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas Moviestore/Shutterstock
It’s around this time of year that the debate usually starts over whether Tim Burton’s stop-motion classic constitutes a Halloween or a Christmas film.
Advertisement
For those who fall into the former camp, The Nightmare Before Christmas is now streaming on Disney+. And for those in the latter... hang on a couple of weeks, and it’ll still be there.
Disney+ is actually home to a lot of Tim Burton’s Halloween-friendly offerings too, including Edward Scissorhands, his reimagining of Alice In Wonderland and Frankenweenie.
5. Coco
Disney
One of the more recent additions to the Pixar catalogue is also, in our opinion, one of the best.
Coco centres around the Mexican celebration the Day of the Dead, and features a gloriously-designed underworld, fantastic musical numbers and plenty of laughs aimed at all ages.
It is a Pixar film, though, so there’s also at least one scene guaranteed to make you ugly cry.
6. Cruella
Disney+/Moviestore/Shutterstock
Advertisement
We all know that when Halloween rolls round for Disney fans, it means a time to celebrate the company’s many iconic villains, and Disney+ is more than accommodating in that respect.
This origin story puts Emma Stone in the lead role of the 101 Dalmatians baddie, serving countless looks as she makes a name for herself in 70s London. Worth watching for the style and soundtrack alone, it’s actually a decent enough watch on its own, with Emmas Stone and Thompson both putting in brilliantly camp turns.
7. Maleficent
Walt Disney Studios/Kobal/Shutterstock
But when it comes to Disney villains, you can’t really beat Maleficent, can you?
In this live-action origin story, Angelina Jolie takes on the role of the Sleeping Beauty antagonist, later returning for the sequel Mistress Of The Dark.
Those who prefer their Disney offerings a little more old school can also stream the original film to enjoy Maleficent in all her theatrical, technicolour evilness.
Advertisement
8. Bedknobs And Broomsticks
Moviestore/Shutterstock
Yes, at first glance Bedknobs And Broomsticks might appear to be a cosy afternoon watch with some cute and cuddly Disney animation and songs the whole family can sing along to.
But scratch the surface a bit and you see it’s actually about an unassuming sorceress who goes to severe lengths so she can further her powers and defeat the Nazis.
All this and Angela Lansbury? What’s not to love?
9. Return To Oz
Moviestore/Shutterstock
File this under: family films that have no business being as terrifying as they are.
Set a short while after the original Wizard Of Oz film, Return To Oz sees Dorothy still living in Kansas with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry, who are growi little tired of hearing her stories about the mysterious land of of Oz.
Advertisement
And so it comes to be that Dorothy comes under the care of a wicked nurse who subjects her to electroshock therapy (!!!!) to try and cure her of what she considers to be delusions.
What follows is a second trip to Oz, where things are a lot less wonderful than when she left them. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly which scene is the most distressing, whether it’s Dorothy’s early adventures at the mental institution, the introduction of the genuinely-really-creeper wheelers or Mombi’s collection of heads.
Frankly, the fact this film was actually aimed at children is still shocking to us.
10. The Black Cauldron
The Black Cauldron Disney
Continuing with another distressing supposed children’s film from the 80s, The Black Cauldron is one of those oft-overlooked animated features from Disney’s wilderness years, commonly referred to as one of the company’s biggest ever flops.
The Black Cauldron was a long time in the making, and Disney executives were really not happy with it, with Jeff Katzenberg infamously cutting out big chunks of the film that he thought were too scary, leaving behind several plotholes and occasional glitches in the animation.
Advertisement
Still, in the years since its release, The Black Cauldron has garnered a cult following, winning praise from many who admire the way it doesn’t follow the pattern of Disney films that came before it.
Heed our warning, though, The Black Cauldron also has a reputation for being the scariest and least child-friendly of Disney’s animated films, which is worth keeping in mind before you sit down to watch it with any especially young children.
11. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Getty Images via Getty Images
Seriously, what better time than Halloween could there be to start your Buffy rewatch?
The supernatural teen drama proved hugely popular during its seven-season run, and made a household name of Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, who juggled her destiny as the “Slayer” with trying to live a regular teenage life as a student at Sunnydale High.
Oh, the nostalgia...
12. American Horror Story
FX
Advertisement
Any series of American Horror Story is fitting for the Halloween season, whether you fancy the glossy theatrics of Hotel and 1984 or the more grisly and gruesome Asylum and Roanoke – and they’re all available to stream on Disney+ (having recently left their old home on Netflix).
Still, if we had to pick just one season of the Emmy-winning anthology show to watch this Halloween, we reckon the high camp of Coven is the most fitting for this time of year.
Regular cast members Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters all deliver some of their most memorable performances – and that’s without even mentioning one of the best cameos in TV history from Stevie Nicks, playing a witchy version of herself.
If you finish in time, you can also dive right into Apocalypse, which revisits many of the characters introduced in Coven (although, let’s be real, its end-of-days themes might potentially hit a little too close to home in the current climate).
13. Alien
20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock
Advertisement
Often voted among the best films of all time, Alien was a total game-changer within both the horror and sci-fi genres when it first debuted in 1979, and it still holds up today, more than 40 years later.
Obviously, Sigourney Weaver’s turn as Ripley is the stand-out (she was later nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the sequel), which is particularly impressive given it was her first major acting role.
And while horror films are known for not always ageing well, we defy you not to still leap off the sofa at those jump-scares, especially if you’re watching for the first time.
14. The Sixth Sense
Moviestore/Shutterstock
In this late 90s thriller, Haley Joel Osment stars as a nine-year-old boy who (as the iconic line goes) “sees dead people”.
Advertisement
A slow-paced ghost story that relies more on amazing acting and an over-arching scary atmosphere than gory reveals and jump-scares, there’s a reason The Sixth Sense has gone on to become such a classic with a twist ending we implore you not to spoil for yourself if you’re planning to watch for the first time.
15. Jennifer’s Body
Doane Gregory/Fox Atomic/Kobal/Shutterstock
Unjustly maligned at the time, Jennifer’s Body has become a modern cult classic in the past few years, and we think its reputation is only going to grow now it’s available to stream on Disney+.
The black comedy casts Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried as a pair of high school students and best friends, one of whom has been possessed by the devil and can’t stop killing her male classmates, while the other tries to stop her.
In recent years, Jennifer’s Body been held up as a “forgotten feminist classic”, with many re-examining the film when its 10-year anniversary arrived, following the rise of the Me Too movement.
Advertisement
16. Nightmare Alley
Searchlight Pictures/Moviestore/Shutterstock
We’re just going to give you a few reasons to watch Nightmare Alley. Bradley Cooper. Cate Blanchett. Toni Collette. Rooney Mara. Plot? Honestly, who cares? What a cast.
17. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
20th Century Fox/Michael White Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
This is another Disney+ offering that’s definitely not family-friendly... but, to quote Dr Frank-N-Furter himself, “isn’t it nice?”.
Arguably the quintessential Halloween film, Rocky Horror brings together murder, alien encounters and sexual exploration, dresses them up in fishnet tights and throws in some timeless musical numbers for good measure.
Advertisement
There’s a reason people are still doing the Time Warp almost 40 years after the original film’s release.
18. The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr Toad
Disney
And then... there’s this.
Among the weirdest things in Disney’s entire animated oeuvre, The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr Toad is a two-parter, the first half of which is the company’s very cute spin of The Wind And The Willows.
It’s the second part that we want to focus on at Halloween, though. If the name “Ichabod Crane” doesn’t ring a bell, then maybe the fact this story takes place in the town of Sleepy Hollow might spell things out for you.
Yes, this 35-minute tale is Disney’s retelling of the headless horseman, complete with narration by Bing Crosby. There’s also a thigh-slapping musical number about having your head lopped off and a final scene that still gives us chills when we think about it. Happy Halloween, indeed...
Advertisement


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Yes, ‘Eco Despair’ Is Unsettling – But It Could Lead To Real Change

LOADING ERROR LOADING
David Attenborough’s latest documentary A Life On Our Planet is yet another harrowing watch. We learn that if the 94-year-old was born in 2020, by the time he’d reach old age, the world would be struggling to grow crops due to the effects of a drastically warming planet.
In the TV presenter’s lifetime, he’s had the opportunity to see animals living and thriving in their natural habitats – but as time has gone by, their numbers have dwindled and their habitats have been destroyed. Humans are largely to blame.
Advertisement
A Life On Our Planet is his witness statement, and the show – on Netflix from October 4 – will undoubtedly leave people distressed by its revelations. But a climate psychologist argues why this could be – in some ways – a positive thing.
In the past few years, therapists have noticed clients increasingly bringing concerns around climate change and the future of our planet into the therapy room. Some people dub the issue ‘eco anxiety’.
Advertisement
Reuters Photographer / Reuters
So-called eco anxiety, in very simple terms, is a concern or worry about ecological disasters and the risk to the natural environment. People might have concerns about their own mortality, the mortality of their loved ones, or how the environment will impact their future.
It’s not a clinical diagnosis, rather a term used to describe a growing – and warranted – concern among the public for the natural world.
This year’s British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) public perception survey included questions on the mental health impact of climate change for the first time.
Results from the survey, shared with HuffPost UK, found prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, 8% of those surveyed said climate change and global warming had a negative effect on their mental health “to a great extent”, 18% said it impacts their mental health “somewhat”, and 29% said it impacts their mental health “a little”. On the contrary, 38% said it didn’t impact their mental health at all.
Among those who said it impacted their mental health to some degree, which equated to just over half of respondents, 65% were concerned about the impact on the natural world; 63% about increased frequency of natural disasters; 58% were worried about what the world would be like for future generations; and 23% were worried about the collapse of civilisation.
Advertisement
BACP’s survey of 5,500 people found those aged 16-34 were most impacted by negative mental health linked to climate change – “[It] makes everything seem a bit pointless doesn’t it?” one person wrote. “Why work until you die for a dying world?”. Fiona Ballantine Dykes, therapist and deputy chief executive of BACP, says this isn’t surprising, as “they’re the ones who’ve got the future to look forward to”.
And this was before Covid-19 happened. The pandemic has meant people are even more disturbed, says Bednarek, while struggling to live with uncertainty about what the future brings. People often have many different worries on their plates – and concerns about the planet are just one part of the pie.
Noah Berger / Reuters
“I don’t particularly like the phrase eco anxiety,” says Bednarek, “because people don’t just come with fear and anxiety – they come with depression, they come with sleeplessness. Some people feel so strongly, they don’t know what’s worth living for anymore because everything is going to get worse.”
Bednarek, who prefers to use the terms ‘eco distress’ or ‘eco despair’, has been a therapist for 16 years. Among her clients experiencing it are often students, young people, lecturers and even journalists – people who research or study climate change and are seeing firsthand how it is impacting the planet. They feel overwhelmed by the thought of it – so they put it to one side, says Bednarek. But then it bubbles up.
Advertisement
In her work, she’s come across people who have made drastic, and often heart-wrenching, decisions such as choosing not to have children because of climate change. They then have this “deep grief” for the child or children they won’t have as a result, says Bednarek.
What can we do about it?
Ultimately, the onus is on political leaders and businesses to make the kinds of changes that can have positive repercussions for the planet – for example, cutting carbon emissions and focusing on sustainable energy. If you have environmental concerns, write to your local MP who can put pressure on those in power to make changes, or pen a note to businesses you think aren’t pulling their weight when it comes to their eco responsibilities.
Therapists believe shifts in policy and governments taking concrete action to tackle the problem could have a positive effect on people’s mental health. Ballantine Dykes says there’s a direct link between a lack of autonomy or agency and depression. When people have little control over their lives, they’re more susceptible to feeling low or depressed, she says.
One of the impacts of the pandemic was that, briefly, some areas of the natural world saw some recovery – it’s shown people if there was sufficient will, maybe the issues our planet faces could be slowed. And A Life On Our Planet ends with such a message: we can act now and reverse the damage.
If you find yourself overwhelmed mentally by the issues that face our planet, it’s important to remember this isn’t an issue individual to you – you are not alone, nor should you feel alienated by how you feel. It’s important to talk about your feelings with likeminded people. Fear can increase if not spoken about, says Ballantine Dykes.
Advertisement
Some might think it’s controversial, but Bednarek doesn’t see ‘eco anxiety’ as a problem to be fixed, as such. She nods to the 38% of people in the survey who weren’t bothered about climate change. “You can ask the question: where does the dysfunction lie? Is the dysfunction with the people who feel the anxiety, or with the people who don’t?”
We can’t bury our heads in the sand or try to meditate it away. “We need to treat this differently,” says Bednarek. It’s not so much about refusing the anxiety, but more sitting with it, she suggests. “It’s a sign of health for me. People get distressed when there’s danger because it helps us to mobilise,” she points out.
She’ll often work with her clients on how to increase their capacity to feel – and deal – with these strong feelings and still function. Consuming our way out of it isn’t the answer either, she adds, highlighting that buying a bamboo toothbrush won’t do an awful lot. “Yes, of course you should make ethical choices ... but I think it needs to be way more than that.”
“People get distressed when there’s danger because it helps us to mobilise.” - Therapist and climate psychologist Steffi Bednarek
Building up, or seeking out, a community of people who feel the same way as you can help you feel less isolated, and also give you likeminded people to discuss your fears with. You can then mobilise – or take action – to help channel your energy into constructive change.
Advertisement
Taking action on a local level is another good place to start – this could be raising awareness among your neighbours, joining forces with a local charity or organising a group to do litter-picking in your park (sites like Nextdoor can be a great tool for bringing neighbours together). It’s about asking – and then answering – the question: how can I feel more empowered? How can I use my mind to create solutions to the problems?
“I feel that when people are really aligned with that, there’s something incredible that happens,” says Bednarek.
As for A Life On Our Planet, the therapist says yes, it’s likely to make people more distressed. “I do think that’s potentially a good thing in order for people to wake up,” she says. “But what’s missing in that is: where do people go when they feel that distress? What’s next? I don’t think that people necessarily need to go to therapy for this.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--The Most Popular Instagram Recipes From September 2020

The HuffPost Taste Instagram account lets us see exactly what people are craving at any given time, and in September our readers’ collective taste shifted firmly into autumnal comfort food.
Seven out of the month’s top 10 recipes feature starchy carbs like rice, noodles, pasta or bread ― think cheesy olive bread, spicy rice bowls and lemon butter pasta. They’re all deeply substantial and wholly comforting. Perhaps the ultimate comfort food ranked No. 1 on the list ― scroll down to find out what it is.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Stacey Solomon: ‘My Whole Life, I’ve Had To Prove I’m Not An Idiot’

Rex/Getty
In What Works For Me – a series of articles considering how we can find balance in our lives – we talk to celebrities about wellbeing and self-care.
Stacey Solomon’s house is not a quiet one, with her partner Joe Swash, three sons, a step-son and a dog to contend with. But the Loose Women star says she still claws back moments of me-time, for the sake of her mental health.
Advertisement
“Self-care has to be a conscious effort, because I often think there’s a whole family tree of people who come before I do,” she tells HuffPost UK.
“Sometimes, I have to make a point of saying to myself: ’You know what Stace, if you don’t have a bath one day this week, it’s not going to do you any favours. If you don’t turn your phone off for the day today and say ‘no’, you’re going to be impacted negatively.”
The latter has been particularly hard in the pandemic, she says, because “no one is shutting off anymore” – and people seem to be getting in touch 24/7. “Sometimes you have to force yourself not to reply and say: ‘Sorry, I was asleep – I’m not a vampire!’” she jokes.
Advertisement
These tactics give Stacey “a moment to be still’ – but they don’t fix everything. “I don’t want to sit here and say it makes a dramatic difference to my life,” she says, “because sometimes I think there are ways you feel in life that you just can’t get out of, no matter what you do.”
Stacey has experienced anxiety from early childhood and has tried everything to tackle it, from hypnosis to EMDR therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy.
“I don’t know life without it,” she says. “The only thing that has helped me over the years is just embracing that it’s a part of me. I genuinely don’t think at this point it will ever go away, no matter how much therapy I have. I’ve admitted to myself that it’s part of my personality.”
Stacey Solomon Stacey Solomon
Stacey’s anxiety is characterised by a fear of death. Hearing about death on the news, or that a distant acquaintance has died, can be a trigger. At times, it’s caused her to experience anxiety attacks.
“If I feel myself getting an anxiety attack now, I have to sit still and play it out through my mind logically,” she says. “I have to think: ‘This will come and this will be awful, but then it will go.’ The more I focus on the fact it will go and it’s not going to be there forever, the easier it is for me to ride though it.’”
Advertisement
She still isn’t sure what caused her to question her mortality so often in childhood. She had some respite from anxiety in her teens, when she went through a stage of feeling “immortal and invincible”. But giving birth to Zach at 17 brought back her old concerns – and they’ve been with her ever since.
“When I gave birth it was such a trauma and I realised how fickle life was, because I felt really out of control,” she says. “I thought I was going to die.”
Part of the problem, says Stacey, is that women weren’t taught about the realities of birth 12 years ago, so everything came as a complete shock.
“When I had Zach, I didn’t even know I’d give birth to a placenta afterwards,” she says. “No one said: ‘You’ll probably shit yourself, your baby might poo inside you, you’re going to tear from your bum to your vagina and you won’t be able to wee for about three days afterwards.’”
It’s why she’s so passionate about sharing the realities of pregnancy and birth on her Instagram, such as showing her blood-spattered t-shirt and towel after giving birth to her youngest, Rex. She also regularly posts pictures and captions relating to body image, showing her cellulite or loose skin after pregnancy.
Advertisement
“Sometimes I sit there and question whether I should put something up because it doesn’t look like everyone else’s pictures,” she says. “But then I think: ‘Surely everyone looks like this, and what is it doing to people when they don’t see it?’”
Stacey Solomon Stacey Solomon
While Stacey’s posts come across as self-assured, she admits she’s still prone to a “crisis of confidence” over her intelligence – more than a decade after hitting our screens on the X Factor.
“I’ve felt like my whole life, I’ve had to prove I’m not an idiot,” she says. “I still worry about if people think I’m dumb because of my accent. I’m not stupid – I’m just not from a privileged background and I’m not serious a lot of the time.”
Self-doubt can also creep in when she’s honest about her mental health struggles online, because she feels like she’s “supposed to be the happy one” who’s known for smiling and joking. “You can’t just be one thing all of the time,” she says. “But you feel like you have to portray that, because that’s how people characterise you.”
Advertisement
Her tactic for boosting her self-esteem is to ignore all feedback about her – whether it’s good or bad. It’s something she regularly speaks to her boys about, teaching them to follow their passions, rather than be influenced by others.
“For example, if I was going to make a unicorn pumpkin that I thought was the best thing since sliced bread, but 50,000 people thought it was ridiculous, the best thing I can do is just put it out there, make it and not even acknowledge anyone else’s opinion, whether it’s good or bad,” she explains.
“Then, my opinion is protected in my brain and I can just walk around thinking I’ve done the best thing ever.”
At 30, letting go of others’ judgements has helped Stacey feel free and totally herself, even embracing the parts of her personality she’d rather change.
“You can’t win,” she says. “You’re either too perfect or not perfect enough, so you can only be you – and unapologetically you.”
Advertisement
Ahead of the International Day of the Girl, Stacey Solomon has joined forces with the Dove Self-Esteem Project and body image expert Professor Phillippa Diedrichs to host a special IG Live about the importance of building positive self-esteem in young people at 9pm on 8 October. Tune in on Stacey’s and Professor Phillippa’s Instagrams and find out more at Dove.com/selfesteem.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Trump Leaves Hospital To Surprise Supporters Outside Walter Reed

A car with Trump drives past supporters in a motorcade outside of Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. ALEX EDELMAN via Getty Images
The coronavirus continues to rage through President Donald Trump’s inner circle and high-level Republican politics. Trump is hospitalised after testing positive for the virus. He and first lady Melania Trump announced their results Friday after appearing at a slew of events this week, including a presidential debate, a fundraiser at his Bedminster resort and a White House Rose Garden ceremony to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Many people who attended these events, including top Republican senators, have also tested positive for the virus this week. Trump is one of the more than 7.3 million Americans who have contracted the coronavirus since Chinese officials implemented the first coronavirus lockdown in the city of Wuhan in January. More than 208,000 Americans have died from the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
HuffPost reporters are tracking Trump’s progress and the outbreaks stemming from events at which he appeared in the last week.
Read the latest updates below. (To see the latest updates, you may need to refresh the page. All times are Eastern. For earlier updates on the pandemic, go here.)
Trump Leaves Hospital To Surprise Supporters Outside Walter Reed — 10/04/20, 5:50 p.m. ET
Despite his sickness and infection, Trump decided to surprise his supporters gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as he recovers from the novel coronavirus.
Early Sunday evening, Trump tweeted a video message to his followers saying that he was “going to pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots out on the street.”
Shortly after, reporters tweeted videos of Trump wearing a mask and waving from the back of a black SUV with a driver and passenger in the front seats wearing personal protective equipment.
Trump drives by the press and supporters outside Walter Reed hospital. pic.twitter.com/3phtKthqTH — Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) October 4, 2020
Advertisement
Trump has spent the last three days at Walter Reed after he and first lady Melania Trump contracted the virus.
Earlier Sunday, a White House doctor said Trump’s blood oxygen level dropped below normal to 93% twice on Saturday.
— Carla Russo
New Jersey health officials said Sunday that more than 200 guests may have been exposed to COVID-19 during President Donald Trump’s campaign fundraiser on Thursday, just hours before the administration announced his diagnosis.
The state’s Department of Health tweeted that it has finally received enough information to contact trace those who attended the high-dollar event at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. The White House supplied New Jersey officials with the names of at least 206 individuals, not including staff working at the golf course.
Previously, reports said that Trump had come into contact with 100 people at the fundraiser and seemed “lethargic,” a common symptom of the virus. A senior aide to Gov. Phil Murphy (D) told HuffPost on Friday afternoon that the state was still waiting for the full roster of everyone who attended the event.
Advertisement
Health officials said they’re reaching out to the attendees to make them aware of potential Covid-19 exposure, and recommending that the individuals self-monitor for any symptoms and quarantine if they were in close contact with Trump, who is currently hospitalised due to the virus. Health officials in Somerset County are interviewing club staff to assess how much contact they had with Trump and his staff, and providing appropriate health recommendations.
“The contact tracing process is ongoing. Attendees that are seeking a test should consider waiting at least 5-7 days from the event. While the risk is low, a negative test earlier than that time cannot definitively rule out that COVID-19 will not develop,” the state’s Health Department tweeted on Sunday. “Those who are concerned that they were in close contact should quarantine for 14 days. New Jersey officials have been informed that the federal government is also conducting contact tracing.”
— Sanjana Karanth
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, on Sunday tested negative again for the coronavirus days after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump revealed they contracted the virus, the vice president’s office reported.
The Trump campaign has said Pence, who is tested daily for the virus, will continue to campaign following Trump’s hospitalisation on Friday.
Pence is scheduled to face off against Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris of California on Wednesday in Salt Lake City.
Advertisement
— Hayley Miller
President Donald Trump’s blood oxygen level twice dipped below 95% — an important threshold — including a transient dip to 93% on Saturday, White House physician Sean Conley said Sunday.
A normal blood oxygen level ― which indicates the oxygen saturation of someone’s blood ― usually ranges from 95% to 100%, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In response to the second blood oxygen level drop, Trump’s medical team administered dexamethasone, a steroid that has been shown to save the lives of people seriously ill with COVID-19 in a clinical trial.
Despite the transient blood oxygen level drops, Trump’s doctors said during a news conference Sunday that the president is doing “very well.” Conley said he hopes to discharge Trump “as early as tomorrow.””
Advertisement
Read more here.
— Hayley Miller
President Trump feels “very well” but will likely remain hospitalised for “a period of time” following his coronavirus diagnosis, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday.
“I think he’s going to stay at [Water Reed National Military Medical Center] for at least another period of time,” O’Brien said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”
“Day 7 and 8 are the critical days,” he added, referring to the timeline of Trump’s infection. “I think the doctors want to make sure they’re there for the president.”
NEWS: National Security Adviser @robertcobrien tells @margbrennan that @realdonaldtrump “Will stay at Walter Reed for a period of time,” adds that the “president feels very well” pic.twitter.com/in7Z6FuGkq — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 4, 2020
Trump and his doctors said Saturday that the president is feeling well and is continuing to govern from the hospital. Trump’s condition caused his aides to be “very concerned” on Friday as the president suffered a fever and his blood oxygen level dropped rapidly.
Advertisement
Trump is not yet “out of the woods” but doctors are “cautiously optimistic” about his recovery, White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said in a statement late Saturday.
— Hayley Miller
President Trump is “doing well” and “governing actively” as he heads into the third day of being hospitalisation after contracting the coronavirus, Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes told “Fox News Sunday.”
Cortes on Sunday defended members of Trump’s family who refused to wear masks during Tuesday’s presidential debate. Attendees of the event were required to wear masks, per rules agreed upon by both the Trump and Biden campaigns ahead of the debate.
First lady Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump entered the debate hall wearing masks but took them off after being seated. An official from the Cleveland Clinic, the health security adviser for the debates, reminded the Trumps of the mask policy, but they still refused to wear them.
Advertisement
“We believe in masks,” Cortes said Sunday. “We also believe in some element of individual choice. People were distanced and they had been tested.”
But host Chris Wallace pushed back: “No, Steve, they weren’t distanced, and there were rules, and there was no freedom of choice. They broke the rules.”
Trump announced he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus early Friday morning.
— Hayley Miller
Trump’s doctors were “very concerned” about the president on Friday when he had a fever and his blood oxygen level “had dropped rapidly,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro on Saturday.
Advertisement
“The doctors said he’s not out of the woods the next 48 hours or so,” Meadows said. “But he’s made unbelievable improvements from yesterday morning when I know a number of us ― the doctor and I ― were very concerned.”
He added: “The biggest thing that we see is, with no fever now and with him doing really well with his oxygen saturation level. Yesterday morning, we were real concerned with that he had a fever and his blood oxygen level had dropped rapidly.”
Mark Meadows on Fox News: "Biggest thing that we see is with no fever now, and with him doing really well with his oxygen saturation level -- yesterday morning we were concerned with that. He had a fever, and his blood oxygen level had dropped rapidly." pic.twitter.com/hwrv0bj1QG — Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 4, 2020
Trump had a fever of 103 degrees and experienced heart palpitations on Friday night, Vanity Fair reported Saturday, citing sources familiar with his condition. The heart palpitations may have been a side effect of the experimental antibody treatment Trump received, the magazine said.
― Hayley Miller
White House aide Nick Luna has tested positive for Covid-19, extending the list of people in Trump’s inner circle who have contracted the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported Saturday.
Advertisement
Luna, who serves as a personal attendant to Trump and runs Oval Office operations, accompanied Trump on his trip to Cleveland for the presidential debate on Tuesday and also travelled with Trump aboard Air Force One to his rally in Minnesota on Wednesday.
― Hayley Miller
Trump had a fever of 103 degrees and experienced heart palpitations on Friday night, Vanity Fair reported Saturday, citing sources familiar with his condition.
The heart palpitations may have been a side effect of the experimental antibody treatment Trump received, the magazine said. Trump’s doctors said earlier the president had received “special antibody therapy” following his COVID-19 diagnosis.
— Dominique Mosbergen
In a video message from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he’s undergoing treatment, Trump thanked the medical staff at the hospital and said he was feeling “better.”
Advertisement
“I came here, wasn’t feeling so well,” he said in the video, which he posted to his Twitter account on Saturday. “I feel much better now. We’re working hard to get me all the way back.”
Trump added that he wasn’t out of the woods just yet, noting the “real test” is what happens over the next few days.
— Dominique Mosbergen
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — President Donald Trump’s ally who announced on Twitter Saturday that he tested positive for COVID-19 — said in a follow-up tweet that he checked himself into Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey, as a “precautionary measure.”
Advertisement
Christie said he was “feeling good” and only had “mild symptoms” but decided to go to the hospital because of his history of asthma.
— Dominique Mosbergen
Contradicting the rosy picture painted by President Donald Trump’s doctors about the president’s health, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Saturday that Trump went through a “very concerning” period after his Covid-19 diagnosis was revealed on Friday.
Meadows said the next 48 hours will be critical for the president’s care.
Trump is currently undergoing treatment for the coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
— Dominique Mosbergen
Attorney General William Barr said he doesn’t plan to quarantine after coming into contact with multiple people in President Donald Trump’s orbit who tested positive for the coronavirus.
Advertisement
Barr tested negative for the virus on Friday but has been in close contact with several White House staffers who tested positive.
— Sebastian Murdock
President Donald Trump was given supplemental oxygen at the White House on Friday before he went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a source told The Associated Press.
In a news conference Saturday, doctors treating Trump would not clearly answer whether or not Trump was given oxygen but said he was not currently on oxygen and was breathing normally.
— Sebastian Murdock
Many of the top officials coming down with COVID-19 are linked to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination event in the White House Rose Garden, including first lady Melania Trump, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and former senior adviser Kellyanne Conway.
But not all of them were there. Top White House aide Hope Hicks, for example, began displaying symptoms shortly before a campaign rally Trump held Wednesday in Minnesota. She traveled with the president aboard Air Force One and was quarantined in the plane on the ride back before getting tested.
Advertisement
Find a list of the people in Trump’s orbit who recently tested positive for the virus here.
— Sara Boboltz
The White House pool, the group of reporters who follow President Donald Trump throughout the day, passed along a statement on the president’s health from a source on background:
“The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning, and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care. We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”
— Paige Lavender
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) tested positive for the coronavirus.
“I just received word that I am positive for COVID-19,” Christie wrote in a tweet Saturday. “I want to thank all of my friends and colleagues who have reached out to ask how I was feeling in the last day or two. I will be receiving medical attention today and will keep the necessary folks apprised of my condition.”
Christie attended a White House event on Sept. 26, when President Donald Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Video showed that he and others in the Rose Garden mingled without masks during the event.
Christie also interacted with Trump during debate preparation last week.
— Sebastian Murdock
Dr. Sean Conley, President Donald Trump’s physician, said in a news conference Saturday that he is doing “very well” 72 hours into his diagnosis.
Advertisement
That timeline means Trump was positive as early as Wednesday. Trump attended campaign events on Thursday and did not disclose that he and the first lady tested positive for COVID-19 until early Friday morning.
Another doctor said Trump received an antibody therapy about 48 hours ago, which would be Thursday morning.
The physicians also did not disclose if Trump was on oxygen at any point this week, saying only that he is not currently on oxygen or having difficulty breathing.
Conley said the medical team assisting with Trump’s care is “extremely happy” with his progress, noting the president’s “mild cough, fatigue and nasal congestion” are improving. He said Trump has been fever-free for more than 24 hours.
— Paige Lavender
Members of the Secret Service — who rarely speak critically of the presidents they serve — reportedly expressed “anger and frustration” to colleagues Friday, worried that President Donald Trump’s actions have put them at risk of contracting the coronavirus, too.
Advertisement
“He’s never cared about us,” one agent told a friend, who spoke to The Washington Post.
Another agent reportedly said, “This administration doesn’t care about the Secret Service. It’s so obvious.”
Secret Service agents complained about not being tested for the virus after returning from rallies with the president in recent weeks, the Post reported. Trump held three rallies in the days leading up to his positive test result.— Sara Boboltz
Pences Test Negative Again — 10/3/20, 10:51 a.m. ET White House officials said Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen both tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday morning, according to Fox News. — Paige Lavender
Dr. Sean Conley will speak from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where the president is currently hospitalised, to give an update on Trump’s condition at 11 a.m. ET.
—Paige Lavender
Trump’s presidential campaign announced Friday afternoon that “all previously announced campaign events involving the President’s participation are in the process of being moved to virtual events or are being temporarily postponed.” Trump had already cancelled a scheduled rally in Florida Friday night.
Advertisement
In addition, any events involving the president’s immediate family will also be “temporarily postponed,” and campaign events in general “will be considered on a case-by-case basis,” Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement.
— Marina Fang
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, have both tested negative for the coronavirus, their physician said Friday.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Huge Jump In Daily Covid Cases To 22,961 As UK Infection Number Passes 500,000

LOADING ERROR LOADING
The UK has recorded a massive jump in Covid infections for the second day running, with 22,961 cases confirmed up to 9am on Sunday.
The “alarming” figure, released by the The Department for Health and Social Care late on Sunday night, includes almost 16,000 cases from days last week not previously recorded.
Advertisement
It means the country has now seen more than 500,000 lab-confirmed cases in total.
The massive spike comes after the government blamed a technical glitch for a similarly huge rise of 12,872 on Saturday, having recorded around 6,000 most days last week.
The new amended figures, which come after it was claimed there was a “levelling off” of case numbers, mean that by September 30 the country there were more than 10,000 daily infections across the country.
DHSC confirmed that Sunday’s daily figure includes 15,841 additional cases logged between September 25 and October 2, but not included because of the same technical issue.
The official dashboard said Sunday’s data is “therefore artificially high for England and the UK”.
Labour has branded the late logging of cases as evidence of a “shambolic” test and trace service and has demanded health secretary Matt Hancock explain what happened in a statement to parliament.
Advertisement
“This is shambolic and people across the country will be understandably alarmed,” shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said.
“Matt Hancock should come to the House of Commons on Monday to explain what on earth has happened, what impact it has had on our ability to contain this virus and what he plans to do to fix test and trace.”
This is just shambolic. ‘Technical problems’ means over 15,000 previously missing Covid cases added to the totals for recent days.
Were these cases followed up by contact tracing teams? Are contacts isolating? How does this impact local restrictions?
People will be alarmed. pic.twitter.com/46hOXxyvur — Jonathan Ashworth 😷 (@JonAshworth) October 4, 2020
The government also said a further 33 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday. This brings the UK total to 42,350.
It is likely to fuel calls for another national lockdown, with many fearing the second wave is taking hold at a fast pace.
Advertisement
Public Health England provided a breakdown of how many cases were not included in each day’s figures: – 957 cases on September 25, when the original figure given was 6,874
– 744 on September 26, when the original figure given was 6,042
– 757 on September 27, when the original figure given was 5,693
– none on September 28, when the original figure given was 4,044
– 1,415 on September 29, when the original figure given was 7,143
– 3,049 on September 30, when the original figure given was 7,108
– 4,133 on October 1, when the original figure given was 6,914
– 4,786 on October 2, when the original figure given was 6,968
Test and trace and Public Health England joint medical adviser, Susan Hopkins, said anyone who had tested positive in the days affected by the backlog would still have got their results earlier.
She said: “Our analysis now shows that this issue affected a total of 15,841 cases from the period between 25 September and 2 October, with the majority occurring in recent days. This means the total number of positive cases over this period was higher than previously reported.
“Of these, over 75% (11,968) relate to cases that should have been reported between 30 September and 2 October.
“This issue did not affect people receiving their Covid-19 test results and all people who tested positive have received their Covid-19 test result in the normal way.”
Advertisement
On Friday, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) confirmed the “R-rate” of Covid-19 had spiked again to between 1.3 and 1.6.
The reproduction number, or R value, tracks coronavirus transmission across the UK, with any value above 1.0 indicating that the pandemic is growing.
Last week, the R number was between 1.2 and 1.5.
An number between 1.3 and 1.6 means that “on average every 10 people infected will infect between 13 and 16 other people”, SAGE said.
The R value is estimated to be at its highest, and as high as 1.6, in the North East and London, followed closely by the North West.
“Over the next few weeks, it will be important that we understand this in the UK and do not become complacent,” the spokesman for SAGE added.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Trump Adviser Accuses Biden Of Using His Mask As A Political 'Prop'

Former Vice President Joe Biden removes his face mask as he arrives to speak at a campaign event in August. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, criticised how frequently Joe Biden wears a face mask to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, claiming that the former vice president and 2020 frontrunner uses the item “as a prop” even as Trump remains hospitalised for the virus.
“I think too often he’s used the mask as a prop. A mask is very important, but even if he’s ― he could be 20, 30 feet away from the nearest person and still have the mask on. That’s not going to change anything that’s out there,” Miller told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
Advertisement
Miller further defended Trump’s frequent decision not to wear a mask at events, arguing that the president wears one when he doesn’t believe he can socially distance. Trump pulled out a mask at Tuesday’s debate and said that he wears a mask “when I think I need it.”
Miller’s comments appear to ignore the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advised that people wear face masks whenever in a public setting, adding that they are not a substitute for social distancing.
The CDC also advised that people maintain a physical distance of at least 6 feet from anyone with whom they do not live in order to help prevent the virus’s spread.
Days after Tuesday’s debate, Trump revealed that he tested positive for the virus. The news came hours after he attended a campaign fundraiser in New Jersey on Thursday. Trump was hospitalised the following day.
At least 206 people attended Thursday’s fundraiser, according to the New Jersey Department of Health, which on Sunday advised anyone who attended and came in close contact with others to self-quarantine.
Advertisement
“President Trump is one of the most tested people in the entire country. And there’s a lot that we still don’t know about this virus,” Miller said. “Folks who come to our rallies, for example, their temperatures are all checked. They’re given masks. They’re urged to be careful as well. We’ve done that in the past. We’re going to continue doing that as we go forward.”
He went on to encourage people to continue to attend the political rallies and events — advice that runs counter to findings by most health care professionals that events with large crowds pose the highest risk of coronavirus transmission. He likened their participation to the importance of scientists going out and developing a vaccine.
A a group consisting largely of Trump supporters gathers outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland on Sunday. ALEX EDELMAN via Getty Images
“We can’t all just stay in our basement for the rest of our lives. We have to get out there and live our lives and take this on, develop the vaccine, develop more therapeutics, and defeat it,” he said.
Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, said Miller’s comments summarised the Trump campaign’s view of the pandemic in a nutshell.
Advertisement
“I think that tells you a lot of what you need to know about how the Trump campaign has treated this from the outset,” she told Stephanopoulos in a later interview.
Trump holds up his face mask during the first presidential debate on Tuesday. ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Joe Biden believes that the words of a president matter, that the actions of a president matter. From the outset, he has taken this seriously. He has encouraged Americans to wear ― to wear masks to protect each other,” she said. “He believes strongly that the role of the president is to lead and is to lead by example. And I think Americans are looking for that kind of reassurance. We’re obviously in an incredibly chaotic, disruptive time in this country.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-04--Police Officer Stabbed While Trying To Stop Attempted Armed Robbery

Stock image of two Metropolitan police officers in London. mikeinlondon via Getty Images
A female police officer was stabbed while trying to stop a suspected attempted armed robbery in a grocery store in Westminster, police have said.
The Metropolitan Police said the officer was stabbed in the abdomen as she attempted to detain two men who were trying to rob the store.
Advertisement
Two officers were in Chapter Street, in central London, at about 3.42 pm on Sunday when they spotted the suspects, who were armed with knives.
As the officers challenged the pair, the woman police officer was stabbed in the abdomen before chasing the men along Vauxhall Bridge Road. The suspects were arrested shortly afterwards.
The officer was taken to hospital but her injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
Chief Inspector Simon Brooker, Central West BCU, said: “This shows precisely the kind of danger officers face every single day as they work to keep the public safe.
“For this officer to be stabbed on duty is unacceptable but, fortunately, she does not appear to be seriously injured.
Advertisement
“I applaud her bravery in responding to this call. This courage is typical of Met officers as they go about their duties.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “My thoughts and prayers are with this brave police officer who is receiving treatment in hospital after she was stabbed while on duty, intervening in a robbery, this afternoon.
“Every day our courageous police officers put themselves in harm’s way to keep Londoners safe.
“I am sure all Londoners will join me in wishing her a speedy recovery.