thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Six Times The Government Could Have Done More To Stop A Second Wave

“We are entering a new and crucial phase of our fight against coronavirus,” proclaimed Boris Johnson in Monday’s Downing Street press conference. “And we must act now.”
Back in mid-September, the prime minister claimed a second wave was “absolutely inevitable”. Now the numbers are clearly showing cases rising across the entire country, hospitals occupied by more people than before the full lockdown in March, and – tragically – rising numbers of deaths.
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But was this really “absolutely inevitable”? Recently released documents by the official SAGE committee show the government’s own scientific advisers called for an immediate “circuit breaker” lockdown in England on September 21. ”Not acting now to reduce cases will result in a very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences,” the document warned.
The government chose to ignore its own scientists. On that day, there were 4,368 new cases of Covid-19; today, that number is 17,234.
So what went wrong? Could the government have introduced measures to prevent the outbreak from spreading to its current trajectory? Could there have been so-called “crucial phases” in the past few months where Johnson could have put the country on a different track?
1) Test and trace during the first lockdown
When the country entered a full lockdown on March 23, the government should have taken the opportunity to invest in a viable test and trace system. Instead, the last couple of months were “completely wasted time”. That’s the belief of Professor Deenan Pillay, virologist at University College London and member of the Independent SAGE committee.
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As infection levels began to decrease, the government should have focused its efforts on getting its “world-beating” so-called “NHS Test and Trace” system – headed by Tory peer and former TalkTalk phone giant boss Dido Harding – to run effectively, Pillay believes.
“Test and trace is most effective when there are lower levels of infection in the community, so you can monitor what’s going on and make sure that you keep a lid on infection,” he told HuffPost UK.
“It did come down to a choice of – is it schools or pubs? And they fudged it.”
Instead, the government’s handling of the Test and Trace system has been “woefully inadequate”.
“It’s a real shame. The optimal way to use the benefits of the previous lockdown was to make sure that [the system] was in such a good place that we would be able to identify new infections very quickly.
“Now, of course, we’ve lost that time. We’re failing to really deal with the virus primarily through the lack of a functional test and trace.”
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Just last week the so-called NHS Test and Trace service reported its worst-ever figures, with just 68.8% of cases in England being reached and told to self-isolate.
The system has also been dogged by criticism since it began earlier this year, with many attacking its use of private firms like Serco and Deloitte. “It needs to be rapidly improved, and it will need some very significant managerial changes,” adds Pillay.
“The whole thing should be brought into a coordinated, open structure using NHS, Public Health England and private laboratories but managed as a unified whole.”
2) The Cummings effect
“I don’t regret what I did,” the prime minister’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings said after he was found to have driven 260 miles from London to County Durham at the peak of the first lockdown.
Dominic Cummings is just one out of the many officials and MPs who have ignored the government’s own coronavirus rules. Leon Neal via Getty Images
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But evidence suggests Cummings’ self-prescribed eye-test and the PM’s decision to defend him had a real impact on the behaviour of the general public. A YouGov poll following the revelations showed a fifth of Britons followed lockdown rules less strictly than before, with a third citing the adviser’s actions as justification for their own breaches of rules.
“In a few short minutes Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have been given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control Covid-19,” Independent SAGE member Stephen Reicher said.
“Be open and honest, we said. Trashed. Respect the public, we said. Trashed. Ensure equity, so everyone is treated the same, we said. Trashed. Be consistent, we said. Trashed. Make clear ‘we are all in it together.’ Trashed.”
Cummings is just one out of the many officials and MPs who have ignored or forgotten the government’s own coronavirus rules – and gotten away with barely a slapped wrist. Just last month Tory MP Danny Kruger was forced to apologise for having apparently “simply forgot” to wear a mask for the entire duration of an hour-long train journey between Hungerford and London Paddington.
On Monday Scottish MP Margaret Ferrier refused to resign for breaching self-isolation restrictions multiple times by travelling from Glasgow and London while infected with Covid-19, and back again, as well as speaking in the Commons.
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3) Airport testing and air bridges
In a bid to stem the spread of the outbreak to British soils, the government began advising British nationals against all but essential travel in March.
What it didn’t do – and still hasn’t to this day – is introduce Covid-19 tests for international arrivals. Despite calls from the boss of Heathrow airport and other countries introducing mandatory testing upon arrival, the UK government instead requires travellers from certain “high-risk” countries to self-isolate for 14 days.
“There was a lot of scrutiny and testing of people coming from Wuhan into the UK in February,” Pillay said. “But in fact we now know that infections were not coming from China, but from Spain, Italy and France.”
The government’s decision in June to open up so-called “air bridges” or “travel corridors” between these countries had a real impact on the spread of Covid-19. In August, almost 200 passengers were forced to self-isolate after a flight from the Greek island of Zante to Cardiff was linked to 16 confirmed cases.
“The government was lax in introducing quarantine processes and limitations,” Pillay continued. “It’s not surprising that when we encourage everyone to go abroad over summer to those European countries – countries where infections were starting to increase again – that there would be an importation back of the virus.”
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4) Eat Out To Help Out The Virus
Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s “Eat Out To Help Out” scheme was aimed at swerving job losses in pubs and restaurants, which were forced to close during the first lockdown in March. Evidence now suggests there was a correlation between the huge numbers of people dining out in August, and cases rising.
″‘Eat Out To Help Out The Virus’ – that’s the way I put it,” says Pillay. He claims: “It’s very clear that incentivising people to go into restaurants and sit indoors to eat contributed directly to increases in infection.”
In an article published in The Conversation, Oxford University researcher Toby Phillips suggested Eat Out To Help Out may have contributed to a “rapid acceleration” in infection cases and encouraged “extravagant” behaviour.
“Now we’re just repeating those mistakes that happened in March”
Phillips claimed the rise in cases could be pinpointed to the exact date the scheme was launched, adding that it was also when people were coming back from summer holidays. The chancellor responded by saying it would be “simplistic” to blame the scheme for the resurgence of Covid-19.
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“Eat Out To Help Out just didn’t make sense,” says Professor Kamlesh Khunti, professor of primary care at Leicester University and another Independent SAGE member. “It did get a lot of people out there and we had queues in many of the big cities.
“There could have been other things that could have been done, such as ‘Take Out To Help Out’ because there was no reason why you can’t have a takeaway and the industry can still do well.”
5) Reopening schools, universities and pubs
Johnson was repeatedly told by the scientific community that the reopening of schools and universities would lead to a dramatic rise in Covid-19 cases. The newly released documents show the government’s own scientists warning: “Covid-19 incidence is increasing across the country in all age groups. The effect of opening of schools, colleges and universities has only just begun to affect this increase.”
“Universities opening in October represent the biggest single movement of people around the country,” says Pillay. “That’s well recognised. So it’s all predictable that it would have led to infections.
The so-called “NHS Test and Trace” system – headed by Tory peer and former TalkTalk phone giant boss Dido Harding – is not working. PA Video - PA Images via Getty Images
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“This didn’t mean that [schools and universities] shouldn’t have opened, but the balance was that, if schools were to open, there needed to be very much more robust test and trace and also to minimise other ways of transmission of infection.
“It did come down to a choice of – is it schools or pubs? And those hard decisions were not made by the government. They fudged it.”
The combination of thousands of students returning to universities across the country, combined with colder weather driving people to socialise closely indoors in poorly ventilated areas, meant infections were without a doubt going to rise. Still, the government seemed completely unprepared.
“One of the amazing things which shows just how poor Test and Trace has been run is that Dido Harding said she was surprised by the demand for testing when schools opened,” Pillay says.
“It just goes to show how absolutely woeful public health leadership is. You just need to have a basic understanding of public health to recognise what the risks are for the demands on Test and Trace.
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“Now we’re seeing that universities opening has been one of the key precipitants of this rise of infection in young people, with the virus spreading from them back to older people.”
Universities are seeing many coranavirus outbreaks. Here is a plot of weekly cases per 100k pop. over the year. Comparing neighbourhoods (technically MSOAs) that have students making up at least 25% of the population with the rest. (Note: Most recent week data is incomplete) pic.twitter.com/GOyKtBygiP — Justin Ales (@justin_ales) October 11, 2020
6) The “circuit breaker”
Recently released documents show the government’s own scientific advisors called for an immediate “circuit breaker” lockdown in England on September 21. Yet of all the measures proposed in the document, just one was implemented at the time.
Johnson’s announcement on Monday of a new three-tiered local lockdown system could be a matter of too little, too late. “I think that it’s fiddling, to be perfectly honest,” says Pillay. “There’s actually in reality very few differences between the tiers.”
Pillay believes the government should “definitely” impose an immediate national lockdown and use that time to make sure Test and Trace is working effectively. “It’s already probably too late and it was recommended by both ourselves and by SAGE three weeks ago.
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“The idea that at this stage of the pandemic and of the resurgence that we can sort of have different sorts of levels of lockdown in different parts of the UK is meaningless. There now needs to be a national approach.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--5 Flu And Covid-19 Myths People Need To Stop Believing

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Covid-19 is still surging around much of the world. And though experts believe influenza rates might be lower than usual, we’ll still collectively be facing multiple contagious respiratory illnesses at the same time. A “twindemic,” if you will.
Don’t fall victim to the mistruths. Here are five big misconceptions people have about the illnesses, which everyone needs to unlearn as we head into flu season and a possible second wave of Covid-19:
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Myth: The flu won’t be a problem because we’re wearing masks.
Doctors “are hoping — but not betting on — a lighter influenza season this year as people practice physical distancing, mask wearing and better hand hygiene,” said Dr. Timothy Laird, interim chief medical officer of Health First Medical Group.
Sometimes you can do just about everything right — mask up, maintain social distance, wash your hands — and still catch a virus. Which is why layering preventive measures is so important. People can get the flu by touching surfaces or objects that have been contaminated with flu viruses (which is also true with Covid-19, although that isn’t the primary mode of transmission).
“Everything we’re doing reduces risk,” said Dr. Aaron Milstone, an epidemiologist and professor of paediatrics at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “It doesn’t make risk zero.”
Myth: The flu vaccine could make you sick, weak or more vulnerable to Covid-19.
The persistent claim that the flu vaccine can give you the flu just is not true, experts say. However, you could develop a flulike reaction to the vaccine (including muscle aches and fever) as your body produces antibodies.
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“You may get a sore arm, maybe even feel a bit achy or have a low grade fever or scratchy throat,” Laird said. “But that’s not an illness, that is a side effect experienced by a small number of people with nearly any vaccination.”
There are a few other possibilities for why you might get sick after vaccination: You could catch the flu in the two-week window between getting your hab and when it takes effect. Or you could get sick if you’re exposed to a flu virus that isn’t a good match with those used in this year’s vaccine.
But the vaccine itself will not give you an illness. That’s a key misconception to clear up now for anyone who is reluctant to get vaccinated over concerns the jab will make them sick and weaken their immune system amid a pandemic, making them more vulnerable to Covid-19. It won’t.
On the other hand, it is possible to get both Covid-19 and the flu at the same time, which could be “catastrophic” to the immune system, some experts warn.
Justin Paget via Getty Images The flu shot will not make you sick or more susceptible to COVID-19.
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Myth: The flu vaccine could “mess” with a Covid-19 vaccine.
“We give vaccines together all the time,” Milstone explained. “The only time we sometimes worry about separating vaccines with a little bit of time is when we give a live viral vaccine.”
For example, doctors might space out other vaccinations around the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, so patients get the full immune response. But all the injectable flu vaccines currently available right now are not live vaccines, Milstone said, so it shouldn’t be a concern.
Myth: Covid-19 and the flu are essentially the same.
It’s not true in terms of the effect on the body; it’s not true in terms of how long people are contagious or how contagious the various viruses are; and it’s not even true in terms of who tends to get really sick.
“There’s a difference epidemiologically,” Milstone said.
It’s also not true for death counts. Distinguishing the difference has implications for everything ― from how doctors might watch for more serious developments to how long someone needs to quarantine and how people who’ve come into contact with a sick individual should behave.
Which brings us to ...
Myth: If I were to get sick, I would manage Covid-19 and the flu in the same way.
There is definitely significant overlap in the symptoms of Covid-19 and influenza, like fever, chills, fatigue and cough. They are also both highly contagious respiratory viruses. So in some ways, yes, a person who becomes ill with the flu might behave pretty much the same as a person who becomes ill with Covid-19.
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“There are a few common principles to keep in mind. First, you are contagious,” Laird said. “Protect others. Wear a mask if around them. Everyone should practice excellent hand hygiene, and you should isolate yourself as much as possible. Secondly, hydrate and rest.”
But knowing which particular virus you have will likely change how you proceed beyond that. Researchers are still grappling with exactly how long someone can spread Covid-19, but they believe the period of contagiousness is longer than with the flu. With the flu, people are generally cleared to head back into the world once they’ve been fever-free for 24 hours; with Covid-19 it’s at least 10 days since symptoms appeared and the individual has been fever-free for at least 24 hours.
That’s one reason why doctors, like Milstone, are advocating that people who develop symptoms be particularly diligent about getting tested this season.
“I think most people are going to need to get a test result to know: When can I safely return to work, school, daycare, etcetera,” Milstone said.
Experts are still learning about Covid-19. The information in this story is what was known or available as of publication, but guidance can change as scientists discover more about the virus. Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Like Kellyanne Conway's Daughter Claudia, I Grew Up Watching My Mum On Fox News

One of the displays outside of the Fox News headquarters on 6th Avenue in New York. TIMOTHY A. CLARY via Getty Images
Claudia Conway, the 15-year-old daughter of Kellyanne and George Conway, is, depending on who you ask, a whistleblower hero or a child in need of help whose privacy should be protected. Her medium of choice is TikTok, and in recent days, she broke the news of her mother’s positive Covid test, as well as her own. Her Twitter posts about President Donald Trump’s health being worse than his team has been letting on also have made headlines.
Claudia came to public prominence earlier this summer after posting anti-Trump and pro-Black Lives Matter videos, as well as emotionally plaintive videos referring to family strife, trauma, abuse, and her desire for emancipation ― all of which led Kellyanne to resign from her job as a White House counsellor and George to step back from the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. Both cited a need to put their family first. Claudia immediately took to TikTok to condemn this as a PR stunt, revealing that her parents hadn’t even disclosed their plans to her, their purported priority. She found out, like the rest of us, from Twitter.
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I have viewed her videos over the course of the past months with empathy, concern, and deep pangs of recognition. Like Claudia, I grew up watching my mother on Fox News, sought a public platform to differentiate myself as a teenager, and have grappled with my mother’s decision to defend a powerful Republican man credibly accused of sexual misconduct.
My mother, Susan Estrich, was the first woman to run a presidential campaign (Democrat Michael Dukakis’ in 1988); Kellyanne was the first woman to run a Republican presidential campaign. Though my mother is a Democrat and has always been vociferously anti-Trump, in 2016, she stepped up to defend then-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes.
When I was the same age as Claudia is now, I sold a novel inspired by my experiences growing up in Los Angeles among the progeny of Hollywood’s power players. It started out as a darkly comedic book about a 12-year-old girl struggling with body image, mental health issues, family conflict, and social alienation. By the time it was published, in the summer of 2009, it had morphed into a YA novel about a 16-year-old girl complete with the mandatory Best Friend, Bitchy Popular Girls, Seductive but Disappointing Love Interest, and even, though this I included reluctantly, The One Who Has Been There All Along. I took great pains to fictionalise the parents and ensure that none of the characters were too deeply flawed.
The book was published the summer after my freshman year at Harvard University, and my mother helped me prepare for interviews and TV appearances. If you ever feel stuck or don’t know what to say, just smile and laugh, she advised.
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I spent many weekend afternoons throughout my childhood in the green room of Fox News’s LA bureau, chatting with the makeup artists while my mother did live hits. She was one of Fox’s token liberals, brought on to offer friendly dissent and liven up the debate. In spite of ideological differences, she got along with almost everyone on Fox. I learned from her ― and not just her, but all the prominent Democratic women of the time ― that diplomacy was a powerful and necessary tool. That the best way to change the rules was to play by them and win. Knock down the door from the inside, and so on.
I tried.
My first live TV appearance was on Fox & Friends, during which the anchors asked if I thought Sarah Palin was a good role model for young girls. I said no, but I carefully sidestepped politics, focusing on Palin’s resignation as Alaska’s governor and her failure to follow through with her commitments. I also appeared on Sean Hannity’s Great American Panel to discuss health care reform ― a subject I, a 19-year-old novelist with exactly one half of a congressional internship under her belt, was hilariously underqualified to discuss. So I was deliberately conciliatory and measured in my support of a public option. I tried to thread an unthreadable needle, to be both incisive and uncontroversial, authentic and polished.
“In spite of ideological differences, [my mom] got along with almost everyone on Fox. I learned from her... that diplomacy was a powerful and necessary tool. That the best way to change the rules was to play by them and win. Knock down the door from the inside, and so on.”
My moment of greatest on-air discomfort took place on Fox’s now-defunct late night show, Red Eye. I sat at a glass table across from Kimberly Guilfoyle while the host, Greg Gutfeld, read my introduction off the teleprompter. ”Our next guest is just like (Ernest) Hemingway, if Hemingway had great legs and didn’t blow his brains out,” Gutfeld said. ”She knows teens like I wish I knew teens.”
The camera turned to me. I smiled and laughed.
I felt stiff and prudish and naïve compared to Guilfoyle, who jumped right in with bawdy jokes. She has since been accused of extensive sexual harassment during her employment at Fox.
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I had been trying to leverage my age but not act it for years, ever since I first queried literary agents at age 12. By 19, I was used to being taken seriously, but not sexually.
My book made The Los Angeles Times Bestseller list shortly thereafter. This was followed by a profile on the front page of the newspaper’s Calendar section. I wore clothes borrowed from my mother to meet the reporter, who was more interested in my necklace, a black cord with a silver bar that read “BREATHE”. The reporter asked if this referred to anxiety, if that was something I had in common with the protagonist of my book. I didn’t take the opening. Instead, I said something evasive about it being a reminder to be in the moment and appreciate everything I have.
The opening line of the resulting profile read: A privileged life isn’t always the same as a charmed life, but Isabel Kaplan is one of those rare people who leads both.
Joke’s on me, I remember thinking, depressed and lonely in my childhood bedroom. Isn’t this what you wanted?
My freshman year of college, I took a class on autobiography and literary Imagination, taught by Jamaica Kincaid. The final project was to write our own autobiographies. Jamaica kept encouraging me to write with more vulnerability and ruthless honesty. I brought this up on the phone with my therapist, hoping for her encouragement. She was also, separately, my mother’s therapist. And my father’s. She advised me to be careful about what I wrote because she thought I might run for office someday and hadn’t I seen what the Republicans did, digging up and trying to weaponise the college papers of Barack and Michelle Obama?
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I felt flattered by her belief that I might run for office. I tried to write a memoir that was both honest and kind. It wasn’t very good.
My mother and I have always had a close and complicated relationship, but our areas of greatest tension were personal, not political, until the summer of 2016, when she stepped up to defend Ailes against charges of sexual harassment, first by former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson and then by numerous other women. I struggled to understand why my mother ― a rape victim herself, who had fought doggedly for victim’s rights and to bring rape law into law school curriculums, who coined the term “nuts and sluts” to refer to character-smearing rape allegation defences ― would agree to represent him.
I could have taken to Twitter; I could have identified myself as her daughter and offered public criticism. I might have gotten attention for it, might have increased my follower count. But I didn’t, in part because I was afraid of hurting her.
I did want to write about growing disillusioned with mainstream feminism and the ways in which my mother’s representation of Ailes led me to rethink and question my own complicity in a deeply broken system, but I wanted to do it in a nuanced, considerate way, and social media doesn’t allow for or encourage much of that. So I wrote a book, and I tried to write with more vulnerability, empathy, and understanding than I’d been capable of as a teenager. I still worry about upsetting my mother. I’m her daughter, and I love her. But she understands and accepts that writing is the only way I know how to process life, and that means a lot to me.
In Claudia Conway, I see a Gen-Z alter-ego, a teenager I might have been. In certain moments, I’ve found myself envying her candid, unvarnished honesty. But mostly, I find myself worried for and about her and the ways her cries for help are being co-opted and ignored by attempts to frame her as a whistleblower hero.
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“I still worry about upsetting my mother. I’m her daughter, and I love her. But she understands and accepts that writing is the only way I know how to process life, and that means a lot to me.”
In a black and white video posted on August 21, Claudia writes, in scattered text superimposed on a video of herself: You may know that my mom’s Kellyanne Conway but did you know... She reveals that she has severe depression, that she has bad PTSD from childhood trauma and abuse, that she doesn’t feel safe at home, that the hate from other social media users gets to her, that she wants a private life, that she misses her grandma, that it’s hard for her to feel drunk or high because she’s already so dissociated from reality, that she hates the attention, that she hates social media but it’s the only place she feels safe, that she hates hookups and just wants love.
Things have not, I would venture to guess based on the ensuing content, gotten much better for Claudia since then, though she has certainly accrued fame and TikTok followers. Some of her videos feature her scantily clad and heavily made-up, dancing and lip-synching to explicit lyrics. Other videos concern her leftist politics, and others her emotional struggles. A number of videos feature her crying, dark eye makeup running down her cheeks.
She has expressed frustration with the media’s coverage of her. During a recent livestream, much of which she conducted in the playground language of gibberish, presumably to avoid being overheard by her mother, she learned from a viewer’s comment that she was trending on Twitter and asked “Why? Why am I trending?”
She had, just half-an-hour earlier, posted a triptych of since-deleted videos in which an off-screen Kellyanne dictates what Claudia should say to clarify that Kellyanne did not conceal a positive Covid test from her daughter, as Claudia previously claimed, but rather that she took three tests, the first of which came out negative, the latter two positive.
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Last week, Claudia posted screenshots of a statement in which she expressed regret at the controversy wrought by her recent videos and comments. “I am appalled at the mainstream media’s efforts to exploit a teenage girl, which is negatively affecting my mental health,” the statement reads. It concludes with a bolded paragraph explaining that she is quarantining with her mother and they are doing everything they can to stay healthy. “We are going to enjoy our quarantine together away from social media,” she writes. The comments section is filled with speculation about whether this is a veiled cry for help, whether her mother forced her to post it, whether she even wrote the statement herself.
Though Claudia has periodically announced intended social media breaks before, she’s never stayed off for long. Maybe this time, for the sake of her mental health, she will. But that seems unlikely, and it’s hard to imagine recuperating from coronavirus in isolation with the mother she has accused of abuse and sought emancipation from as a mental-health boosting experience to enjoy.
The media and Twitterverse are divided about how to discuss Claudia. Some extoll her as a hero, a whistleblower for our times. Others advocate for her right to privacy as a minor, even as she continues to post public videos. Some have likened her to a YA novel protagonist, which I find to be an interesting and useful comparison.
“I never feel as old as I do when I scroll through TikTok and watch teenagers share their darkest secrets in the form of short video clips. How do they have the guts to do that, I wonder, though I know the answer, at least in part. It’s because they’re not alone...”
There is an immediacy to YA novels, as compared to novels written about teenagers for an adult audience. Whatever’s happening is happening now; this is not a case of a narrator looking back on the past with the wisdom of hindsight and experience. There is great urgency and the stakes could not feel higher, regardless of whether it’s a political dystopia or high school rom-com. Perspective is limited. That’s what being a teenager feels like.
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It’s also what living through 2020 feels like. Every day brings new, previously unimaginable horrors. Claudia Conway is crying out for help, and so is our country. Thanks to her political parentage, these two things, which should be separate, are now very much intertwined.
I never feel as old as I do when I scroll through TikTok and watch teenagers share their darkest secrets in the form of short video clips. How do they have the guts to do that, I wonder, though I know the answer, at least in part. It’s because they’re not alone, because they are modelling this kind of hyper-vulnerability for each other. Social norms have changed.
After I wrote my first book, I put a lot of pressure on myself to write another one quickly, before I aged out of precociousness. I’m extremely grateful to have had teachers who pushed back against that and urged me to take my time, to learn and grow first as both a person and a writer.
It’s boring and obvious to say our perspective changes as we get older. Generally speaking, what felt absolutely urgent at 15 seems less so at 30.
But in this specific moment, we may have an exception. This country is a powder keg. Every day, we wake up and log on and brace for new explosions.
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We can’t afford to sit back and reflect, to take time to consider from all angles what we want to express to the world and how. I hope we’ll have time for that in the future. But right now, the house is burning down, and the Earth is burning up. Claudia Conway’s personal and family implosion is a microcosm of what’s happening in America. She should not be burdened with the role of The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen, but her despair and fury and rejection of civility politics should be a lesson to us all.
Isabel Kaplan is a writer from Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter at @isabelkaplan. This article first appeared on HuffPost Personal.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Black Women Get Left Out Of Baby Loss Narratives. So I’m Telling My Story

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Following three difficult years of infertility and treatments, we experienced our first pregnancy loss in 2016. Losing our baby after everything we had endured to achieve a pregnancy was one of the most challenging experiences my husband and I have ever faced together.
To avoid any extra pressure or unwarranted advice, we decided to not tell anyone outside our immediate families. As we tried to come to terms with our loss and grieved together, I became extremely isolated, spending endless hours looking for information and guidance on how to deal with my overwhelming sadness and loneliness.
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But each time I read a new article, each time I clicked on a new website, each time I was reminded how common miscarriages were, each time I was assured that “I wasn’t alone”, for some reason I couldn’t relate to the messaging. The only place I could see someone who looked like me were stock photos of Black nurses comforting Caucasian couples.
This left me feeling like baby loss in the Black community somehow didn’t deserve to be included, as if our grief didn’t exist. How come, if baby loss is indeed experienced by so many and doesn’t discriminate, the stories of loss we see and hear are so focused on white women and white couples? Perhaps the ‘Strong Black Woman’ archetype was to blame, and we are meant to just move on and go get pregnant again.
“How come, if baby loss is indeed experienced by so many and doesn’t discriminate, the stories of loss we see and hear are so focused on white women and white couples?”
Years later, after we welcomed our baby boy through a second successful IVF cycle, something we would have never imagined happened: I fell pregnant naturally. Visiting my GP to get an opinion on some bleeding and one-sided pain, my doctor said he wasn’t concerned. If the symptoms I was experiencing were due to something like an ectopic pregnancy, he said, the pain I’d be experiencing would be so bad I wouldn’t even be sitting here right now.
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I felt gaslighted, and I felt mocked. Just because I didn’t look how I ‘should’ have felt, I wasn’t to be taken seriously? Unsatisfied, I sought another opinion, and was reassured to be greeted by the smile of a female doctor, who also happened to be Black. On any other day, her skin colour wouldn’t have meant more than the novelty of seeing a ‘familiar’ face. However, this time, my life depended on her.
I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God as she explained to me she would booked me in for an ‘early reassurance scan’ the next day. As I left the room, I remember her saying: “I have only just realised that this pregnancy was conceived naturally following your history with IVF, I can only imagine how much you want this baby. I pray everything will get resolved. This is truly a miracle”. I felt so safe under her care. It made a big difference not having to exaggerate my symptoms just to be taken seriously. Sadly, however, we lost that baby due to a misdiagnosed ruptured ectopic pregnancy in my left fallopian tube.
Once again, I felt silenced and excluded after losing my baby. This time, it was almost as if my loss didn’t matter as much because I had already been honoured with the title of ‘mummy’. I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone without potentially being judged, which further exacerbated my feelings of sadness, hopelessness and shame at losing a pregnancy.
“My want to share my story is only driven by a passion to help others recognise that we are all more than that ‘one in four’.”
At this point I didn’t want to hear insensitive comments like ‘at least you have your son, or ‘at least you know you can get pregnant naturally’. These insensitive comments further reinforced how much importance is placed on a woman’s fertility, all while I tried to navigate my feelings of being grateful for my living child, yet grieved the bigger family we had planned to be. I felt robbed of my voice and agency to grieve the way I felt was best for me.
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I’m not talking about my experiences of baby loss as a Black woman to compete, or to compare mine to others’ experiences. My want to share my story is only driven by a passion to help others recognise that we are all more than that ‘one in four’, that our shared experiences of loss go way beyond a simple number, and that our unique personal, cultural and social influences mean we all experience loss differently.
That’s why I set up femelanin.org, an organisation that provides a safe space for Black women to share and learn about their intersectional reproductive health issues such as infertility, baby loss and gynaecological diseases. In sharing my story, I want to empower other marginalised voices to talk about their experiences in the hope that it will allow all of us who have lost a baby to feel included, and to feel our grief be acknowledged.
Vanessa Haye is a project manager, writer and founder of femelanin.org. Follow her on Twitter at @itsvanessahaye


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--7 Weird And Wonderful Hotel Rooms For Truly Unusual Travel

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If 2020 has made you miss the early noughties, you might want to take a trip to Margate in Kent. The Libertines have recently made the move from music makers to hoteliers, opening The Albion Rooms right by the seaside.
The hotel itself isn’t all that unusual, but the band say they’re “equal parts delighted and gobsmacked” they’re venturing into the hotel business – as are we.
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Jason Knott
The grand opening got us thinking about other unusual hotel rooms that have caught our attention, both in the UK and abroad.
It isn’t easy to visit them all right now with Covid-19 travel restrictions in place, but it’s fun to dream (or shriek in disgust, depending on your view). Here are just a few of the old and new, weird and wonderful options out there.
A sickly sweet stay
Club Med Club Med
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Club Med, which runs the La Rosiere ski resort in the French Alps, has launched a chocolate orange-themed room for winter 2020 – and we wouldn’t recommend looking at the colour scheme with a hangover.
On top of bright orange walls and ceiling, plus a segment headboard, the room offers chocolate orange-scented toilet roll and a stocking filled with chocolatey treats.
When the mini bar takes over
Brewdog
In 2018 BrewDog launched The DogHouse Hotel in Ohio, calling it “the world’s first craft beer hotel, where you can wake up inside a brewery”. The hotel includes draft beer on tap in each room.
Since then, the company has expanded its empire, opening mini hotels named The Kennels in Aberdeen and Ohio, with others set to follow in Paris, Manchester, Berlin and London.
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At first glance The Kennels offer pretty standard hotel rooms, but you’ll be given a welcome craft beer at check-in and find a shower fridge filled with beer in each bathroom.
Have a (big) cat nap
Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve in Kent works with the Aspinall Foundation animal conservation charity to bring guests an “immersive” animal experience.
Their most exclusive hotel room is the Lion Lodge, which is apparently “the first of its kind worldwide”. The lodge is set within the lion’s spacious habitat, so they may or may not visit the window.
An interesting stop
Bertram's Hotel /Booking.com
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This one is technically more of an apartment than hotel, but who are we to argue with the name? Bertram’s Hotel – named after the Agatha Christie novel – is a converted bus-turned-holiday-home situated on the North Devon coast.
Visitors should expect 1950s decor, plus company in the form of the five grazing alpacas who live in the field.
Blink and you’ll miss it
TreeHotel
TreeHotel provides a series of rooms hidden amongst the the pine forest of Northern Sweden. Each room has a different name and design, but you might not even notice The Mirrorcube.
The room is surrounded by mirrored walls which both reflect and blend in with the surroundings, giving the room the illusion of invisibility. In reality, it sleeps two guests and has a bathroom within.
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Sleep with the fishes
Atlantis The Palm in Dubai is home to the world-famous “underwater suites”, which gained notoriety after Khloe Kardashian posted a photo from her stay.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--The Most WTF Christmas Food Launches Of 2020 (So Far)

HuffPost may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Prices and availability subject to change.
It’s only 72 days until Christmas! And while the holiday season isn’t going to look quite the same in a year of coronavirus, it’s definitely not cancelled.
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However, we could all use some early cheer right now. So, what better way to kick off festivities than seeing what novelty food items retailers are offering up.
From some, erm, unique flavour combos to some truly innovative seasonal snacks, brace yourselves, because the holidays are coming – and here’s what you could be scoffing down soon.
1. McVitie’s Christmas Pudding Biscuits
McVitie's McVitie's Christmas Pudding Biscuits
Had enough of dunking plain old chocolate biccies in your tea? Well, now you’re in luck. The good people at McVitie’s heard your biscuit woes and they’re bringing out some new festive seasonal flavours. Dash through the snow to be one of the first to try the Gingerbread or Christmas pudding varieties. Expect all the choccy goodness of the unbeatable OG digestive, but with the additional flavour of the nation’s favourite festive pud. Someone pop the kettle on, will ya?
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Available in Asda, Morrisons, Nisa, Co-op, and Spar stores across the UK at £1.50 a packet.
2. Brussels Sprout Vodka
Nelson's Nelson's Brussels Sprout Vodka
Christmas was never all fun and games. Nobody actually enjoys being forced to eat a sprout, but it’s a rite of festive passage. The humble veg – small, green, smells of rotten egg when over-boiled – is unfailingly the most divisive item on any Christmas menu. Luckily, Nelson’s Distillery have bottled that mini-cabbage flavour into Brussels Sprout vodka form. This love-it or hate-it seasonal green tipple is only around for a short time only, so get it while you can.
Available from Nelson’s Distillery at £25.
3. Sainsbury’s Pigs in Blankets Flavour Noodles
Sainsbury's Sainsbury's Pigs In Blankets Flavour Noodles
Some (mad or excellent, we can’t decide) genius from the research and development team at Sainsbury’s has plucked the best item from the Christmas menu and created pigs in blanket-flavoured instant noodles. Slurp up the taste of Christmas without the usual effort. Imagine your fave tiny herby sausages wrapped in smoky bacon, but you’re actually eating slippery noodles. Oh, and it’s vegetarian too – talk about a mindfuck. Ideal for that post-Zoom Christmas party hangover cure.
Available in Sainsbury’s stores and online available now at £1.
4. Christmas Tree Colin The Caterpillar
Marks & Spencer Marks & Spencer Christmas Colin the Caterpillar Cake
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Everyone’s favourite caterpillar has undergone a festive makeover, complete with Santa hat, edible decorations, and cute little red booties. This seasonal Colin combines the classic chocolate sponge roll with chocolate buttercream covered in delicious milk chocolate. If even the office go-to log-shaped sponge roll can be bothered to dress up for the Christmas party season, then you really have no excuse. Even if we have nowhere to go.
Available in M&S stores and online for £10.
5. Aldi’s Giant Ferrero Rocher
Aldi Aldi’s Giant Ferroro Rocher
Picture the scene. Christmas day. Crackers have been pulled, bad jokes told, that novelty miniature cheese grater pocketed like you don’t have a proper-sized one, and everyone is wearing multicoloured paper hats. You’ve had the most delicious roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings and your chosen six family members (or friends). You couldn’t possibly eat another bite as you loosen a few notches on your belt. Dessert? No, you’re so full you might explode. Then suddenly you see it in all its chocolate spherical glory.
Aldi’s giant Ferrero Rocher: a chocolate praline dome, filled with milk chocolate and hazelnut mousse, milk chocolate feuilletine, and a cocoa sponge cake, encased in a hard chocolate and hazelnut shell. It’s like the classic gold-wrapped version but 10 times better (and bigger). This is what the true meaning of Christmas is about. Christmas is saved and all is right in the world again.
Available in Aldi stores from October 26 as a limited edition for £4.99.
6. Fudgeina Advent Calendar
Fudgeina Fudgeina Advent Calendar
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Thought 2020 couldn’t get any weirder? Well, think again. Enter: an advent calendar filled with edible chocolate vulvas. Open the door to 24-mini ‘fudgeinas’, which come (ahem) in milk, white and dark Belgian chocolate, and, yes, are shaped like private parts. Countdown to Christmas by eating out chocolate vulva every day in December. Because, why not?
Available at Fudgeina.com for £24.99
7. Haribo Starmixmas
Haribo Haribo Starmixmas
The kids and grown-ups love it so, but would you love it so if the happy world of Haribo was Christmas-fied? Starmixmas are the same gummy sweets found in a classic bag of Starmix, but the only difference is all-new Christmas flavours. Expect cherry trifle heart, gingerbread bears, eggnog eggs, apple strudel bottles, and cherry and eggnog crumble rings. There are people out there in the world who are trying to screw with our minds – and we’re not sure if we can handle it.
Available wherever you buy your sweets.
8. Roast Potato Crisps
Co-Op Co-Op Roast Potato Crisps
Ever looked at golden crispy roast potatoes and thought ‘I wonder these would taste like as crisps?’ well, wonder no more because Co-Op has done just that. Their seasonal festive roast potato crisps are... How do we put it politely? Well, they’re already made from potato? Does this mean they’re potato-flavoured potatoes – or do we smell a tactical marketing ploy to upsell the humble spud?
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Apparently, there is more to these double carb-on-carb action hand-cooked Herefordshire potato crisps – they’re seasoned with Cornish sea salt, rosemary, roasted garlic, and black pepper. So, essentially your standard *fancy* flavoured posh crisp.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Marcus Rashford Launches Commons Petition For Free School Meals Over October Half-Term And Christmas

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England footballer Marcus Rashford has launched a parliamentary petition calling on Boris Johnson to expand free school meal vouchers for millions of poor children in England over the October half-term and Christmas.
Supported by 20 charities and key figures in the food industry, the Manchester United striker also called for the provision of free meals to all households on Universal Credit, plus the extension of food vouchers to all low income pregnant women and pre-school youngsters.
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The footballer, who was awarded an MBE last week for his role in helping deprived children, stepped up the pressure on the prime minister as new data released by the Food Foundation revealed that 1.4 million 8-17 year olds visited foodbanks over the summer holidays.
Meanwhile, the Welsh Government announced on Thursday that it has guaranteed free school meal provision for all school holidays up to and including Easter 2021, thanks to an extra £11m in funding.
Following a viral campaign in July, Rashford forced the government into a dramatic U-turn to extend free school meal vouchers to cover the summer, but now says that a wider strategy is needed.
His new petition, which campaigners hope will force MPs to debate the issue if it passes the 100,000 mark, calls for the expansion of free school meals to every child from a household on Universal Credit or equivalent, reaching an additional 1.5million under-17s.
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Remember when I said I was going to need your help...
For the millions who do not have the platform to be heard.
Let's stand as a 'United' Kingdom to #endchildfoodpoverty
Sign the petition today: https://t.co/FvvpO6JYWX — Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) October 15, 2020
It further calls for the expansion of holiday food to support all children on free school meals, reaching an additional 1.1million children, as well as an increase in the value of the Healthy Start vouchers to £4.25 per week and given to all on Universal Credit.
Rashford, who praised the Welsh government, said: “For too long this conversation has been delayed. Child food poverty in the UK is not a result of Covid-19. We must act with urgency to stabilise the households of our vulnerable children.
“In 2020, no child in the UK should be going to bed hungry, nor should they be sat in classrooms concerned about how their younger siblings are going to eat that day, or how they are going to access food come the holidays.
“The school holidays used to be a highlight of the year for children. Today, it is met with anxiety from those as young as 7-years old.”
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“Today, millions of children are finding themselves in the most vulnerable of environments and are beginning to question what it really means to be British. I’m calling on you all today to help me prove to them that being British is something to be proud of.”
Emma Thompson, ambassador of the Children’s Right2Food Campaign, added: “In the sixth richest economy in the world these figures speak for themselves. There is absolutely no need for any child to go hungry in the UK.”
Anna Taylor, executive director of Food Foundation said: “School holidays are a financial pressure point which many families just can’t afford at the moment. Hunger does not take a holiday.
“The government needs to put in place a permanent solution to school holiday hunger While children have been spared the virus, they have not been spared it’s economic impacts and we must act to protect them.”
Rashford has secured the backing of the Co-Op supermarket chain, Deliveroo and Kraft Heinz.
Andrew Forsey, national director of Feeding Britain, said: “Holiday clubs providing nutritious meals, enriching activities, and childcare this year proved themselves to be flexible, adaptable, and robust enough to deliver high-quality services for children and their families. But their coverage remains patchy.
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“A multi-year funding settlement is required so that clubs can offer this provision across the whole of England.”
Saffron, a 15 year-old from Portsmouth, said: “After the U-turn this summer, it felt like the government finally understood that children can’t be left to go hungry during the holidays.
“But now we’re back in the same position of having to ask for help. Covid-19 isn’t going away, and even more families are struggling. Children need support during the holidays now more than ever.”
A government spokesperson defended the provision given so far but refused to say if meals would be extended in the half term holiday.
“We have taken substantial action to make sure children and families do not go hungry by extending free school meals when schools closed, increasing welfare support by £9.3bn, and giving councils £63 million to provide emergency support to families for food and other essentials.
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“We also appreciate it has been a challenging time for families, which is why we have increased the safety net available to them with income protection schemes, mortgage holidays and support for renters.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Will Boris Johnson’s Northern Exposure On Covid Cost Him Dear At The Next Election?

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The ‘I, Sage’ is coming, The Sun’s zooming in/ Lockdown expected, the excuses are growing thin.
A new Covid error, but he has no fear/ ’Cause Boris is drowning. He lives by the river.
For many local leaders in the north dealing with coronavirus, when “London’s calling” it’s invariably with bad news. So it was no surprise that The Clash (alright, I’ll stop now) of The Day came when Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson squared up in PMQs over who was tough enough to stem the tide of the virus – and whether a national response was needed.
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After weeks of being derided as ‘Captain Hindsight’, Starmer seized on the Sage recommendation of a nationwide “circuit break” to claim that the PM was the one who was “behind the curve again”. The foresight saga, of which leader can read the future best, had begun in earnest and it’s a story which may lack a happy ending for Johnson.
Using the bombshell Sage documents as both a weapon and a shield, Starmer was merciless in claiming the PM had rejected independent scientific advice on how best to halt more deaths this winter. Just as damaging, the boffins had concluded his test-and-trace system was having a “marginal” impact. Like the good lawyer he is, Starmer picked up on the Sage small print too, that far from improving, the NHS Test and Trace system was likely to “further decline in the future”.
A clearly irritated Johnson (irritability is now the punch-drunk PM’s default mode in PMQs), was reduced in the end to admitting that yes, a “circuit break” was indeed one option. “I rule out nothing,” he said, before quickly stressing that “we are going to turn around” the crisis “with the local, the regional approach”.
“Will he get on to his Labour friends in those parts of the north of England whom we want to work with to put those very stringent measures in place?” Johnson asked. But it sounded like an admission that mayors like Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham are digging in to stop Whitehall from putting their area into the “Very High Risk” category.
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It seems the government wants Burnham’s region in the top tier as early as Thursday, though the lack of financial support is a huge sticking point. But just as importantly, Burnham has been saying that the hospitalisation rates in Greater Manchester while rising are nowhere near as bad as Liverpool City Region. This is indeed the same argument used in the north east.
Amid increasing bitterness, No10 knows there are serious political dangers in imposing London’s will on restless regions that have suffered lockdowns for months with no impact on their Covid rates. In Merseyside, a pub renamed itself “The Three Bellends”, complete with a sign ridiculing Johnson, health secretary Matt Hancock, and the PM’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings.
Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and Dominic Cummings pictured on a sign outside the James Atherton Pub in New Brighton which has been re-named The Three Bellends. Christopher Furlong via Getty Images
Now, contrary to the perceptions of some southern journalists, the “Red Wall/Blue Wall” is not the same as “the north west”, let alone “the north”. Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester are still overwhelmingly Labour heartlands, apart from a handful of seats in Bury, Bolton and Middleton. Liverpool will never love Johnson, and neither will many Mancs.
But with Lancashire also reportedly in the firing line for “Very High Risk” treatment, there are plenty of marginal Tory seats in the North West that win or lose general elections. In fact, perhaps the most ominous warning for the PM this week came on Times Radio from Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry.
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“I think the government has a very small window of opportunity now to communicate to the people of the North, to reset the relationship that’s been deeply damaged by a really confusing picture over the last couple of months,” he said. Crucially, Berry has been one of Johnson’s closest political friends (and he has very few real ones) over the past decade. His constituency is a true bellwether seat, blue under Thatcher and Cameron, red under Blair.
In the “Blue Wall” heartlands of the north east, patience with the PM and his top team is not limitless either. On our Commons People podcast recently, Sedgefield MP Paul Howell said the “vast majority” of people know that “if Dominic Cummings jumped over a cliff they wouldn’t follow him”. “Some of them might push him, but that’s a different story completely,” he added.
In the short term, Johnson is clearly hoping he can somehow get to October 26, when most schools start a week of half term, with his tiered structure being given a chance to work over the next 12 days. If hospitalisations keep rising, he may have to follow Starmer’s lead by then.
But don’t rule out the PM playing hardball, shaming northern leaders into tougher lockdowns if their local NHS looks like being overwhelmed. He could do a pre-Christmas circuit break (with a university student lockdown too) instead of half-term, but risks more lives potentially lost in holding out so long.
Over the longer term, the damage to the PM’s reputation for competence may be so severe that he sets back the Tories’ chances a generation in northern seats. For many, Brexit was the gateway drug to breaking with Labour and voting Conservative. The pain of withdrawal – of thinking Thatcherite, London-centric disdain for the north is back with a vengeance – may be so intense that they never get hooked again.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Barron Trump Had Covid-19, First Lady Melania Trump Says

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US president Donald Trump’s son Barron Trump had coronavirus, according to his mother, first lady Melania Trump.
In a lengthy statement on Wednesday on the White House website, Melania Trump detailled how Barron Trump tested positive for coronavirus after she and Donald Trump both had earlier this month. He “exhibited no symptoms”, she said, and has since tested negative.
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The president and Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus two weeks ago, and Donald Trump spent three days hospitalised at Walter Reed medical centre before returning to the White House. On Monday, the White House said the president had tested negative for the virus. In Wednesday’s statement, Melania Trump said she’s also tested negative.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the threat of coronavirus, and continued to do so after his diagnosis, calling it a “blessing from God” that he was infected and telling Americans “don’t be afraid” of the virus.
Donald Trump has also repeatedly spread misinformation about the virus’s threat to children, saying falsely that children are unlikely to catch it or are “almost immune” (they are not).
Hundreds of thousands of children in the US have gotten coronavirus this year.
Over two dozen people surrounding Donald Trump and the White House have tested positive for the virus in the last 10 days. Several of them — including Donald Trump, Melania Trump and two Republican senators — attended the September 26 Rose Garden event for Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, where guests flouted public health guidance by not wearing masks or social distancing.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--'Sack Serco': Government Told To Halt Test And Trace Outsourcing 'Goldrush'

Baroness Dido Harding during a media briefing in Downing Street, London. PA
Ministers “obsessed” with outsourcing have been urged to “sack Serco” and hand Covid-19 test and trace work to local public health teams.
Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves was among many MPs to savage the government’s “failing” contact tracing regime, which is largely managed by Serco and other private firms.
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Amid growing criticism of test and trace, Reeves accused the government of “murky” subcontracting as she urged Boris Johnson to “change course” from the “failed model of outsourcing”.
The frontbencher said Johnson’s “world beating” testing regime is “barely functioning”, adding: “It’s failing to reach people who have come into contact with someone with the virus, it’s not getting information to local councils who need need to act on it and it’s wasting hundreds of millions of pounds worth of taxpayers’ money that could be spent on a local response using local expertise.”
The latest figures for NHS Test and Trace showed that 71.6% of close contacts of Covid cases were reached.
It means that for the 14th week running, the figure is below the 80% figure that the government’s scientific advisers have said is needed to make the entire policy viable.
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There have also been many reports of chaos on the ground, with families forced to travel for hours for a check, and more than 16,000 lab-confirmed cases logged almost a week late.
Labour shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Rachel Reeves. TOLGA AKMEN via Getty Images
Reeves argued of Serco’s £45m to deliver contact tracing: “Serco didn’t bid for the contact tracing contract, they were handed it on a plate with no competition, no rigour and no transparency.”
To the outsourcing companies, Reeves said, “this is a goldrush” the Labour shadow minister added, referring to “murky subcontracting” by the government.
She added: “I challenge the minister today to name all of Serco’s subcontractors and publish details on how much they have been paid and for what….I fear that the more we know about what is happening in contract tracing under the bonnet, the worse that it gets.”
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She also claimed there was “a cosiness between the Conservative government and these outsourcing companies”. The former chief lobbyist of Serco – which has a £45m contract for test and trace – is Tory MP Edward Argar, who is now serving as a health minister.
The shadow minister concluded: “My message today is simple. Sack Serco and give those resources to local councils.”
Labour’s Dan Carden, who represents Liverpool Walton, meanwhile, claimed the “cronyism” of the NHS Test and Trace scheme is well documented.
He told MPs: “Conservative Baroness and business executive Baroness Harding appointed as the head of test and trace, Serco’s CEO the brother of a former Tory MP and Tory MPs on the boards of companies winning contracts.
“And if you’ve got a problem with any of this, well why not take it up with the government’s anti-corruption champion – Dido Harding’s husband and a Tory MP.
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“The whole thing stinks.”
In further criticism of the government’s approach, reports have emerged in recent days that Boston Consulting Group are being paid day rates of around £7,000 to contact trace.
Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson said: “Just imagine how far that money would go if it was given to local authorities.
“They are paying these consultants the weekly equivalent of what a nurse earns in a year. I don’t have an ideological issue with the private sector, but as (Labour MP Clive Betts) said, it is about having the right expertise in the right place.”
Responding for the government, health minister Jo Churchill admitted the government’s testing and tracing efforts have not “always gone seamlessly”.
She said: “Today’s motion refers to local contact tracing and that has in fact been getting rolled out to local authorities across the country since August of this year.
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“Has it always gone seamlessly? Has it always been perfect? I am the first at this despatch box to always say: ‘nothing ever does ladies and gentlemen’.”
She also said that Serco and other private companies such as Sitel were awarded the contract through a “fair and open competition”.
She added: “Test and trace was stood up at incredible speed and has developed at scale and pace.
“As you would expect a government to do it responded at pace. But I will just put on record, the honourable lady mentioned Serco on more than one occasion.
“As she will well know, having reacted to the changing situation at pace, Serco and Sitel went through a full tendering process to become one of the suppliers to the government so that they can be drawn down on at short notice.”
A Survation survey, shared exclusively with HuffPost UK, has shown 74% want local public health teams, rather than Serco and Sitel, to run NHS Test and Trace.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Six Unanswered Questions About Belly Mujinga’s Death As Pressure Mounts For An Inquest

1. Belly’s family claim she told them she had been spat at, and a police officer is quoted in the film saying “we are in no doubt something has happened there”. Has the spitting allegation been properly and fully examined?
2. Why was Belly allowed to work on the station concourse given she had an underlying serious medical condition (sarcoidosis) which affected her breathing? She was only eventually authorised to shield after her doctor telephoned her employers after the incident.
3. Why did GTR produce two different versions of its internal investigation findings – with only one showing that Belly’s condition had led to throat surgery and required regular medical check-ups?
4. When GTR began their own investigation why did the company not call in the police? It was seven weeks after the incident before BTP were alerted, and only after our union issued a press release about Belly’s death.
5. How can the police be sure the man interviewed about the incident did not have, or had not had, the virus given that the negative antibody test he’d had at that time may have been unreliable? This point is highlighted in the programme by both a Professor of microbiology and a Professor of clinical immunology. Indeed, Jon Deeks, Professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham, told the BBC: “The police have made a mistake here with the interpretation of that evidence.”
6. Panorama also highlighted conflicting reports about whether the man told Belly and her colleague that he “had the virus”. As Martin Forde QC told the programme: “I feel there are sufficient doubts and conflicts around the facts of this case to justify an investigation.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Theresa May Is Paying Herself Nearly £300 An Hour For Making Speeches

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Theresa May is paying herself nearly £300 an hour for making speeches.
The former prime minister pockets £85,000 a year from her own company, the Office of Theresa May, for around 24 hours’ work a month on speaking engagements – which works out at more than £295 an hour.
She earned more than £180,000 for her business through speaking engagements abroad last month, the Commons register of MPs’ interests reveals.
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The company set up by May was paid £136,000 for a speech at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, South Korea, on September 18
The engagement was reportedly the reason why she missed a key vote on the government’s law-breaking Internal Market Bill two days earlier, which gives MPs the power to renege on key aspects of Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement.
May repeatedly spoke out against the legislation but failed to actually vote on it either way during its passage through the Commons.
The day before the South Korea event, May’s business also received £46,750 for a virtual speech for the Telmex Foundation in Mexico.
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Her entry in the register says: “From 1 September 2020 until further notice the Office of Theresa May Ltd pays me £85,000 a year for speaking engagements, with an expected commitment of 24 hours a month.”
The rest of the cash she makes from speaking engagements is used to pay employees, maintain May’s involvement in public life and to support her charitable work, according to the register.
May was also gifted use of Heathrow Airport’s Windsor suite on September 14 and 18, worth £4,200 on each occasion.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Pub Renames Itself 'The Three Bellends' In Protest Against Liverpool Lockdown

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A Merseyside pub has temporarily renamed itself “The Three Bellends” in protest against the government’s decision to place Liverpool under strict restrictions.
The James Atherton in New Brighton has replaced its crest from a portrait of its namesake – the founder of New Brighton – to a picture of prime minister Boris Johnson, health secretary Matt Hancock, and the PM’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings, pictured quite literally with bells on their heads.
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A Merseyside pub has temporarily renamed itself ‘The Three Bellends’ in protest against the government. HuffPost UK
Daniel Davies, chief executive of pub owners Rockpoint Leisure, said the new name “really reflects the mood of the nation” and was chosen on Tuesday when he was forced to tell his staff the pub would have to close.
“It really tears the heart up,” he told HuffPost UK. “It just really, really infuriated us and made us think: why are they doing this? All the evidence points against shutting down places like public houses.
“They’re bellends because Boris and co said they would invest a lot in the north when he got in – but they’ve done nothing for the north. They’re not being affected by this lockdown.”
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The decision to shut pubs earlier was “horrendously badly handled,” he said. “It only exacerbated the problem. The whole point of licensing is that people leave at different times, then suddenly at 10pm there was a huge surge of public transport and taxis with the amount of people leaving at the same time.”
He added the name change would stand for “as long as we have martial law – which is pretty much what we are in now”.
“What we will do is fight through this, but it’s absolutely devastating.”
Daniels said the name change would stand for “as long as we have martial law". HuffPost UK
The temporary rebrand has been met with approval by some locals.
“This is a reflection of how our communities are feeling right now,” local Jo Sally Marie Dunn told HuffPost UK.
“The people of Merseyside have suffered years of unnecessary cuts and austerity measures which have impacted on the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable people in our community. We have seen a rise in the use of food banks, homelessness and poverty.
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“It’s 2020, we are the fifth richest economy in the world, there is no reason why anyone should be suffering in this way.
“The most recent lockdown measures will be the final nail in the coffin for lots of local businesses and people have had enough and are fighting back.”
The new three-tier system of local restrictions that came into place on Wednesday have seen all areas of England put into one of three categories labelled as medium, high or very high risk.
The Liverpool region is the only area to be under the toughest rules. Pubs and bars which do not serve meals have been forced to close, and social mixing is banned indoors and in private gardens.
On Wednesday Liverpool’s mayor Steve Rotherham warned Merseyside was at a “dangerous moment” and said the city region could be “overrun with sickness and death” if people do not abide by Johnson’s measures.
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“I realise that people are frustrated with the new measures,” he said at a joint virtual conference with Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham.
“No one wants to curtail the freedoms or damage the economy or the sectors in our city region and cause hardship for anyone.
“But we have tier 3 restrictions in place from today and they are the law.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Tories 'Showed Contempt' For Public By Deserting Commons During Covid Debate, Says Labour

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Labour has hit out after Tory backbenchers deserted the House of Commons during a debate on extra cash support for workers coping with coronavirus.
Not a single Conservative MP other than one lone minister was present for sections of the Opposition Day debate, which was on state funding for northern areas suffering lockdown, replacements for furlough and new help for the self-employed and those facing eviction.
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Coronavirus social distancing means that no more than 50 MPs are allowed to attend the Commons chamber at one time and when they do they should be two metres apart.
But even with that restriction, it’s highly unusual for the Tories – who have an 80 seat majority – to abandon their benches totally.
Just minutes before the Labour debate on jobs and Covid, the Tory benches were as full as possible for prime minister’s question time.
Alex Davies-Jones, Labour MP for Pontypridd, took a snap of the situation on her phone.
She tweeted: “Appreciate there are social distancing guidelines in the chamber at the moment, but this is taking it a bit far! The Tory minister is sat alone in the Chamber right now. Just goes to show how little care the Tories have for seeking financial support for their constituents…”
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The empty House of Commons HuffPost UK
I appreciate there are social distancing guidelines in the chamber at the moment, but this is taking it a bit far!
The Tory Minister is sat alone in the Chamber right now.
Just goes to show how little care the Tories have for seeking financial support for their constituents... pic.twitter.com/uSsi0ugwGb — Alex Davies-Jones MP (@AlexDaviesJones) October 14, 2020
Normally during an Opposition Day debate, Tory backbenchers would be primed to make hostile interventions and to try to reflect their greater numbers. The Tories have 364 MPs to Labour’s mere 201.
Labour’s motion demanded greater support for the north of England, the Midlands, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as they deal with extra restrictions.
It added the job support scheme should be reformed to incentivise employers to keep staff on, fix “gaps” in support for the self-employed and extend the ban on evictions.
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Empty Tory benches during the debate HuffPost UK
Maximum Tory attendance earlier, during PMQs HuffPost UK
A Labour source said: “Millions of people are back under Covid restrictions because the government can’t get a grip on the virus.
“Yet half way through a vital debate on economic support for jobs and businesses the Tory benches were empty. They’re showing contempt for everyone who needs help to get through this crisis.”
Tory insiders said that part of the reason for the low attendance was that Labour motions were submitted late so fewer MPs were able to apply for the call lists.
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Under current rules, names of MPs who want to speak have to be submitted in advance. The former practice of spontaneously catching the speaker’s eye to speak has been suspended. Labour said its own MPs had no problem getting on the call list.
Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg led the return of MPs to the Commons after experiments with “hybrid” proceedings for debates and votes.
Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said on Wednesday that decisions over greater virtual participation lay in the government’s hands but he would back a return to more remote access.
Keir Starmer has called for fully remote working for parliament as part of his three-week “circuit breaker” to stem the rise in Covid cases.
Earlier, chancellor Rishi Sunak used the opening of the debate to attack Starmer’s plans.
“We can’t just let the virus take hold but nor can we blithely fall into another national spring-style lockdown as the party opposite now wants to do, rather than following our regional tiered and localised approach.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Billie Eilish Shares Video On 'Real Bodies' After Fans Defend Her Against Body-Shaming Tweets

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Billie Eilish had a subtle but powerful response to the online vitriol she’s been facing this week, sharing a video on “normalising real bodies” and a photo of herself.
The 18-year-old was body-shamed by a grown man earlier this week, who ridiculed a paparazzi photograph of her on Twitter. In the photo, she is wearing a form-fitting tank top and shorts, instead of her usual oversized looks. He wrote, “In 10 months Billie Eilish has developed a mid-30′s wine mom body.”
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In response to the comment, many of Billie’s fans chimed in to defend her and push back on the troll’s remarks:
body shaming a 18 year old girl must make you feel soooo confident and manly ‼‼ — bre (@BCB_G) October 13, 2020
i hate the internet so fucking much stop bodyshaming billie eilish freaks she looks gorgeous wtf is wrong with yall — internalized emophobia (@sorrowpansy) October 14, 2020
Billie Eilish is beautiful! PLEASE, do not body shame her, or anyone for that matter. Body shaming is not “news” or “gossip” it’s HARMFUL and UNACCEPTABLE. — Jessie Paege (@jessiepaege) October 14, 2020
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The Ocean Eyes singer didn’t engage directly with either her haters or her fans, instead taking a different route.
On Tuesday night, she shared a video of YouTuber Chizi Duru talking about how the need to “normalise real bodies” because “guts are normal” and “boobs sag.”
Eilish also shared a red-hued photograph of herself with the inquisitive caption “do you really wanna go back in time?”
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The five-time Grammy Award winner has long been outspoken against body-shaming and has explained that it’s the very reason she wears the baggy clothes she’s most known for.
In an advertisement last year for Calvin Klein, Billie explained that she wears oversized outfits because then “nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath.”
“Nobody can be like, ‘she’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she’s got a fat ass.’ No one can say any of that because they don’t know,” she explained.
Earlier this year, Billie debuted her short film, Not My Responsibility, in which she takes on body-shamers and trolls by asking them: “Do you know me? Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Would you like me to be quiet? Do my shoulders provoke you?”
“We make assumptions about people based on their size. We decide who they are. We decide what they’re worth,” she says in the film. “If I wear more, if I wear less — who decides what that makes me? What that means? Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--RuPaul's Drag Race UK Is Returning With A New Spin-Off, God Shave The Queens

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RuPaul’s Drag Race fans patiently awaiting the second UK series have been gifted a special treat to tide them over – a new spin-off.
The queens from the first British run will feature in fly-on-the-wall docu-series God Shave The Queens, following them on their UK tour last year.
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The BBC Three show picks up just a few days after The Vivienne was crowned the UK’s First Drag Race Superstar, with her fellow competitors reuniting to begin rehearsals for their jaunt.
RuPaul and the queens of Drag Race UK BBC
The BBC has said the series will give fans the chance to take a genuine look behind the curtain and get know queens including Baga Chipz, Divina DiCampo and Vinegar Strokes even more, with plenty of high jinks, sisterly camaraderie and good, old-fashioned shade.
RuPaul said in a statement: “I’m so delighted to send my first court of British queens out to the four corners of the realm - spreading their message of light, love and laughter, and sharing their sweet sensitive souls with the people.”
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Fiona Campbell, controller of BBC Three, added: “This series is a peek under the wigs to see what happens after the Drag Race curtain comes down. Our British Queens have gone down in RuPaul ‘herstory’ and this series is a reminder of why we loved them so much in series one and shows us what it takes to be at the top of the game.”
The Vivienne, Baga Chipz and Divina De Campo were the top three queens of the series BBC / World of Wonder / Guy Levy
The British version of the hit US reality competition launched last year, with a second run originally scheduled for the autumn.
However, like many other TV shows, it was thrown into chaos when production was shut down halfway through filming due to the coronavirus pandemic in March.
Speaking at the virtual Edinburgh TV Festival in August, Campbell revealed plans were afoot to get the rest of the series back on track, with hopes to complete filming before the end of the year.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Wales To Ban Visitors From Parts Of UK Worst Affected By Coronavirus

First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford speaks at a press conference at the Senedd in Cardiff, ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. PA
The Welsh Government is preparing to prevent people in areas of the UK with high levels of coronavirus from travelling to Wales, first minister Mark Drakeford has announced.
Drakeford said the action was being taken after Boris Johnson did not reply to two letters requesting he introduce the measure across the UK.
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Under regulations being prepared, people living in areas with high levels of coronavirus in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will not be able to travel to Wales.
The new restrictions are planned to come into force at 6pm on Friday.
Drakeford told the Welsh parliament on Wednesday that as Johnson had not replied: “I have therefore asked for the necessary work to be brought forward, which would allow for devolved powers to be used to prevent people from travelling into Wales from high-prevalence areas of the United Kingdom.
He said it was “important” to emphasise that it was not an issue regarding the border between Wales and England but a “matter of fairness”.
“We’ve already heard from the first minister of Scotland and she’s eager to support what we’re trying to do here. Now is the time for the prime minister to do the same thing,” Drakeford told the Senedd.
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“If he isn’t willing to do so then the timetable is for us to use the powers in Wales by the end of the week.”
It came as Johnson insisted he wanted to avoid the “misery” of another national lockdown and pressed leaders in northern England to accept tougher local coronavirus restrictions.
But scientists advising the UK government suggested that thousands of deaths could be prevented by a short national lockdown over half-term.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Liverpool Could Be 'Overrun With Sickness And Death', Warns Mayor

A coronavirus NHS billboard warns pedestrians at Liverpool central station in Liverpool, north west England on October 14, 2020, as new local lockdown measures come in to force to help stem a second wave of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. - The northwest city of Liverpool -- the only place put into the highest category -- PAUL ELLIS via Getty Images
Liverpool liver bird aerial shot taken in the sunset (3 shot bracket) Maurice Gunnery via Getty Images
Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram has said the area could be “overrun with sickness and death” if people do not stick to Boris Johnson’s “tier 3” local lockdown.
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The Labour politician warned Merseyside was at a “dangerous moment” as cases spike among the elderly, and hit out at “shameful” pictures of crowds partying in the city on Tuesday before pubs closed for up to six months.
Rotheram stressed that the restrictions had been “done to us, not with us” but that people must adhere to them.
He said, during a joint virtual press conference with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham on Wednesday: “I realise that people are frustrated with the new measures.
WATCH: Scenes in Liverpool city centre as people take to the streets just hours before the city region goes into Tier 3 lockdown restrictions.
I wonder how @MetroMayorSteve and @mayor_anderson feel about this. @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/mYUN9AsBGy — Inzamam Rashid (@inzyrashid) October 13, 2020
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“No one wants to curtail the freedoms or damage the economy or the sectors in our city region and cause hardship for anyone.
“But we have tier 3 restrictions in place from today and they are the law.
“We have to all abide by them, just as we did in March, and everybody needs to take it as seriously as we did back then. We had no choice but the alternative is to see our city region overrun with sickness and death.”
Tier 3 is the most stringent local lockdown and includes the closure of pubs, gyms and casinos.
Burnham said a national circuit-breaker would be a “better and fairer way” of tackling the pandemic, as he said Manchester would refuse to accept tier 3 without a furlough scheme that saw the state pay 80% of lost wages.
As it stands, the tier 3 scheme sees the Treasury pay up to two-thirds.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has called on the government to implement a national lockdown, something which Boris Johnson refused to rule out on Wednesday in the Commons.
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Burnham told a press conference: “We wouldn’t accept tier 3 on the current terms.
“I’ve been quite clear that [we need] an 80% furlough across all of the industries closed but also those industries facing an indirect major loss of trade, [and] a self-employment scheme at 80% for everyone – freelancers and others – who are affected by these proposals. It’s a proper business support scheme to stop businesses with cash flow problems going bust.
“Until anything like that is on the table we would not be able to accept the tier 3 proposal because they’re asking us to commit an act of self-harm and levelling down our economy.
“I think that [a circuit-breaker] is more likely to succeed for three reasons.
“It is being done nationally so there isn’t that opportunity for a neighbouring area to bring cases back into a tier 3 area.”
He said it would also be beneficial because regions would get national support, and it would bring cases down further to allow local areas to “reset” the Test and Trace programme.
“That’s why I’ve come down to the view that a circuit-breaker of the kind being proposed by the leader of the opposition would be a better and a fairer way of keeping the country together, not accentuating regional divides and actually give us a chance of facing this winter with more control of Test and Trace,” he said.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--19 Incredible Movie Transformations That Left These Hollywood Stars Unrecognisable

Bradley Cooper left film fans open-mouthed when they got their first glimpse of the actor in the upcoming Maestro film, with a transformation that left him unrecognisable
But he isn’t the first star to undergo a dramatic change to his appearance for the sake of a role.
Here’s our round-up of the most incredible transformations to ever grace the big screen...
Colin Farrell
Colin appeared as Oswald Cobblepot – otherwise known as the classic comic book villain The Penguin – in The Batman. The Irish star looked unrecognisable in heavy prosthetics on the set of the blockbuster in Liverpool.
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Colin Farrell during the filming of The Batman taking place in Liverpool. PA
Colin Farrell KGC-03/STAR MAX/IPx
Charlize Theron
Who knew makeup could turn one of Hollywood’s most beautiful people into someone so unrecognisable? When Charlize appeared on screen as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, we couldn’t believe our eyes. She went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress, an accolade we think was well deserved.
Remstar Films
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Charlize her Best Actress statue for her role in Monster. Getty Editorial
Jared Leto
Jared lost a ton of weight and bleached off his eyebrows to play the role of transgender AIDS sufferer Rayon in 2014′s Dallas Buyers Club. The role won the actor/singer a Golden Globe, as well as an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Instagram
Jared Leto holding his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Jared Leto (again)
Dallas Buyers Club wasn’t the first time Jared Leto went on a drastic diet for a film role. But back in 2007 he piled the weight ON to play John Lennon’s assassin Mark Chapman in Chapter 27.
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Jared Leto as Mark Chapman.
Jared Leto (AGAIN)
In House Of Gucci, Jared played Paolo Gucci, the former vice president and managing director of the fashion house Gucci – and once again, his transformation was dramatic to say the least, wearing heavy facial prosthetics and sporting a receding hairline.
Universal
Matthew McConaughey
It wasn’t just Jared Leto who underwent a radical transformation for Dallas Buyers Club. Matthew McConaughey lost almost a quarter of his own body weight to play AIDS sufferer Ron Woodfroof, which he won an Oscar for. Despite admitting a loss of sex drive and occasional irritability while he was dieting, the actor also claimed the calorie restriction led to increased mental agility: “What I lost down there, I gained up here,” he said at the time.
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Matthew McConaughey Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Mariah Carey
Mariah played a social worker in Precious, which was an awards season favourite following its release in 2010. And it’s not every day you see the diva totally made-under.
Lionsgate
Mariah looking like her usual (fabulous) self. Getty Editorial
50 Cent
The US rapper lost more than 50 pounds after liquid dieting and running on a treadmill three hours a day to play a celebrated football player battling cancer in 2011′s All Things Fall Apart.
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50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) SIPA USA/PA Images
Glenn Close
Glenn Close played a woman posing as a man in 2011′s Albert Nobbs. The actress truly disappeared into the role and earned herself a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Unfortunately, she didn’t take home the award, but she was up against some stiff competition (i.e. Meryl Streep).
E1 Films
Glenn walking the red carpet at the 84th annual Academy Awards show, where she was nominated for her role in Albert Nobbs. Getty Editorial
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Christian Bale
If there’s one actor in Hollywood who can be described as a chameleon, it’s Christian Bale. Whether he’s losing weight for his roles in The Machinist (below) and The Fighter, sporting a beer-belly and a comb-over in American Hustle, or bulking up and wearing prosthetics to play former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice (below), Christian disappears into every role he signs up for.
The actor lost 60lbs thanks to a diet of "coffee and apples" for his role in 2004's The Machinist.
Christian played former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice. Annapuma Pictures
Christian Bale holds his Oscar statue after winning for his role in The Fighter. Getty Editorial
Meryl Streep
Meryl has been nominated more than any actor ever for both the Oscars and the Golden Globes so we’re used to seeing her take on a variety of roles. In 2011, she transformed into ‘The Iron Lady’ herself, Margaret Thatcher, and gave another Oscar-winning performance.
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Alliance Films
Meryl showing off her award for Best Actress at the 84th annual Academy Awards. Getty Editorial
Matthew Fox
The Lost star shed 40 pounds to play Picasso, a professional assassin who participates in an underground ultimate-fighting ring, in 2012′s Alex Cross. Speaking about his weight-loss regime, the actor said: “It was circuit training until I wanted to puke.”
Summit Entertainment
Matthew Fox PA
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Nicole Kidman
After being fitted with a prosthetic nose for her lead role in 2002′s The Hours, Nicole Kidman managed to go largely unnoticed by the paparazzi, which was handy as she was going through a divorce from Tom Cruise at the time.
Nicole Kidman Yahoo Celebrity UK
Tom Cruise
Speaking of Tom, the actor was a sight to behold as fat, balding Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. And fair play to the usually impeccably turned out and (let’s face it) uber handsome star for agreeing to send himself up on screen.
Paramount
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Tom Cruise ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth is yet another actress who won an Oscar for a role in which her character posed as a male. Gwynnie jumped back and forth between male and female throughout Shakespeare In Love, which added to the impressive role, but it was the moustache that sold it for us.
Alliance Atlantis
Gwyneth holding her statue after winning Best Actress for Shakespeare In Love at the 71st Academy Awards. Getty Editorial
Jake Gyllenhaal
It took the American actor five months of intense diet and training to bulk up to play boxing champ Billy Hope in 2015′s Southpaw. This is all the more impressive as it came straight after Jake underwent dramatic weight loss to star in Nightcrawler.
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Jake Gyllenhaal Wanda Pictures
Jake Gyllenhaal Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP
Hilary Swank
Hilary transformed into Brandon Teena, the real-life transgender man the film was about, and won the Best Actress statue for her moving portrayal.
Fox Searchlight
Hilary posing with her Oscar after winning for her role in Boys Don't Cry. Getty Editorial
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Rooney Mara
Rooney’s turn as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was definitely a career booster for the young actress. It was her first major role and it landed her an Oscar nom for Best Actress. Once she chopped her hair, dyed it black, bleached her brows, and got some new piercings, it was hard not to notice Rooney.
Rooney Mara's turn as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's Sony Pictures
Rooney on the red carpet at the 84th Academy Awards show where she was nominated for Best Actress for her role in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Getty Editorial
Melissa Leo
When Melissa Leo appeared in The Fighter she looked like a completely different person - that over-bleached and puffy hair really made her character. The actress won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and was so surprised that she dropped the F-bomb during her acceptance speech.
Alliance Films
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Melissa holding her award for Best Supporting Actress after winning for her role in The Fighter. Getty Editorial
Bradley Cooper
Bradley was seen sporting grey hair and appearing to wear prosthetics as conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein in the forthcoming Netflix biopic Maestro. The A Star Is Born actor plays the lead role as the musician behind works such as West Side Story, as the film tells the complex love story between Bernstein and Felicia Cohn Montealegre.
Bradley Cooper in Maestro Netflix


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Ignore NHS App Notification, Government Tells Users Whose 'Risk Level Has Changed'

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Potentially millions of users of the NHS Covid-19 app awoke this morning to a worrying phone notification telling them the alert level in the area they lived had changed.
Only, in most cases, it hadn’t.
Overnight the app was brought into line with the new three-tier alert levels and everyone with version 3.7 of the app would have received a push notification, the Department for Health and Social Care told HuffPost UK. (The DHSC couldn’t say how many of the app’s 16m users have this version.)
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But anyone not moving into tier 2 or 3 – that is, those in tier 1, or “medium” risk – would have clicked through to find the alert level exactly as it was when they went to bed.
HuffPost UK
It came just a day after HuffPost UK revealed the government had been forced to upgrade its NHS Covid app to reassure smartphone users worried by alert messages suggesting they have been exposed to the virus.
The NHS app, launched nearly three weeks ago, has been sending alerts to people with the tag line “Possible Covid-19 Exposure”.
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But in many cases, the notification simply disappeared once clicked, and was not followed by any official confirmation of contact with a patient.
Now the DHSC has admitted the so-called “ghost notifications” are a glitch caused by Apple and Google’s own bluetooth technology on their phones and are a default privacy setting that it cannot change.
Instead, additional notifications now tell users that there is no need to worry about the “possible exposure” once it has been assessed by the app. Unless, of course, they are one of the unlucky people actually told to self-isolate.
The rollout of the app was hit with a number of other glitches, not least the original government version being the abandoned in favour of a design by tech giants Apple and Google in June.
It was then revealed anyone with some older models of mobile phone would not be able to use the app – and, when it was first released publicly, it did not have an option for users to log a positive test result.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-14--Boris Johnson To Miss October 15 Deal Or No Deal Brexit Deadline

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Boris Johnson is set to miss his self-imposed Thursday October 15 deadline to strike a Brexit trade deal with the EU.
It is understood that the prime minister will instead make a decision on whether to continue negotiations after a summit of EU leaders which ends on October 16.
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Johnson had last month insisted that “there needs to be an agreement with our European friends by the time of the European Council on October 15”.
He insisted: “If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on.”
But the PM will now hold off from making a decision until after the summit, where EU leaders are expected to discuss Brexit over dinner on October 15.
Johnson is also scheduled to speak via telephone to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel on Wednesday evening.
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Johnson will speak to von der Leyen on Wednesday evening PA
Following that, the PM and his negotiating team will make a judgment on whether Brussels has provided a credible signal that a deal can be done and decide whether to continue the talks.
Time is running out to strike a trade deal to ensure the UK does not default to so-called “no deal” World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms for dealing with the EU when the Brexit transition ends on January 1, in what is widely expected to be an economically damaging outcome.
UK negotiators are said to be frustrated at the EU’s refusal to agree a joint draft trade deal text to work off.
Johnson’s official spokesperson told reporters: “There are still differences, with fisheries being the starkest.
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“We need to get substance settled and not having a common text to work from has made progress doubly difficult.
“The PM’s 7 September statement was very clear about the significance of 15 October.