thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-04--My Cancer Is Not A 'Journey'. Here Are Some Other Words I'm Happy To Use

Jenny Watts Jenny Watts: "Cancer will always be a part of my life whether I like it or not.”
When Jenny Watts hears someone describing cancer as a “journey”, she feels like hurling something at the television in rage.
Jenny, who is in her 30s, is undergoing treatment for breast cancer and says even at the time of diagnosis, the specialist told her it was the start of her journey and the word made her “want to scream.”
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“To me, journeys are fun and pleasurable and things you have control over,” she tells HuffPost UK. “For me personally, the correct metaphor to describe cancer would be a rollercoaster because there’s so many ups and downs.”
Jenny, who lives in Lancaster and teaches English as a second language to university students, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 34 after she went shopping for a sports bra. Under the bright lights of the changing room, she noticed a shadow and dimpling on her breast. Within 24 hours, she had an appointment with her GP and was sent to hospital for scans and tests.
As she was young and healthy, Jenny remembers hospital staff being polite and efficient, but thinks they weren’t really expecting there to be something wrong. However, she recalls their reactions changing when they looked at the scans. She was told to return in a week’s time and bring someone with her. It was on this visit that the cancer specialist used the word “journey”.
“I can completely understand why he said ‘journey’ as he meant it was the start of a long slog” says Jenny. “But for me, it was the wrong language.”
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Jenny Watts Jenny in the midst of her treatment for breast cancer.
Since her diagnosis, Jenny has had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy and is currently having injections every four weeks, which she will need for at least another year. She will then have to take tablets every day for 10 years to help prevent the cancer coming back. Her experience of treatment made the rollercoaster analogy most apt, she says – “the ups and downs; the fear; the nausea; the vomiting.”
The words of a perceptive nurse at the time of her diagnosis have also stayed with her. “She told me I would hear a lot of ‘be positive’ type remarks. But she said it would be a challenge just getting through day-to-day experiences so I should just be authentic and true to myself.
“I thought this was a brilliant thing to say to me and it felt really freeing.”
“I can’t imagine ever feeling I'm ‘all-clear’... cancer will always be a part of my life whether I like it or not.”
Jenny doesn’t like to think of herself “fighting” or “battling” cancer, but knows other people find that language empowering. “I don’t feel like I ‘battled. I just turned up for my appointments and did as I was told. From my perspective, I think the ‘fight’ comes later on after you have been through all the treatment.”
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Even the word “survivor” makes her uncomfortable, despite it often being used with the best of intentions. “It makes me feel uncomfortable as I am still going through it.” she says. “When people ask if I have had the ‘all-clear’, it implies it is over. Cancer is no longer a death sentence. But I can’t imagine ever feeling I am ‘all-clear’ because of how young I was when I was diagnosed. Cancer will always be a part of my life whether I like it or not.”
Jenny realised she wasn’t alone in her strong reactions to cancer language when she attended a Cancer Metaphor workshop at Lancaster University.
“I tend to use metaphors and similes that relate to everyday experiences,” she says of her own preferences. ”I describe feeling like I’ve had my batteries removed – when I have no energy or don’t feel like myself after treatment. Or I say it’s like having the world’s worst hangover or the feeling after working a night shift when people feel groggy and don’t really know what’s going on.
“I also compare the mental fog and extreme fatigue of treatment to the sleep deprivation of caring for young children, based on conversations with friends and my sister-in-law. My friends and family could all relate to feeling like a complete zombie so making everyday comparisons was useful.”
One particular comment at the workshop stuck with her, says Jenny, even making her laugh. One participant said: “Cancer is like an unexpected lodger who turns up, messes everything up and causes chaos. Then just when you finally get rid of them and close the door, you realise they’ve kept the key.”
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Jenny Watts Jenny Watts.
Based on workshops and interviews, researchers at Lancaster University have developed the first manual of cancer expressions to help patients make sense of their disease. The Metaphor Menu For People Living With Cancer takes in the views of more than 100 people involved in cancer care, from patients with advanced cancer to family carers and healthcare staff including oncologists.
More than one million words were analysed, including on online forums, with fairground rides, music and difficult journeys among the most common metaphors on the menu, which was developed with the help of Royal Preston Hospital, St John’s Hospice in Lancaster and charity CancerCare.
The research recommends that doctors and the media avoid portraying cancer as a ‘battle’, but researchers stressed there should be no blanket ban on certain words with patients encouraged to use those that best suit them.
“Describing someone as a ‘fighter’ can be upsetting for some patients but empowering for others."” - Prof Elena Semino from Lancaster University
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“Our study shows that metaphors are helpful when talking about cancer,” says lead author Prof Elena Semino from Lancaster University’s department of linguistics and English language. “But different ones suit different people, or the same person at different times.” Describing a patient as a ‘fighter’ can be upsetting for some but empowering for others, for example.
“Some patients said that if they don’t get better, they feel guilty if they are seen as ‘losing the battle’,” she says. ”Some people don’t want the role of a fighter or the concept of ‘fighting with their own body.’ But others said they found it empowering and meaningful to see themselves as fighters.”
Similarly, some struggle with the idea of a ‘cancer journey’ despite it being language the NHS uses. “But some liked the concept of travelling along a road with different points where you can stop. We found there was a lot of individual variation so our menu aims to provide people with more choices and options and stimulate new and creative ways of talking about cancer.”
Cancer metaphors from the menu These are some of the words anonymous cancer patients felt comfortable using to describe their experiences in the Lancaster University research. Fight “I respect cancer and never underestimate the power it has, but, if you can face up to it and hit it back head on, you stand a good chance of beating it for a bit longer.” Invasion “Initially, cancer feels like an alien invasion. It is as if you want to strip off your body and get a new one. Then in time, you ‘connect’ with it somehow.” Journey “Cancer is a hard journey with many twists and turns. No two people go through the exact same route. It’s like driving a horse-drawn coach without the back wheels. It’s helpful to occasionally stop, rest the horses and review the situation with someone you are close to.” Music “Cancer is part of me. The cure for cancer is accepting it, to heal is to convince the cancer cells to sing in tune with the rest of the body.” Nature “Cancerous tissue is like a garden that has become overgrown with weeds. The weed-killer also damages the healthy plants, but you hope they will re-grow.” “My way of dealing with cancer is to bend with the wind.” Relationship “Having cancer is not a fight but a relationship where I am forced to live with my disease day in, day out. Some days cancer has the upper hand, other days I do.” Rides “Imagine it a bit like a scary fairground ride – it might be scary in places, but it will eventually stop and you can get off. Be strong, be brave and we will be here to hold your hand if you need it.” Rocks “The rocks in our path are easier to handle when we’re in it together. The best people to help you are the ones who have been there before you or are heading there with you.” Stones “I compare life after cancer to walking with a stone in your shoe. If you let the stone rest right under the sole of your foot, it hurts every time you take a step and it is hard to move forward. If you can manoeuvre the stone to sit between your toes, it is still there but you can walk the fine line of life without hurting.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-04--8 Unusual Things That Happen To Your Body When You’re Pregnant

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Strange and wonderful things happen to your body when you’re pregnant. Some of them last forever – hello, stretch marks – and others, sadly, don’t. I mourn the loss of my magnificent DD cup size now I’m no longer breastfeeding.
Many of us experience morning sickness or tender breasts, but thanks to a surge in pregnancy hormones, you might notice more unusual side-effects, too.
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Every pregnant woman will experience these changes differently, says Clare Livingstone, professional policy advisor at the Royal College of Midwives. Mostly, you don’t need to worry about them unless they bother you.
Women should never take anything to treat these symptoms before getting medical advice. “This applies to complementary therapies, too,” says Livingstone. “Check with your midwife or a GP before trying anything.”
Here are eight symptoms of pregnancy – if nothing else, take them as a reminder of how remarkable our bodies are.
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You’re more susceptible to colds and flu
The hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is found in urine and blood during pregnancy – it’s what dictates a positive pregnancy test. But it also works to suppress your immune system to reduce the chances of your body rejecting the baby... meaning you could find yourself sneezing more often, as you become more susceptible to colds and the flu.
“This is due to the hormone partially,” adds Livingstone, “but also, there’s such a huge impact physically on the body during pregnancy so it’s just fighting in all directions – it makes sense you’re more likely to get ill.”
This is why pregnant women are advised to get the flu jab, she says.
You’re a walking shampoo advert
For some women, there’s no such thing as a bad hair day when you’re pregnant – and it’s no coincidence that your hair feels thick, glossy and looks gorgeous. Hair may even change texture completely, going curly when it’s always been poker-straight. “Quite a lot of women report having really wonderful hair in pregnancy,” says Livingstone. “It’s something to celebrate and be enjoyed!”
That is... until you actually give birth, when it may fall out again. “It’s not extreme, but it’s not unusual to find hair falling out, as it does at other times of year,” says Livingstone. It’s all down to those pesky hormones, again, as well as increased blood circulation.
Your nails may miraculously grow
When you’re pregnant, your nails may grow faster and longer. By the time you have your 20-week scan, chances are you’ll have longer talons than you’re used to. This is likely to be down to metabolic changes in the body, says Livingstone. They’ll probably resume their normal rate of growth three to six months post-partum, so enjoy them while you’ve got them.
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Your belly button will probably change
The skin on your stomach stretches during pregnancy – and something very strange indeed may happen to your belly-button. Trust me. I was a half-inny, half-outy before, and when I was pregnant the entire thing popped out, like a tiny button. It’s gone back to normal, now... sort of. But if, like me, you’ve ever had a belly-button piercing (at university, aged 18, when everybody wanted to look like one of the girls from All Saints), you might also find substantial scarring above your navel where the skin stretched over the original piercing. Be warned.
Your feet may grow... yes, really
One of my mum’s favourite tales is that when she got pregnant with me, her feet grew two sizes bigger – and stayed that way. Some say this is because you produce the hormone relaxin while pregnant, which loosens your pelvic joints and the ligaments in your feet.
Livingstone believes this may be down to swelling, though. If women are finding their shoes to be tight, she says that’s the most likely reason why. If your ankles and feet are really swollen, it’s best to get them checked with a midwife.
You may get excessive saliva
There’s a common condition called ptyalism that isn’t often spoken about, says Livingstone. It’s when pregnant women have an excessive amount of saliva in their mouths – and feel the urge to spit.
“It can affect some women more profoundly that others and worry them, as they get a rush of saliva in their mouth,” she says. “Some women may carry around a pot so they can spit it out – it’s common, but nothing to worry about.”
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Your skin could change – for better or worse
I know, it feels like being a teenager again... and not in a good way. If you’ve suddenly got spotty skin, you can thank an increase in pregnancy hormones (specifically progesterone) that cause the glands to produce more sebum, a type of oil that can clog pores.
“Some women do really suffer from acne, dry skin or eczema when pregnant,” says Livingstone. “Others may find they get a lovely glow and have great skin! But it’s worth seeing a midwife if these changes are troubling you, there are topical ointments and creams women can take.”
You’re likely to get a line on your stomach
The ‘linea nigra’ is a dark, vertical line that can appear more vividly during pregnancy, and stretches from your belly-button and your pelvis. If you’ve noticed yours, you probably always had it – but it just shows up more when you’re carrying a baby, usually around the second trimester.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-04--The L Word Showed Me Life As A Lesbian Could Be Happy. This Is What It Means To Have The Show Back

Getty Images HuffPost UK
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for. More hotly anticipated than the Masked Singer, Strictly Come Dancing and Love Island finals put together, The L Word: Generation Q is finally getting its UK premiere. The reboot of the queer cult classic TV show centred around a group of glossy LA lesbians hits Sky Atlantic on Tuesday 4 February at 10pm – and the lesbians who haven’t already illegally streamed it somewhere else will be tuning in in their droves.
Watching The L Word is a rite of passage. Every lesbian I know has a story about it: how they saved up to buy the DVDs from HMV and secretly watched it when their parents were out; how they lied about their age and joined online chat rooms just to talk about it; how they masturbated in their childhood bedroom to Shane and Carmen’s season three sex scene.
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When I found the show on Netflix – almost 10 years after it had first aired – I was stuck in a heterosexual relationship that I was desperately unhappy in but terrified to come out. I’ve always craved what I thought was normal – marriage, kids, a house, some dogs. I was on the well-trodden path to getting all that and being gay did not tie in with my life’s agenda. So I lived out my alternative reality by reading Sarah Waters novels and watching the entirety of the LGBT section on Netflix.
When my then fiance was out with friends or working late, I’d curl up on the sofa watching The L Word. It was, I thought, my guilty pleasure. But as the first series unfolded, I realised it was a lot closer to home than I’d imagined. While my basement flat in South East London was about as far as you can get from The Planet (the chosen cafe hang-out of our protagonists), the show gave me the only experiences I had of queer people on TV were those that weren’t shrouded in drama and deceit.
“If being gay was anything like it was on the soaps, I didn’t want to be out at all...”
I grew up watching British soaps, where gay people were only ever cheating partners embroiled in saucy same-sex affairs, leaving behind jilted husbands and wives. There was no sense of normality, no easy coming-outs and supportive families; no finding a partner and settling down; no chance of marriage and children. Before The L Word, all I’d seen was Corrie’s Sophie and Sian get exiled from the family home after being caught snogging on the sofa by Sophie’s mum.
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According to Nineties and Naughties TV, being gay was nothing but a scandalous storyline, and I felt the impact like a blow to the head. Without a media blueprint for what my future could look like; I internalised the forms of homophobia I saw on screen. If being gay was anything like it was on the soaps, I didn’t want to be out at all.
But then I discovered The L Word, which showed me – showed all of us – that lesbians can live successful, happy and fulfilled lives. It gave us narratives previously exclusive to heterosexual characters: Bette had a high-powered career, Jenny started dating women and gained a huge group of female friends; Tina had a baby. Their sexuality wasn’t the pinnacle of their character development. The L Word gave me a peek into what my future could look like, and gave me the push I needed to start living more authentically.
It’s been almost a decade now since I came out, and I’ve spent a huge part of that time trying to figure out where I fit into the sprawling lesbian scene. I had a handful of gay friends, so without The L Word and those Sarah Waters novels from which I managed to carve out an identity by taking tiny parts of the characters, I’d be lost and lonely.
“Without the show, it’s quite likely I’d have succumbed to the boring hetero life I thought was destined for me...”
But how did a trashy, wildly far-fetched and, at times, devastating (RIP Dana) TV show become one so treasured by gay women? The answer is The L Word’s legacy isn’t its quality writing or relatability storyline. It’s not that it was ‘great TV’ – it’s that, for people like us, it was the only TV. The show’s impact is felt so deeply is because it was so isolated, a beacon in the huge void of lesbian representation on screen. While heterosexual narratives of life and love saturated the media, The L Word, then, was the only thing we had of our own.
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I hate to sound like a broken record, but representation is so important to the LGBTQ+ community. Without nuanced, emotive, realistic media portrayals of what it’s like to be a queer person in modern society we’re constantly entering uncharted territory, afraid at what’s around every corner you’re about to turn.
That’s not to say that the original L Word was without fault. From problematic attitudes towards bi and trans characters and uncomfortable conversations about race, to the erasure of butch women – Generation Q has a lot of work to do to repent for the sins of the past, and must leave no stone unturned in exploring the whole spectrum of queer people as intersectionally and inclusively as possible. With homophobic hate crimes in London up 55% in five years, being out can be scarier than staying in. If you aren’t ready to face the outside world just yet, or if you’re feeling lonely, you can put on the TV. There are people like you out there. You are not alone. That’s why young queer people need Generation Q now more than ever.
For so many queer women like me, The L Word, meant the world. Without the show, it’s quite likely I’d have succumbed to the boring hetero life I thought was destined for me. Without the show, I wouldn’t have known life could be so sweet on the other side, where I belonged.
Sophie Brown is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter at @SophieBrownHP
Have a compelling personal story you want to tell? Find out what we’re looking for here, and pitch us on ukpersonal@huffpost.com


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-04--Gymnast Becky Downie Won't Let Injuries Get In Her Way, Mentally Or Physically

British Gymnastics / Getty Images / HuffPost UK Rebecca Downie
Head In The Game sees athletes across a variety of disciplines speak candidly about their mental wellbeing – from occasional periods of poor mental health to ongoing, sometimes debilitating, struggles with mental illness. They also share coping mechanisms and the support they’ve turned to during their lowest points.
“I feel like I’ve achieved one of the biggest things that I ever wanted to do in my career,” gymnast Becky Downie says, not long after winning a silver medal on uneven bars at the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships in October.
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Downie’s achievement speaks not just to her athleticism, but also to her mental fortitude and positive outlook. She’s had to battle back from a series of career-threatening injuries that left her unable to compete for two years.
In April 2017, during a bar routine in the finals of the European Championships, she fell badly and snapped the already-fraying ligaments in her left elbow. She needed to have surgery – an elbow reconstruction.
It was a moment when she thought retirement might be on the cards. She recounts receiving a call from her doctor, who explained the extent of the damage. “When my mum got in from work she asked if I was ok and I just burst into tears,” Downie recalls. “I was like, ‘I’m not ok, I don’t think I’ll be able to do this anymore, what if my arm doesn’t get better?’”
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Francois Nel via Getty Images
Within five days of the surgery, however, she was back in the gym, and by the end of the year she was training for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
“It wasn’t the easiest day to process, but for me it’s always been like, if we’re going to get it fixed, you just go with this all-in mentality and make sure you do everything you can to get better,” Downie says.
“As long as I could look back and say I’d given it everything, if it didn’t get better then that’s just how things were supposed to be.”
Her hopes of returning to form were shattered again, however, when she fell off the bars and rolled her ankle. She had to back out of the competition.
Focusing on the next major event, Downie began to prepare for the Europeans (more formally known as the European Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships) that summer. But disaster struck again when she sprained her ankle in training just two days before the competition. “I never even made it to compete,” she says. “It was extremely frustrating.”
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British Gymnastics Becky Downie
Ahead of the 2018 World Championships in Doha that October, her ankle still wasn’t healing properly, so Downie asked to have more scans taken. “As it wasn’t improving, I wanted to know what was going on,” she says. “Then I found out that my cartilage had come away from the bone at the bottom of my ankle and I needed surgery.”
Once again, just as she had following her elbow reconstruction, she hit the gym and trained harder than ever, hoping her body would carry her through the competition.
She managed to compete in Doha – placing seventh in the uneven bars – before returning home for more surgery.
When asked about the psychological impact of these repeated blows, Downie says she’s started focusing on the mental aspect of gymnastics only recently. “I didn’t really understand that that was such a huge side of our sport,” she says.
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“In the last few years I’ve realised how mental it is. Obviously gymnastics is very physical, there are a lot of training hours involved and compared to other sports we don’t really ever get time off – I think that’s probably one of the hardest parts about our sport, that it’s just so intense all the time.”
picture alliance via Getty Images
Downie’s work ethic is clearly a key factor in her success. But as soon as she walks through the front door after a day at training, she’s on downtime – watching TV with her family is a key way of de-stressing after a hard day. Sometimes it’s as simple as just not talking about gymnastics – which can be hard, especially as her younger sister is Ellie Downie, 10-time European medalist and two-time world medalist.
At 28, Downie says the years of twisting and tumbling and falling have taken a toll on her body. “I’ve had so many injuries over the years, I’ve injured nearly every single body part,” she says. At this point in her career, the real challenge isn’t developing her gymnastic skills, it’s simply keeping herself physically and mentally ready to compete.
“I feel like I’m a bit of a rare breed in the fact that I love it so much I can just have that ability to keep going,” Downie says. “For me, it comes quite naturally, the mentality to keep pushing forward.”
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Downie’s next big focus is the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, and then, possibly, retirement. “I’m not 100% retiring next year, but I will be looking to in the next few years,” she says.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, so it’s a case of what else do I want to do? I’m really excited to explore different things.” She nods that she could do more with her and Ellie’s leotard business Double Downies and muses over the prospect of coaching full-time.
As for her latest silver medal win at the World Championships, she is incredibly proud of how far her body – and mind – have come. “It shows all the hard work’s paid off,” Downie says. “I’ve always loved the sport so much, which is why it’s kept me going as long as it has. And no matter how hard it’s been, I’ve always had that dream.
“To know that I’ve actually finally achieved that dream is amazing.”
Visit HuffPost UK’s dedicated Head in the Game site to read our full series of daily interviews with sports people about their mental health and wellbeing.
Getty Images / HuffPost UK
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Getty Images / HuffPost UK Head In The Game interviewees: (top, left to right) Frank Bruno, Jordanne Whiley, Becky Downie, Elise Christie, Andrew Strauss; (bottom, left to right) Rebecca Adlington, Liam Broady, Eniola Aluko, Marcus Trescothick, Jo Pavey.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-04--7 Of The Best Eye Makeup Removers That Don't Sting

HuffPost UK Louise/HuffPost UK
Removing your eye makeup, especially painstakingly-applied eyeshadow and liner, is often the least fun part of the day.
Not only is it mind-numbingly boring, but can sting and leave you with panda eyes. I’ve definitely gone to bed on occasion without bothering at all.
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But, as we all know, it’s important that your face is clean before you catch those 40 winks – makeup isn’t supposed to be worn for 24 hours at a time.
The solution? An eye makeup remover that doesn’t sting. Keep a bottle by your bedside so you can eradicate every last scrap of eye makeup with a cotton pad, before being chucked across the room into the bin.
Here we’ve picked our favourite ones that get the job done without leaving skin dry, dehydrated or irritated. Go forth and cleanse.
HuffPost UK Camomile Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover, The Body Shop
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HuffPost’s Life Editor Brogan Driscoll is such a fan of this product, she wrote a love letter to it. She sings its praises for its ability to rid her eyes of every scrap of mascara, eyeliner and even her brow pencil. It’s fragrance free, with no colourants or alcohol which makes it great for sensitive skin too.
HuffPost UK La Roche-Posay Eye Make-Up Remover, Look Fantastic
La Roche-Posay is a master of effective, affordable skincare. Its Toleraine Dermo-Cleanser has long been a favourite of mine - but if you’re after something quick and easy to rid all traces of a smoky eye, then this is the perfect match. Simply soak a cotton pad and sweep away.
HuffPost UK Clarins Instant Eye Makeup Remover, John Lewis
My first foray into the world of beauty came from nosing about my mum’s makeup bag when she was getting ready to go out. This bottle by Clarins was always there and when I first borrowed (OK stole) it I understood why. Once you mix the bi-phase lotion together by shaking the bottle, it creates an oil-based fluid that takes seconds to take everything off with a single cotton pad. It’s the crème de la crème of eye makeup removers.
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HuffPost UK Garnier Skin Naturals 2in1 Eye Make-up Remover, Boots
If you’re feeling lazy, or don’t have the time for a thorough skincare routine before you hit the hay, then this little bottle is ideal for your bedside. It doesn’t leave any residue, nor gloopy bits of mascara left over in the corner of your eyes. Simply shake the bottle and away you go.
HuffPost UK Clinique Take The Day Off Make-Up Remover for Lids, Lashes & Lips, Feel Unique
Clinique’s Take The Day Off range is brilliant if you want simple skincare that does exactly what it says on the tin. This makeup remover isn’t just for eyes however, it does a stellar job at getting off those matte, bold, bright lipsticks that won’t budge.
HuffPost UK Avène Gentle Eye Make-Up Remove, Escentual
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This fluid gel is a thicker consistency that the other sin this list, but is designed with contact wearers and those with sensitive eyes in mind. There’s no dryness once you’re finished and with a bottle this big, it will last you months.
HuffPost UK Simple Kind to Eyes Eye Make Up Remover, Boots
This cheap and cheerful travel-size bottle it means you won’t have to decant bigger bottles into fiddly smaller ones when you’re going away – only to forget what’s in them because you didn’t label them.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-04--My Fear Of Spiders Was So Debilitating, I'm In Exposure Therapy. Here's What It's Like

HuffPost UK Courtesy of the author
Five months ago, I could not bring myself to tap on the spider emoji on my iPhone. One month ago, I began carrying a tarantula around with me.
It’s dead, to be fair, but still... a tarantula. The first time I held it, I was terrified. Intellectually, I knew it was dead, but that didn’t keep my skin from crawling or my stomach from turning. I was still afraid it was going to start moving.
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“It” is a “she,” actually. She’s an Indian tree tarantula who died two years ago and now goes everywhere with me, as part of my exposure therapy. I have her on loan from my spider-expert colleague at the Wisconsin university where I teach. I’ve named her Michelle. It feels nothing short of surreal that I’ve been totally fine with Michelle the Dead Tarantula sitting next to my laptop watching me type this.
I have been petrified of spiders my entire life, and at 48 years old I decided it was finally time to confront my fear. The decision was precipitated by three distinct incidents that illuminated how serious and life-limiting my arachnophobia had become. A few years ago I nearly caused a multi-car accident when a spider crawled out from under my driver’s seat visor, inches from my face. Two years ago, I declined a job I wanted because it was in Georgia, and I found out they have “giant” banana spiders there. Last summer, I panicked when I saw a spider on my balcony and, while trying to “fight” it with a broom, accidentally sent the broom plummeting over the railing and seven stories down to the sidewalk, where, thankfully, no small children were walking at the time. Clearly, this needed to be addressed.
“Two years ago, I declined a job I wanted because it was in Georgia, and I found out they have ‘giant’ banana spiders there.”
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Because I’m a reader and writer, I initially sought out books. Since arachnophobia — defined as an extreme and irrational fear of spiders that results in avoidance behaviours and interferes with one’s life — affects one in three women and nearly as many men, I assumed there would be self-help books about how to overcome it. There are, but every single title I found featured a picture of some horrific spider on the cover. I couldn’t even bear to stay on the Amazon page to read the summaries.
A few quick Google searches verified that the gold standard of treatment in overcoming any kind of phobia is exposure therapy under the guidance of a trained practitioner.
I’m fortunate that the institution where I work provides comprehensive mental health benefits. I’m also fortunate to live 15 minutes from a specialist in exposure therapy. My therapist ― let’s call her Brianne ― works primarily with trauma and obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. I’ve struggled with OCD since childhood, but I’d never connected my fear of spiders to my fear that I’d left the house with my curling iron plugged in or to my rule about always maintaining an even number of emails in my inbox.
From the second I made the initial appointment to begin exposure therapy, I began to regret it. At that point, intentionally exposing myself to spiders seemed like it was going to be infinitely worse than continuing to be terrified of spiders and controlled by that terror for the rest of my life. People have fears, right? This is just mine. It’s normal! But I’m also a “committer.” Once I start something, I tend to finish it, and making that first appointment felt like signing a contract.
“I’ve struggled with OCD since childhood, but I’d never connected my fear of spiders to my fear that I’d left the house with my curling iron plugged in.”
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I told Brianne at our first consultation that if she could just help me get to the level of “normal person fear of spiders,” I would be absolutely delighted. I also told her I had zero faith that such an achievement was even possible. What Brianne taught me is that you don’t have to believe you can overcome your fears; you just have to do the work. Exposure therapy isn’t about exploring or confronting your feelings. It’s about methodically and incrementally exposing yourself to your worst fear and then sitting in that fear until it peaks and begins to decline. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.
The way Brianne framed it, as being a matter of discipline rather than bravery, changed everything for me. I knew I could do the work. If you put things in work ethic terms for me, I’m good. I’ll work myself to the bone. That was the first shift in my thinking and perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned so far: You don’t have to be courageous; you just have to be committed to the process. You don’t even have to believe in the process so much as you just have to do it.
I didn’t start by holding a dead tarantula. I started by watching YouTube videos of Lucas the Spider, an endearing and somewhat adorable cartoon spider created by animator Joshua Slice. Lucas’ whole job is to help people become comfortable with spiders. From there I progressed to images of tiny real spiders, to images of medium spiders, to images of big spiders, to videos of spiders, to where I am today ― carrying a dead tarantula named Michelle around with me.
“Exposure therapy isn’t about exploring or confronting your feelings. It’s about methodically and incrementally exposing yourself to your worst fear and then sitting in that fear until it peaks and begins to decline. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.”
My first exposures to pictures of real spiders were rough. Brianne directed me to spend five minutes at a time, three times a day, staring at images of spiders. During these exposures, I was to track my SUDS level, which stands for “subjective units of distress,” on a scale of one to ten. One being perfectly comfortable and 10 being the most terrified I’ve ever been. The goal was to stay with each exposure until I got my SUDS level down to about a three.
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For the first exposure, I sat alone in my apartment and searched “baby black widow spiders” on Google Images. When the pictures materialised with a quickness that replicated the speed of live spiders, it was a visual assault. My stomach churned, my skin stung, and I struggled to choke down the lump in my throat. In someplace outside myself, I felt ridiculous for crying over something I was doing to myself, but I still felt rattled and disgusted to the point of sickness. For reasons I still don’t understand, I kept glancing behind me at the door to my apartment to make sure no one was coming in. Brianne theorised that this was probably a subconscious response to an intersection or generalisation of fears — of vulnerability, of violation and of unnamed danger.
I labeled the first exposure a SUDS 8, knowing that I needed at least two units of wiggle room to account for the fact that these spiders were only two-dimensional. For the first week, every time I closed my eyes to rinse my hair in the shower, the spider pictures reappeared behind my eyelids like a negative image. I could never escape them.
“I didn’t start by holding a dead tarantula. I started by watching YouTube videos of Lucas the Spider, an endearing and somewhat adorable cartoon spider.”
Over the next week, I stared at the baby black widows for five minutes three times a day, and somewhere around day three, it started to feel, well, not as bad. I didn’t like looking at them, but I wasn’t terrified anymore. The physical responses — the nausea and the skin sensations — subsided and then eventually disappeared. By the end of the week, staring at baby black widows, while not pleasant, had become rather boring. I labeled the final set of exposures a SUDS 3. Brianne said this is exactly how it’s supposed to work: When you start to get bored, you’re getting desensitised, which is the whole goal of exposure therapy.
Now, five months into exposure therapy, I’ve stumbled into a series of other epiphanies that transcend how I feel about spiders, affecting every other dimension of my life. One week, Brianne asked me to hold the dead tarantula for seven minutes three times per day. The first time I held it was in her office. It felt so bizarre to lift Michelle out of her canister by one tiny spider foot and place her into my other palm, as though my hands belonged to someone else entirely, someone much braver or crazier than me. I wanted to run screaming from Brianne’s office. But instead I just sat there allowing myself to be excruciatingly uncomfortable.
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I reminded myself that Brianne was not asking me to enjoy this. She actually wanted me to focus on how disgusting it was, to imagine that Michelle might at any second come back to life and start crawling up my arm. Who knows, Michelle might jump on my face. This sounds sadistic, I know, but it’s not. It’s a concrete lived experience that demonstrates how accepting and even purposefully engaging with fear is what enables you to overcome it.
I’ve learned that it’s much easier to change your behavior than it is to change your feelings. Instead of checking every corner of my car, apartment and office for spiders, I needed to simply sit down and search Google Images for “wolf spider” and then remain with the tiled display of hairy, eight-legged horror, preferably on the giant, high-resolution Mac monitor in my office. To passersby, it appears that I am doing nothing but fixedly staring at a grid of terror, and that’s true, but I’m also getting better. Do the behavior and your feelings will follow.
“I’ve learned that it’s much easier to change your behavior than it is to change your feelings. ... I’ve also learned that training myself to tolerate and even lean into fear is incredibly empowering.”
I’ve also learned that training myself to tolerate and even lean into fear is incredibly empowering. If I can force myself to sit here and watch YouTube videos of black widows fighting brown recluses, then there’s really no stopping me from taking on a whole bunch of other intimidating stuff. I’ve learned that “sitting with your discomfort” is perhaps the most useful and transferable skill that anyone can seek to develop.
It makes everything else seem easier. Encountering spiders is my absolute worst nightmare. Now that I do it multiple times per day every day of my life, getting through something like a public speaking experience or a visit to the dentist (a much more minor phobia of mine) is small potatoes.
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A few weeks ago, I was sitting on my balcony reading when a spider dropped from the balcony above and skittered across my thigh before falling through the grated floor beneath me. I jumped a little, sure, but I didn’t scream or fall apart or get up and jump around while flapping my hands, as I used to do. I just went back to my book. Old me would have held onto that fear for days. I would have stayed off my balcony for weeks, if not months, afterward.
“I’m not yet ‘cured’ of my arachnophobia, but what I’m learning is that it’s about so much more than conquering spiders. It’s about learning to accept discomfort as a necessary part of growth.”
The things that hold us prisoner are the things that will set us free. If you’re missing out on visiting beautiful places because you’re afraid there might be spiders, then you need to confront spiders. If you’re afraid you won’t be able to financially support yourself, then you need to launch yourself into the universe in a way that requires you to do so. If you’re staying in an unhealthy relationship because you’re afraid to be alone, then you need to get out of it and see how you do. These are not hypotheticals. I’ve walked through them all and I’m freer and stronger for taking the risks, for tolerating the discomfort.
I’m not yet “cured” of my arachnophobia, but what I’m learning is that it’s about so much more than conquering spiders. It’s about learning to accept discomfort as a necessary part of growth. It’s about refusing to sacrifice the richness of new experiences because there is some contingent element of threat. It’s about challenging ourselves and pushing ourselves so far outside our comfort zones that we cross the thresholds of entirely new galaxies.
I may or may not ever hold a live tarantula, but that’s not the point anymore. I’m going to keep doing my exposures. I expect to at least hold a smallish live spider sometime in the near future. The important thing is that, through the work I’ve done with Brianne, I now have a toolbox and a method of being for approaching the frightening parts of life: I don’t have to feel brave; I just have to do the work. And that I know I can do.
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This article first appeared on HuffPost US Personal


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-02-04--Why Boris Johnson’s Tough Talk On Trade Sounds Like Groundhog Day All Over Again

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Flags of convenience
In his very first speech as PM last year, Boris Johnson promised “to end the groundhoggery of Brexit”. Yet as he tried to sketch his vision of post-Brexit trade links with the EU today, I couldn’t help thinking: here we go, it’s deja vu all over again.
Way back in January 2017, a British prime minister summoned diplomats to the elaborately decorated Long Gallery of Lancaster House, its ceiling showing saints borne to heaven by angels. The backdrop slogan read ‘A Global Britain’. The PM proceeded to set down some red lines, lines that were over time reduced to a mild pink.
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Today, a British prime minister summoned ambassadors (I spotted a BRZ 1 numberplate among the procession of black limos) to the ornate Painted Hall of the Old Royal Naval College, its ceiling depicting angels descending from heaven. The backdrop slogan read ‘Unleashing Britain’s potential’. The PM proceeded to set down his deep red line that he did not ‘seek’ ‘alignment of any kind’ with the EU’s rules and regulations.
So, will Johnson’s red lines wash away like Theresa May’s? Of course one huge difference is that whopping 80-seat Commons majority that Johnson currently holds. Another is that he is miles better than May ever was at painting an upbeat picture of Britain heading out into the world, freed of its EU membership.
The two are of course related, because it was Johnson’s turns of phrase that helped him notch up that impressive victory over Labour last December. Yet while broad brush strokes can win you an election, it’s hard detail that wins you a decent trade deal. And judging by his outing in Greenwich, that detail is yet to come.
There was naturally some soaring rhetoric - “the vessel puffs her sail…the wind sits in the mast...we are embarked now on a great voyage” - but the speech was pretty thin on specifics, and the written ministerial statement that came later was just as emaciated.
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In contrast, in a drab briefing room in Brussels, the EU’s Michel Barnier had no poetry, only the prose of stacks of dense paragraphs of negotiating mandates. The gulf between the two men seemed light years, not just an English Channel’s width, apart. Barnier talked a lot about level playing fields, while Johnson’s eyes gazed towards the open seas beyond.
The PM was pretty disingenuous today when he pretended all the media questions about ‘no deal’ were about ‘no withdrawal agreement’ rather than ‘no trade deal’. In fact he spent a lot of time trying not to say things (Brexit simply ‘begins with a B’, ‘Australia’ was his new euphemism for ‘WTO terms’) rather than actually saying anything meaningful.
His paean of praise to free trade is of course undercut by the fact that Brexit implies more barriers across borders, not fewer. The PM made clear he wants either a ‘Canada-style’ deal or an ‘Australian’ one, with both sounding more like flags of convenience than actual concrete negotiating offers.
A year after her Lancaster House speech, May left Brexiteer ministers thinking ‘divergence has won the day’ following an early Chequers meeting, even though it had lost. Divergence is again the buzzword now, and Johnson is certainly not going to get anything like the one his predecessor signed up to.
But dig deeper into today and it’s possible to see glimmers of compromise on both sides. Barnier didn’t seem overly obsessed about ‘alignment’ and Johnson had wriggle room on the same issue. Finding a way of delivering the outcome of high standards (alignment that isn’t called alignment) is not impossible. A lot of hard negotiation is obviously needed, but it’s possible to see a deal being done in the interest of both sides before the end of the year.
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And just like Johnson’s talks with the EU last year on a withdrawal agreement, the trick will lie in both sides being able to sell the deal back home. Brussels will want to say it has avoided ‘dumping’, London will want to say it has retained its sovereign autonomy. Trade won’t be ‘frictionless’ and the politics won’t be either, yet mutual self-interest will again probably be paramount. See what I mean about groundhoggery?
Perhaps the biggest losers however are not the politicians but business. It feels as if firms should be planning now for WTO terms with all the tariffs and ‘divergent’ regulation that implies. And even if the PM and the EU hammer out a compromise later this year, business may already have had to spend hard cash preparing for an effective no-deal on trade. Let’s see how much strategic patience they have.
The PM spoke today yards from the Cutty Sark, that symbol of high-speed, frictionless trade on the high seas. Yet the last time I visited Greenwich it was for an exhibition about a less happy vessel, the Titanic. Post-Brexit Britain’s ship of state will probably be much less exciting than either extreme. But that doesn’t make for flamboyant speeches.
Boris Johnson outlines his government's negotiating stance with the European Union after Brexit, during a key speech at the Old Naval College in Greenwich, London. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quote Of The Day
“From Brussels to China to Washington tariffs are being waved around like cudgels even in debates on foreign policy where frankly they have no place”
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Boris Johnson warns of the dangers of protectionism around the globe
Monday Cheat Sheet
Emergency legislation will be introduced to end the automatic early release from prison of terror offenders, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told MPs. But the change would apply to both current and future offenders.
The date for the complete implementation of Universal Credit for the move of current claimants on legacy benefits has been extended to 2024 - nine months longer than planned at a cost of an extra £500m.
Political editors staged a walkout of a planned No.10 Downing Street briefing after communications director Lee Cain tried to exclude several media organisations.
Former minister Claire O’Neill said she may sue the UK government for sacking her as chair of the COP26 climate change talks in Glasgow. No.10 says it prefers a current minister.
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An Illustrated Guide To The Iowa Caucus- CNN
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--UK Coronavirus Lockdown 'Making A Difference', Says Chief Scientific Adviser

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The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, has said the coronavirus lockdown measures put in place by Boris Johnson are “making a difference”.
Speaking at Monday’s Downing Street press conference, Vallance said the order that people stay at home and avoid gathering in groups had been “successful in term of the behavioural changes”.
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He said this would “break and slow transmission of the virus” among the population.
“We are seeing a big change in contacts, that is predicted to have a very significant effect on ‘R’,” he said.
“The ‘R’ value is the number of people, on average, infected by one infected person.”
He added: “The measures are in place, they are making a difference, they are decreasing the contact which is so important to spread the disease and we’re doing a good job at cutting that down.”
Vallance displayed a series of graphs during the press conference to demonstrate the drop in the use of transport as well as the spread of the virus.
Downing Street
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She said the nation will not be in “complete lockdown” for half a year but said measures will be lifted gradually.
It comes as 1,408 people are now confirmed to have died in UK hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, as of 5pm on Sunday. This is up 180 from 1,228 the day before.
Earlier the head of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said around one in four NHS doctors are off work sick or in isolation.
Vallance said NHS seeing an additional 1,000 patients a day with coronavirus-related admissions, but this was “not an acceleration” and that the health service was coping.
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“I do expect that number to continue. I expect people coming every day to be about that, it may go up a little bit,” he said.
“And in two or three weeks you would expect that to stabilise and to start to go down a bit.”
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) will this week release figures on deaths involving coronavirus in the wider community, such as care homes.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--How We’re Mourning Without Attending Funerals In The Coronavirus Lockdown

How We’re Mourning Without Attending Funerals In The Coronavirus Lockdown
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted life as we know it across the world, including how we manage death. Funeral director Amy Szott gives advice for families and friends who may find themselves unable to attend the funeral of a loved one due to the coronavirus lockdown restrictions. From live streaming the service, to holding an online wake, Szott emphasises a time for creativity and minding meaningful ways to mourn.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--'Next Slide Please': Scientific Adviser Oblivious To Missing Graphs At Awkward Coronavirus Briefing

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Confusion reigned for many people tuning in to the government’s daily press conference on the coronavirus outbreak as the UK’s chief scientific adviser was hampered by technology – or a lack thereof.
Making a presentation on the latest data on the spread of the virus, Sir Patrick Vallance talked through a series of slides that underlined how the number of people being admitted to hospital is going up “in a constant amount”.
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However, the slides were not visible to many people watching from home, and the phrase “next slide please” quickly gained traction on social media.
Sir Patrick said at one stage: “This graph shows the total number of people admitted to hospital since the middle of March which is now 8,000 people with coronavirus – that’s gone up pretty much the same amount each day for the last few days.
“That shows that it’s going up not in an increasing amount but in a constant amount which may suggest that we’re already beginning to see some effect through.”
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Huge working from home energy, in which a speaker talks about a chart that is not visible to anyone else on the call. — Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) March 30, 2020
WE CAN'T SEE THE GRAPHS!! — Hannah Al-Othman Says Stay Inside (@HannahAlOthman) March 30, 2020
As i understand it, the Chief Scientific Advisor is now giving a powerpoint presentation to an entirely empty room, and a TV audience who can't see any of it. — Tom Peck (@tompeck) March 30, 2020
The slides have pictures of the Lizard Illuminati in the government WAKE UP SHEEPLE — Niall Paterson (@skynewsniall) March 30, 2020
The slides appeared to be visible to people watching live on the BBC News channel, but sadly not if they opted for Sky News.
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Below are the mystery slides that showed, among other things, that deaths in the UK are so far roughly in line with other western countries.
UK Government UK Government
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UK Government UK Government


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Meghan and Harry Thank Their 'Community' In Final Sussex Royal Instagram Post

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It was less than a year ago that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle launched their joint Instagram – the blue-and-white monogrammed Sussex Royal account – amassing 3 million followers in less than 24 hours.
Now, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have used the last post on the account to thank their 11-million strong community “for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world”, before telling followers “to take good care of yourselves”.
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The ‘thank you’ post arrived on Monday 30 March as most of the world headed into another week of social distancing, self-isolation and quarantine to curb the spread of coronavirus.
“As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile,” the couple captioned their post.
“Yet we are confident that every human being has the potential and opportunity to make a difference – as seen now across the globe, in our families, our communities and those on the front line – together we can lift each other up to realise the fullness of that promise.”
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It was January when the couple made the shock announcement that they would be stepping back from senior royal duties, splitting time between the UK and North America, and working to become ‘financially independent’. Later it was confirmed they would no longer be using the Sussex Royal branding.
Dominic Lipinski - PA Images via Getty Images
As laid out on the current Sussex Royal website, the Duke and Duchess will from 31 March be “privately funded members of The Royal Family with permission to earn their own income and the ability to pursue their own private charitable interests.”
It’s expected they will soon share details of a new foundation with its own social media accounts – likely minus the ‘royal’ label.
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Harry and Meghan most famously used their Instagram page to announce the birth – and subsequently the name – of their first-born son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in May 2019.
They also used the Sussex Royal account to promote various royal duties and tours, share inspirational quotes and well wishes in that recognisable blue-and-white branding – and to shine a spotlight on a different charitable theme each month through the social media accounts they chose to follow.
“While you may not see us here, the work continues,” the couple assured their Instagram followers.
It was recently reported by People that the Duke and Duchess were moving back to Meghan’s home town of Los Angeles from Canada where they have been based with Archie since leaving the UK – prompting Donald Trump to insist the United States would not be paying for the royal couple’s security protection.
Focusing instead on the current global crisis in their Instagram post, Harry and Meghan wrote: “What’s most important right now is the health and wellbeing of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic.
“As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Protective Gowns That Shield NHS Staff From Coronavirus 'Not Part Of National Stockpile'

A man enters the NHS Nightingale hospital with PPE equipment at the Excel on March 30, 2020 in London, England. Justin Setterfield via Getty Images
Fears are mounting NHS workers will run out of protective gowns amid reports the vital piece of clothing was in the national stockpile set aside for a pandemic.
Doctors and nurses treating Covid-19 patients on the frontline need the full-body medical gowns to shield their bodies from particles that leave them vulnerable to the contagion.
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But a report in the Health Service Journal has emerged suggesting hospital chiefs were unable to order the gowns via NHS Supply Chain - the body which manages the supply of healthcare products to the NHS - last week, with procurement bosses sounding the alarm online.
The report quotes a tweet from Health Care Supply Association chief officer Alan Hoskins, since deleted, which said: “What a day, no gowns NHS Supply Chain. Rang every number escalated to NHS England, just got message back — no stock, can’t help, can send you a PPE pack. Losing the will to live, god help us all.”
The Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, a trade union for hospital doctors, said in a tweet on Monday that NHS Supply Chain had confirmed the gowns are not included in the national stockpile in preparation for pandemics.
It follows concerns that some NHS trusts in London, where the disease outbreak is at its worst, are set to run out.
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The government and NHS Supply Chain have been under increasing pressure to ensure frontline NHS workers have enough personal protective equipment (PPE).
An NHS Supply Chain spokeswoman said gowns will be delivered to frontline staff at hospital trusts in the coming days.
She added: “We’re working closely with our suppliers to manage stock levels of the identified key product lines outlined in Public Health England’s guidance.
“We have stock on order from the UK and European countries in addition to suppliers based in the Far East to continue to secure a pipeline and replenish our stocks to help ensure these products are delivered to the frontline.”
The Department for Health and Social Care confirmed on Monday that a further 180 people diagnosed with the virus had lost their lives, taking the UK death toll to 1,408.
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Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary, told HuffPost UK: “There have been widespread concerns about the speed of supply and adequacy of PPE and this frustration will be shared by many on the frontline.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--UK Charter Flights To Bring Home Thousands Of Brits Stranded Abroad

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The UK will provide special charter flights for tens of thousands of Britons stranded abroad as countries around the world go into lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab announced a £75m partnership with airlines to bring home tens of thousands of stranded British travellers, who will need to pay for seats on the flights themselves.
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British Airways, Virgin, Easyjet, Jet2 and Titan Airways will all take part initially and the list of partner airlines can be expanded.
In countries where commercial flights are still operating, airlines will be responsible for getting people home, including by offering alternative flights for little to no cost when routes have been cancelled, and allowing passengers to change tickets between different airlines.
Addressing people in countries where flights are still available, Raab said: “Don’t wait. Don’t run the risk of getting stranded. Please book your tickets as soon as possible.”
Where there are no commercial flights, the government will provide financial support for special charter flights to bring UK nationals home.
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They will be promoted through Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) travel advice and by the relevant embassies and high commissions, and travellers will have to book and pay directly through one travel management company.
The government is providing £75m to support those flights to “keep the cost down and affordable” for those seeking to return.
There will be priority for the most vulnerable travellers, including the elderly and those with pressing medical needs, and there will be a focus on countries where there are large numbers of Britons.
“For those stranded or for families nervously awaiting news and wanting to see their loved ones return home, we are doing everything we can.
“We have improved our advice and boosted the call centre so travellers get better and swifter information.
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“We have put in place this arrangement with the airlines so that we can reach more British citizens in vulnerable circumstances abroad where commercial flights aren’t running.
“And we are working intensively around the block with all of our partner countries and governments around the world to keep open the airports, the ports and the flights that bring people home.
“We have not faced an international challenge quite like this before but together we are going to rise to it.”
It came as the FCO organised repatriation flights from Peru, with the first landing on Monday morning.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Watch Live: Dominic Raab Hosts Daily Coronavirus Conference

Watch Live: Dominic Raab Hosts Daily Coronavirus Conference
After nearly a week in lockdown in the UK, foreign secretary Dominic Raab holds the daily coronavirus press conference. It comes after the UK death toll rose by 180, taking the total to an estimated 1415 . The latest figures include 159 new deaths in England, one in Northern Ireland, 14 in Wales and six in Scotland.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Home Abortions Made Easier As Law Relaxed During Coronavirus Outbreak

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announces to MPs in the House of Commons, London, that 53 people in the UK have now died after testing positive for the coronavirus. PA
Home abortions in England, Scotland and Wales are to be made easier during the coronavirus outbreak, the Department of Health has confirmed.
Under a temporary relaxation of the law, the two pills needed to terminate a pregnancy can now be prescribed after an online or phone consultation with a doctor, removing the previous requirement to attend a hospital or clinic in person.
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The decision, which is a U-turn on advice issued just a week ago, was warmly welcomed by medical professionals and women’s rights groups who had warned that the national “lockdown” had made it difficult for abortion services to continue.
Over the next 13 weeks, it is estimated that 44,000 women in England and Wales are likely to need access to an early medical abortion.
A total of 13 different organisations – including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), the Royal College of Midwives and the British Advisory Pregnancy Service (BPAS) – had written to health secretary Matt Hancock to urge him to liberalise the law.
As revealed by HuffPost UK last week, officials in the Department of Health had sent out an email and updated its website to signal a change in the law, but within hours that was withdrawn and Hancock had said there were no plans for a new policy.
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However, on Monday, the department changed tack again to announce the shift towards a “temporary” liberalisation.
“Public safety and continued access to key services is our priority during this difficult period. We are updating our guidance so women who need an abortion up to 10 weeks and can’t access a clinic can use abortion pills at home,” a spokesperson said.
The change means that women can be prescribed and take at home both pills – mifepristone and misoprostol – needed for a medical abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Labour MP Stella Creasy told HuffPost UK: “The secretary of state has made the right call reversing their decision to reverse the original guidance and ensure women can still access abortion services in England during the Covid-19 crisis.
“It should never be acceptable that in a crisis women’s healthcare needs are the first in line to be abandoned, so thank you to everyone who spoke up to ensure that this wasn’t the case.”
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Creasy added that women in Northern Ireland should now be given similar access to healthcare if they require it.
In Northern Ireland, abortion care is now lawful, but services are not yet in place and telemedical abortion care is not permitted.
Edward Morris of the RCOG said: “Giving women the option of taking both abortion pills at home following a video consultation is safe and effective and has rightly been judged as a vital and necessary step if we are to limit the spread of Covid-19.
“Many women will no longer be forced to make the difficult decision between leaving their home and continuing with an unwanted pregnancy.”
Ann Furedi, CEO of British BPAS, said: “We welcome the confirmation we have received today that the government will re-instate telemedicine for early medical abortion in England.
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“This will prevent tens of thousands of women from having to travel needlessly to clinics and will also enable many of our healthcare professionals to provide teleconsultations and prescriptions from the safety of their own homes.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Tiger King's Doc Mantle Shared The Stage With Britney Spears At The 2001 VMAs

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Like a lot of people, we spent our weekend glued to the unbelievable new Netflix documentary, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem And Madness.
The seven-part true crime series lifts the lid on the weird and wonderful world of tiger-keeping, introducing us to characters like conservationist Carole Baskin, animal trainer Doc Antle and, of course, private zoo operator Joe Exotic, who is currently serving time in prison.
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However, it turns out that pop music fans may have already met Doc once before, just without realising.
And that’s because in 2001, he briefly shared the stage with Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards.
During the ceremony, Britney gave one of the most iconic performances of her career, when she gave I’m A Slave 4 U its live debut.
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And while the snake wrapped around her shoulders was the moment that caused the most furore in the media, you might also remember that a white tiger was also on the stage.
Of course, you’ve probably worked out who that tiger’s handler was…
Britney shared a cage with a white tiger at the beginning of her performance Jeff Kravitz via Getty Images
Does the man in the background look a little familiar? Jeff Kravitz via Getty Images
Yep, that’s Doc.
Tiger King debuted on Netflix earlier this month, and has been sitting at the top of the UK streaming platform’s most-watched shows chart for the last few days.
Doc as seen in Tiger King Netflix
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According to Rotten Tomatoes, the documentary is the most popular show on TV right now, thanks in no small part to the number of people currently on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen an increase in Netflix activity.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Are Coronavirus Lockdown Messages Getting Through To Minority Groups?

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From figuring out who qualifies for work, school and travel, to where to get help and how to exercise, or whether children can visit parents who are separated, the coronavirus lockdown has already proved confusing for many.
But in communities where English is not the first language, there are fears some messages are being missed altogether.
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Doctors of The World, an independent humanitarian movement that helps excluded people access healthcare, has produced Covid-19 advice for people in 34 languages – in partnership with the British Red Cross, Migrant Help and Clear Voice.
Many, though, believe the constantly changing situation is still not reaching some members of different communities.
“I think people need to hear the coronavirus messages in their own language to have that connection and recognition that it is something that is about them too,” Saima Mohsin, a British Pakistani woman living in south London, told HuffPost UK.
″Unless you see someone who looks like you and sounds like you, you do not necessarily think that what they are talking about applies to you.”
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Saima Mohsin Saima Mohsin
Mohsin is frustrated that bodies such as the World Health Organisation or Public Health England (PHE) have not developed simple coronavirus video messages in all the different and diverse languages that exist in the UK.
“Unless you see someone who looks like you and sounds like you, you do not necessarily think that what they are talking about applies to you.” - Saima Mohsin
Mohsin added: “There is massive information overload at the moment with daily briefings and health information – and there is also a lot of conflicting information.
″A lot of people who are not from an English background are probably watching lots of different channels from their countries of heritage and are being bombarded with a lot of confusing and contradictory information.
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″But not everyone watches TV and what is needed is messages in different languages which can be shared on different platforms putting across the key coronavirus messages in their simplest form.”
Dr Samia Latif, who is based in Leicester, is a consultant in communicable disease control and is also chair of the BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) network for Public Health England.
Her personal and professional view – not necessarily that of PHE – is that there are linguistic and cultural barriers in getting some communities to understand the coronavirus messaging.
“Language is a big hurdle and barrier when it comes to access to health services – and that’s even in peacetime, let alone when we are dealing with a huge crisis like coronavirus,” she says.
To tackle this, she has recorded a podcast spoken in Urdu and is sharing it to increase awareness.
Dr Samia Latif, a consultant in communicable disease control and chair of the BAME network for Public Health England Dr Samia Latif
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“I recorded the podcast in Urdu as I felt particularly the elderly in our communities would benefit from hearing it rather than getting confusing messages from other people.” she told HuffPost UK.
Dr Latif, a mother of three, believes cultural and religious factors are also an issue when it comes to coronavirus preventative measures. She said it was important to explain the reasoning to communities properly.
“I have heard people in my network say about the coronavirus pandemic: ‘This is God’s will – what will be will be.’
“I have explained why this is not the correct approach and the way I have explained it to them is that you need ‘faith with action’.
“Yes, you have your faith and that is a good anchor during troubling times. But faith without action is meaningless. You need to take action as well.
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“All major faiths will agree that it is not right to put other people’s lives at risk. It is about taking preventative measures to protect other people as well as yourself.”
While Dr Latif feels there is definitely an issue with a language barrier preventing messages filtering through to some people, she believes pictures and visual images are a great way of increasing awareness – even for native English speakers.
“I think the messages from government are not fully penetrating through to everyone, even to educated people who have English as their first language. There are a lot of rumours and scaremongering on social media.
“There are all sorts of misconceptions and people choose to believe what they want to believe unless you give them very clear and simple messaging.”
“Language is a big hurdle and barrier when it comes to access to health services – let alone when we are dealing with a huge crisis like coronavirus” - Dr Samia Latif
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Mohsin, who was an international correspondent and presenter and has covered 28 countries, says her mission is to consider those who mainstream society sometimes does not.
To help increase awareness and education, she has created videos of herself speaking in Punjabi to encourage people to help stop the spread of coronavirus by staying at home, and giving them the key messages on how to protect themselves and others.
She said: “The important points to get across are that we all need to take this very seriously, and the gravity of the issue for the most vulnerable.
“I have also highlighted that no one is safe from coronavirus, really, as some people have it without displaying any symptoms.”
Some info on #Coronavirus &
an appeal from me to #StayHomeSaveLives
Spoken in #Punjabi - so please share with friends & family
Please take care of & protect yourselves & others pic.twitter.com/ZB23CJU5aT — Saima Mohsin (@SaimaMohsin) March 25, 2020
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Karishma Patel, 29, who lives in Preston, says there is a language barrier in some Asian communities, particularly among the older generation, and she feels some people are missing out on the government daily updates on the changing situation as they are only spoken in English.
However, she says that even when there are individuals who don’t speak or understand English, they usually have children or family members who can translate the coronavirus messages to them.
Karishma Patel
Karishma says social distancing and isolation to tackle coronavirus are especially important within Asian communities as health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and asthma are common.
“In the Asian community, it is the older generation of parents and grandparents who are not realising the severity of the situation.” she said.
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“I do think there needs to be more messages put out in different languages such as Urdu. And I feel messages in other languages from authority figures who they respect would help people take the coronavirus pandemic more seriously.”
Not everyone agrees. Atifa Hansrot, 25, who teaches English as a foreign language, feels that the message has started to sink in with all communities, and doesn’t believe not speaking or understanding English is necessarily a barrier.
Atifa Hansrot
“I think maybe people didn’t realise the severity of coronavirus at first, but as time has progressed and more and more people are dying of it, the enormity of it all is starting to sink in with everyone.” she said.
“There are deaths all over the world and this is a global issue so just because you don’t speak English, I don’t think you will be unaware of what is going on.
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“I think it is important that people who don’t have English as their own language should be updated regularly by family members who do speak and understand English.”
Atifa told HuffPost UK that her own mother doesn’t really speak English but was too afraid to leave the house due to coronavirus even before the lockdown happened.
She added that the UK’s restrictions, brought in a week ago, have been a major step forward.
As a teacher to students who come from countries including the Middle East, Spain and Thailand who she is now teaching via online measures, she said they were petrified and before the lockdown, couldn’t understand why shops and restaurants in the UK were still open.
“I think the lockdown has played an important part in making people from all communities realise the implications and how serious coronavirus is.”
“At times of anxiety, people are much more reassured and are likely to heed messages in a language that they are familiar with. It has a calming effect.” - Baroness Sayeeda Warsi
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Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a member of the House of Lords and pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Bolton, has also recorded a few videos in Urdu to explain issues around coronavirus and to clarify social distancing to people.
Some clarification, a plea and some advice- my message in Urdu for those communities where the message may still not be getting through
Please feel free to share #CoronaCrisisuk pic.twitter.com/F890S8vYLT — Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) March 22, 2020
She told HuffPost UK that language barriers are more of an issue for the older generation in communities, particularly those in their 70s and 80s.
But she feels increasing awareness to people in other languages is a responsibility for everyone and that those who are bilingual or trilingual should play their part in educating people.
“At times of anxiety, people are much more reassured and are likely to heed messages in a language that they are familiar with.” she said. “It has a calming effect.
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“I think spreading the message and increasing awareness is a responsibility that falls on all of us and not just the government.
“We can all amplify the messages that are going out and spread awareness in different languages.”
A sign at an entrance to the Underground station. PA
But language may not be the only obstacle for some communities.
She explained: “In societies where mixing with parents and siblings is a daily occurence, to suddenly not be able to see people is a big thing.
“For example, in the Asian community, when there is a birth or a death, a lot of people will go round to give their congratulations or pay their respects.
“Popping in to see people and sharing meals is a big part of Asian culture, so it is a big cultural shift to suddenly not meet up with people outside your own home.
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“It fundamentally goes against the grain of everything they have ever done and the traditional way of life.”
But Warsi adds this social shift is difficult for everyone – not just Asian communities.
“When things are hard, your usual instinct is to go round and see someone.” she said to HuffPost UK. “But this is a unique situation where the correct measure is to not see people.
“Most people want to be together, but we are being told we need to stay apart.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Rainbows In Windows Spread Positivity During Coronavirus Lockdown

Rainbows In Windows Spread Positivity During Coronavirus Lockdown
Pictures of rainbows have been put up in windows across Scotland in a bid to spread positivity during the coronavirus lockdown. Children have been painting the posters to include messages of thanks for key workers, as well as uplifting messages for neighbours to read.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Coronavirus UK Death Toll Rises By 180 to 1,408

It was announced on Saturday that more than 1,000 people had died after contracting the virus in the UK. Henry Nicholls / Reuters
Some 180 hospital patients in the UK have died of coronavirus in 24 hours, the latest figures show, bringing the UK total to 1,408.
The statistics were released individually by public health chiefs in all four nations before being confirmed by the Department of Health and Social Care hours later.
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Statista
The four nations’ 24-hour increases match the department, but they had self-reported total death counts that came to 1,415 overall. It was not immediately clear whether the DHSC or one of the four nations was responsible for the discrepancy.
The deaths over a 24-hour period include 159 in England, one in Northern Ireland, 14 in Wales and six in Scotland.
Correction: an earlier version of this story stated that there had been an additional 22 deaths in Northern Ireland. In fact there was a single additional death, bringing the total for that nation to 22.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--The Coronavirus Response Was Never Just About Saving Lives

Why is politics apparently getting in the way of the experts and their advice? Getty Images
Politicians are telling us that the fight against Covid-19 is being led by expert advice. They make managing health emergencies sound straightforward: experts advise, politicians listen and policy gets made.
Yet we are still seeing conflicting advice around questions such as, do we stay one or two metres apart? Do we self-isolate for seven or 14 days if we are showing symptoms? And why are we diverging in how seriously we treat the pandemic, how we deal with it and how we prevent it in future?
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The history of the World Health Organisation shows how global health has never just been about governments following expert advice. We must be honest about the political forces which are shaping responses to the pandemic.
In 1946 a group of experts gathered in Paris to discuss plans for a new organisation, which became the WHO. They all shared one key idea: the new body should be ‘non-political’.
Many of them had worked with the WHO’s predecessor, the League of Nations Health Organisation, which had been dragged down by the League’s failure in the 1930s. To avoid the same fate, they argued that the WHO should be independent of the UN (the reason why it’s not called the United Nations Health Organisation), that it should be a purely technical body above political conflict and that every country should be a member. The WHO’s first director general predicted a new era of global health cooperation which would ‘bring all the people in the world together.’
The reality didn’t live up to their hopes. The major powers made sure that governments kept control of the WHO’s work and its budget. Certain countries were excluded or withdrew for political reasons, like the socialist bloc countries in the 1950s. And its early work, particularly on diseases like polio and smallpox, was shaped by Cold War tensions.
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The Covid-19 crisis has dragged the organisation into the global spotlight. The WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has become a household name, and the organisation has won praise for its public information campaigns on social media. Its work coordinating health experts around the world has become more vital than ever.
But the crisis has also shown how the WHO’s work is far from being ‘non-political’ in the way its founders had aimed for. Because of Chinese opposition, Taiwan has had to fight the pandemic without the benefits of WHO membership. WHO advice has sparked political rows about national policies, not least in the UK. And the crisis has drawn attacks from US conservatives, who have criticised the WHO’s supposed deference to the Chinese government.
It is clear that governments are not always listening to the WHO. When Dr Tedros addressed G20 leaders last Thursday, he called for a united global response to the pandemic. But the meeting failed to produce the kind of globally coordinated action seen during the 2008 financial crisis. Governments are continuing to focus on national containment rather than cross-border cooperation.
“The line between technical expertise and politics is sometimes blurred.”
So why is politics apparently getting in the way of the experts and their advice?
The line between technical expertise and politics is sometimes blurred. Experts themselves often straddle the divide. Dr Tedros, for example, is both a leading international expert on infectious diseases and a former Ethiopian foreign minister. The same was true of many of the experts who founded the WHO. This certainly doesn’t mean that experts should be distrusted. But the idea of purely technical expertise entirely divorced from the murky realm of politics is too simplistic.
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When politicians ignore advice it’s sometimes because they just don’t trust experts, as seems to be the case with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. But it is also because dealing with pandemics on the scale of Covid-19 is ‘political’ in the purest sense – concerned with the exercise of power over a population. Politicians tell us they are listening to the experts partly because they want to avoid taking responsibility for their own decisions and make us forget their own inefficiencies and flaws.
When it comes to dealing with pandemics on a global scale, the politics of global health is even more important. International responses to the current crisis will not just be shaped by the technical advice of WHO experts, but by the political dynamics which govern our world today – the rise of populism and the far right, the conflict between China and the US, and the inequalities between rich and poor countries.
And it’s important to note that political influence is not necessarily a bad thing. The eradication of smallpox in the 1970s might never have been achieved without the impetus which came from the Cold War tensions between the US and the Soviet Union.
We can’t get through this crisis without listening to experts. The desire of those experts in 1946 to create a ‘non-political’ WHO was an admirable one – we can appreciate today how political conflict can get in the way of fighting disease. But the partial failure of their vision also tells us something important. Global health is always entangled with global politics, and we must be honest about the political forces which will shape the fight against Covid-19.
Dr David Brydan is a lecturer in the history of modern international relations at King’s College London


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--No.10 Resists European Pressure To Extend Brexit Transition Due To Coronavirus

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The UK is resisting pressure to extend the Brexit transition period amid the coronavirus pandemic and has insisted trade negotiations are continuing “informally”.
MEPs have warned the UK faces a “double whammy” if Boris Johnson insists on quitting the EU’s single market at the end of a year likely to be heavily disrupted by coronavirus.
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The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the largest group of MEPs in the European Parliament, stressed that extending the transition period beyond the end of the year was now “the only responsible thing to do” given the already tight timetable for agreeing a trade deal and the economic disruption of the pandemic.
But in response the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The transition period ends on December 31 2020.
“This is enshrined in UK law.”
The spokesman also claimed that no EU countries had asked the UK to extend the transition, and that negotiations were ongoing despite the cancellation of face-to-face talks earlier this month.
“We have shared legal texts and they are the subject of informal discussions between ourselves and the EU Commission,” the spokesman said.
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“They are basically conversations which are taking place via telephone as both sides analyse each other’s respective legal texts.
“We would expect those sorts of conversations to be carrying on this week.”
Asked if the negotiations were still on track, he said: “As we discussed at the beginning of those both sides know the deadline which we are working towards.
“The structure of the negotiations has changed to reflect the current situation with regard to coronavirus, so there are more continuous discussions taking place rather than the set rounds which were originally envisaged.”
European Commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie confirmed that talks between the EU and UK are “ongoing” and said both sides would provide clarifications on their proposals through “technical” exchanges between officials.
But the EPP said the coronavirus epidemic further complicated what many in Brussels already regarded as an unrealistically tight timetable for securing a deal.
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MEP Christophe Hansen, a negotiator on the parliament’s international trade committee, said: “Under these extraordinary circumstances, I cannot see how the UK government would choose to expose itself to the double whammy of the coronavirus and the exit from the EU single market, which will inevitably add to the disruption, deal or no deal.
“I can only hope that common sense and substance will prevail over ideology. An extension of the transition period is the only responsible thing to do.”
Under these extraordinary circumstances, an extension of the #Brexit transition period is the only responsible thing to do - clear words from our members @CHansenEU & @davidmcallister
Read the full statement⤵ https://t.co/kPab1B0xxQ — EPP Group (@EPPGroup) March 30, 2020
The warning comes as the EU-UK joint committee set up to implement the withdrawal agreement was set to meet for the first time.
Because of the outbreak, the talks will take place by video conference, with the British side led by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and the EU by European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic.
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The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier is reportedly continuing to recover after contracting the coronavirus earlier this month.
German MEP David McAllister, who chairs the UK co-ordination group in the parliament, said now was the time for the UK to change tack over an extension to the transition.
“The coronavirus pandemic complicates the already very ambitious schedule,” he said.
“The EU has always been open to extending the transition period. The ball is now clearly in the British court.
“The United Kingdom would have to submit an official request. So far, the UK government has constantly rejected such an option.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Tory MP Bob Stewart Calls Coronavirus 'Foul Chinese Illness' In Facebook Post

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Conservative MP Bob Stewart has been accused of fuelling xenophobia after a Facebook post in which he called coronavirus a “foul Chinese illness”.
The MP for Beckenham has said it was not his intention to target Chinese people and later edited the post after a complaint from a constituent.
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Anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate has urged politicians to be mindful of their language as they risked fuelling xenophobia and a “dangerous blame game”.
It comes after Donald Trump faced claims he was fuelling racism for repeatedly calling Covid-19 a “Chinese virus”.
Bob Stewart MP Philip Toscano - PA Images via Getty Images
The Department of Health and Social Care revealed on Sunday that the global pandemic has claimed 1,228 lives in the UK.
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Stewart had written in a post on Saturday that “in truth most people who contract this foul Chinese illness seem to brush it off with a bit of a cough, a higher temperature and a headache”.
He later removed the word “Chinese” and posted an apology addressing “erroneous” and “misleading” information about “advice” about the virus.
Bob Stewart's original Facebook post Bob Stewart
When contacted about the specific use of the word “Chinese”, he accepted he had been contacted with complaints.
He told HuffPost UK: “My grandfather died of Spanish Flu in 1919 and I used the word Chinese Flu in respect of where the virus originated not denigrating the Chinese people.
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“As a constituent emailed me and thought I was being rude about the Chinese I deleted the word ‘Chinese’ because that was not my intention.
“I was not trying to score points; simply to say where the illness seems to have originated.”
Campaigners have become increasingly worried the outbreak could lead to a spike in racism, with numerous outlets reporting attacks on Chinese people.
Matthew McGregor, campaign director for Hope Not Hate, said: “Bob Stewart’s crass comment was offensive and he should apologise.
“The use of unthinkingly crude language such as this plays into xenophobic impulses that our civic leaders should be extinguishing not inflaming, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
“Our political leaders must refrain from this dangerous blame game, and instead join the rest of the country in coming together as never before in a spirit of unity and co-operation.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--The 2020 Olympics Now Have A New Date

The 2020 Olympics Now Have A New Date

Abe and the IOC president, Thomas Bach, said the Games would “be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021.”
This year’s games had been scheduled to begin July 24 and end on August 9.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--Piers Morgan's Rude Birthday Message From Vinnie Jones Sparks 'Offended' Row On Good Morning Britain

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Piers Morgan was forced to apologise after reading out a rather rude birthday message from Vinnie Jones during Monday’s Good Morning Britain.
On Monday, Piers celebrated his 54th birthday, and marked the occasion by reading out a select few messages from his famous friends, one of whom was the former footballer and X Factor: Celebrity star.
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“I’ve had a great card from Vinnie Jones,” Piers explained. “It says ‘happy birthday you total legend’... and in smaller writing, ‘I meant total bell-end’.”
Co-presenter Charlotte Hawkins was quick to question whether the term “bell-end” was suitable for breakfast TV, saying: “Can you say that? On television?”
“I dunno, I just said it, didn’t I?” Piers shot back. “Aren’t we past normal rules on TV? Seriously?”
Piers Morgan and Charlotte Hawkins on Good Morning Britain ITV
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Charlotte then apologised on Piers’ behalf, but the presenter was unrepentant (at least at first).
“Oh god, are we still getting offended?” he questioned. “Even despite everything that’s happened. Haven’t we learnt that we can have a laugh?”
“No,” Charlotte hit back, “Because this is how things start to break down.”
Eventually, Piers relented, apologising to “anyone who was offended”.
During Monday’s GMB, it was also revealed that usual anchor Susanna Reid would be returning to the studio later this week, after spending two weeks in self-isolation.
Susanna has been appearing on the show via video link from her family home for the past fortnight, after a member of her household began showing symptoms of coronavirus.
The pandemic has affected the entertainment industry in many ways, not least ITV’s daytime schedule.
For the foreseeable future, both Lorraine and Loose Women have shut down production, with presenter Lorraine Kelly joining the GMB studio for an hour every morning.
Meanwhile, ITV is currently showing “classic” episodes of Loose Women in the show’s usual slot.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-03-30--The Backstreet Boys Performing I Want It That Way While All In Isolation Is Weirdly Emotional

From jigsaws to gardening, there’s lots of things we’ve found ourselves doing during lockdown that we wouldn’t usually – and it seems we can now add crying at the Backstreet Boys to that list.
The boys recorded a surreal coronavirus-era rendition version of their hit I Want It That Way for Elton John’s Living Room Concert, which was televised in the US in March, and we have to admit we found it strangely emotional.
Still not over @backstreetboys performing "I Want It That Way” from their homes last night. ✨✨ #iHeartConcertOnFOX pic.twitter.com/7UHVOxqJvj — Sony (@Sony) March 30, 2020
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The five lads – AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Brian Littrell – are all social distancing in their respective homes in America at the moment, but through the magic of technology, filmed a version of their most famous song.
It certainly puts our HouseParty quizzes to shame, that’s for sure.
Brian kicked things off from his home in Atlanta, before throwing to Nick in Las Vegas, Kevin and AJ at their homes in Los Angeles, and Howie in Orlando, with special appearances from Kevin and Nick’s kids.
Watch it in full in the video above.
The Backstreet Boys Fox
Sir Elton enlisted some of the biggest names in music to perform live from their homes as part of the televised concert, which was to raise money for the coronavirus relief effort.
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"I hope this makes you feel better. Music is making me feel better right now." - @samsmith ❤
Tune in now on @FOXTV: https://t.co/F2LOxSbA0m #iHeartConcertOnFOX pic.twitter.com/KuXHz7JnuE — iHeartRadio (@iHeartRadio) March 30, 2020
Sir Elton opened the show with a tribute to health workers around the world and said money raised from the show was going to the charities Feeding America and First Responders Children’s Foundation.
Despite hosting the evening, Sir Elton initially said he was unable to perform himself, explaining he is quarantined “in the only house I’ve ever been in without a piano”.
However, he later sourced a keyboard and sang the chorus from Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.