thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Cineworld To Temporarily Close UK Cinemas, Putting 5,500 Jobs At Risk

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Cinema chain Cineworld has confirmed plans to temporarily close its sites in both the UK and the US after big studios started to delay their major film releases until the coronavirus pandemic eases.
The decision will affect around 45,000 employees in the two countries – Cineworld’s two main markets.
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It will shut 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse theatres in the UK from this Thursday, and 536 Regal theatres in the US.
On Sunday a Cineworld staff member, who did not want to be named, said they feel “betrayed”.
They told the PA news agency: “None of us have been told a single thing yet, so me and my work colleagues are sort of in panic mode right now, wondering what’s going to happen to our jobs, especially this close to Christmas.”
On Friday, the studio behind the forthcoming James Bond release No Time To Die, confirmed the film would be pushed back again.
Union Bectu, which represents staff in the cinema sector, urged filmmakers to think “carefully” about the impact delayed releases could have on the industry and said: “The delay in the release of the Bond film, along with the other delayed releases, has plunged cinema into crisis.”
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Shares in Cineworld dropped 57% on Monday morning after the news was announced.
A woman holds an umbrella as she walks past a Cineworld in Leicester's Square. Henry Nicholls / Reuters
Cineworld chief executive Mooky Greidinger said: “This is not a decision we made lightly, and we did everything in our power to support safe and sustainable reopenings in all of our markets – including meeting, and often exceeding, local health and safety guidelines in our theatres and working constructively with regulators and industry bodies to restore public confidence in our industry.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Chris Pratt Really Thought Now Was A Good Time To Joke About Voting

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One Hollywood Chris leveraged his leaked nudes to encourage fans to get out and vote, but the politically silent Chris Pratt decided to focus instead on a different kind of election ... for the People’s Choice Awards.
Weeks away from what may be the most crucial presidential race of our lifetime, the Guardians Of The Galaxy star poked fun at celebrities who use their platforms for good with a joke that the upcoming awards show is “the most consequential vote in the history of mankind times a million infinity.”
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“With all that’s going on in the world it is more important than ever that you vote. Just ask any celebrity. They will tell you. Every day. Several times a day. To vote. But me? I will tell you EXACTLY who to vote for. #onward,” he wrote on Instagram ahead of the ceremony next month. “The heroes before us did not spill their blood only to have their sacrifices wasted by your apathy.
“The upcoming 2020 People’s Choice Awards is the most consequential vote in the history of mankind times a million infinity,” he continued. “Vote for #Onward for family movie of the year. Or else. You WILL die. No hyperbole. Click the link in my bio. Let your voice be heard.”
Hilarious, right? Except for the many Americans for whom this election is a matter of life and death.
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Pratt, who has kept out of the political fray for most of his career, received immediate and swift backlash from his followers, who reminded him of what’s really at stake come 3 November.
“I get this is supposed to be a cute little joke but it comes off as really insensitive,” a disappointed fan wrote. “The upcoming election is really important and everyone should vote and for you to try and take that and turn it into an ad for your movie is low.”
Another fan echoed the sentiment in a separate comment. “During a year with a massive unprecedented death toll, suffering and unrest, this post ain’t it. Read the room and check what’s happening in this world,” the fan said.
“YIKES,” a different person wrote under the post. “Imagine the amount of privilege one person can have to write this tone deaf post.”
“This isn’t the right take. What an insensitive joke right now. Voting is serious. It is life or death for a lot of Americans. It’s not something to mock,” another commenter said.
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Pratt then took to his Instagram Stories in four more posts about the ceremony, which he joked is “clearly far more important” than the real election.
Who told Chris Pratt belittling the importance of voting in the upcoming election was funny to post not once, not twice but FOUR TIMES?!!?!! Like mans really thought he did something funny, like tell us you’re voting for Biden/Harris Christopher!! Oh wait you can’t 😬 pic.twitter.com/750e3PpOri — hayley elizabeth (@_haylsss_) October 2, 2020
Fans encouraged Pratt to delete his posts. He has yet to respond to the backlash.
Some of Pratt’s supporters came to his defense, calling the message “lighthearted” and praising him as a celebrity who isn’t “shoving their politics down your throat.”
But many also pointed out that Pratt’s wife — Katherine Schwarzenegger, who recently gave birth to the couple’s first child together — was one of the said celebrities who spoke out last month about the importance of voting.
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Pratt has yet to openly identify with a party, despite many rumours about his political affiliation. He previously said that he doesn’t “feel represented by either side.”
“I really feel there’s common ground out there that’s missed because we focus on the things that separate us,” he told Men’s Fitness in 2017. “You’re either the red state or the blue state, the left or the right. Not everything is politics. And maybe that’s something I’d want to help bridge, because I don’t feel represented by either side.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--It's A Bird. It's A Plane. It's Tom Cruise On Top Of A Speeding Train.

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Mission impossible? Tom Cruise’s health insurance.
For the next film in the blockbuster franchise, the actor still does all of his own stunts, this time atop a moving train cutting across the Norwegian countryside.
The seventh Mission: Impossible film resumed production in September after it shut down in February because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And by the looks of it, Cruise and company aren’t wasting any time getting back to business, i.e. performing death-defying stunts.
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A group of bystanders spotted the cast and crew filming a scene atop a train on Friday and captured footage from the shoot in a hilarious video shared by TikTok user @tomaspangelo.
As the group of people grows more excited realising what exactly they are witnessing, they begin to shout at a seemingly unbothered Cruise perched atop the train. He eventually responds with a smile and a wave.
Director Christopher McQuarrie confirmed that the stunt was indeed for Mission: Impossible 7, sharing a frame of Cruise in action on his Instagram Saturday.
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“Norway’s scale and beauty have left an indelible and defining imprint on our film and reminded us that anything is possible,” he wrote alongside the photo, thanking the The Norwegian Railway Museum and other in-country operations that made the shoot possible.
“Most of all, we give thanks to the warm and welcoming people of Norway. Your kindness and consideration are nothing less than an inspiration,” he added. “We’ll miss you dearly and look forward to seeing you again.”
The stunt could be a reference to the climactic chase sequence in the first Mission Impossible film, in which Cruise’s Ethan Hunt faces off against the movie’s big bad on top of a speeding bullet train while, of course, being pursued by a helicopter.
But trust and believe there will be action galore in the sequel. Earlier this month, a performer, whom we presume to be Cruise, was seen riding a motorcycle directly off a giant ramp before parachuting to safety.
Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise are taking Mission: Impossible 7 to another level pic.twitter.com/eZaa5z8s5Y — zach (@ZachMacieI) September 7, 2020
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--This Is What It Means When You Dream About Work

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If you dream that your workplace is on fire, you’re not the only one having this nightmare. Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, a dream analyst for over two decades, said dreams in which offices go up in uncontrollable flames are common among her clients during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Fire catches and it spreads, much like the virus,” Loewenberg said, speculating about the connection.
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Although dream interpretation is not an exact science, there are psychological reasons why people report they are dreaming more lately.
“Crises tend to stir up our dream life. Just as we’re thinking more dramatic, emotional, intense thoughts by day when a crisis first starts, it activates our dream life,” said Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist who teaches at Harvard Medical School and the author of “Pandemic Dreams.”
“You see an uptick of dreams in general, but especially, obviously, anxiety dreams,” she said.
Barrett noted that for some people, changes with work have given them more opportunity to sleep in or take naps, and that can also increase dream recall.
“One poor woman said that her recurring nightmare was just about the box on the Zoom screen with her boss in it.” - Deirdre Barrett, psychologist and author
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Barrett has been surveying people about their vivid coronavirus dreams since March. She observed that most of the dreams people have about work are negative, such as dreams about losing a job or working under dangerous conditions.
One woman whose job is to deliver food in a nursing care centre had a long-running dream in which the building was flooded, lights were shorting out and some type of monster was prowling the hallways, Barrett said. “All this time she was trying to do food delivery, what she does in waking-life, but just every horror movie thing that could go wrong in the place where she delivered food was happening.“
Health care workers tended to have recurring nightmares about respirators failing in both realistic and fantastical ways, Barrett said. For remote workers, Zoom was a common haunting feature.
“One poor woman said that her recurring nightmare was just about the box on the Zoom screen with her boss in it,” Barrett said. “She found the interactions with him on Zoom so stressful, and she was so afraid that she was going to lose her job.”
In general, Loewenberg said, the common dream scenarios people have around work are being naked on the job, being unable to complete a task or having sex with a boss.
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Robert Daly via Getty Images Being naked at work is a common dream scenario.
Loewenberg noted that just because these scenarios may happen in your dreams, it doesn’t necessarily mean you actually want them to happen. If a co-worker appears in you dream, she says, they can represent unresolved conflicts within yourself.
Take the dream about being intimate with a boss, for example. Loewenberg said it could mean that there are characteristics about being a boss that are attractive to you. “Where else in your life do you need to take more action, be more authoritative?” she said you could ask yourself.
If you want to find meaning in your dreams, Loewenberg recommends keeping a journal to track how you are feeling, what you were struggling with during the day and what you dreamed about in sleep. This should help you connect the dots between the two, she said.
If there is a dream that recurs, for example, “take a look at the outstanding emotion in that dream,” Loewenberg said. “Was it stress, was it fear, was it anger, was it sadness? What in your real life and work, in particular, is causing that same emotion?”
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“If you do dream about worst-case scenarios at work, don’t see it as a self-fulfilling prophecy. First, ask yourself if what you dreamed is a realistic possibility.”
Sometimes, dreams may help you problem-solve. In one 2010 study, scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center told 99 participants to navigate a 3D maze as quickly as possible. After their initial training, the participants either got to take a 90-minute nap or were told to remain awake. The nappers who dreamed about the maze ended up showing significant improvement in navigating the maze compared to those who did not dream and did not nap.
Put what you see in your dream life in perspective. If you do dream about worst-case scenarios at work, don’t see it as a self-fulfilling prophecy. First, ask yourself if what you dreamed is a realistic possibility, Barrett said.
Those unpleasant scenarios you imagine at night could be helping you prepare for what’s to come during the day. Science journalist Alice Robb, author of “Why We Dream: The Transformative Power of Our Nightly Journey,” noted that Finnish neuroscientist Antti Revonsuo developed a threat simulation theory for why negative dreams are common. He argues that these dreams can be our body’s biological defence mechanism to keep us sharp.
Take the classic dream in which you go to class for an exam and forget to bring a pencil, Robb said.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Covid Killed My Wife Six Months Ago. We’re Still Learning How To Grieve Her Loss

Louisa was one of a kind.
A caring soul and a natural leader, if you had a problem, it became her problem too. I can’t count how many kids back home in India she had got educated, how many poor girls had got married because Louisa picked up their dowry tab, or how many families had food on their tables each day because she had worked her butt off.
Louisa fussed over her family no end – she doted on me like I was the son we never had, showered our granddaughter Inara, showering her with gifts, cuddles and kisses, and made every visit to us feel like Christmas.
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At work, she was a well-loved, well-respected teacher, Louisa taught English in three countries on two continents – India, Singapore and here in England, notching the highest GCSE grades in English for her east London school several years running. Her students just loved her,and they would carry her bags as she walked to the bus stop from school. She could tame any rowdy behaviour at school with a tongue lashing that would instantly hard wire discipline into anyone’s brain. If looks could kill, Louisa would be convicted many times over.
It was returning from school one day in March that everything changed. Louisa came home shivering, and I remember her being unable to hold her coffee steady as she swore under her breath about Boris Johnson, a “stupid, reckless b*****d. Why can’t the fool close everything down?”
“The pandemic was suddenly right here, and our hearts were sinking.”
She insisted her illness was not related to coronavirus but the lack of heating at her school. Nonetheless, I had a very bad feeling, and told her firmly she wouldn’t go in until this fever cleared. Louisa nodded.
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Days later, I hear her struggling to breathe. She sounds asthmatic with audible wheezing as I sit beside her and rub her back. I call 111 and, after a 90-minute wait, I’m told that “if she can talk sensibly it’s not serious. Just keep giving her paracetamol every four hours. Wait for another 24 hours and if it doesn’t improve call 999.” Then, the phone went abruptly dead. I winced. That was it?
Two days later, Louisa could barely breathe. I knew instantly that Covid-19 had struck her. After calling 999, I led her gently down the stairs and into the ambulance. As they closed the doors, Louisa waved goodbye.
It would be the last time I would see my wife alive.
“Dad, you have to stay strong for mom and the children”, our daughter Sandra pleads. The hospital reported she had scarring on her lungs, and was placed on oxygen and antibiotics. The next day, the registrar called again: “We have no choice but to put her on a ventilator. She will have to be in an induced coma to keep her comfortable.”
Courtesy of the author HuffPost UK
The pandemic was suddenly right here, and our hearts were sinking. Sandra goes ballistic. Our three-year-old granddaughter Inara wails and demands to see her ‘Mahke’ (her nickname for grandma) “right now!” To perk up, I focused on the circles of family, friends, colleagues, and church groups from New Zealand to North America that all had to be updated continuously. A pulmonologist family friend told Sandra the survival rate once you’re on a ventilator is about 50%, and we began to brace ourselves for the worst, but I know deep in my heart we are losing Louisa to this heartless, vicious disease.
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At 5am on April 17, my phone rang and I knew instantly that it signalled the end. “You better come over, if you want to see Louisa”. I had not seen my wife for 25 days, and now they want me to go and say goodbye to her?
As I kitted up with PPE at the hospital, I looked around and realised I was in the eye of the Covid storm. I was in the middle of an unfolding nightmare as the Covid ward bustled around me.
Meanwhile, Louisa lay in absolute peace. Tubes were sticking out of her body and nearby monitors made strange electronic noises. I felt stunned, numb, before waves of anger, disbelief and shock engulfed me. This could not be real? I spent Louisa’s last 100 minutes with her, talking to her incessantly. “You fought the good fight, girl. Go in peace, my angel.”
On a video call, Sandra sobbed as Paul, our son in law, lifted our brand new grandson up close to the camera. “Say bye to Skye, Mom”, he said through running tears. “What’s happened to Mahke,” queried Inara, in utter confusion. We hoped for a miracle, but Louisa’s vital signs continued gradually down. As her heartbeat came to zero, I squeezed her hand and said goodbye. My Louisa was no more. Covid had taken away another joyful, vibrant, bubbly soul. What’s going to happen to us?
“Louisa is still a prominent presence in the house. I still hear her booming voice everywhere I walk. I keep staring at my phone, expecting her to ring.”
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Since that day, I have hardly gone out. I just want to stay put, surrounded by memories of Louisa. I cannot accept she is gone, that she will never come back. Sandra and Paul have grown paranoid of Covid, while Inara washes her hands twenty times a day – Sandra had said her Mahke went over to the skies to become a star, because those dirty germs here didn’t want her to be with the little one anymore. Now, when it gets dark, Inara cheekily opens the curtains and strains her eyes to look at the stars, asking Sandra to show where exactly her Mahke is in the galaxy now.
Nothing can, or ever will, fill the hole in our hearts. Six months now since her passing, Louisa is still a prominent presence in the house. I still hear her booming voice everywhere I walk. I keep staring at my phone, expecting her to ring – she would call three times a day without fail, whichever part of the world I was in. I can hardly finish a meal now – she would always eat with me when we were at home. When people talk to me, I hear without listening. A deep-rooted numbness fills my very soul. I’ve learned grief is a hidden, living, unhealing wound – which no medicine can cure.
Louisa was larger than life. She was unique in putting others before her, and I know her legacy will live on. She could never be reduced to a mere Covid statistic.
Life has to go on, they say, but that feels impossible when this pandemic is going on too. How many more beautiful souls will it take away? How many more families like ours will lose their loved ones to this ruthless killer?
History shows us the resilience of the human spirit is nothing if not remarkable. I know my family and others in the same boat shall surely overcome, with numbing pain in our hearts but with hope in our minds.
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Until then, it will be grief that fills our heart.
Dr Gladius Kulothangan is a global management consultant and business management lecturer


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--I’m Living In One Of The Most Locked-Down Places In The World Due To Covid-19

The author sits on her balcony, where she's spent a lot of time during the lockdown. Courtesy of Malia Makowicki
The cop car drove by slowly, with the window down. I whistled for my dog, Thor, then held my breath. He was off-leash. I was in my slippers and bathrobe, not wearing a mask and it was after 9pm. That was at least three finable offences in Melbourne, Australia.
Currently, the five million residents of Melbourne are in the ninth week of Stage 4 lockdown and the sixth month of stay-at-home orders. Some of these restrictions have begun to lift, but we have been one of the most locked-down places in the world for the longest amount of time. At the height of Stage 4 (the strictest level), only essential businesses were open and there were many finable offences, including but not limited to:
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An 8 p.m. curfew: $1,652 fine, repeat offenders can be fined up to $10,000
Mandatory mask-wearing: $200 fine
Breaching isolation orders after testing positive for COVID-19: $4,957, up to $20,000 for repeat offenders
Being with more than one other person
One visit to the grocery store per household per day. Must be by yourself.
Spending more than one hour outside for exercise purposes only
Traveling more than five kilometres (3.1 miles for you Americans) away from your home. This is enforced with vehicle checkpoints for cars and bicycles
So, I held my breath, hoping to avoid one of those many fines. Maybe it was the slippers and giant Seahawks bathrobe or maybe the police were just patrolling, not keen to arrest anyone that night. Whatever the case, the car kept driving and I was off the hook. Lucky. Privileged, really.
As cliché as it is, as an American I’m “blessed” to be living here, with a stable job, incredibly loving partner, accessible workers’ rights, free Medicare, thousands of miles away from the overwhelming chaos, injustice and hurt in the United States.
Regardless, as the car drove on, the emotional wave hit me. Rising up through my body like a mean friend I’ve tried so hard to ignore, I stood on the street corner and sobbed. Just a few tears that time, but it’s been more, so much more. I miss home.
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Throughout the last six months, the stages of lockdown in Melbourne have varied and with them so have my emotions. In March, it started similarly to the stay-at-home orders in the States.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to keep our jobs and not be directly affected by the virus were all spending time at home on Zoom in leggings and hoodies, swapping puzzles, hosting Zoom birthday parties, and baking homemade bagels. We obsessively read the news and collectively tried to figure this thing out. There were fines for traveling out of the city, and the borders to other states were closed. But we thought, “We can do this. The restrictions will only last until June.”
This is the part of the story that Americans also experienced. But then, the United States went in a very different direction and I was left wondering when I would ever make it home again.
By June, Melbournians “flattened the curve” with the number of new daily cases dropping to single digits (a feat the United States has yet to accomplish). Cafes, galleries and shops reopened with restricted capacities. The borders between states started to open as well. Now, sometimes I ask myself if that two-week period was a dream.
Then the second wave hit. Like an earthquake aftershock, this one felt heavier and harder than the first. This part of the Covid-19 Melbourne lockdown story is something no other Australian state has had to endure, much less any Americans.
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In early July, when a few hot spots emerged, government officials started administering COVID-19 tests door-to-door in certain Melbourne neighbourhoods. We were back to closed state borders and only essential services open. On our team Zoom calls, we no longer swapped recommendations for online self-improvement classes or baking recipes. Instead, discussions around daily case numbers, rumours of a mythical, impending Stage 4, and vacation daydreams took their place.
Early August saw the number of new daily cases in Victoria reach the hundreds and sure enough Melbourne was plunged into Stage 4 lockdown — where boredom, anxiety, resentment and homesickness have been building ever since.
This is a very different reality than what I see when I log onto social media and digitally check in with my friends back in the U.S. Their posts show halfhearted attempts at wearing masks at bachelorette parties, groups going camping, friends having a “socially distanced” dinner party. They know COVID-19 is taking a tragic toll on Americans and are kind of trying to stop the spread. For the most part, these are weak attempts in comparison to Melbourne’s mandatory restrictions, and I’m left feeling resentful.
The borders to Australia are closed for non-citizens. And the borders to Victoria are closed to everyone. For people like me, on a temporary visa awaiting a more permanent status, I can’t leave Australia.
Even if I broke my visa status (essentially ending my loving relationship and quitting my job) and had enough funds to book an expensive, three-stop, 34-hour-minimum flight to the US, I wouldn’t be able to return to Australia.
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Sure, I can send cards, care packages, and flowers to loved ones in America. We can FaceTime. But when can I hug them? When can I jump on a plane for a few hours and show up at their doorsteps? Hold their babies? Dance at their weddings? The five-kilometre travel limit and mandatory mask-wearing requirements are not the worst part. This question of “when” is what wrenches the heart.
I took a risk and moved here for love a year and a half ago, but I don’t yet feel attached to Melbourne, just my partner. I had barely tapped into Melbourne, just starting to make friends, when Covid-19 hit.
Now, as restrictions finally start to ease, and there are whisperings of a Stage 3 relaxation on the horizon in November, people are starting to make plans. It feels like a big Melbourne family reunion is right around the corner. I just wonder when I’ll get to see mine.
So, Americans, beyond the public safety decency and quest to help those truly sick and dying: Please wear a mask, vote with compassion in November, and think of your expats, so one day the rest of us can come home.
In the meantime, I will revel in balcony “tailgates” with my partner as we watch Monday Night Football on a Tuesday, munch jalapeño poppers from Costco and remember to find joy in the mundane.
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This article first appeared on HuffPost Personal


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--I Took My 4-Year-Old For A Covid Test. What Parents Need To Know.

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I’ll be honest: I was dreading taking my four-year-old son for a coronavirus test.
Parent pals had told me how they’d had to hold their kids down to get a swab, and I was fearful my son would gag and wretch as I inserted the thin cotton bud inside his nose and the back of his throat.
I had no idea how I’d do it properly, seeing as walk-in tests at centres aren’t done by medical professionals. You either have to do it on yourself – if you’re self-testing – or on your child.
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Trying to get my son to sit still is a little like trying to control a fast, small and surprisingly strong octopus. How on earth was I going to cope, on a grey, rainy Saturday in a carpark-cum-Covid testing site in east London, all by myself?
Images By Tang Ming Tung via Getty Images
I was also concerned I might be testing unnecessarily, given Matt Hancock recently warned of a “sharp rise” in demand for tests, blaming people with colds for “clogging up” the health system. There have been reports of people having difficulties getting tests at all, as well as long waits for results.
Still, going by the NHS checklist of symptoms in children – which says kids, like adults, could have Covid-19 if they have a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to their sense of smell or taste – I knew I had to do it.
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My son was very hot to the touch, and his temperature came in at 39.7 degrees. I couldn’t risk sending him back to school without knowing he was negative; especially because – according to Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, who helped to developed the Covid Symptom Study App – children under the age of 18 show different symptoms to adults. Even if he didn’t have a cough, it didn’t mean he didn’t have Covid-19.
I visited a walk-in centre in east London to get a test for him after booking an appointment through the government website. I tried first-thing on a Saturday morning, and soon realised that while there were no drive-through appointments left, there were slots available at the local walk-in centre. I’ve heard of people having nightmares getting a slot at all, but I managed to book one for that lunchtime. I was lucky, though – by 10am, all slots had gone.
When we got there, it felt a little like that scene in E.T, where government officials are walking around in Hazmat suits and visors to keep themselves safe. The email I received after booking a slot told me kids over the age of three were expected to wear masks, which didn’t go down all that well with my son. Still, I managed to persuade him to wear one, and we didn’t have to wait long – just five minutes before we were ushered into the maze of white tents.
Victoria Richards Covid 'walk-in' testing centre.
In the tent, a visor-wearing assistant handed me a grey package containing the test through a slot in a hard plastic screen. We were shown to an open cubicle with two chairs and a table, where another assistant talked me through what I had to do.
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I opened the package. There was a plastic envelope with some white absorbent cotton inside, a hermetically-sealed pack containing a new sterile cotton bud, a barcode and a test tube filled with light orange liquid to preserve our swab.
There were instructions on the wall, but the person assigned to our booth coached us through it from a distance. According to government advice, you can swab both nostrils in children rather than reaching their tonsils through their throat, which I felt more confident doing. My son had to blow his nose first with a tissue, then we were ready.
I sat him on my lap, told him to lie backwards in my arms, and said I was going to “tickle his nose” with a “funny cotton bud”, which I was able to snap in half, because it was so long. Luckily, he found that idea hilarious. I then had to insert it deep into each of his nostrils for 10 seconds apiece. He counted for us, while I did it as gently as I could. He wriggled and squirmed, as expected, but it was all over within 20 seconds – and not half as bad as I’d feared.
After, I put the used swab into the test tube, sealed it shut in the envelope (the square of cotton was there to absorb any leakage, I discovered), posted the entire thing through a mail chute and left. His results came back by text message 30 hours later: Covid-negative. Phew. By the time he went back to school, his temperature had vanished, too.
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Victoria Richards Victoria took her four-year-old son for a Covid test.
Wondering whether to get a test for your child?Here’s what you need to know:
Get a test if your child has one of these three symptoms. The NHS states if your child has a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss of change to their sense of smell or taste, you should test them for Covid-19.
Speaking to HuffPost UK, A&E doctor Dr Sarah Williams, said: “Parents only need to take their children for a Covid test if they have a cough, fever, loss of taste or smell. If they have a runny nose without any of those key symptoms, definitely not. A child may have a cold, but they could also have Covid-19, and therefore present with more symptoms.”
Explain to your child what’s going to happen. Make sure you tell your child in advance exactly what’s going to happen, and why – “to keep you safe!” – but play it down, so it doesn’t sound like a big deal.
Swot up – you’ll be doing it the test, not a medical professional. Prepare, or familiarise yourself, with what you’ll be doing. See the guidelines, plus drawings, on the government website.
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Take a mask for your child, too. Children under the age of 11 don’t need to wear a face covering in day-to-day life, and children under three are advised against it, according to government guidelines. But when you’re taking your child to a testing site, if they’re over three – and will do so – it’s recommended.
Take a bottle of water. There may not be any facilities (toilets, refreshments) at testing sites, so take snacks and a bottle of water with you.
Don’t forget entertainment. Depending on demand and timings, you might have to wait at, or outside, the testing site for a while. Take entertainment for your child, if you think they need it.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Will We Have Enough Food For Winter?

Will We Have Enough Food For Winter?

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Curfew restrictions, new rules, and talks of a potential lockdown 2.0 has driven people to start panic-buying once more – ready for a worst-case scenario ahead of the colder months.
The much-anticipated second wave is already bringing with it round two of empty shelves and booked delivery slots. Tescos and Morrisons are limiting items, such as toilet roll, flour, dried pasta, and anti-bacterial wipes. While Ocado and Sainsbury’s are warning customers they’re experiencing high demand online.
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In March, Covid-19 highlighted just how vulnerable the UK’s food supply chains were – and the slow reaction of retailers taking action to ration caused a devastating ripple effect. So will we have enough food this winter? And how did lockdown change our shopping habits? We speak to those keeping Britain fed.
John Coletti via Getty Images
Did lockdown change our food shopping habits?
Earlier this year, cheesemakers were forced to throw out produce because they weren’t able to sell it. The craft beer industry was equally hard hit, with makers flushing beer down the drain. And many farmers left fruit and vegetables to rot in fields because there were no workers available to pick them. It was tough – and they had little preparation.
“The collapse in food service has been terrible,” says John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, who represents 1,300 small food and drink businesses in the UK and has been working closely with independent retailers throughout the crisis.
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“Any food producer who supplies to restaurants, pubs and hotels have had their orders fall off a cliff because of closures and a lack of workers. However, during lockdown, there was a huge shift in supporting your local shop. Whether it’s a deli, farm shop or a convenience store, there was a big uplift in sales.”
Farmers found new supply opportunities, building community through local food purchasing and adapting quickly to the fast-changing situation – but it’s left supermarkets lagging behind in the dust.
“Supermarkets have let people down,” says Abby Allen, sales and marketing director at Pipers Farm in Devon, who works with 25 small-scale family farms. Allen believes they haven’t been able to “pivot and meet demands”, adding that their supply chains have been “slow to react”.
“Shopping behaviours are changing fast and many aren’t going back to supermarkets and opting to support local instead,” she says.
Matt Austin Pipers Farm
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Will we have enough food for winter, then?
Coronavirus had a detrimental effect on the UK’s food supply earlier this year, but in the last six months, many have worked around the clock to strengthen broken links with producers and to create a better food supply chain that works for everyone for future generations to come.
“Without sounding romantic – hopefully, there’ll be less globalisation and buying only what we need in the future,” says Farrand. “There’s an understanding again about locality, seasonality, and how you can get your weekly shop from a one-mile radius.”
Catherine Chong, director of Farms to Feed Us, a nationwide database that was set up in response to Covid-19, also believes food supply is healthy. “We’re not seeing a lack of food in the UK,” she says. “In fact, what’s happening is retailing can’t keep up with the supply of food on certain lines. There’s enough food out there, people just have to look elsewhere and beyond the supermarket.”
Farmers and farmworkers like Allen are now classed as key workers, which defines the importance of their work keeping people fed through a difficult time. “We’re a very adaptable, resilient bunch and we’re used to having to change with nature – Covid-19 has been no different,” explains Allen. “Farmers have developed a relationship directly with their customers. They get feedback and they can learn from that.”
Of course, supermarkets are more prepared this time around. Some are limiting items, while others are prepared to add in restrictions if and when is necessary. It’s likely we won’t see the empty shelves for as long as we did in March. Supermarkets are convenient – one-stop-shops with everything you need under one roof. And not everyone can afford to shop locally, especially during one of the deepest recessions this country has faced since records began.
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But Farrand says produce isn’t always more expensive than the supermarkets. “A lot of farm shops are better quality at the same price or sometimes cheaper,” he says, “certainly on things like meat, fruit, and vegetables than in supermarkets.”
So, how will people shop for food now?
One of the societal benefits to lockdown and the pandemic is that it’s made us reassess, strengthen links and figure out what was wrong pre-Covid. From how we organise getting food from A to B to how we help small-scale farmers.
Online shopping has become a lifeline for many, too, and we’re better equipped for a digital world. People who had never shopped online before have put aside their fears and embraced virtually purchasing goods from websites and apps. As well as supermarkets, Allen says the likes of Farmdrop, Riverford and Natoora are “changing the game and making it a real pleasure for people to be able to shop online”.
Of course, supermarkets will always be an option – and sometimes the only option – for many. But resisting the urge to panic-buy will mean there’s enough to go around for everyone. Anxiety is likely to be what fuels stockpiling, but Hansa Pankhania, a therapist and member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said it’s also driven by helplessness, fear and loss of control.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--The Truth About 'Boosting' Your Immune System Against Covid-19

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There’s no shortage of articles advising you how to “boost” your immune system against Covid-19 – and no shortage of companies claiming their snack bar/smoothie/supplement/fermented tea is the solution.
But if staving off coronavirus was as simple as eating a few blueberries or downing some kombucha, wouldn’t world leaders be telling us to do it?
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“There’s no way you can scientifically ‘boost’ your immune system,” Dr Jenna Macciochi, an immunologist based at the University of Sussex, tells HuffPost UK. “Medically, it doesn’t really make sense – the immune system isn’t a switch that you turn on and turn up high.”
Why do scientists hate the term ‘boosting’ your immune system?
Broadly speaking, the immune system works in two ways. Firstly, by sparking a first-line defence to help us cope with infections such as Covid-19, then secondly – at around five to seven days – the body will start making antibodies and have a more specific immune response tailored to the virus.
If someone’s immune system is operating at a higher level than normal, this is actually a bad thing. Having an overactive immune response can cause an autoimmune reaction, when the body mistakingly starts to attack its own healthy tissues and organs.
“If it goes into overdrive, we’ll actually damage our own bodies and that’s what we see with severe Covid,” explains Dr Macciochi. “With a lot of the people who are hospitalised with Covid, it’s actually because their immune system has gone a bit over the top.”
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Okay, but isn’t having a strong immune system a good thing?
It’s a common misconception to talk about the immune system as a binary of “weak” or “strong”, says Dr Macciochi. Instead, the system represents a “hugely complex dance that’s happening between many different components”.
“It’s like an orchestra,” she explains, “it all has to play together for the song to sound correct. If one of the instruments is screeching in the background, it knocks everything else out.”
K Neville via Getty Images
We inherit some of the key components of our immune systems through our genes, making them unique. “Some people suffer colds really badly, for example, but they never get a stomach upset,” explains Dr Macciochi. “There’s inherent differences in us.”
Everyone has their own individual base level of immunity, let’s call this 100%. While you can’t “boost” your immune system to work at 110% – or make yourself magically immune to Covid-19 – you can support it to function at its fullest.
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“Potentially, you’re sort of giving yourself the best chance of not having Covid-19 too severely and recovering,” explains Dr Macciochi.
How can you give your immune system the best shot?
Eating a balanced diet to ensure you’re not deficient in any key nutrients is a key way to help your immune system function at its best.
“That’s not just the classic vitamin C and zinc, but all the essential nutrients and getting enough protein, because that’s the building block of all the cells and antibodies of our immune system,” says Dr Macciochi.
Taking care of the gut is a good idea for health in general, as is aiming for 30 different plant foods per week, she says. You should also focus on “diversity of dietary fibre”, which means eating a variety of fruit, veg, legume, nuts, seeds and whole grains.
Unfortunately, psychological stress has been found to hinder the immune system – something unavoidable in the global pandemic. But Dr Macciochi says getting enough rest and good quality sleep can help.
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Johner Images via Getty Images
What about those vitamin D headlines?
In short, the jury is still out. There’s been much debate about the use of vitamin D supplements to fight Covid-19 and even Matt Hancock seems a little confused about the research that has and hasn’t happened.
A paper published in the Lancet journal casts some doubt on the evidence to date, saying “laboratory data relating to effects of vitamin D on host responses to SARS-CoV-2 specifically are scarce”. The authors say we need further studies before making firm conclusions, but add “there is nothing to lose” from considering vitamin D supplements.
Dr Macciochi says vitamin D is the one supplement people may want to consider taking, as it’s hard to get from food alone. But she urges caution in seeing any supplement – including vitamin D – as a solution and emphasises that we need to follow guidelines on social distancing, masks and good hygiene practices as the priority.
“Be aware of marketing claims as supplements are able to state their product is good for immunity if it contains a key nutrients needed by our immune system,” she says. “No supplement will be a magic quick fix because health is complex – and the immune system is mind-bogglingly complex.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Covid-Infected Trump Takes Off Mask As He Returns To White House

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Donald Trump removed his mask seconds after returning to the White House on Monday after a three-night hospital stay for treatment for Covid-19.
The US president appeared not to care about infecting photographers or staff as he walked up the staircase of the White House South Portico, removed his surgical mask, and posed for pictures, at times giving a thumbs-up and others a salute. He was surrounded by the national flag.
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His aides have been hit by a wave of infections as the pandemic – which has taken more than 200,000 American lives – further shadowed the election campaign. It is four weeks until polling day.
Leaving the the Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington earlier in the evening, he responded to a reporter’s question about how many people were infected at the White House by saying: “Thank you very much.”
Donald Trump removes his mask as he stands on the Blue Room Balcony upon returning to the White House. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Republican president, running for re-election against Democrat Joe Biden in the November 3 election, was admitted to the hospital on Friday after being diagnosed with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
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“Feeling really good!” he said on Twitter earlier. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
But despite attempts to project strength, he did not look well.
Trump looks like he is gasping for air pic.twitter.com/4k2v4Jxlir — Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) October 5, 2020
The disease has killed more than 1 million people worldwide and more than 209,000 in the United States alone - the highest death toll of any country.
Trump, 74, has not had a fever in more than 72 hours and his oxygen levels are normal, his medical team told reporters in front of the hospital. The doctors declined, however, to discuss any toll the disease could have on the president’s lungs or disclose when Trump last tested negative for the coronavirus.
The team added that the president had received supplemental oxygen twice in recent days.
“He may not entirely be out of the woods yet,” Dr Sean P Conley, the White House physician, said. “If we can get through to Monday with him remaining the same or improving, better yet, then we will all take that final, deep sigh of relief.”
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But Conley said the medical team believed Trump was ready to leave the hospital, stressing he would have world-class medical care around the clock at the White House.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--The Top 40 World's Coolest Neighbourhoods In 2020

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A trendy – not to mention, friendly – district in Barcelona, Spain, has been crowned 2020′s coolest neighbourhood by Time Out.
Esquerra de l’Eixample bagged the top spot based on its tight-knit community, great local businesses and LGBTQ+-friendly culture.
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For this year’s list, Time Out based its chart on the usual factors – a neighbourhood’s atmosphere, the food and drink, nightlife and independent culture on offer – but the pandemic has meant there’s been a new factor to consider: a neighbourhood’s community spirit.
“In Barcelona, as in many cities, people are living much more locally,” said Maria José Gómez, editor of Time Out Barcelona. “The life of the city has moved from the centre to the neighbourhoods, and the Esquerra de l’Eixample is a perfect example: its community feels closer than ever, having rediscovered the area’s courtyards and used the power of entertainment and culture to keep spirits alive through lockdown.
“Now life in the neighbourhood seems more intense and vibrant, with the bars, restaurants and terraces (safely) buzzing.”
During lockdown, locals in Esquerra de l’Eixample gathered together en masse for pop-up Hidrogel Sessions, where residents held dance parties from their balconies in fancy dress to keep community spirit up. Meanwhile, a local support network was created to help the vulnerable, and Ada Parellada from the well-known Semproniana restaurant started cooking for health workers.
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LeoPatrizi via Getty Images Los Angeles cityscape at dusk.
The list of neighbourhoods has been collated from local opinion via the annual Time Out Index survey, spanning 38,000 global city residents.
Downtown, LA, was crowned the second coolest neighbourhood after it became a pivotal, central location for peaceful Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations earlier in the year.
The LA Live plaza was also dedicated to the commemoration of Kobe Bryant, with locals lighting candles and flowers to show their love and support for the LA legend’s life.
Meanwhile food and drink outlets helped feed undocumented restaurant workers and MOCA and the Broad museum kept art alive for locals’ mental stimulation during the pandemic.
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Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong came in third place. Usually, people throng to the neighbourhood at the weekend to discover new artists, tasty cuisine and shop vintage and designer clothing as well as traditional textiles. But during the pandemic, the neighbourhood showed heart with organisations setting up to help the vulnerable and a local hostel offering housing to the homeless.
This year’s list is more about celebrating the hotspots that are pointing the way forward for city life, rather than planning your next trip, said James Manning, Time Out’s international editor. “Consider this list a worldwide shout-out to the strength, spirit and resilience of city-dwellers.”
Some UK neighbourhoods made it on to the list, too. Dennistoun in Glasgow came in at number eight. Students from Strathclyde University breathed new life into the area, writes Time Out. And during the pandemic, the area was strengthened by initiatives like the Zero Waste Market – a refill grocery shop for boxes of essential foods – and Alexandra Park’s Food Forest, where locals of all backgrounds meet to plant and grow for a more sustainable future.
Phibsboro in Dublin and London’s Soho also made an appearance in the top 40. Check out the full list below.
The top 40 coolest neighbours in the world:
1. Esquerra De L’Eixample, Barcelona
2. Downtown, LA
3. Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong
4. Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York
5. Yarraville, Melbourne
John W Banagan via Getty Images Yarraville, Melbourne
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6. Wedding, Berlin
7. Shaanxi Bei Lu/Kangding Lu, Shanghai
8. Dennistoun, Glasgow
9. Haut-Marais, Paris
10. Marrickville, Sydney
11. Verdun, Montreal
12. Kalamaja, Tallinn
13. Hannam-dong, Seoul
14. Bonfim, Porto
15. Ghosttown, Oakland
16. Chula-Samyan, Bangkok
17. Alvalade, Lisbon
J.M.F. Almeida via Getty Images Alvalade and the Bela Vista park, an Lisbon neighborhood at sunset panorama
18. Noord, Amsterdam
19. Centro, São Paulo
20. Holešovice, Prague
21. Lavapiés, Madrid
22. Opebi, Lagos
23. Narvarte, Mexico City
24. Uptown, Chicago
25. Little Five Points, Atlanta
26. Wynwood, Miami
27. Phibsboro, Dublin
28. Nørrebro, Copenhagen
29. Bugis, Singapore
30. Gongguan, Taipei
31. Soho, London
Howard Kingsnorth via Getty Images Nighttime scene in Frith St. Soho
32. Binh Tanh, Ho Chi Minh City
33. Melville, Johannesburg
34. Kabutocho, Tokyo
35. Porta Venezia, Milan
zazamaza via Getty Images
36. Taman Paramount, Kuala Lumpur
37. Allston, Boston
38. Bandra West, Mumbai
39. Arnavutköy, Istanbul


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Meghan Markle’s Former Suits Co-Star Patrick J Adams Admits He’s Now Too ‘Intimidated’ To Call His R

Meghan Markle’s Former Suits Co-Star Patrick J Adams Admits He’s Now Too ‘Intimidated’ To Call His Royal Friend

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Meghan Markle’s former Suits co-star, Patrick J Adams, has admitted that he’s too afraid to get in contact with her since she’s become a member of the royal family.
The Canadian actor, who starred alongside Meghan on the US series, says the thought of picking up the phone to call the Duchess of Sussex “intimidates” him.
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Patrick J. Adams played Michael Ross and Meghan Markle played Rachel Zane on Suits. USA Network via Getty Images
He tells Radio Times: “I have no doubt I could pick up the phone and call her at any moment, but I don’t know what I would say.
“After our children were born, there were some texts sent and gifts sent, but I guess I’m a little scared. I think it’s pure fear.
“I guess I’m scared about the idea of breaking through whatever walls exist to have that conversation.”
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Patrick says he and Meghan have spoken since she started dating Prince Harry – he was even among the celebrity guests at her wedding in 2018 – but her busy schedule means they have lost touch to an extent.
USA Network via Getty Images
“We’ve spoken and texted a couple of times, Patrick says. “But Meghan’s life is incredibly full and she’s been navigating a lot.
“We don’t spend any time together, but that’s not because of anything other than how completely enormous her life has become in so many ways.
“But I have no doubt she’s up to the task and that she and Prince Harry are up to the task together. Meghan is an incredibly strong and powerful woman. It seems to me like she’s handling herself very, very well.”
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USA Network via Getty Images
Patrick also spoke out in support of his friend, saying critics actually know very little about her.
“It’s been wild to watch,” he says. “I have a lot of empathy for anybody whose life becomes discussed all over the planet by people who probably know less than one per cent about what’s truly going on behind closed doors.
“Knowing what’s in Meghan’s heart and knowing how compassionate she can be, it’s hard to watch because you want your friends to be left alone to build their life together.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Has Keir Starmer’s ‘Strong On Security’ Stance Found Its Limits On The Covert Sources Bill?

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer during a visit to Buck Street Market in Camden, north London, to call on locals to support independent businesses. PA
You’re reading The Waugh Zone, our daily politics briefing. Sign up now to get it by email in the evening.
Five long years ago, just days before Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour party, a party activist stood up at a party Q&A and asked Andy Burnham why he abstained on the Tories’ welfare bill. Burnham replied that he followed the whip to keep the party united, but added: “I could have probably won this contest if I’d walked out of the shadow cabinet at that point.”
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Corbyn was famously the only 2015 leadership candidate to vote against that welfare bill, and the rest is well, history. Party activists saw it as a litmus test of compassionate politics, a break with the parliamentary parlour games that tactical abstentions on legislation seemed to entail. Diane Abbott in fact tweeted to me that summer: “If Andy had actually voted against the bill, he would have been leader of the Labour Party in 6 short weeks.”
Under Corbyn, abstaining was often seen as an admission of weakness and a lack of clarity of purpose. Under Keir Starmer, abstention is back in fashion. That’s partly because of his strategy of attempting not to get caught out by government “culture war” dividing lines, but more importantly because “constructive opposition” means seeking to improve rather than kill legislation.
But as the Overseas Operations Bill showed a fortnight ago, some Labour MPs are growing impatient with orders to abstain. A trio of shadow PPSs were sacked for voting against the bill’s second reading, and they were baffled why the party had not opposed the legislation given that shadow defence secretary John Healey had warned it risked allowing torture and war crimes to go “unpunished”.
Tonight, we had a repeat of those tensions as Labour MPs were ordered to abstain on the second reading of the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill. And what’s notable this time is the spread of unease across a wider spectrum of the Labour party.
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The bill seeks to put into law for the first time an exemption that will allow undercover informants working for the police and MI5 to commit crimes. Campaigners have long called for this shadowy practice to be put on a statutory footing, but as long as proper safeguards can be put in place to explicitly exclude murder, torture or sexual violence.
The problem with the bill is that it is deliberately vague about which crimes will be allowed. This is because ministers fear that terrorists or others will be able to expose undercover agents by setting them tests against a “checklist” of crimes. That argument has been roundly ridiculed by the former DPP Lord MacDonald, who points out no one in a real life terror cell or criminal gang tests a suspected informant by saying: “If you’re really one of us, shoot Joe Pesci”.
Justice and civil liberties campaigners also point to the Met police’s infamous “spy cops” cases, fearing similar abuses could be made legal, and there’s real anger among trade unions in the wake of blacklisting operations. Add in the fact that this bill seems to hand law breaking authority to sources working bodies such as the Food Standards Agency and it’s easy to see why the opposition has been growing.
What brought home the extent of unease in Labour ranks was a backbench Zoom briefing with shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds earlier today. Although leftwing Socialist Campaign Group MPs were expected to pile in, what was surprising was other voices that were critical. They included ‘soft Left’ MPs like Sarah Owen but also Stella Creasy and Steve McCabe and even frontbenchers like Emma Hardy. Many worry that the government could junk the Human Rights Act or pull out of the ECHR [both of which are relied on in the bill to offer protections] at some point in the future.
One of those on the call said that Yvette Cooper gently offered advice on how the whole issue could have been better handled. Another said that Thomas-Symonds seemed taken aback by the scale of the criticism. Corbyn, who was on the call, simply smiled in the background. “It just showed that however good the new shadow cabinet are, they are still pretty inexperienced at not just political management but party management,” one MP said. “Is David Davis [a senior Tory also critical of the bill] now the official Opposition?”
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“There was next to no preparation. The party just hadn’t explained sufficiently how we were going to approach this bill, and why we were abstaining now,” one backbencher added. They told me the party needed “a David Hanson-like figure [the ex-security minister under Brown and PPS to Blair]”, to make sure the politics and the legislative tactics were aligned.
Allies of the leadership say some of the criticism is unfair as Thomas-Symonds did several briefings and acted as quickly as he could. Others say that the Campaign Group are always going to be a thorn in Starmer’s side because they simply oppose his emphasis on security. So far the key has been not to have any frontbenchers rebel. “Collective responsibility is being relearned by the PLP, for years it didn’t exist,” one shadow minister tells me.
Others point out that Starmer’s abstention approach is actually based on principle and not split-the-difference triangulation: the principle is Labour can’t vote for something that lacks basic civil liberties safeguards and the bill will be challenged in the courts if it doesn’t. The pragmatism is that voting against would just gift the Tories a Labour ‘soft on terror’ narrative.
Most importantly, Thomas-Symonds and his colleague Conor McGinn went out of their way to harden up Labour’s concerns, setting out likely amendments on “public limits” on the new powers, plus greater judicial oversight, “gender impact” (many MPs were furious about the lack of explicit safeguards on rape and sexual assault) and prior oversight. The tougher line may have ensured that the only rebels were the “usual suspects” (just 20 MPs voted against the bill).
As it happens, with several senior Tories expressing concern (Maria Miller, Andrew Mitchell, as well as Davis) security minister James Brokenshire today made clear he knew more work was needed to improve the bill. He talked about looking at “further reassurance”, particularly on oversight and how quickly after authorised law-breaking that oversight could occur. The Intelligence and Security Committee will also have amendments that Labour could sign up to. Canada has a similar law but with explicit exemptions for murder, torture and rape.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--America, Are You OK? Listen To Running Mate, Our US Election Podcast For Brits

Running Mate is a US election podcast – just for Brits. In our seventh episode, we look at why so many things appear to be going wrong in America, a country that has long been respected and even feared, but now appears to be seen from afar with pity.
Host Graeme Demianyk speaks to HuffPost writers Zach Carter and Emily Peck about some of the many recent news stories that have raised eyebrows about the current health of America – Donald Trump paying little income tax, a Supreme Court vacancy that risks undermining women’s rights and the possibility of a very messy transfer of power in November – and how the country got there.
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HuffPost’s Nick Robins-Early also explains what it was like to spend 16 straight hours watching the unashamedly pro-Trump television channel One America News Network, which also speaks to the crisis engulfing the US.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Trump Leaves Hospital As Questions Mount Over Covid-19 Condition

Following a transient drop in his blood oxygen level on Saturday, Trump’s team administered a first dose of dexamethasone, which has been proven to reduce deaths among critically ill COVID-19 patients.
During the course of his illness, Trump has also been administered a single infusion of a virus antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and three doses of remdesevir, an antiviral drug authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use to treat hospitalized Covid-19 patients.
Trump will continue to be treated with dexamethasone after leaving Walter Reed and is expected to complete the full five-day course of remdesivir at the White House on Tuesday, Conley said.
“We all remain cautiously optimistic and on guard because we’re in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a patient that has received the therapies that [Trump] has so early in the course,” Conley said.
Some medical experts have theorized that Trump’s condition is far worse than his doctors are letting on, given the treatments prescribed to the president. Dexamethasone has only been shown to be beneficial in Covid-19 patients who require respiratory assistance from a ventilator or supplemental oxygen.
After evading questions on Saturday about whether Trump had received any respiratory assistance, Conley revealed Sunday that the president had indeed received “limited” supplemental oxygen.
It can take three to 14 days for symptoms to appear after being exposed to the virus, though symptom onset typically begins within four to five days of exposure, according to Harvard Medical School.
Trump reportedly began showing symptoms Thursday, if not earlier.
Trump tweeted ahead of the press briefing Monday that he planned to leave Walter Reed later that night.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Lords Defeat Priti Patel On Child Refugees’ Post-Brexit Family Reunion Rights

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Priti Patel has been defeated in parliament as peers insisted she must restore protections for lone child refugees in Europe after the Brexit transition.
The Lords, by a majority of 94, backed an amendment from Lord Dubs to ensure lone child refugees maintain their right to be reunited with family in the UK once the Brexit transition ends on December 31.
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The home secretary also faced a second defeat as peers insisted EU children in care are automatically given settled status in the UK.
It was the second attempt by Dubs, who came to the UK as a child fleeing the Nazis on a kindertransport, to restore children’s family reunion rights. Boris Johnson had deleted the protections from his flagship Withdrawal Agreement Act 2020, which enacted his exit deal.
Ministers have said the government is seeking to negotiate with the EU new arrangements for lone child refugees to be reunited with family in the UK.
But peers fear that the EU is refusing to discuss the issue during the stalled talks on a post-Brexit relationship, and question why Johnson stripped the rights from his own legislation.
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It also comes after Patel warned of a crackdown on people seeking refugee status in the UK, including by floating ideas such as sending them 4,000 miles away to Ascension Island, or repelling dinghies crossing the Channel by somehow creating waves.
A child walks next to tends in a migrant camp set up near the Turkish-Greek border in March ASSOCIATED PRESS
Following the vote, Dubs said: “Families should be together.
“The government defeat today demonstrates the strength of feeling that we should not abandon our humanity and compassion by removing the right of children to be reunited with relatives here in the UK.
“I would now urge the government to put their own words into practice, by rethinking its policy and supporting this amendment when it comes before the Commons.”
Dubs added: “The home secretary claimed on Sunday that the Conservative Party has a proud history of providing a safe haven to those in need.
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“This claim does not align with what we have seen in the House today, as the government is prepared to callously abandon these most vulnerable of people, leaving them at risk of exploitation of the worst kind.”
Beth Gardiner-Smith, chief executive of Safe Passage International, said: “This defeat should be a wake-up call to the government that providing a safe and legal way for vulnerable refugee children from Europe to be reunited with their families is not only the moral thing to do, but the will of a cross-party collaboration across the House and local authorities.
“Rather than spending time and energy on pie in the sky talk of magic wave machines or sinister internment camps on distant islands, the government should now support safe and legal routes and back this amendment when it come back to the House of Commons.
“The home secretary said at the weekend that family and community are her guiding principles, accepting this amendment is her chance to prove it.”
Vickie Hawkins, executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres UK, said: “It has been deeply disheartening to have watched the UK government abdicate their responsibilities by attempting to close down some of the few existing routes to safety for refugees and asylum seekers within Europe.
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“This amendment gives the UK government a chance to take steps towards rectifying this: it is surely the bare minimum to ensure that safe routes to sanctuary in the UK stay open for unaccompanied children.
“We sincerely hope that the UK government will show some humanity and accept this amendment.
“Irrespective of the UK’s relationship with the EU, the government has an obligation to protect vulnerable people who have crossed borders seeking international protection.”
The defeats set up a battle in the Commons over the immigration and social security coordination bill, where Patel must win two votes to delete Dubs’ amendments from the legislation.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Matt Hancock Admits 23,000 Contacts Of 'Missing' Covid Cases Still Not Traced

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Contact tracers are still scrambling to reach around 23,500 people after an IT error meant thousands of Covid-19 cases were not logged on government computers, Matt Hancock has admitted.
The health secretary was speaking in the Commons after the shock disclosure that almost 16,000 lab-confirmed cases had been overlooked for more more than a week.
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Experts estimate that 48,000 people who came into contact with someone infected were not alerted as a result.
Hancock said that as of 9am on Monday, contact tracers had only reached 51% of the missing cases’ close contacts – meaning some 23,500 have still not been alerted to their risk of having the potentially deadly disease.
Amid accusations from Labour that the government was “failing on the basics”, Hancock blamed Public Health England’s “legacy” computer systems and said tracers were working overtime to correct the cock-up.
He told MPs an investigation was underway and added: “Contact tracing of these cases began first thing Saturday. We brought in 6,500 hours of extra contact tracing over the weekend and I can report to the House as of 9am today 51% of the cases have now been contacted a second time for contact tracing purposes.
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“I want to reassure the House that outbreak control in care homes, schools and hospitals has not been directly affected because dealing with outbreaks in these settings does not primarily rely on this PHE system.”
The UK’s total number of confirmed cases has now surpassed 500,000.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said problems with testing were “putting lives at risk”, adding Hancock “should apologise”.
He added: “In recent weeks we’ve had people told to travel hundreds of miles for a test, we’ve had hundreds of children out of school unable to get a test. We’ve had tracers sitting idle watching Netflix. We’ve had care home tests taking days to be processed.
“Yesterday we had a health minister saying this could be a moment of national pride like the Olympics. We’ve had a prime minister in a complete muddle over the rules and now, at one of the most crucial points in this pandemic, we learn that almost 16,000 positive cases went unreported for a week.
“That means as many as 48,000 contacts not traced and not isolating. Thousands of people blissfully unaware they’ve been exposed to Covid potentially spreading this deadly virus at a time when hospital admissions are increasing and we’re in the second wave.
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“This isn’t just a shambles, it’s so much worse than this, and it gives me no comfort to say it, but it’s putting lives at risk and he should apologise when he responds.”
Ashworth renewed calls for the government to reconsider outsourcing giant Serco’s role in NHS Test and Trace.
He added: “Surely now is the time to not renew Serco’s contract and instead give responsibility and resources to NHS labs and local public health teams to deliver testing and tracing?”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Millie Bobby Brown Reveals Failed Game Of Thrones Audition Almost Led Her To Quit Acting

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Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown has revealed she almost turned her back on acting entirely, after an audition for Game Of Thrones proved unsuccessful.
Millie rose to fame when she was still in her early teens, playing the mysterious Eleven in the hit Netflix drama, but admitted during a recent appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s US talk show that by that point, she’d already received plenty of rejection.
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“I was just very disheartened by the rejection,” the 16-year-old recalled. “This industry is full of rejection 24/7. You do get a lot of ‘no’s before a ‘yes’.
“I was auditioning for commercials, for anything really.
“I then auditioned for Game Of Thrones and I got a no for that, and that’s when I was like, ‘This is really difficult’. I guess I really wanted that role.”
Millie Bobby Brown Axelle/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images
Millie didn’t specify which role she went for in Game Of Thrones, but as it turns out, her big break wasn’t far off at all.
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She explained: “My last go at this was this Netflix show called Montauk. I auditioned and two months later, they got back to us and were like, ‘Hey, we’d love to Skype with you’.”
Montauk – for those who haven’t worked it out – was the working title for Stranger Things, before they chose to relocate the show’s action to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.
“The rest is history, of course,” Millie added. “Montauk was definitely the one that gave me hope of doing it all again.”
Millie in the first series of Stranger Things Netflix
As well as playing Eleven, Millie is currently starring in the Netflix original film Enola Holmes, on which she also serves as an executive producer.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Brexit Could Reignite Loyalist Northern Irish Terror Threat, UK Spy Watchdog Warns

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Brexit could cause a resurgence in the threat from Northern Irish terror groups who are loyal to the UK, parliament’s spy agency watchdog has warned.
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In a heavily redacted report, the ISC did not give many details on why it feared an increased threat from loyalists, who have held a ceasefire for years.
But unionists have long held concerns that Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal agreement could leave Northern Ireland in a more distant relationship with the rest of the UK – due to the need for new checks on trade across the Irish Sea between the province and Great Britain.
The prime minister is currently attempting to disapply the need for some of these checks via his law-breaking Internal Market Bill.
But the committee warned that new border infrastructure between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK could “reignite the threat from loyalist groups that have previously held a ceasefire”.
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The ISC, which is bound by the Official Secrets Act and takes evidence in secret, added: “MI5 noted that ‘[loyalist] ceasefires have held for a long time now [redacted]’.
“We queried whether MI5 were prepared for a potential shift in the threat level across various Northern Ireland-related terrorist groups, and were told: ‘I think we can be reasonably confident [redacted]’.”
Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson walks past a loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force mural in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2019 ASSOCIATED PRESS
The threat of violence from dissident republicans who want a united Ireland has long been a major concern in Brexit talks.
It led Johnson to sign a withdrawal agreement giving Northern Ireland a special status, following both EU rules and UK rules, to avoid the reestablishment of border posts on the frontier with the Republic.
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But it also means new checks on trade across the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) last year warned any Brexit deal that threatens the union between the province (NI) and Great Britain (GB) has “the potential to bring violence back on to the streets” via loyalist groups.
The prime minister is now trying to get out of key checks via the Internal Market Bill, having promised that there would be no effective border in the Irish Sea.
ISC members Kevan Jones and Stewart Hosie said: “We commend the efforts of MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. However, Northern Ireland-related terrorism has not gone away.
“The threat requires sustained pressure more, now, than ever since any border infrastructure resulting from the UK’s future relationship with the EU will be both a target and a recruiting badge for dissident republican groups, and may also reignite the threat from loyalist groups that have previously held a ceasefire.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Now White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Has Covid-19

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany ASSOCIATED PRESS
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has tested positive for coronavirus.
It comes after president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were diagnosed with coronavirus on Friday – with just a month to go until the US election.
McEnany said in a statement posted on Twitter that she had tested positive on Monday morning and is not experiencing any symptoms.
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She spoke briefly with reporters Sunday evening, but says that no members of the White House press corps spent enough time around her to be considered close contacts.
She says that she is beginning the quarantine process and “will continue working on behalf of the American people remotely.”
McEnany has given White House press briefings – without wearing a mask – since Trump’s diagnosis.
On Sunday she was filmed being asked whether the figure of how many White House staffers are infected with Covid-19 will be released, and what it is.
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She replied: “No. You know, there are privacy concerns. We take very seriously safeguarding the information of the personnel here in the White House. So that’s basically where we stand right now.”
When asked for specifics as to when the president was tested, including if he was tested before the debate, she said: “Yeah, I’m not going to give you a detailed read out with time stamps every time the president’s tested. He’s tested regularly and the first positive test he received was after his return from Bedminster.”
Trump, who has perpetually downplayed the severity of the coronavirus even as more than 200,000 Americans have died from it, has repeatedly ridiculed Democratic opponent Joe Biden for wearing face masks during campaign events.
During Tuesday night’s debate, Biden pointed out that Trump rarely wears masks in public. Trump mocked Biden for doing so, despite widespread scientific consensus that wearing masks greatly reduces the spread of the coronavirus.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Follow HuffPost UK on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Courteney Cox And Daughter Coco Are Parent-Child Goals As They Perform Fleetwood Mac Cover

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Courteney Cox and her daughter Coco Arquette have impressed fans after teaming up for a cover of a Fleetwood Mac classic.
The Friends star had a musical moment with her 16-year-old in a video she posted on Instagram, which saw then covering the song Silver Springs.
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Coco showed off her impressive vocals on her version of the 1977 track, which saw Courteney accompany her on the piano.
Musician Joel Taylor could also be seen playing the guitar in the video.
Proud mum Courteney shared clip with her 10 million followers on Sunday.
She simply captioned it: “Proud of my coconut.”
The post generated more than one million likes, with Queer Eye star Tan France and Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards among them.
Courteney Cox and daughter Coco Arquette Victoria Jones - PA Images via Getty Images
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Coco is Courteney’s daughter with ex-husband David Arquette, to whom she was married from 1999 to 2013.
She is now in a relationship with Snow Patrol musician Johnny McDaid.
The actor was pregnant with Coco during the final series of Friends, which concluded in 2004, and had to hide her bump on screen as her character Monica and husband Chandler were having fertility issues.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Mick Fleetwood Gives Viral TikTok Video Set To Dreams A Very Special Seal Of Approval

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Last week, you may have seen the amazing clip posted by TikTok user Nathan Apodaca, who went viral with a bit of help from a skateboard and a Fleetwood Mac classic.
In the short video, Nathan is seen nonchalantly swigging from a bottle of cranberry juice while skateboarding, accompanied by the beginning of Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.
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At the time of writing, the video has been viewed more than 22 million times, inspiring its own TikTok challenge and even leading to Dreams re-entering the charts (at number 85, admittedly, but a chart re-entry is a chart re-entry).
Even more impressively, the clip has now received the seal of approval from drummer Mick Fleetwood himself, who has joined TikTok specifically to recreate the video.
“@420doggface208 had it right,” the 73-year-old musician joked. “Dreams and Cranberry just hits different.”
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We also have to give a quick shoutout to Mick Fleetwood’s TikTok display picture which is… quite something:
We're actually speechless TikTok/Mick Fleetwood
Nathan’s original TikTok video was shared on the official Fleetwood Mac Twitter page last week, along with the message: “We love this!”
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The group’s post was then retweeted by singer Stevie Nicks, who performs the vocals on Dreams.
Originally released in 1977, Dreams is known as one of Fleetwood Mac’s signature tunes, and was their only track to top the singles charts in the US.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Adult Material Is Channel 4's New Top Shelf Drama – Here's Everything You Need To Know

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If you’ve flicked Channel 4 on lately, no doubt you’ll have seen at least one advert for its new drama Adult Material.
And if the promotional campaign, topic material and impressive cast are anything to go by, it’s going to be a big talking point over the next four weeks.
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Ahead of its debut on Monday night, here’s everything you need to know...
So, first off what is Adult Material about?
As you may have gleamed from the title, the drama takes a look at the modern porn industry from the perspective of a woman who has been working in it for her entire adult life.
Adult Material follows mum-of-three Hayley Burrows, who just happens to be one of the UK’s top porn performers. As alter-ego Jolene Dollar, she has seen the industry go from an illegitimate backroom enterprise to a highly profitable arm of the telecommunications industry.
Channel 4
But an on-set meeting with a new adult star, 19-year-old Amy, prompts her own career and home life to start unravelling.
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Adult star Rebecca More was involved in the development of the show
Rebecca is better known as one half of “The Cock Destroyers”, who found fame beyond the porn industry when she and fellow adult star Sophie Anderson posted a video that went viral in 2018.
She consulted with the Adult Material team throughout the writing and production process, with writer and creator Lucy Kirkwood describing her as “one of the smartest, funniest women I’ve ever met”.
She says of Rebecca: “Does she present a difficult challenge to some of my most fundamental feminist beliefs? Absolutely. Do I deeply admire her? Absolutely.
“And that’s the contradiction I wanted to thread through the whole show, so that the ‘problem’ of Jolene Dollar keeps becoming more complex, every time you think you understand where you are, we take you somewhere else.”
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Hayley Squires, who plays Jolene added: “She’s intelligent, sensitive and very aware of the outside world’s view of the porn industry.
“She’s seen every element of the porn industry and has no blinkers on – she told us the facts and was very sensitive to what we were trying to do as we were to depicting a world she knows.”
Adult Material does not look at porn through one lens
Initially writer Lucy Kirkwood thought she would write a drama that was more one-sided, but wanted to undermine her pre-existing beliefs when she was creating it.
“Meeting people in the industry was crucial, and that in particular did a lot to nuance my perspective,” she says. “A proper examination of women’s agency in the Me Too era demands that we look at the ways we have power as well as the ways in which we still don’t.”
“It never felt moralistic,” says Kerry Godliman, who plays Stella Maitland, a fictional MP. “But it looks at two realities. If you just make a agitprop feminist piece saying, ‘don’t watch porn’, that’s not realistic.”
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Channel 4
Class is another important theme of the show
Lucy describes it as being a story about class at its heart.
She explains: “Once I started to look at porn much more closely, I started to understand better what the appeal of a job that is so unappealing to most of us is, and I felt that for many of the women I encountered especially, that appeal was practical – the chance for working class women to make a good wage, at least for a finite time, while still being able to fit a career around child care and time with their kids in a way that a job in the gig economy or at a supermarket, say, simply doesn’t allow.”
Who is in the cast?
Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake, Collateral, The Miniaturist) plays Hayley/Jolene, who was praised as “one of the most extraordinary actors of her generation” by series writer and creator Lucy Kirkwood.
“She’s the kind of actor I like most, a tragi-comedian – these are rarer than you think,” she says. “Her performance is simply electric and every time I watched an edit I was staggered anew by her ability to make me both laugh and cry, sometimes within ten seconds of each other.”
Hayley Squires Ian West - PA Images via Getty Images
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Siena Kelly (Temple, Vanity Fair) plays Amy, a young new adult star who Jolene forms a bond with, looking out for her on set – but she can’t protect Amy from her own choices.
Siena Kelly Channel 4
“She’s a very complicated girl: pretty naïve, quite an instinctive person and very elusive, there’s a lot of mystery about her,” Siena says. You never find out a lot about where she’s come from or what drew her to porn, although I think she sees it as a chance to rebel and reinvent herself.”
Joe Dempsie (Skins, Game Of Thrones, This Is England) plays Rich, Hayley’s loving and dedicated long-term partner. He understands how the industry works and has become involved in Hayley’s business by running Joelne’s Twitter feed.
Joe Dempsie PA
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“He loves Hayley to bits, but he doesn’t always know what’s best for her,” Joe says. “As Hayley’s life begins to spiral out of control, he doesn’t exactly admonish her for some of what she’s doing because he’s as obsessed with getting ‘likes’ and ‘hits’ on Jolene’s Twitter as their daughter is with getting them on Instagram.”
Alex Jarrett (Les Misérables, The Rebel) plays Hayley and Rich’s eldest daughter Phoebe, who is described as being not much younger than Amy.
Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest) plays porn producer and Jolene’s long-term friend Carroll Quinn. Carroll has been in the business a long time is constantly trying to keep up with the times and technology.
Rupert Everett Laurent Viteur via Getty Images
Of Carroll’s relationship with Jolene/Hayley, Hayley says: “They partied together a lot when they were younger, they’re codependent and loyal to each other because they’ve made each other successful, but underneath that are these hidden cracks and mistrust.”
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Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey, The Royal, Person Of Interest) plays the US porn Kingpin, Tom Pain, a man from porn’s most extreme quarter, for whom ‘no’ doesn’t exist.
Julian Ovenden David M. Benett via Getty Images
Kerry Godliman (Derek, After Life, Save Me) is MP Stella Maitland, whose life becomes intertwined with Jolene’s when they form an unlikely friendship. Stella comes to her defence when Jolene’s career, family, and reputation are in tatters.
“Stella see’s everyone in their box, so she can fight for the goodies against the baddies, but Jolene is complex and flawed, and it drives Stella mental,” Kerry says. “Stella is a rescuer, a crusader, a moral missionary who wants to save and protect people, but Jolene doesn’t want to be saved. And there’s a bit of chemistry between them.”
Kerry Godliman Venla Shalin via Getty Images
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The cast worked with an intimacy co-ordinator on the sex scenes
Being a show about the porn industry, Adult Material contains a number of sex scenes, which the cast worked with intimacy co-oridinater Yarit Dor to portray.
“Yarit protected us and choreographed them so each scene told a story, I always felt comfortable and respected,” Hayley says.
Many of the intimate moments take place between Hayley and her husband Rich, played by Joe, who says that he hopes the sex scenes between them are the most revealing of the whole show.
“We wanted to illustrate the difference between pornography and real intimacy,” he says.
It helped that Joe and Hayley had known each other for eight years.
“We already had a level of trust and understanding,” Joe adds.
Why should I watch it?
Not only is Adult Material daring and thought-provoking, there are plenty of lighter moments and laughs to be had, too.
“I hope viewers are gripped, that it makes people laugh and cry and gasp and have their minds taken off face masks and takes their minds off face masks and antibacterial gel,” creator Lucy Kirkwood says, adding that it should also encourage us to think “in a more complicated way” about the choices other people make.
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When is it on?
Adult Material begins on Monday 5 October at 10pm on Channel 4, continuing over four weeks.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--PureGym Branch Apologises For '12 Years Of Slave' Black History Month Workout

12 Years of Slave Screenshot
PureGym has apologised for one of its branches advertising a Black History Month workout using the words: “Slavery was hard and so is this.”
“Entitled ‘12 Years Of Slave’ [sic] after the epic movie this is our workout of the month designed by Matt Simpson to celebrate black history month,” the accompanying wording said.
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The post was published through the chain’s Luton & Dunstable page on Monday and has since been deleted following swift backlash.
The gym chain has also distanced itself from the post, claiming it was not approved centrally.
A spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “PureGym apologises unreservedly for a post made today by our gym in Luton. This post is wholly unacceptable, was not approved or endorsed by the company and was removed as soon as it was brought to our attention.
“Each of our 271 gyms has its own social media channels which are run locally. We take this matter extremely seriously and are urgently investigating how and why this post was made.”
The reaction has not been favourable.
I can’t...The bit where it said “...to celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth “ Pure Gym? Pure Grim... pic.twitter.com/nhzjRyarpX — Michael Morgan (@mikewhoatv) October 5, 2020
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The @PureGym in Luton and Dunstable seem to think this post is an appropriate way to celebrate Black History Month... pic.twitter.com/kTpdWEuE88 — Georgia Bone 💀 (@georgia_coan) October 5, 2020
One Twitter user wrote: “So @Puregym have a workout called ’12 years of slave’ because ‘slavery was hard and so is this’. V I L E.”
But the workout creator Matt Simpson – a Black man – appeared to defend the controversial move on his own Instagram page and said he had been “ordered” to remove it.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Katie Hopkins Apologises To London Mosque For Tweet Linking It To Police Attack

Joshua Blanchard via Getty Images
Controversial right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins has been forced to apologise to Finsbury Park Mosque after posting a tweet wrongly linking it to a police attack in the area.
The north London mosque took legal action against Hopkins after she tweeted footage of five men attacking Met officers, claiming that the incident and the perpetrators were somehow linked to the place of worship.
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It in fact took place two roads away.
Hopkins’ post – dated May 8 – went viral. It said: “Finsbury Park mosque just after 8pm. Officers attacked. 5 representatives of the Religion of Peace arrested. Zero media coverage.”
Although she deleted the tweet, Hopkins reportedly told the mosque that she would be unable to pay damages if she lost in court, having already applied for insolvency in 2018 after losing an expensive libel case to the food columnist Jack Monroe.
In a lengthy apology posted to her Instagram page, the former LBC presenter said she was “genuinely sorry” and also highlighted the community work the mosque has done throughout the pandemic.
She said: “Having now been informed of the factual inaccuracies of the tweet, I am perfectly happy to correct the record to reflect the fact that the incident was not occurring outside Finsbury Park Mosque but was two streets away in Blackstock Road.
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“I am genuinely sorry for any offence or hurt felt by Finsbury Park Mosque for this clear factual error and I am happy to put the record straight.”
The mosque has welcomed Hopkins’ apology and said in a statement that it was “stunned” by her accusation.
“Finsbury Park Mosque wishes to reiterate its focal role of establishing harmony, positive relationships and prosperous networks, throughout the area of London which it resides, and which is renowned for its multi-cultural, multi-faith and diverse nature,” it wrote.
“Over the past 15 years, Finsbury Park Mosque has won numerous awards pertaining to community work, community cohesion, diversity and multi-culturalism, thanks to its population of several thousand worshippers, friends and supporters from across the religious, cultural and racial spectra.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--I Definitely Don't Want To Be Prime Minister, Says Rishi Sunak

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Rishi Sunak has said he “definitely” does not want to be prime minister, having seen Boris Johnson deal with the job.
Speaking at an InHouse communications fringe event during the Conservatives’ virtual conference, the chancellor said his role was “hard enough” and dismissed suggestions he wants to replace the PM.
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Sunak has been widely tipped as the frontrunner to take over from Johnson, whose performance during the coronavirus pandemic has worried Tory backbenchers amid falling poll ratings.
But the chancellor praised Johnson’s response, claiming that “on the big calls” the PM “got it right”, despite the UK suffering more than 40,000 deaths – one of the worst rates in the world.
When asked about leadership speculation, and whether he wanted to be prime minister, Sunak replied: “No, definitely not – seeing what the prime minister has to deal with, this is a job hard enough for me to do.
“I think we are very fortunate. He and I personally are close.
“We have a close personal friendship and that spreads through the teams, where there is an enormous amount of mutual trust between our teams.”
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Sunak also claimed a decade of austerity had helped the government deal with the huge economic impact of coronavirus.
The chancellor said the divisive policy pursued by David Cameron was “absolutely the right thing to do” in response to the 2008 financial crisis, and meant the government was in a good position to respond to Covid-19.
Boris Johnson has previously attempted to distance himself from austerity, stressing that it will “certainly not be part of our approach”.
Having warned in his speech of “hard choices everywhere” to balance the public finances in the medium-term following huge spending on schemes like furlough, Sunak was asked whether he thought austerity was a “dirty word”.
He replied: ”I feel it was absolutely the right thing to do to get what was an unsustainable borrowing situation under control and I very much support what the government at the time did.
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“It’s only because of those difficult decisions that had been made over the past decade that we entered this crisis in a position where I was able to respond at the scale we have.
“If we’d come into this crisis already borrowing lots, that would have been much more difficult and would mean the long-term was much worse.
“But going forward, both in our manifesto and in the comments the prime minister and I have made, what we are going to do is prioritise investment in public services – that’s something that people elected us to do, I think that’s what the country wants and expects at this moment in time, so that’s what we’ll do.”
Earlier in his keynote speech, Sunak also made a point of praising Johnson’s much-criticised response to the pandemic.
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“I’ve seen up close the burden the prime minister carries,” he said.
“We all know he has an ability to connect with people in a way few politicians manage.
“It is a special and rare quality.
“But what the commentators don’t see, the thing I see, is the concern and care he feels, every day, for the wellbeing of the people of our country.
“Yes, it’s been difficult, challenges are part of the job. But on the big calls, in the big moments, Boris Johnson has got it right and we need that leadership.”
Labour criticised Sunak for failing to set out any extra measures to support the ailing economy through the expected next six months of Covid restrictions.
Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said: “The chancellor just spoke for 10 minutes, but he had nothing new to say.
“No new targeted support for millions facing the furlough cliff edge. Nothing new for the self-employed. Nothing for those excluded so far.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-10-05--Nicola Sturgeon Accidentally Calls MP At Centre Of Coronavirus Scandal 'Margaret Covid' – Again

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Nicola Sturgeon has a lot on her plate during her daily coronavirus briefings, as she attempts to steer her nation through the biggest crisis of modern times.
So inevitably there will be slip-ups. And fortunately for us, in this time of general despair and gloom, there was one on Monday and it was rather hilarious.
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The first minister was discussing MP Margaret Ferrier, who is facing calls to resign her seat after it emerged she travelled between Glasgow and London with coronavirus.
Only Sturgeon tripped up over her surname and called her “Margaret Covid”.
ANDY BUCHANAN via Getty Images
And it’s not the first time she made the gaffe, the first being just three days ago in exactly the same spot.
Margaret Covid #nicolasturgeon
Thanks for the clarification 👍#DailyBriefing
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/89LiXDFCVJ — 🇬🇧❤I want the world to be a better place❤🇬🇧 (@weechubbs) October 2, 2020
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Ferrier said in a statement on Thursday there was “no excuse” for her actions, as she admitted she had travelled hundreds of miles on a train to the House of Commons while awaiting test results and returned home, again by train, after finding out she was positive.
The SNP has withdrawn the whip but the now-independent MP has not made any public statements about her future since the admission on Thursday, with speculation increasing over her position.
Sturgeon has previously stated she thinks Ferrier should step down, a sentiment echoed on Monday by the leader of the SNP at Westminster.
I’ve spoken to Margaret Ferrier and made clear my view that she should step down as an MP. I did so with a heavy heart - she is a friend & colleague - but her actions were dangerous & indefensible. I have no power to force an MP to resign but I hope she will do the right thing. — Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 2, 2020
Ian Blackford has joined a chorus of senior figures inside and outside the party urging her “to do the honourable thing” as calls for her resignation increase.