MY DAILY KITCHEN - GQ

The government invests heavily to remove human contact from many aspects of life but fears of harmful social consequences persist

For Seoul-based graduate Lee Su-bin, the transition to a new lifestyle during the pandemic was no big deal.

“At the university library, I would reserve my books online, which would then be sanitised in a book steriliser before being delivered to a locker for pick up,” the 25-year-old says.

The Chicago jury, which deliberated for more than nine hours, found Smollett guilty of five of the six charges he faced

A jury has found the Empire actor Jussie Smollett guilty of faking a hate crime against himself to raise his celebrity profile.

The Chicago jury, which deliberated for more than nine hours, found Smollett guilty of five charges of disorderly conduct. He was acquitted on a sixth count, of lying to a detective in mid-February, weeks after Smollett said he was attacked.

Anupama S Chandran’s newborn child was sent away by her parents, who were unhappy that his father was from the Dalit caste

Through the rains and steamy heat of November, day and night, Anupama S Chandran sat by the gates of the Kerala state secretariat. She refused to eat, drink or be moved. Her single demand was written on a placard: “Give me my baby.”

The story of Chandran’s fight to get back her child, who was snatched from her by her own family days after he was born and put up for adoption without her knowledge, is one that has been greeted with both horror and a sad familiarity in India.

Quiche fondling and foot fetishes star in this documentary about a new sub-industry – the OnlyFans consultant, who helps people to market sexually explicit material

Late one evening, a large number of internet users are watching a live feed of a woman they know as “Aunty Val”. Sitting in an ordinary-looking British bedroom sporting a butterscotch wig, Deirdre Barlow glasses and a tight vest top that might give way at any second, Val gaily chastises her viewers for their lustfulness, while fondling a quiche.

This is the, let’s face it, intriguing opening scene of the documentary How to Make It on OnlyFans (Channel 4). Val is the creation of former glamour model Alex Sim-Wise, who makes a living not just from performing specialist domestic erotica herself via OnlyFans, but from consultancy work helping others to maximise their income. For those pretending not to know, OnlyFans is a website that allows anyone to set up a paywalled profile and upload photos and videos, in exchange for a monthly fee from followers. Most content is sexually explicit.

Australia will begin administering vaccines for children from January; nearly all of the 40 people in the US infected with Omicron were mildly ill

• South African Covid cases up 255% in a week as Omicron spreads
• Stricter measures than plan B may be needed to stop Omicron in UK
• People in Scotland ‘strongly urged’ to defer Christmas parties
• UK daily Covid case tally remains above 50,000
• Italian who presented fake arm for jab ‘has since been vaccinated’

The latest Covid numbers from France are in.

An additional 56,854 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the pst 24 hours.

Former journalist Gwyneth Ho and rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung also found guilty of unlawful assembly charges

Jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was among three democracy campaigners convicted of taking part in a banned Tiananmen vigil as the prosecution of multiple activists came to a conclusion.

Lai, the 74-year-old owner of the now-closed pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty of unlawful assembly charges on Thursday alongside former journalist Gwyneth Ho and prominent rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung.

Urgent appeal lodged to stop the broadcast of cartoons calling on New Caledonians to vote against independence from France in this weekend’s referendum

Cartoons urging New Caledonians to vote no to independence from France in this weekend’s referendum have been accused of “profound racism and ridicule towards Pacific Islanders, especially the [indigenous] Kanak people”, in a legal submission lodged with France’s highest judicial body.

An urgent appeal has been lodged against the broadcast of the animations, which have been running on television in New Caledonia and online, with the Council of State in France.

Even usually loyal Tory-supporting titles line up to stick the boot into the government over the Christmas gathering crisis

The crisis engulfing the government over the Downing Street Christmas party scandal has given the newspapers the chance to batter Boris Johnson with varying degrees of savagery.

Amid widespread outrage at the video of No 10 staff joking about whether or not a party was held during last year’s tight lockdown, some normally supportive titles reflect that anger with very critical front pages on Thursday.

World Health Organization says new Covid variant spreading rapidly in South Africa, with cases doubling in the past week

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has now been reported in 57 countries and continues to spread rapidly in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

But the latest epidemiological report from WHO says given the Delta variant remains dominant, particularly in Europe and the US, it is still too early to draw any conclusions about the global impact of Omicron.

Outrage spreads on social media over alleged massacre of people rounded up by government troops in Sagaing region

Myanmar soldiers rounded up and killed 11 people in a village, shooting and then setting them on fire, according to people in the area and local media reports.

Photos and a video purporting to show charred corpses in Don Taw village in the Sagaing region of Myanmar’s north-west circulated on Tuesday while outrage spread on social media.

A diver was lowered from a helicopter to pull the occupant from a car found in the frigid rapids at the brink of American Falls

In a dramatic rescue attempt on Wednesday, a US Coast Guard diver braved the frigid rapids where a car had become submerged in water near the brink of Niagara Falls, only to find it was too late to rescue the person trapped inside.

The diver was lowered from a hovering helicopter, climbed into the car and pulled out the body of its lone occupant, a woman in her 60s, officials from New York’s state park police said.

Actor asks whether idea means ‘made in Britain’ – or insisting on a ‘certain political viewpoint’

David Tennant has criticised the suggestion by the former media minister John Whittingdale that public service broadcasters should make “distinctly British” programmes.

In September, Whittingdale announced government plans to force the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to make more programmes that celebrate British values.

A Pacific labour scheme has been transformative for Kiribati families but the brain drain has hit the country’s hospitals hard

Every night, sitting in her room in the remote Queensland town of Doomadgee, Bwerere Sandy Tebau calls her husband and daughter 4,300km away in Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati.

“There is no sea!” Sandy says, when asked about the difference between her new home in the red desert of Australia and her island home in the central Pacific. “There is just a lake and in the lake are crocodiles!”

Finding is good news for lower-income countries that have not yet completed their primary vaccination campaigns

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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Combining a first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine with a second dose of either the Moderna or the Novavax jabs results in far higher levels of neutralising antibodies and T-cells compared with two doses of the AstraZeneca jab, a study has found.

The finding has important implications for lower-income countries that have not yet completed their primary vaccination campaigns, as it suggests you do not need access to mRNA vaccines – and therefore ultra-cold storage facilities – to trigger an extremely potent Covid-19 vaccine response.

Researchers credit likely record low to reduced deaths by infection during winter lockdown

Child deaths in England fell by about 10% during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic to what could be a record low, according to the first study of its kind.

The findings sharply contrast with overall mortality for England’s population, which was 14% higher than the previous year.

Industry body warns that some operators won’t last the winter after return of strict Covid travel rules

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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Travel firms have called on the government to provide urgent financial help as fresh Covid-19 restrictions come in to force on Tuesday, hitting holiday travel just before the peak booking period.

Turnover has been at just 22% of normal levels for tour operators, according to figures from the travel association Abta.

In the most horrifying episode of the show so far, Shiv and Roman take things too far at the Tuscan wedding, Logan is left incandescent with rage … and then there’s Kendall

Spoiler alert: this recap is for people watching Succession season three, which airs on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK. Do not read on unless you have watched episode eight.

Wedding bells were ringing. So were alarm bells in Waystar Royco’s HR department. But is a funeral toll about to ring out, too? Here are your tasting notes for the penultimate episode, titled Chiantishire …

South-east is the only region where at least half of 12- to 15-year-olds have been vaccinated

Children in some parts of England are three times more likely to be vaccinated than others, figures from the House of Commons library show, prompting Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s newly appointed shadow education secretary, to criticise the government for its lacklustre efforts to vaccinate young teenagers.

The figures – collated by the House of Commons library and distributed by Labour – reveal that in some parts of London just one in five children aged between 12 and 15 had received a vaccination at the start of December.

Analysis: The task of Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense may be to tangle her so deeply in Epstein’s shadow that they cannot find her guilty

The graphic testimony presented to jurors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal sex abuse trial last week seemed at times to mesh and then detach from broader theories – criminal, conspiratorial or both – about the nature of Jeffrey Epstein’s world.

Whether prosecutors and defense attorneys are successful in separating criminal conspiracy from the conspiracy theories that run through the entire Epstein-Maxwell narrative may determine how the criminal complaint against the 59-year-old former British socialite is ultimately resolved.

No indication of terrorism, say Derbyshire police, nor of when residents will be allowed back home

A man has been arrested on suspicion of making or possessing an explosive substance in Derby, as more than 50 houses were evacuated in the area.

The man remains in police custody, but there is no indication it is a terror-related incident, Derbyshire police said. The military is at the scene after officers carried out a warrant in King Alfred Street, Normanton, at about 11.30am on Sunday.