Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Sunday 4 Oct 2020

1. Trump says next few days will be the ‘real test’

Donald Trump says he is doing well but the next few days will be the “real test”. In a video message posted from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center close to Washington DC, the US president said he was looking forward to resuming the election campaign. However, the White House chief of staff said earlier that Trump’s vital signs had been “very concerning”.

2. Government claims technical glitch behind surge in Covid cases

There have been a further 12,872 lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK, according to official figures. The government claimed a technical issue meant some cases this week were not recorded at the time so these were included in Saturday's data. Labour leader Keir Starmer says Boris Johnson has “lost control” of coronavirus.

3. Cineworld set to close theatres as Bond film delayed

Cineworld is expected to shut all its screens after the new James Bond film was delayed until next spring. Britain’s biggest cinema chain, which has 128 theatres in the UK and Ireland, has told Boris Johnson and the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, that the industry has become “unviable” because of the decision by film studios to postpone big-budget releases.

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4. Madrid authorities protest as city is forced into lockdown

More than three million people in Madrid have gone into lockdown as Spain tries to control the most serious second wave of Covid-19 infections in Europe. Local authorities have opposed the measures. Madrid's justice minister said it would cost the capital's economy €8bn (£7bn) and regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso tweeted: “Thanks for the chaos.”

5. ‘Rule of six’ means crash diets and early death for turkeys

Farmers are putting turkeys on crash diets or slaughtering them early in case the “rule of six” puts paid to large family gatherings at Christmas. “We can play around with rations a bit, and we can slaughter them a week or 10 days earlier, so we can reduce the size to a certain extent,” said Nick Davis, who runs Usk Vale Poultry in south Wales.

6. Lengthy delays as dentists ‘go back in time’

Patients may have to wait until next year for dental treatment because 15 million appointments have been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. NHS data indicates that 83,800 treatments took place in May, compared with a usual monthly average of 3.3m. “It’s like going back in time,” one dentist told The Sunday Times. “I saw someone the other day in his twenties who needs 12 teeth out.”

7. Priti Patel pledges to overhaul ‘broken’ asylum system

Priti Patel is to promise to deliver the “biggest overhaul” of the UK's asylum system in “decades”. The home secretary will tell the Conservative Party conference the system is “fundamentally broken” and is expected to promise one that is “firm and fair”. She will trail a “fair borders bill” to be published next year.

8. Weather warnings extended following flash flooding

More torrential rain is expected across large parts of the UK after widespread flash flooding yesterday. The Met Office has issued a yellow rain warning that lasts until midday on Sunday, and stretches from the South West, through the North and into eastern Scotland. An amber warning has also been extended for the South West, Midlands and Wales.

9. Queen said Diana's Panorama interview with ‘frightful’

The Queen said Princess Diana's 1995 interview with Panorama was a “frightful thing” to do, according to a new documentary. Sir Richard Eyre, former director of the National Theatre, said: “I had lunch with the Queen not long after and she said to me unprompted, ‘How are things at the BBC?’ and I said, ‘Oh well, fine’. And she said, ‘Frightful thing to do, frightful thing that my daughter-in-law did’.”

10. Boris Johnson surrendered to ‘terrorist’ Dominic Cummings

Boris Johnson gave-in to the “terrorist demands” of Dominic Cummings to secure his services as an all-controlling adviser in Downing Street, according to a new biography of the prime minister. Author Tom Bower claims Cummings wanted to deliver Brexit, win a general election and then “revolutionise Britain's decrepit government machine”.