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French lessons France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in jail, with two of them suspended, for…
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State of the art Graffiti on Edvard Munch’s first version of ‘The Scream’ was revealed to be the work of…
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Target practice The government hit its target of giving a first Covid vaccine to 15 million of the most vulnerable…
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Temper, temper A Zoom video of a disruptive parish council meeting in Handforth, Cheshire, went viral. It is not the…
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Best before The government plans to introduce labels on domestic appliances informing consumers how long they are likely to last.…
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New normal Why have so many people started saying ‘normalcy’ rather than ‘normality’? — Normalcy has been traced back to…
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Bad service Economic growth fell by 2.6% in November, the month of the second lockdown, compared with falls of 7.3%…
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Parliamentary objections The US Capitol was raided by Donald Trump supporters trying to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election…
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A ferry tale Gerry Marsden, who died aged 78, was credited with making the ferry across the River Mersey world-famous.…
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Now and then Were households allowed to mix at Christmas during the plague? Samuel Pepys’s diary entry for 25 December…
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Last orders The new tier restrictions have made life difficult for pubs. How many are closed? — According to the…
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Dangerous games Sage scientists advised against playing board games at Christmas. Some games to consider if you are feeling subversive:Pandemic…
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Gloss over Should we be worried that the head of research into respiratory drugs at AstraZeneca is called Dr Pangalos,…
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Boris and the butcher’s dog Who first coined the phrase ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’? It has been traced…
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Shot in the arm Global stock markets reached a new high after pharmaceutical firm Pfizer announced a vaccine it is…
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The start of lockdown The earliest known use of ‘lockdown’ in its current sense was in a 1973 story in…
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The Moon under water Nasa scientists using spectrometers claim to have found good evidence of water on the surface of…
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Special Offa A regulation passed by the Welsh government to prevent people travelling from Covid hotspots in England has brought…
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Red light, green light The three tiers of Covid restrictions have been described as a ‘traffic light’ system. — The…
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Vice squad Donald Trump catching Covid-19 has concentrated minds on what happens if a US president dies in office. Normally,…
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Word for word US presidential debates are often traced back to the first televised debate, between Richard Nixon and John…
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It’s electrifying! Who invented the circuit-breaker? Thomas Edison patented it in 1879, realising what damage could be caused to electrical…
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Information overload The government’s plan to put ‘Covid wardens’ on the streets to enforce the new rule against more than…
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Lyrical errors ‘Rule, Britannia!’ begins with the lines: ‘When Britain first, at heaven’s command/Arose from out the azure main.’ —…
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Culture clashes The pop star Adele was accused of ‘cultural appropriation’ for adopting a Jamaican hairstyle for the online Notting…
