The Standard

America is going to the ballot box, with predictions Donald Trump's time in the White House is over. In this special programme, we're joined by Evening Standard columnist and senior editor of the Economist, Anne McElvoy. She tells us why pollsters are giving Joe Biden a more than 90% chance of victory, but says there are - very limited - ways for Trump to upset the odds as he did in 2016. CNN anch...

After another warning from the Speaker about the number of leaks coming out of the government, Boris Johnson told MPs why England has to go back into lockdown. The Prime Minister insisted the plans are “time limited” and he hopes to lift the latest draconian restrictions on December 2 when the country will return to the coronavirus tier system. But there has been no clear exit strategy announ...

Councils and charities today warned they could be facing an "unprecedented rise" in rough sleeping numbers over the winter as furlough ends and town halls struggle with funding. Councils, who housed thousands of people during the first wave, are now struggling with funding. The Evening Standard’s local democracy reporter Rachael Burford says they’re anticipating £97 million in spending to help man...

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the party after refusing to accept the findings of a bombshell report into anti-Semitism during his tenure. The Equality and Human Rights Commission found the party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination and the party has now been served with an unlawful act notice requiring it to tackle the issue. Our political...

Environment Secretary George Eustice has called the current approach to coronavirus lockdowns in the UK right ‘for now’. As senior scientists warned of hospitals being overwhelmed with 25,000 coronavirus patients by the end of November, expectations are growing that Boris Johnson will reluctantly have to order a temporary major shutdown before the end of the year. Our political editor Joe Murphy t...

President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are heading into their final days of an historic election campaign. Trailing Biden in national opinion polls, Trump will hold rallies in three states key to his relation hopes: Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Biden meanwhile will head to Georgia, just days after Trump was there and where the challenger believes he has a ‘fighting chance’. In the Lead...

While it used to be that when a footballer’s name was strewn across the front pages, it made for grim reading, now English footballers are dominating the headlines for all the right reasons. Manchester United forward 22-year-old Marcus Rashford is taking on the Government over its refusal to provide free school meal vouchers to pupils during school holidays. And, Manchester City’s 25-year-old Rahe...

The founder of revolutionary charity Teach First has warned the coronavirus pandemic risks undoing years of work spent improving education for poorer children in London and could create an “educational underclass”. Our education editor Anna Davis tells us how Brett Wigdortz is worried about an impending national crisis as London risks “backsliding” on all the good work that has been done to n...

More than 300 Tory MPs have been accused of “cruelty” after they voted against footballer Marcus Rashford’s bid to extend free school meals through the school holidays. Opposition figures branded the outcome ‘disgusting’ with many accusing the Government of “not caring” that the more than 1.4 million children eligible for free school meals would now go hungry. Our editorial column says hungry chil...

Every US election is billed as one of the most important of our times, but 2020 really will shape the globe as it either consigns the Trump presidency to history or validates his time as the head of the world's most powerful nation. In the first of weekly Leader episodes that will focus on the US election in the run up to November 3, Evening Standard Editor-in-Chief George Osborne and journalist P...

In January, up to 90 volunteers could be deliberately infected with Covid-19 in a bid to speed up development of vaccines and learn more about the virus. The group will be kept at the Royal Free hospital for two-and-a-half weeks in the world’s first ‘human challenge’ study for coronavirus. Dr Chris Chiu, from the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London and lead researcher on th...

Leading West End bar and restaurant operators warn they won’t survive the winter after a ‘horrendous’ first weekend of Tier-2 Covid-19 restrictions in the capital. Normally heaving streets were left desolate and ‘no mixing’ laws triggered tens of thousands of cancellations. The Evening Standard’s consumer business editor Jonathan Prynn spoke with restaurateurs and bar owners, saying the weekend wa...

Boris Johnson has dramatically told Britain to prepare for a No Deal Brexit after a bust-up with Brussels on trade talks. The Prime Minister put the country on notice that its EU departure at the end of the transition period on December 31st could be without a trade deal with the European bloc. The Evening Standard's deputy political editor Nicholas Cecil tells the podcast why the fallout hap...

Tighter Tier 2 restrictions are being imposed in London  to stop the Covid-19 epidemic worsening. But the government announcement hasn't stopped speculation that a much tougher 'circuit breaker' is still around the corner. Our education editor Anna Davis says the rumours have got headteachers worried that an effective 'lockdown 2' is on its way, with no way to prepare. Anna tells us how...

Boris Johnson's insisting his three-tier approach to tackling coronavirus just needs time to prove it works , but told the Commons earlier that he's "ruling nothing out" as pressure bears down on him to impose a "circuit breaker" approach. Some scientists, including the government's own SAGE advisors, say the draconian lockdown would be the most effective way to halt the infection's spread, but ec...

Despite the law making it mandatory, it's not uncommon to find people wandering around supermarkets without wearing a face mask. Now the big store bosses are being summoned to a meeting with government officials and the police to discuss why. An agenda for the meeting seen by the Evening Standard says it will be an  attempt to find ways to “collectively promote compliance”...

The government's describing how the new lockdown system will work, with areas being placed under three different types of restrictions. Our deputy political editor, Nicholas Cecil, tells us how the rules will operate and why some leaders in the north think they favour the south. He also reveals that a worrying rise in coronavirus cases in London means the city is likely to be put under Tier 2...

A new furlough scheme for areas affected by local lockdowns, paying two thirds of workers’ wages in businesses forced to close , is expected from Chancellor Rishi Sunak. But the Evening Standard's Jonathan Prynn says "son of furlough" will only be available to limited sectors in very few areas. Meanwhile, it looks like the Eat Out to Help Out scheme didn't bring the economic bump it was expected t...

The Commission on Presidential Debates says the next round between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be held 'virtually;' but Mr Trump's refusing to have anything to do with it. He told Fox News the idea of the candidates being in separate locations is "not acceptable". It has, though, been done before when John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon faced off for the third time in 1960, 3, 000 miles apart.&nb...

London’s hospitality industry has lashed out at Boris Johnson’s ‘misguided’ 10pm curfew, saying it's causing huge damage to the economy without the scientific evidence to back up the health benefits . The industry’s most influential leaders say that a staggered system of rolling closing times would be safe and give venues a better chance at operating profitably. The Caterer’s deputy editor Emma La...

Boris Johnson promised to rebuild the nation from the ‘darkest moments’ of the Covid-19 pandemic as he addressed the Conservative Party conference. Following his huge election in, his speech should been the equivalent of a Roman triumph - instead the PM faced MPs who may be wondering if he is the man to lead them to the 2024 election? Our political journalist Sophia Sleigh says this is the time fo...

People may have caught Covid-19 because an Excel spreadsheet failure stopped nearly 16,000 cases being transferred swiftly to the test-and-trace system. The mistake's baffled medics like former World Health Organisation doctor Professor Karol Sikora, who joins the podcast to tell us it's not the first error, and the entire system needs overhauled. He also explains how the updated set of figur...

The White House is insisting it's business as usual in the Oval Office, with Donald Trump continuing to work despite testing positive for coronavirus. But, already there are signs the country's going through a political and cultural upheaval. Julie Norman, from UCL's US Politics Centre tells us how the second debate with Joe Biden hangs in the balance, and even the election date of November 3rd is...

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have given an exclusive interview to the Evening Standard , where they mark the start of Black History Month with a call for Britain to grasp an opportunity for change. Speaking to us from their new home in California, Harry and Meghan warn that young people of colour will be held back "as long as structural racism exists". They also discuss the Black Lives Matter mo...

#CutHisMic has been all over social media after a US presidential debate that descended into chaos . Moderator Chris Wallace seemed unable to control Donald Trump, who repeatedly shouted at, insulted and interrupted Joe Biden in Cleveland. Christopher Phelps, associate professor of American studies at Nottingham University, tells us why the TV network would have been reluctant to silence a si...