Covid live: Latvia closes schools and venues as curfew introduced; UK situation ‘concerning’, says expert

Latvia has closed schools, restaurants and entertainment venues for a month; UK reports 49,156 new cases and 45 Covid-linked deaths

• Britons warned of difficult months ahead as cases rise
• Colin Powell, former US secretary of state, dies from Covid complications
• No 10 appears to confirm Nimco Ali's Christmas stay with Johnsons
• Valneva vaccine could be as effective as Oxford jab, study suggests
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Australia's Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, has hit back at US senator Ted Cruz who criticised the Northern Territory's vaccine policy, telling the Texan conservative you know nothing about us".

The spat began when the US Republican shared a video of Gunner announcing the territory's wide-ranging vaccine mandate for workers. Cruz lamented the Covid tyranny of their (Australia's) current government," which he said was disgraceful and sad".