Covid-19: Travel advice changed and call for universal credit vote

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday evening. We'll have another update for you tomorrow morning.

Britons will no longer be advised to avoid holidays to 32 destinations around the world - including Bangladesh, Fiji, Gambia and Malaysia. The change, announced by the Foreign Office, should make it easier for people going to these places to get travel insurance. These countries and destinations were not on the red list - but the Foreign Office was still advising against non-essential travel to them because of Covid. It comes after travel rules in the UK were simplified this week.

A Conservative peer who helped design the universal credit system has called again for a vote on the end of the £20-a-week top-up to the benefit. Baroness Philippa Stroud said it was a "really bleak day" for many families as the extra money - which the government says was designed to help people through the toughest stages of the pandemic - is withdrawn from today. New Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC the top-up was always meant to be temporary.

Boris Johnson said former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would have warned against more borrowing to help public finances after Covid, because it would mean higher interest rates and taxes later. Addressing his party conference on dealing with the pandemic, he said the Conservatives had "looked after the NHS for most of its history" and could "rise to the challenge" and deal with the backlog of work.

The average gender pay gap of all firms that reported in the past financial year is 10.4% - the same as the average in 2019-20. Covid has had a disproportionate impact on women, who have been more likely to lose work and earnings during the pandemic. Of the companies that reported by 5 October, 7,572 had a pay gap that favoured men, 1,286 had a pay gap favouring women and 770 reported no pay gap. The BBC looked at a company's median pay gap - that is, the difference in pay between the middle-ranking woman and the middle-ranking man.

Businesses and music lovers have said they feel "torn" after the introduction of Covid passes for nightclubs and large events in Wales. Critics say the pass will divide society and make it harder for businesses to recover lockdown losses. But others, like 19-year-olds Lucy Rees and Holly Hermann, who used passes to get into a concert last night, say they feel safer going to events. "I was really confused to begin with... but then it was easy," Lucy tells the BBC.

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You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page. For the latest trends in cases, hospitalisations, and deaths, check our data page or see the snapshot below.

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