Strictly Come Dancing 2019: week nine –as it happened

It was the glitziest night of them all – the Blackpool special! Brace yourselves for a ballroom bonanza

8.21pm GMT

So that’s it for tonight’s show – I’ll be back tomorrow at 7.15pm for the Blackpool results. I also wanted to say happy birthday to Ella – years ago I promised her dad that if I was still doing this liveblog when she was 14 I’d take her to Strictly, as that’s the youngest age you’re allowed in the studio. Somehow I’m still here, and today is Ella’s 14^th birthday. Which means next Saturday I’m taking her to Strictly.

Thank you all for joining in down below – am off to read all your comments, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow! Keeeep dancing for the rest of your Saturday, Hx

8.19pm GMT

And with that the dancing is done, and the voting lines are open! Time for a look at the leaderboard – Karim and Amy and Kelvin and Oti are at the top of the Tower, whilst Michelle and Giovanni are eating chips in the rain.

I’m currently very worried that it’s going to be Chris and Karen vs. Michelle and Giovanni in the dance-off, and Chris is going to win.

Far right network orchestrated synagogue attacks, FBI says

Richard Tobin of New Jersey directed group’s members hundreds of miles away to deface synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin

Federal authorities allege that a member of a far right network orchestrated the vandalism of synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin last September.

Richard Tobin, 18, of Brooklawn, New Jersey, allegedly led other members of the group to paint the synagogues with neo-Nazi slogans and insignia as part of what he called “Operation Kristallnacht”, in reference to the Nazi pogrom in Germany in 1938.

Corbyn vows to protect NHS from US drugs firms

Labour leader accuses Johnson of cover-up about trade talks between UK and US on widening access for US firms to the UK drugs market

• Corbyn: Labour will exclude the NHS and medicines from trade deals with the US
  
  

A Labour government will pass an emergency “NHS protection” law if it wins the general election, to ensure that powerful US drugs companies cannot infiltrate the health service and dramatically force up the price of drugs, Jeremy Corbyn announces on Sunday.

Writing in the Observer, Corbyn accuses Boris Johnson’s government of a covering up the details of secret talks that British and US officials have held to discuss greater access for American companies to the UK drugs market under a post-Brexit trade deal.

Porn, public transport and other dubious justifications for using facial recognition software

Governments in Australia have come up with some creative reasons to sell the public on the use of facial recognition technology

It started with passports. Then it was your phone. Now governments in Australia want you to use facial verification to access government services, take public transport and even for your private viewing.

Last month the joint standing committee on intelligence and security told the government it needed to rethink its plans for a national facial verification database built off people’s passport and driver’s licence photos. It said there weren’t strong enough safeguards for citizens’ privacy and security built into the legislation.

BBC plans to drop afternoon Newsround as children go online

Resources to be redeployed at non-TV viewers after ratings for CBBC and CBeebies tumble

Children’s news programme Newsround is set to lose its afternoon programme after nearly 50 years of broadcasting, as CBBC viewing figures plunge.

In proposals submitted to Ofcom, the BBC announced plans to cut the amount of news shown on CBBC, BBC’s dedicated children’s channel, from 85 to 35 hours per year.