Year 2020 has changed our lives for ever.

It has truly been a year like no other, with the pandemic dominating not just every news cycle but each of our lives. From work to family life, where we went, and what we did, nothing was untouched by Covid-19. But as people got used to phrases like 'self-isolate' and 'social distancing', there were plenty of other news too.

The year began with a new virus originating from Wuhan, China. Wei Guixian, a 57-year-old shrimp seller, is thought to have been the first person infected. 'Every winter I always suffer from the flu,' she later told Chinese media. 'So I thought it was the flu.' We now know it wasn't. Covid-19, as it has since been named, first took hold in the Chinese city then swept the globe. In Wuhan, some citizens have decided to sue the government for what they believe was suppression of the news in the early days of the virus. By January, the first case was in the UK and by March the world witnessed lockdown, focused on maintaining distance and washing hands repeatedly. As cases mounted across the world, there were unexpected issues, like those who wanted to believe that Covid-19 was in fact a hoax.

As well as the terrible human cost, with tens of thousands dead in Britain and more than 100,000 still suffering with long-term effects, the pandemic has delivered the largest economic shock to the UK in three centuries - and it isn't over yet. But with a vaccine now being given to the most vulnerable, even with Christmas plans derailed by another surge, there is still hope for 2021. Though there are huge companies working to bring out the better vaccine to stop this pandemic and number of drug making firms already put the product on trial the gloom not yet over as still there are 79.5 million affected (till Dec 26, 2020) and in total 1,746,445 people left this world fighting the life-taking virus.

Brexit done

When Boris Johnson won last December's election, he succeeded on a series of slogans. First up was to 'Get Brexit Done', which he did, taking Britain out of the European Union on 31 January. After that, it gets a bit more tricky. He pledged to 'level up' the country, and, after coronavirus hit, suggested a 'Rooseveltian approach', invoking FDR's New Deal, though there's little sign much has changed yet in the 'red wall' seats the Tories took from Labour. However, the most pertinent of his sound bites now appears to be the promise that he had an 'oven-ready deal' with the EU over Brexit.

Now Brexit is almost cooked in time for...

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