#go # go easy on me baby #. and rolling in the success — adele's new album shoots to number one, becoming the fastest—selling album of the year. coronavirus restrictions in the uk are to be tightened again, after two cases of the new omicron variant were confirmed in england. from next week, face coverings will become mandatory in shops and on public transport, and everyone entering the uk will have to take a pcr test. it comes as cases of the new variant emerge in several european countries and in israel. our coverage begins with our political correspondent, iain watson. it sounds like the title of a science—fiction novel — the omicron variant. but this latest version of covid,