TODAY'S regional news is dominated by Tier 3 talks between North-East leaders and Government, while, nationally, the Labour Party has broken out into civil war. 

A Tier 3 local lockdown announcement expected for the Tees Valley today

An announcement is expected today on placing Teesside into the top tier of coronavirus restrictions. 

The Northern Echo understands that council and authority leaders will be meeting with the Government at lunchtime to discuss Tier 3 restrictions.

 It is understood that the Government wants to reach an agreement with the five Tees Valley councils, which likely involves what level of funding will be made available to the area if such restrictions are imposed. 

Talks were meant to wrap up yesterday - with the rest of the region already confirming they will remain under Tier 2 rules.

Large swathes of Teesside now have a seven-day rolling rate of more than 400 new cases per 100,000 people, with many areas recording an increasing number of cases.

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted there is “no reason for a civil war” in the Labour Party after anger from some on the left over Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension for his response to a damning anti-Semitism report.

The Labour leader appealed for unity and for an end to “factional fighting” on Friday amid fallout from the Equality and Human Rights Commission finding the party broke equality law when Mr Corbyn was in charge.

 Second Covid wave 'certainly accelerated' by Eat Out To Help Out, a new report has found

The Eat Out to Help Out scheme caused a "significant" rise in Covid cases which "certainly accelerated the second wave", according to a new study.

A study by the University of Warwick found a sharp increase in Covid infection clusters emerged a week after the scheme began. The research suggests between 8 per cent and 17 per cent of newly detected infection clusters could be linked to the scheme.

US Election: Joe Biden favourite to beat Trump

Democratic candidate Joe Biden heads into the 2020 US presidential election as favourite to beat Republican President Donald Trump.

But while Biden has enjoyed a comfortable lead in nationwide opinion polls for several months, his lead in some of the key battleground states is much smaller.

Polls are snapshots, not predictions, and the outcome of the election could come down to how well the parties manage to get their supporters to turn out and vote.

Both sides will remember what happened in 2016, when opinion polls suggested Hillary Clinton was heading for victory – only for Trump to end up the winner.

In other news:

  • Angel Gabriel is trending on Twitter after QI revealed there is a correlation between children who play Mary or Joseph in their school nativity play, and being a high earner later in life.
  • The new season of The Mandalorian, now streaming on Disney Plus
  • Ariana Grande's sixth studio album Positions is here, featuring appearances from The Weeknd, Ty Dolla $ign, and Doja Cat$ign, and Doja Cat
  • Kanye West surprised Kim Kardashian with a hologram of her late father, Robert Kardashian, for her 40th birthday