Covid passes are now needed to get into nightclubs, big sports matches and other large events in England. Put forward by the government to help control the spread of the Omicron variant, their approval by MPs in the Commons came at the expense of the biggest rebellion since Boris Johnson became prime minister. It was worse than predicted. Initially estimated at about 70, when the votes were announced on Tuesday evening it transpired 99 Tory MPs voted against the plans - more than a quarter the party's elected members. The scale of the revolt means a leadership challenge has "got to be on the cards" next year, says one of the rebels Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown. While former Tory chief whip, Mark Harper MP warns this will happen "over and over again" if you "ignore what you have been told and you plough on regardless". Nonetheless, the restrictions, or Plan B, did get voted through because of support from Labour meaning proof of double-vaccination, or a recent negative test, must be shown to go into certain venues.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says this revolt confirms Mr Johnson is "too weak to discharge the basic functions of government". It’s a "very significant blow to the already damaged authority of the prime minister", he adds. The rebellion is not just a slap on the wrist for Mr Johnson, says our political editor Laura Kuenssberg, but a very serious rejection of his plan. And it’s all the more significant because of his efforts to limit the damage, adds our political correspondent Nick Eardley who has looked at why this rebellion matters. But politics aside, hospitals are facing increasing pressure with admissions due the Omicron variant says Prof Chris Whitty, whose warning comes as a further 633 cases of the strain were reported on Tuesday, taking the UK total to 5,346. As cases rise, Scotland's urged people to limit socialising to three households. The UK - and the rest of the world - is facing a very challenging few months, says our health correspondent Nick Triggle, and with a surge in cases expected he’s considered whether more should be done to supress it. Downing Street, however, insists no further Covid restrictions are being planned.

Toddler Star Hobson was adored by her family, she was showered with love and affection and those who doted on her were rarely far away. The 16-month-old was their princess. But in 2020 she died at the hands of her mother’s partner. Star suffered weeks of physical abuse before the final, fatal, attack. Savannah Brockhill, 28, was found guilty of her murder at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday and Star’s mother Frankie Smith, 20, was convicted of causing or allowing her death. Family members and friends had made five referrals to Bradford City Council between January and September 2020, just weeks before Star was murdered.
The first person to raise concerns was the little girl’s former babysitter, Hollie Jones. She contacted the council anonymously about Smith and Brockhill but says her warnings were not taken seriously. They were forewarned about a visit and Smith then spent the hour before "cleaning Star, covering up bruises and things like that", says the 18-year-old. After the visit, the case was closed. Star’s "safe with her mother... there's nothing more that they can do and everything looks fine," Ms Jones says she was told. The council’s declined to comment on Ms Jones' claims ahead of its Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review, which will feed into the national review of death of another child, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. Brockhill and Smith will be sentenced later.

As the Omicron variant of coronavirus starts to take a grip across the world, the US has recorded the highest national death toll from the pandemic. More than 800,000 people have died from the virus - and more than a quarter of those deaths came after all US adults were eligible for a vaccine. The last 100,000 fatalities were in the past 11 weeks and at a quicker pace than during last winter's surge. "The waves of illness that we're seeing will continue until the population-level immunity is high enough to prevent them. Quite simply, we're not there yet," says Dr Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Read more here.

Tory rebellion against Covid passes "raises questions" about whether the prime minister would implement tougher restrictions, the Guardian reports. The Daily Telegraph says the 99 Conservative MPs who voted against the plan dealt a "hammer blow" to Boris Johnson’s authority. He’s been told it will put his leadership in danger if he ignores the party, the Times claims. The paper also suggests more than a million people are likely to be isolating at Christmas. Staying with this theme, the i warns that Omicron threatens a "normal" Christmas as the government looks at further restrictions. Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror focuses on another story - the murder of 16-month-old Star Hobson. Pictures of the toddler appear in some of the other papers this morning too. Read the newspaper review in full here.

When you look up you’ll probably spot a star or two lighting up the night sky. But how did stars, some of which first emerged billions of years ago, initially fill the Universe with light? The new $10bn James Webb Space Telescope will soon reveal the answer. Find out more here.
If looking up at the stars isn’t your thing but seeing what’s going on under the sea is, this one might be for you. New Zealand’s southern right whales have surprised scientists who thought they migrated north and east. It turns out the ones they tracked went in a completely different direction. See what they’ve been up to here.
And back on dry land, meet the man who built a generator from old bicycle parts after becoming fed up of living without power. He's now powering hundreds of homes with electricity. Take a look.

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