Death metal band Omicron won’t change their name

The Belgian death metal band Omicron will not be changing its name despite sharing it with the new Covid-19 variant. Philippe Delhaute, the group’s founder and lead guitarist, told Sky News that things got “really crazy” when the latest mutation hit the headlines. But the group decided to keep their name in the hope that it might lead to more people listening to their music and help vanquish “the bad association with Omicron”.

‘Nana Baubles’ breaks Christmas record

A woman nicknamed “Nana Baubles” has broken the record for the world’s largest collection of Christmas ornaments. Sylvia Pope’s collection spreads throughout her home in Swansea, with baubles hanging from the ceilings, as well as from the outside of her house. She currently has over 1,700 baubles and she predicts the number will go well over 2,000 in the next year or two.

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Don’t ask someone in their sixties when they will retire

An employment tribunal has ruled that asking someone in their sixties when they are going to retire is age discrimination. An employment judge said that someone in their thirties would not be asked about their plans to stop work because they could not start taking their pension, meaning that raising the prospect of retirement to someone approaching pensionable age was “unfavourable treatment”. A civil servant in his sixties had sued the Ministry of Defence after an HR manager asked him about his plans for retirement.