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  • Trump news – Armed groups dwarfed by security at state capitals as president’s approval at new low

    The latest updates from the White House and beyond on 17 January 2021

  • Coronavirus news – live: Travel warning as new rules come in and Covid patient admitted ‘every 30 seconds’

    No one should go on holiday abroad or in the UK while the NHS is on the “cusp” due to the coronavirus pandemic, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab has said. More than 3.5 million people in the UK having now received their first dose of the vaccine, Boris Johnson said, as he celebrated those helping the “fantastic national effort”.

  • The Voice UK: Tom Jones leaves viewers ‘absolutely bawling’ after emotional performance

    Welsh singer’s hits include ‘Sex Bomb’ and ‘It’s Not Unusual’

  • Boris Johnson under pressure as Labour force vote on £20-a-week Covid-19 boost to Universal Credit

    Labour will force a vote in the Commons to stop millions plunging into poverty

  • Almost a third of recovered Covid patients return to hospital in five months and one in eight die

    Almost a third of recovered Covid patients will end up back in hospital within five months and one in eight will die, alarming new figures have shown. Research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there is a devastating long-term toll on survivors of severe coronavirus, with many people developing heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver and kidney conditions. Out of 47,780 people who were discharged from hospital in the first wave, 29.4 per cent were readmitted to hospital within 140 days, and 12.3 per cent of the total died. The current cut-off point for recording Covid deaths is 28 days after a positive test, so it may mean thousands more people should be included in the coronavirus death statistics. Researchers have called for urgent monitoring of people who have been discharged from hospital.

  • Armed protesters gather at heavily fortified state capitols of Ohio, Michigan, Texas and elsewhere

    Smatterings of ‘boogaloo boys’ have begun appearing at state capitols

  • Coronavirus: No one should be going on holiday while NHS is ‘on the cusp’, says Dominic Raab

    Quarantine checks to be stepped up, but doubt over workability of plans to use hotels, says foreign secretary

  • Thousands protest in Amsterdam against Dutch coronavirus lockdown

    Amsterdam police tweeted “Go home and keep 1.5 meters away”.

  • Government ‘plans to end lockdown in March’ while ‘every adult could get Covid vaccine by end of June’

    The government is planning to end lockdown in March after cabinet members agreed that waiting until the summer when most people will have been vaccinated would lead to yet more economic misery, according to reports. Ministers are drawing up a timetable to scale back restrictions despite the Sage Advisory committee calling for delays, it has been reported. A blueprint for the end of the lockdown is expected to be looked at later this week which will take into account the latest infection rates, deaths and hospitalisations.

  • These Are The Only 4 Areas In England Where Covid Cases Are Still Rising

    The figures suggest the effects of lockdown are now being seen but despite the positive trend, case numbers remain sky-high.

  • Duke of York's adviser contacted campaigner who claims Virginia Roberts photograph was doctored

    The Duke of York’s adviser reached out to an online campaigner who claimed to have evidence the photograph with Virginia Roberts was doctored, it has been reported. Mark Gallagher, the Duke’s crisis management specialist, is said to have made contact with Molly Skye Brown who publicly alleges that Ms Roberts is not a victim but a “prostitute” who “trafficked” others. Ms Brown, who has attacked Ms Roberts on social networking site Twitter for a number of months, was said to have first been approached by a close aide of the Duchess of York, Antonia Marshall, who thanked her for her “online support”. In screenshots of the conversation, which Ms Brown passed to the Mail on Sunday, Ms Marshall is alleged to have offered a meeting with the Duchess in order to gain her support and said she would pass on her greetings to the Queen. The possibility of setting up a fake Twitter account to ensnare the woman they suspect of altering the now infamous picture of the Duke with his arm around Epstein’s sex slave was discussed, it is claimed. Ms Roberts, who now goes by her married name Giuffre, claims she was trafficked to the UK in 2001 by Epstein and alleged that she was forced to have sex with the Duke on three occasions in 2001 and 2002, when she was 17. She maintains that the photograph was taken in 2001. The Duke denies that he had any sexual relations with her. Ms Brown, 42, a former teen beauty queen from Florida who says when she was 14 Ghislaine Maxwell tried to recruit her as a masseuse, alleged she passed on “some evidence” that the image was doctored and then passed the exchanges on to the FBI. Ms Roberts publicly denied Ms Brown’s allegations and said that she “blocked her because of her widespread lies”.

  • British lawyer set to prosecute Hong Kong democracy campaigners called 'mercenary' by Dominic Raab

    A British lawyer set to prosecute Hong Kong democracy campaigners has been slated by Dominic Raab for being "mercenary". It comes after it was recently revealed that David Perry QC is being brought in to handle the trial of Jimmy Lai, a publisher and high-profile critic of the Chinese state, and eight other campaigners accused of organising an illegal anti-government march. The Foreign Secretary said he did not understand how any British lawyer could in "good conscience" prosecute a case applying the controversial national security law in Hong Kong. Mr Raab said: "There's no doubt in my mind that under the bar code of ethics a case like this could be resisted and, frankly, I think people watching this would regard it as pretty mercenary to be taking up that kind of case." He said he did not understand how anyone in “good conscience, from the world-leading legal profession that we have, would take a case where they will have to apply the national security legislation at the behest of the authorities in Beijing, which is directly violating, undermining the freedom of the people of Hong Kong, and I understand, in the case of Mr Perry, in relation to the pro-democracy activists”. He added: "From Beijing's point of view, this would be a serious PR coup."

  • Giuliani associate told ex-CIA officer a Trump pardon would 'cost $2m’ – report

    Giuliani associate told ex-CIA officer a Trump pardon would 'cost $2m’ – reportJohn Kiriakou, who was jailed in 2012 for identity leak, said his pursuit of a pardon came up in a meeting with Giuliani last year * US politics – live coverage

  • Home and Away's Colby is thwarted by Angelo in Witness X mystery

    Who has betrayed him?

  • Alexei Navalny arrested in Russia immediately after arriving from Germany after poisoning

    Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was arrested immediately after returning to the country for the first time since he was poisoned with a nerve agent. The plane carrying Mr Navalny from Germany, where the 44-year-old had been recovering from a poisoning he blames on Russian authorities, landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport around 8:15 pm. The pilot had told passengers there was a delay for "technical reasons" and then that the flight had been diverted from Vnukovo, another Moscow airport where Mr Navalny's supporters and media had gathered for his return. President Vladimir Putin's most well-known opponent was returning to Russia for the first time since the poisoning in August, in defiance of warnings from officials that they would arrest him for breaking the terms of a suspended prison sentence. Mr Navalny is defying the Kremlin’s threats to jail him under one of several active criminal cases, which are widely regarded as politically motivated.

  • Labour opens up 4-point lead over Tories as approval of Boris Johnson’s Covid response plunges

    Poll finds public support for closing takeaway coffee shops and nurseries in lockdown

  • Covid vaccine: Raab refuses to guarantee everyone will receive second dose

    Foreign secretary says government can be ‘quietly confident’ about timetable

  • We miss British humour in European Parliament, says German MEP

    European Parliament debates are duller without the British as fewer native English speakers mean exchanges lack humour, irony and sarcasm, an MEP has complained. German politician David McAllister said that in the almost year since Britain formally left the European Union, he and his colleagues have missed the British command of the language.

  • 'The rot went deep' - Senior US conservatives divided on Trump's future

    Will Donald Trump be a spent political force when he is replaced on Wednesday by Joe Biden after a single term in office? The Republican party has not done well under his leadership. It has lost control of the White House, US Congress and the Senate to the Democrats.

  • Coronavirus: Up to one fifth of staff in some care home groups refusing vaccine

    National Care Association says some staff are nervous about vaccines due to health or cultural reasons