Alex Salmond to take further legal action over 'conduct' of Scotland's top civil servant

Alex Salmond says he is preparing more legal action over the "conduct" of the Scottish government's top civil servant.

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  • Lord Frost heads to Brussels to discuss post-Brexit trade tensions in Northern Ireland

    Lord Frost will travel to Brussels on Thursday to discuss post-Brexit trade tensions in Northern Ireland, as senior DUP MPs expressed fears of further rioting unless the issue was dealt with. The former Brexit negotiator, who is now in charge of EU relations, will hold talks with his European Commission counterpart Maros Sefcovic amid ongoing negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol. The Telegraph understands that the pair will have dinner together on Thursday evening, most likely in the Berlaymont building, following “positive” discussions over the timing and implementation of new rules and checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea. While the outbreak of violence across Northern Ireland has given renewed impetus to the talks, Government sources insisted that the dinner was a long-standing engagement and played down the prospects of any imminent breakthrough. Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, will also meet Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney on Thursday following the unrest in the province, which resulted in 88 police officers being injured. Meanwhile, figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that UK trade with the EU bounced back in February following a record slump in January after the end of the transition period. February’s export figures rose by almost half on the previous month, although they were still 11 per cent down compared to the same period last year.

  • Quarter of Covid deaths not caused by virus, new figures show

    Almost a quarter of registered Covid deaths are people who are not dying from the disease, new official figures show, as the Government was urged to move faster with the roadmap in the light of increasingly positive data. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 23 per cent of coronavirus deaths registered are now people who have died "with" the virus rather than "from" an infection. This means that, while the person who died will have tested positive for Covid, that was not the primary cause of their death recorded on the death certificate. Other data also shows an increasingly positive picture of the state of the pandemic in the UK. Daily death figures by "date of death" reveal that Britain has had no more than 28 deaths a day since the beginning of April, even though the government-announced deaths have been as high as 60. This is because the Government gives a daily update on deaths based on the number reported that day, which can include deaths from days or weeks previously and therefore may not reflect the true decline in deaths. On Tuesday, the Government announced that there had been 23 further deaths.

  • Lockdown easing may need to be reversed if variant spreads rapidly, says government adviser

    Scientists are ‘very concerned’ about cluster of South African variant cases in London

  • Biden’s White House communications strategy is driving Republicans insane

    In the words of one House Republican campaign operative, ‘It’s a nightmare’

  • Australia should make Covid vaccine rollout ‘top priority’, Anthony Fauci says

    Australia should make Covid vaccine rollout ‘top priority’, Anthony Fauci saysWhite House chief medical adviser says significant resources needed to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible Since the US began rolling out the vaccine in December, 35% of the population have received their first dose. White House chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci says Australia can learn from America’s experience. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

  • Rate of people with Covid antibodies ‘levels off’ across most of UK

    ‘Clear pattern’ between Covid vaccinations and antibody positivity across UK, says Office for National Statistics

  • Kate could act as peacemaker between William and Harry on day of Prince Philip's funeral

    The Duke of Cambridge will not be reunited with Prince Harry until the day of their grandfather's funeral, when the Duchess of Cambridge is expected to act as peacemaker between the royal brothers. The siblings are understood to have spoken on the telephone since Harry landed in the UK on Sunday, and hope to finally see each other in the flesh on Saturday morning, ahead of the 3pm ceremony at Windsor Castle. It will be their first face-to-face meeting in more than a year and comes after Harry and Meghan gave an interview to the US chat show host Oprah Winfrey suggesting an unnamed royal had queried Archie's skin tone and describing William as "trapped" in the monarchy. Sources close to both couples insist that they will be putting their differences aside for the sake of the Queen as the family gathers at St George’s Chapel to remember the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on Friday, aged 99.

  • Firm offers discounted PCR tests for holidaymakers

    The plan came after the travel industry expressed concern that testing requirements would make foreign holidays unaffordable for many people.

  • Homophobic couple jailed for torturing gay magistrate in his own home and forcing fire poker down his throat

    A couple who tortured late magistrate Vince McMahan in a violent homophobic attack have been jailed for a total of nearly six years.

  • COVID-19: World Health Organisation calls for ban on sale of live wild animals in food markets

    The sale of live wild animals at food markets should be suspended as an emergency measure, the World Health Organisation has said. The organisation said in a separate report on Tuesday that animals, "particularly wild animals", are the source of more than 70% of emerging infectious diseases in humans. "There is a risk of direct transmission to humans from coming into contact with the saliva, blood, urine, mucus, faeces, or other body fluids of an infected animal, and an additional risk of picking up the infection from contact with areas where animals are housed in markets or objects or surfaces that could have been contaminated with such viruses."

  • ‘If we don’t support them we’ll never get them back’: Punters brave Covid and the cold in return to the pub

    After months of disruption, Vincent Wood reports, a minority of the nation’s pubs are getting back to business – weather permitting

  • Burkina Faso ex-president Compaoré to be tried for Thomas Sankara's 1987 murder

    In Burkina Faso, judges have ruled that exiled former president Blaise Compaoré must stand trial for his role in the assassination of Thomas Sankara, whom he overthrew in a coup d'état in 1987. Also, a Tuareg leader in Mali has been shot dead in the capital Bamako. Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati was a key figure in a 2015 peace accord. And in a major step forward for the protection of women and children in Gabon, customary marriages are finally recognised by the state.

  • Queen will have to sit alone at Prince Philip's funeral because of strict Covid rules

    The Queen faces the prospect of having to sit on her own during the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral because of strict Covid rules, it has emerged. The law states that anyone attending a funeral must stay at least two metres apart from anyone who is not part of their household, meaning all members of the Royal family will have to spread out in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The Queen is not eligible to be in a support bubble because she does not live on her own, meaning the only person who could sit with her during the service would be a member of her Windsor Castle staff. The Duke’s private secretary, Brigadier Archie Miller-Bakewell, is expected to be one of the 30 mourners allowed at the ceremony, and as a member of “HMS Bubble” at Windsor may be the only attendee eligible by law to sit with the Queen.

  • Death rate for British cancer patients with Covid far higher than in Europe at nearly 50 per cent

    Nearly half of UK cancer patients who caught coronavirus died – a much higher rate than counterparts in Europe, a study suggests. Researchers found that UK patients were less likely to be receiving cancer treatment during the pandemic and less likely to be given the best life-saving therapies once they had caught the virus. The worse death rate also reflects the fact that British cancer sufferers tended to be less fit generally. The study, published in the European Journal of Cancer, included 1,392 patients from the UK, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Germany, tracking their progress between Feb 27 and Sep 10 last year. It found that, 30 days after a Covid diagnosis, 40.34 per cent of the UK cancer patients had died, with the figure standing at 26.5 per cent of the European patients. After six months, the proportion had risen to 47.6 per cent of the UK cohort compared to 33.3 per cent of the European. Scientists at Imperial College London pointed to disastrous guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which recommended pausing cancer treatment for many patients in order to stop them catching Covid in hospital.

  • ‘I can’t accept that’: Daunte Wright’s parents hit out at ‘mistake’ explanation for son’s death

    ‘That doesn’t even sound right. This officer has been on the force for 26 years,’ says Aubrey Wright

  • Latest weekly Covid-19 rates for local authority areas in England

    Some 40 out of 315 local areas have seen a week-on-week rise in rates.

  • EU parliament again refuses to set date for ratifying Brexit trade deal amid concerns over UK conduct

    Senior MEP says ‘cool heads must prevail’ in holding UK to commitments

  • Tyson Fury in Twitter exchange with UFC heavyweight world champion Francis Ngannou

    Ngannou hit back on Twitter after Fury said he would ‘roast’ the Cameroonian fighter once he is done with Anthony Joshua

  • The Duke of Banter: How – and why – Prince Philip mastered the art of the one-liner

    Looking over the many, many tributes paid to the Duke of Edinburgh since his death last Friday, there were certain sentiments we always knew might crop up again and again. He was a man of duty and service, everyone understandably repeated; he was fiercely loyal to his wife and Queen, they rightly chorused; he had a quiet dignity and warm heart. But they also almost all mentioned how the Duke was a relentless, fabled joker. In his comments in parliament yesterday, Boris Johnson, who must surely hope somebody says this about himself one day, admitted Prince Philip “occasionally drove a coach and horses through the finer points of diplomatic protocol [but] they overwhelmingly understood that he was trying to break the ice, to get things moving, to get people laughing and to forget their nerves.” Barack Obama, meanwhile, noted the Duke’s “sharp wit and unfailing good humour.” Joanna Lumley called him “very funny and very sharp.” The Duke of Cambridge mentioned “his mischievous sense of humour.” And to the Duke of Sussex, he was simply “a legend of banter.” While that particular phrase sounds more like it is destined for the back of a university hockey tour hoodie than a eulogy, in a way Harry’s comment may have said it best of all. The Duke of Edinburgh’s longevity, duty and service will be remembered in history, but as a character, it is likely to be his wit that goes down in legend. Prince Philip's funeral plans

  • Trump caught on audio mocking Michelle Obama’s looks to giggling GOP hierarchy at Mar-a-Lago

    Leaked recording from RNC fundraiser reveals ‘uproarious’ laughter from sponsors for ridicule of former first lady