COVID-19: Boris Johnson says 'it's too early' for decision over summer holiday plans

It is "too early" to say if people will be allowed to take summer holidays abroad or in the UK, Boris Johnson has said.

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  • Oprah reveals neither Queen nor Prince Philip made remark about Archie's skin colour

    Previously unseen footage from Oprah Winfrey's interview with the Sussexes has been unveiled.

  • Boris Johnson claims critics will be ‘pleasantly surprised’ by outcome of Brexit row with Brussels

    ‘We never sulk’: Brussels shrugs off Frost claim of ill-will in Brexit row

  • Protests erupt outside Trump Tower demanding ex-president’s arrest after he returns to NYC

    Former president expected to stay in city until Tuesday, but reason for trip unknown

  • Myanmar's British ambassador calls for Aung San Suu Kyi's release in move hailed 'courageous'

    Myanmar's ambassador to the United Kingdom has called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and endorsed Britain's opposition to the February 1 military coup. Kyaw Zwar Minn, who has headed Myanmar's embassy to London since 2014, said in a statement that he had told Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, that he was appointed by Ms Suu Kyi and therefore would only take instructions from her. “An Ambassador is a diplomat. He therefore chooses the diplomatic path. The answer to the current crisis can only be at the negotiation table,” he said in a statement. “We request the release of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and president U Win Mynt,” he added. Mr Raab said: “I commend the courage and patriotism of Myanmar Ambassador Kyaw Zwar Minn in calling for Aung Sung Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint to be released and for the results of the 2020 election to be respected." It comes after Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar's ambassador to the United Nations, publicly denounced the coup late last month. The development came amid growing fears for the fate of anti-coup protesters caught up in a crackdown in Yangon. About 200 people were trapped in the city’s Sanchaung neighbourhood after authorities locked the area down on Monday night, triggering calls from the United Nations for their release Western embassies and the UN rights office said they were "deeply concerned" about the fate of the protesters and called on police to release them without reprisals. The standoff came after a day of protests in which at least three people were killed and soldiers started to occupy hospitals in a bid to suppress ongoing mass protests against the coup last month. Witnesses reported sounds of gunfire or stun grenades in many districts of the commercial capital after nightfall on Sunday night, as soldiers set up camp in hospitals and university compounds, according to local media. In one video uploaded to social media, repeated gun shots could be heard outside West Yangon’s General Hospital. In separate footage, residents in other parts of the city responded defiantly to the army’s night operations by setting off fireworks and yelling ‘Happy New Year.’ The International Physicians for Human Rights Group condemned the occupation of hospitals, saying that it was “appalled by the latest wave of violence by the Myanmar military, including the invasion and occupation of public hospitals and wanton excessive force against civilians.”

  • Roy Blunt becomes fourth Republican senator to announce retirement since Biden inauguration

    Seat is expected to stay with the Republicans

  • Trisha Goddard praised for ‘one-sentence annihilation’ of Piers Morgan over racism on GMB

    Goddard held Morgan accountable for Meghan Markle question

  • Lockdown roadmap: Everything you can do from 8 March

    The first step of the coronavirus lockdown brings the return of schools and limited social contact

  • Supreme Court delivers final blow to Trump’s last election challenge

    The Supreme Court has tossed out former President Donald Trump’s last remaining challenge to the 2020 election after he lied about the results of the nationwide vote and urged states to wipe out thousands of ballots while promoting false claims of fraud. The court without comment rejected Mr Trump’s appeal, which challenged thousands of absentee ballots filed in Wisconsin, an election battleground that the former president lost by more than 20,000 votes. It was the last of three petitions filed at the Supreme Court near the end of his presidency that the justices declined to take up.

  • Scotland lockdown roadmap: Tiers used for easing and everything we know so far

    Nicola Sturgeon criticised Boris Johnson for laying out exact dates in his more detailed exit strategy

  • Michelle Keegan wishes her lads' mag shoots had been 'a bit more tasteful'

    The actor has said she doesn't regret the photographs.

  • Princess Diana foresaw Prince Harry's departure from Royal family, Duke claims

    Prince Harry has revealed that he was financially able to step back from the Royal family because his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales left him an inheritance, telling Oprah Winfrey: "I think she saw it coming". The Duke of Sussex told the interviewer Oprah Winfrey that he was now living off money left to him by his late mother after he was “cut off financially” early last year when he and the Duchess moved to the US. “I have what my mum left me and without that we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” he said of his new life in Los Angeles. “It’s like she saw it coming and she’s been with us through this whole process.” The princes were left about £6.5 million each when their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, died 23 years ago. The sum was invested and gathered substantial interest, so Prince Harry inherited around £10 million on his 30th birthday. Diana's sons were also left her wedding dress, designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel and made of thousands of pearls, silk layers and a 25ft-train. In 2013, Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, said that other items would also be handed over to William and Harry, in accordance with their mother's will. Other items handed down include: 28 other dresses, designer suits and evening gowns that belonged to Diana, two diamond tiaras, the original text of the Earl Spencer’s tribute to his sister at the funeral in Westminister Abbey and the score and lyrics of the Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin's version of Candle in the Wind, played by Sir Elton at Diana's funeral.

  • Jacinda Ardern announces New Zealand will only use Pfizer vaccine for ‘fairness’

    New Zealand has signed an agreement to buy an extra 8.5 million doses of Pfizer

  • Trump ‘greeted by single supporter’ as he returns to New York for first time since presidency

    Queens-born septuagenarian arrives back at former Fifth Avenue residence following four year absence

  • UK records lowest daily Covid deaths in almost five months

    First time daily deaths below 100 since 19 October

  • Michelle Keegan denies her marriage to Mark Wright is in trouble

    Michelle Keegan has been forced to deny once again that her marriage to Mark Wright is in trouble.

  • Children who receive false positive Covid tests at school to be banned from class for 10 days

    Children who receive false positives when tested at school will still be told to self-isolate and will be banned from the classroom for 10 days, the Government has said. Ministers have been accused of pursuing a “ridiculous” policy on lateral flow tests that has “no scientific basis” and will result in youngsters missing out on school “unnecessarily”. It comes as millions of children returned to lessons on Monday for the first time in months. Parents and teachers spoke of their joy of children returning to school, with one headteacher saying his school “feels alive again” as he welcomed 500 pupils back on Monday. David McPartlin at Flakefleet Primary School in Fleetwood, Lancashire, said: "There's been a real buzz about the place and a sense of excitement this morning. Today feels like the start of the end of Covid, like we are coming out the end of a very long dark tunnel.” Meanwhile, parents at Ide primary school near Exeter, Devon, described how happy their children were to be back at school. "My youngest has not seen any of his friends or spoken to them for months,” one mother said. “He has really missed seeing them every day." Pupils at secondary schools have been asked to have three rapid antigen tests at school during the first fortnight of term, followed by another at home. After that they will be given two tests per week to take at home, all of which are voluntary.

  • Prince Charles will be 'deeply hurt': Experts weigh in after Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview

    Experts said the Oprah interview with Harry and Meghan led to some 'astonishing' claims.

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

    Just six out of 315 local areas recorded a week-on-week increase.

  • Scottish Tories condemn Nicola Sturgeon’s power over ministerial code, despite loophole clearing Priti Patel

    ‘Scottish Government accountable only to itself’ protests Douglas Ross - but Boris Johnson rejected identical call for change

  • UK must prepare for 'hard winter' with threat of Covid and flu surge, health expert warns

    Britain should prepare itself for a "hard winter" with the threat of Covid-19 and a flu surge still a possibility, a Public Health England official has said. The NHS will have to be ready for a potential rise in respiratory viruses as people wait to discover if there is a strong level of immunity in the population, according to Dr Susan Hopkins, who advises the Government on its Covid policy. Dr Hopkins, who is Covid-19 strategic response director to Public Health England, told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I think we have to prepare for a hard winter, not only with coronavirus but we've had a year of almost no respiratory viruses of any other type, and that means potentially the population immunity to that is less, and so we could see surges in flu. "We could surges in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens." Dr Hopkins added: "So it's really important that we're prepared from the NHS point of view, from public health and contact tracing, that we have everything ready to prepare for a difficult autumn, and we hope that it won't occur and there will be a normal winter for all of us." Dr Hopkins said she believed "we will all have our summer holidays" but her job is to advise the Government and to prepare for "worst-case scenarios". She told the programme: "We have to make sure that we're prepared, and that we're better prepared for this autumn than we have been previously." Despite her warnings for next year, Dr Hopkins said the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus should not derail a plan to start easing a nationwide lockdown in England over the coming weeks. "I think it won't change it for the next three to five weeks, that would be highly unlikely," Dr Hopkins, PHE’s strategic response director, told the BBC's Andrew Marr show. "We will need to watch it carefully as new strains come into the country from around the world and we will need to be very ready for autumn."