COVID-19: Army to help test lorry drivers in deal to unblock France travel ban

A deal to unblock travel with France following a shutdown over the new coronavirus variant could come later today, Sky News understands.

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  • 'Traitors get shot': Texas man arrested over Capitol riots after his son tipped off FBI

    A Texan teenager who tipped off the FBI about his father's alleged involvement in the Capitol riots said he would "do it again", despite claiming his father threatened to shoot him for being a "traitor". Jackson Reffitt, 18, said he felt a moral obligation to report his father to the authorities after watching him participate in the violent riots on live TV. His father, Guy, 48, was arrested at his home in Wylie, Texas on January 16 and faces charges of obstruction of justice and knowingly entering a restricted building. According to court documents, Mr Reffitt had allegedly threatened his wife and children, saying: “If you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors … traitors get shot”. The younger Mr Reffitt said he was "afraid" of what his father might think of him, but told local station Fox 4 that he had acted according to his "moral compass".

  • Biden fires controversial Trump doctor accused of misleading public about former president’s condition amid Covid-19 diagnosis

    New White House physician is a longtime primary care doctor to President Joe Biden, and will now oversee his medical care for the next four years

  • 'I had to leave': Therese Coffey explains why she 'walked off' Good Morning Britain interview

    The work and pensions secretary called a halt to an interview with the ITV show on Monday.

  • First case of Brazil coronavirus variant found in the US

    Person with P.1 variant is from Minnesota and had travelled to South American country

  • Revealed: The Jobs With The Highest Covid Death Rates

    The figures cover the period from March 9 to December 28, 2020.

  • Air passengers coming into Britain will be sent to quarantine in hotels, confirms Boris Johnson

    At the very least, the measure will apply to Britons returning from countries such as Brazil and South Africa, which are known to have dangerous new mutations of the coronavirus. The dramatic move to defend the UK from more deadly mutations of Covid-19 is by far the toughest border measure yet. The key question to be settled by ministers, who are in meetings with scientists today, is whether to target the measure only at passengers who have visited countries such as Brazil and South Africa or whether to target passengers from other countries.

  • Trump staffers struggle to find work in the wake of the Capitol riot

    Aides are opting to start their own businesses or seek employment under other Republicans

  • EU threatens to block Covid vaccine exports amid AstraZeneca shortfall

    EU threatens to block Covid vaccine exports amid AstraZeneca shortfallBloc may receive only half of purchased 100m doses in first quarter of the year * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverage

  • Scottish Tory leader says he would boycott independence referendum without UK government approval

    SNP set out 11-point ‘roadmap’ to second independence referendum at the weekend

  • China’s Communist Party pushes dangerous fringe Covid theories as it feels pressure of WHO probe

    A government spokesperson suggested that the coronavirus could have emerged from a US military lab

  • Johnson faces Tory anger over continued school closures

    Conservative MPs warned the Prime Minister that children are becoming the ‘forgotten victims’ of the pandemic.

  • Indian and Chinese troops involved in new border clash in eastern Himalayas

    Indian and Chinese soldiers armed with sticks and stones have brawled again along their disputed frontier, Delhi said, as the neighbours' months-long border stand-off continued. Indian security officials said there were clashes after at least 18 Chinese soldiers tried to cross into Indian-claimed territory at Naku La in Sikkim on January 20. Soldiers on both sides were carrying firearms, but did not use them. A senior Indian Army official told the Telegraph that four Indian soldiers were wounded after they challenged the Chinese PLA soldiers. All four Indian wounded had been hospitalised, and their condition was described as stable. The officer said the number of injured Chinese was “in double figures”. An official army statement gave few details, describing the clash as a minor stand-off and saying it had been "resolved by local commanders as per established protocols". The military asked journalists "to refrain from overplaying or exaggerating" the incident. Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, urged India "not to take any unilateral action that may further complicate or exacerbate the border tension." Yet an opinion piece in China's Global Times, a hawkish state-owned tabloid, said the reports were false and blamed Indian rumour-mongering. Tensions have been high since May when deadly clashes erupted high in the Karakoram mountains along the poorly defined frontier between the rivals. Both sides have mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers, artillery and fighter aircraft along the fiercely contested border known as the Line of Actual Control, or LAC, that separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India's eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. May's brawl exploded into hand-to-hand combat with clubs, stones and fists on June 15 that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. China is believed to also have had casualties, but has not given any details. Indian and Chinese army commanders met for the ninth round of talks after a gap of two-and-a-half months in Ladakh on Sunday but neither side released any details of the outcome.

  • ‘My sister is pathetic’: Laura Ingraham’s brother slams her criticism of Dr Fauci on Twitter

    Self-described ‘sibling fact checker’ has criticised his sister many times before for her political views

  • Former PM Brown sees no democratic mandate for Scottish independence vote

    Britain's former prime minister Gordon Brown said on Monday he did not think the Scottish National Party would have a democratic mandate to hold a referendum on Scottish independence even if it wins May's Scottish elections as expected. "No, no, I don't think so," Brown, who is Scottish, said on BBC radio in answer to a question on whether the SNP would have a democratic mandate if it won the election on a platform of holding a referendum.

  • Huckabee Sanders Announces Run for Governor

    Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on January 25 that she was running for governor of Arkansas.In a campaign video that drew deeply on her time as press secretary and targeted a number of issues including gun rights and “cancel culture,” she said: “With the radical left now in control of Washington, your governor is your last line of defense.”The gubernatorial election is due to take place on November 8, 2022. Credit: Sarah Huckabee Sanders via Storyful

  • EU threatens to block exports of Pfizer Covid vaccine

    Britain's Covid vaccine supply is in jeopardy after the EU threatened to block exports of the Belgian-made Pfizer jabs amid a row with UK-based AstraZeneca. Brussels decided to impose tighter controls on exports after reacting with fury to the news that AstraZeneca will deliver 50 million fewer doses to the EU than it had expected. Ministers now fear deliveries of the Pfizer jabs will – at best – be delayed by extra paperwork and that the EU could try to stop doses being sent to non-EU countries after saying it will "take any action required to protect its citizens". In March, the bloc imposed export restrictions on personal protective equipment after it struggled with supply to its member states. On Monday night, MPs accused the EU of acting out of "spite" and trying to deflect blame for its own mistakes in getting vaccination programmes off the ground.

  • Boris Johnson intends to ease lockdown restrictions 'where he can' in three weeks' time

    Boris Johnson intends to start easing some coronavirus lockdown restrictions 'where he can' on 15 February, his spokesman has confirmed.

  • Sarah Huckabee Sanders is running for governor. There is only one way to respond

    Sanders, the former press secretary for Trump, has ambitions as blatant as her compatriots such as Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy and Ivanka Trump. To preserve our newfound decency, it’s time for a widespread cancellation

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

    Around one in 10 local areas are continuing to see a rise in rates.

  • UK risks becoming ‘failed state’ unless it reforms Union, Gordon Brown warns

    The UK risks becoming a “failed state” unless it prioritises reforms to the Union, former prime minister Gordon Brown has warned. Mr Brown urged  Boris Johnson to consider ideas such as replacing the House of Lords with a “senate of the regions." The former Labour leader also called on the Prime Minister to set up a commission on democracy which would review how the UK is governed.