Four dead as Trump supporters storm US Capitol

Four people have died as angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in a chaotic protest aimed at thwarting a peaceful transfer of power.

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  • Far-Right 'Proud Boy' leader arrested ahead of Capitol riots revealed to have been police informer

    The leader of the Proud Boys extremist group has been unmasked as a "prolific" former FBI informant. Enrique Tarrio, 36, worked undercover exposing a human trafficking ring, and helped with drug and gambling cases, according to court documents. Tarrio's documented involvement with law enforcement related to the period 2012 -2014. There was no evidence of him cooperating after that. But the revelation raised further questions over why police did not take further steps to secure the US Capitol ahead of the riots on Jan 6. At least half a dozen members of the Proud Boys were arrested over involvement in the riots. Tarrio denied ever being an informer, telling Reuters: "I don’t know any of this. I don’t recall any of this."

  • How the UK's vaccine gamble paid off – and the EU left itself without a leg to stand on

    Back in March, the University of Oxford was on the brink of signing a deal with the German drugs giant Merck to research and develop a coronavirus vaccine. The Government stepped in and helped steer Oxford towards a partnership with British-based AstraZeneca instead, taking a huge gamble by helping to fund the research and development of a vaccine that might have proved useless. Instead, the Oxford vaccine became only the second in the Western world to be approved for use, and both the UK and AstraZeneca are now reaping the benefits of the deal that was struck last April. AstraZeneca has, so far, remained fiercely loyal to the Government, resolutely refusing to give in to EU demands that it should redirect supplies of its UK-made vaccine to the bloc. But that close relationship has come under unprecedented strain as the company found itself under huge pressure from Brussels.

  • Grandmother ‘overjoyed’ to be outside after receiving Covid-19 vaccine killed in Portland vehicle attack

    Police have not released a motive in the attack

  • Elizabeth Hurley hits back at critics of snow photoshoot after Piers Morgan’s ‘creepy’ comment

    The 55-year-old hit back at suggestions her teenage son Damian had taken the photos.

  • Tory MP accused of spreading ‘dangerous misinformation’ on coronavirus

    Former minister reportedly suggested official Covid figures have been ‘manipulated’

  • Piers Morgan apologises to Elizabeth Hurley after she reveals her mum took THOSE snow pictures

    He made sure to say sorry on Good Morning Britain

  • ‘These are Trump terrorists, call them by their name’: Joe Scarborough explodes at senators trying to protect ex-president

    ‘I am a conservative. You come after us, you come after our Capitol, we gonna come after you’

  • UK begins bulk manufacturing of new Covid vaccine Valneva

    If the Valneva jab gets full authorisation, it will mean the UK has hopes for an astonishing 200 million jabs

  • Demi Moore makes surprise runway appearance at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week

    Ghost actress opened Fendi’s Spring-Summer 2021 show in a design by artistic director Kim Jones

  • Jill Biden spent her first week as First Lady reshaping the role. Melania Trump spent hers isolated in a tower

    New first lady signals she will be an active and constant presence in the White House - drawing stark contrasts to her predecessor

  • Dani Dyer reveals her baby boy's name

    The 24-year-old and her boyfriend Sammy Kimmence welcomed a son last week.

  • Mike Pence is homeless after leaving office and ‘couch-surfing’ with Indiana politicians, report says

    Mike Pence has been residing in public housing for the past eight years

  • EU demands AstraZeneca diverts 75m Covid jabs made in UK factories

    Brussels on Wednesday demanded that tens of millions of British-made coronavirus vaccines be diverted from the UK to make up a supply shortfall in the jabs in the EU. The European Commission said it was contractually entitled to doses from two UK plants making the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine as its row with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant deepened. The British Government said it had a deal with AstraZeneca to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine with agreed delivery schedules. British sources said that, once the UK factories had fulfilled their commitment to Britain, AstraZeneca would be free to supply other countries – something the firm's CEO, Pascal Soriot, confirmed in an interview on Tuesday. But Stella Kyriakides, the EU's health commissioner, said: "We reject the logic of first come, first served. That might work at the neighbourhood butchers, but not on our contracts and not in our advanced purchase agreements." She said there was " no priority clause" in the EU contract between the four production plants in the agreement, two factories in the EU and the two in the UK. "In our contract it is not specified that any country or the UK has priority... This needs to be absolutely clear," Ms Kyriakides said.

  • Boris Johnson 'offended bereaved families of COVID victims with childish joke', claims Keir Starmer

    The Labour leader said the prime minister angered mourning relatives with a gag about 'Calvin Klein briefs'.

  • Raising taxes now means they can be reduced ahead of the next election, Rishi Sunak tells Tory MPs

    Rishi Sunak has told Tory MPs that implementing tax rises soon will hand the Government greater leverage to slash them ahead of the next election in 2024. The Chancellor made his pre-budget appearance at the powerful 1922 committee of backbench Conservatives on Wednesday evening to take soundings before the fiscal event on March 3. He told MPs that honesty and fairness were his guiding principles, as he signalled that difficult decisions lie ahead on raising revenue and reducing the deficit, according to several sources present on the call. Laying the groundwork for potential tax rises in the coming budget and the next one, Mr Sunak argued that the public would respect candour about what is to come. Such moves will also burnish the Conservatives’ reputation for responsible management of the public finances, and are essential to differentiate the party from the opposition, he added. One MP summarised Mr Sunak’s argument: “He basically said we can’t be Labour lite.” The budget can be the Government’s “signature moment” in the fight against coronavirus, the Chancellor is understood to have declared. After a series of piecemeal bailout packages responding to the pandemic over the past year, he signalled he wants to set out a broader, philosophical approach to the economy. MPs said they now expect him to set out a detailed roadmap on his strategy for spending, tax rises, the deficit and other economic levers at the budget. He urged his backbench colleagues to judge him over the “arc of the parliament”, not just on the coming budget alone. One MP said: “People asked, ‘Why can't you cut taxes now?’ His point was that we have to look at this over three to four years. “He [Mr Sunak] said he wants to be tax cutting towards the end of the parliament, that there will probably be some rises in the middle, and that we’re going to be frank with people about the tough choices ahead.

  • Vaccine shortage disrupts Spanish regions as Madrid suspends first dose campaign

    Madrid’s regional government has announced that it is halting all planned first doses of the Covid vaccine for two weeks, blaming a lack of supply of jabs from Spain’s national administration for its decision. Ignacio Aguado, Madrid’s deputy president, said that the region’s health authority had received fewer vaccines than initially promised by the Spanish government, and claimed that the decision to reserve some of the first supplies from the end of December and early January was now vindicated. “We will focus on delivering the second doses, which are so necessary,” Mr Aguado said. Spain’s health ministry has marked out the strategy for regions to implement, with elderly care home residents and health workers the first risk groups to be vaccinated, and all other over-80s next on the list. Regions are assigned a proportion of the vaccines imported by Spain according to the needs of their population, but the Spanish government recalculated those numbers partly based on the regions’ different speed of use when Pfizer’s delivery batch was less than expected last week. Madrid complained that it received only half of the scheduled 48,750 doses on January 18, forcing it to re-examine its strategy. Madrid has used just under 170,000 doses, but only 4,000 have been second shots. Faced with a similar problem, the region of Catalonia has taken a different approach and opted to delay the second dose for around 10,000 people beyond the three-week time lag recommended by Pfizer. Catalonia’s health department noted that the European Medicines Agency based its approval of the Pfizer vaccine on the results of trials in which the time between doses ranged between 19 and 42 days. Nationwide, just under 1.3 million doses have been administered in Spain in a month. Given that the population stands at 47 million, the objective of reaching 70 per cent vaccination by the end of the summer remains a tall order.

  • Nurse who gave birth while ill with Covid-19 meets her daughter for first time

    Eva Gicain had an emergency Caesarean section at 35 weeks pregnant.

  • Cases of Covid caught in hospital halve as hopes rise that vaccines cutting transmission

    Cases of Covid likely to have been caught in hospital have halved in three weeks, bringing hope that the rollout of vaccines to staff is beginning to slow transmission. NHS data shows the number of cases has fallen from a high of 635 a day at the start of this month to 367 last week. The trend came despite a rise in the total numbers of Covid sufferers in hospital from around 25,000 to 37,000 over the period. On Wednesday night, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said early findings from Israel – which has already given first jabs to almost a third of its population – suggested they could cut rates of transmission by around 60 per cent. However, Sir Patrick told a Downing Street briefing that he would be "extremely cautious" about making an assessment of the impact of the vaccines on transmission until there was "proper data" to assess. Boris Johnson said proof about the impact of vaccines should emerge by the middle of February. A study by Public Health England (PHE), tracking 40,000 health workers – including those given jabs early in the vaccination programme – is expected to report its findings next month. NHS staff were among those offered Covid jabs when the vaccination programme began in December, with a concerted push at the start of this month after the AstraZeneca jab became available.

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

    Around one in 16 local areas are currently recording a week-on-week rise.

  • Archaeologists on HS2 line uncover grounds of perfectly preserved 16th-century manor gardens

    Historians have been left stunned by the ancient discovery near Coleshill on the outskirts of Birmingham.