Hotels ready to take new quarantine arrivals today

New mandatory quarantine measures come into effect today for anyone arriving from one of the government's 33 'red list' countries, requiring them to stay in an approved hotel for 10 days. .

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  • Piers Morgan shocks Good Morning Britain viewers after host ‘admits’ he’s a ‘b***end’ on live TV

    “I just spat coffee in my cornflakes,’ one surprised viewer said

  • Parents of child who died of Covid share the warning signs of the virus in kids

    Parents of Gigi Morse, 6, say she seemed fine except for a few unusual ailments.

  • Over 40 migrants die off coast of Italy as pregnant refugee sets herself on fire in Greek migrant camp

    At least 41 people drowned in the Mediterranean after a boat capsized sailing from Libya to Italy last week, the UN’s refugee and migration agencies said on Wednesday calling for coordinated action by European countries to address the migration emergency. It came as an eight-month-pregnant Afghan refugee attempted to set herself on fire in a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, in protest against squalid living conditions. She is due to appear in court on Thursday and may be charged with arson after setting her tent ablaze. The boat of 120 people capsized two days after it left the Libyan coast on Feb.18. Its passengers included six women, one of whom was pregnant, and four children, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UNHCR said in a joint statement. According to the survivors, the dinghy started to take on water about 15 hours after it set off. At least six people died after falling into the water, while two others tried to swim to a boat visible in the distance and drowned. After about three hours, an rescue vessel approached the dinghy to attempt to help the stranded passengers but many more people lost their lives in the difficult operation, the IOM and UNHCR reported, without supplying details. Only one body was recovered and those missing include three children and four women, one of whom left behind a newborn baby. “Saving the lives of refugees and migrants in distress in the Mediterranean must once again become a priority for the European Union and the international community,” the agencies said. Some 160 people are believed to have died in the Central Mediterranean since the start of 2021. Tens of thousands of migrants travelling along the deadly route through Libya to the Central Mediterranean have fallen victim to brutality at the hands of traffickers and militias. Of the more than 3,800 people who have reached Italy by sea so far this year, over 2,500 have departed from Libya. There, returnees are forced into arbitrary detention and risk becoming victim to abuse, violence, and major human rights violations, the agencies said. The Afghan refugee in Greece, aged 26 and a mother of two, had been told her relocation to Germany had been approved last week, but that she was not allowed to leave the camp as she is weeks away from giving birth. After repeated complaints against the decision, on Sunday the woman took her children out of her tent, walked inside and started a fire. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Migration told the Telegraph that she regretted her move and got out of the tent, but she suffered minor burn injuries. The fire was put out by the personnel of the camp helped by some of its residents. A spokesperson for the UNHCR told The Telegraph that the situation for residents in Kara Tepe remains precarious and that works needed to upgrade facilities are still under way. The camp was designated the main one in Lesbos after an arson attack burned down the notorious Moria camp in September 2020. Refugees and asylum-seekers are suffering from bad weather conditions at this time of year, along with more long-term problems related to their living conditions, Covid-19 restrictions, and the indeterminate time they must wait on the island before being relocated.

  • Biden news - live: Trump Jr deposed over inaugural funds as White House defends migrant camp after AOC attack

    Follow all the latest news from the White House

  • Britons 'will be told they can hug in May if they're willing to risk it’ under lockdown easing

    Advice will reportedly be updated to tell people to use their best judgement.

  • EU 'catching up' with UK on coronavirus vaccinations, says Ursula von der Leyen

    The European Union is catching up with Britain on coronavirus vaccinations, Ursula von der Leyen said as she called the British strategy of delaying the second dose too risky. The European Commission president responded to criticism that the EU vaccination rollout was too slow by pointing out that 130 countries in the world had had no jabs at all. Mrs von der Leyen said more than twice the number of Italians than Britons had had both jabs, and the EU as a whole had given out more first doses. "We're catching up. Britain has administered 17 million first doses. There are 27 million in the EU. In Italy, with a population similar to that of Great Britain, twice as many citizens received full vaccination protection with the second dose as in the UK," she said. She told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper: "I think it's risky to simply postpone the second vaccination. We should adhere to the specifications that the manufacturers determined in their extensive clinical tests." In the UK, 27.47 doses per 100 people have been administered compared to just 6.12 across the EU. In France, 5.7 jabs per 100 people have been given, with the figure 6.1 in Germany.

  • Vaccine passports to prove Covid immunity could be banned in some circumstances, Boris Johnson indicates

    Michael Gove to lead review of ‘complex ethical issues’, says PM

  • Piers Morgan's wife reveals they've had panic button installed after death threats

    The couple had a visit from the police and have beefed up their home security.

  • Strictly’s Karen Hauer details jealousy and painful split from Kevin Clifton

    She said she wanted to fight for their relationship.

  • Trump-appointed judge overturns Biden 100 day ban on deportations

    Mr Biden pitched 100-day pause during campaign as part of rollback of Trump immigration policies

  • Emmanuel Macron challenged by fellow EU leaders over AstraZeneca vaccine criticism

    European Union leaders challenged Emmanuel Macron over his inaccurate claims that the AstraZeneca vaccine was “quasi-ineffectual”, it emerged on Wednesday. The French president said the jab did not appear to work on the over 65s in late January just hours before the EU’s medicines regulator approved it for use on all adults. A senior EU official revealed that Mr Macron was asked about his comments, which have been linked to a reluctance in some European countries to take the AstraZeneca jab. EU leaders have held regular video summits, including one on Thursday where they will call for coronavirus restrictions to continue, since the pandemic. “The point was raised by some leaders indeed. I cannot say who and when it was raised,” the official said. “There are in some countries some doubts and I think that the question was more to get clarification on if it was true or not and since then I think the commission has reacted to this." Ursula von der Leyen, the commission president, said on Tuesday she “would take the AstraZeneca vaccine without a second thought”. People in Europe are reluctant to have the jab after Mr Macron’s comments and inaccurate German reports about the vaccine. The EU was “catching up” with Britain on vaccinations, Mrs von der Leyen said, as she branded the British strategy of delaying the second dose as “risky”. She responded to criticism that the EU vaccination rollout was too slow by pointing out that 130 countries in the world had had no jabs at all. “We're catching up. Britain has administered 17 million first doses. There are 27 million in the EU. In Italy, with a population similar to that of Great Britain, twice as many citizens received full vaccination protection with the second dose as in the UK,” she said. Britain used faster emergency authorisation procedures to approve vaccines than the EU. The UK negotiated for doses alone after rejecting an offer from Brussels last year to join the EU joint procurement scheme.

  • Children warned over hugging their grandparents – even if they've had the vaccine

    Dr Jenny Harries said children hugging grandparents should be avoided 'until we’re absolutely sure' about the effectiveness of COVID vaccines.

  • Myanmar's hardened Chinese population takes stand against Beijing

    The chorus of banging pots and pans begins in Chinatown at about 8pm. The district in Myanmar's commercial city of Yangon is normally festooned with bright red lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year. But when the Year of the Ox arrived in mid-February, the usual festive atmosphere was gone - replaced by a tension in the air. Here, and across the country, swelling ranks of young ethnic Chinese protesters are joining mass rallies against the brutal junta that abruptly deposed Aung San Suu Kyi's government. Many are united by rumours, circulated widely among the protest movement, that China is helping the regime install a repressive new internet system akin to one across the border that severely restricts online freedoms behind a 'Great Firewall'.

  • Nicola Sturgeon backtracks over lockdown plan by suggesting lower tier of restrictions in April

    Nicola Sturgeon has backtracked over her controversial lockdown plan by conceding that parts of Scotland could move in April to a lower tier of restrictions that allows domestic travel and pubs to serve alcohol. The First Minister faced a barrage of criticism over her blueprint after stating that the entire mainland would initially move to Level 3 of her five-tier system when full lockdown formally ends on April 26. The beleaguered tourism and hospitality industries said many of their businesses would have to remain shut, with alcohol and travel outside council areas banned under the Level 3 restrictions that operated last year. Ms Sturgeon has conceded that parts or all of the country could instead speedily move to Level 2, which previously allowed restaurants and pubs to serve alcohol and open later. In a second about-turn, she said she hoped that travel restrictions within Scotland could be lifted from the end of April. The previous day she said they needed to continue "for some time yet" and her blueprint gave no indication of when they would be eased. Adopting a markedly more optimistic tone, after she was accused of failing to give people hope, she predicted that Scotland "could move to lower levels of restrictions fairly quickly over May and June."

  • Biden strategist said coronavirus was the ‘best thing’ to happen to him, according to new book

    Comment was apparently never meant to be public knowledge

  • 1,500 Meter Lava Fountain Pours From Crater as Mount Etna Continues to Erupt

    Mount Etna’s explosions reached a peak on Monday as lava fountains reached 1,500 meters in height.Speaking to the Guardian, volcano expert Boris Behncke from the National Institute of Geophysics in Catania, said that Mount Etna’s latest explosion was “one of the most spectacular eruptions of recent decades.”Volcano enthusiastic Giuseppe Tonzuso filmed an explosion video just seven kilometers away from the mountain on late February 22 and into the early hours of February 23. The hot red lava brings up thousands of rock fragments into the sky, the video shows.“This is undoubtedly the most energetic event of the sequence,” Tonzuso told Storyful. Credit: Giuseppe Tonzuso via Storyful

  • Kevin McCarthy and Liz Cheney in awkward clash over Trump after top Republican claims ‘there is no civil war’

    Congresswoman was previously censured by Wyoming’s GOP for voting to impeach the former president

  • Threat to summer holidays as WHO says vaccines should not be condition of entry to countries

    Summer holidays face a new threat after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that Covid vaccinations should not be used to determine whether people can enter a country. The WHO said there were still "critical unknowns" about the efficacy of vaccinations in reducing transmission and preventing the virus even as governments work on vaccine certificates as a way to kickstart travel. It said that, as a result, national authorities, airlines and travel operators "should not introduce requirements of proof of Covid-19 vaccination for international travel as a condition for departure or entry". Vaccination should not exempt travellers from having to undergo other "travel risk-reduction measures", such as testing or quarantine, it added. Vaccination documents are seen as critical to enable holidaymakers to travel abroad this summer. In his roadmap out of lockdown, announced on Monday, Boris Johnson signalled that international travel could restart as early as May 17.

  • Caroline Flack took overdose night before death, inquest told

    ‘Love Island’ presenter’s mother accuses prosecutors of pursuing ‘show trial’ before her death

  • Vaccine side-effects, fertility and jab shortages - Van-Tam answers your questions

    England's deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam has appeared on Sky News to answer some questions from the public on the coronavirus crisis.