Hotspots: On the front line with Hong Kong protesters
Hotspots: On the front line with Hong Kong protesters
Trump campaign team had said that they did not ‘organise, operate or finance’ the 6 January rally
Mass testing of entire regions is being considered by ministers to help get the country out of lockdown, it has emerged, as Dominic Raab said restrictions could start to be eased in March. The Foreign Secretary said that by the "early spring, hopefully March" some restrictions would be lifted "gradually" so the country could "get back to normal”. He warned it would not be a “big bang” end to lockdown but a return to tiers depending on the level of Covid admissions in hospitals, death rates and hitting targets on vaccinating the over 50s and vulnerable by early spring. The Telegraph understands mass testing could be used to swiftly move the worst-infected areas down the tiers. One idea under consideration is to send out home testing kits, known as lateral flow tests, to every household in an entire region so the population could be tested within a week.
A British lawyer set to prosecute Hong Kong democracy campaigners has been slated by Dominic Raab for being "mercenary". It comes after it was recently revealed that David Perry QC is being brought in to handle the trial of Jimmy Lai, a publisher and high-profile critic of the Chinese state, and eight other campaigners accused of organising an illegal anti-government march. The Foreign Secretary said he did not understand how any British lawyer could in "good conscience" prosecute a case applying the controversial national security law in Hong Kong. Mr Raab said: "There's no doubt in my mind that under the bar code of ethics a case like this could be resisted and, frankly, I think people watching this would regard it as pretty mercenary to be taking up that kind of case." He said he did not understand how anyone in “good conscience, from the world-leading legal profession that we have, would take a case where they will have to apply the national security legislation at the behest of the authorities in Beijing, which is directly violating, undermining the freedom of the people of Hong Kong, and I understand, in the case of Mr Perry, in relation to the pro-democracy activists”. He added: "From Beijing's point of view, this would be a serious PR coup."
Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reached space for the first time on Sunday with a successful test of its air-launched rocket, delivering ten NASA satellites to orbit and achieving a key milestone after aborting the rocket’s first test launch last year. "According to telemetry, LauncherOne has reached orbit!" the company announced on Twitter during the test mission, dubbed Launch Demo 2. Roughly two hours after its Cosmic Girl carrier craft took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in southern California, the rocket, a 70-foot launcher tailored for carrying small satellites to space, successfully placed 10 tiny satellites in orbit for NASA, the company said on Twitter.
The vaccines minister has said he is hoping to target key workers such as police officers, shop workers and teachers in the next phase of the vaccine rollout. Officials have so far been prioritising the over-80s, NHS staff, and care home residents and staff as they are classed as the most vulnerable. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News that while groups will continue to be prioritised "based predominantly on age and vulnerability" to COVID-19, the second phase of the rollout could see the vaccine given to those who are most likely to come into contact with the virus at work.
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People aged over 70 and those listed as clinically extremely vulnerable will be invited to receive coronavirus vaccinations starting this week. It comes as the national vaccine programme continues to expand, with 10 more mass vaccination centres due to open this week and the government revealing that the vaccine is being given at a rate of 140 jabs per minute. More than 3.8 million people in the UK, including those over 80, care home residents, and NHS staff, have already had the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Photos of mannequins from the Izidoro Armacollo Wax Museum in Rolandia, Brazil have gone viral for all the wrong reasons. Its owner's recreations of celebrities such as Princess Diana, Michael Jackson, and Albert Einstein — just to name a few — have been likened to a horror show rather than works of art.
No one should go on holiday abroad or in the UK while the NHS is on the “cusp” due to the coronavirus pandemic, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab has said. More than 3.5 million people in the UK having now received their first dose of the vaccine, Boris Johnson said, as he celebrated those helping the “fantastic national effort”.
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The latest updates from the White House and beyond on 17 January 2021
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This week, HuffPost UK reader Judy asked: "I had Covid on 22 November, how long should I wait to get the vaccine?"
Should I book a holiday for spring? Will vaccine passports open up our holidays? How travel to Europe will change after Brexit New UK testing entry rules: everything you need to know Sign up to the Telegraph Travel newsletter The UK's tough new testing rules came into effect this morning, with all international arrivals now required to show a negative Covid test or face a potential £500 fine. The legislation is intended to protect against the spread of coronavirus variants, after two new forms of the virus were recently discovered in Brazil. A quarantine is also still in place for all UK arrivals, consisting of 10 days – but shortened to five if a second negative test result is obtained. Currently, no one is able to bypass this quarantine due to the removal last week of all the UK’s travel corridors. More spot-checks have also been ordered to check that people are quarantining, and all exemptions to the policy – including the controversial separate rules for business travel – have also been removed. While the travel industry has spent the past year calling for an effective testing regime, many business leaders are still despairing over the continued use of a quarantine. Speaking on Radio 4 this morning, CEO of the Airport Operators Association Karen Dee warned that the new measures will make little difference to the industry currently – because quarantine is the “biggest deterrent” against booking trips, rather than testing. Scroll down for the latest updates.
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Coronavirus vaccines are now being offered to millions of the most vulnerable people across the country.
The government is planning to end lockdown in March after cabinet members agreed that waiting until the summer when most people will have been vaccinated would lead to yet more economic misery, according to reports. Ministers are drawing up a timetable to scale back restrictions despite the Sage Advisory committee calling for delays, it has been reported. A blueprint for the end of the lockdown is expected to be looked at later this week which will take into account the latest infection rates, deaths and hospitalisations.