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  • Sombre mood as grieving Queen Elizabeth II turns 95

    Queen Elizabeth II turns 95 on Wednesday, just days after burying her late husband Prince Philip, in what will be her first birthday alone in more than seven decades.

  • Teen who filmed George Floyd arrest celebrates verdict, shares guilt she couldn’t save him

    Darnella Frazier receives widespread praise, including from Joe Biden

  • COVID-19: Surge testing deployed in more parts of Birmingham after case of South African variant discovered

    Surge testing is being deployed in parts of Birmingham after a case of the South African variant was discovered. Areas of Alum Rock and Glebe Farm & Tile Cross have been targeted for testing and all those in the affected places are being told to come forward for a test. The person who tested positive for the variant has gone into self-isolation and their contacts have been identified, according to the Department of Health.

  • Sacked minister launches astonishing attack on Boris Johnson's 'distrustful, awful' government

    Johnny Mercer's extraordinary attack also extended to the 'cesspit' of Westminster, which he said is populated by 'children' who are 'frankly unemployable elsewhere'.

  • Covid passports proving vaccine status to be released for summer holidays

    Covid passports will be made available to prove people have been vaccinated as early as next month, in time for summer holidays, the travel industry has been told. The Department for Transport wants an official certification scheme that gives British travellers a document they can show at borders overseas in place by May 17. In a separate development, a European medical agency recommended that fully vaccinated travellers should be able to sidestep tests and quarantine. It potentially smooths the path for holidays to more than 20 countries that have indicated they could ask travellers for proof of vaccination, such as Israel, Croatia, Turkey, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus. Greece has moved to reopen its tourism industry by dropping quarantine rules for travellers from more than 30 nations if they have been vaccinated or tested negative for Covid-19. The Covid vaccine certificate could come in either digital or physical form, with government officials exploring the best way to make it work in the tight time frame.

  • Have your say: Should lockdown easing be brought forward?

    The next set of restrictions are due to be eased on 17 May.

  • Australians hit back at Britain over  'bad tactics' ahead of trade negotiations

    Australian Government insiders have hit back at Britain over "sledging" by Liz Truss’s allies ahead of trade talks this week. The Telegraph revealed on Tuesday that sources close to the International Trade Secretary were briefing that Dan Tehan, the Australian trade minister, was "inexperienced" in comparison. Allies of Ms Truss complained of "glacially slow" progress over a UK-Australian trade agreement, and warned that Mr Tehan "needs to show that he can play at this level" when the pair meet for negotiations on Thursday. They also claimed that the British cabinet minister was plotting to sit Mr Tehan "in the Locarno Room [in the Foreign Office] in an uncomfortable chair, so he has to deal with her directly for nine hours". An Australian minister told this newspaper that the remarks were "full of hubris" and hit back that Mr Tehan is "from the land" and "has the stamina" to see off Ms Truss’s tactics. Unimpressed, the frontbencher commented ironically: "I love it when Brits underestimate us." The minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, continued: "Sledging is a fine art, which we have mastered on the pitch. This is just the Brits gobbing off." Australian officials also weighed in to counter the UK Government briefing. An official at the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: "If this was briefed by a member of Truss’s staff, that is very disrespectful." The official told the Sydney Morning Herald: "It’s also a very bad tactic. It won’t work." In response to the claim that Mr Tehan was "inexperienced" in trade talks, it was pointed out that while Mr Tehan only took on the post of trade minister in December, he first joined DFAT in 1995. He served as a diplomat between 1999 and 2001, and between 2002 and 2005 worked as a trade adviser to the minister, helping to negotiate Australia’s free trade deal with the US administration under George W Bush. Ms Truss is said to have texted Mr Tehan on Tuesday night to say she was looking forward to seeing him and hoped for a productive two-day dialogue in London. The UK High Commissioner Vicki Treadall faced questions over the UK briefing. She defended the sources close to Ms Truss, insisting that Australia is one of "our closest friends and allies", but that "this is a trade negotiation so there will be tactics on both sides". Some British politicians also took a dim view of the briefing. Alistair Carmichael, Lib Dem MP and home affairs spokesman, branded it "embarrassing" and tweeted: "It's also a reminder that the Government has chosen to turn trade negotiations with a supposed ally into another avenue for domestic politics, on the bet that no one will notice the long-term negative side effects."

  • Banning smart motorways would 'kill drivers' by forcing them onto unsafe roads

    Banning smart motorways would "kill drivers" by forcing them onto unsafe roads, a government minister has said. Baroness Vere, the roads minister, told MPs that the stretches of motorways that used the hard shoulder as an extra lane were safer than conventional roads and motorways as they eased congestion. She also defended the Government’s decision to keep the system in place despite recent warnings from coroners over the deaths of drivers left stranded on smart motorways, saying a number of safety improvements have been made to them. Her comments come after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced recently that no new smart motorways will be created unless they have the technology in place to spot when a broken-down motorists is unable to reach the sporadic safety bays that replace the hard shoulder. A number of smart motorways were previously launched by Highways England without the monitoring system in place and the Government has given the organisation until March 2023 to ensure all have coverage. Highways England has previously insisted smart motorways are the “safest roads in the country”. However, figures show there were 15 deaths on them in 2019, up from 11 in 2018. Appearing in front of the transport select committee, Baroness Vere said she was “astonished” and “disappointed” by the way Highways England had handled the rollout of smart motorways. However, she said smart motorways were safer than conventional roads as they gave drivers more space. Baroness Vere said: “One of the things that makes all drivers more safe is to provide more capacity on our safest roads and that is what all-lane running motorways do. “If you increase capacity on those roads they are our safest roads in terms of fatalities, as you take traffic off less safe roads.”

  • Mike Tindall speaks of his 'love' for the Queen as he describes 'eerie' Prince Philip funeral

    Mike and Zara Tindall were able to attend the funeral of her grandfather Philip at the weekend.

  • Putin warns foreign rivals against 'crossing red line' with Russia

    Russian President Vladimir Putin warns foreign rivals against "crossing the red line" with Moscow, as he gives a state of the nation address amid deep tensions with the West.

  • Boris Johnson ‘biggest threat to United Kingdom’, says Scottish Labour leader

    Anas Sarwar says he ‘understands’ why PM is not campaigning north of border

  • Indian journalist live-tweeting wait for hospital bed dies from Covid

    India has recorded over 15.3 million cases of Covid-19, second only to the US with over 31 million cases

  • Chad in turmoil after Deby death as rebels, opposition challenge military

    N'DJAMENA (Reuters) -The son of Chad's slain leader Idriss Deby took over as president and armed forces commander on Wednesday as rebel forces threatened to march on the capital, deepening the turmoil in a country vital to international efforts to combat Islamist militants in Africa. The political opposition denounced the military's takeover of control, as did an army general who said he spoke for many officers. Deby, 68, was killed on Monday on the frontline in a battle against fighters of the Libyan-based Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a group formed by dissident army officers.

  • Russian family at heart of £450m divorce battle 'unhappiest to appear in my courtroom', judge says

    A High Court judge quoted Tolstoy on Wednesday as she said the Russian family at the centre of a £450 million divorce was “the unhappiest to ever appear in my courtroom”. Mrs Justice Knowles referenced a passage from the Russian writer’s 19th century epic, Anna Karenina, as she allowed a legal challenge brought by the ex-wife of a Russian billionaire against her son. Tatiana Akhmedova had sued Temur Akhmedov for allegedly helping his father, Farkhad Akhmedov, hide assets following the breakdown of their marriage. The 48-year-old was awarded a 41.5 per cent share of her ex-husband’s fortune, which exceeds £1 billion, in 2016, but has since got her hands on only £5 million. The £453 million divorce settlement was the biggest made by a British court, but Ms Akhmedova had since been the “victim of a series of schemes designed to put every penny of the husband’s wealth beyond her reach”, the ruling concluded. The judge agreed with Ms Akhmedova’s characterisation of her son as his father’s “lieutenant” and said the schemes had been carried out with his “knowledge and active assistance”. The court found that very large sums had been transferred to Temur, 27, and concluded he must pay his mother, who is from Russia but lives in London, around £75 million. In the opening words of the ruling, which spanned 128 pages, the judge wrote: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. “With apologies to Tolstoy, the Akhmedov family is one of the unhappiest ever to have appeared in my courtroom. “Though this case concerns wealth of which most can only dream, it is - at its core - a straightforward case in which, following their divorce, a wife seeks to recover that which is owed to her from a husband and his proxies who, it is alleged, have done all they can to put monies beyond her reach. “Nevertheless, it is a case not without legal and factual complexity though much of that stems from the details of dishonest schemes instigated by Farkhad Akhmedov and put into effect by his advisors and his eldest son, Temur Akhmedov.”

  • Richard Madeley says he’d consider replacing Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain: ‘I couldn’t give a f*** about trolls’

    Richard and Judy presenter is one of the show’s substitute hosts

  • Boris Johnson urged to reveal number of those dying after taking COVID vaccine

    Tony Blair has said the information would help allay concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine.

  • Black girl shot dead by police minutes before Derek Chauvin verdicts are read

    Police have shot and killed a young black girl just before Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd. The shooting on Tuesday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio, came after police responded to reports of an attempted stabbing. The caller had said females were trying to stab them and put their hands on them, according to Columbus interim police chief Michael Woods.

  • London mayoral election: Sadiq Khan vows to defy ‘vocal minority’ fighting plans to cut traffic in capital

    Clean air for children is ‘social justice’ issue says Labour candidate ahead of report on pollution death

  • ‘No meaningful parliamentary debate or scrutiny’ of Covid laws, says former government legal chief

    Changes made at ‘short notice’ left police scrambling to enforce law, Sir Jonathan Jones QC says

  • Vulnerable people struggled to get food due to lack of support for Covid ‘shielders’, report finds

    Around 800,000 may have ‘slipped through the net’ in hastily-developed support plan