Nasa's Mars helicopter to take flight

Nasa's Ingenuity helicopter will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, Mars to be exact, no sooner than April 8.

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  • Prince Philip’s funeral: timeline of events at Windsor Castle

    Prince Philip’s funeral: timeline of events at Windsor Castle. The ceremony will reflect the duke’s military affiliations and personal elements of his life

  • Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory dies aged 52 from cancer

    Tributes have been paid to Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory who has died aged 52 from cancer. In a message posted on social media, Lewis said: “I’m heartbroken to announce that after an heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from friends and family.” McCrory, who was awarded the OBE for services to drama in 2017, was probably best known for playing the fearsome matriarch Polly in crime drama Peaky Blinders but also had a critically acclaimed stage career winning plaudits for National Theatre roles in productions of Medea and Terence Rattigan’s post war drama The Deep Blue Sea.

  • Priti Patel approves extradition of world’s most wanted billionaire

    The world’s most wanted billionaire Nirav Modi has had his extradition to India approved by Priti Patel. The Home Secretary ordered the extradition of the diamond tycoon after a British judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to send him back to India for trial. He has been accused of money laundering and fraud over allegations that he embezzled more than $1 billion (£700 million) from the Punjab National Bank (PNB). Mr Modi was tracked down by The Telegraph after he went on the run. He was found living in a luxury apartment in a high rise block in London’s West End in March 2019.

  • This is how much Drag Race queens spent while competing on the show

    Prepare for your dreams of walking the Drag Race runway to be ruined, because an investigation has ReVealed the astronomical amounts previous contestants have spent competing on the sow.

  • Travel restrictions in Scotland ease as country revealed to be harshest in UK for lockdown

    New rules allowing Scots to travel outside council areas and meet more people outdoors have come into force, as it emerged that Scotland endured one of the most stringent lockdowns of anywhere in the world. From Friday, Scots can travel anywhere in mainland Scotland and meet up to six others from six households outside. Announcing the latest easing of restrictions at an unscheduled briefing on Tuesday, Nicola Sturgeon said the continued decline in virus cases meant the restrictions could be eased earlier than planned. But on Thursday, the First Minister said that while it was “positive” the easing of restrictions had been brought forward, Scots should not allow their guard to drop. "Don't go to crowded places, if you're headed to a beach or a park and it's crowded please come away again because crowded places are not safe places to be.” She added: "As long as we all stick to the advice that's still in place, this easing of restrictions tomorrow should be the first of many and I think, not least because of the vaccine programme, we can all afford to be just that bit more optimistic right now."

  • Prince Philip's great niece Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg: 'He was an idol to us'

    The historic family ties that prompted The Queen to invite German royalty Follow live updates from Prince Philip's funeral The Duke of Edinburgh's great niece, whose brother is in Windsor for his funeral on Saturday, has remembered Prince Philip as an "idol" for the younger generation of their family. Speaking from Munich, Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg said the Duke was a powerful role model to her and his "selflessness, lack of ego and sense of humour" will never be forgotten. Her tribute comes as the Queen prepares to say farewell to her husband of 73 years at Windsor Castle. "To all of us, he was an idol, he was somebody to look up to, we had enormous respect for him and it was always very exciting when he came to visit, and he came often," said Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. "And this has become clear to me in the week since he's died - the way he lived his life, his motto, which was an unwritten motto for us, this discipline, this selflessness, this lack of ego, but also his sense of humour always underlying all of that.

  • Helen McCrory, Star Of Peaky Blinders And Harry Potter Films, Dies Aged 52

    Helen's husband Damian Lewis wrote that she had died "after a heroic battle with cancer".

  • Ghislaine Maxwell lawyers reveal more than 2,000 ‘highly confidential’ photos in the evidence against her

    The trial is set to begin 12 July

  • COVID cases now rising in 1 in 3 UK areas

    The government’s latest figures show cases of coronavirus are rising in 122 of 380 local council areas – 32% of the UK.

  • ‘It’s going very well’: Hope rises for Oxford’s malaria vaccine after success of Covid jab from same team

    Exclusive: Professor Adrian Hill says his team at the Jenner Institute are ‘very excited’ by the prospects of their vaccine, which enters into large-scale testing in Africa this month

  • In Pictures: Windsor remembers Duke of Edinburgh on day of his funeral

    Philip’s insignia, laid out on the altar of St George’ Chapel, provided a reminder of his family links and his many roles in the nation’s life.

  • How do people feel about the AstraZeneca vaccine?

    Under-30s in the UK will be offered Pfizer or Moderna vaccines rather than the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns over a very rare risk of blood clots. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK said there were still huge benefits of the vaccine in preventing Covid-19, and has not concluded that the vaccine causes rare clots, although it says the link is getting firmer.

  • Prince Philip’s funeral in pictures: Queen bids farewell to her husband of 73 years

    The Queen will say a final goodbye to Prince Philip, her husband of more than seven decades, at a funeral on Saturday.

  • Pro-UK parties could stop an independence majority at Holyrood, claims Lib Dem leader

    Pro-UK parties could yet stop an independence majority at Holyrood because even “hardline” SNP voters are unsure about Nicola Sturgeon’s mid-pandemic push for a new referendum, the Lib Dem leader has claimed. Launching his party’s manifesto, Willie Rennie said the SNP vote was “softer than I’ve ever seen it” in the current campaign and insisted it was “all to play for”. He predicted that momentum could rapidly swing away from the nationalists in the final weeks of the campaign, despite opinion polls currently suggesting a pro-independence majority after May 6 is a near certainty. The Lib Dems have said the next Holyrood term should be focused on recovery from the pandemic rather than a new independence vote. The party is proposing large increases to spending on mental health services, a jobs guarantee for young people and play-based education up to the age of seven. It also published proposals for MSPs to be able to vote to hold Scottish ministers in "contempt of parliament" after the SNP repeatedly defied votes in the previous term. The Lib Dems won just five seats at Holyrood in 2016 but Mr Rennie insisted his party had the potential to make gains across Scotland, highlighting Caithness, Sutherland and Ross as a seat he believes he can take from the SNP. “There's a lot to play for, and the vote amongst the SNP is softer than I have ever seen it,” Mr Rennie said. “The hesitation amongst the SNP voters is considerable. “There was a lady I met the other day, she's been a hardline SNP supporter all of her life. She said she was just not sure this time, and [her reasons were] Alex Salmond and pushing an independence referendum in the middle of a pandemic.” He also claimed that centrist Tory voters were moving to the Lib Dems because they were put off by a “harder, darker edge” to the Conservatives under Douglas Ross. He claimed socially liberal voters attracted by the “bubbly and bright” Ruth Davidson at the last election did not like the current incumbent. Mr Rennie said the Tories had adopted more right wing positions under Mr Ross and cited a masked photocall on a military jeep as an example in which he “just looked a bit darker”.

  • ‘Comically evil’: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert cause outrage by voting against bone marrow donor program

    In comments to The Independent, spokesman for Greene brings up abortion, Boebert mentions growing national debt as reasons for voting against legislation

  • Latina grandmother assaulted on LA bus in anti-Asian attack

    A 70-year-old woman was getting off a bus in LA when another passenger dragged her to the other end of the vehicle and beat her, her son says

  • Helen McCrory championed charity with Damian Lewis in one of last public appearances, weeks before her death

    ‘Very few people had any idea what she was clearly going through,’ tweets GB News presenter Dan Wootton

  • Prince Philip funeral: Order of service in full

    FUNERAL of HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE PHILIP DUKE OF EDINBURGH Saturday, 17th April, 2021 at 3.00pm During the service, a choir of four singers (three of whom are Lay Clerks of St George's Chapel Choir) will be conducted by James Vivian and the organ will be played by Luke Bond.

  • ‘Not what we’d hoped for’: UK military chief disappointed over US withdrawal from Afghanistan

    Taliban ‘is not the organisation it once was’, says General Sir Nick Carter

  • 'Don't feel sorry for us', says Villa's Mings after online racial abuse

    Mings, 28, posted a screenshot on his Twitter account of a racist message sent to him on Instagram. "Another day in the life of social media with no filter," Mings wrote. Villa said they were "disgusted" by the "abhorrent" message.