Snow has covered many parts of the UK as the mercury dropped to bitterly cold temperatures overnight, including minus 17.1C in Scotland.
The snow and ice has created some beautiful images and some members of the British public have embraced the freezing conditions.
Everyone aged 56 and over will be invited for jabs this week, NHS England has announced. Hundreds of thousands of letters for those aged between 56 and 59 began landing on doorsteps on Saturday. The latest round of invitations comes after eight in 10 people aged 65 to 69 took up the offer of inoculation. More than 18 million people in England - more than a third of the adult population - have already received a vaccine. Across the UK, more than a million people have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, while almost 21.4 million people have had one dose. Dr Nikki Kanani, NHS England national medical director for primary care, said: "It is testament to our incredible staff that we can now move on to the next age group. The vaccines are both safe and effective, so if anybody who is eligible hasn't been vaccinated yet, I'd urge them to go online or call 119 and get themselves booked in."
The Duchess of Sussex “went mental” at her personal assistant for ordering blankets that were the wrong shade of red, it has been claimed. Meghan, 39, is said to have had “unattainably high demands” causing untold tensions with her Kensington Palace staff. When she hosted a shooting party at Sandringham for Prince Harry’s friends, shortly after their engagement, she allegedly told her PA, Melissa Touabti, to order red, personally embroidered blankets for each of the guests. A source told the Sunday Times: “When they arrived, they weren’t the right shade of red for Meghan and she went mental at Melissa.” Ms Toubati is said to have left “traumatised” by the Duchess’s alleged behaviour and left the Royal Household six months after the Sussexes’ wedding, amid claims she had been reduced to tears.
Brexit is done - and so is Nigel Farage. The former leader of the UK Independence Party and the Brexit Party, credited even by his sharpest critics as the most influential politician of the past two decades, has finally quit politics. And this time it is for good. In an interview with this weekend’s Chopper’s Politics podcast, which you can listen to on the audio player above, Mr Farage announces he is resigning as leader of the Reform Party and turning his back on politics after three decades of political street fighting. He says: “There is no going back - Brexit is done. That won’t be reversed. I know I’ve come back once or twice when people thought I’d gone, but this is it. It’s done. It’s over.” Mr Farage famously quit after the 2016 referendum, saying "I want my life back", but then reformed the Brexit Party two years later in 2018 to exploit disaffection with the way the Government was handling the Brexit negotiations. He adds: “Now's the moment for me to say I've knocked on my last door. I'm going to step down as the leader of Reform UK. I'll have no executive position at all. I'm quite happy to have an honorary one, but party politics, campaigning, being involved in elections, that is now over for me because I've achieved the one thing I set out to do: to achieve the independence of the UK.” The 56-year-old insists that he had no plans to retire, saying: “I'm not packing up. I'm not off to play golf four afternoons a week and have half a bitter afterwards. That's not happening.” Instead, he will be trying to influence the national debate on China’s influence in the UK and the battles over the so-called culture wars.
Austrian authorities have suspended inoculations with a batch of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine as a precaution while investigating the death of one person and the illness of another after the shots, a health agency said on Sunday. "The Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) has received two reports in a temporal connection with a vaccination from the same batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the district clinic of Zwettl" in Lower Austria province, it said.
As schools in England reopen on Monday March 8, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson confirms pupils will return to class again after the Easter break.
The vote will be held next week subject to the decision of the Scottish Parliament bureau.
The Duchess of Sussex “called all the shots” when it came to managing her own media, royal sources have said, casting doubt on her claim she could not be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey three years ago. Multiple royal sources have told The Telegraph the 39-year-old former actress “had full control” over her media interviews and had personally forged relationships not only with Ms Winfrey, but other powerful industry figures including Vogue editor Edward Enninful. In a teaser clip released from the Sussexes’s interview with the US chat show host, due to be aired in the US on Sunday, the Duchess said it felt “liberating” to be able to speak and accused the Royal family of effectively gagging her and taking away that choice. “It’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in some ways to be able to say yes, I’m ready to talk, to be able to make a choice on your own and be able to speak for yourself,” the Duchess said. In the clip, the Duchess and Ms Winfrey reference the fact that a royal aide was listening in to their first phone call in February 2018, although it is understood the pair had spoken privately before then. What time is Meghan and Harry's interview with Oprah, and how can I watch it in the UK?
General counsel wrote a letter to the White House ‘respectfully’ declining to resign before she was eventually removed from her post
‘Democrats are passing Covid relief And Republicans are reading Dr Seuss’ says one reply
More than third of Scottish voters less likely to vote for cutting ties with rest of UK after events of recent days
Exclusive: Appointments to be cancelled and new slots unavailable in east Midlands, ahead of significant supply boost in following week
She accused critics of the Duchess of being racist
The EU is to appeal to the US to allow the export of millions of doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to Europe to make up for its shortfall of supplies, it has emerged. In a bid to boost its stuttering inoculation drive the European Commission plans to raise the matter in transatlantic discussions designed to boost collaboration in the fight against Covid-19. The EU will also ask Washington to ensure the free flow of shipments of vital ingredients needed for its own production of the vaccine. It comes after Italy blocked a shipment of AstraZeneca jabs to Australia, leading to further fears of vaccine hoarding as the EU tries to catch up with both the UK and the USA’s vaccine roll out. The European Commission said in a statement: “We trust that we can work together with the US to ensure that vaccines produced or bottled in the US for the fulfilment of vaccine producers’ contractual obligations with the EU will be fully honoured.” The European bid to obtain supplies of the AstraZeneca jab produced in the US comes as the company struggles to meet its delivery targets for the EU following production problems. AstraZeneca has also said it intends to source half of its planned supply to the EU from elsewhere in the world, but it declined to comment on the EU effort to access its US production. The EU’s attempt to source more supplies follows months of problems with its vaccine roll out, which at one stage saw the jab restricted to under-65s by several European countries such as Germany, which reversed the policy this month. President Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, discussed increasing cooperation in the face of the pandemic on Friday. After the two leaders’ call the commission said that the two had a “strong interest” in working together to improve supply chains across the globe. Thierry Breton, EU internal market commissioner, has now been tasked to work with Jeffrey Zients, US co-ordinator of the Covid-19 response, on vaccine supply chain issues.
Follow the latest in US politics
‘Population immunity’ to flu and other viruses may have been impacted by Covid health measures, government adviser says
Two men arrested and being treated in hospital
The Royal family will assume the brace position as it awaits a stream of damaging revelations by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their Oprah Winfrey interview. The slickly produced, dramatic teasers quashed any lingering hopes that the couple might stick to more mundane and diplomatic subject matters. Instead, they will tell “their truth”, lifting the lid on life behind palace walls in a manner no member of the family has done for decades. The couple intend the interview to draw a line under their grievances and mark the end of that chapter of their lives, allowing them to finally look to the future. But in reality, the issues that they raise, the allegations they make, are expected to be explosive, with potentially serious and long-term implications for the monarchy.
Last month Boris Johnson made his long-awaited speech to Parliament and announced a number of key dates for reopening Britain. The Government has always said that reopening schools would be the priority when lockdown is eased, with Monday previously set as the target date. According to a statement from the National Education Union, a full return would mean 10 million pupils and staff travelling to and from school each day.
Rangers have been crowned Scottish Premiership champions for the first time since 2011 after Celtic were held to a goalless draw at Dundee United. The club's fans flouted lockdown rules at Ibrox to celebrate the 55th crown for the second day running.
Broadcaster shared a tribute to his sister on social media
Yahoo News