Trafalgar Square in London has been closed off from the public ahead of New Year's Eve. It comes after more than three-quarters of England's population have been told to stay at home to stop the spread of coronavirus, as large swathes of the country were put into Tier 4 restrictions overnight.
Weather system expected to bring deluge to northern and central England
"I think we’re all OK with it,' says incoming first daughter in first ever TV interview
Electric cars have gradually become as quick, as good-looking and almost as cheap as their petrol-powered counterparts. But there are still some convenience issues to overcome. Along with making batteries smaller, lighter, safer and more compact, improving charging technology is one of the main barriers to mass electric car uptake - a key part of the UK's climate change plan. While filling up at a petrol pump takes a matter of minutes, charging an electric car is currently a more time-consuming undertaking. On standard home chargers, it can take eight hours or longer for a drained electric car battery to fill up. Most commercial chargers are much faster than this, though. In the UK, the most commonly-found Rapid chargers, which operate at 50 kW, can charge a battery to 80 per cent full in between 20 minutes and an hour. 50kw is not widely considered to be particularly fast, and most UK chargers are even slower than this, so more powerful chargers will certainly help. But even Tesla’s fastest superchargers, which operate at 250kw, require drivers to hang around for more than half an hour to get their empty battery to 100 per cent. The main engineering challenge is not the power available from the charger, but the battery itself. There's a trade-off between producing longer-range cars which can travel further on a single charge and batteries that charge more quickly.
Bloc's ambassador to Britain says nobody advocates following Britain out of the EU
Boris Johnson faces growing pressure from Tory MPs to set out an exit strategy from lockdown based on vaccine rollout forecasts and using March 8 as the target date to start easing the restrictions. Conservatives in the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group (CRG) highlighted scientific suggestions that the most vulnerable Britons will achieve a significant level of immunity from the virus three weeks after receiving their first dose of the jab. Since the Government has pledged to vaccinate the 14 million most vulnerable Britons by February 15, ministers should prepare to ease the rules three weeks later on March 8, the MPs said. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, reiterated this week that the mortality rate is expected to fall by 88 per cent once the most vulnerable cohort, which includes all adults over 70 and the clinically extremely vulnerable, has received an initial dose of the vaccine by the middle of next month.
An email to frontline workers, seen by HuffPost UK, reveals new directions to avoid precious Covid-19 jabs expiring.
The president is ready to deal a final blow to tradition, writes Griffin Connolly
The first real-world analysis of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine suggests it is matching its performance in clinical trials, but raises serious questions about the UK's decision to delay the second dose.
They celebrated in Los Angeles.
Israel’s coronavirus tsar has warned that the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine offers less protection than expected, as he blamed the country’s surge in Covid cases partly on the new British variant. Nachman Ash said many Israelis had caught Covid in between their first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, suggesting that the first jab is “less effective than we thought,” according to Army Radio. His remarks underline the importance of receiving a second vaccine dose, which according to recent studies is more than 90 per cent effective in protecting against coronavirus. Israel has already given the first of two jabs to nearly 30 per cent of the population and on Tuesday announced it would extend eligibility to those aged 40 and over. But Mr Ash is said to have warned at a cabinet meeting that a new strain of Covid originating in Britain was hampering efforts to tackle the pandemic, as it was responsible for nearly 40 per cent of new cases. It comes after two studies by Israeli healthcare providers found that the first dose of the vaccine reduced the risk of infection by between 30 and 60 per cent. And according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a survey by the health ministry found that around six per cent of 189,000 citizens who had received the first jab tested positive for Covid within two weeks. It also stated that 69 people from the sample had tested positive for coronavirus after receiving their second dose of the vaccine. Another study of a hundred people in Israel found that 98 per cent were protected from the disease once the second dose was administered. That research, carried out by the Sheba Medical Center, also said that a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine significantly refused the risk of spreading the virus to others.
Donald Trump pardons Steve Bannon ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration - live updates Exclusive: Councils offer Covid jabs to staff before elderly Public against rush to reopen after lockdown, say ministers Allison Pearson: Yes there are heroes in our NHS, but there are problems too Coronavirus latest news: No easing of restrictions until priority groups vaccinated, says Priti Patel Subscribe to The Telegraph for a month-long free trial The Home Secretary has tried to shift blame for the country's high death toll onto scientific advisers, after data suggested the UK has the world's worst daily death rate. Statistics published yesterday by Our World in Data, an Oxford University research platform, showed that the UK now has the worst seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 deaths per million people - a rate of 16.54 per 1,000,000. Priti Patel told BBC Breakfast "there is no one reason as to why we have an appalling death toll", arguing that "co-morbidities" have made some people "more susceptible to this virus". But when challenged over several of the UK Government's actions - such as locking down too late, PPE supply issues, problems with Test and Trace in the spring and not closing the borders - she said: "I don't think that is right way to contextualise this at all." Ms Patel added: "Government has listened to a range of advice, and followed advice, from professionals and advisers, medical, scientific, from day one in this pandemic. "When it comes to border measures... scientists advised us at the time when coronavirus was incredibly high it would not have made any difference to take border measures... When it came to lockdown, again, we listened to the advice." She stressed it was not "the time to talk about mismanagement", saying there would be an opportunity in the future to "look back... with a degree of humility" at what could have been done differently. Follow the latest updates below.
The Duke of Cambridge is set to lose a second key aide in a year. Christian Jones, who replaced Simon Case as William’s private secretary last March after he was poached by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is leaving the royal household to join the private equity group Bridgepoint as a partner. The 31-year-old, who was previously William and Kate’s communications secretary, will head up corporate affairs for the £18 billion company. It is understood he will remain an advisor to the royal couple, whom he is credited with protecting from the fallout from “Megxit”, helping them to maintain a visible presence throughout the coronavirus crisis. A royal source said: “Whereas Simon was credited with making the Duke a statesman - Christian has really helped them to steer them through their public-facing role during the pandemic. He’s helped them to grow in confidence by gently pushing them out of their comfort zone.”
Frustrated GPs are being forced to cancel patients' Covid vaccination appointments thanks to lack of supply despite hundreds of thousands of doses lying unused, Nicola Sturgeon has been warned. Declaring the roll-out was going to plan, the First Minister said around 100,000 people per week were now being vaccinated in Scotland and all over-80s would be reached by the start of February. Between 15 and 20 per cent of Scots aged over 80 have been vaccinated so far, compared to more than half in England, but Ms Sturgeon said care homes had nearly been completed and the roll-out would now accelerate. But she was forced to deny her government is failing to distribute the vaccine to GPs quickly enough after it emerged only 284,582 doses out of Scotland's allocation of 717,000 had been administered. Challenged repeatedly to explain why GPs were running out when more than 400,000 doses were unused, she hit out at the UK Government for leaking the figure and accused it of having a "hissy fit" over her administration publishing confidential supply statistics last week. However, Dr Andrew Buist, who chairs the British Medical Association's Scottish GP committee, said family doctors were frustrated by the "bumpy" supply and they were being kept in the dark over why they had not received shipments. He said: "The workforce is there and that's why it's so incredibly frustrating when the patients want the vaccine, we're very keen to give it to our patients but we just don't have the vaccine in our fridge." Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said GPs in his Fife constituency had been forced to cancel vaccination appointments because they had not been provided with the necessary supply.
Vice president will also not attend outgoing president’s departure ceremony
Several politicians from the national ruling party have tweeted against the show, calling for it to be censored
Rebekah Vardy has leapt to the defence of her husband Jamie after some critics suggested he looked “miserable” during his brief appearance on Dancing on Ice. The mother-of-five took to Instagram to thank her followers for their support following her Sunday night skating debut on the ITV show, which also stars Myleene Klass, Denise Van Outen and Colin Jackson. In the comments, a few fans suggested her husband - Leicester City player Jamie Vardy - should have “smiled” more when he appeared on the show.
Meghan's lawyers have said papers got the words Harry told her at the altar on their wedding day wrong.
UK has ‘one of the worst coronavirus problems in the world at the moment’, warns scientist
Missouri senator faces calls for his resignation after amplifying false claims of electoral fraud both before and after Capitol siege
There are 'substantial' differences between regions across England, according to ONS data.
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