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Police are hunting a gunman after at least five people were injured in a shooting at a high school in Santa Clarita, California.

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  • Britain faces three-month 'halfway house' lockdown after Easter as over-50s wait for second vaccine

    Britain faces a three-month lockdown "halfway house" after Easter, with a full reopening delayed until all over-50s have had their second dose of the vaccine, The Telegraph understands. Ministers are considering proposals to begin reopening swathes of the economy in April under similar restrictions to those in place over the summer, with “rule of six” and social distancing measures in force in pubs and restaurants. A return to full normality will be delayed for at least 12 to 14 weeks to allow for all over-50s to have their second dose of the vaccine, according to a source familiar with the discussions. Ministers are keen to reopen hospitality venues in some capacity before the G7 summit in the second week of June, when the UK will host world leaders in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. National measures will be eased in advance of the summit, allowing pubs, restaurants and tourism to begin to trade again. Boris Johnson has previously suggested that England will return to the geographic tier system after the lockdown ends, but sources suggested the tiers may apply to the whole country rather than to specific areas. “The appetite for regional tiers will only come if you have large swathes of the country that are significantly lower in case numbers and new variant case numbers and hospitalisations,” a source said.

  • Republican split widens as Donald Trump intervenes in party elections in Arizona

    The acrimonious split within Republican ranks widened over the weekend as Donald Trump made his foray back into politics, backing the re-election of a hard-line supporter as chair of the party in Arizona. His wholehearted support for Kelli Ward was seen by allies as the former president firing a warning shot across the bows of any Republican senators considering backing his impeachment. Underlining Mr Trump’s grip on the Republican grassroots, the Arizona party also voted to censure John McCain’s widow, Cindy, former senator Jeff Flake and governor Doug Ducey, who refused to back the former president’s claims of election fraud. Mr Trump’s intervention came amid reports that he is considering setting up a “Patriot Party” which would spearhead primary challenges to his opponents in the 2022 mid-term elections. The former president has already amassed a massive war chest with his Save America political action committee declaring last month that it had raked in $207.5 million in donations.

  • Sturgeon refuses to say if she would quit if it is found she lied over Salmond

    Nicola Sturgeon has refused to confirm that she would quit as First Minister if it is found that she deliberately lied to Holyrood over the Alex Salmond affair, as she accused her predecessor of spreading “false conspiracy theories” about her. The First Minister insisted she had not misled the Scottish Parliament about her handling of sexual harassment complaints against Mr Salmond, as two inquiries examining her conduct, which her opponents believe could see her forced from office, gather pace. In a submission to an investigation into whether Ms Sturgeon broke the ministerial code, Mr Salmond said statements which Ms Sturgeon made to Holyrood about when she first became aware of complaints against him were “simply untrue”.

  • London coronavirus cases by borough revealed as infections continue to fall across capital

    London’s daily death toll appears to have finally peaked, but remains at a tragically high rate

  • Duke and Duchess of Cambridge 'besotted' with new puppy that has helped them get over death of Lupo

    When their beloved cocker spaniel, Lupo, died last month, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were heartbroken. But their grief was tempered by the arrival of a new puppy, with whom the whole family is said to be “besotted.” The new cocker spaniel, whose name has not yet been revealed, was given to the family by the Duchess’s brother, James Middleton, before Lupo died. And ensuring it remains a family affair, the puppy is Lupo’s niece. Mr Middleton, 33, bred his first litter of puppies from his dog Ella in 2011. He kept one, called Luna, but gave her brother Lupo to the Duchess in early 2012 after the Duke deployed for six weeks to the Falkland Islands while serving as an RAF search and rescue pilot. Last summer, Mr Middleton, who at the time was staying with his parents at their Berkshire home, bred another litter of six puppies with Luna as their mother. The Cambridges, along with their children Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two, are said to have had the pick of the litter.

  • Johnson faces Tory anger over continued school closures

    Conservative MPs warned the Prime Minister that children are becoming the ‘forgotten victims’ of the pandemic.

  • Biden news: Experts find major ‘gaps’ in Trump pardons as White House scrambles to rollout vaccine plan

    Latest developments from Washington DC and beyond

  • Tougher travel restrictions on the way, Matt Hancock warns

    ‘The new variant I really worry about is the one that’s out there but hasn’t been spotted’

  • UAE cabinet approves establishment of embassy in Tel Aviv in further sting to Palestinians

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced the establishment of its embassy in Tel Aviv as the US national security advisor announced that America hopes to build “on the success of Israel’s normalisation agreements” under the Biden administration. The UAE cabinet decision to approve establishing the embassy comes after they signed the Abraham Accords in September, becoming the first Gulf state to establish a full diplomatic relationship with Israel. No further details about the embassy were given in UAE media. While Israel’s government recognises Jerusalem as its capital, the international community does not, with Palestinians claiming East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Most countries base their embassies in Tel Aviv. Before the deal, Israel only had peace deals with only two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan - where it has fortified embassies. Most Arab countries had previously refrained from recognising Israel, believing that recognition should only be granted if serious concessions are made in the Palestinian peace process. Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco later agreed to follow in the UAE’s footsteps and normalise ties with Israel under US-brokered deals.

  • SNP plan to deliver referendum without UK consent is 'deluded and pointless', experts say

    An SNP plan to hold an independence referendum without the consent of Westminster has been branded “deluded” and “pointless” by constitutional experts. At an internal SNP online assembly on Sunday, party activists and politicians discussed a new “roadmap” to independence, published at the weekend, which raises the prospect of a court battle with UK ministers if they resist an attempt to hold a new vote. The 11-point plan states that if a majority of pro-independence MSPs are elected after May’s election, an SNP government would once again request a Section 30 order from the UK Government allowing it to organise a new referendum. However, should the request be refused - as Boris Johnson has repeatedly insisted it would be - SNP ministers would seek to legislate for one anyway. The strategy, written by SNP minister Mike Russell, acknowledges that the UK Government could seek to block a referendum on the grounds that it is outwith Holyrood’s powers, but adds that such court action would be “vigorously opposed by an SNP Scottish Government”.

  • Tory MPs warn Boris Johnson - schools must fully reopen by Easter

    Schoolchildren have become the pandemic’s “forgotten victims”, Tory MPs have warned Boris Johnson, amid a growing backlash against plans that could keep classrooms closed until Easter. A dozen Conservative MPs, including the former Cabinet minister Esther McVey and Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, have backed a campaign by the parents’ pressure group UsforThem to fully reopen schools. They argue that the schools shutdown means education has become an “optional extra”, with the gulf between the most disadvantaged children and their wealthier peers growing “by the day”. At the same time, the pressure on parents who are trying to hold down full-time jobs while also acting as teachers “is simply becoming too much”, they say, meaning schools should reopen now. Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, is expected to announce as soon as this week that schools will remain shut to all but the most vulnerable and children of key workers beyond the February half-term break. On Sunday Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said the full reopening of schools before the Easter holiday was merely a “hope” rather than an expectation.

  • Neighbours spoiler pictures show Melanie Pearson return to Erinsborough

    A blast from the past.From Digital Spy

  • Rioters set fire to Dutch coronavirus testing centre as new curfew comes into effect

    Riot police called in to help in Urk while thousands fined on first night of new curbs

  • Exclusive: NHS vaccinators offering Covid jabs to their friends and family under 70

    NHS vaccine centres are offering Covid jabs to friends and family aged under 70 in breach of national policy, The Telegraph can disclose. Senior NHS sources threatened to take disciplinary action against hospitals and GPs across the country offering leftover jabs to relatives and friends of staff despite being outside the top four priority cohorts. Health bosses have insisted that drawing up a ‘friends and family list’ helps avoid waste by ensuring that they never throw away any Pfizer vaccine, which comes in boxes of 975 doses and can only be stored for five days once thawed. However, ministers are understood to be determined that younger people with a connection to NHS staff should not be allowed to “jump the queue” over the vulnerable and elderly. A Whitehall source said vaccine centres must do more to create "a back up list" of patients and staff within the top four cohorts who can receive jabs at short notice. It came as the Government announced a new record-high number of 491,970 first doses administered in just 24 hours, taking the total number who have received a first dose to 6.35 million. The Government will also announce that it will pay community vaccine champions to help persuade their peers in minority ethnic groups to take up the offer of a jab. Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, will also write to BAME (black and minority ethnic) MPs expressing his concern about low take-up of the vaccine among certain groups and encourage them to promote the community champions scheme.

  • Covid news: Tories revolt over potential post-Easter schools return

    Follow for the latest developments

  • WandaVision theory suggests MCU series may have already set up Doctor Strange 2’s main villain

    Disney+ series has left many viewers scratching their heads

  • Many in Trump White House believed coronavirus was ‘hoax’, Deborah Birx says

    Covid task force coordinator ‘always’ felt like quitting, she reveals

  • Holocaust survivor: We are not typical – most Jews died

    Speaking ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, retired medical doctor Dr Martin Stern, 80, recalled how, as an infant living in the same Amsterdam neighbourhood as Anne Frank in 1942, he was taken in by Cathrien and Johannes Rademaker, friends of his parents, following the death of his mother in hospital, and while his father was in hiding from the Nazis.

  • Giovanna Fletcher reveals plans to revisit honeymoon destinations

    The podcast host is married to McFly star Tom Fletcher.

  • Alexei Navalny opens a new protest season in Russia and rattles the Kremlin

    A wave of protests swept across Russia on Saturday — in what appears to be the most significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s authority in a decade. At least 100,000, likely much more, took to the streets of over a hundred towns and cities over eleven time zones, in the middle of a pandemic, in temperatures that in one case reached minus 50, and despite credible threats and occasional reality of a violent crackdown. The protesters were calling for the release of Alexei Navalny, a Putin critic poisoned by a nerve agent and jailed on his return to Russia.