The 80-year-old crooner won huge praise for his performance, but also sparked a lot of conversation for a much sillier reason.
Life globally will not return to normal for two or three years based on the rate of the current vaccination rollout, it has been warned - but there are early signs jabs are reducing cases in the UK. Speaking to Sky News, Dr Clare Wenham, assistant professor of global health policy at London School of Economics, said the COVID-19 pandemic will not be over until the world's population is protected.
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Fans of the series left delighted by her comment
‘If we could see eating meat as a treat, not a right, we could reduce the speed at which another virus evolves,’ says professor
Republicans are facing calls to expel a new congresswoman who backed wild conspiracy theories about a vast paedophile ring propping up the Democrats and claims that several high-profile school shootings were a hoax. Democrats are preparing a resolution to oust Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter, who has been embroiled in near-daily scandals over her controversial comments since taking office earlier this month. But Republicans face a dilemma that strikes at the heart of a fight over the future of the party. The GOP’s position on Ms Greene is being seen as the first real test of whether the party wants - or is able - to move past Trump-style politics after the former president spent years advancing conspiracy theories of his own. Ms Greene, who was recently appointed to the House education committee, has spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about the school shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, which she alleged was a “false flag” operation, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, which claimed the lives of 20 children. A video taken in 2019 emerged this week of the congresswoman outside the US Capitol confronting 20-year-old Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, whom she has called “Little Hitler”, appearing to berate him over his advocacy on tightening gun laws.
A leading member of the team that developed the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine accused Emmanuel Macron of trying to reduce demand for it by claiming it is “quasi-ineffective” for the over 65s. Sir John Bell said the French president was lashing out to compensate for his country not having adequate supplies of the drug. The professor of medicine said on Saturday: "I suspect this is a bit of demand management from Mr Macron,” adding: "Well, if he didn't have any vaccine the best thing you could do is reduce demand." It came as Mr Macron was at war with his own scientists after he refused to introduce a lockdown to control rising infection rates. "Lockdown is a legitimate question... (but) we all know the heavy impact that has on all fronts,” said the French president on Friday. With schools and shops still open but restaurants and bars closed, France has fewer restrictions than some European neighbours. But with infection rates gradually rising and the percentage of the English variant now at 10 per cent of new cases nationwide - and reportedly around 20 per cent in Paris - government minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday conceded that the effects of the current 6pm-6am curfew were “dying out”. Mr Macron was due to make an announcement this weekend. But in a surprise move, Jean Castex, his prime minister, on Friday said while the country would close its borders to non-European Union countries for all except essential travel, there would be no widely anticipated third lockdown for now, adding that there was “still a chance to avoid” one. Some doctors, experts and opposition politicians were deeply critical of the move. “The measures from a strictly sanitary level are almost anecdotal,” said Prof Gilbert Deray from the nephrology service off the Paris’ Pitié-Salpètriêre hospital. “This isn’t taking a step back to jump further, it’s taking a step back to jump less far. The more you step back, the more (infections and hospitalisations) rise - and (they) will rise - and the harder and longer it will be.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with London schoolchildren over a video call from No.10 Downing Street on Friday, January 29, and said he wanted to get people back to school “as fast as we possibly can.”On Saturday, Johnson also posted an open letter to parents and guardians of children, saying he was in awe of the way they had risen to the unique challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.In the video call with the Year 6 class of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Johnson was asked what it was like being prime minister and having a baby at the same time, to which he replied: “Both things are a lot of work”. Credit: @BorisJohnson via Storyful
Motivated by her hatred of Brexit, Ursula von de Leyen overruled her top trade advisors with a plan for a new Irish border, The Telegraph has learnt. The European Commission president was warned she would cause uproar but pressed on regardless as part of what one of her own employees called “an increasingly vindictive” attitude towards the UK government. Furious Brussels-based diplomats were on Saturday piling pressure on the Commission chief over her disastrous handling of the affair amid suggestions of waning confidence in her abilities. Her aborted decision to force through a border without even notifying either Ireland or the UK was considered highly damaging for the reputation of the Brussels executive, which had promised over years of Brexit negotiations that this was precisely what it was trying to avoid. “She needs to go. Now,” one diplomat told the Sunday Telegraph. “She told f------ no-one. After four years of tedious skullduggery over the backstop. Surely the commission could have thought of the optics?” The Brussels regulator “is quite successfully undermining its own credibility on the rule of law,” the diplomat continued. “Do they really think this will improve their credibility as contract negotiator? It’s not like you couldn’t see this coming…Was there no one to protect her from going here? Everyone has just gone stark raving mad.” The fiasco added to growing dissatisfaction with the commission’s management of the vaccine rollout in a number of EU capitals, including Rome and Madrid. Pressure on von der Leyen was said to be “huge and increasing”. The Commission’s trade ministry or ‘directorate-general’, known as DG Trade, is headed by Sabine Weyand, who played a key role in the Brexit talks and the Irish ‘backstop’ negotiations. Given that Ms Weyand is said to be perfectly aware of the Irish sensitivities, there was much head-scratching in Brussels when the border proposal was published on Friday and then hastily retracted amid condemnation from across the political spectrum in both Ireland and the UK.
Robin is one of the frontrunners in ITV’s competition series
Over-70s in UK ‘will die’ if Covid vaccine priority goes to younger key workersGovernment advisers say it would be ‘politically, socially and ethically unacceptable’ not to inoculate older people firstCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage The UK’s vaccination programme getting under way last year. Key advisers say older age groups must remain a priority. Photograph: Getty Images
Suddenly, the landscape has changed and the prime minister’s opponents have been confounded
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Secondary school students may have to test themselves for Covid at home prior to their return to the classroom under plans being considered by ministers. The Government could ditch plans to turn schools into lateral flow test centres during the first week of reopening and instead send pupils test kits in the post to carry out themselves, The Telegraph understands. Officials at the Department for Education are currently drawing up detailed plans for children's return to the classroom, which is due to begin next month. A source familiar with the discussions said home testing kits are already being used for primary school teachers and the plan is to roll them out for use among primary pupils as well. "On the one hand, the Government wants everyone back at school, but what if a headteacher of a secondary school of 2,000 pupils says 'no way' to setting up lateral flow tests on site?" the source said. Earlier this week, Boris Johnson announced that schools would not return after February half-term, adding that the earliest possible date they could open was March 8 if Covid transmission levels have fallen enough by then.
Virologist warns jabs will only ‘really begin to bite’ in a few weeks
The singer underwent all sorts of tests, including brain scans.
Ursula von der Leyen was sitting in her converted flat next to her office in the EU's palatial HQ in Berlaymont when the phone started ringing. It was Friday evening, around 9.20pm, and on the line was the British Prime Minister. Boris Johnson was demanding to know why the EU had invoked Article 19 of the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol, effectively blocking imports of Covid vaccines through the Irish Republic to the UK. At 9.50pm - about half an hour after the call had concluded - Number 10 issued a damning account of that call, saying that the PM "expressed his grave concerns about the potential impact which the steps the EU has taken today on vaccine exports could have". An hour after their call - around 10.30pm London time - Mrs Von der Leyen called back making clear to Mr Johnson that the EU would not disrupt vaccine supplies into the UK. Number 10 stressed there were no raised voices on the calls, but it was a torrid end to what had been a dreadful few days for the EU - days had seen the Commission accused of trying to bully the UK and drugs companies into giving up Britain’s share of precious vaccines. Mr Johnson and his team in London had caught wind of the Commission's plans earlier last week, but chose to adopt a low key approach, arranging for a call between Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, and his counterpart in Brussels on Wednesday. By Friday morning the talks had "gone up a notch" and the emerging crisis was discussed at the Prime Minister's 8.30am meeting in Number 10. Although officials had been gaming what the Commission might do and how the UK would respond the response from the Commission to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol still came as a shock.
From lockdowns to pool parties: how Covid rules vary around the worldCountries have adopted different rules on business activity, education, socialising and travel
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The World Health Organization has urged the UK to pause its vaccination programme once vulnerable groups and healthcare workers have received their jabs. Margaret Harris, WHO spokeswoman, said she wanted to appeal to people in the UK, telling them "you can wait", because ensuring equitable global distribution is "clearly morally the right thing to do". Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he aims to offer all UK adults a first dose by autumn, but the WHO has said countries should be aiming for "two billion doses" to be "fairly distributed" around the world by the end of 2021. It comes amid the ongoing row between AstraZeneca and the European Union over shortfalls in vaccine delivery to the bloc, with the EU backing down on its threat to override part of the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland on Friday after widespread condemnation of the move as part of its export controls on vaccines. The UK currently has one of the highest levels of vaccine coverage, along with Israel and the UAE, but many poorer countries are yet to start any immunisations. So far 12.34 per cent of the UK population has been given a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest Public Health England data up to January 29. When asked to clarify whether, once the UK has vaccinated its top nine priority groups, it should help efforts elsewhere instead of continuing with less vulnerable members of the population, Ms Harris told BBC Breakfast on Saturday: "We're asking all countries in those circumstances to do that: 'hang on, wait for those other groups'. "We'll also appeal to all the people of the UK - you can wait."
As countries scramble to vaccinate their populations amid a limited supply, the UK could be throwing doses away.
A hairdresser who was fined £17,000 for opening during the November lockdown has been told she could be arrested if she reopens before the end of March. Sinead Quinn, the owner of Quinn Blakey Hairdressing, in Oakenshaw, Bradford, has not paid the fixed penalty notices she was issued with last year for repeatedly breaching lockdown rules. Kirklees Council has now been granted an injunction forbidding Ms Quinn from opening her salon during the current lockdown.
After the European Commission launched a scheme to monitor and in some cases bar exports of vaccines produced in EU plants, the World Health Organisation criticised the move, saying 'we will not end the pandemic anywhere until we end it everywhere'.