Breaking news
Pope Francis, 84, is suffering with painful sciatica which has forced him to bow out of holding the Vatican prayer service tonight and New Year’s Day Mass Spokesman Matteo Bruni said Pope won’t preside at service in St Peter’s Basilica He has suffered from the problem in the past but will deliver New Year’s blessing Sciatica can … Read more
School leaders have slammed ‘frankly ludicrous’ government plans to roll-out rapid mass Covid testing in schools across the country in just days. The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said government guidance on rapid tests ‘doesn’t take us much further forward because it ignores the fact that this plan and timescale are totally unrealistic’. Meanwhile … Read more
Fewer than 200 lorry drivers were last night waiting to travel to France following a week of disruption at the English Channel border, the Department for Transport said. Thousands of drivers spent days in queues to reach the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel after France temporarily closed its border on December 20. The move came … Read more
A stranded lorry driver waiting to get back into France following the country’s UK travel ban has said he has no idea if he will be able to get back to his family for Christmas. The lorry driver, one of the hundreds stuck at Dover after Emmanuel Macron shut the border on Sunday, says officials … Read more
Matt Hancock today hit out at ‘totally irresponsible’ Londoners who fled to the capital last night after Boris Johnson effectively cancelled Christmas for around 16 million people in southern England. The Health Secretary sighed and shook his head as Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme showed him social-media images of large crowds queueing on … Read more
Mass testing for the coronavirus is not an accurate way to screen the whole population, health minister Lord Bethell warns Lord Bethell wrote that asymptomatic testing could give ‘false reassurance’ Government previously announced expansion of asymptomatic mass testing Lord Bethell wrote to a constituent to say it was not an accurate way to screen He … Read more
Teaching union slams Government’s ‘undeliverable’ plans for mass Covid-19 testing in schools from January as senior Tory MP warns decision to stagger return of pupils will mean ‘more lost learning’ and will ‘sow confusion’ Government announced pupils’ return to secondary schools will be staggered Staggered return in January to give schools time to set up … Read more
Seven people are arrested as police break up ‘traveller funeral’ mass gathering that breached Tier 3 lockdown rules at east London pub Crowds of ‘hundreds’ descended on a pub in Hackney Wick, east London tonight Metropolitan Police arrested seven amid breaches of Covid-19 lockdown rules Witnesses suggested those in attendance may be from the traveller … Read more
Robotic underwater gliders will be sent to investigate the massive iceberg presently on a collision course with the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, experts said. Dubbed A68a, the enormous mass — some 87 miles (140 km) in length — broke off from Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf in 2017 and has been drifting north ever … Read more
Loyal members of the Chinese Communist Party are working in British consulates, universities and for some of the UK’s leading companies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. An extraordinary leaked database of 1.95 million registered party members reveals how Beijing’s malign influence now stretches into almost every corner of British life, including defence firms, banks … Read more