Couple share picture of Harry resting his hand on Meghan’s head as she lies in his lap cradling her bump
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed that they are expecting a younger brother or sister for their one-year-old son, Archie.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan said: “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.”
Continue reading...Backbenchers’ calls dismissed but clamour for a more fixed schedule seems set to increase
Downing Street is pushing back against pressure from Conservative MPs to set a swift timetable to end the lockdown in England after meeting its first major vaccination target, saying any hastiness in reopening could risk undoing the progress made in combating the coronavirus pandemic.
In a sign of the likely battle ahead in the coming weeks, ministers and officials flatly ruled out a demand from Tory backbenchers for all Covid restrictions to be over by the start of May, saying any plan needed to be both more cautious and decided step by step.
Continue reading...The UK government is reconsidering the idea of certificates of vaccination to help reopen travel and business
Desperate to return to pre-pandemic normality, many countries where vaccination campaigns for Covid-19 are in full swing are considering endorsing “vaccine passports” to reignite international travel and reopen economies.
A week ago, the UK government ruled out plans for such passports – with vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi calling them “discriminatory” – but on Sunday, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the documents were “under consideration”. Labour politicians have advocated their introduction, with the former prime minister Tony Blair making the case for domestic vaccine passports in this week’s Mail on Sunday. So what are the pros and cons of such “immunity certificates”?
Continue reading...Exclusive: early detection hailed as ‘major breakthrough’ for treatment of Britain’s deadliest form of cancer
Thousands of lives could be saved if people at risk of developing Britain’s deadliest cancer were screened to diagnose it before it becomes incurable, a major NHS study has found.
Giving smokers and ex-smokers a CT scan uncovers cancerous lung tumours when they are at an early enough stage so they can still be removed, rather than continuing to grow unnoticed, it shows.
Continue reading...Many long-distance couples are spending Valentine’s Day apart because of travel restrictions
Helen Riddle’s husband, Tim, hasn’t been home in almost a year. He left the UK in March last year for what was supposed to be two weeks, and Covid-19 measures have prevented his return. His Christmas presents wait for him under the tree their three children insist on keeping up until he gets back.
Tim is a pilot who flies medical equipment around the world. Though he has lived in Hong Kong for the past six years, he would normally come home every six to eight weeks. Before he left again in March, Helen says they begged him not to go but he had no choice but to return to work. “At that point I thought: ‘We’re not going to see him for a while,’ but I never, ever imagined it would be as long as it has been.”
Continue reading...Dating in a pandemic has very different challenges, as these brave adventurers discovered
For Martina Piercy, 54, an occupational therapist from Wellington in Somerset, going into lockdown at the start of a new relationship was “really upsetting”. “We had been dating for six to eight weeks before the pandemic started, so the idea of either living with Tony or not seeing him was difficult,” she said.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary talks up global growth opportunities and says Brussels ‘imposing obstacles’ to trade
Potential losses in UK trade with the EU because of Brexit will be more than made up by more opportunities in developing markets, Dominic Raab has claimed, saying people should take a “10-year view” of the current troubles faced by companies.
Questioned about warnings from a number of firms that bureaucracy and duties means they will go out of business, or have to relocate operations inside the EU, the foreign secretary also appeared to blame Brussels, saying it was “imposing” obstacles to trade.
Continue reading...A year ago, two scientists began work on the response to a new virus. Now, as their vaccine is being given to millions, they tell of their incredible 12 months
Exactly a year ago, Oxford University scientists launched a joint enterprise that is set to have a profound impact on the health of our planet. On 11 February, research teams led by Professor Andy Pollard and Professor Sarah Gilbert – both based at the Oxford Vaccine Centre – decided to combine their talents to develop and manufacture a vaccine that could protect people from the deadly new coronavirus that was beginning to spread across the world.
A year later that vaccine is being administered to millions across Britain and other nations and was last week given resounding backing by the World Health Organization. The head of the WHO’s department of immunisation, vaccines and biologicals, Professor Kate O’Brien, described the jab as “efficacious” and “an important vaccine for the world”.
Continue reading...The £150m repair of Hammersmith Bridge, closed since 2019, is mired in squabbling – and it’s just one of many across the UK that need work
Toby Gordon-Smith can see the district of Hammersmith from his flat. In normal times it takes him a few minutes to get there in his wheelchair. His cannabidiol products business is there, with the accessible tube station that he needs to get to the rest of London. The station is the reason why he moved to the area, but now it might as well be in another city. For he lives in Barnes, on the south side of the River Thames, opposite Hammersmith, and the bridge that connected them is closed for safety reasons – to vehicles since April 2019, and to pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users since last August. Although it is nearly two years since the first closure, there is still no clear plan for fixing the bridge.
There are thousands of stories like Gordon-Smith’s. For children in Barnes who go to schools in Hammersmith, what was once a 15-minute walk is now a tortuous three-mile journey along a towpath regularly flooded by the tide, up flights of steps on to a railway bridge (which makes cycling difficult) and through an ill-lit park with high rates of crime. Or they can take a long bus ride, which means getting up at 6am, if you’re going to beat the rush-hour traffic. The area’s main hospital, Charing Cross, is on the north side of the river, so those of its staff who live to the south, and patients needing such things as chemotherapy, now have to make gruelling journeys of an hour or more each way. Ambulances face potentially lethal delays.
Continue reading...Naval hero praises Jenner’s cowpox jab in a newly found love letter to Emma Hamilton, written as he prepared for war
He is best remembered as the one-armed hero who defeated Napoleon, rewrote the rules of naval warfare and died at sea, in battle, onboard HMS Victory.
Now, the “chance discovery” of a 220-year-old love letter from Admiral Horatio Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton, his mistress, reveals how open-minded and ahead of his time the formidable captain was about a radical new scientific breakthrough: the smallpox vaccine. In the letter, dated July 1801, Nelson appears to advocate the use of the brand new vaccine on his own baby daughter.
Continue reading...Residents project red illumination on closed west London landmark to highlight delays to repair
Hammersmith Bridge has been illuminated bright red in a Valentine’s Day stunt aimed at highlighting delays to its repair.
The 133-year-old west London bridge has been closed to traffic since April 2019 when cracks appeared in its pedestals. It then closed to pedestrian, cyclist and river traffic in August after a heatwave caused the faults to “significantly increase”.
Continue reading...Vehicle with passengers spotted floating along river at Hoveringham, Nottinghamshire on 1 February
The bodies of a man and a woman have been recovered from a submerged car after a large search operation on the River Trent in Nottinghamshire.
Police dive teams located an object believed to be a vehicle on 2 February, a day after a car with two passengers was reported to have been seen floating along the river at Hoveringham, between Newark and Nottingham.
Continue reading...During a visit to the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies plant in Billingham, Teesside, where the new Novavax vaccine will be manufactured, the prime minister hailed the coronavirus vaccine rollout, but said the infection rate was still high.
Johnson said he would announce an outline for the 'roadmap forward' on 22 February, with priority being given to schools
Continue reading...A failure to account for previous violence has led to at least 20 unsafe murder convictions, campaigners claim
It was a specific moment in which she thought she might die that drove Stella to the brink. “He had strangled me at the bottom of the stairs and that frightened me because you can get punched in the face or your hand broken, but I had never lost my breath before,” she recalled.
For Nicole, she was “pushed over the edge” when violence by her partner triggered a post-traumatic response to historic abuse by other men. “I was getting flashbacks of abuse ... everything came to a head and I just lost it.”
Continue reading...Prime minister says priority is to reopen schools on 8 March once 15m in priority groups vaccinated
Boris Johnson has said he is optimistic about announcing the easing of some lockdown measures soon as the government nears its target of offering vaccines to 15 million people in priority groups.
Speaking on Saturday at a visit to the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies plant in Billingham, Teesside, where the new Novavax vaccine will be manufactured, the prime minister said his first priority remained opening schools in England from 8 March, to be followed by other sectors.
Continue reading...Trial will use 300 volunteers to assess whether jab produces strong immune response in children aged six to 17
The efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in children is due to be tested in a new clinical trial beginning this month.
Researchers will use 300 volunteers to assess whether the jab – known as the the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine – produces a strong immune response in children aged between six and 17.
Continue reading...Khan, 50, won on second round of voting by 131 member states and replaces Fatou Bensouda, who was hit with US sanctions
A British QC has been elected as the new chief prosecutor for the international criminal court in an election by the court’s 131 member states at the UN in New York. Karim Khan will replace Fatou Bensouda from the Gambia, and as he starts his nine-year term he faces a daunting task trying to secure more convictions and spread acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction across the globe.
The secret ballot for the post was the first in the court’s history – and took place amid some controversy and high politics between member states.
Continue reading...Public consultation led by the MHRA is looking for views on the potential reclassification of two pill types
Two types of the contraceptive pill could be sold over the counter for the first time, the government has announced.
As part of a public consultation, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is looking for opinions on the reclassification of two progestogen-only pills.
Continue reading...Attorney general’s decision comes after campaign by families of six men allegedly shot by British army in 1973
The attorney general for Northern Ireland has ordered a new inquest into the deaths of six men allegedly shot by the British army in Belfast in 1973.
Families of the men, known as the New Lodge Six, for the area where they died, have campaigned for an inquest for decades. They hope the coroner will be able to force the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Ministry of Defence to submit documentation and compel any surviving soldiers to face cross-examination.
Continue reading...Justice department confirms Joe Biden intends to have WikiLeak’s co-founder stand trial in US
The US government has appealed a UK judge’s ruling against the extradition of the WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, according to a justice department official.
The appeal made clear that Joe Biden intends to have Assange stand trial on espionage- and hacking-related charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of US military and diplomatic documents.
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