Legislation will be introduced to change the “clearly outdated” rules and allow the attorney general to take maternity leave. Suella Braverman announced in November that she was expecting her second child early this year – and she is believed to be the most senior woman at cabinet level to have a baby while in office.
Month: February 2021
The US is withdrawing operational support from Saudi Arabia’s forces in Yemen, which President Joe Biden hopes will help bring an end to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Mr Biden pledged during his presidential election campaign that his administration would resolve the long-running conflict between the Saudi-backed government and Iranian-aligned Houthi movement diplomatically.
Over the next two weeks, three space missions will reach Mars, one orbiter and two landers, after spending seven months in space. The three missions launched in July 2020 forming a wave of unmanned spacecraft from United States, China and the United Arab Emirates to see if Mars was ever habitable, and to find out
The Belgian military and the European Space Agency (ESA) are among organisations that have sought assurances from Serco, the company behind NHS Test and Trace, following a cyber attack. The outsourcing firm told them their information has not been compromised. Images of stolen files circulating on social media only indicate the criminals accessed a non-disclosure
There was no accidental leakage of disease from a Chinese laboratory with a history of studying coronaviruses, an international team investigating the origins of COVID-19 has been told. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was on Wednesday visited by World Health Organisation (WHO) experts who are looking for clues as to how the COVID-19 pandemic
The Bank of England has predicted that the economy will “recover rapidly” this year – as it left interest rates on hold at 0.1%. Latest forecasts from the Bank suggest that after taking a steep downturn during the current period of lockdowns, the roll-out of vaccines and scaling back of restrictions will boost growth for
The Irish government has said the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol is not going to be scrapped, despite calls from the DUP for it to be replaced. A row is growing over the measure to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland now the UK has left the European Union. Boris Johnson has warned
The military coup in Myanmar is attempting to block access to Facebook for the sake of “stability” as citizens use the platform to organise protests against the overthrowing of the government. Ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi has now been remanded in detention until 15 February, prompting citizens to form a Civil Disobedience Movement group
England’s economy will be unlocked gradually after schools hopefully return at the start of March, the vaccines minister has told Sky News. Nadhim Zahawi gave an insight into what Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s promised roadmap out of lockdown, earmarked to be announced on 22 February, will look like. He confirmed the government intends to start
Taylor Swift is being sued by bosses at a theme park who claim she used the name of their attraction as the title of her latest album. The owners of Evermore Park, in Pleasant Grove, Utah, are seeking millions of dollars in damages, saying Swift is guilty of trademark infringement. They claim to own the
The woman accused of killing Harry Dunn was employed by an intelligence agency in the US at the time of his death, a court has heard. Anne Sacoolas was leaving RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019 when she was involved in a crash with 19-year-old Harry, who was on his motorbike. She had been
Boris Johnson’s adviser tasked with protecting the UK union is set to leave the role amid heightened concern about the threat posed by Scottish independence campaigners. Luke Graham, who missed out on being re-elected as MP for Ochil and South Perthshire in the 2019 election despite the Conservative landslide, is losing his job as head
In November 2007, just months after images of her shaved head and umbrella attack on a paparazzi car had made front pages around the world, Britney Spears was back in the charts with album Blackout and the single Piece Of Me. A response to the intense press hounding that had followed her since she released
A German veterinary clinic has trained sniffer dogs to detect coronavirus in human saliva samples – with 94% accuracy. The dogs are conditioned to pick up the “corona odour” that comes from cells in infected people, said Esther Schalke, a vet at Germany’s armed forces school for service dogs. Filou, a three-year-old Belgian Shepherd, and
Volunteers are to be recruited from today for a world-first study that will mix and match COVID-19 vaccines. The trial on more than 800 people over the age of 50 will compare the effect of giving a dose of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine followed a few weeks later by the Pfizer/BioNTech jab – or vice versa.
America’s top infectious diseases expert says double masking is a “common sense approach” to preventing the spread of coronavirus. Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, recommended using two masks at a COVID-19 response news conference on Wednesday, saying there was “no harm” if people wanted to for added protection. He said