MBTA to restore service 'as soon as possible'
The MBTA has voted to restore all COVID-19 service cuts that were put in place during the pandemic.
India's government and parts of the media ignored warnings about a rising wave of cases, experts say.
Douglas Ross will on Monday call on pro-UK voters to unite behind the Scottish Tories to prevent "reckless and dangerous" SNP plans for a new independence referendum. The Scottish Tory leader will unveil pledges including a £600m one-off funding boost to the NHS to help the health service tackle a treatment and diagnosis backlog caused by the pandemic, when he unveils his manifesto for the Holyrood elections. He will attack the SNP for presenting a “fantasy wish-list” to voters in their manifesto last week, which included free bikes for children, an end to NHS dentist charges and large increases to welfare payments. In contrast, Tory policies are expected to be fully-costed with a detailed breakdown of their price tags to be released alongside the manifesto. Mr Ross will claim both Labour and the LibDems are too weak to stand up to Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP. Writing in Monday’s Daily Telegraph, he also took a thinly veiled swipe at George Galloway’s All For Unity outfit, warning voters not to be taken in by “snake oil rhetoric from fringe parties which purport to be pro-union”. The Tories have put their opposition to another independence referendum at the heart of their campaign in an attempt to repeat Ruth Davidson’s success in 2016, when the party more than doubled its seats, helping to deprive the SNP of a majority. However, the SNP claimed Tory vows to block another referendum were “utterly undemocratic” and “betrays the weakness of their position” over the Union. Mr Ross will claim the Tory manifesto would have a “laser-focus on Scotland’s recovery and what needs to happen to get the country back on track”. He is expected to say: “This is a Scottish Conservative manifesto that, at its heart, secures and accelerates our recovery from coronavirus. “It celebrates that we are Better Together, as the furlough scheme has proven by protecting a million Scottish jobs and the vaccine scheme is showing by putting life-changing jags in the arms of more than 2.6 million Scots. “But we cannot rebuild Scotland if we are crippled by the threat of an independence referendum.” Ms Sturgeon has said she wants to hold a new referendum by 2023 and has insisted Boris Johnson will cave in to demands to hold a new vote if a pro-independence parliament is elected next month. However, Mr Ross will describe the SNP proposals as “the height of recklessness” and will say a new referendum “would derail Scotland’s recovery and send our economy spiralling into chaos, just when we need stability most”. The manifesto will include proposals for a £600m one-off NHS boost over the next year to tackle the treatment backlog that has spiralled as a result of disruption caused by coronavirus, over and above a commitment to increase general health spending by at least £2bn. The party will propose that the fund is managed independent of government, overseen entirely by a task force of clinicians. In a pitch to rural Scotland, Mr Ross will also set out plans to outlaw “rip-off” delivery charges to more remote parts of the country and offer a series of Community Investment Deals worth up to £25million each to help rural areas bounce back after the pandemic. The party will pledge to work in partnership with businesses to cut down on waste and promote recycling, proposing a new law that would set targets for reducing use of single use or non-recyclable materials. Overall, 15 proposed new laws will be included in the manifesto. The Tories will also propose scrapping the SNP’s controversial hate crime bill, call for economic development agencies to be set up in every region, outline plans for the biggest social housebuilding drive since devolution and pledge to set up a national tutoring programme to tackle the attainment gap. Mr Ross will add: “If pro-UK voters come together and unite to use their party list votes for the Scottish Conservatives, we will stop an SNP majority, stop them taking their eye off the ball any longer, and deliver a Scottish Parliament 100 per cent focussed on Covid recovery and rebuilding Scotland.” Opinion polls suggest that the SNP is currently on course to comfortably win the May 6 election, although whether the party will claim an outright majority is in the balance. Ms Sturgeon will claim a mandate for a new referendum even if the SNP falls short of a majority, as long as a pro-independence majority is returned with the help of the Scottish Greens or Alex Salmond’s Alba Party. Keith Brown, the SNP’s deputy leader, said: “The Tory strategy for trying to block a referendum on independence is utterly undemocratic. “It’s clear that Douglas Ross and his party have no route through the pandemic, no vision for recovery, no ambition, no intention of setting out a detailed plan on how they would run Scotland and offer no leadership. "That is irresponsible and disrespectful to voters, who deserve better from the Tories than a long list of things they are against and virtually nothing about what they are for.”
Singer Lance Bass offered Colton Underwood some advice after the former "Bachelor" star came out as gay: "sit back, listen and learn."
Waters spoke to protesters in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on Saturday night after protests erupted following the police shooting of Daunte Wright.
A high-ranking general key to Iran's security apparatus has died, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Sunday. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hosseinzadeh Hejazi, who died at 65, served as deputy commander of the Quds, or Jerusalem, force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The unit is an elite and influential group that oversees foreign operations, and Hejazi helped lead its expeditionary forces and frequently shuttled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge will hold a summit to decide the future of the monarchy over the next two generations following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. In consultation with the Queen, Britain’s next two kings will decide how many full-time working members the Royal family should have, who they should be, and what they should do. The death of Prince Philip has left the Royal family with the immediate question of how and whether to redistribute the hundreds of patronages he retained. Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to step back from royal duties, confirmed only last month after a one-year “review period”, has necessitated a rethink of who should support the sovereign in the most high-profile roles. Royal insiders say that the two matters cannot be decided in isolation, as the issues of patronage and personnel are inextricably linked. Because any decisions made now will have repercussions for decades to come, the Prince of Wales will take a leading role in the talks. He has made it clear that the Duke of Cambridge, his own heir, should be involved at every stage because any major decisions taken by 72-year-old Prince Charles will last into Prince William’s reign. The Earl and Countess of Wessex, who were more prominent than almost any other member of the Royal family in the days leading up to the Duke’s funeral, are expected to plug the gap left by the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by taking on more high-profile engagements. However, they already carry out a significant number of royal duties – 544 between them in the last full year before Covid struck – meaning they will not be able to absorb the full workload left by the absences of the Sussexes and the Duke of York, who remains in effective retirement as a result of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. In 2019 the Sussexes and the Duke completed 558 engagements between them. It leaves the Royal family needing to carry out a full-scale review of how their public duties are fulfilled. Not only do they have three fewer people to call on, they must also decide what to do with several hundred patronages and military titles held by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Sussexes and possibly the Duke of York, if his retirement is permanent. Royal sources said the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge would discuss over the coming weeks and months how the monarchy should evolve. The issue has been at the top of the Queen and the Prince of Wales’s respective in-trays since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s one-year review period of their royal future came to an end last month, but the ill health and subsequent death of Prince Philip forced them to put the matter on hold.
Police in Pakistan said a hardline Islamist group had taken six security personnel hostage at its headquarters in Lahore on Sunday after a week of violent clashes following the arrest of the group's leader. The Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) group had given the government an April 20 deadline to expel the French ambassador over the publication of cartoons in France depicting the Prophet Mohammad. The authorities responded by arresting its leader, prompting supporters to hold protests and sit-ins across Pakistan.
Saber-rattlers think we can't cooperate with and confront China. They are wrong and delusional about where the US-China relationship is right now.
For a sixth day, rescue crews returned Sunday to a capsized lift boat in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, looking for nine crew members who have not been found, the Coast Guard said. Officials have released little information about their continuous search in the murky seas surrounding the capsized Seacor Power lift boat some 8 miles (13 kilometers) off the coast since announcing divers found two bodies inside the ship Friday night. “We have hope,” Marion Cuyler wrote in a text to a reporter.
Jennifer Garner has shown off some of her best gowns at the Golden Globes, the Oscars, and the SAG Awards.
She is said to be the Queen’s favourite daughter-in-law, and now the monarch is set to turn to the Countess of Wessex to fill the gap left by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in carrying out royal duties. The 56-year-old Countess was one of the most prominent members of the Royal family in the days following the Duke of Edinburgh’s death. She made the first public comments about his passing, repeatedly visited Windsor Castle and provided a photograph of the Queen and the Duke at Balmoral that Her Majesty chose to share with the world as a tribute to her late husband. The departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from the UK, and the effective retirement of the Duke of York, has left a major hole in the roster of Royal family members available to carry out public duties, and the Countess has been groomed to step out of the shadows in the year since “Megxit”. Her husband, the Earl of Wessex, 57, is also expected to increase his public profile as he prepares to take on the title Duke of Edinburgh when the Prince of Wales - who automatically inherited the title from his father - becomes king.
The Queen was seated two metres apart from her loved ones on Saturday as just 30 members of the Royal family attended the Duke of Edinburgh’s Covid-complaint funeral. Buckingham Palace said the 94-year-old monarch had faced “difficult decisions” over who to invite to the 3pm ceremony at St George’s Chapel and the seating plan reflected a strict adherence to the Government’s coronavirus rules on indoor worship. Her Majesty was seated alone at the front of the quire, on the south side of the chapel, where only three years ago she and Prince Philip watched Prince Harry marry Meghan Markle. She was in the same spot for Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank three months later in October 2018.
A high-profile conspiracy theorist from Norway, who shared false information about the pandemic online, has died from COVID-19, officials say.
His resignation ends his family's six-decade hold on power in Cuba.
Boris Johnson takes on football giants over new super league plan Priti Patel accuses Facebook of putting profit before children's safety Greensill: Key Starmer ally works for lobbying firm Coronavirus news: Volunteers exposed to virus for second time Subscribe to The Telegraph for a month-long free trial Boris Johnson has been urged to intervene over plans to create an 'elite' European Super League, after six of England's biggest clubs announced they would be joining the new closed tournament. The Prime Minister last night said the clubs involved - Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur - "must answer to their fans and the wider footballing community before taking any further steps". But Labour is piling on the pressure for the Government to do something, with Sir Keir Starmer saying if clubs don't rethink the plan "they should face the consequences of their actions". Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds told the Today programme: "They should be sitting down with those clubs and saying ultimately they have a responsibility to the rest of football." This morning Christopher Pincher, the housing minister, confirmed that conversations would be taking place, but urged against a "knee-jerk reaction" to the news. He told Sky News: "We are on the side of the fans... we will ensure the fans are properly represented." He added: "We don't want to see a footballing elite, which is by the elite, for the elite, of the elite. Read the latest updates below.
Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, said he hasn't received medical treatment in jail after being poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent.
Mayim Bialik told Insider that even the "Big Bang Theory" writers had to discuss and weigh the options of Amy accepting or denying Sheldon's proposal.
A court ruled that Kobili Traoré, a drug dealer who smoked cannabis every day, will not go to trial for murdering Orthodox Jew Sarah Halimi in 2017.
Prince Harry and Prince William walked separately at Prince Philip's funeral, with Peter Phillips separating them, as Buckingham Palace had planned.
The "Dallas Buyers Club" actor has not yet declared his candidacy for Texas governor but has said that running is a "true consideration."