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Conservative insiders detected his fiancée Carrie Symonds' (left) influence in the Prime Minister's incendiary remarks, which has sparked a furious row with Beijing. In an environmental speech to world leaders yesterday Mr Johnson (pictured right) tore into people who 'grind up the scales of a pangolin' in a bid to become more 'potent' - a thinly veiled attack on Chinese remedies. Ms Symonds has been vocal in her opposition to wet markets, where the animals (inset) are sold, gaining praise from Peta as it announced her as one of its most influential activists of 2020 Former Tory aides told MailOnline she was 'definitely' behind Mr Johnson's conservation push and are growing concerned that her enthusiasm for such issues are eating up too much of the Government's bandwidth at the expense of other policy areas.

Angela Merkel has warned Germany will see ten times as many Covid cases by Easter if they 'don't manage to stop this British virus'. The Chancellor told lawmakers in her conservative party that she expects the latest lockdown to last until April to stop the spread of the mutant strain. It comes as coffins are being piled up in offices and corridors (top right) in the Saxon town of Meissen where a crematorium manager says they are cremating 60 bodies a day. The state of Saxony, where Meissen is located, includes six of the 10 worst-hit counties in Germany.

Millions of residents across Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Cambridge, north and south London reported hearing an 'explosion' shortly after 1pm today. The Ministry of Defence confirmed that an RAF Typhoon Quick Reaction Alert jet was launched from RAF Coningsby in Linconlnshire and broke the sound barrier at around 700mph over Peterborough. The jet intercepted a private Bombardier Learjet travelling from Germany which had lost communications with air traffic control, and escorted it to Stansted Airport at 1.40pm - where it remained parked this afternoon. The plane, a Bombardier Global Express D-AFAL, is available for 'VIP' hire and can carry up to 12 passengers and two pilots - or three for long-haul flights, as well as one cabin attendant.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called the House's push to impeach him again 'absolutely ridiculous' and said it is causing 'tremendous anger,' casting himself as the victim as he refused to take responsibility for the mob that descended on Capitol Hill last week. In his first public remarks since last week's MAGA riot, Trump denounced the Democrats' efforts, which has been joined by some Republicans, to remove him from office. He called it 'a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.' 'I think it's causing tremendous anger,' he said. He was boarding Marine One to head for Alamo, Texas, on the Mexican border, to inspect his wall - an attempt to paint himself as doing business as usual and highlighting his 'legacy' before he leaves office. He was boarding Marine One to head for Alamo, Texas, on the Mexican border, to inspect his wall - an attempt to paint himself as doing business as usual and highlighting his 'legacy' before he leaves office.

Nine thousand children died in Ireland's brutal homes for unmarried mothers and babies run by the Catholic Church in the 20th century, a damning report has revealed (pictured: survivor Carmel Larkin at a memorial in Co. Galway today, main; radio host Niall Boylan, bottom right; a mother and daughter pay their respects today, top right; babies at a home in Dublin inset top; and children at the Tuam home in 1924, inset bottom). In total, 15 percent of the 57,000 children at the 18 institutions investigated by the Mother and Baby Home Commission died between 1922 and 1998. The report published today said the homes 'provided refuge' for the mothers when they had nowhere else to turn and found that blame 'rests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families.' But the women faced appalling emotional torment at the hands of the nuns - forced to work scrubbing floors while being called 'fallen,' 'sinner', 'dirt' and 'spawn of Satan.' The Commission said that the high deaths rates among infants were 'probably the most disquieting feature of these institutions.'

The Dutch customs office showed off a pile of confiscated items including Waitrose chicken fillets, Tropicana orange juice, marmalade oranges and even Dorset Cereals muesli (left) as they warned that 'you can't just bring in food from the UK' (the caption says: 'Are you bringing food from the UK?'). Officials at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal said the offending items had been destroyed under rules requiring a health certificate for bringing food into the EU. It came as Brexiteers criticised Dutch border police (bottom right) for mocking a Polish truck driver (top right) who had his sandwiches confiscated after arriving from Britain at the same port.

The company behind a sparse school meals package which sparked a Downing Street investigation tonight turned on the mother who exposed the parcel - saying she was wrong about how long it should lasted. Chartwells, the education catering specialist of £24.8billion-earning Compass Group UK & Ireland, had been savaged for 24 hours after an image from a Twitter user showed the paltry supplies. Free school meal allowances are worth £15.20 a pupil per week, but the mother yesterday showed her child's hamper, declaring it was for ten days. But tonight Chartwells, whose managing director is called Charlie Brown, said while the package was not up to scratch she was still wrong. It insisted: 'We have had time to investigate the picture circulated on Twitter. For clarity this shows five days of free school lunches (not ten days) and the charge for food, packing and distribution was actually £10.50 and not £30 as suggested. However, in our efforts to provide thousands of food parcels a week at extremely short notice we are very sorry the quantity has fallen short in this instance. Our ten-day hampers typically include a wide variety of nutritious food items to support the provision of lunches for children. We are further enhancing our food parcels following the Department for Education's additional allowance of £3.50 per week per child in line with nutritional guidelines, in addition we welcome the DofE procurement notice for schools issued today. We would like to thank Marcus Rashford and the Permanent Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, Vicky Ford, for their collaboration as we navigate these difficult times.'

Morrisons said it would ban shoppers who refused to wear a mask without a medical reason in its UK stores, while Sainsbury's said guards would 'challenge' flouters. Britain's policing minister Kit Malthouse said police would intervene in serious breaches of Covid rules in shops, but measures imposed and enforced by owners would be effective in most cases. Meanwhile, Brian Booth, chair of West Yorkshire Police Federation, emphasised that officers would only intervene if 'other offences were committed', such as when the customer refusing to wear a mask became violent or abusive. Pictured are shoppers at a Morrisons in London (left) and Leeds (right). It is not known if the shoppers pictured have medical exemptions.

The sign (pictured right) appeared on a lamppost at the edge of beauty spot Southwold, Suffolk and read: 'If you don't live around here f*** off'. More than half the properties in Southwold (pictured) are owned by outsiders and it has attracted a host of second home owners. It is a favourite of celebrities including Twiggy, Dame Judi Dench(inset right), David Tennant (inset left) and Michael Palin. However, officials have warned against people travelling there during the coronavirus lockdown and residents took it upon themselves to warn visitors away with the crude sign. The handwritten banner was promptly removed from its spot with local leaders blasting it for being 'ill-advised'.

Jay Clack, 20, from Cambridgeshire, pictured left now, has asthma, an underlying condition known to exacerbate Covid-19. He contracted the virus just after Christmas and was admitted to hospital with pneumonia (top inset) on New Year's Eve. He was moved to ICU and his parents were told at one point that he might not make it. Since contracting the virus Jay has lost two stone, going from 19st to 17st - and the weight is still dropping off him. Speaking to the BBC's Jon Ironmonger from his hospital bed, Jay, who is now recovering, said he was so weak he could barely speak to his worried family (bottom inset). Jay is pictured right with his father before he became infected.

Protesters have gathered outside Cardiff Bay police station to protest following the death of Mohamud Mohammed Hassan (inset), 24, hours after he left police custody. The 'fit and healthy' man was arrested following a disturbance at his home and was taken to the station on Friday evening, but was released the following morning without charge. Later that day he was found dead at his home, with police calling the death 'sudden and unexplained'. His family dispute this, claiming he had been assaulted while in custody and his body had 'wounds' at the time of his death that he didn't have before being arrested. Senedd member Neil McEvoy said that South Wales Police had a 'bad history' with black communities, including the wrongful conviction of three Cardiff men for the murder of Lynette White in 1988.

The FBI on Tuesday released two photos of the alleged suspect in the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and asked anyone who may recognize him to contact investigators. The first photo shows an older bearded man wearing a blue knit cap with the letters 'CFD' stitched on it. The second photo, which does not show the suspect's face, appears to be a screengrab from a video in which a man was seen launching a fire extinguisher that struck a Capitol police officer on the head. Authorities have yet to confirm whether the officer in that video was Sicknick, who died on Thursday night after having been hit in the head by a fire extinguisher as he and his colleagues faced off with hundreds of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol the day before.

Jack Bezants 14:40 West Ham have appointed Eve Vorley, a director of X-rated films such as 'Lesbian Nurses' (left) and 'Horny Housewives on the Job', to their board. Vorley, whose real name is Emma Benton-Hughes, is the partner of West Ham's co-chairman David Sullivan and has been pictured at the London Stadium watching the Hammers in action on numerous occasions. Now, she has been named as a director at the club who are currently 10th in the Premier League standings. The adult entertainment industry is where her partner Sullivan made his money - in the Sunday Times Rich List, Sullivan's estimated wealth came in at £1.1billion. He also has a vast property portfolio.

A Polish butcher raped and murdered a 'drunk and vulnerable' student in an act of sexual violence before putting her body into a river, a court heard today. Pawel Relowicz (left), 26, had come across Libby Squire (right), 21, who was 'drunk', 'likely hypothermic' and 'in deep distress', on a road in Hull and driven her away from safety to a remote playing field, Sheffield Crown Court was told. Miss Squire's body was recovered by a lifeboat around seven weeks later after being spotted in the Humber Estuary by the skipper of a fishing boat. Relowicz denies raping and murdering philosophy student Miss Squire. Richard Wright QC, opening the case for the prosecution today, said Miss Squire had 'seemingly disappeared' on the freezing cold night of January 31, 2019 after being refused entry to a nightclub. Also pictured (centre): Police divers search for missing Miss Squire in February 2019.

Multi-million properties on Ilchester Place (pictured inset), situated in the celebrity enclave of Holland Park, west London, are covered in scaffolding, and some have been almost completely demolished for renovations (pictured top-left, bottom-left, top-right, bottom-right). The street has been dubbed 'Millionaires Row', which was crowned the UK's priciest road in 2019, according to Lloyds Bank, before being usurped by Avenue Road in the north-west of the capital last year. But the works on several of the mega mansions by the wealthy owners has sparked fury among local residents, including Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, whose historic Grade I listed house backs onto the street.

Up to 40 migrants gathered outside the barbed wire-topped fence at Napier Barracks in Folkestone at around 1pm chanting 'freedom!' and waving banners. There have been reports of suicide attempts within the MoD-owned army barracks, where asylum seekers have been held for months. Napier Barracks is one of two Ministry of Defence sites being used to house asylum seekers which were loaned to the Home Office last year. The Government had struggled to house the thousands of people who crossed the English Channel in small boats during 2020.

Ed Sheeran was served a hard dose of reality back in 2008 when the-then aspiring teenage performer was snubbed by Arlene Phillips at the auditions for teen series Britannia High. Years before breaking onto the music scene with his debut album +, a 16-year-old Ed was filmed for a behind-the-scenes documentary as he auditioned for the ITV musical series alongside fellow future stars Pixie Lott and Zizi Strallen.

Kim, 64, has yet to issue a public statement about the news of HBO Max's Sex and the City reboot, but she made her feelings clear by liking a fan tweet. She celebrated her own decision not to take part in the revival by liking a tweet that 'applauded' her for 'putting herself first'. Kim, who played Samantha Jones in the TV series and movie sequels, quit the role after the second film amid an ongoing feud with Sarah Jessica Parker (right). While Sarah, 55, has repeatedly denied that the pair are in a 'cat fight', Kim has been much more open about their strained relationship, and her desire to move away from the Sex and the City franchise once and for all.

A tricky brainteaser (pictured), created by National Accident Helpline, has challenged puzzlers to spot the hidden items that have caused injuries to those working from home. So, do you think you've got what it takes to beat the average time of 45 seconds to spot all of the dangerous items?

Lisa Allison, 33, challenged herself to overhaul her £113,000 two-bedroom property in Blidworth, Nottinghamshire, on a modest £5,000 budget, doing most of the work herself during a two week break from work. She worked on the house from 7am to 10pm every day for a fortnight, and called in professionals for some of the bigger jobs. Left to right: The bedroom makeover costing £130; the garnde, which cost £300 and the living room, which set her back £250. She kept cost down by buying sale items or picking up things for free.

The female hunter tried twice to shoot the boar on the island of Sardinia as it ran from the undergrowth. The woman, who has not been identified, failed to kill the animal and was forced to beat it with the barrel of the weapon. The woman is heard shouting 'go away' and 'get off'.

Femail has compared the waist measurements for a size 12 across 15 brands popular with British shoppers and found there is a difference of 2.5in between the neatest and most generous (as illustrated by the chart above). Cos, a Swedish retailer that is part of the H&M group, comes up smallest with a 28.5in waist, while Sainsbury's clothing brand Tu is the largest at 31in. This wide range means shoppers might have to try several sizes to find garments that fit, which can be problematic - and expensive - when ordering online.

Florida-based Opalinski Design House, the creator of the patented beach club concept, explains that while at anchor, the transom bulkheads (the sides of the boat at the stern) rotate outwards, revealing additional deck space that nearly doubles the size of the conventional swim platform. It adds: 'When the beach club transom is fully deployed it allows for accessing the water and unobstructed views from much larger deck space. In this configuration, tenders remain out of sight but readily accessible when required.'

Absolutely paw-some! That's one way to describe these heartwarming images of two rescue dogs enjoying trips to some of Europe's most mesmerising landscapes. The beautiful photos feature former Romanian street dogs Finn (the brown dog) and Yuri (the black and white dog) and were snapped by their Austrian owner, Anne Geier, in countries such as Italy, Norway and Switzerland.

Footage captured along the River Thames in Richmond, south west London, shows Ruby the terrier helplessly stare at her owner after falling into the water. Just moments later, paddle border Kevin De Klerk makes his way over to the canine and lifts the animal from the water. Vivi Hanson, who captured the footage on January 9, said she has been in contact with Ruby's owner and the dog is now fully recovered from the ordeal.

Cameron Labarge (right and left pictured with a deer), 29, was looking for deer in the woods near his home in Glens Falls, New York, when a bird started furiously pecking away at his head and face. In the clip the grouse can be seen first sitting on the pharmacy technician's shoulders, before it begins to peck at his cap.

The Daughters of Saint Paul, an account run by sisters in Boston, Massachusetts, has racked up more than 45,000 followers on the video-sharing site and their videos have a combined 6million views. In one clip the nuns take on the This or That challenge (left), set to Run RMC's It's Tricky, which sees them reveal their preferences on subjects including 'morning vs evening prayer' and 'Lent vs Advent'. Others see them joke about giving into temptation (centre) and dressing up as ghosts (right).