Boris Johnson had to be talked out of meeting the Queen early on in the pandemic, ex-adviser claims
CNN
Boris Johnson's former chief adviser has claimed that the Prime Minister tried to maintain his weekly face-to-face audiences with Queen Elizabeth during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the elderly monarch being vulnerable to the virus.
Dominic Cummings, who resigned late last year, told the BBC that he had to convince Johnson not to visit the Queen, who was then 93, at the outset of the pandemic in the UK in March 2020. According to Cummings, Johnson said: "I'm going to see the Queen ... that's what I do every Wednesday. Sod this. I'm going to go and see her."
Several United Nations agencies are again sounding the alarm on the rapid deterioration of humanitarian conditions in much of Gaza and the civilian toll of more than a year of Israeli military operations.
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Israel is at a “high level of readiness” for a response from Iran, an Israeli military source told CNN, as US officials visited the Middle East for a renewed push to resolve the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Follow live updates.