Public health minister slammed as MSPs call for dedicated covid vaccine chief

EXCLUSIVE: Hallmark Channel has greenlit A Holiday Spectacular, a new Christmas movie starring Academy Award-nominated Ann-Margret, Eve Plumb, Tony Award-nominee Derek Klena, Ginna Claire Mason, and featuring the Radio City Rockettes. The movie will air as part of the 2022 Countdown to Christmas programming.

EXCLUSIVE: Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group (AMG) proudly announces the promotion of Nora Zimmett to President of News and Original Series for Weather Group. Her previous title was Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President, overseeing live and original programming for The Weather Channel, as well as its world-renowned storm coverage.

Sony Pictures, Filmocracy, the Lantos Foundation and OUT.LI.ER, introduce the 8th Annual Women’s Voices Now Film Festival. The festival will take place on March 24, 2022 and the keynote Speaker is Jaina Lee Ortiz. Like the previous year, the festival will again take place virtually. 

Nick Stoller and Carla Kettner’s Florida dramedy is finally heading to the small screen.

EXCLUSIVE: Saban Films has picked up world rights on Zach Golden’s action-comedy High Heat and will release later this year.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have cancelled their scheduled concerts in Russia and Ukraine “in light of current events”.The group were due to perform at Bol Festival in Moscow, Russia on June 18 before visiting the Palace Of Sports complex in Kyiv, Ukraine on August 19 as part of a wider run of dates for 2022.Sharing a statement on social media, Cave and co. said they had “no choice but to cancel” the shows following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week.

Neneh Cherry has reacted after Robyn covered her hit song ‘Buffalo Stance’.Cherry shared the news that Robyn had covered her debut track on Twitter earlier today (March 1), and revealed that the new version was part of a “new project” that she will be “able to talk about soon”.“It feels strange to be doing this with everything going on in the world right now but… I am still so honoured & excited to announce that my incredible friend @robynkonichiwa has covered ‘Buffalo Stance’ with @Mapei & Dev Hynes for a beautiful new version!” she wrote.“I am truly touched and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it…Released on Thursday it’s part of a new project I’ll be able to talk about soon, in the meantime you can pre save the track now.”The track arrives on Thursday (March 3) and can pre-save the track here now.It feels strange to be doing this with everything going on in the world right now but… I am still so honoured & excited to announce that my incredible friend @robynkonichiwa has covered 'Buffalo Stance' with @Mapei & Dev Hynes for a beautiful new version! https://t.co/D48KiFMq5H pic.twitter.com/ZkAdmdzkxP— Neneh Cherry (@misscherrylala) March 1, 2022I am truly touched and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it

Phoebe Bridgers is set to host a new radio show on SiriusXM.The show will be called ‘Saddest Factory Radio’ after the singer-songwriter’s label, Saddest Factory Records, which she launched last year.‘Saddest Factory Radio’ will see Bridgers in conversation with a number of artists, including signees to her label MUNA, Sloppy Jane, Claud and more.It will also feature Bridgers sharing some of her favourite songs with listeners.Speaking to Rolling Stone, Bridgers said: “My favourite way to consume music is incidentally — something playing in the grocery store, an opening band I’ve never heard, a college radio station while trying to find signal on a road trip.To celebrate the launch of Saddest Factory Radio on @siriusxmu, we put @phoebe_bridgers' DJ-ing skills to the test.

Playground Games has released a new Forza Horizon 5 update which adds sign language support.Previously announced last year, the sign language support feature has been in development for a while but has finally arrived today for all platforms.When players boot up Forza Horizon 5, they should be able to find both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) features in the settings.The sign language update will support 150 in-game cinematics that are shown throughout the game, making the driving game much more accessible for deaf and hard of hearing players.The newly released YouTube video shows how the feature has been implemented, with actors from the deaf and hard of hearing community signing in the corner of the screen during the cinematics, story segments, and challenges.In a new blog post detailing the update, Microsoft’s chief accessibility officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie, discussed the new update and talked about her own deafness, saying that with the addition of signing in the game, she no longer needs to ask her family what she missed.“There are so many people with disabilities and people who are deaf. And, there are a lot of closed doors every day.

Former Coronation Street and EastEnders star Jill Halfpenny is back on our screens tonight (Tuesday March 1st), in a tense drama about a group holiday that goes seriously awry. It’s the latest role for the Geordie star who started her career as a teenager in Byker Grove alongside Ant and Dec, but hit the big time as Rebecca Hopkins in Coronation Street, the nurse with whom Martin Platt cheated on Gail.

Olivia Bowen is currently living the life of luxury in Tenerife with her husband Alex Bowen on a loved-up babymoon ahead of the arrival of their first child.The Love Island couple - who announced their pregnancy on New Year's Day - tell OK! they have been enjoying their days on the beach and celebrating their happy news of becoming parents. This week, Olivia, 28, has given her fans an insight into their romantic holiday as well as showing off her blossoming baby bump in a number of gorgeous snaps on her Instagram.

Prince Charles has spoken out against Russia and President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine during a royal engagement Tuesday, March 1, as he condemned the attack as "brutal aggression".The first in line to the throne was joined by his wife and future queen consort Camilla in Southend-on-Sea, for a visit in honour of the murdered MP Sir David Amess.The royal pair formally granted the seaside location city status, a triumph that the late Sir David had been campaigning for for decades. During his speech, Prince Charles, 73, also made a segue way into talking about the current Ukrainian crisis.

As Russian president Valdamir Putin declared war on Ukraine last week, Ukraine has been on the fore-front of everyone's minds.The Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv has been bombarded with strikes as Russia has continued its offensive on its Eastern European neighbours. With the harrowing news coming from the ongoing war, Ukraine and its capital city has been the forefront of everyone's minds. And the spelling and pronunciation of its capital city has also been called into question as people continue to share support for Ukraine.

South by Southwest Conference and Festivals today announced a final round of Keynotes and Featured Speakers for the 36th annual Conference taking place in Austin, TX from March 11-20, with Ron Howard, Ted Lasso stars Brett Goldstein and Brendan Hunt, actor-filmmaker Gillian Jacobs, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, former U.S. representative Beto O’Rourke, and musicians Brian Eno and Nathaniel Rateliff among the notable additions.

Lily Konigsberg of Palberta and Nate Amos of Water From Your Eyes have shared "Crutch," their second track as My Idea. It follows the lead single and title track of their debut album, CRY MFER, out April 22 via Hardly Art.

“I’ll never get back what I lost track of” We had that line written for the last year but could never figure out what to do with it. We kept writing it down, not knowing where it should live.

HBO Max has unveiled the first footage for its upcoming Julia Child drama series Julia, starring Sarah Lancashire as The French Chef creator and host herself.

ITV talk show host Lorraine Kelly has shared her dramatic weight loss transformation with her 476,000 Instagram followers.The journalist has teamed up with WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers) in hopes of getting her “va va voom back”, after forming unhealthy lifestyle habits over lockdown.Lorraine, 62, took to Instagram last night to share an update on her weight loss journey.The star posted a picture of herself holding a WW pamphlet reading “congratulations” on her recent milestone next to another snap with Celebrity Ambassador Coach Suzy Stirling.Lorraine captioned the photos: “FIVE weeks in and feeling happier and healthier which is what it’s all about ! Thanks @wwsuzystirfry and @ww.uk.She then repeated the words from Suzy’s own identical post about the presenter’s progress.A post shared by Lorraine Kelly (@lorrainekellysmith) “This is what success looks like!!!” Suzy penned proudly. “Massive well done to @lorrainekellysmith not only have you achieved your half stone but you’ve lost a whopping ELEVEN pounds!!! “Three pounds for a stone! FANTASTIC!!! @ww.uk and I are SUPER proud. “What a fantastic journey you’re having,” she added, with hug and fist-bump emojis. Lorraine recently spoke to Express.co.uk about how she was dismayed to find that she had gone from a size 10 to a size 14 due to a lack of exercise and indulging in more junk food during lockdown. The star agreed that, while the perfect size is different for every person, she wanted to get back to feeling like herself again with the help of WW.“It’s not about how much space you take up in the world,” Lorraine explained. “It’s about what’s right for you.

coronavirus vaccine has arrived in Scotland with the first jabs being given out on Tuesday. Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced the major step in ridding the country of 'this terrible virus'.

coronavirus deaths have been recorded in Scotland over the last 24 hours. The Scottish Government also announced that 777 new cases of COVID-19 were reported overnight, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 99,463.

priority health care and vulnerable groups. Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has previously set out plans to reach a million Scots by spring.