Today

Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

All adults under 30 should be offered the Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine due to a potential link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab and extremely rare blood clots. The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said there was no proof the Covid vaccine had caused the clots but the link was getting firmer. R4 Today programme's Mishal Husain looked at what the risks and benefits were to taking the coronavirus jab and how it will be used on the over-30s. She...

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

As the Moderna vaccine is rolled out for the first time in the UK, the medicines regulator, the MHRA, continues to investigate cases of rare blood clots in people who have received the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab. It has paused its trial on children as scientists wait for further information but added there were no safety concerns with the trial itself. In the UK, 30 people have developed the clots - and seven have died as a result - out of 18 million people who have received the vaccine. R4...

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Hunter Biden's business dealings and personal life were frequently used by the Trump campaign against his father US President Joe Biden. To mark the publication of his memoir 'Beautiful Things', he spoke to the Today Programme's Mishal Husain about business, politics and the trauma he says led to his battle with drug and alcohol addiction.

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

On 12 April, restrictions in England are due to ease further but John's Campaign, who supports residents and their loved ones, have begun legal action against the government over guidance which bans care home residents aged 65 and over from taking trips outside the home. With nearly all residents administered at least one dose of the vaccine, campaigners said it was "shocked" you can "discriminate people purely on grounds of their age". Today programme’s Mishal Husain discussed the rules and...

The prime minister’s senior adviser on ethnic minorities, Samuel Kasumu, will be stepping down in May. He had previously handed in his resignation in February, before retracting it. His announcement comes after the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities review said the UK was not deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities'. Downing Street has rejected suggestions his departure was linked to the findings. Lord Woolley, Simon Woolley, founder of Operation Black Vote and newly elected...

The UK government has set up the new UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) which began it's work on Thursday. It brings together Public Health England (PHE), NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC). Dr Jenny Harries, who has stepped down as England’s deputy chief medical officer and been appointed Chief Executive of the UKHSA. She spoke to Today programme's Justin Webb about the mission of the new agency and how it will protect the UK from future pandemics. (Image: Dr Jenny...

A police watchdog found the Metropolitan Police acted "appropriately" at a vigil for Sarah Everard in south London earlier this month after the force came under intense criticism over women being handcuffed and removed from Clapham Common. The independent investigation said there was too little communication between officers at the event but their response, amid Covid restrictions, had been "measured". Following the report, Met police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick told R4 Today programme’s...

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities said that while there was anecdotal proof, there was no actual evidence of institutional racism. The report found social class and family structure had a bigger impact on how people's lives turned out. The commission was set up in response to anti-racism protests across the UK last summer following the death of George Floyd in the US. Nick Robinson spoke to Dr Tony Sewell, chairman of the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities,...

How have the first three months post-Brexit been for UK businesses? Plus, prospects for the first day’s trading in Deliveroo, and other markets news. (Photo: Getty Images)

What UK goods could the US put tariffs on in retaliation for taxes on tech companies? Plus youth unemployment during and after the pandemic, and the markets. (Photo: Getty Images)

More than seven thousand young people including many school pupils have posted their experiences of sexual assault on the website Everybody's Invited. Martha Kearney spoke to Simon Bailey, National Police Chiefs' Council lead on child protection and chief constable of Norfolk Police. Martha also spoke to Helen Pike, Headteacher at Magdalen College School which was named in three student testimonies on the site.

Mina Smallman believes the police "made assumptions" about her daughters and was slow to investigate when Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were reported missing. The two sisters were stabbed to death in Fryent Country Park in Wembley last year. Two officers were suspended amid allegations they took selfies next to their bodies when they should have been securing the scene. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is considering the actions of police when Bibaa and Nicole were...

What might be the effect of a treasury ban on Covid-related business rates appeals? Also, how might the blockage in the Suez Canal affect supply chains? (Photo: Getty Images)

As European Union leaders hold virtual talks on how to boost coronavirus vaccine supplies, the European Commission will seek to tighten controls on vaccine exports. The UK has warned that any blockade would cause long term damage but officials from both sides said they would seek a win-win deal to increase supplies. Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, the world's biggest funder of medical research, told R4 Today's Martha Kearney what he thought was the best route out of the...