budget on wednesday. top of the agenda will be getting the economy back on track after a year of lockdowns, severe disruption and high levels of public spending on support schemes for employees and businesses. our economics editor faisal islam has been looking at what to expect from the chancellor s red box. this week s budget will be historic in terms of the numbers. the chancellor will hope to make it historic in terms of policy, both to support the rescue from crisis, but also to lay the long term foundations of a post pandemic, post brexit, green recovery. support forjobs, wages and the economy will continue, and you can see why. during the extraordinary economic hit from the pandemic, unemployment did go up, but rather modestly. but if you add in the number of people supported by the government s furlough scheme, and the number of people supported by the self employment scheme, you get this picture. and this is why support will be extended also for business cash flow, be
care home residents in england will be allowed to have face to face visits from next week with one regular visitor for the first time in nearly a year. the government has published details of how the visits will work. they can take place indoors, and visitors will need to be tested but not necessarily vaccinated. our social affairs correspondent alison holt reports. this has been the ritual for gillian lay them and jacqueline for months now. masks on, they make their way to visit their father michael in his barnsley care home. he has dementia. on monday, rather than behind a screen, just one of them will be able to sit with him, hold his hand but not hug. she can come in next week. don t bang on the door, don t. it may be a step forward but he s been making his frustration at not being able to see all his family clearfor a long time. this was a visit a few weeks ago. the only touch possible through thick rubber gloves. he gets really frustrated, and he is like walking about
association of governors wrote him this letter pleading with him to clarify all these confusing vaccine guidelines and to increase supply as much as possible, and that speech is set for a couple of minutes from now and we ll bring it to you live, but, first, to texas where the electricity is back on for many in that snow-covered state, but the frozen temperatures and the ice have created a new crisis. nearly half the state is without clean drinking water. look at this. people lining up to fill buckets from a public park spigot. 13 million people are either without water or under boil water advisories. burst pipes and water mains are pushing the texas water supply to the brink. let s start with omar jimenez live in austin, and omar, i ve been watching you all morning. you know, these texans cannot catch a break. what is being done just to get these folks clean water? yeah. right now that is a priority right now. those that run the water system at least here in the austin are
but there are concerns it could lead to some ignoring the rules. leigh milner reports. victoria park, broadway market in hackney and around the corner, london fields. a great day for a bike ride a picnic, not so much. we want to make sure that lockdown is eased at the dates that the government said, and my message is, please, the regulations are still in place. picnics and meet ups are not allowed until the 8th of march, but it didn t stop people here at high beech near loughton. i ve been driving around here for about half an hour, and it is absolutely packed. can everybody remember to keep their distance? for the owner of this cafe, a long line is great for business, but hard to manage. today has been extra special. as you can see, we re really busy. we are asking people to distance themselves. it is not actually working at the moment, but i will go back and spread them out again. throughout the day, many people enjoy the sunshine across london. please keep 2m . distances
to kabul to talk about security but refuses to say whether us forces will leave afghanistan by may. and the largest asteroid to pass earth this year provides the chance to see a space rock that formed, at the dawn of the solar system. hello and welcome. here in the uk: two police officers are in hospital after clashes with hundreds of protesters in the city of bristol. it happened after a rally against plans to limit demonstrations turned violent. the uk s home secretary condemned what she called unacceptable thuggery and disorder. our correspondent andrew plant sent this report from the scene. in a protest against new police powers, it was soon police themselves who became the target. vans and a police car set on fire, fireworks thrown into the crowd as around 1000 protesters gathered in bristol city centre in what has been, police say, the worst violence the city has seen in years. there s a row of police blocking off what is the central police station here in bristol,