- All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown
- Barnier promises compromise from France's embattled new govt
- Zelensky arrives in US to explain war plan to Biden
- Barca rout Villarreal but Ter Stegen hurt, Atletico draw at Rayo
- Darnold shines for Vikings, Steelers and Eagles win
- Atletico held to draw at Rayo Vallecano
- Marseille stun Lyon with 95th-minute winner after early red card
- Gabbia ends AC Milan's derby pain with late winner against Inter
- Surging Ko claims LPGA Queen City crown in spectacular style
- 'Impossible': Alcaraz shoots down Federer comparisons after Laver Cup win
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote
- Verstappen says 'silly' swearing row could hasten F1 exit
- Calls for Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the abyss
- Israel and Hezbollah urged to avoid 'catastrophe'
- Colombia battles fires as drought fuels Latin American flames
- Pressure piles on new French government from day one
- Arteta proud as Arsenal salvage point from 'impossible' task
- Barca rout Villarreal in thriller but Ter Stegen hurt
- Roma stroll past Udinese as fans protest De Rossi sacking
- Horschel outduels McIlroy to win PGA Championship play-off
- Audiences summon 'Beetlejuice' to top of N. America box office for third week
- Stones salvages point for Man City against 10-man Arsenal
- Egypt fears 'all out' regional war: foreign minister to AFP
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory, Stuttgart outclass Dortmund
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote: projections
- Olympic champion Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Horschel's eagle beats McIlroy in PGA Championship play-off
- Mourners at commander's funeral express loyalty to Hezbollah
- Norris hails his 'mega' McLaren after dominant win at Singapore
- Monaco beat Le Havre to join PSG at the top of Ligue 1
- Scholz's party narrowly leads far-right AfD in east German state vote: exit polls
- New leftist president vows to 'rewrite Sri Lankan history'
- UN adopts pact to tackle volatile future for mankind
- Leclerc hails Ferrari fightback from torrid Singapore GP qualifying
- Belgian Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Sosa rescues point for Forest against Brighton
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory over Wolfsburg in seven-goal thriller
- Swiss voters reject environment, pensions reforms: official results
- No fairytale ending for Ricciardo after 13 years in Formula One
- Israel and Hezbollah urged to step back from the brink
- What is the UN's 'Pact for the Future'?
- Norris dominates Singapore Grand Prix to cut Verstappen's title lead
- From bullets to ballots: Sri Lanka's comrade president-elect
- McLaren's Lando Norris wins Singapore GP to narrow F1 title race
- UN adopts pact promising to build 'brighter future' for humanity
- Military escalation not in Israel's 'best interest': White House
- Marxist leader declared Sri Lanka's president-elect
- Classes resume at Bangladesh university at heart of protests
- 'Barely anyone left': Sudan's El-Fasher devastated by fighting
- 'Warrior' Joshua vows to fight on despite Dubois mauling
Scotland's ex-leader Sturgeon defends pandemic response
Scotland's former first minister Nicola Sturgeon fought back tears on Wednesday as she defended her leadership style and record during the Covid pandemic at a highly anticipated public inquiry appearance.
Giving evidence to the independent probe into the UK's Covid response for the first time, Sturgeon denied claims of political opportunism during the crisis and said she felt "an overwhelming responsibility to do the best I could".
Sturgeon, who quit leading Scotland's devolved administration in Edinburgh last year, also maintained her long-running criticisms of former UK leader Boris Johnson.
The told the inquiry that he was not just the wrong person to be in charge during the pandemic but "the wrong person to be prime minister, full stop".
Asked by Jamie Dawson, a lawyer for the inquiry, whether she was "precisely the right first minister for the job", Sturgeon replied: "No."
"I was first minister when the pandemic struck. There's a large part of me wishes I hadn't been," she added, her lip trembling.
"But I was and wanted to be the best first minister I could be during that period. It's for others to judge the extent to which I succeeded."
Sturgeon, the former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader, stepped down as first minister last year, saying she lacked the energy to continue after nine years in the role.
With health policy a devolved matter for the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, her popularity soared as a result of her daily media briefings on the pandemic.
- WhatsApp deletions -
But Sturgeon denied claims that she politicised the Scottish government's response, given that her high profile helped bolster the SNP's push for independence from the rest of the UK.
"Did I take a firm grip on leadership? I hope I did," she told the hearing in Edinburgh.
"I had a sense of responsibility that as first minister I had to lead from the front, that I had to take the decisions collectively but ultimately have an attitude that the buck stops with me."
Sturgeon has also come under scrutiny for admitting that she deleted WhatsApp messages sent and received during the outbreak.
In December, Johnson was grilled on why he had failed to provide about 5,000 WhatsApp messages from late January 2020 to June 2020, claiming that the app had "somehow" automatically erased them.
Sturgeon acknowledged that she deleted her messages on the platform but said her use of it for government business was "extremely limited".
Any use of it, she told the hearing, "would not relate to matters of substantive government decision-making".
Deleting messages was in line with long-established Scottish government policy and done only after key decisions were properly recorded, and not left on devices such as phones that could be lost or stolen.
"I am certain that the inquiry has at its disposal anything and everything germane to my decision-making during the process and the time period of the pandemic, and the factors underpinning those decisions," she said.
L.Miller--AMWN