Farming needs to go back to old-fashioned methods to help the environment, the Prime Minister's father has said, as he takes on a new climate change role.

Stanley Johnson is today announcing that he is the new International Ambassador for the Conservative Environment Network (CEN).

The author has long been a campaigner on green issues, and is a passionate advocate of "rewilding", recently visiting some reintroduced bears in Italy.

He is expected to lobby for wilder farming at the major climate change conference COP26, scheduled to take place in Glasgow this summer.

Mr Johnson, a passionate rewilder, told The Telegraph about his vision of farming, explaining: "It's not rewilding as such but going back to methods of farming which are very much the way things were. Rain fed agriculture, grass fed agriculture, even not ploughing up. You may gain more in carbon terms from doing that than from planting a load of trees.

"There is an absolute need for a change in the farming system in Britain and as we come out of the EU that's an amazing way to do that. I have just agreed to be the international ambassador for the Conservative Environmental Network. We are going to be focusing on the Climate Change Conference. It's an honourary assignment of course I'm not going to ask to be paid at my age!"

His son, Boris Johnson, currently has no plans to ban intensive farming and force farmers to go back to ancient methods, though the government is bringing in a payments scheme for farms which use their land to improve the environment.

One matter father and son seem to find consensus on is that of beavers. Boris Johnson is understood to have put in place the procurement of the rodents for his father's land for his birthday.

However, Stanley said that he has tried to make his land suitable for the rewilded creatures, but it has been a struggle, and he wants to be allowed to release them on the river running through his Exmoor estate. However, this is not allowed under current rules, in place to prevent the animals running amok.

He is pushing for his son to get the government to publish its National Beaver Strategy to enable them to be let loose up and down England's waterways.

He told The Telegraph: "Beavers have been put on hold at the moment because of coronavirus, but I need to think about how I am going to do it. You have the pen, a biggish pen covering a couple of acres and some running water, you could just make a pond. I need to be very careful because the pond could dry up or the whole place could flood and they could be washed away down the river and I’d get in trouble. Of course I have the river, but they can't be released there until we have a National Beaver Policy!"

President Biden's team knows his national media honeymoon is coming to an end, so it's preparing to speak directly to the American people through local reporters and avoid distractions with its anti-Trumpian approach of ignoring Twitter.

Why it matters: The White House controlled the narrative for the first 12 days with daily themes and choreographed executive orders, but its communicators know they must be innovative as the press corps steps up its independent scrutiny, and they try to sell initiatives like a coronavirus relief package.

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•        “It will get harder," said Pili Tobar, a White House deputy communication director. "Discipline is the name of the game."

The strategy: Vice President Kamala Harris inaugurated one approach last week by giving interviews with newspapers and TV stations in West Virginia and Arizona. Those are two states where Biden will need the votes of Democratic senators to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill.

•        But that end-around is fraught with risks and may have backfired in West Virginia. Sen Joe Manchin told a local station: "That’s not a way of working together."

Biden officials also plan to create more of their own content and revive a version of the “West Wing Week,” a behind-the-scenes video series produced by the Obama White House.

•        White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has already answered questions submitted by the public and was trailed by a crew from "The Circus," a cable program popular with politicos.

•        There are additional plans for outreach through Skype, YouTube and Twitter.

•        "We're going to have some fun new spins on some of the old traditions," said Kate Berner, also a White House deputy communications director.

Message management: The White House is being especially careful with its most valuable communications currency: pronouncements from Biden himself.

•        Aides have spent that capital by putting the president at center stage to sign executive orders and give scripted remarks on their story of the day. That furnishes fresh images and soundbites for the network’s evening news.

•        They save it by limiting Biden's exposure to journalists. The president took questions from just five preselected reporters Monday, but Biden himself called on Fox News' Peter Doocy and also made some newsy comments to CNN's Kaitlan Collins after she bumped into him in a West Wing corridor.

Between the lines: Psaki didn’t take the bait from reporters in the briefing room when they asked questions about controversial statements from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

•        Psaki said she didn't want to "elevate conspiracy theories."

•        Berner added: "We didn't let our eye get taken off the ball by what's going on on Twitter, or what the press corps is popping into Lower Press (at the White House) to ask about."

Primary schools and kindergartens in the Netherlands will open on Feb. 8, the country's education minister said on Sunday.

Arie Slob said at a news conference negations on opening high schools are ongoing and are expected to be out in a week.

He noted that teachers will be able to carry out COVID-19 tests that give immediate results to detect cases in schools.

In case a student’s test result comes out to be positive, all the students in that class will be quarantined for five days, he added.

Slob said that the most significant reason for opening primary schools is that the new strain of the virus which emerged in the UK and spreads faster is rarely contracted by children.

Schools in the Netherlands have been closed since new cases spiked on Dec. 17, 2020./aa

Turkish Red Crescent on Sunday opened its new office in Iraq's northern province of Erbil.

The opening ceremony was attended by Turkish Red Crescent head Ibrahim Altan, Turkey’s Consul General in Erbil Hakan Karacay and other officials.

Altan said they have been carrying out relief work in Erbil since 2016.

Karacay said: "Turkey has traditionally lent a helping hand to those in need across the world regardless of language, religion, race or ethnicity."/aa

A refugee camp in Syria’s northwestern Afrin district was left inundated due to heavy rains on Sunday.

War-weary displaced Syrians, who live in refugee camps, are now struggling with the damage caused by flooding.

At least 30 makeshift tents have been rendered useless.

Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, over 5 million civilians have become homeless./aa

At least one regime soldier was killed and four others wounded in northern Syria on Sunday due to an ongoing conflict between forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad and the YPG/PKK terrorist group.

Regime supporters also organized a protest against the terror group in the town of Qamishli, the region with a Russian military base.

They demanded the YPG/PKK to stop the blockade of places where regime forces are present.

Calling to rein in the terror group, the demonstrators entered the airport where the Russian airbase is located.

Tensions began when the YPG/PKK was pressurized to let the regime forces control the town of Ayn Issa in northern Syria.

The terrorist organization responded by detaining some members of the regime forces in the Qamishli district on Dec. 28, 2020.

The regime forces in the district also rounded up some members of the organization in retaliation.

Those held were released after Russian mediation, easing the tensions for a while. But mutual arrests continued, and the YPG/PKK blockaded the military regions known as "Security Square" in Qamishli on Jan. 8, and in al-Hasakah on Jan. 16.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is PKK's Syrian offshoot./aa

At least two people were killed and eleven others wounded in a car bombing on Sunday targeting a popular hotel in Somalia's capital, an emergency official said.

A total of 1,643 people were arrested in fresh protests on Sunday across Russia demanding the release of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, monitoring groups say.

Despite intense measures taken by police, thousands of people, mostly high school and university students, attended the demonstrations held across many cities of Russia.

The streets in Moscow, where the protests are being held, were closed to traffic. Police also set up barricades with many police vehicles.

Moscow police also closed car parking lots and some metro stations.

Cafes, bars and restaurants were closed and alcohol sales were banned between 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. local time (0600-2000GMT).

Some 338 people were arrested in Moscow, according to human rights organizations in the country.

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the detained politician, was also arrested during the protests.

Some demonstrators gathered near the Matrosskaya Tishina Prison, where Navalny is currently being held, and chanted slogans against the government.

The Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement that the demonstrations were unauthorized.

The ministry urged Russian people not to participate in the demonstrations as they are open to provocations.

Navalnay, 44, was jailed on his return to Russia after spending months recovering in Germany from a poisoning attempt.

He blames the Russian secret service for the attempt to kill him with a nerve agent, a charge Kremlin denies./aa