Frustrated by Brexit negotiations, angry at Brussels or simply afraid of the future, ordinary Britons and other Europeans are already taking life-changing decisions a year before Britain leaves the EU.
Office workers, farmers and radio hosts are taking on new nationalities, relocating their businesses or looking forward to lucrative alternative trade deals, as politicians struggle to come up with a plan.
"Other people my age, they are starting settling down, they make more long-term plans with their lives," says 32-year-old Matt Davies, a British expat in Madrid.
"It's very difficult for me to plan anything beyond March 2019 because you just have no idea what is going to happen," the call centre worker says.
British and EU diplomats resumed negotiations in Brussels in February and are hoping to agree this month on a post-Brexit transition period.
But the shape of future relations between Britain and the EU is far from certain and the British government is deeply divided over how to proceed.
That uncertainty is even more pressing for the three million EU nationals living in the UK, many of whom are now questioning their future there.
Brexit affects "every part of our lives", says radio presenter Gosia Prochal, one of nearly a million Polish citizens living in Britain.
The 25-year-old is based in Peterborough, a city in eastern England that has seen a sharp rise in immigration in recent years and voted 61 per cent in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum.
AFP spoke to five EU nationals and five Britons in the UK, as well as five British citizens living in continental Europe about their hopes and fears ahead of the expected Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
William Lynch, from Northern Ireland, farms oysters in Lough Foyle, says he faces having to move his business two kilometres downstream to the Republic of Ireland - across a currently invisible boundary - if customs tariffs come in after Brexit.
"I can't really leave it till the last minute to do that," the 63-year-old ex-fireman says.
The oysters he lays down this year, largely for export to France, will not be harvested until after the UK has left the EU.
"I can't work with uncertainty," he says.
Brexit-backing sheep farmer Pip Simpson says he felt Brussels was making the negotiations "as awkward as possible" to deter other countries from leaving the bloc.
The 51-year-old voted to leave the European Union in the June 2016 referendum but now faces the prospect of losing the EU subsidies his farm relies on.
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Polls in recent months have shown a slight increase in the number of people who, in hindsight, think Britain was wrong to vote to leave the EU, but experts say the difference from the referendum is negligible.
"The country was divided down the middle 18 months ago and not a great deal has changed," political scientist John Curtice told a conference this month.
The discord has left some Britons living in the EU feeling alienated.
Business intelligence consultant Andrew Ketley, 41, who moved to Munich in February last year, is putting down roots.
"We don't want to live in a country which is tearing itself apart," he says.
Barnaby Harward, 44, an editor who has lived in Warsaw with his Polish wife since 2005, is applying for Polish citizenship and ending thoughts of moving back home.
"The whole Brexit thing has put me off. It kind of made me feel that my country is not what I thought it was," he says.
EU citizens in Britain are taking similar decisions.
Gabriela Szomoru, 32, a Romanian who has lived all her adult life in Kent, south-east England, is now applying for British nationality, as well as UK accountancy qualifications.
"England is my home now," the salad-farm bookkeeper says.
For people in business, clarity cannot come soon enough.
Richard Stone, 44, the chief executive of London retail stockbrokers Share, wants Britain to sign trade agreements with the growth markets of China and India.
"It is important that we do a deal, and relatively quickly in terms of clarifying and giving business certainty," says the Leave voter, speaking in a personal capacity.
"I am reasonably optimistic we will get there, but it will be a painful process."
Since the Brexit vote, Mr Stone's business, all done in sterling, has been unruffled.
But French wine importer Laurent Faure, 50, who owns Le Vieux Comptoir bistrot in central London, says the plunge of the pound due to the Brexit vote has wiped out his profit margin.
"You have to envisage doing something else - if necessary, leaving England," the former lawyer says.
"It would be the last resort."
Dimitri Scarlato, 40, an Italian composer who lectures at the Royal College of Music in London, says Brexit has changed his perception of Britain - and of himself.
"The only positive outcome of Brexit - that made me feel really European. I really gained my sense of being European."
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
