A leading Brexiteer and former diplomat has told of his frantic dash from Switzerland to the UK to escape quarantine.
Andy Wigmore, a spokesman for the Leave.EU campaign and self-confessed "bad boy of Brexit", was at the Wengen ski resort when he faced going into mandatory 14-day quarantine amid Swiss attempts to stop the spread of a more infectious strain of coronavirus that emerged in England.
He is among hundreds of Britons who were said to have left Switzerland hours after the country imposed quarantine.
Staff at another luxury resort in Verbier said at the weekend many British guests left “under the cover of darkness” to avoid being stuck inside their rooms for two weeks.
Mr Wigmore and his family were on the slopes when he received a message the Swiss border was due to shut within hours.
"We had three-and-a-half hours. We dropped the car at the airport, then went to Basel and took a train over the border," he told The Telegraph.
"There were so many police around at the border, we saw Brits being stopped. We only just made it with 20 minutes to spare – if we hadn't had the tip-off, we would have been stuck."
Jean-Marc Sandoz, a spokesman for the Bagnes municipality, said he couldn’t blame British tourists for wanting to leave.
“In most cases, quarantine was untenable. Imagine four people staying in a hotel room of 20 square metres," Mr Sandoz told the ATS news agency.
Mr Sandoz added that the situation was "the worst week our community has ever experienced".
However, German researchers said on Tuesday that the new strain of coronavirus may have been on the continent as early as November.
Researchers were "able to sequence the variant of the B1.1.7 virus in a person infected in November this year", the health ministry of Lower Saxony said.
This is the same strain "responsible for a large proportion of the infections detected in the south of England," it said.
The variant was found in an elderly patient with underlying health conditions who has since died. His wife was also infected but survived.
The couple caught the virus after their daughter returned from a trip to Britain in mid-November, where she "in all likelihood" became infected with the new strain, a statement said.
Meanwhile, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned that a third wave of coronavirus must be avoided “at all costs”, hinting that the country’s hard lockdown may continue beyond January 10, when it had been expected to end.
"We must not risk everything we have achieved with quick easing, otherwise it will start all over again," he told Bild am Sonntag. "If the lockdown does not have a sufficient effect, the measures must be tightened."
Another 12,892 positive cases and 852 deaths were reported in Germany on Tuesday.
In the Netherlands, Dutch officials said the country would record a war-like total death toll this year.
Up to last week, around 162,000 deaths had been reported in the country of 17 million this year, 13,000 more than would have been expected in a regular year, the Dutch national statistics office said.
"Such an increase of the number of deceased has not been reported since World War Two," it said.
In the UK, the world’s first patient to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outside trial conditions received her second shot.
Margaret Keenan, 90, received her first dose in front of the world’s media on December 9.
The years Ramadan fell in May
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
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On sale: Now
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Mobile phone packages comparison
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 18' pen)
Juventus 2 (Dybala 4', Higuain 80')
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The biog
Favourite hobby: I love to sing but I don’t get to sing as much nowadays sadly.
Favourite book: Anything by Sidney Sheldon.
Favourite movie: The Exorcist 2. It is a big thing in our family to sit around together and watch horror movies, I love watching them.
Favourite holiday destination: The favourite place I have been to is Florence, it is a beautiful city. My dream though has always been to visit Cyprus, I really want to go there.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
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The Saga Continues
Wu-Tang Clan
(36 Chambers / Entertainment One)
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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Napoleon
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
- Authorisation for countries to inspect Iran Air Cargo and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines cargoes for banned goods
