LONDON // Britain slithered to a virtual halt yesterday as snow blanketed the country in the latest weather twist in a December that is already set to be the coldest ever.
Much of continental Europe also experienced snow and sub-zero temperatures, ruining the travel plans of millions as airports in Germany, France, Holland and Denmark reported cancellations or delays.
But it was Britain and Northern Ireland that bore the brunt of a system bringing Arctic temperatures and deep snow to the bulk of the country on a weekend that should have marked the start of the pre-Christmas getaway and the busiest shopping day of the year for stores.
As it was, some shopping centres could not even open and British Airways, along with other airlines, had to cancel all their daytime departures from Heathrow - which accepted incoming flights barring periods when the runways had to cleared of snow - while Gatwick, the country's second largest airport, closed completely.
Many regional airports across the UK were shut and the situation was little better on the roads with hundreds of drivers being trapped on the M6 motorway overnight after the highway became blocked by 25cm of snow in north-west England.
Lindsay Dovey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said temperatures dropped to minus 15.5°C in Aviemore, Scotland, early yesterday morning with the prospect of minus 20°C early today.
"There has been a band of snow that is stretching from north Wales right across to the far south-east of England, pivoting northwards over London," she said.
"It is going to be around for a while, probably for most of the day, but will hopefully die out tonight when conditions are going to improve."
The RAC motoring organisation warned drivers everywhere not to take to the roads unless their journeys were absolutely necessary.
Jon Caudwell, from the government's Highways Agency, told the BBC that snow ploughs and gritters were doing their best to keep major roads in England clear but needed help from motorists.
"We've got more snow coming, so we're really going to have to work very, very hard," he said. "We are asking the public to really seriously consider whether they do need to come out in these conditions and, if they do come out in these conditions, they really must take extra care."
Hundreds of thousands of Britons were due to fly out of the country this weekend at the start of an annual getaway that will see four million head to warmer climes over the festive season.
But the travel organisation ABTA said that, with so many airports closed and flights cancelled, passengers should check with their airline or tour operator if they were due to fly either yesterday or today, when temperatures are expected to remain at or below freezing throughout much of the UK.
"For those due to fly back to the UK from other countries, the airlines and tour companies will ensure they are looked after in terms of day-to-day expenses and will pay for them to stay in a hotel," the ABTA spokesman said.
Many train companies were also able to offer only reduced services, adding to the travel misery.
This December is set to be the coldest on record in Britain with the snowfall the heaviest for the month since 1965.
Sporting fixtures felt the full effect of the weather with race meetings abandoned and dozens of football fixtures cancelled. In many parts of the country, particularly Scotland and north-east England, supplies of domestic heating oil were proving almost impossible to obtain because tankers were unable to take to the roads.
Millions of Christmas gifts ordered online are also piling up in warehouses. In Wales, several hospitals have found themselves short-staffed because doctors and nurses cannot get into work.
The only good news was that, while temperatures were not expected to improve, the snow was expected to ease, with airport operators hopeful they could begin to return to normal services today.
A spokesman for the Met Office said yesterday afternoon that the persistent snow should gradually clear out of south-eastern England overnight but that showers will start to affect north-east England, eastern Scotland and Cornwall.
"On Sunday," he added, "there is a risk of persistent sleet and snow affecting the far south and frequent snow showers in eastern Scotland and northeastern England. Elsewhere, it will be very cold, but mainly dry and bright."
dsapsted@thenational.ae
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
The%20specs
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Day 4, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage appeared to have been hard done by when he had his dismissal of Sami Aslam chalked off for a no-ball. Replays suggested he had not overstepped. No matter. Two balls later, the exact same combination – Gamage the bowler and Kusal Mendis at second slip – combined again to send Aslam back.
Stat of the day Haris Sohail took three wickets for one run in the only over he bowled, to end the Sri Lanka second innings in a hurry. That was as many as he had managed in total in his 10-year, 58-match first-class career to date. It was also the first time a bowler had taken three wickets having bowled just one over in an innings in Tests.
The verdict Just 119 more and with five wickets remaining seems like a perfectly attainable target for Pakistan. Factor in the fact the pitch is worn, is turning prodigiously, and that Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers have also been finding the strip to their liking, it is apparent the task is still a tough one. Still, though, thanks to Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, it is possible.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Naga
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Greatest Royal Rumble match listing
50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
WWE World Heavyweight ChampionshipAJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Casket match The Undertaker v Rusev
Singles match John Cena v Triple H
Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v Kalisto
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
The 100 Best Novels in Translation
Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
RESULTS: 2018 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING - EUROPE
Albania 0 Italy 1
Finland 2 Turkey 2
Macedonia 4 Liechtenstein
Iceland 2 Kosovo 0
Israel 0 Spain 1
Moldova 0 Austria 1
Serbia 1 Georgia 0
Ukraine 0 Croatia 2
Wales 0 Ireland 1
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
