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Isolation is not always splendid. Five years ago this week I awoke in the Heathrow Novotel, one of the strip of hotels north of the runways. I had checked in for the final night before this unremarkable property became a quarantine hotel – complete with security guards to ensure none of the guests made a break for it. I checked out on 15 February shortly before the first involuntary inmates from “red list” nations arrived. They paid £1,750 for an all-inclusive package: 10 nights’ accommodation, three meals a day and two Covid tests.

For almost the rest of that miserable pandemic year, travellers arriving from countries regarded as high risk were incarcerated. The system unravelled shortly before Christmas 2021. “I’ve had nine walk out on me so far,” a guard at the Gatwick Sofitel told me in mid-December. “They face a £10,000 fine but the police aren’t interested.” MPs on the Transport Select Committee later found “no evidence” that hotel quarantine provided the slightest benefit compared with self-isolation at home. What a difference five years makes. Yesterday Accor, parent company of Novotel, reported that revenue per available room – RevPAR, the key metric in the hotel industry – rose 4.2 per cent to €76 (£66). People seem much happier when they are free to travel where they wish.

Anticipation is a much more positive emotion than hindsight. I look forward to testing out the new visa-free access to China on a trip to Chengdu in the west of the People’s Republic next month – and hope the key local attraction, officially known as Siguniangshan Scenic Spot, is easier to enjoy than it is to pronounce.

The decision by Beijing to open up to British (and Canadian) passport holders will be transformative. Now that the barricade of red tape has been dismantled, organised cultural tours will continue in much the same way – but China will see a surge in backpackers, keen to explore a low-cost country that until this week was too tricky and expensive to consider. No hidden extras, either: on my last trip to the Chinese resort city of Qingdao, the Sea View Garden Hotel instructed guests: “Your satisfaction is the greatest praise to us, please don’t give tips to our staff.” I recall no sign like that along Isolation Row at Heathrow.

As China eases its rules for British visitors, the red tape for travellers to the UK is getting ever more tangled. From next Wednesday, 25 February, the electronic travel authorisation will be mandatory for all travellers arriving in the United Kingdom except for British and Irish citizens. For UK dual nationals who only have a passport issued by another country, this presents a problem. They are not allowed to apply for an ETA.

Up to now, the government has insisted that only a valid British passport or a “Certificate of Entitlement” costing £589 will allow a dual citizen to be admitted. The change has caused consternation for many people who happen to have UK citizenship but whose lives – and passports – are located elsewhere. They are scrabbling to acquire the required documentation. But this morning it has emerged that airlines can accept a valid foreign passport plus a UK passport that was issued anything up to 37 years ago in lieu of a current British passport.

I advise all travellers to observe all border regulations at all times. But I suspect that some of the 1.2 million UK dual nationals estimated to be resident abroad will still travel on ETAs, even though they are not supposed to apply for them. They will bet that airlines and ferry firms – the organisations with the hapless task of enforcing the new rules – will be content with proof that the passenger possesses a valid passport and apparently legitimate ETA. In a time-pressured pre-departure environment, if the computer says “yes” when presented with the traveller’s foreign passport, the transport operators will not diligently go on to investigate whether that person has British citizenship by birth or descent.

I cannot envisage any passenger being told: “You can’t enter the UK because you are British.” A few transgressors may be identified on arrival when a UK Border Force officer chooses to examine their passport. But most people who decide to infringe the rules will probably get away with it by whizzing through the eGates.

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Saracens were relegated from the Premiership at the end of the 2019–20 season following persistent salary cap breaches, bringing more adversity for Itoje to contend with.

Having won three Champions Cups and four Premiership titles by the age of 25, his decision to remain loyal and help the club return to the top of English rugby could have affected his England career.

He was named in reports as one of the players whose business ventures with Saracens owner Nigel Wray fell foul of rules restricting spending on players – something he was not aware of.

He remained a regular for England in 2020–21, while also playing a key role in Saracens’ victories over Ealing Trailfinders to secure promotion from the Championship.

Despite playing considerably less rugby, Itoje was selected again for the Lions in 2021 and impressed, being named the team’s player of the series in a 2–1 defeat in South Africa. The risk had paid off.

In 2023, an underlying health issue during the Six Nations led to some below-par performances from Itoje.

“I had something structurally wrong and I didn’t know it was structurally wrong until I was quite deep into it,” he said.

“To be able to persevere through that period and finally get a fix for that was great.”

As he had four years earlier, Itoje rediscovered his form to help England finish third at the 2023 World Cup.

“I have had a silver and bronze medal, I am desperate for a gold and I think we are capable of achieving that,” he said.

“It is a dream to play in a World Cup and win one.”

Thai police went undercover in a traditional lion costume in order to get close enough to a serial burglar to pounce on them and arrest them.

Footage released by the Bangkok police department shows officers dressed in a red-and-gold lion costume dancing towards the suspect as he walked through a Lunar New Year fair on Wednesday.

The officer wearing the lion’s papier-mache head then leaps at the suspect and quickly pins him to the ground at the temple in Nonthaburi, a province covering part of the Bangkok conurbation.

Police said the suspect, a 33-year-old man, is accused of breaking into the home of a local police commander in Bangkok three times earlier this month.

He is suspected of making off with valuables worth around 2 million baht (£47,700).

Police said they had attempted to arrest the man several times, but he had spotted the officers sent after him and run off.

They later identified him by tracing stolen amulets he had sold and learned he frequently visited temples in Nonthaburi.

Lion dancers are often part of the Lunar New Year, and the custom allowed the officers to go undercover for the operation.

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Police said the suspect confessed to the burglaries, saying he stole to buy drugs and gamble.

The force said he had previously been convicted of drug-related offences and burglary.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia could have some form of uranium enrichment within the kingdom under a proposed nuclear deal with the United States, congressional documents and an arms control group suggest, raising proliferation concerns as an atomic standoff between Iran and America continues.

U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden both tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology. Nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive crown prince has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

Already, Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact last year after Israel launched an attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials. Pakistan’s defense minister then said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed, something seen as a warning for Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state.

“Nuclear cooperation can be a positive mechanism for upholding nonproliferation norms and increasing transparency, but the devil is in the details,” wrote Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association.

The documents raise “concerns that the Trump administration has not carefully considered the proliferation risks posed by its proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia or the precedent this agreement may set.”

Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to questions Friday from The Associated Press

Congressional report outlines possible deal

The congressional document, also seen by the AP, shows the Trump administration aims to reach 20 nuclear business deals with nations around the world, including Saudi Arabia. The deal with Saudi Arabia could be worth billions of dollars, it adds.

The document contends that reaching a deal with the kingdom “will advance the national security interests of the United States, breaking with the failed policies of inaction and indecision that our competitors have capitalized on to disadvantage American industry and diminish the United States standing globally in this critical sector.” China, France, Russia and South Korea are among the leading nations that sell nuclear power plant technology abroad.

The draft deal would see America and Saudi Arabia enter safeguard deals with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. That would include oversight of the “most proliferation-sensitive areas of potential nuclear cooperation,” it added. It listed enrichment, fuel fabrication and reprocessing as potential areas.

The IAEA, based in Vienna, did not immediately respond to questions. Saudi Arabia is a member state to the IAEA, which promotes peaceful nuclear work but also inspects nations to ensure they don’t have clandestine atomic weapons programs.

“This suggests that once the bilateral safeguards agreement is in place, it will open the door for Saudi Arabia to acquire uranium enrichment technology or capabilities — possibly even from the United States,” Davenport wrote. “Even with restrictions and limits, it seems likely that Saudi Arabia will have a path to some type of uranium enrichment or access to knowledge about enrichment.”

Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fueled the concerns of the West over Iran’s program.

The United Arab Emirates, a neighbor to Saudi Arabia, signed what is referred to as a “123 agreement” with the U.S. to build its Barakah nuclear power plant with South Korean assistance. But the UAE did so without seeking enrichment, something nonproliferation experts have held up as the “gold standard” for nations wanting atomic power.

Saudi-US proposal comes amid Iran tensions

The push for a Saudi-U.S. deal comes as Trump threatens military action against Iran if it doesn’t reach a deal over its nuclear program. The Trump military push follows nationwide protests in Iran that saw its theocratic government launch a bloody crackdown on dissent that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands more reportedly detained.

In Iran’s case, it long has insisted its nuclear enrichment program is peaceful. However, the West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003. Tehran also had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — making it the only country in the world to do so without a weapons program.

Iranian diplomats long have pointed to 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments as a binding fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran won’t build an atomic bomb. However, Iranian officials increasingly have made the threat they could seek the bomb as tensions have risen with the U.S.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler, has said if Iran obtains the bomb, “we will have to get one.”

___

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Emergency services were called to the A183 Chester Road in Houghton-le-Spring at around 7.15pm on February 13, after a crash at the junction with Weymouth Drive.

It is understood that a CBR 900 black and yellow motorcycle was travelling on the A183 away from Washington Highway, when for reasons yet to be established, left the carriageway and crashed into the roundabout.

The rider of the motorcycle, a man aged in his 50s, sustained serious injuries.

He was taken to hospital where he remains in a critical but stable condition.

A spokesperson from Northumbria Police said: “We’re looking to speak to anyone who may have information to help us understand the moments leading up to the collision -especially any CCTV or dashcam footage.

“If you have any information, send us a DM on Facebook or use the live chat or ‘report’ form function on our website.”

The reality TV show following Sue and Noel Radford will not air on Sunday at 8pm as snooker player’s championship takes its place, returning the following week

22 Kids and Counting has been removed from the television schedule and will not be aired on Sunday at 8pm. Instead, the reality TV programme, which follows Sue and Noel Radford, will be substituted by the snooker.

22 Kids and Counting is back with a new series and broadcasts every Sunday at 8pm. Last Sunday’s episode saw heartbreak for Millie Radford and Harley Passmore, who had to raise £2,000 to prevent their cherished puppy from being put down.

However, this Sunday, episode four will not be aired as the snooker player’s championship will take its place and will be broadcast between 6.30pm and 9pm. It will then be followed by Rich House Poor House.

The synopsis for the snooker reads, “Katie Shanahan presents coverage of the second session of the final on day six from Telford International Centre, where the first player to reach 10 frames will be crowned champion.

“Last year’s final went right to the wire, with Kyren Wilson eventually prevailing 10-9 against Judd Trump. It was the third time that season Wilson had beaten Trump in a ranking final, following his victories at the Xi’an Grand Prix and the Northern Ireland Open, but he was not present to defend his title this time around, as he failed to reach the required top 16 ranking by the cut-off point,” reports the Mirror.

“The week’s commentary and analysis team includes Stephen Hendry, Alan McManus, John Higgins and Matthew Stevens.”

The Radford family will return the following Sunday, which focuses on Noel and Sue’s son Max, who is taking his GCSEs.

The 16-year-old has one lifelong ambition: to work on large-scale engineering projects, planes, submarines, ships, and even rockets.

The synopsis for the episode teases, “But before Max can reach for the stars, he must overcome a formidable obstacle: his GCSEs. And there is one subject standing squarely in his way. Max is autistic.

“His mind excels at logic, maths and physics, yet expressive subjects like English are almost impossible for him to grasp. Fail English, and his dream collapses before it even begins.”

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Elsewhere in the episode, Ellie and her boyfriend Steven are nearing their first anniversary. However, things aren’t as they appear, as the cracks are beginning to surface in their relationship.

The synopsis continues, “Steven is rarely at home, and Ellie often has no idea where he is. Their interests no longer seem to align, coming to a head when Ellie plans an adrenaline-fuelled weekend in the Lake District, complete with a bungee jump – an idea that leaves Steven breaking out in a cold sweat.”

22 Kids and Counting is available to watch on My5.

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Jeremy Schwartz, 63, had a detailed dream he suddenly died of a heart attack while climbing a mountain in Nepal and immediately booked an appointment with a cardiologist

A man who dreamt he died from a heart attack discovered he had a life-threatening condition requiring urgent surgery. Jeremy Schwartz, 63, experienced a vivid dream in which he suddenly died of a heart attack while climbing Ama Dablam – a 6,812m peak he was planning to tackle in October 2025.

Waking at 3am from the disturbing dream, Jeremy immediately searched online for a consultant cardiologist and secured an appointment within two days. Following a heart scan, blood tests, an MRI, a CT scan and an echocardiogram – a non-invasive ultrasound procedure – Jeremy was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm on September 26, 2025 – a serious condition where the aorta weakens and bulges, potentially leading to rupture.

He was referred to Mr Cesare Quarto, a consultant cardiac surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic London, and successfully underwent the David procedure – open-heart surgery that replaces a diseased aortic root.

Jeremy, a business executive and motivational speaker from Oxted, Surrey, said: “I am not a tarot card reader or a spiritualist and I’m not religious. I’ve never had anything like a premonition before. But this dream was so strong and so clear that it left me with an overwhelming sense of importance and urgency.

“I had an image of me dying of a heart attack on a mountain. It was so vivid, clear and memorable, I went online to research consultant cardiologists that I could see immediately.”

After booking a trip to scale Ama Dablam in Nepal, Jeremy had a dream in which he died of a heart attack whilst climbing the mountain. He immediately got in touch with a consultant cardiologist, who arranged an appointment just a few days later.

Jeremy said: “I had multiple heart scans, a full blood test, an MRI, a CT scan and an echocardiogram. The consultant told me that based on the results, I had an aortic aneurysm and I needed to cancel everything I had planned. He called a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic who agreed and said I needed an operation.”

Jeremy described his diagnosis as a “complete shock”. Earlier in 2025, he had cycled the 1,000-mile length of Italy and completed a solo, 120-mile circumnavigation of a mountain range in Albania.

“I think my subconscious helped make sure I became aware of something that might otherwise have remained hidden,” Jeremy said.

On November 11, 2025, Jeremy underwent open-heart surgery to replace his diseased aortic root and aneurysm, whilst preserving his own aortic valve. The six-hour procedure was carried out without complications, and the team at the Cleveland Clinic had Jeremy on his feet almost immediately after the operation.

Mr Cesare Quarto, MD, PhD, who carried out Jeremy’s surgery, said: “I strongly believe some patients have an internal alarm bell that starts ringing. Some are able to hear it and some aren’t. It is not the first time I have heard a similar story.”

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Reflecting on events, Jeremy reckons several factors might have triggered the gut feeling he experienced before his planned climbing expedition. Roughly a year beforehand, while away on a work trip, he’d recorded a blood pressure reading that was higher than usual.

On top of that, a mate from his local cycling club had died suddenly from a heart attack while out riding. And afterwards, he discovered that on the exact day he was meant to climb Ama Dablam, another climber on the mountain had collapsed and died from a heart attack.

“One of the challenges for men is we often delay taking important medical action,” Jeremy said. “A lot of these conditions are preventable or treatable if you catch them early. That’s why I went into my surgery with all guns blazing. Let’s get this thing done.”

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Just eight days later, Jeremy was discharged and continued recovering at home, and has recently begun intensive cardiac rehabilitation. Jeremy is now drawing on his experience to encourage others to get checked, and has arranged a heart health screening day in partnership with his local NHS GP surgery and The Cleveland Clinic on April 25, 2025.

Jeremy said: “If something feels wrong, it’s not clever or manly to pretend it isn’t. Don’t wait, don’t rationalise, don’t tough it out. Get it checked out. It’s how you get to keep living the life you love.”

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I truly hate to break it to you, but all this rainy weather we’ve been having? It’s not going anywhere any time soon.

We might be past the midpoint of winter, but this damp, cold weather just isn’t letting up. According to data from the University of Reading Atmospheric Observatory, January 2026 was the fourth-wettest in nigh on 120 years.

It might not be ideal, but there are plenty of ways you can style out this chilly rain, starting with levelling up your cosy layers.

With that in mind, here’s a selection of some of the best, chicest buys on the high street at the moment.

Dredging work has been taking place over the past few days, more recently in Moss Bank Park, where a large yellow digger was heaving bucketfuls of silt out of the pond and onto the nearby field.

Previous dredging work took place last year at the Queens Park pond, which had also been filling with silt.

Moss Bank Park dredging (Image: Henry Lisowski)

A Bolton Council spokesperson said: “The council is cleaning the pond to improve its overall condition and to enhance habitat quality and biodiversity.

“We have already removed a significant amount of silt and general waste from the area.

“Similar improvements were made to the pond in Queen’s Park last year.”

After being removed from the pond, the silt was poured into a mobile skip and taken away to be dumped into a section of Moss Bank Park.

The dredging work took place in an effort to remove silt from the pond, not due to the presence of foreign objects such as shopping trolleys or bikes.

Moss Bank Park dredging (Image: Henry Lisowski)

The dredging was required as the pond had almost been filled almost to the waterline with silt.

However, some residents on Facebook were concerned over the possible impact the dredging may have on Bolton’s wildlife.

Fears have been raised that dredging is taking place during frogspawn season, which usually occurs between January and March, according to the Woodland Trust.

By March, frogspawn is usually visible in ponds.

Moss Bank Park dredging (Image: Henry Lisowski)

One person posted: “Right in frog spawn season – beggars belief what I’m seeing here.

“Should have waited till later – it’s hard enough for nature and we just make it impossible by destroying the habitat.”

Jess Megan starred in Channel 4‘s Bring Back The Bush in 2020.

The star of a groundbreaking Channel 4 programme has shared her grief for the first time, four years after boyfriend died. Model and activist Jess Megan starred in Bring Back The Bush in 2020.

Jess took to social media for the first time yesterday to share what she has been through after losing partner Olli.

She said: “What I want people to know, is that there is a way out. Whatever your situation is. However you’ve been hurt (Grief isn’t exclusive to death).

“But that way out is not linear. It’s a gruelling obstacle course while everyone else seems to be on a low-level hike. Not everyone who loves you will understand it, some might even leave you.”

Jess’ partner, Olli, went to bed and never woke four years ago. She posted 12 video clips from the year he died on social media on Thursday, February 19 where she highlighted her emotions at the time.

In a clip from January, Jess’s boyfriend was still alive. She was taking part in the viral “See You Again” trend inspired by Miley Cyrus. In February, he was still alive, but by the time of the March clip, he had passed away.

That clip showed Jess with a bloodied nose and she admitted that she had been sleeping on his grave every night. In both the April and May clips, she was seen crying. In June, she revealed that she hadn’t left her house for months.

The next month, she revealed in the clip that she wasn’t speaking to anyone and confessed she couldn’t stop drinking. In August, she said she was “out of her mind,” and in September, she was smoking 40 cigarettes a day.

Jess was hospitalised after suffering a heart attack in October and she was reportedly unrecognisable in November when she said that cortisol had “blown everything up.” In the December clip, Jess admitted she “couldn’t do another year of this.”

In the caption of the social media post, Jess penned: “Grief is manic and ungracious. I’d never felt so insane. For the first time ever my mind felt like a locked box, with me on the outside. I didn’t know what was going on in my head and I couldn’t control it.

“I couldn’t do half-measured responses. I was walking to the shop bare-footed in a bathrobe and telling anyone who would listen that my boyfriend was dead. Then I would drink a box of wine and smoke thirty cigarettes until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”

She went on to say that grief made her “feral” and she “didn’t sleep”, because sleep was the only place she “got to see him, experience sweet relief, only to wake up and find out he was gone all over again”.

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