Unwary travellers returning from the EU risk having their sandwiches and local delicacies, such as cheese, confiscated as they enter the UK.

The luggage in which they are carrying their goodies may also be seized and destroyed – and if Border Force catch them trying to smuggle meat or dairy products without a declaration, they could face criminal charges.

The new jeopardy has come about because last weekend, the government quietly “extended” its “ban on personal meat imports to protect farmers from foot and mouth”.

This may or may not be bureaucratic over-reaction.

It’s certainly just another of the barriers EU and UK authorities are busily throwing up between each other and their citizens – at a time when political leaders keep saying the two sides should be drawing together in the face of Donald Trump’s attacks on European trade and security.

The ban on bringing back “cattle, sheep, goat, and pig meat, as well as dairy products, from EU countries into Great Britain for personal use” is meant “to protect the health of British livestock, the security of farmers, and the UK’s food security.”

There are bitter memories of previous outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in this country, in 1967 and 2001.

In 2001, there were more than 2,000 confirmed cases of infection resulting in six million sheep and cattle being destroyed. Footpaths were closed across the nation and the general election had to be delayed.

In the EU this year, there have been five cases confirmed in Slovakia and four in Hungary. There was a single outbreak in Germany in January, though Defra, the UK agriculture department, says that’s “no longer significant”.

The UK imposed bans on personal meat and dairy imports from those countries, and Austria, earlier this year.

Better safe than sorry?

None of the cases of infection are in the three most popular countries for UK visitors – Spain, France, and Italy – now joining the ban. Places from which travellers are most likely to bring back a bit of cheese, salami, or chorizo.

Could the government be putting on a show to farmers that it’s on their side at the price of the public’s inconvenience, when its own measures on inheritance tax and failure to match lost EU subsidies are really doing the farming community harm?

Many will say it’s better to be safe than sorry, but the question remains whether the ban is proportionate or even well targeted on likely sources of infection.

Read more: The products you can’t bring into Britain from the EU

A ‘Brexit benefit’? Don’t be fooled

The EU has already introduced emergency measures to contain the disease where it has been found. Several thousand cattle in Hungary and Slovenia have been vaccinated or destroyed.

The UK’s ability to impose the ban is not “a benefit of Brexit”. Member nations including the UK were perfectly able to ban the movement of animals and animal products during the “mad cow disease” outbreak in the 1990s, much to the annoyance of the British government of the day.

Since leaving the EU, England, Scotland and Wales are no longer under EU veterinary regulation.

Northern Ireland still is because of its open border with the Republic. The latest ban does not cover people coming into Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man.

Rather than introducing further red tape of its own, the British government is supposed to be seeking closer “alignment” with the EU on animal and vegetable trade – SPS or “sanitary and phytosanitary” measures, in the jargon.

UK can’t shake ties to EU

The reasons for this are obvious and potentially make or break for food producers in this country.

The EU is the recipient of 67% of UK agri-food exports, even though this has declined by more than 5% since Brexit.

The introduction of full, cumbersome, SPS checks has been delayed five times but are due to come in this October. The government estimates the cost to the industry will be £330m, food producers say it will be more like £2bn.

With Brexit, the UK became a “third country” to the EU, just like the US or China or any other nation. The UK’s ties to the European bloc, however, are much greater.

Half of the UK’s imports come from the EU and 41% of its exports go there. The US is the UK’s single largest national trading partner, but still only accounts for around 17% of trade, in or out.

The difference in the statistics for travellers are even starker – 77% of trips abroad from the UK, for business, leisure or personal reasons, are to EU countries. That is 66.7 million visits a year, compared to 4.5 million or 5% to the US.

And that was in 2023, before Donald Trump and JD Vance’s hostile words and actions put foreign visitors off.

More bureaucratic botheration

Meanwhile, the UK and the EU are making travel between them more bothersome for their citizens and businesses.

This October, the EU’s much-delayed EES or Entry Exit System is due to come into force. Every foreigner will be required to provide biometric information – including fingerprints and scans – every time they enter or leave the Schengen area.

From October next year, visitors from countries including the UK will have to be authorised in advance by ETIAS, the European Travel and Authorisation System. Applications will cost seven euros and will be valid for three years.

Since the beginning of this month, European visitors to the UK have been subject to similar reciprocal measures. They must apply for an ETA, an Electronic Travel Authorisation. This lasts for two years or until a passport expires and costs £16.

The days of freedom of movement for people, goods, and services between the UK and its neighbours are long gone.

The British economy has lost out and British citizens and businesses suffer from greater bureaucratic botheration.

Nor has immigration into the UK gone down since leaving the EU. The numbers have actually gone up, with people from Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan and Nigeria, more than compensating for EU citizens who used to come and go.

Will European reset pay off?

The government is talking loudly about the possible benefits of a trade “deal” with Trump’s America.

Meanwhile, minister Nick Thomas Symonds and the civil servant Mike Ellam are engaged in low-profile negotiations with Europe – which could be of far greater economic and social significance.

The public will have to wait to see what progress is being made at least until the first-ever EU-UK summit, due to take place on 19 May this year.

Hard-pressed British food producers and travellers – not to mention young people shut out of educational opportunities in Europe – can only hope that Sir Keir Starmer considers their interests as positively as he does sucking up to the Trump administration.

As people take a break for the Easter holiday, in the Gaza Strip there is no respite from the 18-month-long war with Israel.

Gaza has a tiny Christian community of Greek Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Evangelicals, and Anglicans.

For Ramez al-Souri, the pain is unimaginable. His three children were killed by an Israeli airstrike, on an annex of Gaza’s Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church.

Palestinian health officials say the attack on 19 October 2023 killed 18 people inside the building.

“My home has changed completely because there are no smiles, no laughter, no joy,” Mr Al-Souri says.

“I lost my flower – my daughter Julie – and my boys Suhail and Majd. They were salt of the Earth.”

Shrouded in darkness

Julia was 12 years old, Suhial 14 and Majd 11.

It is a loss that never leaves Mr Al-Souri, and one shared by almost every family in Gaza.

Walking through the cemetery, he gently places a small bouquet of flowers on his children’s grave. Gunfire crackles in the distance. The neighbourhood is full of rubble and destruction.

“This Easter is no different than the last,” Mr Al-Souri says.

“We are tending to our wounds.

“We continue to hope for an end to this war and suffering, for the darkness over Gaza to finally lift.”

Read more:
How two hours of terror unfolded

No end in sight

But there is no sign of light for more than two million people trapped inside Gaza.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a special address to the nation on Saturday night and vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel has “no choice” but to keep fighting “for our very own existence until victory.”

Israel is calling for Hamas to disarm and to release 10 Israeli hostages in exchange for a 45-day ceasefire.

There are 59 hostages still inside Gaza. It is believed 24 of them are still alive.

Hamas has rejected the proposal. It argues Israel reneged on the first ceasefire deal by refusing to move to phase two of the agreement and withdraw Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.

A disaster on the ground

Since the ceasefire collapsed on 2 March, Israel’s bombing campaign has intensified.

Palestinian health officials say more than 1,700 people have been killed in the last month, and more than 90 people in the last 24 hours.

The humanitarian situation is a disaster. At the few remaining soup kitchens in Gaza, children scramble for food. They carry pots for their family and push forward trying to secure a bowl of lentils or rice.

Israel has blocked aid trucks from entering for the last seven weeks. It says it is to put pressure on Hamas.

But the pressure is being felt by civilians, creating what aid groups say is the most severe crisis Gaza has ever faced.

Israel has cut off vital supplies of food and medicine, but insists it is not using starvation as a weapon of war. It rejects any suggestion Gaza does not have enough food and accuses Hamas of stealing it.

‘We’re craving food’

Seven members of the Al-Asheh family are displaced and live in a tent in Deir al-Balah.

Twelve-year-old Ahmed says before the war he didn’t like lentils, now it is all he eats.

“Before the war, we used to have fruits, chicken, vegetables, everything was available. We were never hungry,” Ahmed explains.

“Now, we’re craving food, chicken – anything. The only thing we can eat now is what the soup kitchen provides.”

It is clear that ceasefire talks are going nowhere, and Israel has tightened its blockade and deepened its war.

More than 400,000 Palestinians have recently been displaced yet again as Israel has expanded a buffer zone inside Gaza, levelling houses to create a “security zone”.

For Palestinians, this constitutes a “land grab”.

‘A symbol of the world’s conscience’

Israel has also established another military corridor in southern Gaza, calling it Morag corridor.

The corridor is north of Rafah and has cut Gaza’s second-largest city off from the rest of the territory. Israel says it has now taken control of 30% of the Gaza Strip and insists it will not withdraw.

For Palestinians, the future has never looked more bleak. They are blockaded, displaced, struggling for food, water, basic sanitation and in constant search of safety.

“Gaza is calling on the world to stand by it,” Mr Al-Souri says.

“Gaza stands as a symbol of the world’s moral conscience.”

London-born teenager Carlo Acutis is about to become the first millennial saint, almost 20 years after his death.

The teenager, whose Italian family moved to Milan months after his birth in 1991, dedicated his short life to Catholicism, and died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15.

Having passed all the posthumous trials necessary for sainthood, he will be canonised on 27 April in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

But what does it take to become a saint and how did Carlo achieve it?

Here’s everything you need to know.

What does it mean to be a saint?

All Christians are called to be saints, but only a select few throughout history have been officially recognised as one.

A saint is defined in Catholicism as people in heaven who lived heroically virtuous lives, offered their life for others, or were martyred for the faith, and who are worthy of imitation.

How do you become a saint – and how did Carlo do it?

There are four steps on the path to becoming a saint:

Stage 1 – Servant of God

A postulator – essentially a cheerleader advocating for the candidate – gathers testimony and documentation and presents the case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

This process usually begins at least five years after the death of the person in question.

Carlo was dedicated to the church throughout his short life, receiving first communion at the age of seven and regularly attending daily Mass, praying the rosary and participating in eucharistic adoration.

But it was through mixing his faith with technology that Carlo had the most impact, informally becoming known as “God’s influencer” as he used his computer skills to spread the Catholic faith.

He started publishing newsletters for his local churches, taking care of his parish website and later of a Vatican-based academy.

He became particularly interested in something called Eucharistic miracles.

These are events deemed miracles which take place around the Eucharist, which is the traditional name the Christian church gives to the re-enactment of the Last Supper.

It’s the moment when the faithful are given a small piece of bread and a sip of wine, called the Holy Communion. They believe that, through the consumption of the bread and wine, Jesus Christ enters those who take part.

Carlo started logging miracles on a website, which eventually went viral and has since been translated into many of the world’s most widely spoken languages.

Stage 2 – Venerable

If worthy, the case is forwarded to the Pope, who signs a decree confirming the candidate’s “heroic virtues”. The person is now called “venerable”.

Carlo was named venerable in 2018 after the church recognised his virtuous life, and his body was taken to a shrine in Assisi’s Santuario della Spogliazione, a major site linked to St Francis’ life.

Stage 3 – Beatification

You become beatified – the declaration by the Pope that a dead person is in a state of bliss – when a miracle in your name is identified and formally declared a miracle by the Pope.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but that saints who are believed to be with God in heaven intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.

Typically, miracles are the medically inexplicable healing of a person.

The Pope tends to accept it as such when witnesses “verify” someone was healed after prayer and doctors/clergy conclude that it had no medical explanation, was instant and lasting.

If verified, the candidate is beatified and becomes “blessed”.

Carlo’s first supposed miracle was the healing of a boy called Mattheus Vianna, who was born in 2009 in Brazil with a serious birth defect that left him unable to keep food in his stomach.

As a young boy, he was forced to live on vitamins and protein shakes but regularly vomited after meals and was unable to put on weight.

Mattheus, according to his priest, touched one of Carlo’s relics in church and said “stop vomiting” – an act which is said to have cured him.

In February 2014, his family ordered further tests and he was found to be fully cured, the priest said.

In 2019, the claimed miracle was acknowledged by the Vatican and confirmed by Pope Francis a few months later, paving the way for Carlo to become beatified in 2020.

Stage 4 – Sainthood

A second miracle is required in order to reach sainthood.

If verified, the candidate can be canonised and made a saint. A formal canonisation ceremony at the Vatican follows.

The second miracle in Carlo’s name was the reported healing of a Costa Rican girl studying in Italy who suffered a major head trauma.

Her mother said she prayed at Carlo’s tomb after the incident, invoking his spirit and leading to her daughter’s full recovery.

Pope Francis attributed the second miracle to Carlo after a meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making department, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, in May 2024.

Sainthood is rare – but not as much as it used to be

It isn’t known exactly how many sainthoods have been handed out in the Catholic church’s history, though estimates tend to sit at around 10,000.

For hundreds of years, they were selected through public acclaim, until Pope John XV led the first canonisation in the year 993, making Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg a saint.

Canonisation has been more common in recent years, though, with the late Pope John Paul II, who was the Pope from 1978 until his death in 2005, declaring 482 saints during his tenure – more than all of his predecessors.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

That record was overtaken just two months into Pope Francis’ tenure, as he canonised more than 800 15th-century martyrs, the so-called “Martyrs of Otranto,” who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam.

Since then, the Pope has gone on to grant a number of other high-profile sainthoods, including his predecessors Pope John Paul II and John XXIII, married couple Louis and Zelie Martin, who lived in France during the 19th century, and Mother Teresa.

He’ll take to St Peter’s Square on 27 April at 9.30am UK time – in conjunction with the celebration of the Holy Year’s jubilee for teens – and canonise the first ever millennial saint.