They were laughing at us. They didn't only lock us down. They didn't only suspend virtually every one of our civil liberties, including a right none of us ever expected to lose: the right to leave our own homes. They didn't only spy on us with drones, and encourage us to snitch on that neighbour going for a sneaky second jog, and fine teenagers life-ruining sums of money for holding house parties. They also chuckled about it. It was funny to them. In one of the most startling WhatsApp chats revealed in the Daily Telegraph's Lockdown Files, a senior civil servant says the following about Brits returning from trips abroad who were forced to quarantine in a stuffy hotel room for 10 days: 'Hilarious.'

It was Simon Case, the UK's top mandarin. In February 2021 he had a breezy virtual chat with Matt Hancock, the then health secretary. A policy had just been introduced stipulating that any Briton returning from a 'red list' country - which eventually included 50 states around the world, including India and vast swathes of Africa - would have to quarantine in a hotel at a cost of £1,750 per person, later rising to £2,285. A total of 200,000 British citizens and residents endured this painful, expensive quarantine. To Hancock and his civil-service pals it was all a big laugh. 'I just want to see some of the faces of people coming out of first class and into a premier inn shoe box', chortled Mr Case. He later asked Hancock: 'Any idea how many people we locked up in hotels yesterday?' Locked up in hotels. Hancock replied that 149 people 'are now in Quarantine Hotels due to their own free will!'. 'Hilarious', said Case.

Hilarious? Tell that to the people whose lives were ruined by this policy. The idea that it was just reckless rich folk jetting off to exotic destinations that were on the 'red list' is ridiculous, as academic Aleksandra Jolkina has explained. Consider the NHS worker who travelled to Ethiopia to visit his dying uncle and look after his sick mother. While he was there Ethiopia was added to the 'red list', meaning he could not return to the UK; he couldn't afford to. Or the Briton who travelled to Pakistan to visit his terminally ill father. He was forced to raid the family savings to pay the return quarantine fee. As a result, his 'family's ability to survive financially' was put 'at risk'. Or think about the many Brits who did not go abroad, to one of those supposedly toxic countries, because they didn't have the funds for that stay in a 'premier inn shoe box'. People who, as Jolkina describes it, could not 'visit their ill relatives or wish them a final farewell'. Hilarious, right?

A homeless grandmother in Ireland has been sentenced to 16 weeks behind bars for entering a hotel housing Ukrainian refugees and shouting that they were "rapists and criminals." The woman had sought accommodation, but was told no rooms were available.

Margaret Buttimer appeared before a district court in Bandon, County Cork on Thursday, where police told the judge that they were called to a disturbance at a hotel in the town in late January.

They found Buttimer shouting in the reception area, recalling that "she wanted to know how many Ukrainian nationals were staying in this hotel, what was the cost to the Irish people, and saying 'these Ukrainians are rapists and criminals'," according to a report by the Irish Times.

Police said that she refused to desist and leave the hotel, and they had "no option" but to arrest her.

Matt Hancock wanted to "deploy" a new Covid variant to "frighten the pants off" the public and ensure they complied with lockdown, leaked messages seen by The Telegraph have revealed.

The Lockdown Files - more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between ministers, officials and others - show how the Government used scare tactics to force compliance and push through lockdowns.

In another message Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, said that "the fear/ guilt factor" was "vital" in "ramping up the messaging" during the third national lockdown in Jan 2021.

The previous month, Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, appeared to suggest in one message that a new strain of Covid that had recently emerged would be helpful in preparing the ground for the looming lockdown, by scaring people into compliance.

In a WhatsApp conversation on Dec 13, obtained by The Telegraph, Damon Poole - one of Mr Hancock's media advisers - informed his boss that Tory MPs were "furious already about the prospect" of stricter Covid measures and suggested "we can roll pitch with the new strain".

The comment suggested that they believed the strain could be helpful in preparing the ground for a future lockdown and tougher restrictions in the run-up to Christmas 2020.

Russia's investigative committee has launched a murder investigation after a top scientist was found dead in his Moscow apartment yesterday.

Andrey Botikov, known as one of the 18 scientists who worked on the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in 2020, was identified as the man who had been strangled to death with a belt in northwest Moscow.

It was previously reported he had survived the encounter after an intruder broke into his home and started rowing with him over money.

But a 29-year-old man has since been arrested and charged with the murder of the scientist.

The Investigative Committee of Russia said they found the suspect in 'the shortest possible time' after he tried to flee the scene.

They claim he confessed to the crime during an interrogation.

There have been more public protests against plans to build accommodation for refugees and migrants in northeastern Germany. Far right extremists joined a demonstration of around 500 people on Monday.

Police sources say that about 500 people gathered on Monday (February 27) to protest the building of an accommodation center for refugees in the city of Greifswald. Among the protestors were about 20 participants from Germany's far-right scene, according to police.

About 30 people were reported to have gathered for a counter-demonstration at the site.

A fire broke out after an explosion at a coke gas works in the city of Vidnoye near Moscow, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry's Moscow region department told TASS on Sunday.

"An explosion in a coke gas works' shop in Vidnoye. A pump tower with benzol is on fire. A 20-meter high flame," he said.

According to a TASS source in emergencies services, the entire building of 200 square meters is consumed by the fire.

A MASSIVE fire that set off five alarms has been reported at a building in the Bronx.

The city-block-wide flames have seemingly engulfed a large portion of the structures near 2096 Grand Concourse in New York City.

The FDNY is already at the scene, according to a recent post on Twitter.

"FDNY members are currently operating at a 3-alarm fire at 2096 Grand Concourse in the Bronx," they wrote.

While Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman continues to be hospitalized for clinical depression, he has been named as a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill launched in the wake of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

S.576, "A bill to enhance safety requirements for trains transporting hazardous materials, and for other purposes," was introduced to the Senate on Wednesday by Sen. Sherrod Brown. Listed as co-sponsors of the bill are Sens. John Fetterman, JD Vance, Robert Casey Jr., Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley.

Yet on February 15, the freshman congressman checked himself into Walter Reed medical center in Washington, DC to "receive treatment for clinical depression." He has not yet emerged, and his wife and family have left the US for Canada as rumors swirl about his condition.

"On Monday, John was evaluated by Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. Yesterday, Dr. Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis," a statement at the time read.

On February 20, it was revealed that Fetterman would be hospitalized for a length of time as doctors try out medications and dosages and the senator undergoes talk therapy. A senior aide revealed that Fetterman would be hospitalized for up to two months.

On Friday's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Russell Brand called out MSNBC commentator John Heilemann for "throwing rocks at Fox News" while his network participates in "propagandist nut-crackery" and gave examples after Heilemann refused to acknowledge his liberal bias, leaving the pundit unable to articulate a comeback except repeating "nonresponsive... nonresponsive."

"It's disingenuous to claim that the biases they've exhibited on Fox News are any different from the biases exhibited on MSNBC," Brand said. "It's difficult to suggest that these corporations operate as anything other than mouthpieces for their affiliate owners in Black Rock and Vanguard."

"We have to take responsibility for our own perspective," Brand said, and later added, "I've been on that MSNBC, mate. It was propagandist nut-crackery." In 2013, Brand appeared on Morning Joe on a day when Joe Scarborough was absent. As Brand wrote on his website, Mika Brzezinski and the co-hosts only talked about the "shrill, white noise of dumb current affairs."

College Park, Maryland, Mayor Patrick Wojahn resigned Wednesday, a day before he was arrested and charged with 56 counts of child pornography. His charges included 40 counts of possession of child exploitative material and 16 counts of distribution of child exploitative material, according to police.

Prince George's County Police Chief Aziz Malik described the case during a press conference on Thursday as "disturbing."

"In so many ways that people count on public officials, people who are supposed to be honest and trustworthy and have a high degree of integrity, it is troublesome," Malik said.