Tag: united kingdom

Britain’s Kursk Invasion Backfires

British Challenger 2 tanks reached Ukraine with enormous fanfare, ahead of Kiev’s long-delayed, ultimately catastrophic 2023 “counteroffensive”. On top of encouraging other proxy war sponsors to provide Ukraine with armoured fighting vehicles, Western audiences were widely told the tank – hitherto marketed to international buyers as “indestructible” – made Kiev’s ultimate victory a fait accompli. As it was, Challenger 2 tanks deployed to Robotnye in September were almost instantly incinerated by Russian fire, then very quietly withdrawn from combat altogether.

Hence, many online commentators were surprised when footage of the Challenger 2 in action in Kursk began to circulate widely on August 13th. Furthermore, numerous mainstream outlets dramatically drew attention to the tank’s deployment. Several were explicitly briefed by British military sources that it marked the first time in history London’s tanks “have been used in combat on Russian territory.” Disquietingly, The Times now reveals this was a deliberate propaganda and lobbying strategy, spearheaded by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

Prior to the Challenger 2’s presence in Kursk breaking, Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey had reportedly “been in talks about how far to go to confirm growing British involvement in the incursion towards Kursk.” Ultimately, they decided “to be more open about Britain’s role in a bid to persuade key allies to do more to help – and convince the public that Britain’s security and economic prosperity is affected by events on the fields of Ukraine.” 

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Great Britain Cracks Down On “Non-Crime Hate” Speech, Including Playground Taunts

In my book, The Indispensable Right, I discuss how free speech is in a free fall in Great Britain, where officials continue to crack down on an ever-widening array of viewpoints. Some of these actions are designated as “non-crime hate” but are still the subject of law enforcement actions. According to the Daily Mail, they now include children who have been pulled in for calling other children schoolyard names like “retard” or saying that other children smell “like fish.”

According to the Daily Mail:

“A nine-year-old child is among the youngsters being probed by police over hate incidents… Officers recorded incidents against the child, who called a fellow primary school pupil a ‘retard’, and against two schoolgirls who said another student smelled ‘like fish.’ The youngsters were among multiple cases of children being recorded as having committed non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), The Times discovered through freedom of information requests to police forces.”

“Non-crime hate” was introduced in 2014 as part of the Hate Crime Operational Guidelines.

It is chilling in its ambiguity and scope. It only requires the perception of either a victim or a third party that a statement is motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender identity.

The HCOG stresses, “The victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief, and police officers or staff should not directly challenge this perception. Evidence of the hostility is not required.”

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Elon Musk Responds As British Government “Summons” Him To ‘Disinformation’ Hearing

X owner Elon Musk has fired back at the news that British MPs will “summon” him to their parliament to address allegations of spreading ‘disinformation’.

GB News reports that “An inquiry in the House of Commons is meaning to investigate the rise of ‘harmful’ AI content online by calling tech heavyweights to probe the ‘spread of content that can mislead and harm.’”

The report adds that “Labour’s select committee chairwoman, MP Chi Onwurah has called on the Tesla and SpaceX owner to explain his alleged ‘promotion of pure disinformation.’”

Musk responded in typical fashion on X, writing that British MPs “will be summoned to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens.’”

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UK Regulators Decide Pregnant Women Don’t Need COVID Vaccines

The United Kingdom’s (U.K.) vaccine advisory committee won’t recommend that pregnant women take the COVID-19 vaccine in 2025-2026, according to a rapid response letter published today in The BMJ.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) made the decision during its Oct. 2 meeting, citing the low risk of serious COVID-19 illness in pregnant women and infants and the vaccine’s cost. The committee did not address safety concerns about the vaccines for pregnant women and their infants.

The committee’s new recommendation — which must be ratified at the next meeting — followed presentations by researchers on COVID-19 epidemiology and cost-effectiveness.

The researchers presented evidence showing that COVID-19 posed a very low risk to pregnant women and their infants and that the vaccines provided minimal benefit.

They concluded that COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women becomes cost-effective only if the cost of procuring and administering the vaccines could be kept between 10.07 and 13.19 pounds ($12.74-$16.69) per shot. They considered it “very unlikely” that this would be feasible.

The only way to increase the price at which vaccines were considered cost-effective would be if they could show the vaccine averted neonatal deaths from COVID-19 or posed a greater threat to infants. There is no existing data to support this, they said.

Doctors in the U.K. told The Defender they don’t understand why the JCVI hasn’t told them or pregnant women why the committee is waiting until next year to stop recommending the COVID-19 shots to all pregnant women.

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UK Arms Exports Find Loopholes in Israeli Embargo

Britain has continued exporting components for use by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) because of gaps in the government’s restrictions on arms sales, it can be revealed.

At least two shipments of parts for IAF planes have been dispatched from Britain since September, when Labour suspended some arms export licences due to human rights concerns.

The information is contained within cargo documents reviewed by The Ditch and Declassified.

The documents show how items were dispatched by U.K.-based engineering firm Martin-Baker to an Elbit Systems factory in Karmiel, Israel, in October.

Martin-Baker specialises in ejection seats, which are found in military planes across the West, including in the cockpit of the IAF’s T-6 training fleet.

These aircraft are maintained by Elbit – Israel’s largest arms firm – under a $38m contract.

The revelation shows how British arms exports are continuing to support the IAF — a key player in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza — because Labour has not implemented a complete embargo.

Emily Apple, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade, told Declassified: 

“The current arms suspension is a farce. This government is making up the rules as it goes, making a mockery of international law and prioritising the profits of arms dealers over Palestinian lives.

“There can be no excuses and no exceptions. The U.K. must impose an immediate, full, two-way arms embargo”.

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UK government to fund geoengineering experiments to cool the Earth

ARIA, the UK’s answer to ARPA, is an innovation lab that was the brainchild of Dominic Cummings, the former No. 10 adviser to Boris Johnson. Armed with £800 million, it is tasked with pursuing scientific research to unlock “breakthroughs at the edge of the possible.”

According to The Telegraph, ARIA is “a nondescript office tucked in a corner of the British Library” with big ambitions with projects that include engineering the climate, replacing physical labour with robots and merging human brains with computers to turn us into cyborgs.  It was established by an Act of Parliament in 2022 and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”).  The Advanced Research and Invention Agency Act 2022 exempts the agency from coming under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act.

ARIA said it was pursuing geoengineering research because “even under the most aggressive scenarios” of cutting greenhouse gasses, it may not be possible to reduce those emissions fast enough to prevent dangerous increases in global temperatures.

Without conducting physical tests of those strategies, the agency said, “there is no prospect of being able to make proper judgments” about whether any type of geoengineering is “feasible, scalable, and controllable.”

The agency, which is publicly funded but has a degree of independence from the British government, is soliciting proposals to be submitted before 9 December from researchers around the world and expects to announce the recipients in the first half of next year.

“This programme,” ARIA’s website states, “will explore whether approaches designed to delay, or avert, climate tipping points could be feasible scalable, and safe.”

As you can see for yourself in the video below presented by Programme Director Mark Symes, they are completely immersed in the climate change crisis scam, or at least completely dedicated to propagating the false narrative surrounding it.

Symes is an electrochemist, with a 15-year career developing sustainable fuels in the drive towards “net zero.”

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Leaks expose secret British military cell plotting to ‘keep Ukraine fighting’

Leaked files show top UK military figures conspired to carry out the Kerch bridge bombing, covertly train “Gladio”-style stay-behind forces in Ukraine, and groom the British public for a drop in living standards caused by the proxy war against Russia.

Emails and internal documents reviewed by The Grayzone reveal details of a cabal of British military and intelligence veterans which plotted to escalate and prolong the Ukraine proxy war “at all costs.” Convened under the direction of the British Ministry of Defense in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the cell referred to itself as Project Alchemy. As British leadership sabotaged peace talks between Kiev and Moscow, the cell put forward an array of plans “to keep Ukraine fighting” by imposing “strategic dilemmas, costs and frictions upon Russia.”

The leaks obtained by The Grayzone expose a hidden hand behind Britain’s policy in Ukraine, showing in unusually granular detail how it aimed to engineer a long, grinding war through covert operations that stretched the bounds of legality.

Project Alchemy’s proposed schemes spanned every conceivable field of warfare, from cyber attacks to “discreet operations” to outright terrorism. The secret cell even put forward a plan to “aggressively pursue” and “dismantle” independent media outlets – including The Grayzone – through an aggressive campaign of legal harassment and online censorship, so they “would be forced to close.” The incendiary blueprints were fed to the highest levels of the British state and national security structure, where they were apparently well-received.

Founded by a senior British Ministry of Defence official, Project Alchemy is composed of veteran military and intelligence operatives united by a desire for all-out war between the West and Russia. Some have trained Ukrainian forces in clandestine sabotage tactics. 

Members of the national security cabal tacitly acknowledged that their proposed operations stretched the bounds of British law. Thus they suggested that London should be “prepared to creatively use the law” to meet its goals, and even be willing to erase “legal restrictions on UK deniable ops” against Russia. 

Some of Project Alchemy’s most extreme recommendations have already been implemented, often with calamitous results. These include the cell’s proposal to strike Crimea’s Kerch Bridge, which prompted a Russian escalation that saw punishing attacks on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure. Alchemy also envisioned the construction of a secret, Gladio-style army of Ukrainian partisan fighters to carry out assassination, sabotage, and terror missions behind enemy lines. 

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Trans men and lesbians would get IVF priority two years ahead of heterosexual couples under NHS plan – as campaigners slam proposals as ‘grossly discriminatory’

Family campaigners have criticised as ‘grossly discriminatory’ plans to give trans men and lesbians access to NHS-funded IVF two years ahead of heterosexual couples.

Under the controversial proposals, trans men – those born as women who now identify as men – will be automatically assumed to be unable to conceive, as will lesbians and single women.

This means they will be immediately eligible for IVF on the NHS – costing an estimated £5,000 a cycle – if they meet the other criteria, such as a body mass index between 19 and 30, not smoking, being under 43 and not having a partner with a child from a previous relationship. 

Heterosexual couples, meanwhile, will still have to prove they can’t have a baby naturally within two years.

The proposed changes will cover a vast swathe of England including Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.

The plans, explained in a document called ‘The Case For Change’, are out for an eight-week public consultation ending in January, meaning the new policy could come into force next year. 

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Geology is racist as it is ‘linked to white supremacy’ claims Queen Mary University of London professor

A geography professor at a leading British university has described the study of rocks and the natural world as racist and linked the academic field to ‘white supremacy’.

Kathryn Yusoff, who lectures at the prestigious Queen Mary University of London, said that the geology as a subject was ‘riven by systematic racism’ and influenced heavily by colonialism.

The study of prehistoric life through fossils was also branded as an enabler for racism, with the professor referring to the field of palaeontology as ‘pale-ontology’.

Arguing that geology began as a ‘colonial practice’, Professor Yusoff stated in her book ‘Geologic Life’ that the extraction of metals such as gold and iron had created hierarchies, pushed materialism, ravaged environments and was the route cause of climate change.

Claiming that ‘geology continues to function within a white supremacist praxis’, the academic referenced the theft of land, mining and other geological practices as having led to the creation of white supremacy and a resulting ‘geotrauma’.

Professor Yusoff’s new book focuses on geology between the 17th and 19th centuries and puts forward the notion that non-white people have a closer relationship to land than white people.

‘Broadly, black, brown, and indigenous subjects… have an intimacy with the earth that is unknown to the structural position of whiteness,’ she wrote. 

Ms Yusoff is described as a professor of ‘inhuman geography’ on the official Queen Mary University website.

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Section 12 means British police are treating their own officers as terrorists now

A police officer has been arrested by counter-terrorism police in Gloucester over social media posts regarding Israel and Palestine. It’s no longer just journalists and social media users that police are targeting, it’s their own officers now.

The officer is suspected of “supporting Hamas” in breach of Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Police have explained they’re going through the officer’s devices for analysis and say we should not jump to conclusions.

This is fair enough, and given the details are sparse, I’m not going to discuss the ongoing investigation, or the officer’s potential guilt or innocence. I am, however, going to discuss how police have handled similar cases in which they appear to have overstepped the mark because there are concerns to be addressed. Those concerns involve whether the law is being followed in this and similar investigations.

Police recently visited the home of journalist Asa Winstanley and took his devices for analysis, even though he was not under arrest. It seems they wanted to look through his devices to find the excuse to arrest a journalist.

If police were correctly applying the law in this instance, this would tell us that our laws are authoritarian. If they were not correctly applying the law, this would tell us they are acting in an authoritarian manner. Either way, we would be witnessing a form of authoritarianism. It is therefore reasonable to ask in each case if police are correctly applying the law. We need clarity because we have the impression our rights are under attack. This is obviously unacceptable in a so-called free society.

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