Tag: united kingdom

UK to send another $2.93B to Ukraine using stolen Russian assets

The interest payments are starting to come in from all those frozen Russian assets the European Union (EU) is holding hostage. And the United Kingdom plans to spend its interest windfall on Ukraine.

According to reports, Great Britain is planning to send another $2.93 billion to the Zelensky regime, bumping the total G7 spending spree on Kyiv so far up to $50 billion.

Defence Secretary John Healey said the extra billions will help Ukraine bolster its frontline military equipment, describing the cash transfer in terms of “turning the proceeds of Putin’s own corrupt regime against him by putting it into the hands of Ukraine.”

The goal is to release the money as quickly as possible so there are no hitches, said Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Zelensky will receive the money in the form of a “loan” that the UK will recoup the cost of via sanctions on Russian assets – “within the correct legal framework,” officials claim.

To try to avoid controversy, Reeves added the caveat that the UK is not confiscating sovereign Russian assets in Europe but rather using the profits and interest accrued from them to keep the Ukrainian war machine running.

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Who Perpetrated the 2014 Ukraine ‘Maidan Coup’ That Started Ukraine’s War?

On 22 October 2024, the BBC headlined “The ex-British army chief on why peace with Russia is not possible,” and at 5:00 in the podcast he said “We’ve been there [in Ukraine] since 2014, we’ve had a presence in Ukraine, we’ve been working with them, and trying to build up their capability,” and then he immediately skipped forward to 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. He didn’t say from what precise date in 2014 was — was it before, or instead only after, the 20 February 2014 coup — that the UK’s Army was “working with them, and trying to build up their capability,” to use those weapons so as to bring down the democratically elected President of Ukraine, but he went on to say that The West unfortunately “frittered away” “that wonderful unipolar moment” [the UK/U.S Governments’ control over the entire world] into “serious competition with the great powers — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — this Axis [he was saying that this is the modern equivalent of WW2’s “Axis” or fascist-imperialist powers], and I think the world is as dangerous as I’ve known it, in some respects more dangerous than the Cold War, because The System, you know, The International Order, which kind-of kept us safe, that is a period of extraordinary peace and prosperity, has ended … and we’ve now got these great powers, this Axis of powers, trying to overturn The World Order, and I don’t think that peace with Russia is possible.” He is saying that unless and until The West will conquer Russia, there wil be war between The West and Russia. “Russia sees itself in existential conflict with The West. Putin’s aims are … take over Ukraine, dominate its near east, including parts of Eastern Europe, and dismantle the Euro-Atlantic security order that we enjoy. And so, this isn’t a crisis, this is a campaign … and it will go on for decades. … And this is why Ukraine is so important, because if you allow Russia to prevail in Ukraine, if you follow the path we’re on at the moment, which is leading inexorably to a Russian victory … then The International Order is unfrayed, so things like sovereignty, territorial integrity, don’t matter, war wins, you begin to see the dismantling of The European Order — these are institutions that have been tested by this conflict, and on a practical level, you end up with a bitter and angry Ukraine, a quarter of the world’s grain supplies being held by Russia, all of its [Ukraine’s] extraordinary military capability and technology — Ukraine is the most heavily armed country in Europe now — falling to Russia, … we should be really clear that the cost of failure is far greater than the price it would take in order to make sure that Ukraine prevails. … This is about OUR security, but by keeping Ukraine in the fight, you can get to a point where you achieve a mutually [blurred syllable] stalemate. … And we need to give Ukraine the ability to strike deep into Russia [bomb The Kremlin].” He wants World War Three, which the UK’s Prime Minister and Denmark’s Prime Minister likewise want.

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“Black Ops” – How a US-UK Censorship Group Targeted RFK Jr. To Stifle Dissent

Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, now X, and doing that amid the unprecedented censorship carried out on all major US social networks – and carried out uniformly and successfully up until that point – seems to have really ruffled some feathers, and continues to do so to this day.

More insight into how events were unfolding has been provided by investigative journalists Paul D. Thacker and Matt Taibbi, earlier this week.

At the center of this is – the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a UK-based group that at this point has a long record of accusations it worked to put out in order to stifle free speech on platforms, including in the US, a notable one being the fabrication about “The Disinformation Dozen.”

The documents Thacker and Taibbi worked with now came from CCDH whistleblowers, insiders who had access to and provided minutes from the group’s meetings, from the beginning of 2024 until early October.

The Children’s Health Defense (CHD), a Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-affiliated US non-profit, spoke with Thacker, to learn that information from CCDH insiders revealed the group was planning to launch “black ops”-style efforts against not only Kennedy, but also X (“Kill Musk’s Twitter”), and beyond, to other platforms, like Substack, where the deplatforming targets would have been Covid vaccine skeptics Dr. Joseph Mercola and Alex Berenson.

“Black ops” is a pretty heavy term to use – it involves secret campaigns that the government, military, and similar, launch to then deny any involvement.

But, the term shows up in CCDH’s own minutes, this one from early January mentioning Robert Kennedy Jr. to state, “RFK — black ops being set up to look at RFK. Nervousness about the impact of him on the election. We (CCDH) may be asked to comment, particularly from antivaxx.”

Not for nothing, Kennedy was one of the “Disinformation Dozen” in the past maligned by the CCDH.

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Kamala’s Secret Weapon: The British Operatives Determined to “Kill” Elon Musk’s Free Speech Platform X

Amid the chaos of pre-election America, major information has surfaced, revealing internal documents from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). This UK-based group, which was founded by British political strategist Morgan McSweeney under the name Brixton Endeavours Limited before being renamed to the Center for Countering Digital Hate in 2019, outlined a clear goal in their agenda: “Kill Musk’s Twitter.” The documents make it clear that the CCDH is targeting Elon Musk’s social media platform with full force. McSweeney, who helped guide Keir Starmer to victory in the UK, is now involved in US politics, advising Kamala Harris as she navigates the upcoming election, raising serious questions about the CCDH’s reach and motives.

Now, if you’re wondering why a think tank founded by a man who helped turn Keir Starmer into the British Prime Minister is so dead set on smashing up a social media platform thousands of miles across the pond, you’re not alone. But the CCDH isn’t just any ragtag team of keyboard warriors. These guys are plugged into Washington power circles like an iPhone into a dodgy charger, with ties so tight to the Biden-Harris campaign, that they might as well be writing the tweets. And with McSweeney now advising Kamala Harris, well, let’s just say the plot thickens.

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WWII British submarine, missing for 81 years with 64 crew members, discovered off Greek coast

A British World War II submarine, HMS Trooper, which vanished during a secret mission in 1943, has been discovered off the coast of Greece, solving an 81-year mystery.

The submarine, lost with all 64 crew members, including Australian volunteer Lt. John Stuart Ryder, was found at a depth of 830 feet (252 meters) in the Ikarian Sea between Ikaria and Kos islands. The wreck, discovered by the Greek deep-sea research company Planet Blue, is broken into three sections—the bow, middle, and stern—indicating a violent sinking caused by a German mine.

HMS Trooper was on a secret mission to patrol between Donoussa islet and Ikaria after British intelligence warned of a potential German landing on the island of Leros. It failed to return to the port of Beirut on October 17, 1943, and was declared lost, with the crew presumed dead. Subsequent searches, beginning in 2000, spanned 14 missions, none of which yielded results until the recent discovery by Kostas Thoctarides and his team from Planet Blue.

Thoctarides, speaking to Live Science and Greek news agency ANA-MPA, explained that his team located the wreck on October 3, 2024, after using shipboard sonar to create a detailed map of the seafloor, followed by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to inspect the wreckage. Thoctarides noted the wreck had been missed in earlier searches because previous expeditions focused too far east. He also emphasized the challenging nature of the Ikarian Sea, known for its harsh weather conditions, strong winds, and powerful underwater currents.

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UK Police Raid Home, Seize Devices Of Another Journalist For Reporting On Gaza Genocide

British counterterrorism police on Thursday raided the home and seized several electronic devices belonging to The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley.

Approximately 10 officers arrived at Winstanley’s North London home before 6 am and served the journalist with warrants and other papers authorizing them to search his house and vehicle for devices and documents.

A letter addressed to Winstanley from the “Counter Terrorism Command” of the Metropolitan Police Service indicates that the authorities are “aware of your profession” as a journalist but that “notwithstanding, police are investigating possible offenses” under sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act (2006). These provisions set out the purported offense of “encouragement of terrorism.”

An officer conducting Thursday’s raid informed Winstanley that the investigation was connected with the journalist’s social media posts. Attempts to reach the Metropolitan Police Service for comment for this story have been unsuccessful.

Although his devices were seized, Winstanley was not arrested and has not been charged with any offense.

Winstanley is active on several social media platforms, and has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter/X, where he frequently shares articles, other peoples’ opinions and his own comments on Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, British government support for these crimes, and the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide.

The vaguely worded provisions relating to “encouragement of terrorism” would clearly violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech, however the United Kingdom lacks similar constitutional protections for freedom of expression.

The draconian legislation “curtails a range of freedoms,” according to University of Edinburgh law professor Andrew Cornford, including “the freedoms to discuss controversial topics openly, and to share moral, political and religious opinions.”

Human Rights Watch has called on the British government to repeal the repressive provisions of the Terrorism Act (2006), noting that “the definition of the encouragement of terrorism offense is overly broad, raising serious concerns about undue infringement on free speech.”

In August, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service issued a warning to the British public to “think before you post” and threatening that it would prosecute anyone it deemed guilty of what it calls “online violence.”

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“This Is Illegal”: British Labour Party Sending Staff To Campaign For Kamala In Swing States

The Head of Operations of the leftist British Labour Party, which is now in government after 14 years of being the opposition, declared in a LinkedIn post that she is organising a party of 100 staff members to be sent to swing states in the US to campaign for Kamala Harris, prompting charges of election interference.

Sofia Patel proudly announced her plan, advertising that she has 10 spots left with free accommodation for any rabid British TDS sufferers who want to stick their nose into the US election.

Patel has since deleted the post as it became apparent exactly what was going on here.

X owner Elon Musk chimed in to note that the Patel’s proposed plan is simply illegal.

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British Man Convicted of Criminal Charges for Praying Silently Near Abortion Clinic

In Britain, it can be a crime to think the wrong thoughts in the wrong place. It sounds absurd—not to mention Orwellian—but a handful of people have been arrested or charged in the country simply for praying silently near abortion clinics. 

This month, a British man was convicted of criminal charges for praying silently near an abortion clinic. The man, Adam Smith-Connor did not attempt to harass, intimidate, or interact in any way with those entering the clinic. Instead, he wordlessly prayed with his head bowed slightly. He wasn’t even on clinic property—he was outside the sightline of the clinic itself, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a religious freedom group.

As a result, Smith-Connor was questioned by police and later charged with violating a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), a broad censorship order enabled by the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. Under this law, local authorities can obtain special status for some public places, allowing them to ban a huge range of conduct. In the name of limiting “anti-social behavior,” British towns have obtained PSPOs to ban the homeless from sleeping outside or to ban swearing.

Several cities have used this law to place “buffer zones” around local abortion clinics. The PSPO in Smith-Connor’s case not only banned “intimidating or harassing” those working at or seeking services from the clinic but also barred individuals from engaging in “prayer,” “[sprinkling] holy water on the ground,” and “[crossing] themselves.”

Smith-Connor violated this order in November 2022. He was convicted, and sentenced earlier this month to a “conditional discharge”—similar to probation—and ordered to pay approximately $11,709 in prosecution fees, according to the ADF.

The court’s reasoning betrayed the absurdly censorious nature of the local law. “In its decision, the court reasoned that his prayer amounted to ‘disapproval of abortion’ because at one point his head was seen slightly bowed and his hands were clasped,” according to the ADF.

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There are an estimated 745,000 illegals in the U.K. – more than any other country in Europe

The United Kingdom has more illegal immigrants than any other European country, with as many as 745,000 people living within British borders without permission.

This is according to a study by academics from the University of Oxford, who found that more than one in 100 people in the U.K. are living in the country illegally – more than double the 300,000 people believed to be living in France illegally and even more than the approximately 700,000 undocumented migrants residing in Germany.

Senior Researcher on Nationhood Guy Dampier of the London-based think tank the Legatum Institute noted that since Britain is an island nation, it should be harder to get there than anywhere else in the continent. Instead, it has achieved the title of “illegal migration capital of Europe” because of, according to Dampier, the country’s  “permissive job market and the failure of the authorities to guard our borders.”

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Open AI Wants to Build Data Centres That Would Consume More Electricity Per Year Than the Whole of the U.K.

Over the past few months, the newswires have been hot with stories about the large-scale data centres that will be required to meet the needs of the forthcoming revolution in Artificial Intelligence (AI). How much electricity will these new data centres consume and what does that mean for the electricity demand forecasts underpinning the plans for Net Zero?

Recent Date Centre Announcements

To give a flavour of the scale of data centre developments that are coming, it is helpful to look at recent announcements from large tech companies. Back in March, it was announced that Amazon had bought a 960MW data centre that is powered by an adjacent nuclear power station. In April, Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Meta that owns Facebook and Instagram said energy requirements may hold back the build out of AI data centres. He also talked about building data centres that would consume 1GW of power.

Last month, Oracle chairman Larry Ellison announced that Oracle was designing a data centre that would consume more than 1GW that would be powered by three small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). Then Microsoft also got in on the act when it announced it had done a deal with U.S. utility Constellation to restart the 835MW Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 1 nuclear power plant to power its data centres. Anxious not to be left out, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google said they too were working on 1GW data centres and saw money being invested in SMRs.

Finally, Sam Altman of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT has trumped them all by pitching the idea of 5GW data centres to the White House. Altman has been heard talking of building five to seven of these leviathans.

Bloomberg, usually a driver of the Net Zero band wagon, has reluctantly admitted that there’s not enough clean energy – nuclear or otherwise – to satisfy AI’s voracious appetite and gas will have to fill the gap. America’s national security and energy security is eclipsing climate concerns.

This admission is important because it acknowledges that such important infrastructure cannot rely upon the vicissitudes of the weather. These data centres need a source of electricity that is reliable and always available. It would be absurd to think that a ChatGPT user will want to receive a message saying their request cannot be processed because it is not windy enough.

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