Tag: united kingdom

UK: Drag Queen Who Was Set To Host Welshpool’s First Pride Parade Arrested During Predator Sting

A drag queen who was set to host a Welsh community’s first-ever gay pride parade has been arrested after being caught in a sting by predator hunters. Andrew James Bryant, also known as Miss Gin, was arrested on July 3.

Bryant’s arrest was first announced by STOP Stings in collaboration with the Lincolnshire-based Guardian Angels, both of which are community predator hunting groups carrying out volunteer child safeguarding activities. Bryant, who also goes by the name Andrew James Way, is alleged to have attempted to groom a decoy posing as a 14-year-old boy.

The sting targeting Bryant was streamed live to Facebook on July 3, with multiple predator hunters confronting the man in a public parking lot.

“I’ve got in my possession a chat log that is disgusting. It is very, very consistent with somebody who is a very proficient groomer, and is grooming somebody who he believes to be a 14-year-old boy,” one of the predator hunters says to Bryant, who is casually smoking a cigarette throughout the interaction.

Bryant initially attempts to deny the claims, stating that he believed the decoy account belonged to someone of legal age. But the predator hunter immediately pushes back, advising Bryant he has written proof of the decoy advising Bryant he was underage.

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Discovery of up to 25 Mesolithic pits in Bedfordshire astounds archaeologists

  • A prehistoric site with as many as 25 monumental pits has been discovered in Bedfordshire to the astonishment of archaeologists.

Found in Linmere, they date from the Mesolithic period, 12,000 to 6,000 years ago, a time from which few clues into the lives of our hunter-gatherer ancestors survive.

The pits could offer extraordinary new insights. They are in alignments and clustered around former stream channels, suggesting a spiritual significance.

Such is the scale of this site that it has more such pits in a single area than anywhere else in England and Wales, including Stonehenge. Radiocarbon dating revealed they are from 7,700 to 8,500 years ago.

Archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola), who are conducting the research, said: “This date makes the site incredibly significant because there are very few Mesolithic sites in the UK that are this substantial. Evidence from this period is often slim, only consisting of flint tools and occasional butchered animal remains.”

Tony Blair and The Iraq War: Digging Deeper into the Death of David Kelly

In little more than two weeks, we mark the 20th anniversary of the Welsh scientist and authority on biowarfare, Dr David Kelly. [1]

Listeners to this station will remember a discussion about the man in March 2023, the anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Our past guest, Dr David Halpin outlined some of the reasons he, Dr Stephen Frost, and a list of determined skeptics doubted the official story of his passage due to suicide and were mobilizing in support of not just public hearings, but a public inquest to get to the bottom of his death, which they suspected was a murder which benefited the government of the UK, and Prime Minister Tony Blair in particular. [2]

The oft repeated assertion among many such skeptics, including Liberal-Democrat MP Norman Baker, was the claim that weapons of mass destruction was a key to a motive behind his elimination. Iraq supposedly still had WMDs. They could be launched at the insistence of Big Bad Saddam to cause tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of people in some innocent country – maybe even America! But David Kelly, acclaimed and high profile weapons instructor that he was, publicly challenged this claim. Hence, ripping away the fundamental reason for going to war with Iraq.

However, there may be another motive that could potentially lead to an even darker agenda. Dr. Kelly was the head of biological defence at the Government’s secretive military research establishment  in Wiltshire, England. He was the brain behind much of the West’s germ warfare programmes. . [3]

If Dr. Kelly was knowledgeable of anything untoward, and was willing to blab to the public, might that also be a reason for doing him in? After all, soon after the suspicious releases of anthrax letters post 9/11, followed an astonishing level of deaths of top scientists in the field of microbiology. Was Kelly a target? Or unfinished business? [4]

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UK drivers warned they risk £5,000 fine if they are wearing sunglasses

Drivers caught wearing sunglasses can be slapped with large fines of up to £5,000 according to the Highway Code.

Despite sunglasses helping to prevent the sun from blinding drivers, the Highway Code enforces that drivers should stop or slow down when affected by sunshine.

Experts warn that while many believe sunglasses heighten road safety, they may in fact be a risk due to the blinding glare by low light and reflections from puddles or oncoming traffic.

People caught wearing tinted lenses and visors that restrict visibility could be slapped with penalties ranging from points on their licence, unlimited fines and potentially disqualifications.

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Meal deals: Unhealthy options will be restricted in Wales

Meal deals with a high fat, sugar or salt content will be restricted in Wales under plans to tackle obesity and diabetes.

Temporary price drops and multi-buy offers on the unhealthiest foods will also be banned in the proposals put forward by the Welsh government.

But retailers have raised concerns about the timing of the announcement as food prices remain high.

The legislation will be introduced next year and rolled out by 2025.

A number of retailers offer lunch deals which combine a sandwich, drink and a snack for a set price.

Restrictions will be placed on certain combinations that have a high fat, sugar or salt content above the recommended daily amount.

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UK Home Secretary Uses Idea of Keeping Children Safe as a Justification To Demand Ban on Private Messaging

It would be extremely refreshing to hear a government official in the UK, or in a number of other countries, make a, “think of the encryption” plea – which would show they understand the very fundamentals of a safe and privacy-preserving internet.

But instead, we are getting more and more “think of the children” platitudes – as always, designed not to actually do that, but mask other, controversial and unpopular policies.

This time, it is UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman who claims that her opposition to Facebook’s slow-moving, alleged attempt to make a number of its products safe via implementing end-to-end encryption has to do with fears that children might get abused online.

Any tech-literate person would present the big picture, and argue quite the opposite, but Braverman is either not one of those, or elects to pretend not to be, in order to serve a policy that is staunchly anti-encryption, for a whole different reason – summed up, that technology stands severely annoyingly, no doubt, in the way of governments’ wholesale mass surveillance of everybody on the internet.

And what better place to twist the narrative about fears of awful things like child grooming and sexual abuse – perversely juxtaposed with actually improving internet security, i.e., encryption – than a get-together of the (in)famous “Five Eyes,” held in one eager member – New Zealand.

Braverman made an effort to write to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and, ignoring the reality of what an internet without encryption would turn into, tried, no doubt, above all to pull at her constituents’ heartstrings:

“As a mother to young children,” the politician stomped her feet, “I won’t stand by idly and watch this happen,” The Daily Mail reported.

“This” would be – platforms like Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct introducing secure communications, so that third parties – be they criminals, malign (foreign) actors, or (sometimes (effectively malign) domestic law enforcement – cannot just swoop in and use personal information in any way they please, including to directly harm those participating, children included, by gaining unfettered access to all their data.

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Schools Are Now Allowing Children To Identify As Cats, Horses, Dinosaurs…

I seriously should have thought of this when I was a kid.  If I could have answered every question a teacher asked by meowing like a cat or roaring like a dinosaur, there is no way they could have ever accused me of getting an answer wrong.  And when it was time for a quiz or a test, I could have just responded to every question with a paw print.  Of course nobody would have actually been able to get away with such a thing decades ago.  When I was a kid, anyone that tried to pull this kind of a stunt would have been immediately marched down to the principal’s office.  But now we live at a time when we are supposed to allow people to identify as anything that they want.

Things have gotten particularly absurd in the United Kingdom.  According to an investigation that was conducted by the Telegraph, schools in the UK are now allowing children to identify as all sorts of things…

At a state secondary school in Wales, one student is said to ‘meow’ when asked questions by a teacher, rather than answering in English, the Telegraph reports.

In other schools, one apparently insists on being addressed as a dinosaur, one claims to identify as a horse while another is said to wear a cape and demands to be acknowledged as a moon.

In the old days, teachers knew how to deal with this kind of nonsense.

But today they are instructed not to correct the children because that would be “discriminatory”…

Pupils claim teachers are ‘not allowed to get annoyed’ about such behaviour in case it is seen as being discriminatory.

However, lessons are reportedly becoming completely derailed by these interactions, impacting the quality of their classmates’ education.

So these teachers in the UK literally have to sit there and make the best of it when students respond to their questions with “animal noises”…

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Police are ‘assessing’ video of Laurence Fox burning ‘LGBTQ+’ bunting in his garden while actor says he ‘hopes officers pay me a visit’ following Father’s Day stunt

The Met Police are assessing the video of Laurence Fox burning LGBTQ+ bunting in his back garden.

Fox, who is preparing to compete for Boris Johnson‘s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, used a lighter at his home to set the display on fire on Father’s Day.

An outraged Twitter user claimed to have reported the video to police as a ‘hate crime‘, which Fox has slammed as being ‘arbitrary nonsense’.

The actor-turned-political activist added: ‘Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reporting me.’

Fox had previously said the flag in his video – which is the Progress Pride version created in 2018 – ‘is nothing to do with the original Pride flag which was to represent hard-fought-for gay and lesbian rights, which everybody would support.’

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The astonishing story of the last British woman jailed for witchcraft – just 80 years ago

It’s November 25 1941, and off the Egyptian coast, HMS Barham explodes after a U-boat torpedo strike. Jets of steam, smoke and iron fragments are thrown into the sky; the ship sinks within minutes; over 800 Navy men are killed almost simultaneously. All news of the sinking is censored. Yet, in Barham’s home port, Portsmouth, the sailors’ families soon hear rumours; and visitors to the séances of Helen Duncan, a spiritualist medium, apparently witness a miracle. Helen – known as Nellie – speaks with the ghost of a Barham sailor, and reveals the ship’s loss. She makes it public long before the official announcement of the sinking.

How did Duncan know Barham had sunk? Or was her revelation just a guess, a fraud in which she charged the bereaved to listen to nothing better than gossip? In 1944, prosecutors would judge her magical knowledge to be fake, and the Barham story would be told at the end of her trial for defrauding her customers. Even so, however, instead of facing straightforward allegations of deception and theft, Duncan had been charged under the 1735 Witchcraft Act. The British public was gripped by a modern witch-trial, shocked that a 200-year-old law had been revived. In what way, people asked, could Nellie Duncan be a witch?

Duncan had flirted with the supernatural her whole life. She was born in Callander, near Stirling, in 1897, and as a child claimed the magical ability called “second sight”. On becoming an unmarried mother at 17, she was disowned by her parents, and found dusty, dangerous work in a jute mill. More hopefully, in 1916 she married a cabinetmaker, Henry Duncan – but, trapped by poverty and overwork, the couple fell chronically ill. Soon they had eight children – contraception was considered sinful – and a mountain of debt. 

Nellie Duncan took in washing as well as labouring in a bleaching plant, and in spite of all their troubles, she claimed joyful contact with God and the afterlife. As she fell into apparent trances, ghostly spirits would speak through her lips. She and Henry set up a darkened séance room where white gloop – “ectoplasm” – appeared before paying visitors, flowing out of Nellie’s mouth and nose to manifest spirits’ bodies. It looked awfully like muslin cloth, but her customers loved it.

In 1930, Duncan went to Edinburgh and London for appointments with psychic investigators. They tested her mediumship, strip-searching, photographing and X-raying her. Some observers confirmed her claims, although celebrity investigator Harry Price accused her of regurgitating muslin to fake materialisations. Nonetheless, her efforts paid off. Being accepted by the London Spiritualists’ Alliance meant the opportunity to go on séance tours of Britain, bringing fame and wealth.

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RUSSIAN NEO-NAZI FIGHTING PUTIN TAUGHT AT FAR-RIGHT CAMP IN UK

The leader of an anti-Putin militia has disturbing links to an extreme-right wing movement banned in Britain, Declassified has found.

Denis Kapustin, who also uses the names Denis Nikitin and ‘White Rex’, was an instructor at a far-right camp in Wales in 2014.

His presence was noted by a Sunday Mirror investigation that year.

More recently, the White Rex has been in the news for leading the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK).

They are a group of armed dissidents launching raids into Russia from their base in Ukraine since March.

At least two civilians and a child have been killed in their attacks so far, with another 13 wounded.

While the RDK’s far-right ideology was belatedly noted in media reports, the fact its leader spent time teaching neo-Nazis in Britain has so far been forgotten.

He taught at the Sigurd Culture Camp in the Brecon Beacons in August 2014, which was designed to “enthuse them with a sense of racial pride, and to awaken the ‘Spirit Warrior’ within”.

Camp organiser Craig Fraser wanted to recreate Hitler’s SS by drilling his men into shape – and even planned to show footage from ISIS training in Syria at the next session.

The Sunday Mirror said a “key trainer at the event…was Denis Nitikin [sic], the owner and organiser of White Rex, a Russian martial arts and cage fighting club.”

Yesterday immigration minister Robert Jenrick refused to tell parliament what information the Home Office holds on Kapustin’s visit to the UK in 2014 or whether he had since been banned from entering the country, claiming not to comment on individual cases.

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