Author: Darren Smith

The Daily Wire, the conservative media company co-founded by Ben Shapiro, has confirmed significant layoffs across multiple teams as third-party analytics data point to a dramatic collapse in the outlet’s digital reach and financial position. The restructuring, announced on 1 May 2026, was confirmed to The Wrap by a company spokesperson, who said cuts were “largely concentrated” at its Nashville production office. No official headcount figures were provided, though independent industry tracker layoffhedge.com estimated approximately 100 roles were eliminated, representing roughly half of the remaining workforce. The announcement drew an immediate public dispute. Candace Owens, who was herself fired from…

A video showing a man in Hull calmly asking two young men to leave a poppy-adorned war memorial has gone viral, dividing opinion between those who praised his measured stand for respect and those who questioned the assumptions behind the approach. The clip shows the man walking up to the memorial — inscribed with dedications and decorated with red poppy wreaths of the kind placed during Remembrance commemorations — where two young men are seated on the steps. His tone throughout is civil and unhurried. “Excuse me lads, would you mind sitting somewhere else?” he says. “It’s our war memorial,…

A Reform UK candidate standing for two Essex council seats next week has been exposed for posting a series of deeply racist messages online, including referring to white people as the “master race,” making pseudoscientific claims linking race to brain size and calling for a “purge” of what he termed “third world invaders.” Stuart Prior, 54, a property director, is contesting seats on both Essex County Council and Rochford District Council in the 7 May elections. A joint investigation by the Daily Mirror and HOPE not Hate identified posts from a now-deleted X account under his name, dating from late…

An easyJet flight from Gatwick to Antalya was forced to divert to Kosovo after a drunken woman began spitting at a fellow passenger and a man threatened to kill anyone who complained about their behaviour, in an incident that has brought calls for a blanket ban on disruptive flyers across all UK airlines a step closer. The chaos erupted on the Airbus A320 after a woman was seen drinking directly from a bottle of vodka during the flight, according to passengers who spoke to The Sun. A man — who was not travelling with her but began flirting after the…

Boris Johnson has sparked a fierce backlash by welcoming declining birth rates as “the best bit of global news in a long time,” arguing that a smaller global population will ease pressure on the planet — and dismissing concerns about workforce shortages as problems that artificial intelligence can solve. Writing in the Daily Mail, the former Prime Minister made a characteristically contrarian case against what he called “doom-mongering” about falling fertility, framing the global baby bust not as a crisis to be managed but as a welcome correction after decades of rapid population growth. Since his own birth, Johnson noted,…

Footage showing Ukrainian military recruitment officers wrestling a man to the ground and dragging him into a vehicle outside what appears to be a kindergarten in Lviv has gone viral, offering a stark and deeply uncomfortable window into the human cost of Ukraine’s intensifying mobilisation drive. The video, which began circulating rapidly on X and social media platforms on Thursday, shows uniformed officers from Ukraine’s Territorial Recruitment Centres confronting a man near playground fencing in a residential area of the western Ukrainian city. The man resists, a struggle ensues, and he is physically forced into a black SUV which then…

A group of diners has walked out of a Miller & Carter steakhouse without paying a bill of nearly £540, prompting police to release CCTV footage in an appeal to identify those responsible. The incident took place at the Miller & Carter branch in Kettering, Northamptonshire, on 6 April, when a party spent around two hours at the popular steakhouse between 5pm and 7.10pm before leaving without settling their £539.70 bill, The Sun reports. Northamptonshire Police are now investigating and have urged anyone who recognises the individuals captured on CCTV to contact officers on 101, quoting incident number 26000213409. The…

A self-described activist has sparked fury after laughing off a controversial “white face” parody targeting Erika Kirk — the grieving widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk — while mocking her clothing choices and dismissing her concerns as overblown. Michelle Young, who describes herself as an advocate for the parents of non-binary children, took to X to respond to Kirk’s public complaints about comedian Drew “Druski” Desbordes, who has repeatedly appeared in videos wearing white makeup, a blonde wig, a cross necklace and prosthetics in what many have interpreted as a direct parody of the conservative figure. “There’s no…

A British law graduate screamed “I love you” and threw herself against the glass of the execution chamber as her husband was put to death in Texas on Thursday evening, in a case that has raised profound questions about racial bias in the American justice system and the use of rap lyrics as evidence in capital trials. Tiana Krasniqi, 31, from Lewisham in south-east London, had to be helped out of the Huntsville state penitentiary after watching James Broadnax, 37, receive a lethal injection at 6.47pm CDT. She had married him just days earlier in a brief ceremony behind glass…

A cluster of three earthquakes has struck within miles of Area 51, the United States military’s most secretive installation in the Nevada desert, sparking intense speculation online about whether the tremors could be the signature of covert underground nuclear testing. The strongest of the quakes measured 4.4 in magnitude and occurred at an unusually shallow depth of just 2.5 miles below the surface — a detail that geophysicists say makes the activity stand out from typical seismic events in the region. More than 100 people reported feeling the shaking to the US Geological Survey, a figure likely to represent a…