Author: Darren Smith

Video footage of young Beaver Scouts bowing and prostrating during a mosque visit in Scotland has gone viral and drawn fierce online debate about indoctrination, parental consent and the direction of youth organisations — with particular attention falling on one boy who remained standing throughout while his peers knelt on the prayer carpet around him. The clip, posted on X , shows children aged between six and eight from Stirling and Trossachs District visiting the Central Scotland Islamic Centre in Stirling. A Muslim man wearing a white prayer cap demonstrates Islamic prayer postures — bowing and then full prostration with…

Thousands of ticket holders for Candace Owens’ cancelled Australian tour face losing their money after the event’s promoter collapsed with just 21 cents in its bank account — as the American commentator herself claims she was left hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket after being repeatedly denied an Australian visa. Owens was originally due to tour Australia in November 2024 but was refused entry after the government determined she had the “capacity to incite discord.” A second attempt in March 2025 met the same fate, and a subsequent High Court challenge was dismissed in October 2025. With the…

Two young women have confronted a street preacher in Croydon, south London, after alleging he had told them they deserved to be raped because of their clothing — claims the preacher emphatically denied before security officers intervened and escorted the women away. The video, shared widely on X on Sunday 24 May, shows the two women — one wearing shorts, one a crop top — approaching a robed preacher and his security team beside a stall bearing the banner “Islam is your birthright.” The women insist the alleged comment was directed at them, or at girls dressed similarly, earlier in…

A German television advertisement produced by L’Oréal Paris depicting White men as perpetrators of street sexual harassment has drawn criticism online after official German crime statistics consistently show non-German nationals are significantly overrepresented as suspects in sexual offence cases. The campaign, part of L’Oréal Paris’s global Stand Up Against Street Harassment initiative run in partnership with anti-harassment NGO Right To Be, has been integrated into Germany’s long-running soap opera Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten on RTL. The campaign promotes bystander intervention techniques and carries messaging including the slogan “Your lipstick is not to blame.” Critics on X have pointed out that…

The astronauts who completed a historic trip around the moon earlier this year have found themselves at the centre of an unlikely viral moment — after a conspiracy theorist confronted them on Capitol Hill and accused them of faking the entire mission. A video of the encounter, which has spread rapidly across social media, shows Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen being accosted by an aggressive man as they walked through Washington. “Stop lying! Stop acting! You all never went to space,” the man shouted as the crew approached. The four astronauts responded by largely walking on,…

A driver has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving after a collision that killed an 18-year-old girl and left her twin sister among six others injured — more than a year after the crash that devastated a West Yorkshire family just days before Christmas. Jack Reape, 31, was behind the wheel of a black Mercedes CLK when it collided with a white Citroen C3 in Cotesbach, Leicestershire, on 15 December 2023. Chloe Pearson, a passenger in the Citroen, was rushed to hospital following the impact but died from her injuries two days later. She was 18 years old…

Two cowboy builders who conned twelve vulnerable victims out of more than £1.3 million — leaving homes unfinished, lives upended and one elderly man unable to return to his house before he died — have been jailed for a combined total of nearly 16 years. Samuel O’Hanlon, 45, was sentenced to ten years in prison at Inner London Crown Court on Wednesday, with his apprentice Jack Sargeant, 29, receiving five years and nine months. Both men, from Ashford, were convicted following an eight-week trial in March of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. They must each serve almost half…

A French mother and her partner have been arrested in Portugal after allegedly abandoning two young boys in a remote forest by blindfolding them and telling them they were playing a treasure hunt game — leaving the children to wander alone for hours in temperatures of up to 30 degrees. The boys, named as Barthelemy, five, and Zacharie, three, were found crying and distressed on a remote road linking Alcacer do Sal and Comporta in southern Portugal at around 7.30pm on 19 May — more than 1,200 miles from their home in France. They had no identification on them but…

Miss Venezuela 2025 Andrea del Val has shared shocking video footage showing blood pouring down her face after allegedly being attacked by her celebrity stylist in their hotel room at the Cannes Film Festival — with the suspect arrested by French police following the violent incident. The 29-year-old beauty queen filmed the clip from what appears to be a badly trashed hotel room, with furniture scattered across the floor and visible signs of a violent struggle throughout the accommodation. Speaking directly to camera with severe wounds to her face, del Val named her stylist Giovanni Laguna, 33, as the man…

A rare albino buffalo nicknamed “Donald Trump” due to its flowing golden hair has become an unlikely internet sensation in Bangladesh — drawing visitors from across the country to a farm near Dhaka before it is slaughtered for Eid al-Adha celebrations later this month. The 1,500lb beast, which is four years old, has attracted a stream of admirers since footage of the animal went viral on social media, with many Bangladeshis noting the striking resemblance between the buffalo’s unusually golden mane and the US President’s famous hairdo. Its owner, Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said the name came from his younger…