Author: James Carter

The leader of Belgium’s Vlaams Belang party has ignited fresh controversy after sharing footage of a densely packed Ostend beach during last weekend’s heatwave, declaring that “foreigners are ruining” one of Belgium’s most beloved coastal destinations — in a post that drew both widespread support and fierce accusations of racist fearmongering, and arrives against a backdrop of dramatic demographic transformation across Belgium and Europe. Tom Van Grieken posted the approximately 44-second clip on X, filmed on the beach at the popular North Sea resort during the 25-26 May weekend when temperatures hit 25 to 26 degrees Celsius. Alongside the footage,…

The kidnapping of a cryptocurrency executive whose finger was severed before French special forces rescued him has thrown a spotlight on a growing and violent threat facing those who profit from digital currencies — as physical attacks on crypto figures surge to record levels and the UK emerges as one of the worst affected countries in the world. David Balland, co-founder of hardware wallet company Ledger, was abducted from his home in the quiet French town of Vierzon by a criminal gang demanding a $10 million ransom. His wife was taken separately. Police launched a frantic manhunt and special forces…

Restore Britain’s Makerfield candidate has admitted she has not read her own party’s 42-page energy policy document, handing Reform UK fresh ammunition in its argument that the splinter party is handing Andy Burnham a clear path back into parliament. Rebecca Shepherd, a 53-year-old local businesswoman from the Wigan area, made the admission during a YouTube interview with Vox Populi that was rapidly circulated online. Reform UK supporters seized on what they described as underprepared and simplistic responses from Shepherd, with critics labelling her a “dud” and renewing their central argument that every vote for Restore Britain on 18 June is,…

Almost one in three British investors is planning to buy SpaceX shares when Elon Musk’s rocket company lists on the New York stock market, according to new research — with younger investors particularly eager to get in on what could become the largest public float in history. A survey of UK investors by research house Norstat found that 30 per cent intend to purchase SpaceX shares following its initial public offering, which SpaceX outlined plans for last week. The listing could value the company at £1.3 trillion — a figure that would dwarf any previous IPO and cement SpaceX as…

Turkish riot police have stormed the headquarters of the country’s main opposition party in Ankara, firing tear gas and demolishing barricades to forcibly remove its leader — in scenes that critics and democracy experts have condemned as a judicial coup designed to tighten President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s grip on power ahead of the 2028 elections. Officers from the Republican People’s Party, known as the CHP, had barricaded the building’s entrances in defiance of a court order issued on Thursday that nullified the 2023 election of Özgür Özel as party leader and installed former chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu — a figure who…

Andy Burnham has been accused of hypocrisy after it emerged that the man positioning himself as the champion of young people locked out of the housing market has been renting out a London flat that was partly funded through parliamentary expenses — as the would-be Labour leader also faces fresh pressure over his Brexit position. The two-bedroom flat in Kennington, south London, was purchased by Burnham in 2005 and has since doubled in value to approximately £480,000. Parliamentary records show that the then MP used taxpayers’ money to cover mortgage interest payments on the property under an expenses allowance that…

An Australian senator who publicly called for a government minister to resign over lavish travel expenses has been caught billing taxpayers nearly $1,000 for a trip to Tasmania that coincided with her son’s wedding, a new report has revealed. Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie charged the Australian public $853.52 in flights and accommodation for a four-day trip in February 2023, according to parliamentary expenses records examined by the Sydney Morning Herald. The trip saw her fly from Canberra to Melbourne and then immediately board a connecting flight to Launceston — the closest major airport to the vineyard in Sidmouth where her…

Elon Musk has thrown his support behind Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party in the Makerfield by-election, in a move that risks splitting the right-wing vote and handing the seat to Labour’s Andy Burnham — just as the first poll of the campaign shows the contest on a knife edge. The billionaire owner of X posted “Restore Britain” on Sunday morning while retweeting a message from Mr Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth who founded the party after being suspended from Reform UK last year. The intervention is likely to intensify the bitter personal rivalry between Mr Lowe and Nigel Farage,…

Andy Burnham could be gifted his path back to Westminster by Restore Britain’s decision to stand in Makerfield — with Reform UK warning that Rupert Lowe’s splinter party is fracturing the right-wing vote at precisely the moment it matters most. The first Survation poll of the 18 June by-election, published in The Sunday Times, puts Burnham on 43 per cent against Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon on 40 per cent — a gap of just three points. Restore Britain, the new party founded by former Reform MP Lowe, takes seven per cent. Simple arithmetic tells the story: if even half of…

Donald Trump embarked on a flurry of posts on Truth Social on Sunday morning, uploading a series of AI-generated images targeting his political rivals, celebrating his visit to China and depicting a drone strike on Iranian ships — capping a weekend of social media activity that also included a video showing him throwing a television comedian into a dumpster. The barrage opened with an AI-generated parody of the 1970s sitcom The Brady Bunch, which Trump relabelled “The Shady Bunch.” The image depicted former president Barack Obama, former FBI director James Comey, former CIA director John Brennan, Susan Rice, Samantha Power,…