Last October, we reported that Britain had “narrowly avoided blasphemy laws in disguise.” Now, they are very much back on the cards, and could be introduced as soon as this Tuesday.
This is due to the case of Hamit Coskun, a Turkish asylum seeker who burned a copy of the Quran outside his country’s London embassy while shouting, “Islam is a religion of terrorism.” A Muslim man slashed Coskun with a knife and shouted, “I’m going to kill you,” but was spared jail.
Coskun was initially convicted last June of a breach of the Public Order Act, despite supporters noting that “he hurt no one” and “he threatened no one.” The conviction was later overturned on appeal, with Justice Joel Bennathan affirming that there is no offence of blasphemy in UK law, and upholding the “right to offend.”
The Crown Prosecution Service is attempting to reverse the decision, and will have its case heard at the High Court on February 17th.
Free Speech Union founder Toby Young has warned that “if the court overturns his acquittal and upholds the conviction, that will effectively create a Muslim blasphemy law by the back door.”
It will send a message to Muslim fanatics up and down the country that if they want to enforce Islamic blasphemy codes, all they have to do is violently attack the blasphemer, and the blasphemer will then be charged with a religiously aggravated public order offence.
It’s a recipe for chaos. It will be the death knell for free speech in Britain. It will cause a huge rise in community tensions.
Donald Trump’s administration has also said it is in talks to help Coskun flee Britain if he loses his case. One official described this as “one of several cases the administration has made note of.”
Coskun himself toldThe Daily Telegraph that “as the victim of Islamic terrorism, I cannot remain silent. I may be forced to flee the UK and move to the U.S.A., where President Trump has stood for free speech and against Islamic extremism.”
If I have to do so, then, to me, the UK will have effectively fallen to Islamism and the speech codes that it wishes to impose on the non-Muslim world.
The French hard-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) is under fierce pressure after activists from a closely allied organisation are being accused of the killing of a 23-year-old mathematics student.
Quentin Deranque, described by his family and lawyer as a deeply religious Catholic, tennis player, and philosophy enthusiast engaged in parish activities and charitable work, was attacked on Thursday evening while helping to secure the girls of the right-winged feminist collective Némésis.
The group had organised a protest against a conference held by LFI MEP Rima Hassan at Sciences Po Lyon on February 12.
Némésis — a nationalist-leaning group known for campaigns against mass immigration, intersectional feminism, and what it terms “Islamo-leftism” — staged a small, peaceful demonstration near the venue.
Activists unfurled a banner reading “Islamo-gauchistes hors de nos facs” (“Islamo-leftists out of our universities”).
Due to their stance, the girls of Némésis are often the target of threats and even violence from the hard-left.
In this instance, the demonstration escalated into confrontations with anti-fascist militants.
Video’s of the incident show how a black-clad troop of people, masked and hooded, surround and violently beat up two young men.
They kick and beat them while the victims were on he ground, including in one instance an extreme kick against the head.
Quentin Deranque suffered a large number of violent blows to the head. He was able to walk away, but collapsed a bit later. Transported to the hospital, he was placed in a coma, with a life-threatening prognosis.
He was declared brain dead on Friday evening and passed away.
The Lyon prosecutor’s office announced his death on Saturday. The investigation, initially opened for aggravated violence, was reclassified as “aggravated fatal blows” and “aggravated violence”.
At least six individuals attacked the young man while he was on the ground.
No arrests have been made.
“He had no chance of getting out of it. The blows were delivered while he was lying on the ground. Several kicks to the skull, likely to lead to a fatal outcome and this is what unfortunately happened. But in the end, not surprisingly, in view of the violence and determination of these individuals who lynched him, we must say it as it is. We are facing a crime,” his lawyer said.
The lawyer stressed that the deceased student was neither a security guard nor member of a security service and had no criminal record.
According to the president of collective Némésis, Alice Cordier, Quentin was attacked by anti-fascist activists, some from the Young Guard, a group founded by LFI MP Raphaël Arnault and dissolved in 2025 for violent acts.
One parliamentary assistant of the party was also identified at the scene.
The killing in Lyon has triggered a torrent of political reactions, with government ministers directly blaming the ultra-left, while La France Insoumise (LFI) rejects any responsibility and denounces attempts at what it calls manipulation.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin was unequivocal on RTL: “It was clearly the ultra-left that killed him.”
He accused LFI figures, including MEP Rima Hassan and leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of fuelling “unbridled violence” through their rhetoric, adding: “Words can kill.”
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez reinforced the charge on France 2, stating that “manifestly the ultra-left was at the helm” and highlighting possible links to the now-dissolved anti-fascist group La Jeune Garde, which he said had “strong links” to LFI.
On France Inter, he described the attack as a “manifest lynching”.
President Emmanuel Macron called for calm, restraint and respect, writing on X: “Hatred that kills has no place among us. I call for calm, restraint and respect.”
He condemned the “unprecedented outburst of violence” and stressed that no ideology justifies killing in the Republic.
From the Right, Marine Le Pen of the National Rally condemned the “barbarians responsible for this lynching” and demanded justice with the utmost severity.
Bruno Retailleau, Les Républicains leader and presidential hopeful, declared that “the far left kills”, while government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon accused LFI of bearing “moral responsibility” in a climate of exacerbated violence.
Raphaël Glucksman, leader of Place publique and close to the Socialist Party, stressed that the Left must mark a firm break with LFI.
“It is unthinkable that on the Left, we will continue to cultivate any doubt about a possible electoral alliance with France Insoumise,” he said.
Reconquete leader Eric Zemmour said it wasn’t proof of a societal problem, but that “it reveals only the violence of the far Left since the Revolution and the communists. The State must stop these militias, condemn them and permanently dissolve the Jeune Garde. Let’s stop tolerating these people!”
LFI party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon expressed his “empathy et compassion” for the victim’s family but insisted: “We have nothing to do with this story” and that “all the accounts made in the hours that followed bear no relation to reality”.
The party has condemned violence while accusing opponents of exploiting the tragedy and claimed there have been attacks on around ten LFI offices nationwide following the incident.
Green MP Sandrine Rousseau, have condemned the killing outright but urged caution: “We do not yet know who is responsible,” she said on Franceinfo, rejecting any direct LFI link and describing the party as facing an “incredible cabal”.
Rousseau also said that in current times, antifascist militants were needed and “indispensable“, but that they shouldn’t use violence of “virilist” tactics.
U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio has signed a key nuclear cooperation agreement with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó spoke about the new golden age of Hungarian-American relations on his Facebook page, emphasizing that nuclear energy is a means of maintaining lower utility prices in Hungary over the long term.
“Today, we are signing a very important agreement in the field of nuclear energy cooperation. Let us not forget that in Hungary, the means of maintaining the reduction of utility bills in the long term is nuclear energy itself,” said Rubio.
He also noted that peace in Ukraine was a major topic, as Hungary has been the only country in Europe that has supported President Donald Trump’s peace efforts from the beginning.
“We are the only ones who did not supply weapons, we are the only ones who maintained diplomatic channels, and we are the ones who are ready to host the peace summit,” he says in his video message.
At a press conference after his meeting with Orbán, Rubio, repeating what the Hungarian government had labeled a “golden age” between the two countries, focused on Orbán’s strong leadership as the reason so many American companies are investing in Hungary, especially in the field of energy.
The U.S. secretary of state also underlined the key importance of Orbán’s personal relationship with Trump, adding that this was a key reason the U.S. is ready to help Hungary in any way, be that to overcome financial hurdles or other threats to Hungary’s stability.
“It’s in our national interest, especially as long as you’re the prime minister and the leader of this country, it’s in our national interest that Hungary be successful,” said Rubio.
On the energy front, Szijjártó additionally posted on X about approaching Croatia for alternative energy transit routes. “Since Ukraine refuses to restart oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline for political reasons, together with Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Saková we sent a letter to Croatian Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar.
“We request Croatia to enable the transport of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via the Adria pipeline, as our sanctions exemption provides the possibility to import Russian oil by sea if pipeline deliveries are disrupted. The security of a country’s energy supply must never be an ideological issue. We therefore expect Croatia, unlike Ukraine, not to endanger the oil supply security of Hungary and Slovakia for political reasons,” he posted.
Reduxx has learned that a trans-identified male and “radical queer activist” residing in Seattle, Washington, has been publicly advocating for pedophilic relationships with children while also organizing “in-person events for anyone under the queer rainbow.”
Ally Kotetsu, who describes himself as “a non-binary transgender woman who is transrace Japanese,” is campaigning both online and in public through an effort he calls Beyond the Plus, which advocates for the rights of “beings who are romantically or sexually attracted to beings who are below the age of 18.”
Kotetsu’s website describes “minor attraction” as an orientation and refers to individuals with a sexual interest in children as “MAPs” (minor attracted people). According to Beyond the Plus, “MAPs” are some of “the world’s most marginalized beings.”
The site goes on to describe “age-based attractions” as being innate and similar to heterosexuality or homosexuality.
“A number of MAPs, usually ones who are intersectional with other queer identities (though not always), consider age-based attractions to be another, less recognized type of orientation,” reads the Beyond the Plus site.
Beyond the Plus members promoting acceptance of pedophilia and other paraphilias at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle.
The blog continues: “Importantly, this only refers to attractions, without implying harmful or illegal actions – most MAPs are law-abiding and don’t want to harm anyone any more than non-MAPs do. However, due to intense social stigma, the overwhelming majority of these MAPs remain closeted, and are never known to be MAPs unless involuntarily outed. This lack of visibility is what allows harmful misconceptions and stereotypes to persist.”
Terms of service, or rules that members are expected to follow, state that discrimination against “age attraction” and “species attraction” are forbidden.
“Members must make all reasonable efforts to respect the personally identifying characteristics of other members, including, but not limited to, attractions (including, but not limited to, sexual orientation, gender attraction, age attraction, and species attraction), identity (including, but not limited to, gender identity, age identity, species identity, and ethnic identity), gender, sex, race, ethnicity, and religion. This includes, but is not limited to, using the correct pronouns and identifying terminology which members have communicated are applicable to them.”
The B+ website also recognizes a disturbing holiday created by online pedophile communities. “Alice Day,” is commemorated in pro-pedophile spaces on April 25 annually, and last year members of B+ organized a picnic to “celebrate girllove.”
According to the B+ event policy, members of the organization are instructed to keep their additional group meetups “under wraps,” as “giving the exact time and place is subject to harassment by some people.”
“MAP” activist “Ally Kotetsu” identifies as transgender and transracial Japanese.
Since August 2025, Kotetsu has operated a table at Cal Anderson Park where he has distributed pamphlets several times per month. The park was renamed in 2003 after Washington’s first openly gay state legislator and has been described as “the heart of Capitol Hill, Seattle’s historic LGBTQIA neighborhood.” Beginning August 18, every other Monday Beyond the Plus (BTP) representatives – all of whom are trans-identified males – have sat at a table handing out pamphlets advocating for the normalization of pedophilia as a sexual orientation.
Kotetsu describes himself as a “radical queer activist” who aims to normalize all paraphilias, or sexual fetishes. While promoting B+ at Cal Anderson Park, Kotetsu offers interested parties buttons that he has designed himself. The buttons depict symbols which represent various paraphilias, among them: pedophilia, necrophilia, and sadomasochism.
Kotetsu, like other pro-pedophile activists, refers disparagingly towards critics as “antis,” a shortened form of “anti-contact” with children.
“When a younger person consents to a relationship and doesn’t regret it, anti cs get upset, and when a younger person consents to a relationship and does regret it, pro cs get upset,” Kotetsu posted via his Mastodon account on August 11. “The simple truth is that some people are and aren’t ready for relationships at different points in their lives… The best thing we can do is give young people resources, outlets, and spaces to figure themselves out… Above all else, youthlib is essential.”
Kotetsu followed up the post with another statement about “youthlib,” clarifying that he advocates for the abolition of “age-based laws,” while using gender identity to rationalize his view that children can consent to sexual interactions with adults.
Kotetsu designs buttons displaying “pride flags” for various paraphilias, including “minor attraction”
“Youthlib is much more than just AoC (age of consent). When I was 17, not even a kid, my dad told me I couldn’t present how I wanted, and that when I was an adult I could… it was at that moment I realized just how imaginary the number 18 really is… Forcing imaginary lines of age to tell someone what they can and can’t do is unacceptable,” Kotetsu wrote. “My ultimate goal for youthlib would be an abolishment of the Age of Majority, as well as other age-based laws.”
Kotetsu previously used the alias Arisu. Beginning around 2023, Kotetsu set up multiple websites advocating for the “radqueer” position while using that screenname. On one of his several websites, Kotetsu states: “I’m a non-exclusive pedophile with an AoA [age of attraction] of 8 or higher for girls, and 16 or higher for men. I identify with the labels MAP, YAP, girllover, childlover, pedophile, hebephile, etc.”
On another of his blogs, Kotetsu writes derisively of “antis,” a slang term used within MAP activism circles to refer to people who oppose pedophilia. “Antis, transphobes, paramisiacs—whoever—hate you, but they hate you because they are scared of you,” Kotetsu states. “These people exist in the real world just like you do, but in the same way that radqueers are scared to go out and be confronted by them, antis are scared of confronting us. They think we’re predators, monsters, abusers, but we know that those labels really apply to them.”
Still another now-defunct website created by Kotetsu lists several pro-pedophile websites as resources. Among them are pages operated by German pedophile activists, indicating a possible multinational collaboration. Reduxx has chosen not to link back to the directory.
Kotetsu has also worked with site administrators for transid.org, a website that lists various sexual fetishes and paraphilias. Under a category labeled “age-related,” dozens of pages are dedicated to various aspects of pedophilia, including: “boylove,” “girlove,” “incest MAP,” “autoMAP,” and “MAP-necro-incestual,” referring to a combination of incestuous child sexual abuse combined with necrophilia.
In total, four trans-identified males are listed as staff on the B+ website including Kotetsu, the president: Annette Ordelia, secretary; Aspen Rose, treasurer; and Violet Rose, lead journalist.
Violet Rose, who uses the pronouns “she / it” online, has made several disturbing posts advocating for the sexual abuse of minors. “If you’re a parent, [and] your child isn’t explicitly asexual, and you haven’t bought them a vibrator yet, I’m judging you,” Rose wrote in 2024.
Rose also advocates for “pedosadism,” a portmanteau of “pedophilia” and “sadism,” which refers to acting out sadomasochistic sexual practices on children.
“Anyone who thinks pedosadism is inherently harmful when acted upon has apparently forgotten that consensual BDSM exists,” he said. “Anyone who thinks hurtcore is a uniquely special degree of ontological evil has apparently forgotten there are videos of torture and murder, let alone lifelong trauma being inflicted, all over the internet, including on YouTube. Stop being ageist.”
In one lengthy post, Rose warned his followers to avoid sharing child pornography on Discord, as the company has been “very proactive about finding rule violations that haven’t even been reported by anyone.”
Instead, Rose advised fellow pro-pedophile advocates to use “less dangerous apps” to share illegal content.
Based on statements made on social media, Violet Rose appears to live in close proximity to Kotetsu.
B+ secretary Annette Ordelia has been involved with an influential lobby group that has consulted academics and influenced the diagnostic definition of pedophilia published by the American Psychiatric Association. Specifically, Ordelia has attended MAP Conferences that are organized on an annual basis by the pro-pedophile lobby group B4U-Act. A testimonial from Ordelia is featured on the B4U-Act website which states that he enjoys “educating therapists” and “being able to help shape discussions.”
Ordelia also works on publications released by B4U-Act in collaboration with academics. The B4U-Act Quarterly Review promotes the legalization of childlike sex dolls, and the idea that children can be pedophiles.
The organization B4U-Act was founded in 2003 by Michael Melsheimer, who served a three-year prison sentence in New Jersey for sexually assaulting a teenage boy. Melsheimer explicitly stated that the purpose of the organization was to normalize pedophilia where the National Association of Man-Boy Love (NAMBLA) had failed to do so.
Co-founder and Chairman Russell A. Dick is a licensed social worker with thirty-eight years of experience working with “people who are attracted to minors.” Another leading figure, Richard Kramer, the Director of Operations, established the Male Homosexual Attraction to Minors Information Center (MHAMIC), which promotes the theory that “boys are not always severely harmed by sexual activity with adults.”
B4U-ACT also maintains a robust catalogue of networks within major Universities around the world. On its website, it lists institutions that have carried out research under its guidance or with its cooperation. Much of this research has to do with ending the stigmatization of “minor-attracted persons.”
On Friday, The Gateway Pundit’s Robert Semonsen reported that young French nationalist activist is fighting for his life after a brutal street assault in the city of Lyon that has reignited national outrage over radical-left wing political violence and the climate of impunity surrounding self-described “anti-fascist” groups.
The victim, a 23-year-old man identified as Quentin, remains in critical condition—and is said to be braindead—following a savage attack that took place on the evening of February 12.
The violence erupted on the margins of a conference held at Sciences Po Lyon featuring Rima Hassan, a European Parliament member aligned with the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI). It’s worth noting that weeks ago, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during a campaign event, said that his party is the party of “The Great Replacement.”
The event, focused on EU relations and the Middle East, was warmly received inside the venue, while tensions simmered outside.
According to various accounts from eye witnesses at the scene, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Female protesters on the nationalist-feminist side were allegedly surrounded, pushed, and physically attacked, with at least one 19-year-old woman reportedly strangled and dragged during the initial confrontation.
Quentin, who was part of an informal security detail tasked with protecting the women, intervened as the group attempted to disperse. He and another man were then allegedly followed through nearby streets by a group of masked attackers.
What followed, witnesses say, was a coordinated ambush. The two men were set upon in a quiet area of Lyon’s 5th arrondissement, where Quentin was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked after his head struck the pavement.
Subsequently, emergency services were called shortly before 8 p.m. While one of the victims sustained relatively minor injuries, Quentin collapsed soon after, convulsing at the scene and requiring emergency intubation before being transported to the local hospital.
Doctors later confirmed that Quentin suffered severe brain trauma consistent with a cerebral hemorrhage. His family has since stated that he is “between life and death,” while Collectif Némésis later reported that he had been declared brain-dead.
Quentin died soon after.
Quentin was murdered by Antifa terrorists.
BREAKING:
23-year-old Quentin was murdered by an Antifa mob in Paris today.
Jacques-Elie Favrot, one of the leaders of the Jeune Garde is a parliamentary assistant and close friend of Raphaël Arnault, the MP who founded Jeune Garde. Favrot was present at the site of the murder pic.twitter.com/1w30BGALrY
On January 21 agents from the Ravenna State Police mobile task force arrested a 25-year-old man of Senegalese origin for a series of sexual assaults.
At least seven incidents took place in the station area of the Romagna city and in the famous Classense Library. The arrest caused a stir because of the series of crimes the young man may have committed, but also because the 25-year-old had been taken to the repatriation centre a few weeks earlier and subsequently classified as unfit to travel following medical examinations at the hospital.
Days later, the same mobile police officers searched the infectious diseases department of Santa Maria delle Croci Hospital. They did so at the behest of the Ravenna Public Prosecutor’s Office. Attorney General Daniele Barberini and Public Prosecutor Angela Scorza have investigated at least six doctors for issuing certificates that were deliberately incomplete or inaccurate in order to confirm the unsuitability of non-EU citizens for repatriation.
This included not only the case that would have allowed the 25-year-old to avoid being deported before his arrest on January 22, but also other cases, of course.
On February 12, searches carried out by mobile police officers lasted the entire day. All devices that could potentially contain messages, communications and documents were scanned. According to the findings, the investigation could extend far beyond the initial stages. Investigators are also focusing on the motives behind the doctors’ behaviour:
To clarify the reasons that ‘guided’ them, to ensure that the certificates do not result in repatriation. For this reason, the investigations are proceeding swiftly and in the utmost secrecy. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Matteo Salvini intervened in the case with a post on X. ‘This is very serious. If confirmed, it would be a disgrace that would result in dismissal, expulsion and arrest.’
The lasted draft of the UK Department of Education’s long-awaited student safety guidance waters down its gender confusion policy to the point that children as young as four could be ‘socially transitioned’ under certain circumstances.
The 201-page document covers many classroom issues, but its second, which pertains to gender, appears at first to be rooted in reality. It states that schools “must not allow pupils into toilets, changing rooms, or boarding or residential accommodation designated for the opposite sex, with no exceptions”; “pupils must not be allowed to participate in sports designated for the opposite sex”; schools “should not initiate any action regarding social transition”; and schools must respect the “leading role” of parents and carers in such decisions.
“Schools and colleges should consider everything that could be affecting a child, including whether they have any wider health issues or neurodiversity,” the policy states and notes that National Health Service (NHS) England’s 2024 Cass Review “acknowledged that there is a lack of good evidence on the long-term impact of social transition on young people, but it is clear that social transition should be viewed as an active intervention that may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning and longer-term outcomes.”
However, while urging primary schools to exercise “particular caution,” the document also leaves the door open for such schools to transition very young children, stating “we would expect support for full social transition to be agreed very rarely. The Cass Review acknowledges that older children will generally have greater agency to make their own decisions. Maintaining flexibility and keeping children’s options open will help to avoid a child feeling they are under pressure to commit to a potentially irrevocable pathway when they are young.”
The Daily Mail reports that the latest draft has been significantly watered down by Labour leaders from the version previously drafted by the formerly ruling Conservative Party, which had prohibited the changing of gender pronouns in primary schools, limited the changing of pronouns in secondary schools to “very few occasions,” and protected teachers and students’ right to refuse to use transgender pronouns.
Despite such weaknesses, the BBC notes that the guidance has the support of Cass Review leader Dr. Hilary Cass. She called it a “huge step in the right direction” that “reflects the recommendations of my review, giving schools much-needed clarity on their legal duties so they can support children with confidence.” She emphasized its support for parental involvement and expressed confidence that “proceeding with a social transition is going to be very much the exception, rather than the rule.”
Others disagree. “Primary school children should not be navigating changes in pronouns at all. But, shockingly, Labour’s guidance opens the door to children as young as four being referred to in a way that does not reflect their biological sex,” declared Tory education spokesperson Laura Trott.
“Schools are still being left with the idea that they can facilitate ‘social transition’ – which remains undefined – and that they should negotiate this on a case-by-case basis,” argued Maya Forstater of the biological-sex human rights group Sex Matters. “They are being encouraged to think that children have a ‘birth sex’ as well as some other concept of sex. This has no basis in law or reality, and undermines safeguarding. It should be clear by now that allowing children and parents to think that a child who starts their education as a girl can graduate as a boy or vice versa is a dangerous fairy tale.”
A large body of evidence shows that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them, or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically-transformative, and often-irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.
Studies find that more than 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide — and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
Many oft-ignored detransitioners, individuals who attempted transitioning before regretting it and returning to life as their true sex, attest to the physical and mental harm of reinforcing gender confusion, as well as to the bias and negligence of the medical establishment on the subject, many of whom take an activist approach to their profession and begin cases with a predetermined conclusion that “transitioning” is the best solution.
More than 70 illegal migrants have been handed thousands of pounds in compensation after judges declared the seizure of their mobile phones was unlawful.
The High Court determined that confiscating their devices and downloading their personal data breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Lane ruled in 2022 that the policy violated the controversial ECHR, sparking concerns that up to 1,300 migrants could be entitled to claim.
As a result, the final bill could rise into the millions of pounds.
Fighting the legal case cost the Home Office £735,000, a Freedom of Information request by The Sun revealed.
Some 32 asylum seekers have already received settlements totalling £210,800, working out at £6,587.50 per person.
The Home Office confirmed that pure compensation costs came to £163,900, with an additional £46,900 paid through confidential settlement agreements for damages and legal fees.
A further 41 claims remain outstanding.
Should these be resolved at the same rate, the compensation bill would climb to nearly £481,000.
When the verdict was delivered, it was reported that 1,323 migrants whose phones were taken could seek damages, bringing the potential total payout to as high as £8million.
The policy at the centre of the case applied to migrants arriving between April and November 2020.
Border officials searched new arrivals and confiscated their mobile phones and SIM cards.
Devices were held for three months or longer, with many never returned to their owners.
Until July 2020, authorities conducted full data downloads from all seized phones.
The approach was later modified so complete downloads only happened when a “person of interest” was identified aboard a small boat.
Three asylum seekers, identified only as HM, MA, and KH, launched a judicial review in November 2020 which put the seizure policy on hold.
The High Court hearing took place in January 2022, with judges delivering their verdict two months later.
They found the mobile phone policy unlawful because it had never been published.
The ruling found that searches and seizures were illegal because they operated as a blanket measure, and violated migrants’ rights to family and private life under the ECHR.
Then-Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel accepted that the “blanket seizure policy… was not in accordance with the law”.
Judges identified a “failure of governance” surrounding the unpublished policy – they said phones and PIN codes were seized “without any lawful authority”, while asylum seekers were “bullied” into surrendering passcodes, the court heard.
Information extracted from seized devices was stored in an intelligence database called Project Sunshine.
Following the ruling, judges ordered the Home Office to contact all migrants whose phones had been confiscated.
The court directed that affected individuals should be told: “If you have not taken legal advice on your position, you are strongly advised to do so now.”
Daniel Carey of Deighton Pierce Glynn, which represented two claimants, said: “Nearly 2,000 phones were taken from migrants in an indiscriminate blanket policy that the High Court has now found to be unlawful on multiple fronts.
“All of this had real impacts on very vulnerable people, who lost touch with their families and couldn’t get their asylum documentation, while the phones languished on a shelf for many months, many which now cannot be returned.”
Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick has now condemned the payments, saying: “This is further proof, as if it were needed, of how rulings made by European judges are working against the British people.
“It is a farce and total waste of taxpayers’ money. A Reform Government will stop this nonsense by getting rid of the rule of European judges.”
William Yarwood of the TaxPayers’ Alliance called the situation “utterly perverse”, adding: “Instead of deterring illegal entry, the system has ended up financially rewarding it.”
The Government has since passed laws making it legal to seize illegal migrants’ phones.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This compensation is to be paid as a result of the previous Government’s policy, which now no longer exists.
“We have introduced tougher legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act which allows asylum seekers’ mobile phones to be legally seized when they arrive in the UK.
“These game-changing criminal offences will mean organised criminals fuelling illegal migration can be intercepted faster than ever before.”
Anti-Americanism abroad is hardly a new or rare phenomenon. I’ve experienced it myself as far back as the late 1980s when I backpacked throughout Europe. It wasn’t new or rare even then, but that was before countless neighborhoods and mass transit in western Europe were transformed by uncontrolled migration from Africa and the Middle East into increasingly Third World hellscapes.
A short video clip filmed at the beginning of February has made its way onto social media, showing a pair of vacationing mothers from Alabama and their two 12-year-old daughters, who were confronted and terrorized by a knife-wielding man aboard a train in Brussels, Belgium.
Amanda Hardy, one of the mothers, later told reporters that a man emerged from the train car bathroom and approached them, first asking whether the women were American. He then asked, Hardy recounted, “‘Do you like ICE?’ And we did not respond to that. He then pulled out a knife – our estimation is about 18 inches long or so. He then threw down a jacket and a scarf on the ground, and that’s when he said, ‘F__ ICE, I can shoot too. I shoot faster than Americans.’”
Hardy and her friend Courtney Sucher began hurrying their children to the far side of the train car. The jittery video shows the group fleeing with their luggage through the crowded train, screaming for help, while no other passengers appeared to intervene or assist.
JUST IN: Two Alabama women and their children were attacked on a train in Brussels, Belgium for being American
The attacker reportedly approached them with a knife and asked if they were American, when they confirmed, he threatened to kiII them. pic.twitter.com/cD7Ybhxtsk
It took the women and their daughters an estimated three minutes to exit the train, Hardy said. “We don’t know how far he was chasing us, if he was chasing us at all, if he disappeared into the crowd or sat down. But he stood there and acted as if he had done nothing.”
After the group exited the train, four bystanders approached to offer comfort and assistance. “They were literally angels on earth. They stayed with us until we felt okay or at least, we thought we felt okay,” Hardy said.
One bystander suggested that the group contact the U.S. Embassy. Hardy spent 40 minutes on separate calls reporting the incident and requesting assistance with their travel plans. But the embassy response was anything but reassuring.
“I was literally pleading with our U.S. Embassy, saying someone tried to kill us because we’re American. Can you please send someone? But the response was, ‘It’s the weekend,’ and since you have your passports, this is generally not something we do,” Hardy said.
Hardy stated that two Brussels police officers who arrived were kind to them but others appeared skeptical of their story, defending the attacker as probably just being drunk:
The issue was the attitude of law enforcement toward what occurred. For example, one of the officers showed complete disregard for the assailant’s actions by saying he was intoxicated; and when he saw that one of us was wearing a New York hat, it upset him. That was incredibly frustrating, too.
The officers reportedly provided no assistance when the group needed to board the same train again to continue to Bruges. One officer even threatened to “detain” one of the daughters for addressing him. “If you talk to me again, I will detain you with the man that ‘tried to kill you’ [he said this while gesturing with “air quotes”] because that’s how you do it in America,” Hardy said.
Hardy has since vowed to advocate publicly for changes to emergency procedures involving children abroad. “There needs to be a review and change of emergency protocol when children are involved. We cannot abandon children in a foreign country when someone attempts to kill them because they’re American. We have to do better,” Hardy said.
The Brussels embassy finally reached out, according to Hardy in a Facebook post:
Today I received a phone call from the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White. He listened, apologized on behalf of the Embassy and on behalf of the President, and he took immediate action to change policies at the Belgium Embassy so that no other American family is left in that position. We could not have asked for more. Unfortunately, I did learn that, although the assailant was detained while we were there, he was almost immediately released by Belgium authorities. [emphasis added]
Hardy and Sucher reportedly believe this happened to them because they are American and because of their perceived political beliefs (hence the question about ICE). I think it’s clear that this is so.
As for the perpetrator: the lack of even a rough description in the media, the presence of an 18-inch knife, the casual terrorizing of women and children in public… Add an unsympathetic police force to the mix, and all this points to the usual suspects – and it’s not indigenous French men.
This incident thankfully ended with no physical harm to the women. There are certainly more disturbing recent examples of skyrocketing knife crime in Europe, but this incident reflects a disheartening reality of western Europe today that Americans abroad must bear in mind.
First, the increasing danger of taking mass transit in Europe – or sightseeing in any public space – thanks to a burgeoning underclass of unassimilated, military-age Muslim males who despise Westerners, especially Americans, and who treat Western women with undisguised, predatory aggression. On a train, you are trapped in an enclosed space, and with rare exceptions, fellow passengers will not come to your defense, even if you are a woman with a child, especially if they perceive that you are American.
Second: law enforcement in Western Europe is a mixed bag, with some officers just as likely to charge you with Islamophobia as take a violent migrant into custody – whom they will then release.
Third, American tourists cannot take for granted that their embassies abroad will be a safe haven just a phone call away.
In response to this news item posted on X, a female friend of mine wrote, “And this is why I refuse ever to return to Europe after having enthusiastically vacationed there over the past several decades.” Tragically, I’m coming to the same conclusion.
AI-Generated image by Grok: Andrew leaking confidential documents.
Pressure is on for Andrew to be criminally investigated for sharing confidential material to Epstein and others.
As former British Ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson is under criminal investigation for sharing confidential documents with the late pedophile and shady financier Jeffrey Epstein, a problem arises for the Royal Family: former Prince Andrew has been shown to have done the same, and maybe even worse.
Disgraced former Prince Andrew reportedly forwarded a confidential Treasury briefing to a banker friend while he was UK trade envoy.
His deputy private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, obtained an internal government memo in February 2010 about the Icelandic financial crisis, at a time when Britain and Iceland were in a dispute over British deposits lost in the 2008 banking crisis.
Thirsk received the briefing note from a civil servant at the Treasury and forwarded it on to the man now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
🚨BREAKING: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor forwarded a confidential Treasury briefing to a banker friend while he was trade envoy – Telegraph pic.twitter.com/PM8d6j3KcY
“Two hours later, he passed the note on to Jonathan Rowland, his close friend and the former chief executive of Banque Havilland, a bank that had bought assets from a failed Icelandic lender a year earlier.
Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor, who was then the UK’s trade envoy, suggested the information might be useful to his friend ‘before you make your move’. He wrote: ‘I pass this on to you for comment and a suggestion or solution?’
‘The essence is that Amanda is getting signals that we should allow the democratic process [to] happen before you make your move. Interested in your opinion? A’.”
And this is NOT the first time Andrew has been shown to be sharing confidential material:
Andrew leaked envoy docs to Epstein as calls grow for him to face criminal probe https://t.co/ci4Uaf4TRM . Write to your MP calling on the Government to release all the files relating to his time as trade envoy. We need a little sunlight on this corruption.
🚨DEEP SHIT: New Documents show Prince Andrew shared government information with Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein during his time as a trade envoy – Now under investigation
One key document is an email where Andrew forwarded "South East Asia Visit Reports" (covering official trips to… pic.twitter.com/tNXR6QGwTK
“Thames Valley Police are assessing whether to open an investigation into the claims after it emerged that the former prince forwarded multiple private briefings to external sources, including Jeffrey Epstein.”
