Historian and broadcaster Rafe Heydel-Mankoo demolishes the conspiracy theory that Churchill was responsible for the Bengal Famine and deliberately starved Indians.
Activist ‘Billboard Chris’ arrested in Spain for protesting transgender mutilation of children
Chris Elston, better known as “Billboard Chris,” was arrested on Sunday at the Puerta del Sol for peacefully holding signs and discussing the harms of gender ideology with passersby.
The activist, who is known for speaking out against the mutilation of children across the globe, revealed in a series of X posts that he had been arrested and held at a police station for two hours for simply holding signs and discussing the harms of children undergoing puberty blockers, which they can access in Spain as young as 12, and cross-sex hormones, which they can access as young as 16.
He said that police told him that he could not have conversations in public, confiscated his passport and phone, and held him at the police station, where he was fingerprinted and treated like a criminal, before being issued an unspecified fine and released.
Following his release, “Billboard Chris” returned to Puerta del Sol, along with two lawyers, to continue having conversations about the dangers of child sterilization in the public square.
“I was detained by Spanish police for two hours today in Madrid. Taken to the police station, fingerprinted, treated like a criminal because I showed up at the public square to have peaceful conversations about how children are being harmed,” he wrote on X. “Spain has done nothing to stop giving kids puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.”
“To the political authorities in Spain — please start protecting children in your magnificent country from this unscientific craze which is sterilizing children and causing grievous, irreversible harm,” he added.
I was detained by Spanish police for two hours today in Madrid.
— Billboard Chris 🌎 (@BillboardChris) June 14, 2026
Taken to the police station, fingerprinted, treated like a criminal because I showed up at the public square to have peaceful conversations about how children are being harmed.
Spain has done nothing to stop… pic.twitter.com/lXMwc5vbf1
Over the years, Elston has been targeted by authorities several times across multiple countries for his activism.
In June 2025, Elston and fellow activist Lois McLatchie Miller were arrested by police in Brussels for refusing to discard the signs they had been using to urge members of the European Union (EU) to protect children from the harms of transgender ideology.
Three months earlier, in March, Elston was threatened with arrest, fined $800 (AUD), and forcibly removed by police from a public square in Brisbane, Australia, after having conversations with members of the Australian public about child mutilation. His infringement notice for the incident was later withdrawn by the Brisbane City Council.
“Billboard Chris” said that he plans to release the full, unedited video of his interaction with Spanish police as soon as possible. He also announced on Monday that he plans to take legal action against the Madrid Police for violating his rights.
I will be taking legal action against the police in Madrid.
— Billboard Chris 🌎 (@BillboardChris) June 15, 2026
Upon thorough review of various laws, they have committed numerous infractions while violating my rights, and I will not let this go unchallenged.
France: 7 in 10 Want Referendum on Reinstating Death Penalty for Crimes Against Children
In the wake of the murder of an 11-year-old girl that shocked the nation, seven in ten people in France believe that there should be a national referendum to decide whether or not the country should reinstate the death penalty for serious crimes against children.
According to a nationally representative survey of 1,010 adults by the CSA Institute for CNEWS, 68 per cent of French people would back a national referendum over bringing back capital punishment for major crimes against children.
The poll found that women were more in favour of such a referendum than men, with 70 per cent of women in favour, compared to 66 per cent of men.
Intriguingly, younger voters appear more in favour than their elderly counterparts, with 90 per cent of 18-24 year olds in favour, followed by 72 per cent of 50 to 64 year olds, 67 per cent of 35 to 49 year olds, and just 54 per cent of those 65 and over.
When looking at political affiliation, leftist parties were found to be the least in favour of a referendum, with just 35 per cent of Green Party and 40 per cent of Socialist Party backers supporting the measure. However, a majority of members of the Islamo-leftist France Insoumise of Jean-Luc Mélenchon were in favour at 57 per cent. This was slightly below the level recorded for supporters of President Emmanuel Macron’s neo-liberal Renaissance party, 58 per cent of whom would support a referendum.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, those on the right of the French political spectrum were most likely to back a vote on the return of the death penalty for crimes against children. Indeed, 74 per cent of supporters of the centre-right Républicains replied in the affirmative, while 95 per cent of backers of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally expressed support
Return of the Guillotine? Le Pen Hints at Referendum on Death Penalty in France https://t.co/i8jg3XS1Lt
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 15, 2022
The poll comes amid the fallout from the death of Lyhanna Rameau Bernard, an 11-year-old girl from the small town of Fleurance outside of Toulouse, whose body was found earlier this month in an abandoned grain silo on a nearby farm. A witness claimed to have seen the young girl entering the car of a family friend, Jérôme Barella, a week prior.
Barella was already known to police as a suspected paedophile, with multiple reports against him, including allegations of rape against a 7-year-old, which were dropped in 2022, and another complaint over the alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl between 2024 and 2025. Critically, the investigation into the second investigation was still ongoing at the time of Lyhanna’s death.
However, even after nine months of investigations, police had yet to question Barella. Critics of the slow justice system in France have suggested that if he had been made aware that police were investigating him, he may not have been so bold as to allegedly kidnap Lyhanna.
In addition to the multiple reports from children in France made against him, Le Monde reported that Paris’ Office for Minors (Ofmin) had been informed by the U.S. National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) of potential paedophile behaviour on the internet. Yet again, no action was taken before Lyhanna’s death.
The case, which has sparked widespread protests and backlash against the government, has spurred calls for judicial reform in the country, including from former Interior Minister and presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau, who has proposed the creation of “a disciplinary court of the judiciary” that can sanction magistrates for failing to meet their responsibilities.
Sweden: Eritrean care worker convicted for raping 82-year-old woman, avoids deportation because he is ‘integrated’ and the rape was ‘brief’ and ‘without threats or blows’
An Eritrean care worker in his 30s has been sentenced to four years in prison for raping an 82-year-old woman, though he has avoided deportation due to his integration record in Sweden. Among the evidence obtained was sperm samples the African man left in the elderly woman’s bed.
The vulnerable victim, who suffers from impaired near memory, received home care services from the convicted man. On the night of Nov. 3, 2025, her son contacted the police after she was raped by the Eritrean. In subsequent interrogations, the woman recalled the abuse, describing it as painful and unpleasant, according to Swedish outlet Samnytt.
The investigation revealed that the domestic worker had entered his employer’s office and opened a key cabinet during the night of the crime, despite being off duty at the time. Forensic teams discovered a sperm stain on the woman’s sheets, and a subsequent DNA analysis confirmed it matched the suspect.
🇫🇷🔴A French journalist says there is a shocking pattern of foreigners raping elderly women in France.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 10, 2026
Just this week, a Moroccan migrant was arrested for raping and torturing a 74-year-old woman in Romainville with a telescopic baton.
"She’s raped, a 74-year-old woman, it’s… pic.twitter.com/R5hmO30kxh
The man denied any wrongdoing, but during police questioning, he initially claimed he left the sperm stain during a previous work visit while having phone sex with his girlfriend. He then later changed his story, admitting the girlfriend story was made up but maintaining that he had secretly masturbated during a previous service visit, and ejaculated on the woman’s bed.
He explained his presence at the office on his night off by stating he wanted to spend time with co-workers or prepare for an upcoming shift, adding that he did not remember opening the key cabinet.
The district court rejected his explanation and found it established that he raped the woman. The prosecution argued that the offense should be classified as serious due to the victim’s advanced age, reduced health, and her dependent relationship with the care provider.
However, the court considered a number of alleged mitigating factors, describing the rape as “short-lived and one that occurred without threats or blows.” Ultimately, he was sentenced for rape in the normal degree to four years in prison.
Samnytt revealed that the care company hired the Eritrean man despite multiple entries in his criminal record. He had previously been convicted of theft and petty theft, as well as serious offenses connected to Stockholm’s gang environment. In a 2022 ruling from Svea Court of Appeal, the man was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for aggravated drug offenses and aggravated drunk driving.
The prosecution also requested that the man, an Eritrean national, be deported for life. However, the court refused to deport him. It argued that he arrived in Sweden as a child, lived in Sweden for almost 20 years, spoke fluent Swedish, and had maintained employment in recent years, making the legal threshold for deportation high. The rape of an elderly woman was apparently not enough to cross this threshold.
The district court noted it was a serious crime and also noted his previous convictions, stating that ”there is a clear risk of continued crime.”
Remix News has covered numerous similar stories in recent years involving foreigners raping elderly European women, including 14 such cases in France.
German state broadcaster promotes the veiling practised by Islamists: “A woman is as valuable as a mobile phone, and you protect that too, don’t you?”
In a recent feature, the public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) glorifies Islamist fashion and portrays the veiling of women as a ‘counter-trend’ to airy summer fashion. In this promotional piece for Islamism, a man is also allowed to claim, unchallenged, that women must be protected by veiling ‘like a mobile phone case’.
“As temperatures rise, many people’s clothing becomes skimpier again. They show skin and thus attract attention. A counter-trend: modest fashion. Fashion that shows less skin and largely covers the body. Selda Dastan has created a space for this trend in Nuremberg.” These euphemistic words open a BR report in which Islamist veiling is glorified.
The report is about a shop in Nuremberg; the owner, Selda Dastan, also wears a headscarf. “Modest fashion is a guideline that encourages people to cover themselves,” and “there are many reasons for choosing modest fashion,” explains the narrator.
Finally, Selda Dastan’s husband also has his say. He reports that whilst neighbours initially had ‘prejudices’ against the shop, they now attract ‘customers from all over the world’.
He then explains to the viewer: ‘In the Islamic faith, women must dress modestly. The face, hands and feet below the ankles are actually permitted. What is important should also be protected. Just like a mobile phone that is protected by a case. A woman is also very important, with all her body parts, and that is why a woman should also be protected. She should not be an object for other men.” The presenter leaves this promotional piece for an Islamist, misogynistic view of society completely unchallenged.
To emphasise that modest fashion is no longer intended solely for Muslim women, a customer is then given the floor. “I was curious to see what new things were being created here. Now I’m delighted that there’s something here for me too,” she says. She adds by way of explanation: “I don’t want to be guilty of cultural appropriation.”
The spokesperson goes on to elaborate on the promotion of Islamic fashion: “Since the 2012s, modest fashion has developed into a global fashion trend. The market is growing steadily and is now estimated to be worth several billion euros.” He concludes: “Perhaps that is precisely the message behind modest fashion: it’s not about how much skin you show, but how.”
Name of Spanish PM Sánchez Found in the Diary of Leire Díez, Accused of Influence Peddling, Bribery, Obstruction of Justice, Fraud, Document forgery and Embezzlement
Díez is also accused of trying to derail the corruption case against Sánchez’s brother.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro better have enjoyed the days he spent in the company of leftist Pope Leo XIV, because those moments of positive agenda didn’t last.
We have been reporting on how the Socialist ‘leader’ is embroiled in an array of corruption scandals and prosecutions that have so far ensnared his brother, his wife, several of his key allies – notably the former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
Now, as the days when the Pope treated him like a pop star fade in the past, Sánchez is being dragged to the center of the investigations against a former Socialist Party member, director of public companies, Leire Díez.
Díez is accused of a dizzying list of crimes, such as influence peddling, bribery, obstruction of justice, fraud, document forgery, and embezzlement.
And today (15), it arises that Spanish police have identified the initials ‘P.S.’ that occur several times in Díez’s diary with the prime minister, as they investigate efforts to derail the case against Sánchez’s brother.
Euronews reported:
“A personal diary seized from Leire Díez, a former member of Spain’s ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), contains at least four references to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, according to a report by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. In that report, the UCO said that the initials ‘P.S.’ that appear repeatedly in Díez’s notebooks refer to Sánchez. That identification comes via an entry in which Díez herself refers to David Sánchez, the prime minister’s brother, as ‘brother of P.S.’.”
“Investigators include that excerpt in the context of what they describe as a ‘possible strategy’ to derail the legal proceedings concerning the brother of the head of government. According to the report, that strategy is said to have envisaged two avenues: challenging the judge in the case after applying to join the proceedings as a popular prosecution and trying to replace David Sánchez’s lawyer. Both options appear in Díez’s own notebooks.”
“The report also points to the [socialist] party’s former number three, Santos Cerdán, as the driving force both behind the hiring of the lawyers who devised those steps together with Díez, and behind the payment of the trips she made to attend various meetings.
Among the most significant references in the diary is an entry dated 3 February 2025 in which Díez notes a ‘meeting with P.S.’, alongside other references linked to the [corruption suspect] Koldo [García Izaguirre] network. On another earlier page there is an entry that reads: “Copy, USB stick, chain of custody, queries of Ábalos and P.S. databases,” apparently relating to former minister [and corruption defendant] José Luis Ábalos.”
Two-Tier Keir
by Lars Møller
Sir Keir Starmer has become a symbol of British political decline. When he appears in the House of Commons or at press conferences, he embodies the terminal malaise of the post-Blairite era as much as anybody. A man of formidable legal credentials yet conspicuous moral vacuity, he projects the image of principled leadership while revealing himself, time and again, as an opportunist devoid of personal courage and steadfast principles.
Starmer’s career trajectory—from human rights barrister to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and, ultimately, Prime Minister—is less a narrative of consistent ethical commitment than a masterclass in adaptive pretense. Whether navigating the horrors of grooming gangs during his tenure at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or deferring to judicial fiat on the immutable reality of biological sex, he consistently chooses caution, consensus, and political survival over moral clarity. In his person, Britain finds not a reformer but a symptom: the epitome of a nation adrift, where institutional rot, cultural cowardice, and elite hypocrisy accelerate societal collapse.
Starmer’s early reputation as a human rights lawyer offers a telling prologue. Specializing in civil liberties, he represented activists in the landmark McLibel case against McDonald’s and pursued international causes, including efforts to abolish the death penalty in the Caribbean and Africa. Knighted for services to criminal justice, he cultivated an aura of the noble advocate, championing the vulnerable against power. Yet this phase already hinted at selective zeal.
Human rights law, in the hands of ambitious progressives, usually serves as a vehicle for ideological posturing rather than universal principle. Starmer’s work, while undoubtedly securing some convictions and reforms, aligned seamlessly with the prevailing liberal internationalism of the era—a worldview that would later prove flexible when confronted with uncomfortable domestic realities, such as the ethnic dimensions of certain crimes.
Starmer’s tenure as DPP from 2008 to 2013 marks the first major test of character, and it is here that the charges of hypocrisy and institutional failure bite deepest. Under his leadership, the CPS secured notable successes: convictions in the airline bomb plot, prosecutions related to the 2009 expenses scandal, and, crucially, cases against grooming gangs in Rochdale, Rotherham, and Oxford. Reforms to guidelines on domestic abuse and child sexual exploitation were introduced, ostensibly prioritizing victims. Starmer himself later claimed credit for overturning initial reluctance in Rochdale and supporting Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal’s efforts, leading to convictions in 2012. Fact-checkers note that he was not personally involved in the 2009 decision to drop the Rochdale case, citing the victim’s perceived unreliability.
Yet this defense rings hollow in the face of systemic catastrophe. The grooming gang scandals—networks of predominantly Pakistani-heritage men exploiting vulnerable white working-class girls—exposed catastrophic failures in policing, social services, and prosecution. Fear of “racism” accusations, cultural sensitivities, and “perverse ideas about community relations” paralyzed action. Whistleblowers like Maggie Oliver condemned the CPS’s “horrific” decisions. While convictions eventually followed, the delay allowed untold suffering. Starmer’s CPS admitted past errors and revised guidelines in 2013, improving outcomes—but the initial inertia occurred squarely on his watch. Critics, including Elon Musk, have excoriated him for complicity through neglect, accusations that Starmer dismisses by noting his non-political role at the time.
The deeper indictment lies in the pattern: a legalist who, when confronted with politically inconvenient truths about multiculturalism and integration failures, defaulted to institutional caution rather than aggressive pursuit of justice. As head of prosecutions, Starmer possessed authority to drive cultural change within the CPS. Instead, the record suggests a prioritization of optics and career preservation. His later political denial of personal responsibility—“I was not a politician”—is a cowardly evasion. Leadership demands accountability for the institutions that one directs, not retrospective distancing. This episode reveals Starmer not as a bold prosecutor of evil but as a functionary who allowed ideology and fear to undermine the rule of law’s protective function for the most vulnerable.
Starmer’s premiership has only amplified these traits. His handling of the grooming gangs issue as Prime Minister exemplifies opportunistic reversal. Initially resisting a new national inquiry by deferring to the existing Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) led by Professor Alexis Jay, Starmer dismissed critics as engaging in “far-right” agitation. Following Dame Louise Casey’s audit, which exposed ongoing institutional failures, he u-turned, announcing a statutory national inquiry. He framed this as “practical, common sense politics” after “reading every single word” of the report.
This pivot is pure political calculus. Having campaigned on restoring trust and competence, Starmer confronted mounting pressure—parliamentary scrutiny, public outrage, and online amplification. The inquiry serves as damage control, projecting action while deferring substantive reckoning. It underscores a pattern of reactive governance: resist until politically untenable, then claim credit for yielding. Victims of grooming gangs, many still seeking justice and acknowledgment of the ethnic and cultural patterns involved, deserve more than this calibrated response. Starmer’s government inherits and perpetuates the same sensitivities that enabled the scandals—a reluctance to confront uncomfortable demographic realities in the name of “diversity.”
In the matter of sexual differentiation, Starmer’s cowardice is nothing short of stunning—an embarrassment to people with common sense. For years, he parroted the mantra “trans women are women,” aligning with Labour’s progressive base and gender ideology. His government avoided independently clarifying “man” and “woman” under the Equality Act 2010, preferring to interpret existing statute through the courts rather than risk partisan controversy. In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled unequivocally that “sex” refers to biological sex at birth, affirming its binary nature and providing “real clarity” for single-sex spaces, services, and protections. Only then did Starmer’s office affirm acceptance: “a woman is an adult female.”
Not to be confused with principled restraint, Starmer’s deference to judicial intervention is moral abdication. As leader of His Majesty’s Government, he possessed the authority—indeed, the duty—to articulate biological reality rooted in science, safeguarding women’s rights and spaces. Instead, he temporized, awaiting judicial cover to shield himself from activist backlash. This is the behavior of a weakling, not a statesman: a man who lacks the courage to lead on foundational questions of human ontology. Starmer’s evolution from ideological ally to reluctant realist exposes hypocrisy. Principles, if genuine, do not await court approval; they demand articulation, especially when vulnerable groups—women in refuges, prisons, sports—face erasure. Starmer’s pretense of legalism masks a deeper failure: the inability to defend empirical truth against fashionable delusion.
Across these domains, Starmer reveals himself as a man of surfaces. His legal career equipped him with rhetorical facility and procedural mastery, yet these tools serve opportunistic adaptation rather than conviction. He reformed guidelines post-scandal and now launches inquiries, but always one step behind public outrage or judicial decree. This is not thoughtful deliberation; it is the politics of the weathervane. In an age demanding moral courage—to integrate communities honestly, protect children unequivocally, and affirm biological reality unapologetically—Starmer offers performative competence. His knighthood and prosecutorial laurels become ironic ornaments on a figure who, when tested, prioritizes coalition stability over justice.
Britain’s decline finds perfect expression in such leadership as that of Starmer. A nation once defined by institutional rigor and empirical common sense now elevates men who embody equivocation. Grooming scandals festered amid elite denial; gender confusion invades policy and language; public trust erodes as inquiries multiply without resolution.
Although a pitiful leader, Starmer himself is unlikely to go down in history as an architect of collapse. Instead, he has acted as its polished facilitator—a lawyerly everyman whose lack of spine mirrors a broader cultural enervation. Without courage to name truths or principles to anchor policy, his premiership accelerates fragmentation. Honestly, Britain, hollowed by decades of managerialism and ideological capture, deserves better than this exemplar of pretense.
Musk takes legal action against German broadcaster ZDF over Belfast riots report
Elon Musk has announced legal action against Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF after it linked him to anti-migrant violence in Belfast and claimed he had effectively called for a “hunt for migrants” following recent unrest in Northern Ireland.
The dispute centres on a June 12 edition of ZDFheute Live, a flagship digital news and discussion format produced by Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF, which examined the role of social media in the riots that recently erupted after a Sudanese asylum seeker was charged with the attempted murder of a local man in Belfast.
During the programme, presenters and commentators discussed the influence of online figures, including Musk and British activist Tommy Robinson, on anti-immigration sentiment.
One segment stated that Musk had called for a Jagd auf Migranten (“hunt for migrants”), a characterisation the billionaire strongly rejected. On his platform X, Musk described the allegation as a “scandalous lie” and said lawyers had been instructed to pursue legal action against the broadcaster.
The controversy stems from Musk’s reposting of messages from Robinson during the Belfast unrest. Among them was a call for protests against immigration policies. Musk added that “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change”, a message viewed millions of times on X. Critics argued that such interventions helped inflame tensions, while supporters said Musk was merely advocating lawful protest.
Violence broke out across parts of Belfast after graphic footage circulated online showing a knife attack allegedly committed by a Sudanese migrant. Rioters set fire to homes, vehicles and businesses, while police deployed water cannons and made multiple arrests. Northern Irish political leaders accused outside agitators of exploiting the incident to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment.
ZDF has acknowledged that the wording used by its presenter may have been imprecise and open to misunderstanding. However, the broadcaster has defended its wider reporting, arguing that the programme carefully examined the role of influential online figures in amplifying narratives surrounding the riots.
The case is likely to attract significant attention in Germany, where public broadcasters are already facing scrutiny over political impartiality and media accountability. It also highlights growing tensions between traditional media organisations and influential social media personalities, particularly over how responsibility for online discourse and real-world violence should be assessed.
Musk has increasingly resorted to legal challenges against media outlets and researchers whom he accuses of misrepresenting his statements or activities. The ZDF dispute now risks becoming a high-profile test of where the line lies between legitimate journalistic interpretation and defamatory mischaracterisation.
Syrian Suspects Top German Pool Crime Figures
Figures released from German police statistics show that Syrian nationals were the largest foreign-national group among suspects identified in violent incidents and certain sexual offences recorded at public bathing sites last year.
The data, obtained by Junge Freiheit from a federal government response to a parliamentary question, showed that authorities recorded 360 violent incidents at public swimming and bathing areas in 2025 involving 426 suspects. Of those, 178 did not hold German citizenship.
Among foreign-national suspects, Syrians accounted for the largest group, with 52 suspects identified in connection with violent offences. Afghan nationals were the second-largest group with 15 suspects, followed by Turkish nationals with 11.
The figures have attracted renewed attention amid ongoing debate in Germany over migration, public security, and the integration of recent arrivals.
The issue has remained in the spotlight following a series of high-profile violent crimes and knife attacks in Germany and neighbouring Austria.
One of the most serious cases began being heard this week before a court in Vienna, where ten Syrian nationals are standing trial over an attack that allegedly left several teenagers seriously injured.
According to Austrian prosecutors, around 20 young men armed with knives, sticks, pepper spray, brass knuckles, and a blank-firing pistol attacked four teenagers in Vienna’s Floridsdorf district in November 2025. Prosecutors allege the assault was organised following a dispute linked to an alleged insult to the honour of one of the group’s leaders.
Several victims suffered injuries, including a 14-year-old boy who was allegedly stabbed multiple times and required hospital treatment. One defendant faces an attempted murder charge, while the remaining accused face charges including grievous bodily harm.
Prosecutors allege that the attack was coordinated through messages exchanged in a chat group before the suspects gathered at a local mosque and travelled to the meeting point armed with weapons. The defendants deny the charges.
The trial is expected to continue until late July and is taking place under heightened security measures.
The German statistics and the Vienna case have added further momentum to a debate that continues to shape political discussion across much of Europe, where questions surrounding migration, integration, and public safety remain among the most contested issues in public life.
A Secret UK Gov Unit Has Been Planting Lies About Terrorism in the Media
‘You can see their fingerprints all over the statements released by the families of victims”
When a Libyan Muslim terrorist carried out the horrifying Manchester Arena attack targeting young children, the media quickly began running a hoax story that a Muslim homeless man had been helping save people.
(It turned out he was actually robbing them.)
Where did the story come from? How do these counter-narratives emerge so quickly and in such an organized fashion after Islamic terrorist attacks in such a consistent fashion (“he was mentally ill” “actually, Muslims were the real rescuers in the attack”)… at least in the UK, there may be an answer.
The name of the secretive Government propaganda unit trying to manipulate events makes it sound like an innocuous back-office operation – the Research, Information and Communications Unit, or RICU.
The 22-strong unit was established in 2007 by the late Charles Farr, a former MI6 officer, as part of the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy.
Modelled on the Information Research Department (IRD), a propaganda unit established by the Attlee government in 1948 to blacken the names of communists and other political opponents, RICU operates out of the Home Office’s Westminster headquarters.
When the mobs took to the streets of Northern Ireland last week following the stabbing of Stephen Ogilvie, allegedly by Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum-seeker, RICU swung into action to advise the police in the province on how to ‘control the narrative’.
What does that entail? When you see a statement from the family of a victim disavowing any anger or protests, it’s apparently coming out of RICU.
It has also been claimed that the unit intervenes to write statements by the families of victims of potentially racially linked incidents to stop them from inflaming tensions further with their remarks.
The source said: ‘You can see their fingerprints all over the statements released by the families of victims in these volatile situations – they usually have a similar tone.’
It has a long history of ‘covertly engineering’, in the words of one expert, ‘the thoughts of people’ at times of crisis, being quick to spring into action after terrorist incidents such as the London Bridge attacks in 2017. Eight people died when a van was driven into pedestrians on London Bridge and the three occupants ran to a nearby market and began stabbing people.
A team in an unmarked van is also understood to have toured the area plastering the walls with posters bearing hashtags such as #TurnToLove, #ForLondon and #LoveWillWin.
Similarly, after the British aid worker Alan Henning was decapitated by Islamic State in Syria in 2014, RICU used a specially created ‘front operation’ to plant an image of a woman in a Union Jack hijab in the media.
In June 2017, Darren Osborne, a recent convert to far-Right ideology, drove a white van into a crowd of pedestrians close to Finsbury Park mosque in north London, killing one person and injuring ten. Reports at the time said that Osborne had been held down and beaten by people at the scene, until an imam appealed to them to stop.
It later emerged that the reports about the peace-making imam had originated after journalists were approached at the police cordon by a woman called ‘Gabbie’, who said she worked for a company called ‘Horizon PR’ and offered to introduce them to a third party who ‘stressed to the journalists the role that the mosque’s imam had played in protecting Osborne until he could be handed over to police’.
The story was the work of an agency called Breakthrough Media – which had been paid by RICU.
The unit’s fingerprints were also all over the hashtag #WeStandTogether which appeared on Twitter afterwards and was shared by prominent politicians, police commanders and the London Fire Brigade.
So there’s a unit of the government that pushes post-attack propaganda, some of which consists of actual lies, pressures family members into releasing statements, and all of this Black Mirror stuff is kept secret.
But it’s not just the UK.
There were serious questions about the role of a DOJ unit known as the Community Relations Service in the BLM riots under Obama.
In Australia, the narrative was quickly manufactured after the Bondi beach attacks that the real hero was a Muslim. In Italy, after a recent Car Jihad attack, a similar narrative rapidly popped up.
I don’t want to get too conspiratorial here, but it’s apparently not very far fetched to speculate that there are government units, originally set up to fight racial tensions, e.g. the DOJ’s CRS, or Islamic terrorism, e.g. the UK’s RICU, that morphed into putting out narratives to spin Islamic terrorism and suppress the truth.