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Nigel Farage has been paid by a cryptocurrency adviser to US President Donald Trump, who worked with Paul Manafort – Trump's former campaign chair, jailed for financial crimes after investigations into his Kremlin-aligned influence operations – to lobby the president on Bitcoin policy.

David Bailey, chief executive of BTC Inc and a senior cryptocurrency adviser to Trump, brought Manafort into his lobbying operation in early 2024. Together, Manafort and Bailey spent the rest of the year working to persuade Trump to embrace Bitcoin and establish America's first Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Bailey subsequently paid Farage a speaking fee through BTC Inc, months before the Reform UK leader unveiled a pro-crypto policy platform that mirrors the Trump administration's digital asset agenda.

Paul Manafort's role in the development of Trump's entire cryptocurrency strategy raises questions about Bitcoin's role as a vehicle of Russian influence, in particular as a mechanism to weaken national fiat currencies.

It also links Farage to one of the most controversial figures in modern American politics – and raises questions about whose interests are actually being served by Reform UK's proposed Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill.

Trump's Campaign Chair

Paul Manafort's involvement in shaping Trump's Bitcoin policy represents a remarkable political rehabilitation. The veteran Republican operative was convicted in 2018 on charges including tax fraud and bank fraud, stemming from his work advancing Russian interests.

A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation concluded in August 2020 that Manafort's activities "represented a grave counterintelligence threat" to the United States. The committee found that while serving as Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, Manafort regularly shared internal campaign polling data and strategy with Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the report identified as a Russian intelligence officer. The US Treasury Department later confirmed that Kilimnik "provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy."

Manafort's work for Russian-aligned interests stretched back decades. From 2005, he held a $10 million annual contract with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska – described as closely aligned with Vladimir Putin – for work that Manafort said would "greatly benefit the Putin Government." The Senate committee concluded this influence work was "in effect, influence work for the Russian Government and its interests."

Between 2004 and 2014, Manafort worked as chief political adviser to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's pro-Russian president, and his Party of Regions, which US diplomats described as "a haven" for "mobsters and oligarchs." Manafort received millions in undisclosed payments to rehabilitate Yanukovych's image in the West and advance pro-Kremlin policies, including blocking Ukraine's NATO membership.

Trump pardoned Manafort, who has always denied representing Russian political interests, in December 2020.

Trump and Musk Welcome Russian Propaganda After Sanctioning European Disinformation Experts

If there's any question that the US is now more aligned with Russia rather than Europe, recent State Department decisions have removed all doubt

Peter Jukes

Manafort's Return

By early 2024, David Bailey had recruited Paul Manafort to help orchestrate what would become one of the biggest political pivots of Trump's campaign: his transformation from crypto sceptic to Bitcoin champion.

Bailey was first connected to Manafort after a meeting of fellow Bitcoin evangelists in Puerto Rico which included Tracy Hoyos-López – Manafort is her sister's godfather. Manafort then plugged Bailey into the heart of Donald Trump's campaign team.

Over the next few months, Bailey and Manafort worked to educate Trump's inner circle on Bitcoin policy, craft messagin...

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One year into the second Trump Presidency and America is now a very different place. It may superficially look the same from the outside. Many of us are able to go through the motions of our daily lives in the same ways as before. But, everything is changed on the inside.

America has become a place where it is no longer entirely safe to speak freely. Where criticizing the Government can get you into trouble, perhaps even cause you to be fired from your job, or deported. Where engaging in public protest can get you arrested. Where every day you wake up with a clenching stomach, wondering what new Government outrage has happened overnight.

Where every day, hordes of masked men roam communities, terrorize individuals, wantonly grab people off the streets, from their cars, or places of business, rough them up and throw them into detention, on no evidence whatsoever that they are guilty of any wrongdoing. All of this sanctioned by the Government authorities that are supposedly here to protect us.

I can't believe I'm actually writing these words. I can't believe I am actually living in a country where extra-judicial executions, such as happened with Renee Good in Minneapolis last week, killed by an ICE officer, can take place; where forced disappearances have become routine; where individuals with legal residency or citizenship status can be swept up in anti-immigration raids, if they happen to look foreign (translation – black or brown), or be hanging around in a place frequented by immigrants; where even young children can be snatched up and taken into detention.

100 People Detained in UK Immigration Removal Centres Say They Are Subjected to Extreme Physical and Emotional Abuse

Individuals detained at two detention centres report experiencing physical, psychological and emotional abuse at the hands of officers

Nicola Kelly

I can't believe I'm living in a country where the authorities, instead of investigating the officer who killed Renee Good, are slandering her as a "domestic terrorist" and investigating her widow for potential obstruction of ICE agents.

Those of us privileged to live in majority white, suburban, or middle-class communities can pretend to ourselves that life is still normal and that we won't be swept up in this madness. But, it's a delusion.

Today, every interaction is overshadowed by the political climate.

Today, when I meet friends, we don't just catch up with each other's news. We always ask each other, with deliberate meaning, "how are you doing?" – the subtext being, "how are you handling the stress caused by the latest Trump outrage?"

When I meet strangers, we dance delicately around the subject of Trump, to find out whether we are on the same political page or not, before opening up more substantively to each other.

With strangers, we use euphemisms to lead into a conversation about current events – "with everything going on", "in today's crazy world", and decode responses carefully to work out where we each stand.

This is how I always imagined people living in authoritarian countries communicated with each other, in lowered tones, or using veiled references, in case someone hostile is listening.

I no longer ask people of obviously foreign origin where they are from, how long they have lived in America or their current status. It's better not to know.

I feel privately relieved and ashamed not to be a migrant, black or Hispanic myself. I imagine this is not dissimilar to how many Germans felt in the early 1930s, when they became uneasily aware that their Jewish neighbours were being harassed by Hitler's brownshirts.

A year ago, I felt able to write articles or post on social media about current events without worrying about whether this might get me, or anyone associated with me, into trouble. Last summer, amidst the hounding of anyone who posted anything negative about...

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Protesters in Scotland arrested for carrying signs in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action have been offered £100 fines instead of prosecution. Critics of PA's proscription say this shows that the use of terrorism legislation on supporters of PA is "ridiculous".

Adam McGibbon was first arrested in October last year for holding up a sign which read "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action" in protest at the designation of the direct action group as a terrorist organisation and their proscription under the Terrorism Act. He was arrested again on one other occasion and was charged four times under the Terrorism Act.

In late December, McGibbon and two other activists who spoke to Byline Times were sent letters with the offer of a £100 fine in lieu of prosecution for some of their offences in breach of section 13 by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. £100, they noted, is roughly equivalent to a parking fine.

McGibbon, a seasoned climate activist, told Byline Times: "If supporting Palestine Action is so bad and so terrible like Dan Jarvis the security minister said it was in parliament in September, then how come you can get off for the same price as parking ticket?".

"I mean do the Islamic State get this offer?" he added.

The proscription of Palestine Action has seen protests up and down the UK in defiance of the proscription with activists holding signs in support of the group. Police have made thousands of arrests since the proscription of PA in July 2025.

EXCLUSIVE

Palestine Action Arrests Condemned as 'Deeply Alarming' While British Press Remains Silent

The Liberal Democrats described the arrests of campaigners against the ban on the group as a "dangerous precedent" for free speech, yet the British press remains largely silent about it

Josiah Mortimer

Section 13 of the Terrorism Act makes it illegal to wear clothing or hold signs that might be reasonably understood as support for a proscribed terrorist organisation, meaning protesters showing their support for PA by holding signs risk a £5000 fine and six months imprisonment.

While theoretically a relatively serious offence under the Terrorism Act, the authorities in the devolved administrations in the UK appear to be less inclined to prosecute than the CPS in England.

In Northern Ireland section 13 is rarely enforced because statements or items that could constitute support for Northern Irish paramilitaries are commonplace, and police powers are devolved to Stormont.

Catherine Allen, another activist who was offered the penalty said that the fines and the comparatively gentle treatment of the Scottish protesters by law enforcement "could suggest that even the police don't have their hearts in it given how ridiculous arresting peaceful protesters is, and that protesting genocide is not a crime".

McGibbon, Allen and another activist spoken to by Byline Times said they would be rejecting the offer of the fine.

In a letter sent back to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Allen and some of her fellow activists stated: "the offer of a fine equivalent to a parking ticket or a warning is both revealing and revolting. Revealing because it indicates that deep down the Procurator Fiscal Office in Scotland agrees that we are a million miles from being 'terrorists'. Revolting because it offers a fine like a sweetie – accept this sweetie, the offer states, and then stop asking us to get a moral compass".

The group stated that they were demanding the Scottish police to stop arresting and charging them for their repeat protests.

BREAKING

Palestine Action Ban Branded 'Absurd and Dangerous' as Group Asks High Court to Overturn Proscription

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the High Court in order to oppose the ban on the direct action group, Olly Haynes reports

Olly Haynes

The letter also stated that the g...

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Russian forces began using First Person View (FPV) drones to hunt civilians in Kherson in the summer of 2024, a practice first reported by Byline Times on July 29 that year. Known as the human safari, the tactic deliberately targets civilians, emergency workers, and infrastructure staff and has since been recognized as both a war crime and a crime against humanity, with the aim of forceful displacement.

In response, the Kherson Regional Military Administration has developed layered defences to counter the attacks.

On January 8, these measures, along with the 2025 data, were presented by Head of the Kherson Military Administration Oleksandr Prokudin at a press conference held in a Kherson bomb shelter while undergoing shelling.

Attacks and Casualties

In 2025, the Russian Federation military shelled the territory of the Kherson Region 146,000 times, firing more than 235,000 shells at Kherson city and villages. As a result of Russian shelling, 307 civilians in the region were killed, including six children. Another 2,564 people were injured, including 62 children.

Half of the Russian strikes on the community were carried out by drones. Almost every second victim in the region was injured or killed by a drone attack.

About 100,000 Russian drones targeted civilians, children, the elderly, emergency medical teams, city facilities, critical infrastructure, and maintenance staff in the Kherson region in 2025.

130 civilians died in the Kherson region as a result of the Russian "human safari," including three children. Another 1,195 civilians were injured, including 17 children.

"Anyone who moves becomes a target, including pensioners going to the market, children out for a walk, and ambulances responding to emergency calls," said Prokudin.

Inventing Anti-drone Defences in the Ever-changing Environment

Countering drone attacks is a priority for the city and regional military administrations. According to Oleksandr Prokudin, there is no single magic solution, and innovation and creativity remain key to effective defence. No means or system can guarantee 100% protection against drones at this moment. No so-called "umbrella" or "universal dome" capable of protecting 100% of a city from drone attacks yet exists, either in Ukraine or in the world's most technologically advanced states.

Effective countermeasures require a combination of available forces and tools, anticipation of technological developments, and the methods to counter them.

City authorities, in collaboration with the Ukrainian military, strengthened protection against FPV drones and large Shahed-type drones and built a three-level defence system. This included:

A radio-electronic wall operates simultaneously at fifteen frequencies and helps disable and destroy different types of drones, from Mavic to FPV

Physical barriers, including anti-drone tunnels, stop drones from entering key areas

Mobile units are deployed to shoot down drones that bypass these defences

In recent months, Ukrainian units have shot down 230 Russian Shahed drones, and the number continues to rise monthly, according to Prokudin. In 2025, Ukrainian forces destroyed 93,000 Russian small drones, accounting for 97% of the total number.

The drone technology battle is never static: the Russian military constantly improves drone technology, and, in response, the Ukrainian military continuously adapts its defences. Both Ukraine and Russia are deploying fiber-optic drones, as well as AI-assisted and swarming drones. These systems allow real-time data processing, automated target recognition, and coordinated operations, compensating for personnel shortages and contested signal environments. The technology race adds a new dimension to the human safari, making drone attacks faster and harder to counter.

The EU's 'Farage Clause' Shows the Damage Reform Is Already Doing to the UK

As ...

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Reports this week suggest that the EU is seeking a so-called 'Farage Clause' in its Brexit reset negotiations with the UK. Under the proposal, Britain would be forced to hand over compensation to the EU if a future UK Government reneges on any deal struck now by Keir Starmer.

The news comes some eight months since the last UK-EU summit which unveiled the first details of this 'reset' in relations promised by the then new Labour Government.

Everything else announced at last May's summit was aspirational, including statements made about the other three areas highlighted by Labour during the election.

Two of these, mutual recognition of professional qualifications and new provisions for touring artists, were not prioritized by the summit. Only the third UK priority was among those given more prominence, a 'sanitary and phytosanitary' (SPS) agreement on food and agricultural trade. A Youth Mobility Scheme, initially resisted by the UK but desired by the EU, was also among the prominent possibilities.

EXCLUSIVE

The Reform-Backed Far-Right Street Patrols Coming to British School Gates

EXCLUSIVE: Nationalist vigilante groups, with links to Neo-Nazis, and the support of senior Reform figures, have been falsely claiming police backing while attempting to infiltrate local school networks

Nichola Lashmar

Since the summit, little progress has been made on realizing these aspirations. The only new agreement has been for the UK to join the Erasmus+ study exchange programme from 2027.

On the other hand, negotiations for the UK to participate in the EU's SAFE defence procurement scheme have ended in failure. Now, although there are several other issues under negotiation, most attention focuses on an SPS agreement and an agreement to link UK and EU emissions trading schemes (ETS).

The potential deals on SPS and ETS share a particular feature, which is that both would require the UK to agree to 'dynamic alignment' with EU regulations and, with that, some role for the European Courts of Justice (ECJ). Politically, this makes them anathema to Brexiters, and they have come on to the agenda because an ECJ role was the only one of the previous Conservative Government's Brexit 'red lines' which Labour have, very quietly, dropped.

Even so, for a long time Labour ministers tried to imply that these deals would be possible without dynamic alignment. But this was never realistic, and it has recently been reported that Starmer's Government is preparing legislation to enable such regulatory alignment in these two areas, and perhaps others. This suggests, although there has been no announcement of it, that agreement on SPS and ETS is imminent.

One issue which may still be under negotiation is what is being reported as the EU's requirement for a 'Farage clause'. This, it appears, would be a guarantee of compensation in the event of a future UK Government reneging on SPS, ETS, or other related agreements. It has a particular salience because both Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have indicated that if they came to power then they would reverse agreements made with the EU by the Labour Government.

The 'Farage clause' reports are significant because this is perhaps the first time something widely discussed by commentators has been repeated by officials, albeit they are unnamed. It shows that domestic UK politics constitutes a real block on a substantive reset, something which applies even more strongly to more ambitious ideas about joining the EU, or the Single Market, or creating a UK-EU Customs Union. For, so long as there is no settled political consensus about closer post-Brexit relations with the EU, and every possibility that the next government will be ferociously opposed to closer relations, there are significant risks to the EU in reaching agreements with the present Government.

It often used to be remarked during th...

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"I'm f***ing freezing, like an ice cube" says Viktor, a Polish homeless man huddled in Old Street Station to shelter from the bitterly cold weather.

Unlike parts of the UK, London has not been covered in snow by Storm Goretti, though it has experienced freezing temperatures, strong winds, heavy rain and a arctic air that means you don't want to be caught outside for too long.

Temperatures at night over recent days have reached as low as -7 in London. While other people can escape the worst of the cold at home, for rough sleepers like Viktor extreme weather presents a struggle for survival.

Viktor has enough to pay for a hostel tonight, though he doesn't always. He often struggles for funds at the weekend when there are fewer commuters to give him change. On those days he shelters in "phone boxes where it's not that cold. Though it is still cold below the knees. Sometimes I fire up newspapers to warm me up".

According to Crisis, the homelessness charity, around 15,000 people slept rough last year in the UK. Figures from the Combined Homelessness and Information Network show that between April 2024 and March 2025, around 13,000 people slept rough in London.

EXCLUSIVE

The Refugees Turned Out on to Freezing Streets to Clear Rishi Sunak's Asylum Backlog

The Prime Minister's belated rush to clear his legacy asylum backlog is forcing refugees into destitution on Glasgow's freezing streets, reports Nicola Kelly

Nicola Kelly

Charities warn that they are at acute risk from the cold weather. Francesca Albanese, executive director of policy and social change at Crisis, said:

"Rough sleeping is extremely dangerous all year round, but a night spent in freezing temperatures or in the most extreme weather can be deadly. It's vital that people who would otherwise be sleeping on the streets are helped into safe, emergency accommodation".

This is done by a process called the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol or SWEP. Although not a legal requirement, most local authorities have SWEP procedures in place which provide emergency housing for homeless people in extreme weather situations.

The fact that it is not a legal requirement has led to criticism over how London has handled the recent spate of cold weather. London activated its SWEP on January 3, but deactivated it three days later because forecasts predicted temperatures above 0.

The charity Streets Kitchen which does cold outreach, branded the move "life threatening" and told the Metro newspaper that: "For too long, the safety of our city's most vulnerable has relied on a 'humanitarian duty' rather than a legal mandate."

Peter O'Grady, Director of Food For All, a charity which runs a food bank and a soup kitchen in King's Cross told Byline Times that they had seen more visitors since the weather got colder. "It's grim out there" he said. "You wouldn't think this would happen in a country like England which has so much wealth" he added.

TJ, another homeless man who sleeps in a doorway in Old Street, and sits outside a shop is in contact with Street Link, a service which connects homeless people to their local services. He hopes they can find him a room. Living homeless on and off for the last few years, he told Byline Times that this time he'd been on the street since the 21st of December. "It's very wet and cold. But I've just got to do what I do. I suppose I'm torturing myself [sitting here]".

The Mayor's office reactivated the SWEP for the past weekend. A Greater London Authority spokesperson said: "We need to ensure vulnerable people are protected in adverse weather.

"City Hall's rough sleeping team are regularly reviewing SWEP to make sure it continues to fulfil its vital purpose to support those most in need. They are continuing to monitor temperatures this week and have activated SWEP this weekend with freezing temperatures forecast.

"The Mayor is c...

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Impending spot checks to see how well e-gaming firms and online casinos are deploying measures against financial crimes and terrorism funding have left the Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man badly exposed, a leading authority on Anti Money Laundering (AML), has told Byline Times.

"This is where the Isle of Man definitely has a high risk of being grey-listed," said Dr Ilaria Zavoli, a senior researcher at the University of Leeds, adding: "What I see is not positive."

Grey listing is an international designation for jurisdictions with strategic financial-crime and terrorism-funding deficiencies and can trigger rapid 'de-risking' by investors.

The warning comes ahead of a critical inspection of the Irish Sea island's regulatory health next year by Moneyval, the European partner to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF); inter-governmental bodies which combat the financing of terrorism and global cybercrime worth $15Tn a year – a figure set to reach 20Tn in 2026, making it the second biggest economy behind China.

Inspectors are expecting a series of legislative improvements at the Crown Dependency – first called for in 2016 – alongside effective implementation of financial crime protections within the 148 companies it currently regulates.

EXCLUSIVE

Inside the Silicon Valley Plot to Annex Venezuela for Oil That America Can't Afford

Donald Trump's decapitation of the Venezuelan Government opens the door to his Big Tech oligarch supporters' dreams of creating an anti-democratic 'Network State' in the country, reports Nafeez Ahmed

Nafeez Ahmed

Dr Zavoli, a lawyer whose academic work informs UK AML policy on property and construction, said: "The Isle of Man Government must show both that it has the tools to fight money laundering and economic crime and that it's using them properly.

"The inspectors will go into businesses directly and ask them, for example, how their suspicious activity reports and anti-money laundering checks work in daily practice?

"They will not be fooled by fine words and box ticking. This will be the main channel of risk for grey-listing."

Finding itself in the company of Botswana, Albania and Lebanon on an FATF-body grey list could cost the Isle of Man 11% of its £6bn economy, according to Government predictions.

At £660m a year, it would take just three years to equal the island's entire circa-£2bn cash reserves, while posing real risk to its prized AA3 credit rating.

The Isle of Man financial services sector has suffered a string of damaging headlines in the last 18 months. Last year a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report called the island a "transnational laundromat" for Asian crime groups exploiting "under-regulated" online gambling platforms, while Manx structures have also been implicated in so-called "pig-butchering" crypto scams – long-con investment frauds linked to human-trafficking.

Last month, a Financial Times investigation raised serious questions about the due diligence carried out by the Isle of Man Government in relation to King Gaming, a company under investigation over "huge" allegations of fraud and international money laundering.

Further, day-to-day governance on the island will soon be falling under the Moneyval spotlight. These include a £90m court case featuring allegations, denied by the Manx Department of Infrastructure and its Treasury, of unlawful interference and misfeasance in public office over the award of an infrastructure contract, a saga that has left Douglas locals exasperated and missing a new bus station, shops, and homes first promised more than a decade ago.

"Moneyval looks at all aspects of the way the island is run when it makes its grey listing decisions," says Dr Zavoli. "Definitely they will care about this. If there is any suggestion of corruption in public offices that obviously has a reputational threat to th...

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A group of more than 100 detainees say that they have been subjected to extreme physical, psychological and emotional abuse at two immigration removal centres.

A report produced by asylum seekers at Harmondsworth and Brook House alleges that guards have intimidated, humiliated and been physically abusive towards them. The group is calling for access to legal representation and healthcare and the respect for universal human rights.

"We are not criminals; we are refugees seeking safety and freedom," they said in a statement. "Our only 'crime' was crossing the English Channel and requesting asylum."

They added: "Healthcare is inadequate, legal representation is denied, families are isolated, and basic human rights are violated. People are mentally deteriorating due to constant fear, harassment, and uncertainty about their fate… Our lives are at risk."

Their report includes incidents of alleged abuse, including the removal of several people "taken to France against their will" under the government's 'one in, one out scheme'.

EXCLUSIVE

British Woman Left 'Stranded' in Hungary After Home Office Refuse to Let Her Bring Niece to the UK

The 13-year-old girl, who she was given parental responsibility over after being abandoned by her parents, could be sent into state care because of the Home Office's decision

Nicola Kelly

One Ethiopian man reported being physically beaten for protesting his removal. The group says that the families of those who have been deported to France under the scheme are given no information about their relatives' location or welfare, raising serious safety concerns.

In one case, a man with severe mental health issues was told he could not access treatment because he already had a plane ticket to France. Several detainees have attempted suicide but been dismissed without adequate treatment or psychological support, the report found.

In October 2025, charity Medical Justice told the Home Affairs Select Committee that all those people its clinicians had assessed in immigration removal centres, who had been detained pending removal, had a serious mental health condition. Suicidal thoughts were "alarmingly common" with several people stating that they wished to die rather than be deported to France.

Emma Ginn, Director of Medical Justice said: "Clinical safeguards in UK immigration detention do not operate as intended, and fail to identify, protect and route out vulnerable people unsuitable for detention. The harm caused by immigration detention is widely acknowledged."

In 2023, the Brook House Inquiry identified a "toxic culture" and "credible evidence" of breaches of human rights law including the use of racist, derogatory language by some staff towards detainees. The Inquiry followed a BBC Panorama documentary in which guards at the detention centre were seen adopting use-of-force techniques to provoke or punish people. The programme also showed the endemic use of drugs, the failure to report incidents of attempted suicide and the frequent racial abuse of detainees.

Last year, three individuals took legal action against the Government for its failure to comply with the 33 recommendations in the Brook House Inquiry final report. The claimants, who were all former immigration detainees, said that they had been subject to mistreatment. They argued that neither the Conservative nor the Labour governments have taken steps to comply with the recommendations and have actively weakened safeguards through their policies, putting greater numbers of vulnerable people at risk of harm in detention.

Shabana Mahmood's Asylum Seeker Military 'Warehousing' Plans Delayed Amid Opposition by Labour MPs

Home Office sources tell Byline Times that local Labour MPs are opposing plans by the Home Secretary to use barracks and army bases to house asylum seekers amid rising community tensions

Nicola Kell...

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A British citizen has been "left stranded" in Hungary with her two children while attempting to bring her 13-year-old niece to the UK.

Natali is the girl's legal guardian and has full parental responsibility for the child, who was previously in state care. Yesterday the Home Office refused her niece a visa to settle in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme, citing a lack of evidence.

Despite providing all of the required documentation, including translated copies of birth certificates showing evidence of a family relationship, the Home Office stated that the child would be refused settlement as "admission to the UK is not necessary to safeguard the child's best interests."

Natali is a settled UK resident with indefinite leave to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme. A UK Home Study Assessment by Hartlepool's Children's Services confirmed that she can provide a safe and loving home for her niece.

EXCLUSIVE

'They've Ruined Christmas': Nigerian Student Blocked By Home Office From Visiting UK Family for Holidays

British academic and his Nigerian wife repeatedly stopped from hosting family members, including at their own wedding, due to visa restrictions brought in by Keir Starmer's Government

Nicola Kelly

She fears that her niece, who was abandoned by her parents in May 2025, will now be sent back to institutional care.

"I am stuck in Hungary, trapped between two impossible choices," said Natali. "I must either stay here, which isn't my children's home, or return to the UK without my niece, abandoning her back into state care. That would be highly traumatic for her."

She added: "I have met every requirement, submitted every document and followed instructions from both governments, in the UK and in Hungary. I am trying to remain calm but I am exhausted and running out of funds. I can't even fuel my car. I don't know what more I can do."

Natali travelled to Hungary on 1 November to bring her niece to their local UKVI centre for a biometric appointment and to submit final paperwork. The child protection application was made on November 7. Following the appointment at the UKVI centre, the family were informed the process would be swift as they had paid for priority processing.

The Home Office refusal was issued without prior clarification or further request for documents. Official court and social service records had been provided, alongside birth certificates indicating that the teenager was related to Natali and that she had been in state care after being abandoned by her parents.

Alongside concerns for her niece, Natali fears that further delays will mean that her two children, who were born and raised in the UK, face attendance and safeguarding penalties by local authorities when they return to Britain.

"My children are missing school and separated from their father," she said. "They are stuck in a foreign country where they cannot speak the language and struggle to communicate with anyone except me. It is an impossible situation."

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Prior to the visa refusal, Natali's local MP Jonathan Brash had attempted to urgently contact the Home Office to emphasise that this is a child protection and family reunification case supported by the UK and Hungarian authorities. The Home Office response indicated that the visa application would take longer to process as the family are outside the UK.

The department said in its refusal letter that the final decision took into accoun...

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At two in the morning, Venezuelan time, on January 3 the lights went out across Caracas. Within hours, the geopolitical architecture of the Western Hemisphere had been violently rearranged.

Under cover of a cyber-induced blackout, the United States launched Operation Absolute Resolve – a massive, multi-domain military intervention that culminated in the extrajudicial capture and rendition of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The White House has framed this as being a decisive law enforcement action against a "narco-terrorist" regime. President Donald Trump declared the US was now "in charge" of Venezuela, with Maduro jailed in New York.

However, the players and financial interests behind the raid reveal something far more troubling. The move not only dovetails with longstanding Russian attempts, since 2017, to encourage Trump to consider annexing Venezuela, in return for allowing Russia to take control of Ukraine, further evidence unearthed by Byline Times also ties it to tech industry plans to turn a sovereign nation into a laboratory for Silicon Valley's most radical experiment: the "Network State."

The 'Network State' Laboratory

The US fossil fuel industry spent some $445 million through the last election cycle to influence Donald Trump and US Congress, and donated $19 million to Trump's inauguration ceremonies.

Yet the American shale boom which has buoyed the US economy for the last decade is inexorably slowing down. Industry insiders and even conventional forecasts acknowledge that US shale oil and gas production is likely to peak this decade, hitting a long plateau before a decline that steadily shaves off the traditional foundations of US prosperity.

Grabbing Venezuelan oil, at least on paper, compensates for this coming energy crisis – expanding the total fossil fuel resources, boosting oil stock prices and conveying to global markets that US oil majors are here to stay.

However, for pro-Trump Silicon Valley figures like Peter Thiel, Balaji Srinivasan, and Marc Andreessen, the annexation of Venezuela represents a business opportunity of a different kind.

They are proponents of what Srinivasan has branded the "Network State" – a movement seeking to fragment existing nations into proprietary, market-governed enclaves or "startup societies". Venezuela, broken by sanctions and now decapitated by military force, offers the potential of being the ultimate tabula rasa.

The intellectual blueprint for this intervention began years ago.

Founder of the Charter Cities Institute Mark Lutter, who in 2018 received funding from the Thiel-backed Emergent Ventures for work "on charter cities and also an attempt to create a new charter city", previously discussed authoring a white paper on Venezuela premised on a "transfer of power". The paper was never released to the public.

In a 2019 conversation Mark Lutter and 80,000 Hours podcast host Robert Wiblin talked about how to capitalise on the forcible removal of the Venezuelan Government. Speaking seven years before the US eventually decapitated the regime, the pair spoke about the sovereignty of the country as being a mere obstacle to economic experimentation. Wiblin, a former Executive Director at the Centre for Effective Altruism – the philosophical engine room for a significant faction of Silicon Valley – hypothesised a scenario where "Maduro gets removed" without saying by what means. Lutter revealed that his Centre for Innovative Governance Research was already drafting a white paper based on the "assumption" that this "transfer of power" would occur.

Crucially, Lutter framed this regime change as a necessary precondition for his ideology to take root. He argued that a post-Maduro Government, likely operating in a state of desperation, would be "willing to adopt ideas that otherwise they might not be willing to adopt" – specifically, handing ...