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A Facebook group that flooded social media in support of Boris Johnson during the Brexit referendum has now rebranded and is part of a multi-platform, monetised network, pushing pro-Reform and anti-immigration sentiment.

Six years ago, Fight4Brexit (F4B) was revealed to be one of several similar groups - run by real people - that encouraged its members to post en masse in support of the then Prime Minister, and to do so in deliberate imitation of automated bots because "it annoys the other side".

The group gradually disappeared from people's timelines after the UK elected to leave the EU, but Byline Times can now reveal that F4B has returned as part of a wider network using Facebook and TikTok to push its agenda under the guise of a fake political campaign - and that the entire scheme is run by just one man.

Lewis Morris is a twenty-nine-year-old former garden centre worker from Liverpool who, according to the electoral roll, lives at home with his mother and sister.

Morris, who has been active on Facebook since 2010, started the Extreme Weather page - posting videos and images of wild weather from around the world - in 2014. He launched F4B in 2018, then the popular Garden Makeover Ideas on a Budget (GMIB) group the following year.

Mostly innocuous, both Extreme Weather and GMIB used human interest content to grow their audience and currently have 1.7 million followers between them.

F4B was different, focusing on anti-Jeremy Corbyn memes, pro-Boris Johnson content and encouraging followers to post "I back Boris 100%" on multiple platforms because "it's driving Remainers crazy".

Post-Brexit, F4B rebranded as British Updates, the pro-Boris posts were replaced with anti-immigrant content; the page now has 173,000 followers. Morris also rebranded himself as a "journalist" and, more recently, a "Reform Spokesperson".

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Reform has yet to respond to a request to clarify Morris' involvement with the party, but his name does not appear on any of their literature and his 'journalism' is limited to a website linked to the British Updates page.

Hosting more ads than content, the site presents paraphrased versions of anti-woke tabloid news stories without context or links to the originals.

Sharing little about his personal life, Morris' own Facebook page, which bears the Meta blue verification tick, regularly shares memes and videos from the British Updates page and his associated website.

He also reposts content from multiple other Facebook pages, namely We Support Great Britain, We Are Proud to be British, UK Updates, UK News Updates, UK Daily Updates, and Get Labour Out, which are also owned and run by Morris and have a combined 451,000 followers.

All of these pages advertise Morris' news website, except Get Labour Out, which links instead to a GoFundMe page, a related TikTok account with 40,000 followers and an associated 'merch' website.

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Morris declares that the £1,398 currently raised is for a campaign to "remove every Labour MP from power for a Generation" and advises donors that their cash will be used for "demonstration materials, staffing costs, and advertising videos". However, he does not provide any evidence that the money is used for this purpose.

Alongside reposted videos of anti-migrant protests and clips from GB News, Get Labour Out has...

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The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London) is facing a PR controversy after expelling a pro-Palestine student activist over a video. But I want to focus on a less-publicised struggle at the London university because it's quietly enlightening about the forces fragmenting our society, and it hasn't been told elsewhere.

Junior staff are refusing to mark students' work. A letter signed by 100 employees and 200 students accuses the university of unacceptable working conditions for tutors (formally called 'Graduate Teaching Assistants'). It cites "systematic underpaying" and claims "most of us are expected to work without contracts".

SOAS has a unique focus, and it's not just geographic. Ranking third in the world for global development, it is known for a decolonial, anti-injustice approach that centres Global South and under-heard perspectives.

University and College Union Staff Say It Is a 'Toxic Workplace' as They Consider Third Round of Strikes

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Josiah Mortimer

Such an environment does not breed quiet compliance. "We learn one thing in class, and then the administration does the exact opposite!" noted one of the 200 students to sign in support, speaking on condition of anonymity because "we're all afraid of being deported".

Tutors are mostly PhD students hired on short-term contracts for which they must reapply each year. Their refusal to mark isn't technically a strike, because the work they're refusing to do isn't work they're contracted to do, but additional work they're expected to do if they want to hold onto competitive, unstable contracts.

"Ultimately, it is the super exploitation of the cheapest possible workforce," said Hwanhee Bae, who taught SOAS' microeconomics analysis module for three years.

What marking may be lacking in remuneration, it supposedly makes up for in 'experience' for early-career tutors. But the workload is piling up as universities squeeze in more fee-paying students, and tutors are now somehow expected to mark 10,000-word dissertations in back-to-back one-hour slots.

This eats away at more than just time: "You immediately start blaming yourself that you're not able to accomplish the work in the specified time," said one tutor. "It feels very depressing. And then you talk to the other tutors and everyone says the same, and you notice: it's not me who's deficient, it's our contract that's deficient".

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Josiah Mortimer

Thabo, who was a leading organiser of the protest, asked us not to publish his full name after he was dropped from employment in the latest contract renewal - a move he suspects is punitive, though we cannot confirm this.

SOAS' marking 'strike' is a telling tale of the labour movement in an age of fractional work - but not just that. It speaks to the commodification of education in a country that once saw it as a public investment.

University is broadly free across Europe, Russia, India, and a good chunk of South America and the Middle East. The UK ranked among them for 40 years, which dramatically boosted both attendance and the state bill. Other countries rationalised that a brainier workforce would pay back in kind, but Tony Blair reintroduced UK tuition fees in 1998.

When interrogated by a struggling would-be student on Question Time, the Labour Prime Minister bemoaned: "It's not popular obviously because people would like everything for free!" With these words, he declared higher education an expense, rather than an investment.

Afte...

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The great fragmentation of UK party politics unfolds before our eyes. It's been decades in the making as a system designed to create, embed and maintain a two-party system, finally succumbs to the fractured social, cultural and political reality all around it.

While this party-political rollercoaster will have many twists and turns, the eventual fractured destination means our political class must learn how to navigate and negotiate the complexities and nuances of a multi-party-political system.

Like 2019 to get Brexit done and in 2024 to kick the Conservatives out, this doesn't mean that majority governments are impossible if an issue temporarily galvanises enough of the electorate, but any subsequent parliamentary dominance is unlikely to translate into governing coherence. Because of underlying fractures, parties remain in office but not in power. Hence the chaos after 2019 and increasingly since 2024.

'Why Optimism of the Intellect Is Needed to Counter Britain's Spiral Into Despair'

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Neal Lawson

Meanwhile, the country needs long-term investment and reform on every front; from education, health and housing, to transport and economic productivity.

No single party any longer has the political or electoral bandwidth to offer such long-term stability. Instead, it will have to be created not within a single political party but across several. A future that will have to be negotiated precisely because it cannot be imposed.

If we take the opinion polls since April, no party has the backing of more than 33% of the electorate, in many, five parties' poll over 10%, and in Scotland and Wales, the electorate face a choice of six parties. Support for Muslim independents further complicates the field, and all this before Your Party is properly out of the starting gate.

In all this, two clear left and right blocks are emerging, with the backing of roughly 50% of the population each. Both are divided. But the right has only two parties, the Conservatives and Reform, and considerable pressure is already building for a 'Unite the Right' strategy.

Remember that this doesn't need anything difficult and convoluted like a public pact, but merely the same backroom deal that Keir Starmer and Ed Davey struck before the last election, to stand candidates everywhere but only focus resource where their party can win. And recall that the right lost in 202 seats where they had a majority of the vote in 2024 but splitting it let the progressive candidate in.

'A Government That Crushes Dissent and Eliminates Hope Will Never Prosper'

The authoritarian impulse to eliminate disagreement and dampen hope will only push voters towards the extremes, argues Neal Lawson

Neal Lawson

But on the progressive side, things are now so much more complicated. Four parties could be contesting the progressive vote, with five in Scotland and Wales. But this isn't just a numbers game, but one of morality and values.

Back in 2017, when Theresa May enjoyed a huge poll lead over Jeremy Corbyn's Labour, Compass the organisation I'm the director of, instigated what we called a Progressive Alliance, a deal to unite the left and centre left vote to defeat the Conservatives.

It almost worked, not least because selfless Greens stood aside to ensure dozens of desperate Labour candidates won against the odds. But the Labour HQ in its arrogance, refused to stand aside for anyone and still does.

Greens understandably felt cheated and vowed not to repeat their generosity. But it's not just the culture of Labour which now blocks the prospects for cooperation, but the content. Because the charge now against Labour isn't just that it r...

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Reform UK's deputy leader on Durham Council, Darren Grimes, is the subject of an official complaint after speaking as a representative of "your Reform county council" in a video that uses fake AI footage of Keir Starmer at the helm of an asylum boat.

In the video on 8 August, the former GB News presenter, who was recently appointed to the party's national organising board, appears to prejudge an active criminal trial, and attacks those who might complain about his anti-migrant videos.

He speaks to "residents of Durham as one of Reform's county councillors" in the video - suggesting he is speaking in a professional capacity as deputy leader of the Reform stronghold, controlled by the party since May.

The video features an AI-generated video of Starmer leading a boat of asylum seekers, with no indication that it was made with video manipulation software.

In the video Grimes talks about the safety of "when our women and girls walked our streets" - using a video of white women in swimwear from the circa-1950s, apparently in contrast to Britain now, with foreign asylum seekers supposedly threatening women's safety.

The former GB News presenter was previously subject to a sexual harassment complaint while at the broadcaster. Grimes was alleged to to have swarmed a straight young male colleague with "incessant" calls, and messages in which he called him "angel", and made unwelcome invitations to his hotel room, as Byline Times reported.

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Grimes has been repeatedly contacted to comment on the allegations.

In the 8 August video, Grimes also talks of "Sudanese deviants", Labour being "demented sheep" for promoting diversity, and talks about the active court case of an asylum seeker for alleged sexual offences as representing the "violation of children" by migrants (despite no verdict being given yet). He also mocks those who would complain about his video.

Grimes says: "If you're a Labour or Lib Dem watching this, thinking 'oh I want to complain about Old Grimesy getting on his high horse'…I'll get loads of complaints for saying this by the way. I'll be hauled in front of all sorts of committees for being willing to speak truth to the powers that be…What horrors have been unleashed because of this inaction?"

He goes on to reference cases of asylum seekers and refugees being accused of sexual assault, ignoring recent cases like an all-white grooming gang being found guilty this April for preying on underage girls, or a (white) former Conservative sex offender who recently joined Reform.

Byline Times asked if the video was acceptable for the council's deputy leader - speaking in that capacity or otherwise - and if it is being investigated by the council, and was told by a Durham County Council spokesperson: "We are looking into a complaint regarding a Facebook video in line with our code of conduct procedure."

This outlet has seen a complaint made to the council about Grimes' video.

It states: "Firstly, the member is posting as a DCC councillor…While invoking Council authority, he uses a fabricated/AI image of the Prime Minister, apparently smiling with glee on a "small boat" with refugees, while he (Grimes) talks about 'clowns in Westminster cooked up the rules [allowing] smaller HMOs', and 'unchecked arrivals from cultures that couldn't give a flying flamingo about our values'.

UPDATE

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"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."*

[*Quotation often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, though academics query its provenance.]

Amidst the madness of Trump's second term, each week's outrage obscures last week's outrage. Some say this is a deliberate White House strategy, to keep critics off-balance, and struggling to come up with effective opposition strategies.

The constant chaos allows quieter outrages to go virtually unnoticed, including the numerous firings of government officials seen to have crossed the administration. In August alone this included the head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen Kruse, who had produced an assessment that the US attacks on Iran had only set back Teheran's nuclear programme by a few months, and the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, for failing to produce a sufficiently glowing report on job numbers. In June, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr fired every member of the CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel.

This week, the administration put on administrative leave dozens of staff from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) who had signed a letter to Congress criticizing the administration's budget cuts to disaster preparedness.

Now the administration is attempting to fire Federal Reserve Governor, Lisa Cook, in a blatant effort to pressure the Board to reduce interest rates - setting up a major legal battle, likely to reach the Supreme Court, over the extent and limitations of executive power.

The Trump Administration's Partisan Global Human Rights Report Will Have 'Devastating Consequences'

The Trump administration's attempts to downplay human rights abuses globally suggests they want to make it easier to violate them domestically, argues Alexandra Hall Hall

Alexandra Hall Hall

The constant drama also helps drown out unhelpful stories - such as the scandal surrounding the nature of Trump's association with Jeffrey Epstein. This dominated the news through summer, until attention turned to his frenzied, but futile, efforts to bring the leaders of Russia and Ukraine together for peace talks.

Earlier events, such as Elon Musk's catastrophic tenure at DOGE, the dismantling of USAID, or the "liberation day" announcement of tariffs on America's trading partners, seem like distant memories, though their harmful effects remain to this day.

In the past two weeks, the top story has been Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard in Washington DC, and establish federal control over the city's police department, allegedly to restore law and order in the city. As of writing, over 2,000 armed national guard troops are now patrolling the city's streets, bolstered by hundreds of federal agents.

On 25 August, Trump issued another executive order tasking the Secretary of Defence to create and train a special unit to enforce federal law in the city, and ensure the "availability of a standing national guard quick reaction force" available for deployment nationwide.

He has threatened to deploy similar units to other Democrat-led cities, such as New York, Chicago and Baltimore, though he has far less authority to do so in states run by Governors. He also conspicuously omitted major cities with similar levels of crime under Republican control.

Earlier this week I visited two parts of the city where there has been a major increase in federal presence, to get the reaction from local residents. Their accounts were deeply disturbing.

In Mount Pleasant, one of Washington's most diverse neighbourhoods, with a historically large Hispanic population, residents told me that the entire community was agitated and uneasy. Plain-clothed, masked ICE agents had been seen in several locations, including outside a food distribution site run by a local church, and outside scho...

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Britain's media is 'weaponising' violence against women to further racist anti -migrant agenda, according to campaign groups tackling violence against women.

Over 100 women's rights groups, including Rape Crisis and Women's Aid last week signed a joint statement condemning the "weaponisation" of violence against women and girls (VAWG) to fuel anti-migrant sentiment.

The groups warn that politicians and media outlets are sharing false statistics suggesting particular groups are primarily responsible for sexual violence, undermining genuine safety concerns.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, they challenged the "dangerous myth" that the greatest risk to women and girls comes from strangers - when most violence occurs in homes by known perpetrators.

Official figures show that 90% of rape perpetrators are known to victims, one in two rapes are by partners/ex-partners, and one woman is murdered by a partner every four days in the UK.

The statement comes as Reform UK and far-right activists have increasingly attempted to present asylum seekers as a threat to women and girls.

These statements have been widely reported in the media and promoted by commentators at national newspapers and on broadcast media.

A meeting hosted by Reform UK's council leader in the party's stronghold of Maidstone (Kent) this Tuesday aimed to conflate asylum seekers with violence against women and girls. The meeting was put on with the anti-migration group Women's Safety Initiative (WSI).

It came just days after it was revealed that a former Reform UK Councillor at KCC is to stand trial at Margate Crown Court for allegedly threatening to kill his wife.

The event was slammed by opposition groups and domestic abuse charities. According to a local source, a spokesperson at the event claimed to attendees that "hundreds of thousands of young women have been murdered by immigrants."

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It comes amid a wave of anti-migrant protests outside asylum accommodation across England - with many protesters claiming to be protecting "our" women and girls.

But campaigners working in the sector note that the anti-immigrant riots following the murder of girls in Southport last summer, saw two-fifths of those arrested had histories of domestic abuse - casting major doubt on the claim that the protesters were there to protect women.

Speaking to Byline Times, Sinéad Geoghegan, a spokesperson for the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW Coalition) said the far right had "long exploited" genuine concerns about sexual violence to promote "racist, white supremacist agendas", with mainstream politicians and newspaper now worryingly adopting similar rhetoric.

Geoghegan said: "We see across society reinforcement in the media and by politicians of the "stranger danger" myth. Obviously that's not to say women aren't harmed by strangers. But at the same time, we can't lose sight that the vast majority of domestic abuse and sexual violence is carried out by someone known to the victim - a partner, ex-partner, or in cases of child sexual abuse, often a family member."

She criticised parts of the media for "reinforc[ing] harmful narratives" about sexual violence when it comes to asylum seekers.

EVAW Coalition are concerned by a growing media ecosystem - of traditional media, social media, and political rhetoric - which forms a vicious cycle where harmful narratives go viral online, get picked up by n...

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Reform candidates in one of the party's newly claimed councils exploited a legal loophole allowing them to send out mass mailouts to voters from Nigel Farage, which did not count towards local election spending limits.

At least a dozen Reform UK councillors elected in May did not declare costs for two direct mail campaigns from their party leader, expenses records analysed by Byline Times suggest - despite the Reform leader talking about Durham County Council and its handling of taxpayer funds.

At least two mass mailings from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage went out to residents ahead of May's local elections, which explicitly mention Durham County Council. Reform won control of the council, one of 12 areas now in their hands.

This outlet has obtained electoral expense declarations from Durham County Council for newly elected Reform UK councillors.

Failure to declare election spending would constitute an offence under the Representation of the People Act. The Act requires declaration of any expenses "used for the purposes of the candidate's election" including free services or facilities.

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If the leaflets had counted towards local spending limits, in most cases analysed the maximum threshold would have been breached, and the votes would likely have to be re-run.

However, it appears that the mailouts do not legally have to be declared locally due to a legal loophole which excludes communications that do not specifically mention the candidates' names. Transparency campaigners at Spotlight on Corruption say this is a 'glaring loophole' in the rules, which are designed to create a level playing field.

Several other areas received similar locally-facing leaflets from Nigel Farage ahead of the local elections, including Devon, Shropshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and Staffordshire. Reform won control of Staffordshire.

The posted mailouts ahead of May from Reform leader Nigel Farage sent to Durham residents attacked the then-Lib Dem coalition administration. The posted letter states: "Your local council in Durham has wasted vast amounts of your taxpayer money…

"They have racked up debts of £409m and raised your council tax bill by £461 over the last four years."

All of the 12 Reform councillors' spending returns analysed would have been pushed over the legal spending limit, had they been made to declare the Durham-facing leaflets from Nigel Farage sent by Reform HQ.

Tim Picton, Senior Advocacy Advisor at Spotlight on Corruption, told Byline Times the findings "underlines yet again the importance of robust campaign finance rules."

"Campaign spending limits exist for important reasons. There is a golden opportunity in the [Government's] upcoming Elections Bill to close this glaring loophole and level the playing field when it comes to local election spending."

"Otherwise, it will continue to be exploited by larger parties, such as Reform UK, who have significant resources to back their local candidates, unlike independent candidates or those representing smaller parties."

Spotlight on Corruption is now calling on the Government to give the Electoral Commission the responsibility to centrally publish local election expenses to improve transparency and enable greater public scrutiny.

Deputy leader Darren Grimes' expenses include £850 for a promotional video by an unexpected videographer, "moody/arty" Turkish-Scottish music artist Sel MacLean. But, like the others analysed, Nigel Farage's two Durham-focused letters to local residents were not declared. There is no suggestion of rule-breaking.

Opposition figures suggest "very considerable undeclared funds" may have been pumped into Reform's local election campaigns. But the Electoral Commission suggests no rules have been broken.

It is possible that similar practices occurred in many...

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At 11.45 a.m. on 29 July, 2024, a 17-year-old boy called Axel Rudakubana walked into a community studio on Hart Street in Southport and attacked a class of children who were attending a Taylor Swift-themed bracelet-making workshop. Armed with a kitchen knife, Rudakubana killed two children, six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and wounded ten others, one of whom, Alice da Silva Aguiar, aged nine, died the following day.

The unimaginable horror of this crime sent shock waves across the country. A group of little girls, enjoying a summer holiday activity, had been attacked by a stranger with a knife, and three of them were now dead.

Rudakubana had a long history of troubling behaviour. From the age of 13, he had become increasingly obsessed with violent online videos and had repeatedly made worrying comments about mass shootings to classmates. Teachers had reported him to Prevent, but his case was turned down on account of him not displaying any extremist tendencies.

However, Rudakubana had become ever more unpredictable, and he had caused considerable alarm among his school community. He seems to have been worried too, because in October 2019, he rang the NSPCC's ChildLine and admitted to having murderous thoughts and confessed that he had often taken a knife into school.

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Byline Times Team

Matters came to a head when he was first accused of carrying a knife and then, having been excluded, returned to the premises and broke a fellow student's wrist with a hockey stick. Permanently expelled from his school, he failed to settle anywhere else and became ever more the outsider, slipping through the system and falling largely out of sight before going on to commit that terrible crime.

However, none of this was public knowledge in July 2024 and so a scapegoat was needed.

As news of the attack broke, a 41-year-old, Northampton-based child minder called Lucy Connolly was following events, and she and others in her online world knew who to blame. Connolly was an avid X (formerly Twitter) user with a growing following among right-wing users, and as she drank in the barrage of disinformation circulating on the platform, she came to believe that the attacker was, (according to the CPS) 'a Muslim asylum seeker who had come to the UK on a boat.'

It was untrue. Radakubana was born in Cardiff in 2006, four years after his parents, evangelical Christians, had emigrated from Rwanda.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Connolly was not the sort of X user who waits for facts to emerge and so, having returned home from work, at 8.30 pm that evening she sent out the following tweet to her 9,000 followers:

"Mass deportations now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care, while you're at it take the treacherous government & politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it."

The post rapidly blew up. Amplified by far-right users, it was shared some 940 times, making about 310,000 impressions, until fearing repercussions - she deleted it four hours later. But by then, the damage had been done, and her words helped kindle the inferno of hate that followed.

The very next day, riots erupted. A mosque in Southport was besieged by a drunken mob yelling "No Surrender" and chanting Tommy Robinson's name. The following day, supporters of Patriotic Alternative gathered in Whitehall, and more than 100 arrests for offences including possession of knives followed.

That same evening, another mob descended on a Holiday Inn at Newton Heath, Manches...

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Far-right groups across England are transforming extremist activism into premium lifestyle services, offering everything from personal safety escorts to lifestyle mentorship through apps, QR codes and subscription models.

Advertising services including walk-you-home escorts, street patrols, SOS apps, and premium mentorship, they are creating potential revenue streams that fund their broader political activities.

Paid Advice and Unregulated Patrols

At the top end far-right activist Tommy Robinson charges £28 per minute for coaching through the slick app Minnect, where followers can get his advice and viewpoints on topics related to anti-Islam activism and political commentary. However, across the country other local patrol groups are posing as charities and soliciting donations for 'equipment' while operating without police recognition.

Together they offer what can best be described as a new form of 'concierge nationalism', extremist ideology delivered as an on-demand lifestyle service. Robinson's model demonstrates the premium end of this commercialisation. However, at the grassroots level, groups like Essex Spartans deploy similar tactics.

This publication recently revealed that similar safeguarding patrols were launched in Bournemouth by far-right activist Gary Bartlett. We can reveal that this strategy has now moved into Epping, Essex, home to the Bell Hotel, housing asylum seekers and the scenes of recent unrest, where Reform UK candidates posed solely as 'concerned parents', while giving interviews concealing their political status.

Red Flags and Child Safeguarding Issues

A group, which formed this month, calling itself Essex Spartans, formerly Epping Spartans, is actively recruiting volunteers and expressing the need for "boots on the ground" while describing itself as a "volunteer service protecting vulnerable residents, particularly women, children, and the elderly."

In an Instagram post of 19 August they claim charitable status: "This is a charity set-up team AND WE ARE ALWAYS HERE TO HELP." Their adverts also suggest they are DBS checked and have a police partnership.

Like Robinson's premium app model, the Essex Spartans deploy QR codes and donation platforms, claiming that funds will be used to develop their app and purchase equipment, including stab vests. On their fundraising page, the group suggests that "Contributions will help us equip our volunteers with radios, stab vests, protective clothing, and other essential gear - allowing us to respond safely and effectively. " An Instagram post on 24 August announced plans to launch street patrols on Friday, 29 August.

However, Byline Times can confirm that Essex Spartans isn't registered with the police or any local authorities, isn't recognised by community safety schemes, and despite their claims to the contrary, has no charitable status. Their services include offers to "listen without judgement if you don't feel comfortable speaking with family, or while waiting for mental health services, to walking you home if you feel you are being followed."

One of their banners features a shield with the words 'Child Protection.' A post on the group's Instagram page from 18 August states: "We are Epping Mothers, Fathers, Aunties and Uncles…" Their 'about' page describes them as volunteers with backgrounds ranging from ex-military personnel to concerned residents.

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Police issued a warning to parents over the rise in child radicalisation, warning families to be alert to any signs their child may be being drawn into violent extremism.

Byline Times spoke to a former teacher who volunteers at the Epping Against Racism Network, part of the Stand Up to Racism Network, who told us: "There are serious safeguarding concerns. I find it deeply troubling that this group appear to be offering t...

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The only road connecting the Ukrainian city of Kherson to the rest of the country came close to being shut on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, after the Russian drone attacks on civilian vehicles escalated, leading to the first drone siege in modern warfare. With the main road closed, the city risks becoming a trap for 60,000 civilians.

"On the M-14 Kherson-Mykolaiv highway, traffic restrictions are possible," wrote Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson Regional Military Administration. "In case enemy drones are detected, the road will be temporarily closed. Please take this into account when planning trips and, if possible, choose an alternative route. Together with the military, we are doing everything possible to stabilise the situation."

Former MP and serviceman Ihor Lutsenko wrote about the "drone semi-encirclement" of Kherson. The Russian press widely covered the "air siege" of Kherson.

Kherson, a regional capital located on the right bank of the Dnipro River in the South of Ukraine, was occupied by the Russian troops in March 2022 and liberated nine months later, enduring constant shelling and bombing since its liberation.

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Due to its proximity to the Russian forces, the city became the stage for the world's first "human safari," first-person-view (FPV) drone attacks on civilians, as first reported by Byline Times in July 2024. This new form of warfare is now recognised as a war crime and a crime against humanity by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch.

One year later, the tactics of drone attacks mark a new stage in Russia's assault on the city. This horrifying tactic - a drone siege - opens a new chapter in human and military history.

Cutting Off Supplies

The M14 highway, linking Kherson to Mykolaiv and further west to Odesa, is the city's only secure road connection to Ukraine-controlled territory. The highway is located approximately 20 km from the Russian military positions. The only alternative road to supply Kherson, located in proximity, is also under drone attacks.

Every day for the last two months, civilian vehicles on the M14 highway have been hit by explosives dropped by various types of drones. On August 25, a drone hit a prosecutor's office vehicle on the M14 highway. A 58-year-old driver and a 38-year-old prosecutor were injured and hospitalized. Later, two more drone strikes occurred - no injuries were reported, but the cars were destroyed by fire. On August 26, several vehicles were damaged, a family, a 47-year-old healthcare manager and a 38-year-old doctor were injured, said Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, head of the press office of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration in an interview with this paper.

"Since attacks on the M14 have increased, the police will control traffic until we ensure traffic safety," said Tolokonnikov.

Drone strikes also ignite dry fields along the roadside, spreading flames through farmland and creating thick plumes of smoke, further disrupting transit in the area.

The drone siege of the Kherson road comes amid broader Russian efforts to escalate military attacks on the city of Kherson. A Ukrainian military source speaking to Byline Times on condition of anonymity reported that up to 30-80 drones are attacking the area daily. Drones are used to drop explosives and anti-personnel mines on city streets and infrastructure. Fires have been reported across Kherson's suburbs, and critical facili...