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Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

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An arrest has been made as part of an HMRC criminal investigation into a company awarded a £25 million Covid PPE contract during the pandemic, after being referred by a senior Conservative Government minister.

It comes five years after Byline Times revealed how the company, Luxe Lifestyle Ltd was awarded the contract despite Companies House records at the time suggesting it had no employees, no assets, no turnover and was £9,000 in debt.

The firm was awarded the bumper PPE deal via the government's unlawful VIP Lane, which helped secure contracts for politically connected individuals and companies.

An investigation by Good Law Project discovered that the firm's offer to supply PPE was referred to civil servants by former Conservative Party Chairman and Minister Greg Hands.

EXCLUSIVE

Matt Hancock Used His Personal Email Account to Help 'VIP' Supplier Win £25 Million COVID PPE Contract

Excalibur Healthcare, which supplied the UK Government with tens of millions of pounds worth of unusable PPE, ultimately folded owing taxpayers £22 million

Russell Scott

News of the arrest was revealed by Good Law Project. According to their report "The firm's director, Karen Brost, was arrested on suspicion of fraud by failing to disclose information, conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and fraudulent evasion of income tax. Her husband, Tim Whyte, is suspected of acting as a shadow director and is also being investigated in connection with the same offences".

Former Minister Greg Hands forwarded on the Luxe Lifestyles PPE offer to officials, after being approached through his personal email account, by Conservative Party activist Mark Higton - the then chairman of the Hammersmith Conservatives. The same month Luxe Lifestyle were subsequently awarded a £25m contract by the Department of Health and Social Care to supply gowns and masks.

Furthermore leaked documents, obtained by the Good Law Project, later listed a PPE contract as "Minister Hands/Luxe Lifestyle" and the point of contact as "Mark Higton".

A subsequent freedom of information request revealed that nine million items worth £20m, provided by Luxe Lifestyle, had been labelled "do not supply" by officials, meaning they were not used and have subsequently been destroyed.

Civil Servants Felt Pressured Into Giving 'Special Treatment' to Conservative-Connected COVID PPE Suppliers

Private correspondence reveals officials felt threatened by firms benefiting from "back-scratching" by Conservative ministers

Russell Scott

Byline Times previously reported on the firm's failure to publish any company accounts covering the period from December 2019 onwards - four months prior to the first national lockdown.

However, reports suggest Luxe Lifestyle 'made a profit in excess of £5m' from the VIP lane PPE deal, despite supplying millions of items deemed unsuitable for use.

Despite the controversy surrounding the previous government's unlawful VIP Lane, the number of arrests are low - with only one other known arrest made public - In June 2024, A 46 year old man was arrested in connection to the NCA's ongoing criminal investigation into PPE Medpro.

PPE Medpro secured PPE contracts from the DHSC valued at £203 million after being referred onto the VIP lane by Conservative Party Peer Baroness Mone.

Are More Arrests on the Horizon?

Back in January, following a Parliamentary Question from Phil Brickell, Labour MP for Bolton West, it was revealed that a number of investigations were being conducted by HMRC in relation to the fulfilment of "government contracts relating to the procurement and onward supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

Campaigners against Elon Musk are inviting Londoners to smash up a Tesla in the latest of a series of protests and artistic stunts against the Trump-supporting billionaire that are spreading across the UK.

Titled 'London vs Musk', the art piece is to be put on by Everyone Hates Elon, the group behind satirical posters referring to Teslas as "Swasticars" which have appeared across London.

The event is billed as an opportunity for "Londoners to safely and legally smash up a Tesla to vent their rage at Elon Musk, the far-right and billionaires", will see a second-hand Tesla which was set to be scrapped, smashed and auctioned to raise money for foodbanks this Saturday.

EXCLUSIVE

'Don't Buy a Swasticar': Tesla Hit by UK Boycott Campaign Over Elon Musk's Far-Right Support

Electric vehicle producer Tesla has been targeted by activists due to its far-right owner's interference in British politics

Josiah Mortimer

"There are more billionaires than ever before and there are more food banks than ever before. These things are obviously connected," said an Everyone Hates Elon spokesperson.

Tesla owners who feel betrayed by Musk's recent actions will be given priority access to smash the Tesla, the group said.

The Tesla brand has suffered considerable damage since Musk joined Trump's administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Tesla stock has fallen by 38% since 02 January of this year.

According to the Financial Times, Tesla has just experienced its worst quarter since 2022. The company delivered 336,681 vehicles between January and March, this is 13 per cent fewer than a year earlier and well below the 390,000 expected by analysts.

Other actions as part of the recent wave of anti-Tesla protests have included Just Stop Oil vandalising a Tesla robot by pouring liquid latex over it and an international day of action in which protesters picketed Tesla showrooms in London, Berlin, Paris and several US cities.

The Elon Musk Online Outriders Hoping to Take Control of UK Politics and Oust Keir Starmer

The world's richest man is amplifying a series of often extreme Alt Right voices bent on radically reshaping our politics

Olly Haynes

Vandalism of Teslas in the USA led Trump to refer to those attacking the cars as "domestic terrorists" and the FBI, led by Trump acolyte Dan Bongino has convened a taskforce to deal with threats against Tesla.

The spokesperson for Everybody Hates Elon stated "This is a one-of-a-kind art piece using a Tesla that was already destined for scrap. We strongly urge everyone not to damage or vandalise any other vehicles. London vs Musk has proper safety measures in place. We absolutely do not condone damage to any other vehicles. We urge the public not to damage ANY other Teslas in any other location - you would face serious legal consequences."

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They added that they would like for the stunt to get Musk's attention saying "Elon Musk was on TV the other day crying about how people are being mean to his companies. The word he used was 'suffering', I don't think he knows what suffering feels likes to be honest. So it would be good to see more of him realising the consequences of his actions".

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

It is hard to imagine a politician less like Donald Trump than Keir Starmer. A lawyer and bureaucrat by trade, the Prime Minister has made much over the years of his "cool-headed" approach to politics.

Nowhere has this tendency been more obvious than during the current global trade war being waged by the US President.

Refusing to openly criticise, or even mention, Trump by name, Starmer has refused to engage in what the Health Secretary Wes Streeting referred to on Tuesday as "placard waving" during this crisis.

Yet at the same time as rejecting Trump's bombastic approach to global diplomacy, Starmer's Government has also sought to embrace some of the President's own anti-globalist rhetoric.

'A Trump Trade Deal Would Open the UK's Doors to the Big Tech Robber Barons'

The only deal the US President and his oligarch beneficiaries are interested in is one that would allow them to feast on our public services and consumer rights, argues Nick Dearden

Nick Dearden

After the Business Secretary insisted on Sunday that the era of globalisation was now "over", Starmer gave a speech on Monday in which he also insisted that the UK must now "back British brilliance" instead.

Speaking at a Jaguar Land Rover's factory in Birmingham, Starmer said that his aim was to provide "British cars for British workers".

This slogan is uneasily reminiscent of the "British jobs for British workers" slogan first used by the far-right National Front and BNP, before later being controversially appropriated by former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007.

Yet if Brown's use of the phrase felt out of character, Starmer's use of a somewhat modified version of it felt doubly so.

Just like his other recent attempts to mimic the far-right rhetoric of "open borders" there is something deeply off-putting about this most un-Trumpian of politicians attempting to cosplay as a Trump-style politician.

The rhetoric is reportedly part of an attempt by the Prime Minister to find a "third way" between the anti-globalist rhetoric of Trump and globalist embrace of Blair-era Labour.

However, as well as feeling uncomfortable, such dual-horse riding by the Prime Minister also feels deeply dishonest. Because for all the talk of backing British, both Starmer and his ministers are also refusing to back any calls to either boycott US goods, or to focus on buying British products instead.

Asked on Tuesday whether she would support a 'Buy British' campaign, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves told MPs that she would not, as it would make us "inward looking".

"If every country in the world decided they only wanted to buy things produced in their country, that's not a good way forward," she said.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister reiterated this point, insisting that the UK must remain an "open trading nation".

Donald Trump's Claim That Marine Le Pen's Conviction is a 'Witch Hunt' Doesn't Hold Up

Friends and opponents of the far-right French politician need to be honest about what her barring from the next Presidential election is really about, argues Olly Haynes

Olly Haynes

So while on the one hand Keir Starmer is insisting he wants to "back British brilliance" and provide "British cars for British workers" he is also explicitly rejecting doing anything to actually deliver on that rhetoric.

This conflict is particularly apparent in the Prime Minister's response to Trump.

Because while his refusal to ever publicly criticise the President may well turn out to be a wise decision, albeit not one that has borne much fruit for the UK so far, it is also at complete odds with the Prime Minister's concurrent attempts to pose as a f...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

"Children are the ornament of the world," goes one famous Serbian poem by Ljubivoje Ršumović. Today, in Serbia, they are on everyone's mind.

A generation written off by many as disconnected social-media addicts has proven to be quite the opposite, galvanizing society with their singular brand of civil disobedience, at once rebellious and virtuous, digitally savvy and frankly analogue. They've been compared to the liberators of 1945; they've been called the avant-garde of Europe; they've been nominated for a Nobel Prize and received shout-outs from the likes of Novak Djoković and Madonna.

At the same time, President Aleksandar Vučić insists that he'll defeat the "colour revolution," while daily acts of manipulation, intimidation and violence against the students and their supporters continue. After five months of protests, how this all will play out is anyone's guess. But the students show no sign of giving up.

How Did it Begin?

In coverage of events in Serbia, international news media make passing reference to it - it didn't make headlines in the midst of wars, fires, and pre-election madness - but it is the beating, bleeding heart of the movement.

At 11:52 am on 1 November 2024, the concrete canopy of the train station in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, collapsed. Thousands of people pass through the station daily (I myself use it twice a week). On that clear, sunny, autumn noon, fourteen were killed, three others grievously injured; one of them succumbed a month later in hospital, and another died in March, five-and-a-half months after the collapse. All but two of the victims were under 25, and four were children.

The station had been recently reopened - without the required authorisation - after reconstruction and renovation. While the public reeled in grief and rage, the response from the Government, led by President Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), was characteristically inadequate, which many regard as an attempt to cover up its own culpability due to widespread, systemic corruption.

But to narrate all this is nearly impossible, since there are so many actors and so many confusing, conflicting reports from officials, including whether or not the canopy had been part of the reconstruction. In the weeks following the collapse, there were no immediate arrests; television was filled with expert panels speculating on how it happened and why, and which companies were involved - but to date (early April), there has been no official explanation for how it fell. It bears mentioning that state-run and pro-regime media dominate the national broadband; only one cable provider includes the two independent news channels.

Trump Family Looms Over Serbian Political Crisis

Jared Kushner wants to build a Trump tower in Belgrade, beleaguered Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić needs allies - will the deal be made?

Brawley Benson

Immediately after the collapse, peaceful protests were held in Novi Sad and elsewhere in the country. Most strikingly, every Friday at 11:52 am, people would walk out of their universities, schools, or places of employment, and observe fourteen (later, fifteen, and now sixteen) minutes of silence, one for each of the victims.

At the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, where I teach as a foreign lecturer, we stood on a campus green; at other places, people blocked the roads. To stand with a group of people in silence for a quarter of an hour is quite an experience: a mass gesture of solidarity, both collective ritual and individual meditation. It is heavy with grief - even months later, you can read it on faces, in bodies. T...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

A war crimes complaint against ten Britons who served with the IDF in Gaza has been submitted to the Metropolitan Police.

A team of legal experts, including renowned human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield KC, lodged an extensively researched 240-page report with the War Crimes Team at London's Metropolitan Police on Monday.

The landmark dossier, the first of its kind, was submitted on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), which are representing Palestinians in Gaza and Britain.

Almost 100 legal and human rights experts have also signed a letter of support urging the War Crimes Team to investigate any and all complaints regarding involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It comes as Israel continues to break the ceasefire agreed with Hamas. Last week the UN condemned Israel for the killing of more than 1,000 Palestinians since the ceasefire was agreed.

'Israel's Genocide in Gaza is the Fatal Flaw in Starmer's European Alternative to Trump and Putin'

If we are to build a broad consensus in Europe against Trump, we need to bring Palestine into equal focus with Ukraine, argues Martin Shaw

Martin Shaw

The ten Britons in the report, including Israeli dual nationals, are suspected of crimes such as murder, extermination, attacking civilians, and deportation or forcible transfer of population.

The report compiles open-source evidence from video footage, social media posts and other forms of publicly available information.

For legal reasons, neither the list of suspects, which includes officer-level individuals, nor the full report are being made public.

In a speech at the submission of the report, Michael Mansfield KC said "after the Second World War […] the United Kingdom was at the forefront of law and principle and institutions to match, in order to prevent the recurrence of the horror that everyone was familiar with during the Second World War […] yet, slowly over the years, the efficacy of the structure which they established at that time through the various conventions, the United Nations charter and so on is slowly falling, and we are standing on the brink of the collapse of the rule of order because certain states, and Israel is not the only one, have taken it upon themselves to act with impunity".

Referring to the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory which ruled in 2004 that the construction of the Separation Barrier in the West Bank was illegal, Mansfield said: "There are measures which could have been taken in 2004, there are measures that could be taken now, economic embargos and so forth. But one measure that is being taken today is a practical one indicating that as citizens of a country that has held out on this, we can do something about it".

Police Force Faces Backlash Over Facial Recognition Technology Linked to Surveillance in Gaza

Officers have been using technology used by Israel during its operations in Gaza and the West Bank

Iain Overton

Paul Heron, legal director of PILC, told Byline Times that it is "a condemnation of the system that a little law centre has had to galvanise all this pro-bono".

When asked why the state had not acted of its own accord against British nationals suspected of war crimes he said "the position of the British government is continuing to sell arms to Israel and provide logistical support to Israel" and asked "is there the political will?".

The submission of the evidence was supported by Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley and Ayoub Khan, MP...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

The ruins of the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defence building in central Belgrade are hard to miss. Shorn clean in half, the structure stands in a state of precarious decay, inner floors caving in and steel girders exposed.

Ripped apart by two NATO bombs in 1999, the building has sat undisturbed for a quarter century, an attempt to preserve the memory of a painful time in Serbia's history. There - across the street from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the ruins may have sat in perpetuity. Until an unlikely actor stepped in.

In May of last year, an investment firm belonging to President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner secured rights to convert the location into a luxury Trump tower development project, complete with a hotel, apartments and office space.

The move might have come as a surprise to some. But experts know that Serbia's embattled president, Aleksandar Vučić, has been cultivating a relationship with the United States and Trump family for years. The Kushner-led Trump hotel project was just the latest mutually beneficial deal to come of it.

Now, amid societal disruption and mass protests raging across the country for more than four months, the hotel project has again drawn ire - and raised questions of whether the Trump family's interests mean Washington will be a reliable ally for Vučić in a looming political showdown.

Why Do Both Russia and the US Support Serbia's Populist Leader?

Despite claims President Vukic's party 'stole the vote' in recent elections, the West seems to be placing stability in the Balkans over democratic legitimacy

Nikola Mikovic

The Serbian Crisis

Every Friday in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, people stop in action at precisely 11:52 am. They stand motionless on the street in solemn vigil for 16 minutes - one for each victim of the disaster just before noon on 1 November 2024 that sparked mass outrage at the Government.

That day is burned into Nemanja Ćurčić's memory. A 29-year-old English language and literature student at Novi Sad University, he was at work when his brother called, asking if he had travelled that day or was anywhere near the railway station.

"I was like, 'No, of course not, I'm at work,'" Ćurčić recalled saying. "And he said, 'Fine, that's good. Something bad happened.'"

Ćurčić pulled up the news. An outdoor canopy at the recently renovated local train station had collapsed. In the coming days, rescuers picking through the rubble pulled out 14 bodies. (One additional person succumbed to their injuries shortly after the incident, and another died at the Belgrade military hospital on 21 March, raising the total number of victims to 16.)

Shock turned to anger, in no part helped by the fact that the Government initially denied that the canopy had been part of its reconstruction project. Locals blamed the disaster on rampant corruption and mismanagement. Ćurčić soon found himself out on the street, protesting alongside other students in a movement that has since spread to more than 200 towns and cities across the country.

The political crisis represents one of the strongest challenges yet to the 12-year rule of Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party, and it shows no signs of abating. On 15 March, more than 100,000 protesters converged in Belgrade for one of the largest mass demonstrations in Serbia's history. A few days later, the Government led by Vučić ally Miloš Vučević resigned, raising the possibility of fresh elections in the coming months.

Serbia-Kosovo Tensions: How Likely is Another War in Europe?

If Putin is trying to stoke conflict in the Balkans, he's going to have to contend with the influence ...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

As authors of a book on Russian disinformation, we see a striking resemblance between the Russian regime's falsification of history and an eerily similar tendency now emanating from The White House.

Indeed, the new disinformation narrative being pumped out in MAGA world regarding Greenland sounds so familiar that it might as well have been written by the Kremlin itself: The Russian playbook on Ukraine is now being recycled in the US.

In Denmark, most people follow the facts on the ground and the attitudes within the Commonwealth closely. Eighty five percent of Greenland's citizens have rejected becoming part of the United States.

Múte B. Egede, the outgoing prime minister of Greenland, has told the Americans in no uncertain terms to stay away, while his successor, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, disparages the American "disrespect".

A recent documentary by the public broadcaster Danmarks Radio has fuelled a discussion about the actual wishes of the Greenlandic people, and you could always argue the merits of this or that opinion poll. Every analysis, including this one, is an interpretation. It is nonetheless one that is anchored in facts.

However, in MAGA media, viewers are presented with a different reality. This reality has nothing in common with our reality, but functions as a post-truth parallel universe. Loyalty does not gravitate around the truth in this universe, but is instead bound only by loyalty to the new Trump Government and attempts to please it through support of its disinformation narratives.

Within this postfactual media bubble, Greenland is portrayed as a malnourished and neglected urchin being oppressed by a distant Copenhagen regime. Annexation is simultaneously framed as a matter of US national security. The people of Greenland are in fact waiting for their liberators and their future role as a prospering American vassal.

Back in the real world, the US voluntarily gave up most of their bases in Greenland. In the post-truth world, Denmark is the negligent party and a "bad ally". Greenland needs to be saved in other words - from itself.

If you think we're being hyperbolic, here's a little peak into the disinformation bubble, which is currently being erected around the US far-right media landscape.

Russia's Murderous Ceasefires and Musk Admiration for Putin

In his latest dispatch from Kyiv, Chris York has tales of occupied territories, tariffs, stalled talks - and storks!

Chris York

On FOX News, Jesse Watters tells his audience that the US might: "… have to burn down a few bridges with Denmark to take Greenland. We're big boys. We dropped an A-bomb on Japan and now they are our top ally in the Pacific… America is not handcuffed by history."

On Real America's Voice, Brian Glenn explains that the official Greenlandic rejection of the vice president couple's overtures doesn't reflect "the real attitude of the people".

One is led to the conclusion that the US will soon be greeted by its people donning MAGA-caps and draped in the stars and stripes. Similar narratives are being disseminated on One America News Network, where Trump's aggressive rhetoric on Greenland is being lauded as "the art of the deal".

While the rest of the world laughs at JD Vance complaining about the weather in Greenland, being unable to find even a single local willing to meet and greet and waving into the nothingness, the disinformation bubble uses his failed trip to further a narrative which might be priming the public for an invasion.

Here, it's also worth keeping in mind that the US interest in Greenland probably stems from a Russian disinformation campaign: A forged letter prompted...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

1. It isn't revenge and it isn't porn

It's not revenge, because the victim's done nothing wrong. And it's not porn, because viewing it is an act of violence, not of pleasure. The non-consensual sharing of someone's intimate image is sexual abuse.

'Image-based sexual abuse,' to be precise. Start calling it that - maybe society will start treating it as that.

Reports of image-based sexual abuse in the UK have increased tenfold over the past few years. Women are five times more likely to be victims of intimate image abuse than men. And one in 14 adults, which is equivalent to 4.4 million people in England and Wales, have experienced threats to share their intimate images without consent. The scale of coverage hardly reflects this.

"There are some phenomenal journalists that really understand the issue," argued Elena Michael, co-founder and director of #NotYourPorn, "but on the whole it's this watered down, diluted version" - starting with the term 'revenge porn'.

The term is not just "incredibly derogatory," Elena says, it fails to capture the multiplicity of forms in which the crime can be committed - from resharing, to peeping, to selling, to publishing, to generating 'DeepFakes' and more.

"It's limiting our understanding of who might be a survivor, but it's also limiting our understanding of who might be a perpetrator," she explained.

2. You can count on two hands the years since it's been criminalised

The residual implication of the term 'revenge porn' is that victims are victims of their own actions, for example by taking an erotic picture in the first place. This stigma might explain why non-consensual intimate image abuse was only actually criminalised in 2015.

Make no mistake, image-based sexual abuse destroys lives. "To experience it is gut-wrenching," recounted survivor Madelaine Thomas.

At points, I thought my life was not worth living because of the shame and embarrassment that I felt seeing those images and being unable to take them down

Madelaine Thomas

But Madelaine never reported what happened to her to the police because she was not even sure it was actually a crime. And even if it was, "I also felt like the shame that I was feeling would just be reflected back at me".

3. It's economic exploitation - as well as sexual exploitation

There's another reason Madelaine is wary of telling her story. "I feel like I still need to caveat my experience," she warned at the start of our interview. "I, um, had a very crap job actually. It was a crap job and, um, my husband and I had a child and my crap job didn't pay for childcare."

In short, Madelaine started selling intimate images for money. "Just some saucy nudes, nothing terribly explicit." She said she did so "in the understanding that I was selling a consensual moment for [my clients] to enjoy those pictures".

"It was a consensual moment of an exchange of trust, as well as exchange of financial remuneration."

Six months later, she learned some of her images had made their way onto a porn site. "Of course," was her first thought, "I should expect this to happen to me". But then she thought again.

Media Storm Investigates: Are Universities Protecting Predatory Professors?

Universities have turned the complaints process into a 'warning not to challenge the behaviour of men and the institutions that protect them', reports Mathilda Mallinson

Mathilda Mallinson

Strangers were making a profit using her body, without her consent, and without paying her a penny. Call it theft, call it trafficking - it is tantamount to forced labour.

Very often in cases of image-based abuse, sexual violence is overlaid with economic v...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

It's been a strange couple of weeks here in Kyiv - after the absolute madness of March with its Oval Office showdowns and ongoing bromance between the American and Russian presidents, recent days have seemed relatively calm in comparison.

But that's not to say it hasn't been eventful over here, so let's get right into it.

The Ceasefire

Let's get one thing straight first - on March 11, Ukraine agreed to a full, 30-day ceasefire.

Russia refused.

In the nearly one month since, the Kremlin (and the White House) have made a lot of noise about partial ceasefires in the Black Sea and on strikes against energy infrastructure. It's all just noise. Russia has conceded nothing it can't afford to concede.

By agreeing to partial ceasefires in the Black Sea and on energy infrastructure, the Kremlin is trying to give the impression it's genuinely interested in peace, but in reality, all it's done is gain a reprieve in the two theaters of war in which it was getting an absolute hammering.

Despite barely having a navy, Ukraine has decimated Russia's Black Sea Fleet, keeping vital shipping lanes open and scoring hit after hit on Moscow's ships.

And despite being reliant on the still-fledgling technology of long-range attack drones, Ukraine has scored hit after hit on Russian oil refineries hundreds, and sometimes thousands of miles inside Russia. No wonder the Kremlin has been so willing to make it stop.

But where it actually counts, Russia shows no signs of wanting peace, and instead there are signs it's actually preparing for more war. President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of Russian troop build-ups across the border from Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv regions, saying the Kremlin is preparing for new spring offensives.

Citing G7 diplomatic sources, the Associated Press also reported that Russia is likely preparing to launch a new offensive on multiple fronts in an effort to strengthen its position in possible peace talks.

Meanwhile, Russian missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities carry on unabated. In the latest incident, a ballistic missile hit a residential area in the city of Kryvyi Rih.

Russia said it had successfully targeted a meeting of Ukrainian military officials. Video from the scene showed it had successfully targeted a playground. At least 18 people - including nine children - were killed, and more than 60 were injured.

After seemingly being taken for a ride by Vladimir Putin for the last few weeks, over in Washington, there are signs that Trump's patience is beginning to wear thin as he begins to realize what everyone else has known all along - Russia isn't interested in peace in the slightest.

Trump has said he is "pissed off" and "very angry" at Putin's actions in recent days, threatening to "put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia".

But the perennial question remains - will he actually do anything or is he, once again, all talk when it comes to Russia?

We should find out soon enough - on April 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: "We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are".

So yes, they're a bit slow on the uptake in the White House but they seem to be getting there eventually.

The Occupied Territories

If you read one article about Ukraine this week, I very much encourage you to make it this one about Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories being forced to take Russian passports or face being deported to… well, no one actually knows where.

With all the talk of ceasefires and "freezing the front lines," there's very little coverage of the people who w...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

It's hard to believe, but it's happening. On 27 March 2025, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History'. Among its main concerns was the Smithsonian American Art Museum which, the order complained, featured an exhibit that claimed that "sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism".

The White House was especially upset that the exhibit "promoted the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating 'Race is a human invention.'"

On 15 February, a memo from the US General Services Administration removed an explicit 'Prohibition of Segregated Facilities' (like waiting rooms, restaurants and drinking fountains) for federal contractors. Though the memo cannot overturn the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination based on race, colour or other traits in public facilities, legal experts describe it as a powerful symbolic act exemplifying Trump's embrace of a segregationist agenda.

The White House's open support for racist and eugenicist ideas does not come out of the blue. It is the culmination of decades of subversion by scientific racists seeking to move their fringe beliefs into the mainstream.

But two individuals in particular became the connecting points between the traditional fascism of the 1930s, and the new digital era. What began as fringe internet musings about eugenics, racial IQ differences, and supposedly natural social hierarchies has seeped into elite tech circles and, remarkably, into the heart of American politics.

In 2007, an obscure American software engineer-turned-blogger began posting lengthy screeds under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug, denouncing democracy as "ineffective and destructive" and praising authoritarian rule. Around the same time, a British philosopher began penning essays lauding scientific racism and absolutist micro-states.

These two figures - Curtis Yarvin (Moldbug's real name) and Nick Land - helped spawn an intellectual movement that became known as the Dark Enlightenment, a neo-reactionary revolt against modern democracy.

Despite some major media outlets scurrying to look into the influence of Yarvin and Land on the American right, they have largely overlooked and obfuscated the roots of their ideas in Nazi-inspired scientific racism and eugenics.

Delving into some of their most racially-charged ideas - Nick Land's support for "hyperracism" and Curtis Yarvin's existential fear of the global extinction of a cognitively superior white race - throws unnerving light on what the Trump administration is preparing for, and why it is working to protect anti-Black racism and the eugenics belief that sees race as a biological reality.

Eugenics Rebranded: The 'Human Biodiversity" Doctrine

For most journalists writing about the Dark Enlightenment, the most significant thing about Yarvin and Land is their opposition to democracy and support for techno-authoritarian rule. But this barely scratches the surface of what is really driving their belief systems.

Yarvin and Land built their worldviews on a foundational belief: human inequality is biologically hard-wired. They drew on a network of bloggers and authors in the early 2000s who promoted race-based genetic theories - the HBD (human biodiversity) community, which put a pseudo-academic gloss on old-fashioned scientific racism which was supercharged under Nazi rule in the early 20th century.

As I reveal in my new book Alt Reich: The Network War to Destroy the West From Within, the HBD movement attempted to repackage ideas cemented under Nazi ideology.

Those ideas were originally pr...