Russell Brand's transatlantic trial
The other is his more recent incarnation. A stint in Hollywood – Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek – preceded the transformation of this left-populist raconteur into a new-age guru. His concerns about the bankers never went away, but were turbo-charged with new anxieties: mainstream media, the Great Reset, vaccine injuries, the lying political establishment. A predictable Pokemon evolution for a man, already distrustful of authority, implanting himself into the ecosystem of a nascent New American Right.
Both Brands sat in the dock in Southwark Crown Court at 1030am on 30 May – black shirt unbuttoned below the sternum, jeans as skinny as they were in 2008, the customary ombre-lensed aviators in hand – and pleaded not guilty to five charges of rape, sexual assault and indecent assault. Two of the incidents were alleged to have taken place at the MTV offices and Labour party conference, between 1999 and 2005. On the day he was charged he wrote 'I've never engaged in non-consensual activity… I'm now going to have an opportunity to defend these charges in court, and I'm incredibly grateful for that.' Brand, 49, will go to trial on 3 June 2026.
Brand has long been shorthand for something much bigger than himself: once, a symbol for the excesses of noughties television; more recently, evidence of the right's quest for spirituality; now, the impassable gulf between the American right and establishment Britain.
On 2 May, when Brand first appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court, Tucker Carlson wrote: 'The entire case is transparently political and absurd… He has no shot at a fair trial, because Britain is no longer a free country.' In the same post Carlson contended that the once 'famous leftwing actor' was being penalised – via rape allegations – for criticising the government ('for using Covid to turn the UK into a totalitarian state').
That sounds familiar. During last year's summer riots America looked on and saw not just tensions spill out onto British streets, but an overweening state happily locking people up for tweeting in response. Senator Ted Cruz suggested 'nanny-state totalitarians' were destroying Britain. Elon Musk couldn't stop posting about Keir Starmer's 'Woke Stasi'. The basic line that the MAGA right have taken on Britain is that it is over: overwhelmed by demographic change, overlorded by left-wing petty tyrants, overcome by contradictions that are no longer possible to hide or wish away. To them, Brand is just another political prisoner.
And so, in Britain Brand sits as a faded rockstar – a once sexy Marxist with one foot in the establishment – diminished as he runs to his shed in Oxford to prepare for an immense legal showdown. And in the imagination of the American right he sits behind the glass staring at the judge in Court 2 as a victim of an authoritarian state that imprisons people for much less than what he is accused of; a standard bearer for their worst suspicions about Labour's Britain; a martyr who handily already looks a lot like a bad picture of Jesus you might find in a Tennessee Sunday school.
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Outside court there was a man I recognised from Brand's first court appearance – his green Krispy Kreme bucket hat and pink trainers made him hard to miss. There were a throng of confused spectating tourists too, stalled by the press pack. If there were fans present they made little attempt to reveal themselves. And so Brand walked through the crowd – flanked by a small entourage – and got in the car, in silence. Cognisant, you must imagine, that his friends are very far away.
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Economist
33 minutes ago
- Economist
The new geography of stolen goods
Britain | Grand Theft Global Inc Cars, phones, tractors: how high-end products are increasingly stolen to serve distant markets The MSC Ruby is almost ready to leave Felixstowe. Seven remote-controlled gantry cranes are still at work, stacking containers in the ship's bays. Some 11,000 containers pass through this port each day, making it Britain's primary conduit to the arteries of global trade. The Ruby 's next call is Gran Canaria—then, the long run down the coast of Africa. Watching the scene, Adam Gibson, the lone police officer at the port whose job is finding stolen cars, sounds rueful: 'There's no way in hell I can search even a small fraction of them. We could be standing here now and there could be three or four boxes of stolen cars just there in those stacks. They could be manifested as teddy bears.' Without many people noticing Britain has become a leading exporter of stolen goods. In the past decade the number of vehicles stolen in the country has risen by 75%. Most end up on container ships; the top destination is west Africa. More recently London has become known as the 'phone-snatching capital of Europe'. If the victims manage to track their devices, the goods are most likely to turn up in China. British farmers are plagued by raiding gangs. Their tractors and GPS kits usually head east, to Russia or eastern Europe. For centuries criminals have nicked valuable products and smuggled them across borders, beyond the reach of the law. Britain today shows how this model has evolved in new and alarming ways. Encrypted communications have enabled criminal gangs to operate and co-operate more freely than ever before, and establish global supply chains. As countries in Africa and Asia have become richer, demand for the products common on the streets of the rich world is growing. This combination has spawned a flourishing criminal enterprise. Call it Grand Theft Global Inc. Britain is a 'perfect place' for this business, says Elijah Glantz of RUSI, a think-tank, because of its saturated consumer market and weak export controls. There are lots of expensive cars and phones to steal, and it is easy to get them away. There is also almost no deterrent: Britain's police solve only 5% of crimes (and 2% of vehicle thefts). In continental Europe and America such criminal enterprise is growing, too, though America has stronger scrutiny of exports due to fear of fraud and tax evasion. Canada has been hit by a rash of vanishing vehicles. But for now, Britain has the dubious title of world leader. 'The UK sees itself as a recipient of criminality, not an exporter,' says Mr Glantz. Cars show how the model has evolved. Like other rich countries, Britain experienced a sharp drop in vehicle crime in the 1990s, thanks to immobilisers and other technology. In 2013 Britain had only 2.7 thefts for every 1,000 privately owned cars, according to RUSI. Now it is 4.4. Thefts have risen from 90,000 in 2020 to 130,000 last year. That has fed into a 45% real-terms rise in the cost of car insurance (in the EU it has risen only in line with inflation). Vehicle crime is 'my number-one issue', says Dan Tomlinson, the Labour MP for Chipping Barnet, a leafy north London suburb. The method is typically as follows. To defeat sophisticated security systems, thieves use specialised equipment. Once in, they mask the car with fake number plates and use jammers to override GPS tracking. Then they move it, usually across county lines (collaboration between police forces is often poor), where it will be sold to a group that handles logistics. Sometimes the car is hidden in a shipment of other goods, under a false manifest. More often, the gang employs a third group to give the car a 'new identity'—not only paperwork but markers including the vehicle identification number, a unique code stamped on the chassis. Uncontained This whole process—from theft to container—often takes less than a day. That is partly because Grand Theft Global Inc is not one outfit but a sophisticated supply chain. It is also lucrative. Consider a Toyota Hilux, which when new costs around £40,000 ($54,000). The group that steals one might be paid £1,500 for a night's work. If another gets it to west Africa, where Hiluxes are sought after, they can sell it for more than it fetches in Britain. In his large inspection tent at Felixstowe, Mr Gibson provides a guided tour. The cars are all shiny SUVs, though most have been dented by ratchet straps (the thieves don't mind because that can be fixed cheaply at the other end). Shelves are piled with engines, batteries and sundry parts from cars taken to a 'chop shop', a freelance operator who will break them up without asking questions. Some are literally sawn into thirds. Gangs have also begun to target rental companies using fake documents. On the day your correspondent visits, Mr Gibson opens a container, following a tip-off. Inside is a Porsche 911 Carrera S that was rented in Germany two weeks ago: somehow it has found its way into a box in Britain, bound for Africa. Between 2021 and 2024 almost four in ten stolen cars intercepted at Britain's ports were heading for the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) The DRC borders nine countries, making it an ideal hub from which to serve a growing African market. One in five was heading for the United Arab Emirates. From there gangs reach customers across the Gulf. Most thefts in Canada follow the same two routes. Buyers largely want SUVs that can handle poor roads. Increasingly, however, the elite also want sports cars, which often stick out on the streets of Kinshasa (not least because many are right-hand-drive). Sometimes, says Mr Gibson, thieves seem to work to an 'order'. Grand Theft Global Inc works in a similar way for phones. Some 70,000 phones were stolen in London last year, a rise of more than a third on the year before. Britain accounts for 40% of the stolen phones in Europe. As with cars, low-level thieves sell them on to a fence (a thief might get £100-200 for one that is unlocked, or £30-60 for one that isn't). Again, third-party services have popped up, such as shops that specialise in overcoming security features. Large batches of phones are then wrapped in tinfoil to prevent tracking, and exported, often via container ships. Remarkably, investigations have found that most end up in one place: Huaqiangbei market in Shenzhen. Demand in China for second-hand phones is huge; those that cannot be unlocked are broken apart and rebuilt. And there is no better place to do that than Huaqiangbei, the world's largest electronics market. Because Shenzhen is where many of the phones were made in the first place, there is a ready supply of skilled workers. According to a study by Zituo Wang of the University of Southern California, the primary source of stolen phones identified in China is Britain. British farms, meanwhile, have been targeted since Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to sanctions on legal trade. In 2023 the value of claims for stolen GPS kits rose by 137%. Today London, tomorrow the world It may be that Grand Theft Global Inc is thriving in Britain because the country has particular vulnerabilities. Or perhaps criminals there have just been quicker to pick up on them. London is, after all, often a city where innovative methods in criminality first emerge. There is little reason to think this one will not be exported, too. To see why, consider four factors. First is the way containerised shipping works. Around the world, border agencies overwhelmingly focus on imports, hunting for people and drugs. In many countries, exports are hardly checked at all. Anyone can book a container. The way ships are filled—tiers of 'freight forwarders' buy batches of containers and sell them on—makes auditing hard. Only a tiny proportion of containers will ever be opened up, let alone X-rayed; typically just when authorities receive a tip-off. For each container Mr Gibson holds up and searches, the police must pay the port a fee of £200. Second, the ability to covertly communicate, sell goods and transfer money online has tipped the scales in favour of criminal groups. Until recently, even highly professional outfits found it hard to do this (case files abound with stories of drug kingpins struggling to make themselves understood on clunky satellite phones). Now someone who wants a Porsche in Kinshasa can be linked seamlessly, via several intermediaries, with someone prepared to steal one in Kent. 'These groups are just doing business in a very modern way,' says Ruggero Scaturro of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, a think-tank. In Britain Grand Theft Global Inc is seen as so low-risk that many drug gangs are shifting into it. That links to the third factor: supply and demand. As cars and phones have become more sophisticated, they have become more expensive in relation to incomes. That alone has made stealing them more attractive. But it has also fuelled a particular type of demand: most middle-class consumers in China cannot afford a new iPhone. Many Africans want better vehicles, but the used-car market remains dominant, legal dealerships scarce, and premium cars have not yet reached the economies of scale that bring costs down. These gaps will continue. As the market for stolen goods becomes more efficient, prices will fall. Once a particular model is sold, there will be demand for parts. Fourth, police forces largely remain in the dust. NaVCIS has enjoyed some success, intercepting 550 cars in the past year. But that is a small fraction of what gets through. Mr Gibson is one of three officers on the whole south coast. Britain's police have yet to catch any high-ups in the business. European forces do not even have dedicated investigation teams. Across the rich world, police resources tend to be directed towards 'higher harm' offences. The gains to trade In some ways the success of Grand Theft Global Inc is a story of globalisation. It uses the infrastructure of global commerce, designed for frictionless trade. Identifying stolen goods amid so many containers is like finding 'needles in haystacks', says Tim Morris of the Association of British Ports. Globalisation created the supply chain that allows each iPhone—assembled from nearly 3,000 components—to reach the hands of a consumer. The same forces inverted see that phone yanked out of it, re-exported and broken apart again. Yet Grand Theft Global Inc can also thrive in a world that is increasingly fragmented. Tariffs make stolen goods only more competitive. Sanctions, like those on Russia, boost demand for criminal activity. When countries are less co-operative, it is easier to ship goods to places from where they are unlikely to be recovered. Indeed, while Grand Theft Global Inc hurts the rich world's consumers, the countries benefiting from the trade have little incentive to curb it. Unlike those in Europe, authorities in China do not make it hard to sell stolen phones. The country is not part of the Central Equipment Identity Register, a global database that networks use to block stolen devices. 'China really doesn't care about this problem,' says Mr Wang. Even if African countries wanted to clamp down, says Mr Glantz, they would struggle. 'Enforcement capability in Cameroon or the Congo is almost none.' In theory sending goods halfway round the world is an added cost. But the way the shipping industry works, a container is paid for only when it reaches its destination. If it is intercepted, the cost is borne by the freight forwarder. Extra distance can also reduce the willingness of insurers to pursue recovery. One officer says French police have shown her videos of stacks of stolen cars in Senegal that cannot be repatriated. Once the MSC Ruby leaves port, its contents are as good as gone.
Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Move over, Americans... Englishmen are the next best thing! From Nicola Peltz, Zendaya, Olivia Rodrigo and JoJo Siwa, all the stars who have found love with a Brit
Move over Americans, Hollywood scarlets can't get enough of the British accent. American stars including Nicola Peltz, Zendaya, Olivia Rodrigo and JoJo Siwa have all found love with a handsome Englishman. British males are certainly having their spotlight as more and more A-lists bag themselves a English hunk. Figures on the dating site, Dating Across The Pond, which has been matching Brits to Americans since 2010, show 65 per cent of it's 108,000 members are American women. Google searches for 'British men' also went up 21 per cent over the past year, proving British men are the next hot topic. Even Love Island UK winner Toni Laites - who resides in Las Vegas - admitted she has 'no reason to be in America anymore after finding love with Londoner Cach Mercer on the ITV2 show. But are Englishmen the next best thing? Daily Mail reveals all the American girls who fell victim to the British charm... Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham They have been the talk of the town ever since they said 'I do' for a second time at her family's estate in Westchester County on August 2. Brooklyn, 26, and Nicola, 30, first tied the knot in a lavish £3million ceremony in 2022. As the eldest son of former England footballer David, 50, and Spice Girl Victoria, 51, Nicola walked into a very iconic British family. The pair began dating back in October 2019, went Instagram official a few months later, and by July 2020, Brooklyn had popped the question. David and Victoria and siblings Romeo, 22, Cruz, 20, and Harper, 14, were all missing from the 200 people guest list at their vow renewal amid their heartbreaking family feud. His grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles were also absent and only found out about the wedding vow renewal by reading it online. Brooklyn become increasingly estranged from his family since he snubbed his father's 50th birthday, and now, the family fear it's a final kick in the teeth. Olivia Rodrigo and Louis Partridge Olivia and English actor Louis may have reached a major new milestone in their romance after two years of dating. Strolling hand-in-hand down an Los Angeles sidewalk on Sunday, all eyes were on the massive diamond ring on Rodrigo's engagement finger. While the singer and her British boyfriend, both only 22, have remained tight-lipped about whether he's popped the question, her dazzling new accessory is said to be the talk of Tinseltown. It also adds to recent fan speculation that Olivia subtly mentions Louis in her hit 2023 track, 'So American'. Olivia and Louis first made headlines as a couple when they were spotted together in his hometown, London, in October 2023. In a October 2024 interview with Elle magazine, Louis playfully dodged questions about whether Olivia's song "So American" was about him. At the time, he laughed and said, 'Not my song, not my place. So I wouldn't know.' He did, however, share that Olivia has influenced his music taste, saying, 'My girlfriend has been trying to get me into more pop recently. Chappell Roan has been on repeat.' Describing his own approach to relationships, Louis said he sees himself as a 'golden retriever' boyfriend type — easygoing and loyal. 'I think in past relationships my mind worked at a different speed to the women I've known,' he explained. 'A bit slower. The way I would characterize it is like a Golden Retriever and a black cat. I can imagine being happy sitting and catching a Frisbee.' Zendaya and Tom Holland US superstar Zendaya, 28, has been dating the British actor, 29, since 2021 after meeting on set of the Marvel movie. Tom and his fiancée Zendaya have become one of Hollywood's most talked-about couples since finding love on set in 2016 while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming. When they're not appearing at red carpet events and film premieres, they manage to keep a low profile and are often pictured walking their dog Noon together in London. The couple were forced to delay their wedding, according to her trusted 'image architect' Law Roach. 'The process hasn't even started yet,' the 47-year-old stylist updated E! News. 'Zendaya is working on so many movies. She's now filming the next iteration of Dune, so she's away doing that. It's so many movies, so we have time. We have a lot of time.' The Challengers producer-star first sparked engagement rumors at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills on January 6 while rocking a Jessica McCormack-designed diamond sparkler estimated to cost $500K. The very next day, TMZ reported that Tom had 'got down on one knee' and popped the question 'between Christmas and New Year's Eve' at Zendaya's family home in Oakland, CA: 'It was romantic and not over the top.' The London-born Englishman told Men's Health at the time: 'When I have kids, you will not see me in movies anymore. [It'll just be] golf and dad. And I will just disappear off the face of the earth.' JoJo Siwa and Chris Hughes American singer JoJo, 22, and Love Island UK star Chris, 32, met during a stint on Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year and have since been to and from America and London to visit each other. Chris recently revealed he turned his relationship with JoJo from friendship into romance by putting his feelings down on paper. The pair became instant friends on Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year and began dating after the final. Chris told how he went to the US to surprise JoJo for her birthday and wrote down his feelings on a piece of paper in a hotel bar in order to tell her how he really felt. Speaking to The Sun, he said: 'I was confused about how I felt. Then I wasn't confused anymore. I knew I needed to write it down to explain to her how I was feeling. 'I went to Florida thinking "I really like this person", but I was slightly confused about the feelings. I had already written her birthday card before I flew over. I took all these presents over for her. They were fun and sentimental gifts rather than anything of monetary value. 'But the night before her birthday, I realised my feelings had changed. I told her: "I've got to go do something. I'll be back in half an hour." I went to the hotel reception and borrowed a pen and came back up to the room.' Chris said he loved JoJo as a friend at first but his feelings began to change towards the end of the series. Up until her relationship with Chris, JoJo had identified as a lesbian and was in a relationship with Australian influencer Kath Ebbs, although they quickly broke up after she left the Big Brother house. Gabbriette Bechtel and Matty Healy The American model-musician, 27, and The 1975 frontman, 36, have been linked since September 2023. They were first spotted packing on the PDA in New York City, shortly after his well-publicised split from Taylor Swift in June that year. The couple went on to announce their engagement in June 2024 after a whirlwind nine-month romance, with Gabbriette showing off her black diamond ring on Instagram. In an interview with British Vogue, Gabby opened up about her relationship with Matty and even hinted about wanting children in the future, gushing: 'I love being in love,' after hanging up the phone to her fiancé. She added: 'When I thought that I was in love before it was just me being a person of service to somebody else.' Hinting at how she and Matty first connected, when answering what her advice to anyone still looking for love is, she replied: 'Answer all your DMs and listen to your closest friends.' 'When they like somebody, you should listen to them.' Ashley Roberts George Rollinson Pussycat Dolls star Ashley, 43, met her British boyfriend George, 25, in 2023. The loved-up couple have gone from strength to strength ever since they were first linked. The singer recently gave an insight into her love life and revealed why she prefers dating Brits over American men. In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, Ashley said she feels like an 'adopted Brit' after moving to London from the US in 2012 after her appearance on I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! She admitted she could never imagine dating a man from the US now because they're 'overwhelming'. She said: 'Yes, George is British. It's funny because I have been here so long that when I go back to the States, I'm much more aware of the differences… 'American men are, I feel bad saying this, but they're overwhelming, they are too much. I'm like, you need to calm down. 'I think because I grew up in that culture, I didn't necessarily think anything different but now I've lived here for so long and I've dated in the past, many years ago, European men... 'But I don't even imagine myself dating an American guy now. They have a different approach. Even in places like Vegas it's all around you that kind of testosterone.' Ashley, who's originally from Phoenix, Arizona, says she is thankful to have settled down in Britain and after The Pussycat Dolls went their separate ways in 2010.
Powys County Times
an hour ago
- Powys County Times
Rayner claims Reform will ‘fail women' as she weighs in on online safety row
Nigel Farage and Reform UK risk 'failing a generation of young women' if they scrap online safety laws aimed at preventing revenge porn, Angela Rayner has said. The Deputy Prime Minister demanded Mr Farage explain how his party would keep young women safe when they use the internet, after Reform vowed to repeal the Online Safety Act. Her warning is the latest intervention in a row between senior Labour figures and Mr Farage's party over the Act. Under new rules introduced through the legislation at the end of July, online platforms such as social media sites and search engines must take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide. Reform has vowed to repeal the law and replace it with a different means of protecting children online, though the party has not said how it would do this. Among their criticisms of the Act, Mr Farage and his colleagues have cited freedom of speech concerns and claimed the Act is an example of overreach by the Government. This prompted backlash from Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, who claimed people like Jimmy Savile would use the internet to exploit children if he was still alive, and insisted anyone against the Act – like Mr Farage – was 'on their side'. The Reform leader demanded an apology, but ministers have been trenchant in their defence of the Act. Now, the Deputy Prime Minister has questioned how Mr Farage would seek to prevent the 'devastating crime' of intimate image abuse, also known as 'revenge porn', without the Online Safety Act's protections. Ms Rayner claimed: 'Nigel Farage risks failing a generation of young women with his dangerous and irresponsible plans to scrap online safety laws. 'Scrapping safeguards and having no viable alternative plan in place to halt the floodgates of abuse that could open is an appalling dereliction of duty. It's time for Farage to tell women and girls across Britain how he would keep them safe online.' Under the Online Safety Act, revenge porn is classified among the 'most severe online offences', the Deputy PM added. Citing figures from the charity Refuge, the Labour Party claimed a million young women had been subject to revenge porn: either intimate images being shared, or the threat of this. Some 3.4 million adults in total, both men and women, have been affected, Labour also said. Ministers have previously had to defend the Online Safety Act against accusations from Elon Musk's X social media site that it is threatening free speech. In a post at the start of August titled 'What Happens When Oversight Becomes Overreach', the platform formerly known as Twitter outlined criticism of the act and the 'heavy-handed' UK regulators. The Government countered that it is 'demonstrably false' that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech and said it is not designed to censor political debate. Mr Farage has meanwhile suggested there is a 'tech answer' for protecting children online, but neither he nor the Government have outlined one. He also suggested children are too easily able to avoid new online age verification rules by using VPNs (virtual private networks), which allow them to circumvent the rules by masking their identity and location. When Reform UK was approached for comment, its Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham said: 'Women are more unsafe than ever before thanks to Labour. Starmer has released thousands of criminals back onto the streets early with no regard for women's safety. 'I am calling on Jess Phillips to debate me on women's safety – she ignored the grooming gangs scandal and now she's wilfully deceiving voters on this issue. 'Reform will always prioritise prosecuting abuse but will never let women's safety be hijacked to justify censorship. 'You don't protect women by silencing speech. You protect them by securing borders, enforcing the law, and locking up actual criminals, and that is exactly what a Reform government would do.'
