Byline Times Audio Articles

'That Phone Could Hold the Truth': Levi Davis Family Says Investigator Withheld Evidence

Read our Monthly Magazine And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY A private investigator has been accused of 'hacking' and 'withholding' an iPhone considered critical to the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of rugby and reality TV star Levi Davis, Byline Times can reveal Gavin Burrows took the device from Mr Davis's grieving family after volunteering his help in their search following the former Bath Rugby and X Factor star's unexplained disappearance in Barcelona in October 2022 – a case that remains one of Europe's most perplexing of recent times. But after falling out with family and friends of the missing man, who say Burrows later became "highly abusive" toward them, prompting an official complaint to his trade body, the phone's whereabouts – and its secrets – remain a mystery three years later. "That phone could hold the key to why Levi posted on Instagram before he disappeared saying his life was in danger," Davis's mother Julie said today, referring to a harrowing 15-minute film her son made alleging he'd been a victim of targeted drug rape and organised blackmail after appearing on reality TV shows in the UK. Miss Davis added: "This is why the family are desperate to have the iPhone back. Myself and others have repeatedly asked Mr Burrows to return Levi's device since spring 2023 so it can be properly forensically examined by the police. He told me that he could not release it to me and then went silent. As far as we are concerned he is responsible for withholding potentially critical evidence." EXCLUSIVE Levi Davis – Murdered At Sea? Part Two of a five part special investigation by Dan Evans and Tom Latchem into a missing person's case with dark criminal undertones Dan Evans and Tom Latchem New Version of Events While the Davis family say Burrows has simply refused to give the iPhone back – and are now publicly calling for its return – Burrows offered a new version of events this week in response to questions from this newspaper. He claimed that "to the best" of his knowledge a "Spanish consultant operative" gave Levi's phone to the Catalan authorities, although Byline Times can confirm there is no record to support this claim in the official reports of the Investigating Magistrate in Barcelona, Senor Francisco Miralles Carrio. Burrows did not deny offering to bypass the iPhone's security in order to "help find" Davis and identify a mystery suspect the sportsman cut short a holiday in Ibiza to meet in Barcelona, arriving by ferry on 29 October, 2022, with just a small backpack of belongings before vanishing five hours later. Instead, he justified the use of "any feasible means to help find a missing person," which he said would "naturally be utilised," insisting: "this is normal procedure in missing person cases," – potentially tainting what might have been a critical piece of evidence in the police's criminal investigation. According to three witnesses, Burrows started making unsolicited offers to bypass the phone's security in order to access Davis's private information in 2023. But his relationship with the family and others later deteriorated sharply following lurid and, it transpired inaccurate, tabloid stories that Davis was fleeing a Somali gang over an alleged £100,000 drugs debt and, separately, that police were going to imminently arrest people close to Levi – articles in which Burrows was a quoted source. Julie Davis said: "Mr Burrows got in touch out of the blue right after Levi went missing. He offered to help us at a time of great need but very soon it became clear he was more interested in using Levi as a vehicle for self-promotion. "He propagated a number of false and unhelpful allegations about my son to the press, muddying the focus of the search, and in my opinion cutting across police inquiries in the UK and Spain. "There are many questions around activity on Levi's WhatsApp and other apps which may have records of peopl...

Nigel Farage Paid by Trump Crypto Adviser Who Worked With Russia Operative Paul Manafort

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY Nigel Farage has been paid by a cryptocurrency adviser to US President Donald Trump, who worked with Paul Manafort – Trump's former campaign chair, jailed for financial crimes after investigations into his Kremlin-aligned influence operations – to lobby the president on Bitcoin policy. David Bailey, chief executive of BTC Inc and a senior cryptocurrency adviser to Trump, brought Manafort into his lobbying operation in early 2024. Together, Manafort and Bailey spent the rest of the year working to persuade Trump to embrace Bitcoin and establish America's first Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Bailey subsequently paid Farage a speaking fee through BTC Inc, months before the Reform UK leader unveiled a pro-crypto policy platform that mirrors the Trump administration's digital asset agenda. Paul Manafort's role in the development of Trump's entire cryptocurrency strategy raises questions about Bitcoin's role as a vehicle of Russian influence, in particular as a mechanism to weaken national fiat currencies. It also links Farage to one of the most controversial figures in modern American politics – and raises questions about whose interests are actually being served by Reform UK's proposed Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill. Trump's Campaign Chair Paul Manafort's involvement in shaping Trump's Bitcoin policy represents a remarkable political rehabilitation. The veteran Republican operative was convicted in 2018 on charges including tax fraud and bank fraud, stemming from his work advancing Russian interests. A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation concluded in August 2020 that Manafort's activities "represented a grave counterintelligence threat" to the United States. The committee found that while serving as Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, Manafort regularly shared internal campaign polling data and strategy with Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the report identified as a Russian intelligence officer. The US Treasury Department later confirmed that Kilimnik "provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy." Manafort's work for Russian-aligned interests stretched back decades. From 2005, he held a $10 million annual contract with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska – described as closely aligned with Vladimir Putin – for work that Manafort said would "greatly benefit the Putin Government." The Senate committee concluded this influence work was "in effect, influence work for the Russian Government and its interests." Between 2004 and 2014, Manafort worked as chief political adviser to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's pro-Russian president, and his Party of Regions, which US diplomats described as "a haven" for "mobsters and oligarchs." Manafort received millions in undisclosed payments to rehabilitate Yanukovych's image in the West and advance pro-Kremlin policies, including blocking Ukraine's NATO membership. Trump pardoned Manafort, who has always denied representing Russian political interests, in December 2020. Trump and Musk Welcome Russian Propaganda After Sanctioning European Disinformation Experts If there's any question that the US is now more aligned with Russia rather than Europe, recent State Department decisions have removed all doubt Peter Jukes Manafort's Return By early 2024, David Bailey had recruited Paul Manafort to help orchestrate what would become one of the biggest political pivots of Trump's campaign: his transformation from crypto sceptic to Bitcoin champion. Bailey was first connected to Manafort after a meeting of fellow Bitcoin evangelists in Puerto Rico which included Tracy Hoyos-López – Manafort is her sister's godfather. Manafort then plugged Bailey into the heart of Donald Trump's campaign team. Over the next few months, Bailey and Manafort worked to educate Trump's inner circle on Bitcoin policy, craft messagin...

A Year of Living Dangerously in Trump's America

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY One year into the second Trump Presidency and America is now a very different place. It may superficially look the same from the outside. Many of us are able to go through the motions of our daily lives in the same ways as before. But, everything is changed on the inside. America has become a place where it is no longer entirely safe to speak freely. Where criticizing the Government can get you into trouble, perhaps even cause you to be fired from your job, or deported. Where engaging in public protest can get you arrested. Where every day you wake up with a clenching stomach, wondering what new Government outrage has happened overnight. Where every day, hordes of masked men roam communities, terrorize individuals, wantonly grab people off the streets, from their cars, or places of business, rough them up and throw them into detention, on no evidence whatsoever that they are guilty of any wrongdoing. All of this sanctioned by the Government authorities that are supposedly here to protect us. I can't believe I'm actually writing these words. I can't believe I am actually living in a country where extra-judicial executions, such as happened with Renee Good in Minneapolis last week, killed by an ICE officer, can take place; where forced disappearances have become routine; where individuals with legal residency or citizenship status can be swept up in anti-immigration raids, if they happen to look foreign (translation – black or brown), or be hanging around in a place frequented by immigrants; where even young children can be snatched up and taken into detention. 100 People Detained in UK Immigration Removal Centres Say They Are Subjected to Extreme Physical and Emotional Abuse Individuals detained at two detention centres report experiencing physical, psychological and emotional abuse at the hands of officers Nicola Kelly I can't believe I'm living in a country where the authorities, instead of investigating the officer who killed Renee Good, are slandering her as a "domestic terrorist" and investigating her widow for potential obstruction of ICE agents. Those of us privileged to live in majority white, suburban, or middle-class communities can pretend to ourselves that life is still normal and that we won't be swept up in this madness. But, it's a delusion. Today, every interaction is overshadowed by the political climate. Today, when I meet friends, we don't just catch up with each other's news. We always ask each other, with deliberate meaning, "how are you doing?" – the subtext being, "how are you handling the stress caused by the latest Trump outrage?" When I meet strangers, we dance delicately around the subject of Trump, to find out whether we are on the same political page or not, before opening up more substantively to each other. With strangers, we use euphemisms to lead into a conversation about current events – "with everything going on", "in today's crazy world", and decode responses carefully to work out where we each stand. This is how I always imagined people living in authoritarian countries communicated with each other, in lowered tones, or using veiled references, in case someone hostile is listening. I no longer ask people of obviously foreign origin where they are from, how long they have lived in America or their current status. It's better not to know. I feel privately relieved and ashamed not to be a migrant, black or Hispanic myself. I imagine this is not dissimilar to how many Germans felt in the early 1930s, when they became uneasily aware that their Jewish neighbours were being harassed by Hitler's brownshirts. A year ago, I felt able to write articles or post on social media about current events without worrying about whether this might get me, or anyone associated with me, into trouble. Last summer, amidst the hounding of anyone who posted anything negative about...

Protesters With Palestine Action Placards Handed £100 Fines Rather Than Face Prosecution

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY Protesters in Scotland arrested for carrying signs in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action have been offered £100 fines instead of prosecution. Critics of PA's proscription say this shows that the use of terrorism legislation on supporters of PA is "ridiculous". Adam McGibbon was first arrested in October last year for holding up a sign which read "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action" in protest at the designation of the direct action group as a terrorist organisation and their proscription under the Terrorism Act. He was arrested again on one other occasion and was charged four times under the Terrorism Act. In late December, McGibbon and two other activists who spoke to Byline Times were sent letters with the offer of a £100 fine in lieu of prosecution for some of their offences in breach of section 13 by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. £100, they noted, is roughly equivalent to a parking fine. McGibbon, a seasoned climate activist, told Byline Times: "If supporting Palestine Action is so bad and so terrible like Dan Jarvis the security minister said it was in parliament in September, then how come you can get off for the same price as parking ticket?". "I mean do the Islamic State get this offer?" he added. The proscription of Palestine Action has seen protests up and down the UK in defiance of the proscription with activists holding signs in support of the group. Police have made thousands of arrests since the proscription of PA in July 2025. EXCLUSIVE Palestine Action Arrests Condemned as 'Deeply Alarming' While British Press Remains Silent The Liberal Democrats described the arrests of campaigners against the ban on the group as a "dangerous precedent" for free speech, yet the British press remains largely silent about it Josiah Mortimer Section 13 of the Terrorism Act makes it illegal to wear clothing or hold signs that might be reasonably understood as support for a proscribed terrorist organisation, meaning protesters showing their support for PA by holding signs risk a £5000 fine and six months imprisonment. While theoretically a relatively serious offence under the Terrorism Act, the authorities in the devolved administrations in the UK appear to be less inclined to prosecute than the CPS in England. In Northern Ireland section 13 is rarely enforced because statements or items that could constitute support for Northern Irish paramilitaries are commonplace, and police powers are devolved to Stormont. Catherine Allen, another activist who was offered the penalty said that the fines and the comparatively gentle treatment of the Scottish protesters by law enforcement "could suggest that even the police don't have their hearts in it given how ridiculous arresting peaceful protesters is, and that protesting genocide is not a crime". McGibbon, Allen and another activist spoken to by Byline Times said they would be rejecting the offer of the fine. In a letter sent back to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Allen and some of her fellow activists stated: "the offer of a fine equivalent to a parking ticket or a warning is both revealing and revolting. Revealing because it indicates that deep down the Procurator Fiscal Office in Scotland agrees that we are a million miles from being 'terrorists'. Revolting because it offers a fine like a sweetie – accept this sweetie, the offer states, and then stop asking us to get a moral compass". The group stated that they were demanding the Scottish police to stop arresting and charging them for their repeat protests. BREAKING Palestine Action Ban Branded 'Absurd and Dangerous' as Group Asks High Court to Overturn Proscription Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the High Court in order to oppose the ban on the direct action group, Olly Haynes reports Olly Haynes The letter also stated that the g...

How Kherson Became a Live Testing Ground for Drone Defence Against Russia's 'Human Safari' of Ukrainians

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY Russian forces began using First Person View (FPV) drones to hunt civilians in Kherson in the summer of 2024, a practice first reported by Byline Times on July 29 that year. Known as the human safari, the tactic deliberately targets civilians, emergency workers, and infrastructure staff and has since been recognized as both a war crime and a crime against humanity, with the aim of forceful displacement. In response, the Kherson Regional Military Administration has developed layered defences to counter the attacks. On January 8, these measures, along with the 2025 data, were presented by Head of the Kherson Military Administration Oleksandr Prokudin at a press conference held in a Kherson bomb shelter while undergoing shelling. Attacks and Casualties In 2025, the Russian Federation military shelled the territory of the Kherson Region 146,000 times, firing more than 235,000 shells at Kherson city and villages. As a result of Russian shelling, 307 civilians in the region were killed, including six children. Another 2,564 people were injured, including 62 children. Half of the Russian strikes on the community were carried out by drones. Almost every second victim in the region was injured or killed by a drone attack. About 100,000 Russian drones targeted civilians, children, the elderly, emergency medical teams, city facilities, critical infrastructure, and maintenance staff in the Kherson region in 2025. 130 civilians died in the Kherson region as a result of the Russian "human safari," including three children. Another 1,195 civilians were injured, including 17 children. "Anyone who moves becomes a target, including pensioners going to the market, children out for a walk, and ambulances responding to emergency calls," said Prokudin. Inventing Anti-drone Defences in the Ever-changing Environment Countering drone attacks is a priority for the city and regional military administrations. According to Oleksandr Prokudin, there is no single magic solution, and innovation and creativity remain key to effective defence. No means or system can guarantee 100% protection against drones at this moment. No so-called "umbrella" or "universal dome" capable of protecting 100% of a city from drone attacks yet exists, either in Ukraine or in the world's most technologically advanced states. Effective countermeasures require a combination of available forces and tools, anticipation of technological developments, and the methods to counter them. City authorities, in collaboration with the Ukrainian military, strengthened protection against FPV drones and large Shahed-type drones and built a three-level defence system. This included: A radio-electronic wall operates simultaneously at fifteen frequencies and helps disable and destroy different types of drones, from Mavic to FPV Physical barriers, including anti-drone tunnels, stop drones from entering key areas Mobile units are deployed to shoot down drones that bypass these defences In recent months, Ukrainian units have shot down 230 Russian Shahed drones, and the number continues to rise monthly, according to Prokudin. In 2025, Ukrainian forces destroyed 93,000 Russian small drones, accounting for 97% of the total number. The drone technology battle is never static: the Russian military constantly improves drone technology, and, in response, the Ukrainian military continuously adapts its defences. Both Ukraine and Russia are deploying fiber-optic drones, as well as AI-assisted and swarming drones. These systems allow real-time data processing, automated target recognition, and coordinated operations, compensating for personnel shortages and contested signal environments. The technology race adds a new dimension to the human safari, making drone attacks faster and harder to counter. The EU's 'Farage Clause' Shows the Damage Reform Is Already Doing to the UK As ...