"Dreamt Of Being James Bond": UK Man Guilty Of Trying To Spy For Russia
A British man who dreamed of being like James Bond was convicted on Tuesday of attempting to spy for Russia.
Howard Phillips, 65, sought to pass information about former Defense Secretary Grant Shapps to two men he believed were Russian agents. However, the agents were undercover British intelligence agents.
A jury at Winchester Crown Court found Phillips guilty of assisting what he believed to be a foreign intelligence agency. The unanimous verdict came after four hours of deliberations.
He was remanded into custody and will be sentenced in the fall. No precise date was set.
Prosecutors said Phillips offered to turn over Shapps' contact details as well as the location where he kept his private plane to "facilitate the Russians in listening on British defense plans."
The defendant's ex-wife told the court that Phillips "would dream about being like James Bond," and watched films about the British secret services because he was "infatuated with it."
Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's counterterrorism division, said the conviction sends a clear message to anyone considering spying for Russia.
"Phillips was brazen in his pursuit for financial gain, and unbothered about the potential detriment to his own country," David said.
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News18
38 minutes ago
- News18
Trump plays golfs in Scotland while protesters take to streets, decry his visit
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Speakers told the crowd that Trump was not welcome and criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for striking a recent trade deal to avoid stiff US tariffs on goods imported from the UK. Protests were planned in other cities as environmental activists, opponents of Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza and pro-Ukraine groups loosely formed a 'Stop Trump Coalition." Anita Bhadani, an organiser, said the protests were 'kind of like a carnival of resistance." June Osbourne, 52, a photographer and photo historian from Edinburgh wore a red cloak and white hood, recalling 'The Handmaid's Tale." Osbourne held up picture of Trump with 'Resist" stamped over his face. 'I think there are far too many countries that are feeling the pressure of Trump and that they feel that they have to accept him and we should not accept him here," Osbourne said. The dual-US-British citizen said the Republican president was 'the worst thing that has happened to the world, the US, in decades." Trump's late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland and the president has suggested he feels at home in the country. But the protesters did their best to change that. 'I don't think I could just stand by and not do anything," said Amy White, 15, of Edinburgh, who attended with her parents. She held a cardboard sign that said 'We don't negotiate with fascists." She said 'so many people here loathe him. We're not divided. We're not divided by religion, or race or political allegiance, we're just here together because we hate him." Other demonstrators held signs of pictures with Trump and Jeffrey Epstein as the fervour over files in the case has increasingly frustrated the president. In the view of Mark Gorman, 63, of Edinburgh, 'the vast majority of Scots have this sort of feeling about Trump that, even though he has Scottish roots, he's a disgrace." Gorman, who works in advertising, said he came out 'because I have deep disdain for Donald Trump and everything that he stands for." Saturday's protests were not nearly as large as the throngs that demonstrated across Scotland when Trump played at Turnberry during his first term in 2018. But, as bagpipes played, people chanted 'Trump Out!" and raised dozens of homemade signs that said things like 'No red carpet for dictators," 'We don't want you here" and 'Stop Trump. Migrants welcome." One dog had a sign that said 'No treats for tyrants." Some on the far right took to social media to call for gatherings supporting Trump in places such as Glasgow. Trump also plans to talk trade with Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. But golf is a major focus. The family will also visit another Trump course near Aberdeen in northeastern Scotland, before returning to Washington on Tuesday. The Trumps will cut the ribbon and play a new, second course in that area, which officially opens to the public next month. Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who is also set to meet with Trump during the visit, announced that public money will go to staging the 2025 Nexo Championship, previously known previously as the Scottish Championship, at Trump's first course near Aberdeen next month. 'The Scottish Government recognises the importance and benefits of golf and golf events, including boosting tourism and our economy," Swinney said. At a protest Saturday in Aberdeen, Scottish Parliament member Maggie Chapman told the crowd of hundreds: 'We stand in solidarity, not only against Trump but against everything he and his politics stand for." The president has long lobbied for Turnberry to host the British Open, which it has not done since he took over ownership. In a social media post Saturday, Trump quoted the retired golfer Gary Player as saying Turnberry was among the 'Top Five Greatest Golf Courses" he had played in as a professional. The president, in the post, misspelled the city where his golf course is located. (AP) SKS NPK NPK (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: July 26, 2025, 22:30 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Scroll.in
43 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Like Idi Amin, today's demagogues have convinced the majority that they are oppressed by ‘outsiders'
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In my new book, A Popular History of Idi Amin's Uganda, I show that Amin's government made Uganda – a remote, landlocked nation – look like a frontline state in the global war against racism, apartheid and imperialism. Doing so was, for the Amin regime, a way of claiming a morally essential role: liberator of Africa's hitherto oppressed people. It helped inflate his image both at home and abroad, allowing him to maintain his rule for eight calamitous years, from 1971 to 1979. The phony liberator? Amin was the creator of a myth that was both manifestly untrue and extraordinarily compelling: that his violent, dysfunctional regime was actually engaged in freeing people from foreign oppressors. The question of Scottish independence was one of his enduring concerns. The 'people of Scotland are tired of being exploited by the English,' wrote Amin in a 1974 telegram to United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. 'Scotland was once an independent country, happy, well governed and administered with peace and prosperity,' but under the British government, 'England has thrived on the energies and brains of the Scottish people.' Even his cruelest policies were framed as if they were liberatory. In August 1972, Amin announced the summary expulsion of Uganda's Asian community. Some 50,000 people, many of whom had lived in Uganda for generations, were given a bare three months to tie up their affairs and leave the country. Amin named this the ' Economic War '. In the speech that announced the expulsions, Amin argued that 'the Ugandan Africans have been enslaved economically since the time of the colonialists.' The Economic War was meant to 'emancipate the Uganda Africans of this republic.' 'This is the day of salvation for the Ugandan Africans,' he said. By the end of 1972, some 5,655 farms, ranches and estates had been vacated by the departed Asian community, and Black African proprietors were queuing up to take over Asian-run businesses. A year later, when Amin attended the Organization of African Unity summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, his 'achievements' were reported in a booklet published by the Uganda government. During his speech, Amin was 'interrupted by thunderous applauses of acclamation and cheers, almost word for word, by Heads of State and Government and by everybody else who had a chance to hear it,' according to the the report. It was, wrote the government propagandist, 'very clear that Uganda had emerged as the forefront of a True African State. It was clear that African nationalism had been born again. It was clear that the speech had brought new life to the freedom struggle in Africa.' Life at the front Amin's policies were disastrous for all Ugandans, African and Asian alike. Yet his war of economic liberation was, for a time, a source of inspiration for activists around the world. Among the many people gripped by enthusiasm for Amin's regime was Roy Innis, the Black American leader of the civil rights organization Congress of Racial Equality. In March 1973, Innis visited Uganda at Amin's invitation. Innis and his colleagues had been pressing African governments to grant dual citizenship to Black Americans, just as Jewish Americans could earn citizenship from the state of Israel. Over the course of their 18 days in Uganda, the visiting Americans were shuttled around the country in Amin's helicopter. Everywhere, Innis spoke with enthusiasm about Amin's accomplishments. In a poem published in the pro-government Voice of Uganda around the time of his visit, Innis wrote: 'Before, the life of your people was a complete bore, And they were poor, oppressed, exploited and economically sore. And you then came and opened new, dynamic economic pages. And showered progress on your people in realistic stages. In such expert moves that baffled even the great sages, your electric personality pronounced the imperialists' doom. Your pragmatism has given Ugandans their economic boom.' In May 1973, Innis was back in Uganda, promising to recruit a contingent of 500 African American professors and technicians to serve in Uganda. Amin offered them free passage to Uganda, free housing and free hospital care for themselves and their families. The American weekly magazine Jet predicted that Uganda was soon to become an 'African Israel,' a model nation upheld by the energies and knowledge of Black Americans. As some have observed, Innis was surely naive. But his enthusiasm was shared by a great many people, not least a great many Ugandans. Inspired by Amin's promises, their energy and commitment kept institutions functioning in a time of great disruption. They built roads and stadiums, constructed national monuments and underwrote the running costs of government ministries. Patriotism and demagoguery Their ambitions were soon foreclosed by a rising tide of political dysfunction. Amin's regime came to a violent end in 1979, when he was ousted by the invading army of Tanzania and fled Uganda. But his brand of demagoguery lives on. Today a new generation of demagogues claim to be fighting to liberate aggrieved majorities from outsiders' control. In the 1970s, Amin enlisted Black Ugandans to battle against racial minorities who were said to dominate the economy and public life. Today an ascendant right wing encourages aggrieved white Americans to regard themselves as a majority dispossessed of their inheritance by greedy immigrants. Amin encouraged Ugandans to regard themselves as frontline soldiers, engaged in a globally consequential war against foreigners. In today's America, some people similarly feel themselves deputised to take matters of state into their own hands. In January 2021, for instance, a right-wing group called 'Stop the Steal' organised a rally in Washington. Vowing to 'take our country back,' they stormed the Capitol building. The racialised demagoguery that Idi Amin promoted inspired the imagination of a great many people. It also fed violent campaigns to repossess a stolen inheritance, to reclaim properties that ought, in the view of the aggrieved majority, to belong to native sons and daughters. His regime is for us today a warning about the compelling power of demagoguery to shape people's sense of purpose.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Sanctions risk: Indian firm defends explosive shipment to Russia; says material for civilian use only
This is an AI-generated image, used for representational purposes only. An Indian company that exported $1.4 million worth of an explosive compound to Russia last December said it complied with Indian rules and that the shipment was strictly for civilian industrial purposes, not military use. According to news agency Reuters, Ideal Detonators Private Limited confirmed that the material exported, HMX, also known as octogen, was not of military grade. 'The shipment ... is for industrial activity and it's a civil explosive,' the Telangana-based firm said in an email response. HMX is known for its powerful military applications, including use in missile and torpedo warheads and other advanced weapon systems. The US government has called the compound 'critical for Russia's war effort' and has warned that any sale of such materials to Moscow could trigger sanctions under its treasury department's guidelines. Reuters first reported that Ideal Detonators shipped HMX to two Russian buyers in last December, Promsintez and High Technology Initiation Systems (HTIS), according to Indian customs data. One of them, Promsintez, has ties to Russia's military, a Ukrainian security official claimed, and its factory was targeted by a Ukrainian drone attack in April. The US state department said it had communicated with India about the risks involved in doing military-related business with Russia. "We have repeatedly made clear to all our partners, including India, that any foreign company or financial institution that does business with Russia's military industrial base are at risk of US sanctions," a spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters. India's foreign ministry, however, responded that all dual-use exports are regulated under a robust legal framework. 'India has been carrying out exports of dual-use items taking into account its international obligations on non-proliferation,' the ministry said. According to Reuters, HMX is also used in limited civilian areas such as mining and industrial blasting. HTIS, one of the recipients, claims to manufacture explosives for mining and engineering projects. HTIS is listed as a subsidiary of Madrid-based Maxam, which is controlled by US private equity firm Rhone Capital. Maxam is reportedly in the process of divesting its Russian subsidiaries. While India has deepened ties with Washington in recent years, its historic defense and trade relationship with Moscow remains intact. Indian oil purchases and other trade with Russia have remained strong, even amid global sanctions over the Ukraine war. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
