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After weeks in the United States, influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrived back in Romania early on Saturday, where they face charges of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

The Tates, who are dual U.S. and British citizens, were arrested in Romania in late 2022 and formally indicted last year on charges that they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were allegedly sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They deny all of the allegations against them.

The brothers' plane — which Andrew Tate said earlier in a post on X cost $294,914 ($US185,000) to "jet across the Atlantic to sign one single piece of paper" — landed at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport shortly before 1am local time Saturday morning (10am Saturday AEDT).

After arriving at their residence near the capital, Bucharest, Andrew Tate told reporters they returned because "innocent men don't run from anything" and he vowed to clear his name in court.

"After all we've been through, we truly deserve the day in court where it is stated that we've done nothing wrong and that we should have never been in court in the first place. We should have never gone to jail. We should have never had our assets seized. We should have never had our names slandered," he said.

"Anyone who believed any of this garbage has a particularly low IQ."

Their return to Romania comes nearly a month after a travel ban imposed on the brothers was lifted, after which they flew on a private jet to the US, landing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The brothers remain under judicial control, which requires them to appear before judicial authorities in Romania when summoned.

Eugen Vidineac, one of the Tate brothers' lawyers in Romania, told The Associated Press that the Tates are due to check in with a surveillance officer on Monday.

Days after the Tates arrived in the US, on March 4, Florida's Attorney General James Uthmeier said his office had opened a criminal investigation into Andrew and Tristan Tate. He said in a social media post that he directed his office to work with law enforcement to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the brothers.

A day after the investigation was opened, Andrew Tate said in a post on X: "I didn't commit any crime and they're trying to find one because they don't like me."

The lifting of their two-year travel ban came after a Bucharest court in December ruled that a case against the brothers could not go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors. The case, however, remained open.

For his part, Tristan Tate said after returning to Romania, "I think it's very telling that we were investigated for two and a half years, and we were dragged in front of the media, into prison, out of prison, all this time, and in December last year, a judge said … there's not evidence enough for this to even go to trial."

Last August, Romania's anti-organised crime agency DIICOT also launched a second case against the brothers, investigating allegations of human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering. They have denied those charges as well.

Andrew Tate, 38, a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed more than 10 million followers on X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.

"There are a lot of people in the world today that do not have faith in Romanian institutions … but we're going to restore that faith by coming home, as American citizens, going to court, and getting the not guilty that we deserve," Andrew Tate said. "If a court needs to speak to us, we'll be there because we're innocent."

The Tate brothers' legal battles are not limited to Romania.

Four British women who accused Andrew Tate of sexual violence and physical abuse are suing him in the U.K. after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute him.

In March last year, the Tate brothers appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case after UK authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a case dating back to the period from 2012 to 2015.

The appeals court granted the UK request to extradite the Tates, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.

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Innocent tourists getting locked up for weeks in America

2025-03-22 FreeNews

Lennon Tyler and her German fiancé often took road trips to Mexico when he vacationed in the United States since it was only a day's drive from her home in Las Vegas, one of the perks of their long-distance relationship.

But things went terribly wrong when they drove back from Tijuana last month.

US border agents handcuffed Tyler, a US citizen, and chained her to a bench, while her fiancé, Lucas Sielaff, was accused of violating the rules of his 90-day US tourist permit, the couple said.

Authorities later handcuffed and shackled Sielaff and sent him to a crowded US immigration detention centre. He spent 16 days locked up before being allowed to fly home to Germany.

Since President Donald Trump took office, there have been other incidents of tourists like Sielaff being stopped at US border crossings and held for weeks at US immigration detention facilities before being allowed to fly home at their own expense.

They include another German tourist who was stopped at the Tijuana crossing on January 25. Jessica Brösche spent over six weeks locked up, including over a week in solitary confinement, a friend said.

On the Canadian border, a backpacker from Wales spent nearly three weeks at a detention centre before flying home this week. A Canadian woman on a work visa detained at the Tijuana border spent 12 days in detention before returning home last weekend.

Sielaff, 25, and the others say it was never made clear why they were taken into custody even after they offered to go home voluntarily.

Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee's US-Mexico border program, a nonprofit that aids migrants, said in the 22 years he has worked on the border he's never seen travellers from Western Europe and Canada, longtime US allies, locked up like this.

“It’s definitely unusual with these cases so close together, and the rationale for detaining these people doesn’t make sense,” he said. “It doesn’t justify the abhorrent treatment and conditions” they endured.

“The only reason I see is there is a much more fervent anti-immigrant atmosphere," Rios said.

Of course, tourists from countries where the US requires visas — many of them non-Western nations — have long encountered difficulties entering the US.

US authorities did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for figures on how many tourists have recently been held at detention facilities or explain why they weren't simply denied entry.

Weekslong lockups fuel anxieties about tourist travel to US

The incidents are fueling anxiety as the Trump administration prepares for a ban on travelers from some countries. Noting the “evolving” federal travel policies, the University of California, Los Angeles sent a notice this week urging its foreign-born students and staff to consider the risks of travel for spring break, warning “re-entry requirements may change while you are away, impacting your return.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an email to the AP that Sielaff and Brösche, who was held for 45 days, “were deemed inadmissible” by Customs and Border Protection. That agency said it cannot discuss specifics but “if statutes or visa terms are violated, travelers may be subject to detention and removal." The agencies did not comment on the other cases.

Both German tourists were allowed into the United States under a program offered to a select group of countries, mostly in Europe and Asia, whose citizens are allowed to travel to the US for business or leisure for up to 90 days without getting a visa in advance. Applicants register online with the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation.

But even if they are authorized to travel under that system, US authorities have wide discretion to still deny entry. Following the detentions, Britain and Germany updated their travel advisories to alert people about the strict U.S. border enforcement. The United Kingdom warned “you may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”

Sielaff arrived in the US on January 27. He and Tyler decided to go to Tijuana for four days in mid-February because Tyler's dog needed surgery and veterinary services are cheaper there. They figured they would enjoy some tacos and make a fun trip out of it.

“Mexico is a wonderful and beautiful country that Lucas and I love to visit,” Tyler said.

They returned on February 18, just 22 days into Sielaff's 90-day tourist permit.

When they pulled up to the crossing, the US border agent asked Sielaff aggressively, “Where are you going? Where do you live?” Tyler said.

“English is not Lucas' first language and so he said, ‘We’re going to Las Vegas,' and the agent says, ’Oh, we caught you. You live in Las Vegas. You can't do that,'" Tyler said.

Sielaff was taken away for more questioning. Tyler said she asked to go with him or if he could get a translator and was told to be quiet, then taken out of her car and handcuffed and chained to a bench. Her dog, recovering from surgery, was left in the car.

After four hours, Tyler was allowed to leave but said she was given no information about her fiancé’s whereabouts.

During questioning, Sielaff said he told authorities he never lived in the US and had no criminal history. He said he was given a full-body search and ordered to hand over his cellphone and belongings. He was put in a holding cell where he slept on a bench for two days before being transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.

There, he said, he shared a cell with eight others.

“You are angry, you are sad, you don’t know when you can get out,” Sielaff said. “You just don’t get any answers from anybody.”

He was finally told to get a direct flight to Germany and submit a confirmation number. In a frantic call from Sielaff, Tyler bought it for $US2744. He flew back on March 5.

‘A blatant abuse’ of US border authorities' power, victims say

“What happened at the border was just blatant abuse of the Border Patrol’s power,” Tyler said.

Ashley Paschen agrees. She said she learned about Brösche from a TikTok video asking anyone in the San Diego area for help after her family learned she was being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Paschen visited her several times and told her people were working to get her out. Brosche flew home on March 11.

“She’s happy to be home,” Paschen said. “She seems very relieved if anything but she’s not coming back here anytime soon.”

On Febrary 26, a tourist from Wales, Becky Burke, a backpacker traveling across North America, was stopped at the US-Canada border and held for nearly three weeks at a detention facility in Washington state, her father, Paul Burke, posted on Facebook.

She returned home on Tuesday.

On March 3, Canadian Jasmine Mooney, an actress and entrepreneur on a US work visa, was detained at the Tijuana crossing. She was released on Saturday, her friend Brittany Kors said.

Before Mooney's release, British Columbia Premier David Eby expressed concern, saying: “It certainly reinforces anxiety that … many Canadians have about our relationship with the US right now, and the unpredictability of this administration and its actions."

The detentions come amid legal fights over the Trump administration's arrests and deportations of other foreigners with valid visas and green card holders, including a Palestinian activist who helped organize campus protests of the war in Gaza.

Tyler plans to sue the U.S. government.

Sielaff said he and Tyler are now rethinking plans to hold their wedding in Las Vegas. He suffers nightmares and is considering therapy to cope with the trauma.

“Nobody is safe there anymore to come to America as a tourist,” he said.

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First plane lands at Heathrow since closure, Qantas flights diverted to Paris

2025-03-22 FreeNews

The first plane landed at Heathrow Airport late on Friday, about 18 hours after an inferno at an electrical substation caused a power outage that shuttered Europe's busiest air travel hub.

The British Airways jet touched down just before sunset after Heathrow lifted its closure order that disrupted global travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

At least 1350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said, and the impact was likely to last several days as passengers try to reschedule their travel and airlines work to reposition aircraft and crews.

Authorities do not know what caused the fire but so far found have no evidence it was suspicious.

Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion, followed by a fireball and clouds of smoke, when the blaze ripped through the electrical substation near the airport.

About 120 flights were in the air when the closure was announced, with some turned around and others diverted to Gatwick Airport outside London, Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris or Ireland's Shannon Airport, tracking services showed.

Qantas caught in the chaos

Several Qantas flights in and out of the UK were caught up in the chaos, the airline confirmed last night.

The airline's flights into London were diverted to Paris, with passengers then bussed into London through the channel tunnel.

"Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London," the airline said in a statement at 5pm yesterday.

"Our teams are working hard to support impacted customers and we thank them for their patience."

With the outage at Heathrow now lifted, Several of Qantas' flights are now proceeding as normal.

Qantas has been contacted for further comment this morning.

'Incredibly long day' for travellers

Lawrence Hayes was most of the way to London from New York when Virgin Atlantic announced the plane was being diverted to Glasgow.

"It was a red-eye flight and I'd already had a full day, so I don't even know how long I've been up for," Hayes told the BBC as he was getting off the plane in Scotland. "Luckily I managed to get hold of my wife and she's kindly booked me a train ticket to get back to Euston, but it's going to be an incredibly long day."

Heathrow is one of the world's busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5 per cent from the same period last year.

Still, the disruption Friday fell short of the one caused by the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and created trans-Atlantic air travel chaos for months.

Unclear what caused the fire but foul play not suspected

It was too early to determine what sparked the huge blaze about 3 kilometres from the airport, but there's "no suggestion" of foul play, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.

The Metropolitan Police force said counterterrorism detectives were leading the investigation because of their ability to find the cause quickly and because of the location of the electrical substation fire and its impact on critical national infrastructure.

Heathrow said its backup power supply designed for emergencies worked as expected, but it was not enough to run the whole airport. It said it had no choice but to close the airport for the day.

"We expect significant disruption over the coming days, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens," the airport said.

The widespread impact of the fire that took seven hours to control led to criticism that Britain was ill-prepared for disaster or some type of attack if a single blaze could shut down Europe's busiest airport.

"The UK's critical national infrastructure is not sufficiently hardened for anywhere near the level it would need to be at to give us confidence this won't happen again," said Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a security think tank. "If one fire can shut down Heathrow's primary systems and then apparently the backup systems, as well, it tells you something's badly wrong with our system of management of such disasters."

Tom Wells, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, acknowledged that authorities had questions to answer and said a rigorous investigation was needed to make sure "this scale of disruption does not happen again."

Heathrow — where the UK government plans to build a third runway — was at the heart of a shorter disruption in 2023 when Britain's air traffic control system was hit by a breakdown that slowed takeoffs and landings across the UK on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Disruption could last days

Heathrow had originally said it expected to reopen just before midnight, but anticipated "significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens."

After Heathrow announced it would reopen, British Airways said it was cleared for eight long-haul flights to depart from Heathrow after 7 pm United Airlines said it expected to operate most of its Friday departures to London.

Even after flights resume, it will take several days to mobilize planes, cargo carriers, and crews and rebook passengers, said aviation consultant Anita Mendiratta.

"It's not only about resuming with tomorrow's flights, it's the backlog and the implications that have taken place," she said.

Diverted, cancelled and in limbo

Mark Doherty and his wife were halfway across the Atlantic when the inflight map showed their flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Heathrow was turning around.

"I was like, you're joking," Doherty said before the pilot told passengers they were heading back to New York.

Doherty called the situation "typical England — got no back-up plan for something happens like this. There's no contingency plan."

At Heathrow, a family of five travelling to Dallas showed up in the hopes their flight home — still listed as delayed — would take off.

But when Andrea Sri brought her brother, sister-in-law and their three children to the airport, they were told by police that there would be no flight.

"It was a waste of time. Very confusing," said Sri, who lives in London. "We tried to get in touch with British Airways, but they don't open their telephone line until 8 a.m."

Travelers who were diverted to other cities found themselves trying to book travel onward to London. Qantas airlines sent flights from Singapore and Perth, Australia, to Paris, where it said it would bus people to London, a process likely to also include a train shuttle beneath the English Channel.

Budget airline Ryanair, which doesn't operate out of Heathrow, said it added eight "rescue flights" between Dublin and Stansted, another London airport, to transport stranded passengers Friday and Saturday.

National Rail cancelled all trains to and from the airport.

Blaze lit up the sky and darkened homes

Matthew Muirhead was working on Thursday night near Heathrow when he stepped outside with a colleague and noticed smoke rising from an electrical substation and heard sirens.

"We saw a bright flash of white, and all the lights in town went out," he said.

The London Fire Brigade sent 10 engines and around 70 firefighters to control the blaze and about 150 people were evacuated from their homes near the power station.

The blaze knocked out power to 67,000 customers, though most of it was restored by daybreak, the fire brigade said.

Flights normally begin landing and taking off at Heathrow at 6 am due to nighttime flying restrictions. But the skies were silent Friday morning.

"Living near Heathrow is noisy, there are planes every 90 seconds or so, plus the constant hum of traffic, but you get used to it, to the point of no longer noticing," said James Henderson, who has lived next to the airport for more than 20 years. "Today is different, you can hear the birds singing."t for more than 20 years. "Today is different, you can hear the birds singing."

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ADHD misinformation is rampant online. Steph is trying to change that

2025-03-22 FreeNews

When Stephanie Miller was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) last year, she knew she wanted to speak about it on social media.

She also knew she had to be careful.

The influencer and entrepreneur, better known online as @stephclairsmith, grew up believing the worst myths about ADHD and had seen those myths spread on social media as an adult, even by people with lived experience.

Steph Claire Smith ADHD

The last thing she wanted was to accidentally contribute to that misinformation.

Miller was right to be cautious, as new research published in the PLOS One journal found that more than half of the most popular TikTok videos about ADHD contain misinformation.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia, Canada analysed the 100 most popular TikTok videos with the #ADHD hashtag and found that fewer than half of the claims made about ADHD in the videos were in accord with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is used for clinical diagnosis.

The study suggests that misinformation about ADHD symptoms is common on social media and that may be affecting users' perceptions of ADHD.

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at Google Play.

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Mysterious deaths and cat infestations of New Zealand parliament

2025-03-22 FreeNews

A veiled woman burst screaming from an elevator. The small crowd gathered in a basement corridor of New Zealand's parliament drew back nervously.

Their guide, wearing a trailing, white gown, smiled sweetly. "You're welcome to take the elevator," she said. Nobody did.

Mysterious deaths, unexplained noises and late-night apparitions are not the usual fodder of daily tours offered at the parliament buildings in Wellington. After hours on Thursday, however, guides donned Victorian-era garb to regale visitors with the precinct's less savoury history — "mostly factual" tales of real-world tragedy and paranormal lore that have grown established among political staffers through decades of colourful retelling.

The history of parliament's stately gothic library is particularly rich in woe. Constructed in the late 19th century and feared by some of parliament's night shift security guards and cleaners, it has survived two fires, a flood and being overrun by feral cats.

"This is your last chance to back out," Lisa Brand, her face dripping with fake blood, told the group who had arrived for Thursday's tour — a recent initiative and one embraced by the visitors' centre staff with gusto.

Walking through a cavernous parliamentary atrium, the guide let out a hair-raising scream that echoed up to the open windows of lawmakers' offices. It explained why the so-called spooky tours are reserved for weeks when parliament is not in session.

A gothic and colourful past

Parliament's library is a gloomy and ornate building where stained-glass windows and crystal chandeliers dimly reveal wrought iron bannisters and Venetian decor. Designed by Thomas Turnbull and completed in 1899, it remains in use by staff seeking information or some slightly eerie peace and quiet.

When the visitors arrived on Thursday, they were greeted by spectral figures who shrieked as they glided down staircases beneath the portraits of former head librarians and New Zealand prime ministers. Tour guides told a hushed audience that the library was imperiled by a savage storm that struck Wellington in 1968 — sinking a passenger ferry in the harbour with the deaths of 53 people.

The tempest lashed parliament too, tearing out skylights and prompting librarians to climb onto the roof as they tried to protect the books, according to a guide who sported Victorian garb and dark shadows under her eyes.

"For mysterious and unknown reasons they did this in their underwear," she told the visitors. "There seems to be a history of people losing their pants here in this parliament."

The guide added, with relish: "I haven't even started on the politicians."

A tragic death and a stolen skull

Eventually the tour turned to politicians, too. Well-known in New Zealand is the story of William Larnach, a politician who in 1898 was found dead in a room at parliament with a revolver in his hand while experiencing financial and family strife.

Larnach's ghost, some claim, remains in the building. His skull, however, was stolen — and in 1972 was rediscovered in a college student's bedroom.

Another spirit reported to linger is that of the first full-time librarian, Ewen McColl, whose death was partly attributed by some official sources to overwork.

Screams from the basement

As the tour descended to the building's basement, the ceilings grew low and the corridors narrow. Frantic banging resounded from an apparently locked room.

The subterranean floors are home to an archive containing the historical and esoteric. It's also the site of some of the building's strangest reported occurrences, tour guides said.

Urban legends passed down by staff include stories of hands reaching out from the stacks, songs emanating from empty bathrooms, the apparition of a ghostly woman in a mirror, and locked doors swinging open. More earthly horrors included a cat, and subsequent flea infestation in 1977.

Spookier than expected

After one last fright, visitors emerged slightly shaken into parliament's near-empty lobby as darkness fell. The tour was "a bit spookier than I expected," said Holly Masters, who had last visited parliament as a child. "There was quite a few deaths here that I did not expect to find out about."

Another visitor, Sally Giles, said she was fascinated to learn the stories of those who worked and died in the precinct "and what they've left behind and how that surfaces every now and then."

The tour guides would return to their regular, authorised scripts on Friday's tours — but some said the building's spooky side was never far away.

"I always open up the tour route in the morning," said Brand, the team leader. "It does always feel a bit tingly when you're one of the first people walking around."

Weekslong lockups fuel anxieties about tourist travel to US

‘A blatant abuse’ of US border authorities' power, victims say

Qantas caught in the chaos

'Incredibly long day'﻿ for travellers

Unclear what caused the fire but foul play not suspected

Disruption could last days

Diverted, cancelled and in limbo

Blaze lit up the sky and darkened homes

A gothic and colourful past

A tragic death and a stolen skull

Screams from the basement

Spookier than expected

'Incredibly long day' for travellers