In what we can only describe as an equally terrifying and admirable act of bravery, an LGBTQ+ protestor stormed onto the pitch during Portugal vs Uruguay’s World Cup match on Monday night.
Serial pitch invader Mario ‘Il Falco’ Ferri made the bold and immensely dangerous move of not only entering the field of play flying a rainbow flag in protest of the anti-LGBTQ+ state, but he also donned a shirt reading ‘Respect Iranian Women’ on the back and ‘Save Ukraine’ on the front.
While the majority of the nations present at the tournament are united with Ukraine, it was quite the statement to make with Iran still sitting second behind England in Group B, especially in a country where women‘s rights are also suppressed.
Despite receiving cheers from large sections of the crowd, the protestor was also met with a chorus of boos from Qatari locals before he was ultimately tackled to the ground.
World Cup: A protester ran into the game holding a rainbow flag – with a 'Save Ukraine' and 'Respect For Iranian Women' shirt – @OrryLaviepic.twitter.com/s6dIcZLkQz
Despite FIFA making the positive U-turn to allow rainbow flags and bucket hats into the grounds for the remainder of the competition last week, it goes without saying that the organisers will definitely be less lenient with pitch invaders flying pride flags.
ADVERTISEMENT
While many supporters were wondering whether this decision might signal the return of the One Love armband, which was banned just before the start of the opening game, however that now seems highly unlikely.
Moreover, while Russia are obviously not at the 2022 World Cup, Qatar and FIFA will also be wary of any and all high-profile political statements against Iran or any other nation, for that matter.
ADVERTISEMENT
People watching the live broadcast were also disappointed by the director’s decision to cut away from the scenes, airing nothing more than a glimpse of the protestor before he was removed from the pitch.
Protestor carrying rainbow flag runs onto the pitch during Uruguay Portugal, this is as much of that as the source broadcaster will show pic.twitter.com/SttAQuUHlu
Activist and footballer Ferri has become renowned for stunts like these down the years, making it even more curious how he managed to get in the stadium in the first place.
Back in March, the 35-year-old even helped evacuate Ukrainian civilians escaping the Russian invasion across the Polish border. What an absolutely top bloke.
ADVERTISEMENT
It remains unclear whether he was detained by authorities afterwards and what if any punishment he has faced, though some form of action seems inevitable given the stories of their strict policing thus far.
The ‘most complained-about’ show in Britain over the last five years has been revealed
Danny Jones
The TV show with the in Britain over the past half-decade has seemingly been confirmed, and we can’t exactly say it’s given everyone watching a good morning…
Yes, it’s GMB.
Well, that’s according to research by Aura Print, anyway; they dug down into the official Ofcom data to try and discover which British TV programme got the most complaints – an unwanted accolade that was earned quite comfortably by Good Morning Britain.
This might not come as too much of a surprise to many of you, especially regular viewers over the last few years, with GMB often popping up in headlines alongside phrases like ‘viewers complain’ and ‘Ofcom’. Either way, here’s what the study found:
Rank
Programme
Service
Number of complaints (2021-2025)
1
Good Morning Britain
ITV1
91,890
2
Love Island
ITV2
66,252
3
Julia Hartley-Brewer
TalkTV
18,525
4
Dan Wootton Tonight
GB News
9,207
5
King Charles III: The Coronation
ITV1
8,389
6
This Morning
ITV
7,387
7
Celebrities: What’s Happened to Your Face?
Channel 5
7,082
8
Oprah with Meghan and Harry
ITV
6,456
9
I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
ITV1
6,203
10
Jeremy Vine
Channel 5
4,982
11
Big Brother
ITV1 / ITV2
4,678
12
Lorraine
ITV
4,675
13
Breakfast with Kay Burley
Sky News
3,467
14
Emmerdale
ITV1
2,405
15
Vanessa
5
1,986
16
Loose Women
ITV
1,799
17
Married at First Sight UK
E4
1,748
18
Coronation Street
ITV
1,348
19
Lee Anderson’s Real World
GB News
1,668
20
Friday Night Live
Channel 4
1,630
21
Headliners
GB News
1,498
22
Ant Payne
Capital FM
1,430
23
Naked Education
Channel 4
1,413
24
The Brit Awards
ITV1
1,157
25
Today with Samantha Washington
Sky News
1,270
As you can see, GMB has racked up nearly 92,000 complaints over the past five years, which is well over 25k more than the next most inflammatory.
The rest of the top five is also made up of other mainstream news commentary programmes (four out of five), bar the second runner-up in Love Island, with 66,252.
It’s also worth noting that ITV is the most complained-about broadcaster of any network on the list. GB News came in second with three different shows on the list: Dan Wootton Tonight, Lee Anderson’s Real World and Headliners.
Certainly not surprising whatsoever was the particular episode that received the most complaints of all those in the history of Good Morning Britain, which went out on 8 March 2021.
In case you haven’t guessed which one this is already, it was the infamous Piers Morgan episode discussing Meghan Markle’s mental health, which was reported to Ofcom a whopping 57,973 times.
This feels like a lifetime ago, but we remember it receiving most Ofcom complaints Britain had ever seen at the time.
Yes, more than half of the complaints they have ever received come after ONE viral moment.
In terms of particularly divisive presenters, second only to Piers Morgan, Julia Hartley-Brewer was the next most complained-about presenter, racking up a total of 18,500 complaints.
GB News’ Dan Wootton came in at number three with 9,207 complaints, but also worth noting that plenty of what most would consider popular mainstream entertainment IPs like I’m A Celeb and Big Brother racked up over 10k collectively during this period.
You can find the full breakdown of Ofcom data from 2021-2025 right HERE.
Parents of Rochdale three-year-old mauled to death by ‘out of control’ dog jailed
Emily Sergeant
The parents of a young boy who was mauled to death by a dog described as ‘dangerously out of control’ have now been jailed.
Emergency services were called to Carr Farm, on Tunshill Lane in Rochdale, at around 1:10pm on Sunday 15 May 2022, after Daniel Twigg – who was three years old at the time – was attacked by a dog, believed to be a Cane Corso named Sid.
Despite the best efforts of emergency services at the scene, and trauma staff at Manchester Children’s Hospital, Daniel sadly died from multiple head and neck injuries later that afternoon.
The dog was one of eleven kept on the property, which the family moved into two months earlier, and the tragic incident occurred when Daniel entered a dog pen unsupervised, where Sid and another dog were housed in ‘poor conditions’.
Specialist officers from Greater Manchester Police‘s (GMP) Tactical Aid Unit and Dog Unit attended the scene, securing the area and safely removing the dogs.
The parents of a Rochdale three-year-old boy mauled to death by ‘out of control’ dog jailed / Credit: GMP
Sid, who was said to be showing signs of ‘extreme agitation’, was subsequently humanely destroyed at the scene by a firearms officer.
The two parents, Mark Twigg and Joanne Bedford, were sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court las week after they were found guilty of being a person in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury.
Joanne was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, and is disqualified from keeping a dog for 15 years, and Mark received a custodial sentence of two years and eight months, as well as being disqualified from keeping a dog for 15 years.
Speaking following the sentencing of the parents last week, Detective Sergeant Mark Evans, from GMP’s Major Incident Team, said: “This was a deeply tragic and traumatic incident that has left a permanent mark on everyone involved from Daniel’s family and neighbours to the officers and medical professionals who responded that day.
Danny Jones -
29th November 2022 
