Scottish police reportedly asked an Edinburgh McDonald's branch not to sell milkshakes or ice-cream during Nigel Farage's visit following a spate of attacks from protesters using the dairy products as projectiles.

The former UKIP leader was in town to speak at the Corn Exchange for a Brexit Party campaign rally on Friday evening. Signs informing customers of the milkshake and ice-cream ban were posted in a nearby branch in Chesser.

The milkshake clamp-down follows a spate of beverage-based attacks on far-right activist Tommy Robinson and UKIP MEP candidate Carl Benjamin.

The outlandish president of Turkmenistan is known for many random things - drag racing, singing, DJing - but it appears gifting puppies for no apparent reason is now cemented among his growing list of traits.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov appeared in a creative piece of footage shot by state media to show a "day in the life" of the extravagant president. A heavy day in office apparently includes riding a horse, playing with puppies, writing a book about the Turkmen Shepherd, and finally gifting the military with said puppies.

Tractor racing, an annual event held in Rostov-on-Don, South Russia, every summer, is in the running to become a national sport in the country, steadily evolving from a funny entertainment show to a serious competition.

Organizers of 'The Bison Track Show' insist that a tractor is the most suitable and comfortable vehicle for Russian roads, which remain to be problematic in the country.

Beware of the bears when you go into the woods in Russia. They are very dangerous, and may even rob you - and there is some impressive video evidence for doubters!

Stopping their truck on a highway on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East was clearly a mistake for a group of hunters.

Joe Biden is so popular among world leaders, he's having a hard time keeping them all straight.

Biden, who would be 78 on Inauguration Day, told a small group of donors in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday that "14 heads of state" have contacted him, and "voiced concerns about Trump."

Bloomberg reports:

That list included Margaret Thatcher, he said, before correcting what he called a "Freudian slip," that he was actually referring to current British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Thatcher died in 2013. She left office in 1990.

Social media users have been enthralled by a so-called 'Russian spy whale' that was recently spotted in Norwegian waters. Agent Belugov, your cover is blown!

The beluga whale first approached a fishing boat off the coast of Norway's Ingoya Island, wearing a harness with a GoPro camera attached. The strange discovery soon prompted speculation that the whale was a trained infiltrator.

Also on rt.com Well done, Comrade Belugov! Did 'Russian Navy whale' trick Norwegians into seizing spy harness?

Twitter had a ball with the idea.

Headlines were blaring the word "Russian" again the other day because the mass media narrative managers found yet another reason for westerners to feel terrified of the icy potato patch that we'd barely ever thought about prior to 2016. I'd like to talk about the Kremlin's latest horrifying horrific addition to its fearsome doomsday artillery, and recap a few of the other incredibly frightening and terrifying tactics that those strange Cyrillic-scribbling demons of the East are employing to undermine truth, justice, and the American way. Just to make sure we're all good and scared like we're supposed to be.

Gather the kids, clutch your pearls and sign off on hundreds of billions of dollars of extra military spending, my patriotic brethren! Here are five super scary ways the Red Menace is trying to destroy you and everything you hold dear:

1. Whales


Headlines and TV news segments from virtually all mainstream outlets were falling all over themselves the other day to report the fact that some Norwegians found a tame beluga whale with a harness on it, and "experts" attest that the animal may have been part of a covert espionage program for the Russian navy.

While there is no indication that this spying cetacean has been trained in the arts of sonar election meddling or shooting novichok from its blowhole, the Guardian helpfully informs us that the harness was labeled "Equipment of St. Petersburg", and was equipped to hold "a camera or weapon".

A controversy has erupted as a transgender man took first place in a male-only cooking contest. The biological woman, Pat Miller, who now identifies as male, shattered all previous records, making delicious sandwiches and whipping up a mean casserole to take first prize in every single category in the men's division.

Critics say the woman was clearly just identifying as a man so she could dominate the men's division of the cooking contest. They pointed out that she was clearly a woman with a mustache and goatee drawn on her face and that her biological feminine instincts gave her unfair advantages against the men.

The following special report comes to us from our Russian correspondent, Anoniy Mouseevich Stenographov. Anoniy risked his life smuggling this information out of Russia, but he fears for the safety of his family due to the explosive nature of the Russian national secrets revealed here.

Four years ago, the UK's Daily Express revealed to the world one of the Kremlin's best-kept secrets: Russian President Vladimir Putin is insecure about his height. One year ago, the New Yorker's Robin Wright confirmed this, using her astute knowledge of Putin's inner psyche to conclude: "Putin is still a little man strutting to be one of the big boys."

This information continues to be relevant, and several sources within the U.S. and UK intelligence communities have confirmed to us that it is perhaps the key piece of intelligence that will help the free and democratic world win the New Cold War. While they couldn't share all their plans with us for reasons of national security, they did tell us one thing: part of the plan involves interfering in the elections of as many foreign nations as possible in order to 'elect' tall leaders (like Trump at 6'3", Imran Khan at 6'2", and Aleksandar Vucic at 6'6"). The hope is that the intimidating height of such competitors will slowly wear on the Russian president's self-image until he does something to catastrophically weaken his stranglehold on Russian politics, thus paving the way for the election of someone more willing to sell Russia to the highest bidder, like Alexey Navalny.

Here's what the Express said at the time, quoting their source in the Kremlin:

The Russian president was hosting a group women at the presidential palace in Moscow to celebrate International Woman's Day. However, Putin's aides forgot to tell the invited group not to wear high-heels, leaving several of the guests towering over the Russian leader - who is famously self-conscious about his height. A Kremlin insider said strict rules dictate no one can be taller than the president - who is believed to be between 5ft 2" and 5ft 5" - in official photos.

"That's why his bodyguards are always shorter then [sic] he is, to give the impression Putin is a tall person," the source revealed. However that diktat appears to have been ignored in the most recent images of Putin, which show a handful of the 14 invited women dressed smartly but with accompanying high heels. According to the insider, the women were told to bend down during the photo call to make Putin appear slightly taller.

"They were told to try and squat down a little bit during the official photo session," the source said. They added: "Fourteen women were selected and invited to the Kremlin to take part in the official meeting with [the] president. In line with Kremlin rules, no one can be taller than he is to avoid causing embarrassment in pictures and video."

SOTT.net can confirm that this insider was subsequently ferreted out by the FSB and is currently serving time in Putin's personal secret gulag, where he is forced daily to repeat the phrase, "President Putin is the greatest and tallest leader the world has ever known." Our own Russian sources tell us that the women photographed with the Russian president have not been seen since the unfortunate event. Their whereabouts remain unknown - even to our highly-placed sources within the Kremlin. Only Putin knows their fate.

Selfies are a matter of skill. Finding the right angle, getting the light right, working the pose correctly: all of these come together to capture the perfect selfie. Over the years we've seen several famous persons work the selfie like no one else ever could. Checking all the right boxes, they have always been considered as setting the bar in clicking selfies.

But get over them Kardashians! We now have the very handsome gorillas of Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, who are pushing all barriers in the department of taking selfies!

The Virunga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site situated in the lush forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The past few years of military turmoil in the region has left the site in danger of being open to damage from the war as wells as poaching activities. However, over 600 rangers have come together to save this Heritage Site and protect the gorillas inhabiting it. Virunga's website presents more such information.

It also boasts of the bravery of these rangers who equip themselves with special fighting skills in order to be prepared for any sort of emergency situation. They fight off threatening elements and help save several members of the gorilla family, including the world's critically endangered Mountain Gorillas.