But to spare onlookers' blushes (and a potential brush with the law), those taking part in what was dubbed the #PornProtest on Twitter remained fully clothed.
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One of the protest organizers is Charlotte Rose, winner of the UK sex worker of the year title in 2013 and a free-speech advocate.
She told CNN that the bill could be perceived as being sexist because the banning of certain acts appears to target women's sexual enjoyment.
"This is about censorship, and what the government is doing is they're censoring our consent -- so yes, it does affect women, but it also affects every man and every woman," she said. "It affects anybody who enjoys these particular activities."
Reclaim the Streets & Pink Silver Brigades (Angleterre)
“Reclaim the Streets & Pink Silver Brigades”, Angleterre.
Images extraites de “We are everywhere” éd. Verso, 2003.
Construct post-capitalist machine
Merging the radical ecology of Britain’s power full anti-road building movement and the carnivalesque nature of the counter-cultural rave scene of the early-1990’s, Reclaim the Streets (RTS) became a catalyst for the global anticapitalist movements that came to light during the SEATTLE WTO PROTESTS (November 1999). Combining a radical ecological and social critique of society with creative forms of direct action and a dedication to non-heirachical organisation, the groups innovative tactics, inspired a new generation of radical activists in the global North.
Since the 2008 economic crisis, Madrid has become the epicentre of major political and urban change. The city’s Indignados are back, asserting that residents have a “right to the city” as well as “lodging, work, culture, health, education, political participation, the freedom of personal development and the right to first-necessity products”, as expressed in the manifesto of the ¡Democracia Real Ya! movement. These and other groups have thus revived a traditional Madrilenian citizens’ movement, based in part on self-management.
How facial recognition could replace train tickets
A facial recognition system designed to replace the need for tickets on trains is being tested in the UK.
An early version that uses two near-infrared lights to help a single camera determine texture and orientation of each pixel it captures was shown to BBC Click.
The system, being developed by the Bristol Robotics Lab, is being partly funded by government and the private sector.
Researchers told the programme that they believe it will successfully identify passengers without the need for them to stop walking and could replace ticket gates.
Government statistics put unemployment in Britain at just 4.5% — a record low not seen since the 1970s.
But the real rate of unemployment is four times that.
We walk you through the evidence that shows why official unemployment numbers are so misleading.
Two youths in the town centre of Corby, Northamptonshire, which has historically been the youth unemployment capital of Britain. Corby was built around its steel industry in the 1930's. The steel works closed in 1980 with the loss of 10,000 jobs.Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
LONDON — Unemployment in Britain is now just 4.5%. There are only 1.49 million unemployed people in the UK, versus 32 million people with jobs.
This is almost unheard of. The last time unemployment was this low was in December 1973, when the UK set an unrepeated record of just 3.4% unemployment.
The problem with this record is that the statistical definition of "unemployment" relies on a fiction that economists tell themselves about the nature of work. As the rate gets lower and lower, it tests that lie. Because — as anyone who has studied basic economics knows — the official definition of "unemployment" disguises the true rate of unemployment. In reality, about 21.5% of all workers are without jobs, or 8.83 million people, according to the ONS.
Image copyrightKENYA DOWNSImage captionJohn Cunningham had been living in the US without papers since 1999
After a high-profile deportation, undocumented Irish immigrants are on edge, and trying to help Latino immigrants who are more likely targets for immigration officials.
John Cunningham came to Boston in 1999. Like many Irish immigrants to the US, he arrived on a 90-day visa for summer work. But then he settled in, worked as an electrician and ran his own company, remaining in the country without authorisation.
"All of a sudden you turn around, so much time has gone by, and you start to realise what is going to be in store for yourself for the future," Cunningham said in a March interview with the Irish Times.
On 16 June, nearly two decades later, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents came to his home to arrest him. He was deported to Ireland on 5 July. Because he arrived in the US under the visa waiver programme, one commonly used by European immigrants, he had waived his right to a hearing.
The Grow Heathrow squat in 2014. ‘It is worth asking why squatting – even squatting with laudable social or environmental intentions – is seen as such a threat [by government].’ Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Last week one of Britain’s highest-profile and most politically significant squats was given its latest stay of execution. Residents at Grow Heathrow, a squat set up on derelict land in protest at plans for a third runway, were granted the right to appeal against a ruling by the royal courts of justice giving them 14 days to leave. The case has been rumbling on since the land was occupied in 2010; despite many eviction attempts, the squatters look set to fight another day.
A California congressman baffled a panel of space experts testifying in Washington when he asked if it was possible that Mars was home to an ancient alien civilization. The panel told him that there was “no evidence” and it would be “extremely unlikely.”
A hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on Tuesday was interrupted when Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) requested additional time to ask the panel of scientists with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) if there was any evidence of archaic extraterrestrials living on the red planet.
"You have indicated that Mars was totally different thousands of years ago,” said Rohrabacher, who is the vice chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee and a member of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee since he first entered Congress in 1989.
“Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?” he asked.
KENYA DOWNS
