A new true crime documentary revisits the story of an amputee surgeon’s web of lies
Marius Gustavson was the mastermind of an extreme body modifications enterprise
A police investigation into human butchery and a monster known as the ‘Eunuch Maker’ is the centre of a new true crime documentary, and it makes for a disturbing watch.
An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon explores the real life story of NHS surgeon Neil Hopper who, in 2019, lost his own legs to amputation following what he said was a result of a mystery illness.
Upon returning back to work, Neil performed amputations as part of his role at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, and often took to social media and news outlets to share his own journey.
He even claimed over £466,000 in insurance payouts after he claimed his injuries were a result of sepsis, becoming somewhat of a national hero and symbol of hope. However, he hid a dark secret that nobody could have guessed.
His leg amputations were a result of self-inflicted injuries, meaning he fraudulently claimed insurance payouts. Not only that, but he was investigated for paying to access a website which sold videos of amputations.
The new documentary explores the disturbing case and Neil’s connection to the ‘Eunuch Maker’.
Who is ‘Eunuch Maker’ Marius Gustavson and where is he now?
The Metropolitan Police were looking into the ‘Eunuch Maker’ website which was run by Marius Gustavson. It offered pay to view access to chilling videos of extreme body modifications and mutilations on customers.
These extreme videos included the cutting the genitals off of men to make them ‘eunuchs’, which is a male who has been castrated. Marius was the ringleader, with the procedures often being carried out in his own home which would sometimes go wrong, meaning ambulances were called.
The programme hears from one journalist who says the nature of the evidence was “so extreme” and hard to hear, with Marius earning around £300,000 in profits from the site over a period of around four years.
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After a brave victim came forward, the website was eventually brought down and it was through this investigation that police learned about Neil Hopper’s own involvement and the dark reality about what really happened to his legs.
In May 2024, Marius appeared before the courts and issued a guilty plea to 13 offences including multiple counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 22 years, meaning he will still be in prison now.
At the time, nine others also received sentences ranging from suspended sentences to 12 years imprisonment for their roles in the investigation.
An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon can be streamed on Prime Video
Clippers star Kawhi Leonard had a second lucrative undisclosed sponsorship agreement with a company doing business with the team, Pablo Torre reported Thursday night on his podcast.
Scoreboard manufacturer Daktronics, which built the $100 million video board at the Clippers’ Intuit Dome, hired Leonard to a multi-million dollar endorsement deal, according to Torre. The podcast host found no evidence that the All-NBA forward did any work for the company.
The details are similar to the $28 million endorsement deal Leonard had with Aspiration, a now-defunct environmental banking company that had a 23-year, $300 million sponsorship deal with Clippers. Steve Ballmer, the team’s owner, invested $60 million into Aspiration, triggering allegations that the payment to Leonard circumvented the NBA salary cap.
That deal is at the center off an ongoing, almost year-long NBA investigation. Requests on Friday for comment from Leonard’s agent and the Clippers were not immediately answered.
The salary cap limits what teams can spend on player payroll to ensure parity and prevent the wealthiest teams from outspending smaller-market teams to acquire the best players. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called attempts to circumvent it a “cardinal sin.”
The topic was raised on Torre’s podcast by a person identified as an “anonymous high-level source under contract for Intuit Dome.” The person alleged in an interview that the sponsorship deal was “1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap. It was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.”
The investigation into the Aspiration allegations has grown in scope, the Athletic reported three weeks ago. In addition to attempting to determine whether Aspiration’s payment to Leonard violated NBA salary-cap rules, the probe conducted by high-powered New York law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz is examining Leonard’s deal with Daktronics.
If the NBA determines that a salary-cap violation occurred, the Clippers could be fined and stripped of first-round picks. Ballmer also could be penalized and Leonard’s contract could be voided. He has one year and $50.3 million left on a three-year, $149.5 million deal he signed before the 2024-25 season.
The endorsement deal with Daktronics raised suspicion because the company doesn’t do business with the general public and doesn’t need prominent athletes or celebrities to pitch its products.
“Daktronics was conservative to a fault for the 20+ years I was there,” a former employee told Torre. “I remember asking early on why we didn’t do more traditional advertising and promotion to increase brand recognition. I was told that since it’s B2B and not a consumer product, it didn’t make sense to advertise that way.”
Asked whether Leonard had an endorsement deal, Daktronics pointed Torre to a crisis management firm whose spokesman said, “My understanding is Daktronics doesn’t have a deal with Kawhi right now.” Asked for clarification, the spokesman said, “I don’t know what the company wants to say, or can say, given the Wachtell investigation and all that.”
Daktronics is a leader in designing, engineering and manufacturing digital LED display technology and audio systems. Nearly 600 clients are listed on the company website, including numerous NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL teams. Other clients include several airports, and Daktronics built the LAX Time Tower, a 72-foot, four-sided interactive digital media structure located in the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
The Clippers traded Leonard to the Toronto Raptors on June 30 for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and a slew of draft picks, but the teams put deal was put on hold pending the outcome of the investigation.
Leonard would not talk about the allegations during the 2025-26 NBA season because the investigation was ongoing. He brushed it off during media day in September.
“None of us did … wrongdoing and, yeah, that’s it,” he said. “We invite the investigation.”
Almost a year later, the investigation continues. Silver has expressed a desire for a resolution, saying in June that it “needs to be wrapped up before next season.” The NBA regular season will begin in October.
Salary-cap circumvention first surfaced with Leonard during his free agency in 2019 after he led the Raptors to the NBA championship. Negotiations with the Lakers ceased when Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, requested a house, the use of private aircraft, guaranteed off-court earnings and an ownership stake in the team, according to Dan Woike of the Athletic. The Lakers informed Leonard’s representatives that those requests violated the NBA collective bargaining agreement and Leonard eventually signed with the Clippers, where he played the last seven seasons.
CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric (GE) and France’s Safran SA (SAFRY) (SAFRF), is ramping up its engine deliveries this year in response to an increase in aircraft production by its customers Boeing (BA) and Airbus (EADSF).
The Austin, Texas-headquartered Saronic said it plans to invest more than $3 billion of its own money to build the facility, which it is calling Port Alpha. The location was chosen after a year-long search.
“Brownsville was selected after a rigorous review of workforce availability, infrastructure readiness, land scale, logistics, and expansion potential,” the company said in a release. “Initially situated on 835 acres at the Port of Brownsville, with the opportunity to expand to nearly 4,400 acres, Port Alpha will encompass a shipyard and manufacturing facility capable of producing vessels up to 850 feet. Future site expansion could support the production of vessels over 1,200 ft. The site provides hundreds of acres of waterfront access, deepwater channel connectivity, multimodal logistics infrastructure, and room for long-term expansion—everything required to anchor a next-generation shipbuilding hub.”
Today, we’re proud to announce the future home of Port Alpha: Brownsville, Texas.
Our next-generation shipyard moves from vision to reality through a planned investment of more than $3 billion to establish one of the world’s most advanced shipyards, built for software-defined… pic.twitter.com/vIxkB2YUG0
“Port Alpha is planned to be the largest shipyard in the Western Hemisphere,” Lehman told us. “We are seeing the need for more shipbuilding capacity, and we are answering the call with a greenfield new yard that will provide the Navy, Coast Guard — all of our sea services — the capacity that they’ve been asking for, and they desperately need.”
“We are here to help address the gaps that we are facing and do it at a speed and scale that hasn’t been seen before,” he added.
Asked about what kinds of ships the yard will build, Lehman said Port Alpha “will be capable of producing everything up to Panamax-sized cargo containers, roll on/roll offs, we are open to a variety of different ship classes, both commercial and military.”
Panamax ships — so named because they are the biggest vessels that can fit through the Panama Canal — have a maximum length of 294 meters and a maximum width of 32 meters, according to SeaRates.com.
Panamax vs Capesize Ships: What’s the Real Difference? #panamax #capsize #ruzave
Lehman said Saronic is focusing on “how do we create a shipyard of the future that is able to support multiple types of vessels and move at a pace and a level of agility that aligns with how technology is advancing. So commercial ships, military ships, modules, everything under the sun.”
“We are keenly focused and ruthlessly focused, frankly, on what does the customer set need, what are they unable to acquire or sustain within the timelines that they require, and how can we address that? So, as long as we know what’s needed, we can put our private capital to work and not force the government to pay never-ending research and development costs.”
At the time of the interview, Lehman declined to provide any further details about the plans or the exact location. However, he did compare it to an existing shipyard the company purchased last year.
“When we acquired the former Gulf Craft yard last April, [compared] to what it looks like now, we’re investing $300 million into that yard already to expand capacity,” he noted. “We’re bringing hundreds and thousands of jobs to the Gulf Coast, and we look to take that same model and just on steroids at Port Alpha. So, unlike Gulf Craft, it’ll be a greenfield yard, so we have all of the flexibility to design the shipyard of the future without the constraints of an existing physical plant.”
“We acquired Gulf Craft because we believe in their culture and what they’ve been able to produce to date… We see the value they can bring to scaling production of our autonomous surface vessels, so we’re going to invest heavily there.” https://t.co/GbaeAMx5JA
In the media release issued today, Saronic claimed that “the project is expected to generate more than $160 billion in regional economic impact for Cameron County and $264.5 billion for the State of Texas, while creating up to 10,000 direct jobs. This makes Port Alpha one of the largest economic development projects in modern Texas history.”
Construction is anticipated to begin in 2026, with Port Alpha expected to open for operations in 2028, the release continued. Company officials did not specify exactly what ships will be built at Port Alpha. Currently, Saronic makes three uncrewed surface vessels (USV).
Corsair, the aforementioned USV used as a kamikaze weapon, is a 24-foot vessel capable of carrying up to 1,000 lbs over 1,000 NM.
The Corsair uncrewed surface vessel (USV) (Saronic)
Mirage is a 52-foot USV with a range of 2,500 NM of range and 3,500 lbs of payload capacity.
The Mirage uncrewed surface vessel (USV) (Saronic)
Marauder is a 180-foot USV with a range of 5,200 NM and is capable of carrying up to 150 metric tons in four 40-foot containers, eight 20-foot containers, or other modular payload configurations.
The Navy is set to evaluate Marauder, as well as designs from six other companies, as part of the first round of prototyping under its latest Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) effort. This is part of a larger strategy the service rolled out in March to try to field more USVs and do so faster, as you can read more about here
The Marauder uncrewed surface vessel (USV) (Saronic)
Saronic is on a roll of late. As we noted earlier in this story, three of its Corsair sea drones were used earlier this week to attack “a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced. It marked the first time that the U.S. used sea drones as kamikaze attack weapons.
Yesterday, using multiple one-way attack surface drones, CENTCOM forces successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran. Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea… pic.twitter.com/bOM2kmgRxz
Last month, a Saronic Corsair USV rescued the crew of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache that crashed in the Gulf of Oman after it was downed by Iran. That was the first known instance of a drone boat being used to recover personnel as part of a search and rescue mission, and has major implications for these operations going forward.
Big news from #RNDF: @SECNAV announced Saronic has been awarded a $392M production contract with the U.S. Navy, with nearly $200M immediately put on contract.
We are proud to partner with @USNavy to rapidly field advanced autonomous maritime capabilities. From day one, we… https://t.co/wnNROUcgd6
If Port Alpha lives up to the hype, it would be a boon to the Navy and an American shipbuilding industry that struggles to get new vessels out on time and on budget, while supporting those that are already in the water.
As we noted in previous coverage of U.S. shipbuilding woes, keeping existing vessels afloat “has been a massive challenge as the Navy’s fleet ages while demands for more hulls increase.Crumbling shipyards around the U.S.and a limited number of them that can support mainline military vessels is a huge problem that hasled to major delays in maintenance, greatly harming available end strength. It is also of major concern ifships were to get damaged in battle during a conflict and need to be regenerated quickly. While some improvements and investments have been made in upgrading shipyards, it is still a glaring and highly concerning issue.”
GAO: Poor Conditions at Navy Shipyards
The situation is so dire that “the U.S. Navy has officially issued two Requests for Information (RFIs) to major South Korean shipbuilders to assess their capacity to build American destroyers and fleet tankers,” according to Naval News. Such a move “could end an 80-year ban on foreign warship construction,” the outlet added.
Given the state of U.S. shipbuilding, a lot is riding on Port Alpha and the future of this plan is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court sided with the maker of the Roundup weedkiller Thursday in a ruling expected to block thousands of lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people the product could cause cancer.
The case came before the justices after a tidal wave of litigation that included some multibillion-dollar verdicts against the global agrochemical manufacturer Bayer, which acquired Roundup when it bought its original manufacturer Monsanto in 2018.
The decision is a victory for the Trump administration, but one that could be tricky politically since allies in the Make America Healthy Again movement want to rein in pesticide use.
The high court, in a 7-2 ruling, found that the company can’t be sued in state courts because federal regulations have found a cancer link unlikely and do not require a warning label.
The decision “is good for science, farmers, and industries that depend on regulatory clarity for innovation,” Bayer said in a statement. “It should help significantly contain the Roundup litigation after nearly a decade of legal battles.”
Though Bayer said the ruling should result in the dismissal of pending lawsuits containing failure-to-warn allegations, the company said it plans to proceed with a proposed $7.25 billion class-action settlement intended to resolve many of the remaining claims.
Lawyers for some residents pursuing Roundup litigation criticized the court’s decision.
“This Supreme Court ruling wrongly slams the courthouse door on Americans sickened by pesticides,” said attorney Christopher Seeger, who is proposed as a claimants’ representative in the settlement. But he said a settlement still would allow some people to receive compensation.
The case before the Supreme Court was filed by Missouri resident John Durnell. He developed a cancer called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after more than 20 years of serving as the neighborhood association’s “spray guy,” using Roundup on parks in his historic St. Louis community.
A jury agreed that the company failed to warn him about possible cancer dangers and awarded him $1.25 million. It’s one of thousands of similar cases, including some multibillion-dollar damage awards.
There’s still fierce debate about cancer and Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified the chemical as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015. The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that it’s not likely to cause cancer in humans when used as directed.
The agency approved a label without a cancer warning, and Bayer argues that it’s required to follow those federal standards — not the state laws that Durnell and others have sued under. The ruling still could allow other suits alleging problems with the way the product was designed, his attorney Ashley Keller has said.
Bayer disputes the cancer claims but previously set aside $16 billion to settle cases, and earlier this year proposed a $7.25 billion class-action settlement. A federal judge recently ruled that the proposed settlement will be heard in a Missouri state court, where many of the lawsuits have been filed. At the same time, the company has tried to persuade states to pass laws shielding it from liability in failure-to-warn lawsuits, and three states have agreed.
About 200,000 Roundup-related claims have been made against Bayer, mostly from home users. It has stopped using glyphosate in Roundup sold in the U.S. residential lawn and garden market.
The company has said it might have to consider pulling glyphosate from U.S. agricultural markets if it keeps getting sued. Agricultural industry group say could have a devastating effect on the food supply.
But pesticides have also created a rift between the Trump administration and members of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s MAHA movement, adding to their frustration with an executive order aimed at boosting glyphosate’s production.
Kennedy himself has said repeatedly that glyphosate causes cancer, even as he says he recognizes the executive order was necessary for food supply and national security reasons.
Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press. AP writer David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Mo., contributed to this report.
A Komoto official tests the company’s solar-powered smart flow control system in Kazakhstan. Photo by Komoto
SEOUL, June 25 (UPI) — South Korea’s industrial valve maker Komoto said Thursday that it is seeking to expand into the Kazakh market after wrapping up a field demonstration project in the Central Asian country.
The company said that it completed the installation and operational tests of its solar-powered smart flow control and SCADA system at a demonstration site in Kazakhstan.
Short for supervisory control and data acquisition, SCADA is an industrial automation system that enables operators to monitor, control, and collect real-time data from infrastructure remotely.
Following the successful trial, the system received final field performance certification from Kazvodkhoz, Kazakhstan’s state-owned water resources agency, according to Komoto.
The firm noted that the project confirmed the applicability of its technology to remote agricultural waterways and irrigation facilities not only in Kazakhstan but also across Central Asia.
Komoto CEO Ryan MK Ko said that the company plans to expand its presence in overseas water industry markets, particularly in Central Asia.
“Our biggest competitive edge is that our system allows for the stable operation of water management facilities even in remote areas with limited access to commercial power and communication infrastructure, while significantly reducing costs compared with conventional options,” Ko said in a statement.
“Based on the technology and operational data accumulated through pilot projects both at home and abroad, we will further advance our automated control and intelligent water management features,” he added.
Komoto is not publicly listed. It was founded in 1988 with technology and capital support from Motoyama, one of Japan’s leading manufacturers of industrial equipment, including valves.
The German government announced on Monday that it intends to acquire 40% of the defence contractor KNDS, a move designed to bolster European arms production in partnership with its NATO and EU ally France.
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The decision deepens state involvement in a company whose hardware has become central to Europe’s rearmament efforts.
KNDS was created in 2015 through the merger of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter. The French state holds a 50% stake, while the other half belongs to the German family behind Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, whose planned exit has opened the door for Berlin to step in.
Based in Amsterdam, the group reported revenue of €4.4 billion last year and employs more than 11,000 people.
The timing reflects a broader scramble across Europe to expand military spending and manufacturing capacity, as governments weigh the continued threat from Russia’s war in Ukraine against growing doubts about the reliability of the US as a security guarantor.
Berlin framed the investment in explicitly strategic terms, saying it would secure lasting influence over a business it considers vital to European security and defence.
The German government added that the stake would reinforce domestic industrial output, technological independence and the safeguarding of key national security interests and technologies.
In a joint statement, Germany and France said they had agreed on the future strategy and governance of KNDS, which they intend to co-own through arrangements aimed at giving both countries equal shareholdings.
Clearing the path to a stock market listing
Neither government specified a timeline or the final level at which their holdings would settle, but they stated the agreement opens the way for a possible flotation of KNDS in the near future.
According to people familiar with the matter cited by the Associated Press, the two states plan to trim their stakes to around 30% within two to three years of any listing, while retaining equal voting rights regardless of the size of each holding.
The two governments cast the deal as a joint commitment to building up Europe’s defence industry and armed forces, and to securing the continent’s strategic independence well into the future.
State participation in the firm was first floated by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in 2025 as a way to protect strategic expertise and jobs.
Beyond its tanks, KNDS also manufactures the Puma infantry fighting vehicle and the Boxer and Dingo armoured personnel carriers, equipment which is in growing demand as European armies replenish stocks depleted by years of underinvestment and donations to Ukraine’s defence.
PARIS — A founder of global gaming company Ubisoft, maker of “Assassin’s Creed,” was killed in a plane crash in western France, authorities said Saturday.
Claude Guillemot, co-founder of the company and president of the Guillemot Foundation, died in an accident, Ubisoft said in a statement to the Associated Press. It did not elaborate.
A Cessna plane carrying Guillemot and one other person crashed Friday evening in a field just before landing at La Baule Airport on the Atlantic coast, a La Baule airport official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named.
Local media said both people aboard were killed.
Guillemot and four brothers founded Ubisoft in 1986. In addition to the popular “Assassin’s Creed” franchise, Ubisoft’s games include “Just Dance,” and the “Rayman” and Tom Clancy game franchises.
Oura, the Finnish company that created the ring-shaped health tracker worn by millions worldwide, has confidentially submitted draft paperwork to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO, according to several reports.
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While the number of shares and the expected price range remain undisclosed, the company had a recent funding round in the fall of 2025 that valued the business at around $11 billion (€9.5bn), more than double the $5 billion (€4.3bn) valuation it earned in a previous round in 2024.
According to CEO Tom Hale, more than 5.5 million Oura rings had been sold up to the end of last year’s third quarter.
At the time, Hale also projected that the company would reach $2 billion (€1.7bn) in annual revenue in 2026 compared with $500 million (€430mn) just two years ago.
The move towards an IPO puts a European wearable brand on Wall Street’s radar at a time when investor appetite for consumer health technology appears to be returning.
Oura has become a standout name in the fast-growing smart ring category, competing against smartwatch giants such as Apple, Garmin and Samsung, while carving out a niche with a distinct piece of hardware that some consumers find less obtrusive.
Over the past two years, the company has expanded aggressively into software, subscriptions and AI-powered health analysis. Its wearable platform now focuses on long-term health signals including sleep, readiness, heart rate, stress and recovery.
More recently, Oura has pushed further into women’s health and AI-based personal coaching, including tools designed to interpret physiological data and provide tailored wellness recommendations.
Analysts see that transition from device maker to subscripton-based health platform as central to its IPO pitch as the firm is currently on pace to surpass 5 million paid members.
A European tech champion heading to US markets
The IPO filing marks a significant moment for one of Europe’s most prominent health tech success stories.
Founded in Finland and developed around research into sleep, recovery and biometric monitoring, Oura has grown from a Nordic hardware start-up into a global player in the wearable market.
However, for Europe’s start-up ecosystem, Oura’s planned listing carries broader significance.
While its roots and design philosophy are deeply tied to Finland, the company recently transitioned to a US-based parent company, named Oura Inc. and headquartered in San Francisco, to access American venture capital while keeping its European operations.
Its decision to prepare for a US listing rather than a European one reflects a wider pattern among high-growth European tech firms seeking deeper capital markets and greater visibility among global investors.
The planned flotation arrives during renewed debate over whether Europe is losing some of its most successful technology companies to US exchanges.
Oura joins a growing list of European-founded businesses choosing Wall Street as their route to public markets, drawn by scale, liquidity and stronger investor familiarity with consumer technology.
The company’s IPO will also be seen as a test of investor sentiment towards wearable technology after a mixed few years for the sector.
Unlike smartwatches, smart rings remain a relatively young category, though interest has accelerated rapidly.
Oura is widely viewed as the segment’s category leader and its public debut could offer a clearer benchmark for how markets value next-generation health hardware combined with software subscriptions and AI services.
