Confusion over whether Justin Barrett remains leader of National party after his allegations of theft
It has the ingredients of a Frederick Forsyth thriller: stolen gold bullion, political intrigue, betrayal and a sprinkling of Adolf Hitler.
The saga of Ireland’s far-right National party and its vault of gold bars, however, has played out more like an Armando Iannucci farce.
Continue reading...Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, while IVF is only available for heterosexual couples
The Italian parliament has approved a bill criminalising people who go abroad to have children via surrogacy, a measure described as “a disgrace”.
The bill, passed in the chamber of deputies with 166 votes in support and 109 against, is aimed only at Italians and envisages fines of up to €1m (£856,690) and jail terms of up to two years for those who break it.
Continue reading...The ‘QAnon adjacent’ film, co-opted by the right wing, has a ‘pay it forward’ scheme resulting in sold-out shows but empty theaters
Sound of Freedom, the religious, “QAnon adjacent” child-smuggling film that has enthralled conservatives across the US, passed the $100m mark in ticket sales on Thursday.
But as the movie continues to cause controversy – with its star touring conservative media to peddle conspiracy theories about unnamed persons harvesting chemicals from children’s blood and anti-trafficking experts criticizing the film’s entire premise – questions are also being asked about who is actually watching it and whether that many people are watching it at all.
Continue reading...Some in Extremadura region see local outcome as latest example of People’s party putting pragmatism over principles
Towards the end of last month, María Guardiola, who leads the conservative People’s party (PP) in the Extremadura region of south-west Spain, gave a speech in which she tore into the far-right Vox party for its denial of gender-based violence, its demonisation of migrants and its attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.
Guardiola was far from alone in her aversion to Vox’s views and tactics. The party’s most recent stunt in the run-up to Spain’s general election this Sunday – which could put the far right in government for the first time since the return to democracy after the Franco dictatorship – had been the unveiling in Madrid of a massive banner showing a giant hand tossing symbols representing feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, Catalan independence, environmental programmes and communism into a bin.
Continue reading...Products include ‘party kits’ with hats, cake decorations and banners bearing Brazilian ex-president’s face
Some politicians go on lucrative speaking tours when their days in power are done. Others start foundations, distill whiskey, raise cattle or buy luxury sheds.
Jair Bolsonaro has chosen a different path and opened a shop where, for the price of a hardback, you can order a Bolsonaro-themed birthday pack complete with party hats, cake decorations and a plastic banner carrying a festive message from Brazil’s former president.
Continue reading...More than 60% express concern over Vox entering coalition government after 23 July election
More than 60% of Spaniards are worried about the prospect of a coalition government that includes the far-right Vox party, according to a survey published less than two weeks before the country’s snap general election.
The Ipsos poll, conducted for Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper, found that 42.1% of those surveyed were very worried by the idea of Vox sharing power with the conservative People’s party (PP), while 18% were quite worried.
Continue reading...Data from Greg Johnson’s Counter-Currents sheds light on how organization promotes its ideology online
A data leak from the website of a white nationalist publisher has revealed recordings, published and unpublished documents, and hitherto-private interview recordings that shed light on the way in which the organization promotes its ideology online.
The internal data from Counter-Currents, a publishing house co-founded and run by notoriously secretive far-right ideologue Greg Johnson, was exposed in an Amazon cloud storage container that was left unlocked on the open internet.
Continue reading...Greg Slater is co-founder with his wife Sharon of Family Watch International, a US group accused of financing propaganda about sexual and gender diversity
A group of human rights organisations in Africa renewed their calls this week for the American multinational Intel Corporation to dismiss a senior employee over his alleged involvement in fanning the growing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in several countries, including Kenya and Uganda.
In a change.org petition, supported by more than a dozen organisations, the rights groups claim that Greg Slater, Intel’s vice-president of global regulatory affairs, has been “actively responsible for exporting, financing, and spreading hate, homophobia” on the continent for decades, through the American conservative organisation, Family Watch International.
Continue reading...Vilhelm Junnila, already criticised for Nazi ‘joke’, found to have called for abortions in Africa to combat climate crisis
The new Finnish coalition government has been plunged into crisis, as a key minister was forced to resign after it emerged he had called for Finland to support abortions in Africa to combat the climate crisis.
Vilhelm Junnila, of the far-right Finns party, resigned after a week of fiercely criticised revelations, including that he made jokes about “Heil Hitler” and had given a speech at an event attended by neo-Nazis.
Continue reading...Taylor Taranto found with materials to create an explosive device a few blocks away from former president’s Washington DC home
A man armed with explosive materials and weapons, and wanted for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, was arrested late on Thursday in the Washington DC neighborhood where the former US president Barack Obama lives, law enforcement officials said.
Taylor Taranto, 37, was spotted by law enforcement officials a few blocks from the former president’s home and fled, though he was chased by Secret Service agents. Taranto has an open warrant on charges related to the insurrection, two law enforcement officials said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Continue reading...Republican presidential candidates attacked trans people and the LGBTQ+ community at a gathering of the religious right last week
Americans are “frustrated and anxious”, lamented former vice-president Mike Pence. The country is “in a precarious position” assessed North Carolina’s lieutenant governor Mark Robinson. And Glenn Jacobs, a former professional wrestling star and current mayor of Knox county, Tennessee, declared that “these are hard times”.
What could be the cause of such hardship? To the Republican presidential candidates who spoke in Washington DC on Friday at a major gathering of the religious right, the culprit was American society’s acceptance of transgender people and the broader LGBTQ+ community.
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez’s comments follow last month’s elections in which PP and Vox made huge gains
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned of the dangers of allowing far-right ideology to seep into the political mainstream after the conservative People’s party (PP) struck a series of coalition deals with the radical right Vox party ahead of next month’s general election.
Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE), which has governed Spain alongside the far-left Unidas Podemos alliance for the past four years, suffered a drubbing in last month’s regional and municipal elections, while the PP made huge gains and Vox doubled its share of the vote.
Continue reading...Their button-up shirts and chinos have prompted mockery but experts say the far-right group is becoming increasingly violent
For years, there has been an element of the ridiculous to Patriot Front and their rallies, which can look like a sort of cosplay version of a white nationalist movement.
At a Patriot Front demonstration in Washington in May, more than a hundred Patriot Front members marched along the National Mall wearing matching outfits of beige or brown chinos and blue button-up shirts.
Continue reading...The 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee’s tongue was tied as she tried to defend the ex-president’s supporters
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin courted controversy when she denied that supporters of Donald Trump behaved like cult members.
Palin’s attempt to deny that Trump has a cultlike following, however, prompted predictable pushback on social media by those who thought her attempt to define a cult actually precisely described Trump’s enthusiastic fan base.
Continue reading...Mauricio Garcia, who was discharged from the US army in 2008, reportedly also had Nazi tattoos on his body
The gunman who killed eight people and wounded seven others at a suburban Dallas shopping mall had no prior criminal record but had “neo-Nazi ideation”, authorities said on Tuesday.
Investigators are still trying to determine why Mauricio Garcia opened fire on Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets, Hank Sibley, the regional director of the Texas department of public safety, said at a news conference.
Continue reading...The move to a costly and experimental hand-count system comes as half the workforce is readying to strike over wages
In Shasta county, a deep red enclave in far northern California, officials are intensifying their push to replace voting machines with a costly and experimental hand-count system that could cost an additional $4m over two years.
The decision of the far-right majority on the region’s governing body, the Shasta county board of supervisors, to press ahead with the controversial plan comes as half the county’s workforce is preparing to strike over wages. Officials on the board recently said the county did not have enough money to pay requested wage increases for workers.
Continue reading...The neo-fascist group’s leader and four lieutenants are accused of seditious conspiracy to forcibly stop the transfer of power in 2021
Ready for “all-out war”, leaders of the far-right Proud Boys viewed themselves as foot soldiers for Donald Trump as he clung to power after the 2020 election, a prosecutor said on Monday at the close of a historic trial over the January 6 Capitol attack.
After more than three months of testimony, jurors began hearing closing arguments in the seditious conspiracy case accusing the former Proud Boys national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and four lieutenants of plotting to forcibly stop the transfer of power.
Continue reading...Crackdown on Hellenes and its Golden Dawn leader Ilias Kasidiaris could cause more problems than it solves
For two years Ilias Kasidiaris, a convicted leader of the now disbanded neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, has used social media to address supporters from Domokos prison in central Greece.
Month after month the former MP has railed against the inability of the “corrupt political regime” to govern the country in a stream of hate-filled speeches. For his 134,000 subscribers on YouTube, the exhortations are a lifeline to Kasidiaris and the Hellenes, the small nationalist party he set up shortly before being handed a 13-and-a-half-year prison term for his role in Golden Dawn. And they seem to be paying off.
Continue reading...Ex-president has told aides to hire failed congressional candidate and anti-Muslim campaigner, New York Times reports
Donald Trump has told aides to hire the far-right anti-Muslim activist and failed congressional candidate Laura Loomer for a role in his campaign to return to the White House in 2024, the New York Times has reported.
Citing four anonymous sources, the Times noted that Loomer, 29, attended Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Tuesday night, an angry rant delivered hours after the former president pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges in New York over hush money payments, including to the porn star Stormy Daniels.
Continue reading...Questions raised over Benjamin Netanyahu’s control over coalition as he makes concessions to far right
Israeli politics has descended into disarray with questions over whether a fired defence minister is refusing to step down and concerns Benjamin Netanyahu may have promised too much to far-right politicians in exchange for a deal aimed at quelling nationwide demonstrations.
Facing a climax in the 12-week protest movement against his plans to weaken the power of the courts, the prime minister on Monday evening announced a delay to the proposals, saying he wanted time to seek a compromise with political opponents.
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