Category Archives: The far right

Could Marine Le Pen finally triumph with her third tilt at French presidency?

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Next year’s Élysée race looks like a battle between a fading Emmanuel Macron and the far-right leader. And some believe she might win this time

In Paris’s symbolic Place de la République, under the watchful gaze of France’s allegorical figurehead Marianne, the skateboarders are not in the mood to discuss politics.

For the young here, as everywhere, life has been paused during a pandemic that has halted studies, jobs, socialising and parties. What they want is their lives back, not to talk about an election.

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Far-right Oath Keepers member is first suspect to plead guilty in US Capitol riot

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Jon Ryan Schaffer gave a guilty plea in hopes of getting a lighter sentence and will be considered for a witness security program

A member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group and heavy metal guitarist has become the first defendant to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with the insurrection at the US Capitol.

Jon Ryan Schaffer, the frontman of the band Iced Earth, has agreed on Friday to cooperate with investigators in hopes of getting a lighter sentence, and the Justice Department will consider putting Schaffer in the federal witness security program, a US district judge said.

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Denmark strips Syrian refugees of residency permits and says it is safe to go home

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Government denies renewal of temporary residency status from about 189 Syrians

Denmark has become the first European nation to revoke the residency permits of Syrian refugees, insisting that some parts of the war-torn country are safe to return to.

At least 189 Syrians have had applications for renewal of temporary residency status denied since last summer, a move the Danish authorities said was justified because of a report that found the security situation in some parts of Syria had “improved significantly”.

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Proud Boys and other far-right groups raise millions via Christian funding site

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Revealed: groups banned from other sites fundraising on GiveSendGo as data breach identifies high-dollar donors

A data breach from Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo has revealed that millions of dollars have been raised on the site for far-right causes and groups, many of whom are banned from raising funds on other platforms.

Related: How the far-right group ‘Oath Enforcers’ plans to harass political enemies

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Warning that police grasp of far-right threat is decade out of date

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Author says Ben Hannam’s conviction suggests more extremists are serving and says scrutiny ‘isn’t fit for purpose’

The police’s understanding of the far-right extremist threat in the UK is a decade behind the curve because it is based primarily on an understanding of yesterday’s organisations, according to a leading expert.

The warning from Matthew Collins, the author of a book on National Action, came after a 22-year-old became the first serving British police officer to be convicted of a terrorism offence, after he was found guilty of belonging to the banned neo-Nazi group on Thursday.

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Capitol insurrection charges highlight white supremacists in US military

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Analysis: About one in five of those charged are current or former members of the armed forces and the Pentagon has warned that white nationalism is a threat within its ranks

If the moustache, trimmed narrowly in the style of Adolf Hitler, don’t give it away, then the antisemitic YouTube rants, the testimony of 34 colleagues and the neo-Nazi reading material certainly do.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a US army reservist, is – according to court documents – an “avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer”.

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Uncertainty hangs over Israel PM’s bid to break political impasse

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Hardline former allies hold key in new effort by Benjamin Netanyahu to end the country’s two-year stalemate

Israel is due to hold its fourth round of elections on Tuesday, although the result could simply extend a two-year-long political stalemate and possibly lead to a dreaded fifth vote.

Multiple failed attempts to form stable governments after largely inconclusive previous elections have left the country in a protracted crisis. Once the results come in on Wednesday morning, Israel is expected to enter days or weeks of intense political negotiations.

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Unmasked: man behind cult set to replace QAnon

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The creator of the rapidly growing ‘Sabmyk Network’ is said to be a Berlin art dealer with a record of media manipulation

The mysterious individual behind a new and rapidly growing online disinformation network targeting followers of QAnon, the far-right cult, can be revealed as a Berlin-based artist with a history of social media manipulation, a prominent anti-racism group claims.

Since Donald Trump left the White House, QAnon’s vast online community has been in a state of flux as it comes to terms with the reality that its conspiracy theories – such as the former US president being destined to defeat a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles – amount to nothing.

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Four Proud Boys leaders charged over alleged roles in US Capitol attack

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Four men described as leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group have been charged in the US Capitol riot, as an indictment ordered unsealed on Friday presents fresh evidence of how federal officials believe members planned and carried out a coordinated attack to stop Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Related: The decline of Proud Boys: what does the future hold for far-right group?

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Small number of Facebook users responsible for most Covid vaccine skepticism – report

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Washington Post reported on the study which confirmed what researchers have long argued about: the echo chamber effect

A small subset of Facebook users is reportedly responsible for the majority of content expressing or encouraging skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines, according to early results from an internal Facebook study.

The study, first reported by the Washington Post, confirms what researchers have long argued about how the echo chamber effect can amplify certain beliefs within social media communities. It also shows how speech that falls short of outright misinformation about vaccines, which is banned on Facebook, can still contribute to vaccine hesitancy.

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How Covid derailed the great hope of the Dutch far right | Joost de Vries

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In 2019 Thierry Baudet looked like a plausible contender for power. Now, as the Netherlands heads for the polls, he’s reduced to mimicking Trump

On 20 March 2019, Thierry Baudet provided Dutch television viewers with two surprises. The first was news of his landslide victory in that day’s senate elections. Baudet’s far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) was a newcomer in parliament, holding just two seats out of 150 in the lower house. But that day, from scratch, Forum gained 12 of the senate’s 75 seats, putting it on a par with the governing liberal party (the VVD) led by prime minister Mark Rutte.

The second surprise was Baudet’s victory speech. “The owl of Athena spreads her wings as evening falls,” he started, and across the country, jaws dropped and drinks were spilled. The Netherlands is not a country noted for oratory. Our politicians would rather downplay their intellectual prowess than borrow from Greek mythology.

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US militia group draws members from military and police, website leak shows

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Analysis: Membership list of American Patriots Three Percent also shows widespread network of people from variety of occupations

A Guardian investigation of a website leak from the American Patriots Three Percent shows the anti-government militia group have recruited a network across the United States that includes current and former military members, police and border patrol agents.

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Turkey’s mobsters step out of shadows and into public sphere

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After decades in hiding, in prison or keeping low profile, players from a bloody period in the country’s history are now seen as ‘folk idols’ by the Turkish right

At first glance, the photograph of two smartly dressed older Turkish men, posing for the camera in an office filled with flags, could be of any important figures in the country – but it is rare for a picture to say so much about both the past and the future.

On the left is Devlet Bahçeli, an ultranationalist political dinosaur who has in the past few years become an influential coalition partner in the government of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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Trump to tell CPAC he is Republican ‘presumptive 2024 nominee’ – report

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Unnamed source tells news site Axios Trump’s speech to the rightwing event will have the message ‘I’m still in charge’

Donald Trump will reportedly tell the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida this week he is the man to drain the Washington swamp – as Republicans’ “presumptive 2024 nominee”.

Related: Republicans failing to toe the Trumpist line feel wrath of their state parties

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People with extremist views less able to do complex mental tasks, research suggests

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Cambridge University team say their findings could be used to spot people at risk from radicalisation

Our brains hold clues for the ideologies we choose to live by, according to research, which has suggested that people who espouse extremist attitudes tend to perform poorly on complex mental tasks.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge sought to evaluate whether cognitive disposition – differences in how information is perceived and processed – sculpt ideological world-views such as political, nationalistic and dogmatic beliefs, beyond the impact of traditional demographic factors like age, race and gender.

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Donald Trump to address CPAC on future of Republican party

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Former president Donald Trump will address the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Florida next week, about the future of the Republican party and the conservative movement, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Saturday.

Related: Trump ally Nunes sees CNN Ukraine lawsuit thrown out by New York judge

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Australian Proud Boys sought combat-trained supporters to ‘arrest’ police at Covid lockdown protests

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Messages on anti-lockdown social media groups reveal role of the far-right group in Covid-related protests

The far-right Proud Boys in Australia sought people trained in combat to help confront police during anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne last year.

Amid repeated warnings from security agencies in Australia and overseas about the way far-right groups have used the Covid-19 pandemic to recruit, Guardian Australia can reveal that senior members of the neo-fascist Proud Boys group were involved in protests during Melbourne’s second-wave lockdown last year.

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‘It let white supremacists organize’: the toxic legacy of Facebook’s Groups

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Facebook has said it will no longer algorithmically recommend political groups to users, but experts warn that isn’t enough

Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, announced last week the platform will no longer algorithmically recommend political groups to users in an attempt to “turn down the temperature” on online divisiveness.

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Canada designates Proud Boys as terrorist organization beside Isis and al-Qaida

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Move follows allegations that the rightwing group played a role in the mob attack on the US Capitol in January

Canada has described the far-right Proud Boys group as a “serious and growing threat” and branded it a terrorist organization alongside Isis and al-Qaida, amid growing concerns over the spread of white supremacist groups in the country.

On Wednesday Bill Blair, public safety minister, also announced the federal government would designate the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups the Atomwaffen Division, the Base and the Russian Imperial Movement as terrorist entities. The federal government also added offshoots of al-Qaida, Isis and Hizbul Mujahedin to its list.

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Estonia’s first female prime minister vows to tackle climate crisis

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Kaja Kallas, 43, took power on Tuesday after the previous coalition collapsed due to a corruption scandal

Estonia’s first female prime minister has promised to implement changes in both style and substance in the governance of the Baltic nation, as she takes charge after two years in which a far-right party was in the ruling coalition.

Kaja Kallas, a 43-year-old lawyer and head of Estonia’s Reform party, was sworn into office on Tuesday.

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