www.theguardian.com

Mariano Rajoy #racist theguardian.com

The former Spanish conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy is facing growing accusations of racism after writing in a World Cup newspaper column that the French national team “does not have any French players”

Rajoy, who was in office from 2011 to 2018, pondered Spain’s looming semi-final showdown with France in an article for the online newspaper El Debate on Friday

“It’s worth remembering that France has been a two-time world champion and was a finalist in the last World Cup,” he wrote. “They’ve won every match they’ve played in this World Cup and are currently ranked No 1 in the Fifa rankings. They also have a top-level squad. That said, they don’t have any French players. And they’re playing very well. They’ll be a formidable opponent”

Rajoy’s remarks, which have drawn comparisons to a Paraguayan senator’s recent racist social media attack on Kylian Mbappé, elicited a scathing response from Spain’s current prime minister

“There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin colour,” Pedro Sánchez wrote in a post on X

Jonathan Pollard #racist #psycho theguardian.com

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing

Speaking to Channel 13 television, Pollard said: “I personally prefer the forcible removal of all current residents of Gaza, and the annexation of Gaza and its repopulation by us”

Pollard said he decided to enter politics because of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities that killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war. He blamed the Israeli government for failure to prevent the attack or intervene quickly after it began

“Until then, I thought that the abandonment and betrayal I experienced from the government was an exception and not the rule, but after October 7 I realized that I was not an exception,” he said

Pollard was released on parole at the age of 61 from US prison in 2015 after serving 30 years for selling military secrets to Israel for money

Päivi Räsänen #fundie #homophobia #dunning-kruger theguardian.com

A Finnish member of parliament has been found guilty by the country’s supreme court of inciting hatred after claiming that homosexuality was a “developmental disorder”, in a conviction that prompted criticism from far-right government ministers

Päivi Räsänen, of the Christian Democrats, made the claims in a pamphlet first published in 2004 and reproduced on the website of the Luther Foundation Finland and the Finnish Evangelical Mission Diocese in 2007

In a 3-2 vote, the supreme court on Thursday found Räsänen guilty of a crime when she republished the pamphlet on Facebook in 2019 and on her website the following year. She was fined €1,800. The court ruled her claim that homosexuality was a disorder of psychosexual development was incorrect

Räsänen was supported in her case by the US-based conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has tried to use her case as an example of censorship in Europe. The group has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns after successfully overturning Roe v Wade, which protected the right to abortion, in the US

Donald Trump and unnamed White House author #wingnut #racist #conspiracy theguardian.com

Billed as “a roadmap to ensure America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history and the home of freedom on earth”, the US National Security Strategy makes explicit Washington’s support for Europe’s nationalist far-right parties

The document, with a signed introduction by Trump, says Europe is in economic decline but its “real problems are even deeper”, including “activities of the EU that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition … and loss of national identities”

The 33-page exposition of Trump’s “America First” worldview appears to espouse the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, saying several countries risk becoming “majority non-European” and Europe faces “the real and stark prospect of civilisational erasure”. It adds: “Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less”

US policies must therefore include “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”[…]
In language that will appear extraordinary to close allies, it says the US should “stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history”, adding that Washington “encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit”

With far-right parties in government, supporting rightwing coalitions or leading in the polls in several EU member states, the document says the “growing influence of patriotic European parties … gives cause for great optimism”[…]
It claims that a “large European majority” wants peace in Ukraine but that this “is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes”

Three unnamed Spanish members of The Base #wingnut #psycho #racist theguardian.com

Police in Spain have arrested three people on suspicion of belonging to the Base, a global neo-Nazi terrorist group that incites and trains members in techniques to overthrow governments and bring about a race war[…]
In a statement on Monday, Spain’s Policía Nacional said the three arrests, made in the eastern province of Castellón, had enabled them to dismantle the first accelerationist terrorist cell detected in the country

Officers seized two firearms, replica guns, ammunition, knives and tactical military training gear, as well as accelerationist material and neo-Nazi paraphernalia

The trio are accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation; recruiting, indoctrinating and training for terrorist purposes; and illegal possession of weapons

The investigation into the cell started at the beginning of this year, when anti-terror and anti-radicalisation officers came across an individual whom they described as “very radicalised and aligned with the supremacist, terrorist beliefs of the Base”

They then learned of the other two members of the cell and discovered that the trio had undergone tactical training using paramilitary techniques and materials

“The officers also established that those arrested used social media to recruit new members, to praise the violent actions of other terrorist organisations and to share accelerationist audiovisual content,” the police statement said

Over recent months, it added, the trio had stepped up their radical rhetoric, “exhorting violent attacks and even openly revealing that they were prepared to wage selective attacks for the cause”

The police also determined that the leader of the Spanish cell had been in direct contact with the US founder of the Base, Rinaldo Nazzaro

Pete Hegseth #pratt #dunning-kruger #wingnut #racist #psycho theguardian.com

Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that 20 US soldiers who took part in the 1890 massacre of hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee will keep the Medals of Honor that were awarded to them

The move is the latest in a number of contentious actions taken by the Trump administration to reinterpret US history

The long debate over the events at Wounded Knee includes a dispute over its characterization as a “battle” given that, according to historical records, the US army killed about 250 Lakota Sioux people – many of whom were unarmed women and children – despite fighters in the camp having surrendered

“We’re making it clear that [the soldiers] deserve those medals,” Hegseth said, announcing the move in a video on social media on Thursday. Calling the men “brave soldiers”, he said a review panel had concluded in a report that the medals were justly awarded. “This decision is now final, and their place in our nation’s history is no longer up for debate”

Hegseth’s Democratic predecessor at the Pentagon, former defense secretary Lloyd Austin, ordered the review of the honors in 2024 after Congress called for it in the 2022 defense bill. Announcing the review, the Pentagon said Austin wanted to “ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation’s highest military honor”

But in Thursday’s video, Hegseth[…]said his predecessor had been “more interested in being politically correct than historically correct”. It is unclear if the report will be made public[…]
19 soldiers from the seventh cavalry were awarded the Medal of Honor for their “bravery” and “gallantry” over actions ranging from rescuing fellow troops to efforts to “dislodge Sioux Indians” hiding in a ravine[…]
“Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a ‘battle’ rather than what it truly was,” Columbia University history professor Karl Jacoby posted on Bluesky

Oklahoma Republicans #wingnut theguardian.com

Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma introduced legislation this week that would require every public university in the state to construct “a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza”, with a statue of the assassinated Republican activist and a sign calling him a “modern civil rights leader”, or pay monthly fines.

The proposed legislation comes as conservatives pay tribute to the murdered activist and podcaster, whose life will be commemorated by the president at a service in Arizona on Sunday, by comparing him to martyred political and spiritual leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr and Saint Paul.

The Oklahoma bill, sponsored by state senators Shane Jett and Dana Prieto, specifies that the memorial site must be in “a prominent area” on the main campus of every institution of higher education in the state system, and must include “a statue of Charlie Kirk sitting at a table with an empty seat across from him” or one of Kirk and his wife holding their children. Designs for the statue must be approved by the legislature.

Each plaza must also include “permanent signage commemorating Charlie Kirk’s courage and faith and explaining the significance of Charlie Kirk as a voice of a generation, modern civil rights leader, vocal Christian, martyr for truth and faith, and free speech advocate”.
[…]
If the Oklahoma measure becomes law, every school would be required to submit plans for its memorial plaza and statue to the legislature for approval. Failure to comply with the required memorial to Kirk would be punishable by a monthly fine of 1% of the school’s appropriated budget.

The bill also mandates that the schools take measures to protect their memorials from vandalism and automatically expel any students caught defacing them.

Terengganu and MLA Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi #fundie theguardian.com

The Malaysian state of Terengganu has threatened to jail men who skip Friday prayers without a valid reason for up to two years

Under sharia law in the state, first-time offenders could be imprisoned for up to two years, and fined 3,000 ringgit (£527), or both, according to new rules that came into effect this week

The new rules were announced by the governing Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) on Monday

Previously, those who missed three consecutive Friday prayers faced a maximum of six months in prison or a fine of up to 1,000 ringgit (£176)

Worshippers would be reminded of the rules by mosque signage, while enforcement would rely on reports from the public and religious patrols in joint operations with the Terengganu Islamic Affairs Department[…]
Terengganu state legislative assembly member Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi told the local daily Berita Harian that punishments would only be imposed as a last resort

“This reminder is important because Friday prayers are not only a religious symbol but also an expression of obedience among Muslims,” he said

The Terengganu state government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian

The legislation was first enacted in 2001 and amended in 2016 to include heavier penalties for offences such as failing to respect Ramadan and harassing women in public[…]
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which governs Terengganu, has sought to tighten religious enforcement across four of 13 Malaysian states it controls

The party holds all 32 seats in Terengganu’s legislative assembly, leaving no opposition

Sardar Satakzai, Bano Bibi's brother and unnamed accomplices #sexist #psycho #fundie theguardian.com

Thirteen suspects have been arrested in Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province after a video emerged of a woman and a man being shot dead for marrying against the wishes of their families[…]
The provincial chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, announced the arrests hours after saying the location and people in the video had been identified

In the video a group of people are seen arriving in a deserted area on the outskirts of Quetta, the provincial capital in an SUV and pickup trucks. The couple are taken out of one the vehicles, and the woman is given a copy of the Qur’an

She tells a man in the regional Brahavi language: “Come, walk seven steps with me, after that you can shoot me.” He follows her for few steps and she then says: “You are allowed only to shoot me. Nothing more than that.”

It is not clear what she means by “nothing more than that”[…]
A series of gunshots follows and the footage then shows a bloodied man lying on the ground close to the woman’s body. Men are shown shooting at both of the bodies

Local police identified the bride and groom as Bano Bibi and Ahsan Ullah and released some of the suspects’ names, saying the provincial government had initiated the investigation as none of the couple’s family members had come forward

A tribal elder, Sardar Satakzai, had ordered the couple killed after the bride’s brother complained she had married without his consent, said the police chief, Naveed Akhtar. Both were among the 13 people arrested in a series of raids and authorities were looking for nine more suspects[…]
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said there were at least 405 “honour” killings in 2024, criticising the authorities for failing to stamp out the crimes. Activists say the real number will be much higher because many families don’t report cases[…]
In some cases tribal chiefs, many of whom are also local legislators, have defended the killings, and chiefs accused of killings and abduction have not been punished

Brian Hooker #quack #dunning-kruger #psycho #conspiracy theguardian.com

“Full disclosure, 18 days after visiting Seminole, Texas, sitting in a measles clinic and being exposed to Doctor Ben with the measles, I got the measles. So cool,” Hooker said.

Hooker, Tommey, and Edwards spoke on a podcast hosted by anti-vaccine activist Steve Kirsch on May 22. This news has not been previously reported by other outlets. Children’s Health Defense did not respond to the Guardian’s inquiry for this story.

Hooker doesn’t appear to have sought healthcare or testing to confirm his symptoms were measles and not another infection. Other viral and bacterial infections may cause rashes, which is why medical providers need to conduct tests to confirm measles cases.

Without confirmation of his illness being measles, Hooker may spread misinformation about the illness – including what helps to treat it.

David Azoulay, Meirav Ben-Ari, Amit Halevi, Moshe Feiglin, Eliahu Yusian and Elad Barashi #racist #psycho theguardian.com

To remind you of what some of these voices have planned for Gaza, below is a collection of some of the more outrageous statements by Israeli lawmakers or influencers since 7 October 2023[…]
•Flatten everything [in Gaza] just like it is today in Auschwitz,” David Azoulay, council leader for the northern Israeli town of Metula[…]
•“The children in Gaza have brought this upon themselves,” said Meirav Ben-Ari[…]
•“There should be 2 goals for this victory: 1. There is no more Muslim land in the Land of Israel … After we make it the land of IL, Gaza should be left as a monument, like Sodom …” said Likud member of the Knesset Amit Halevi[…]
The following statements were all made on Channel 14[…]
•“If the goal of this operation is not destruction, occupation, expulsion, and settlement, then we have accomplished nothing,” said former member of the Israeli Knesset, Moshe Feiglin[…]
•“The enemy is not Hamas, but Gaza. The enemy is not Fatah, but the Arabs of the West Bank. And they are not willing to accept this because the approach to dealing with this enemy, called ‘Gaza,’ needs to be completely different[…]Similar to Chechnya, where the Russians flattened it to the extent that the Chechens realized: it’s not worth thinking with them[…]There are no innocents. When you say ‘population’, there is no population. There are two and a half million terrorists[…]When there are no innocents in Gaza, there’s no point in ‘roof knocking’. Because everyone is a terrorist,” said Eliahu Yusian[…]
•“Gaza deserves death. The 2.6 million terrorists in Gaza deserve death! … Men, women, and children – in every way possible, we must simply carry out a Holocaust on them – yes, read that again – H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T! For me, gas chambers. Train cars. And other cruel forms of death for these Nazis. Without fear, without hesitation – simply crush, eradicate, slaughter, flatten, dismantle, smash, shatter …. Gaza deserves death. Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza,” said Elad Barashi

US Representative Mary Miller (R-Ill.) #fundie theguardian.com

A Republican congresswoman is facing widespread backlash after saying that a Sikh should not have conducted a prayer in the US House

Mary Miller, an Illinois representative, on Friday published – then deleted – a post on X saying that Giani Singh, a Sikh Granthi from southern New Jersey, should not have delivered the House’s morning prayer

Miller at first mistakenly identified Singh as a Muslim and said that it was “deeply troubling” someone of that faith had been allowed to lead prayer in the House and it “should never have been allowed”, Miller posted on X

“America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further from it,” Miller continued. “May God have mercy”

Miller first edited her post to change Muslim to Sikh – then opted to delete it

Staff of the various Dar al-Reaya across Saudi Arabia #fundie #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

A young woman wearing a black abaya is pictured in a city in north-west Saudi Arabia standing precariously on a second-floor window ledge. A second photograph shows a group of men escorting her down with the help of a crane[…]
It was a rare glimpse of the plight of hundreds or more girls and young women believed to be held in such facilities, where they are “rehabilitated” so they can return to their families

Speaking out in public or sharing footage of these “care homes”, or Dar al-Reaya, has become impossible in a country where voices on women’s rights appear to have been silenced[…]
Conditions are reported to be so bad that there have been several cases of suicide or attempted suicide. The women can spend years locked up, unable to leave without the permission of their family or a male guardian

“Every girl growing up in Saudi knows about Dar al-Reaya and how awful it is. It’s like hell. I tried to end my life when I found out I was going to be taken to one. I knew what happened to women there and thought ‘I can’t survive it’,” says one young Saudi woman who later managed to flee into exile[…]
Saudi officials have described the care homes, which were set up across the country in the 1960s, as providing “shelter for girls accused or convicted of various crimes” and say they are used to “rehabilitate the female inmates” with the help of psychiatrists[…]
But Sarah Al-Yahia, who started a campaign to abolish the care homes, has spoken to a number of girls who describe an abusive regime, with inmates subjected to strip-searches and virginity tests on arrival and given sedatives[…]
“It is a prison, not a care home, as they like to call it. They call each other by numbers. ‘Number 35, come here.’ When one of the girls shared her family name, she got lashes. If she doesn’t pray, she gets lashes. If she is found alone with another woman she gets lashes and is accused of being a lesbian. The guards gather and watch when the girls are being lashed.”

The Base #wingnut #racist #psycho theguardian.com

The Base, which has a web of cells all over the world, was founded in 2018 and became the subject of a relentless FBI counter-terrorism investigation that led to several arrests and world governments officially designating it as a terrorist organization[…]
This is the first time the Base has openly allied itself with the Kremlin’s broader geopolitical goals, a sudden change experts say signals its likely involvement in Russian sabotage and propaganda operations now being carried out across Europe

The Base founder and leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, a semi-defected American who worked with US special forces during the war on terror and now lives in Saint Petersburg, has for years garnered suspicions of being a Russian intelligence asset. Even members of the Base mused that he was a spy and grew wary of the source of his cash flow[…]
In posts on Telegram, the Base is offering cash for volunteer operatives and recruits to carry out attacks on “electric power stations, military & police vehicles, military & police personnel, government buildings, [Ukrainian] politicians”, specifically in Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine

The Base previously demonstrated it can obtain funding from cryptocurrency vectors and allegedly from Nazzaro’s own unknown funds

“The remnants of the Ukrainian authorities understand their weakness, we understand it too,” said the Base. “The time is now”

The plan was unveiled online last week and is in support of a wider bid to carve out a white nationalist enclave in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine, something the Base describes as having “rugged mountainous terrain which is a force multiplier for an unconventional paramilitary force”

Uploaded alongside several of the posts were approximately 50 videos, beginning in late March, captured using an automatically generated geotagging app. They generally show assumed members capturing spray-painted symbols of Ukraine’s Base cell on various walls in urban locales

Conor McGregor #racist theguardian.com

Ireland’s taoiseach has denounced anti-immigration comments made by Conor McGregor as the MMA fighter visited the White House before a St Patrick’s Day meeting with Donald Trump

McGregor said “Ireland is on the cusp of losing its Irishness” and that an “illegal immigration racket” was “running ravage on the country”

Last week, Donald Trump singled out “Conor” – who last year was found liable for sexual assault after a civil trial – as one of his favourite Irish people

Dressed in a green business suit to mark Ireland’s national day, McGregor was at the White House at Trump’s invitation and participated in an impromptu Q&A session with reporters. “There are rural towns in Ireland that have been overrun in one swoop,” he said, speaking in the White House briefing room alongside the president’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt

The 36-year-old former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion said he was “here to raise the issue and highlight it” and that he would be listening to Trump on immigration – one of the president’s main areas of focus as he seeks to ramp up deportations of people in the US without proper documentation

The apparently off-the-cuff comments were immediately condemned by Micheál Martin, the taoiseach. “Conor McGregor’s remarks are wrong, and do not reflect the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland,” the Irish prime minister said on X

Missouri State Representative Phil Amato (R) #forced-birth theguardian.com

A Republican state lawmaker in Missouri has introduced legislation that would create a “central registry” of pregnant people[…]
Republican state Rep. Phil Amato largely deferred questions about his “Save MO Babies Act” during a Children and Families Committee hearing to Gerard Harms, an adoption attorney who wrote the bill

“We’re looking at something like e-Harmony for babies — mothers who want to put up their children need to match with prospective parents,” Harms told the committee Tuesday. “That’s exactly what the intent of this is. Against, inartfully drafted”

Harms said participation is voluntary and would comply with all federal health privacy laws

But skeptical state lawmakers and abortion rights advocates have raised alarms about data privacy[…]
Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, said the legislation is a reminder of prior attempts from state officials to “track and surveil” pregnant people in the state[…]
“The flippant and disturbing remarks heard today about establishing ‘e-Harmony for babies’ encouraging prospective families to shop for children should ring alarm bells for everyone,” Schwarz said in a statement to The Independent

“No pregnant person, no child is off the table for anti-abortion politicians to exploit in order to further their own power and control over our bodies, families, and futures”[…]
His legislation would require the Division of Maternal and Child Resources within the state’s state’s Department of Social Services “to make and maintain a central registry of each expecting mother who is at risk for seeking an abortion and a central registry of each prospective adoptive parent who has successfully completed certain screenings, background checks, home studies, and other investigations to ensure the fit of the prospective parent to adopt a child”[…]
The legislation follows a state court ruling that blocks restrictions on abortion access[…], marking a major victory for abortion rights

Bryce Mitchell #wingnut #racist #conspiracy #homophobia #transphobia theguardian.com

UFC president and CEO Dana White criticized Bryce Mitchell for making anti-Semitic and homophobic comments on a podcast during which the featherweight also praised Adolf Hitler and denied the Holocaust

But, citing freedom of expression, White said the organization would not take any disciplinary actions against Mitchell[…]
Mitchell, who competes in the featherweight division of MMA’s largest promotion, made the comments on the first episode of his ArkanSanity Podcast, where he suggested that Hitler was a “good guy” who “fought for his country”

“Here’s what I say about [Elon Musk] heiling Hitler, heiling the Nazis: I really don’t think that he was, because I honestly think that Hitler was a good guy based upon my own research, not my public education indoctrination,” Mitchell said

He added: “I really do think before Hitler got on meth, he was a guy I’d go fishing with. He fought for his country. He wanted to purify it by kicking the greedy Jews out, that were destroying his country and turning them all into gays. They were gaying out the kids. They were queering out the women. They were queering out the dudes. Do you know where the first tranny surgery ever was? Happened to be in Germany before Hitler took over”

Despite views White described as “dumb and ignorant”, the longtime UFC head defended Mitchell’s right to express them

“It’s free speech,” White said. “That’s the beautiful thing about this business, for all of you who hate Bryce Mitchell, you get to see him hopefully get his ass whooped on global television”

Mehri Talebi Darestani #fundie #sexist #quack theguardian.com

The Iranian state has said that it plans to open a treatment clinic for women who defy the mandatory hijab laws that require women to cover their heads in public

The opening of a “hijab removal treatment clinic” was announced by Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. She said the clinic will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”

Iranian women and human rights groups have expressed outrage at the announcement

Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist who was a target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move is “shameful”, adding that: “The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology”

Tucker Carlson #fundie #crackpot theguardian.com

Carlson made the claim on the War Room podcast hosted by his fellow rightwing extremist Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser in the Trump administration who was released from prison last week after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

“Nuclear weapons are demonic, there’s no upside to them at all, and anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant or doing the bidding of the forces that created nuclear technology in the first place, which were not human forces obviously,” Carlson said during a discussion on the perceived “spirituality” involved in the US development of atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan in August 1945, hastening the end of the second world war.

“Let me ask you this,” he continued. “What was the moment we can point to that nuclear technology was invented? I’ve never met a person who can isolate the moment where nuclear technology became known to man. German scientists in the 1930s? Really? Name the date? It’s very clear to me that these [nuclear weapons] are demonic.”

Tucker Carlson #crackpot #fundie #magick theguardian.com

Tucker Carlson, the former CNN and Fox News political chat host, has said he was “physically mauled” by a demon a year and a half ago, in an assault that he says left him bleeding and with scars from “claw marks”.

Carlson made the claim while speaking in an upcoming documentary, Christianities? In a preview clip on YouTube, Carlson is asked by John Heers of the non-profit First Things Foundation if he believed that “the presence of evil is kickstarting people to wonder about the good”.

“That’s what happened to me. I had a direct experience with it,” said Carlson.
Asked if he was referring to journalism, Carlson responded: “No, in my bed at night. I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled.”

Carlson, who said he still bears the scars, said his assailant was a “demon”. He added: “Or by something unseen that left claw marks on my sides.”

He said at the time of the attack, he was asleep in bed. I was “totally confused, I woke up, and I couldn’t breathe, and I thought I was going to suffocate”, he said.

“I walked around outside and then I walked in and my wife and dogs had not woken up. And they’re very light sleepers. And then I had these terrible pains on my rib cage and on my shoulder, and I was just in my boxer shorts and I went and flipped on the light in the bathroom, and I had four claw marks on either side underneath my arms and on my left shoulder. And they’re bleeding.”

He added that he explained the encounter to an assistant, an evangelical Christian, who told him: “That happens, people are attacked in their bed by demons.”

Narconon UK #fundie #quack theguardian.com

Narconon UK was ordered by the watchdog to address a “range of shortfalls” after an investigation identified breaches of charity law and issues with management

The charity, which runs a private rehab facility in rural East Sussex, must also be more transparent about its treatment approach and links to the Church of Scientology, the Charity Commission said

The regulatory action comes after a nine-month investigation by the Observer revealed how people seeking help for drug and alcohol issues at Narconon’s Heathfield facility were subjected to psychological drills akin to those used in Scientology’s “auditing” process. Some people would suffer extreme reactions – breakdowns, paranoia or going into “trance-like states” – according to ex-patients and staff, who were also expected to complete the programme. Independent experts said the drills were reminiscent of a military boot camp or “obedience training” and did not appear to be therapeutic

The Observer investigation uncovered evidence of the charity downplaying its links to Scientology[…]
Sheila Maclean, Narconon’s UK manager, said the issues the Charity Commission flagged had been “successfully resolved”, adding: “We appreciate and welcome their guidance and look forward to our continued relationship with the commission in the future”

She said Narconon was “proud of its record of transparency as to the source of its programme and the success of its methods” and that, while it was developed by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, “it does not require any religious belief and a person does not become a Scientologist by doing the programme”[…]
The exercises closely resemble ‘training routines’ used in ‘auditing’[…]
Prof Tim Millar, professor of substance use and addictions at Manchester University, said he was astonished by the allegations. During 30 years researching drug treatment in England he said he had never seen such techniques

Donald Trump #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

In what was seen as an extreme display of demagoguery even by his standards, Trump drew cheers from an audience in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a picture of an out-of-control crime spree that he said could be ended “immediately” with one “real rough, nasty day”, or “one rough hour”

“You see these guys walking out with air conditioners with refrigerators on their back, the craziest thing,” Trump said. “And the police aren’t allowed to do their job. They’re told, if you do anything, you’re gonna lose your pension

“They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let them do it. The liberal left wants to destroy them, and they want to destroy our country”

In a passage that provoked a storm on social media, the former president and Republican nominee then said: “If you had one day, like one real rough, nasty day with the drug stores as an example, where, when they start walking out with …”

He then trailed off in a digression to falsely accuse Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, of introducing a practice in California when she was attorney general that exonerated thieves from prosecution of items worth less than $950

Politico said the remark appeared to be a reference to proposition 47[…]
Trump continued: “You saw kids walk in with calculators. They didn’t want to go over the $950. They’re standing with calculators adding it up. You know, these are smart, smart people. They’re not so stupid, but they have to be taught

“Now, if you had one really violent day … one rough hour, and I mean real rough. The word will get out and it will end immediately”

The comments triggered a stream of comparisons to The Purge, a 2013 film that depicts the election of a radical new party called The New Founding Fathers of America following an economic collapse, which then enacts drastic policies to end crime and unemployment

Donald Trump #racist #conspiracy #wingnut theguardian.com

[Title: Trump repeats lies and attacks Kamala Harris’s racial identity at panel of Black journalists. (31 Jul 2024)]

[...]
Donald Trump parroted disinformation about immigration and abortion, questioned Kamala Harris’s race and accused a panel moderator, Rachel Scott – the senior congressional correspondent for ABC News – of being “rude” and presenting a “nasty question” when she asked him: “Why should Black voters trust you?”
[...]
Trump arrived more than an hour late to the panel[...]
The conversation opened with Scott asking why Black voters should trust Trump given his repeated inflammatory comments about Black people.

“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump said, before asking whether Scott was with “fake news network” ABC News.
[...]
Trump added: “I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country … I think it’s a very rude introduction.”

He continued, “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,”
[...]
He repeated the unsubstantiated claim that undocumented immigrants were planning on taking “Black jobs”,[...]“Anybody that has a job – that’s what it is. They’re taking the employment away from Black people.”
[...]
Trump claimed that Harris suddenly “became a Black woman” and had previously only been identifying with her Indian heritage. “Is she Indian or is she Black?”[...]“I respect either one but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way and then all of sudden she became a Black woman.”
[...]
At least two Black attendees sporting Trump hats frequently cheered for the former president, especially as he reiterated that he faced “political persecution” after being convicted of 34 felonies.
[...]

Hongchi Xiao #quack #conspiracy theguardian.com

An alternative healer who promoted a “slapping therapy” taken up by millions of people across the world has been found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of a British woman who died at one of his workshops

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, who had type 1 diabetes, fell fatally ill in 2016 after she stopped taking her insulin and fasted during a paida lajin therapy retreat run by Hongchi Xiao at a country house in Wiltshire

The prosecution claimed Xiao, 61, who is addressed as “master” by his followers, was in charge of the workshop and had a duty of care towards Carr-Gomm

They said he was grossly negligent by failing to take reasonable steps to encourage her to take insulin and to summon medical help when it was clearly required. When she became seriously ill, crying in pain and weakening, Xiao blamed her decline on a “healing crisis”[…]
The prosecution said Xiao should have been fully aware of the danger Carr-Gomm was in because the year before a six-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes had died at a workshop he ran in Australia after Xiao had told his mother to stop giving him insulin. Xiao was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter over the boy’s death in 2019 and jailed[…]
Xiao, who was born in China, said he had quit a lucrative career in finance to focus on paida lajin and was not in it to make money. He said the technique, which involves slapping and stretching, was easy to learn, helped tackle every disease known to humans, and reduced the need for patients to take “western” medicine with “poisonous” side-effects[…]
Xiao said the deaths of the boy in Australia and Carr-Gomm had led to paida lajin being “demonised” and he suggested it had deliberately been discredited by “western doctors” and alternative practitioners because it put them out of work

Jason Struhs #fundie theguardian.com

Elizabeth Struhs’ father, Jason, told a coronial counsellor he “wouldn’t bury a bag of bones” and said he didn’t believe in funerals, after his eight-year-old daughter died, a Queensland court heard on Monday

Later, the father of one of the members of the Toowoomba religious group now on trial for the death of Elizabeth told the court he had warned his son he’d joined a “cult”

All 14 adult members of the religious sect, known as the “Saints”, are now on trial for the death of Elizabeth. The type 1 diabetic died on 7 January 2022, allegedly of diabetic ketoacidosis due to being denied insulin

Coronial counsellor Julie Baker called Jason and Zachary Struhs that month to tell them her body could be released to the family for a funeral and burial, she told the Brisbane supreme court

“He said to me he didn’t believe in funerals, Elizabeth was with God, and that he would not be burying a bag of bones,” she said. She then informed him the body would be dealt with by a government-appointed funeral director

Coronial prosecutor Caroline Marco also called three family members of defendants on Monday to testify about how defendants came to join the sect

Schoenfisch took every opportunity he could to warn his son about the group, which he called a “cult”. He recalled a specific meeting in 2021, where he said he told his son “this is going to end badly” and “you can always come home to our family”

Nigel Farage, MP (Reform-Clacton) #sexist #conspiracy theguardian.com

Nigel Farage has said he is part of a “similar phenomenon” to the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, as he claimed that there were forces in society trying to “stop young men from being young men”

The Reform UK leader used the last day of campaigning before the general election to appear alongside Derek Chisora, the controversial boxer and Reform UK supporter, in a boxing gym in Clacton, where Farage is making his eighth bid to be elected as an MP

Farage used the visit to speak about what he described as the feelings of “emasculation” among young men, saying: “Look at the football. You know, they’re told: Go to Germany. Please don’t drink more than two pints of beer. You what? Don’t chant at the football matches. You what? Oh, and don’t tell jokes that might offend the Germans. I mean, come on. We are trying to stop young men being young men

“That’s why Tate got the following he got. So maybe I’m part of a similar phenomenon,” he said[…]
Farage defended his appearance alongside Chisora, who was given a 12-week suspended prison sentence in 2010 after being found guilty of assaulting his then girlfriend

Asked if Chisora was a good role model, he replied: “You show me someone who has lived a perfect life and never been in trouble. For these young kids he’s a fantastic role model. He’s got a huge following in the country. And yeah, he is a good role model. Imperfect as we all are”

Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa, aka Peixão ("Big Fish") #fundie theguardian.com

Reports that a powerful Rio drug lord known for his extremist religious beliefs ordered Catholic churches near his stronghold to close have spooked worshipers and security experts and exposed the advent of a “narco-pentecostal”[…]
Claims emerged in the Brazilian press over the weekend that Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa – a notorious gang boss known as Peixão (Big Fish) – had determined that three places of worship should shut down in and around the agglomeration of favelas that he controls[…]
Since Peixão – whose nickname comes from the ichthys “Jesus” fish – took power in 2016 of five favelas that have become known as the Complexo de Israel, an allusion to the evangelical belief that the return of Jews to the Holy Land is a step towards the second coming of Christ and Armageddon[…]
In the past, Peixão’s troops have been accused of ransacking Afro-Brazilian temples and banning Afro-Brazilian celebrations in the Complex of Israel, where more than 100,000 people live. But this week’s reports were the first relating to Catholic places of worship

The first inkling that something was amiss came on Saturday when staff at the Our Lady of Conception and Saint Justin Martyr parish told parishioners that meetings and mass were suspended “until further notice”. The social media post was later deleted but, according to local newspapers, word quickly spread among churchgoers that the order had come from Peixão

The broadsheet O Globo said there were subsequent reports that armed men on motorbikes had visited two other local churches, Saint Hedwig and Saint Cecilia, and decreed that weddings or christenings should not take place. Those churches also published messages announcing their temporary closure

The Archdiocese of Rio denied the media reports, insisting their churches were operating as normal[…]
But the civil police’s anti-intolerance and racism unit is reportedly investigating. On Monday morning, military police launched an operation to remove barricades

Marjorie Taylor Greene #wingnut #dunning-kruger #pratt theguardian.com

[Article Title: "Marjorie Taylor Greene compares Trump to Jesus at Las Vegas rally"]

[...]
“The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon’,” she told a crowd that waited in soaring early-summer temperatures. “Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.”
[...]
It is not the first time Greene has drawn parallels between Trump and Christ – whom Christians consider to be the messiah and son of God – as well as other historical martyr figures.
[...]
“Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government,” she told the Right Side Broadcast Network.

“There have been many people throughout history that have been arrested and persecuted by radical, corrupt governments … I just can’t believe it’s happening, but I’ll always support him. He’s done nothing wrong.”
[...]

Iran court #fundie #sexist #conspiracy theguardian.com

[Title: Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging]

The Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine and the confiscation of property, his lawyer has confirmed.
[...]
He continued by saying the chief reasons given for the punishment were Rasoulof’s public statements, as well as his continued involvement in making films and documentaries which the court described as “examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country’s security”.
[...]
Producers on the film reported harassment by the state police, Paknia has previously reported on X, and actors were summoned for questioning and banned from leaving the country.

Paknia confirmed the latest developments in an email, adding: “He is accused of making [The Seed of the Sacred Fig] without obtaining a license from the related authorities, alongside accusations that the actresses were not applying hijab properly and were filmed without hijab. All key members of the film are banned from leaving the country and have been investigated by the security forces of the Ministry of Intelligence.”
[...]

[Note: more mentions of state-persecuted artists follow in the article.]

Steve Christou #homophobia theguardian.com

The ban on same-sex parenting books at libraries in a western Sydney council area could be rescinded after widespread backlash and a warning from the premier, Chris Minns, that LGBTQ+ people were being used as a “political football”.

Four Labor councillors on Cumberland city council have lodged a rescission motion to overturn the ban, which they expect will be debated at the next council meeting on 15 May. The vote is expected to be tight.

The 23-page book explores the experience of having two mothers or two fathers in a way that is designed to be understood by young children. Its contents include quotes such as “having same-sex parents is no different to having opposite-sex parents”.

The book notes that “people might make assumptions” and “people might be unkind” and contains advice such as: “All loving families are good. Remember, as long as you are happy, it doesn’t matter what other people think.”

“Treating someone unfairly because of who they love is a type of discrimination and it is never OK,” the book says.

Christou this week publicly confirmed he had not read the book.

Once a Labor party member, Christou defected to Our Local Community in 2019. He ran as an independent for the federal seat of Parramatta at the 2022 election, garnering 2,982 votes.

In 2021, while he was the Cumberland mayor, Christou used his casting vote to defeat a motion that would have installed street signs in the area that said “Racism Not Welcome”.

Christou is known for his outspoken views and has previously advocated passionately for the right to free speech.

On 28 April, just four days before he put forward the amendment to enact the book ban, Christou posted a video on his X account railing against Australia’s eSafety commissioner as a form of “censorship” and an “attack on people’s free speech”.

“Freedom of speech is very important, but this country is being run down the toilet by this government and their communist regime. It’s not on,” he said.

Iraqi parliament and MP Raed al-Maliki #homophobia #transphobia theguardian.com

Iraq’s parliament has passed a bill making same-sex relations punishable by up to 15 years in prison[…]
Transgender people will also be sentenced to three years in jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 out of 329 lawmakers on Saturday

A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people to between 10 and 15 years in prison, according to the document seen by AFP, in a country where gay and transgender people already face frequent attacks and discrimination

They also set a minimum seven-year prison term for “promoting” same-sex relations and a sentence ranging from one to three years for men who “intentionally” act like women

The amended law makes “biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination” a crime and punishes trans people and doctors who perform gender reassignment surgery with up to three years in prison[…]
The amendments also ban organisations that “promote” homosexuality and punish “wife swapping” with a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years

Lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments, told AFP that “the law serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts”

He said passing the new amendment had been postponed until after the visit of the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, to the US[…]
The US and the EU oppose the law and “we didn’t want to impact the visit,” he said

“It is an internal matter and we do not accept any interference in Iraqi affairs”[…]
Human Rights Watch’s Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar said the new law change “is a horrific development and an attack on human rights”

“Rather than focusing on enacting laws that would benefit Iraqis – like passing the draft domestic violence law or draft child protection law – Iraq is choosing to codify discrimination against LGBT people”

Kristi Noem #psycho theguardian.com

Conservative pundits have condemned the South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate Kristi Noem, amid widespread horror over her admission in a new book that she killed both an “untrainable” dog and an unruly goat during a single day in hunting season.

[...]

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, saying Cricket was “untrainable … dangerous” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.

“At that moment,” Noem says, “I realised I had to put her down.”

Noem describes taking Cricket to a gravel pit on her farm and shooting her. Remarkably, Noem then describes how she also chose to kill an unruly, unnamed, un-castrated goat, first botching the job then finishing the animal off with a third shotgun shell.

Hibatullah Akhundzada #fundie #god-complex #sexist theguardian.com

Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror

The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced at the weekend that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.

In an audio broadcast on the Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan last Saturday, Akhundzada said: “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public [for adultery].

“You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles,” he said, adding: “[But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.”

He justified the move as a continuation of the Taliban’s struggle against western influences. “The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun,” he said.

In the past year alone, Taliban-appointed judges ordered 417 public floggings and executions, according to Afghan Witness, a research group monitoring human rights in Afghanistan. Of these, 57 were women.

Most recently, in February, the Taliban executed people in public at stadiums in Jawzjan and Ghazni provinces. The militant group has urged people to attend executions and punishments as a “lesson” but banned filming or photography.

Frank Hester #racist #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

West Yorkshire police are investigating “racist comments which were allegedly made at a meeting” by the Conservative [biggest ever] donor Frank Hester in 2019.

The investigation was triggered after the Guardian reported that Hester, a businessman based in Leeds, told colleagues that looking at Diane Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”.

Hester, who has given £10m to the Tories in the past year, said in the meeting that he did not hate all black women. But he did say that seeing Abbott, who is Britain’s longest-serving black MP, on TV meant “you just want to hate all black women because she’s there”.

After the publication of the remarks, a statement from TPP said Hester “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. The statement said Hester abhorred racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.

Eli Regalado #fundie #mammon theguardian.com

‘The Lord told us to’: US pastor says he stole $1m from Christians to remodel home

A Colorado pastor who is charged with stealing more than $1m from his Christian community in a cryptocurrency scheme has admitted to the fraud but argued that God instructed him to carry it out.

Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, are charged with creating and selling their cryptocurrency, known as “INDXcoin”, to Christians based in their home town of Denver, Colorado, allegedly telling would-be investors that the Lord had told him people would become rich if they invested, the state’s division of securities announced in a press release on Thursday.

But INDXcoin was “practically worthless” in reality, prosecutors said in the statement. Investors lost millions of dollars while the Regalados used their investments for lavish living.

In a video statement about the charges, Eli admitted that the couple had squandered $1.3m that was raised through cryptocurrency.

“The charges are that me and Kaitlyn pocketed $1.3m,” Regalado said in the video published to INDXcoin’s website on Friday. “I just wanted to come out and say those charges are true.”

Regalado added: “A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do.”

Martin Sellner, Gerrit Huy, Roland Hartwig and unnamed Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Identitarian Movement members #racist #wingnut theguardian.com

Politicians from[…]AfD[…]met the head of the[…]Identitarian Movement and neo-Nazi activists[…]
It is likely to feed a fraught debate over whether the AfD should be banned[…]
The meeting was attended not only by two state and municipal-level AfD politicians but also one active member of the Bundestag, Gerrit Huy, as well as Roland Hartwig, a former MP who has acted as a personal aide to Weidel since September 2022. One party branch of the AfD’s has described Hartwig as being tasked with the party’s “strategic positioning”

The AfD figures were meeting with Martin Sellner, who was tasked with introducing the “masterplan” and is a key figure in the pan-European “New Right”[…]
The Identitarian Movement is on a list of organisations whose membership the AfD considers incompatible with party membership[…]
One key idea that Sellner has been trying to nudge into the political mainstream is “re-migration”[…]Target not only asylum seekers but, as Sellner elaborated[…]also citizens holding German passports who, he claims, “form aggressive, rapidly growing parallel societies”[…]
The explosive subject of “re-migration” apparently dominated the discussions[…]Sellner allegedly presenting the forcible extradition of “non-assimilated” German citizens as the biggest “challenge” if the AfD were to gain power

Ideas discussed at the meeting[…]included that of deportations to an unnamed state in northern Africa that would provide space for up to 2 million people. People who lobby on behalf of refugees in Germany could also go there, Sellner is reported to have suggested[…]
During the meeting, Sellner said, he had made it “unmistakably clear that no distinction can be made between different types of [German] citizens[…]all re-migration measures have to be legal”[…]
Huy[…]is reported to have claimed that she developed her own “re-migration” concept, and appeared to suggest her party no longer opposed the government’s plan to lift a ban on dual citizenship for that reason

Father Ramon Guidetti #fundie #conspiracy theguardian.com

An Italian priest has been struck off after calling Pope Francis an “anti-pope usurper” in his New Year’s Eve homily

Father Ramon Guidetti’s speech to the congregation at St Ranieri church in Guasticce, a hamlet in the Tuscan province of Livorno, was a tribute marking the first anniversary of the death of Francis’s predecessor Benedict XVI

In a video of the homily, which lasted more than 20 minutes and was shared online, Guidetti refers to the Argentinian pontiff – whose former name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio – as simply “Mr Bergoglio”, before describing him as “a Jesuit Freemason linked to world powers, an anti-pope usurper”[…]
He was reportedly applauded by some of his flock. His excommunication, however, came swiftly. Simone Giusti, the bishop of Livorno, issued a decree saying Guidetti had “publicly committed an act of a schismatic nature” and ordered him to be “removed from the office of parish priest of St Ranieri in Guasticce”. The bishop warned other priests “not to participate in any of his celebrations or other cult practices” as that would incur “the very serious penalty of excommunication”

Guidetti, who was known locally to have made previous anti-Francis remarks, said he was proud to have been excommunicated, adding it was “a mark of pride to be out of this church, which is a tyranny”

“I am calm,” he told Radio Domina Nostra, a radio show hosted by Alessandro Minutella, another priest who was excommunicated after attacking Pope Francis. “But astonished at the speed at which the guillotine came down. I will frame the decree and hang it on the wall – it will be something I will boast about”

Elgeyo Marakwet mob #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

Efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation in Kenya have suffered a setback after a police officer was killed in a confrontation with a gang of youths

Activists and local leaders condemned the murder, calling it a backward step in the fight to eradicate the practice in the country. Police in Elgeyo Marakwet county, in the Rift Valley region, had taken a group of girls who had been forced to undergo the illegal procedure to hospital when a mob of young men stormed a police station and stoned Cpl Mushote Boma to death

“Angry youth raided the police post in a bid to get the girls, who had been rescued by police after they were genitally mutilated, where they overpowered the officer who was on duty and stoned him to death before burning his body using a mattress,” reported the government-owned Kenya news agency

The six girls are recuperating at a local hospital, according to county police commander, Peter Mulinge[…]
Mwebia, whose organisation has since trained nearly 500 male champions in counties where FGM exists, says men cringe when they are shown videos of the cut, a rite they traditionally believe is undertaken for their benefit

“They are told the cut makes women more mature and avoid promiscuity. They are also told that they will lose any respect within the community by marrying an uncut woman. That is why they will kill anyone, including a policeman, who interferes with the cut,” Mwebia said

Mwebia was attacked by another group of men in Kuria in December 2016 after he and a colleague were suspected of filming a street parade of girls undergoing the cut

Nicolás Maduro #wingnut #moonbat theguardian.com

The foreign minister of[…]Guyana has said that neighbouring Venezuela is “on the wrong side of history”[…]
Tensions between the two countries have reached unprecedented heights ahead of a referendum on Sunday intended to rubber-stamp Venezuela’s claim on the region of Essequibo

Among the five questions President Nicolás Maduro is asking his citizens is whether they should convert the 160,000 sq km area into a new Venezuelan state

It remains unclear what the legal or practical implications of a yes vote would be, and the referendum is widely seen as a way for the deeply unpopular dictator to drum up public support ahead of presidential elections[…]But there are growing concerns that Maduro could push the country into war as he uses the century-old dispute to whip up patriotic fervour[…]
Venezuela has laid claim to the Essequibo ever since it gained independence[…]in 1811. Inhabited by 120,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 people, the region is largely impenetrable jungle but has large reserves of oil, gold and copper[…]
Past Venezuelan leaders have dredged up the dispute in times of domestic turmoil but perhaps none have campaigned as hard on the issue as Nicolás Maduro. The 61-year-old’s TikTok output has become increasingly prolific and his rhetoric more bellicose since 2015, when massive oil deposits were discovered in the contested region

Maduro has presented history lessons on state television, interrupted school classes to get young children to cheer on the country’s territorial claim and handed out revised maps depicting an engorged Venezuela straddling a Guyana a fraction of its internationally recognised size

The socialist government has also released a series of highly polished campaign videos of Venezuelan children playing in the lush forests and cascading waterfalls and an official song, The Essequibo is Ours

“It’s in your hands, compatriots,” Maduro pleads in one video, to the upbeat drumming of the catchy pop tune. “Vote five times yes!”

Unnamed Daghestani rioters #racist #psycho theguardian.com

A mob in Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan has stormed the airport in Makhachkala in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel

In the past day, local people have besieged a hotel in search of Jewish guests and stormed the airport after reports emerged that a flight from Tel Aviv was arriving in the city. Passengers were forced to take refuge in planes or hide in the airport for fear of being attacked

Local health authorities said that 20 people had been injured, including two who were critical. The RIA news agency said nine police officers had received injuries in the incident, two of whom were being treated in hospital. The passengers on the plane were safe, security forces told Reuters

Sixty people were later detained, RIA reported on Monday, adding that 150 of the protesters had been identified[…]
“This is your captain,” one announcement said. “There’s an angry mob outside that doesn’t know where we’ve come from and why [we are here]. It’s possible we’ll also come under attack.”

The riots appear to have been inspired by a number of posts on the social media platform Telegram, where followers were told that a flight from Tel Aviv would be arriving that evening with refugees from Israel

Some of the signs held by the rioters read, “We are against Jewish refugees”. Police stood by as hundreds of protesters surged into the airport’s main terminal, entering restricted areas and demanding that customs officials direct them toward the arriving passengers[…]
Reports of anti-Jewish acts were not confined to Makhachkala. In Nalchik, another city in the neighbouring Kabardino-Balkaria region, a planned Jewish centre was set on fire earlier on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, protesters also besieged a hotel in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, searching rooms for “Jewish refugees”

Operation Dudula, Philani Gumede and Isaac Lesole #racist theguardian.com

An anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year’s general elections

Operation Dudula, whose name means “to force out” in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported

The party, which first emerged in Johannesburg’s Soweto township after riots in 2021, claims to have widespread support, with a formal presence in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. It claims to be planning to stand candidates in 1,500 of the country’s 4,468 voting districts

Many Operation Dudula followers have faced allegations of hate speech and physical violence. They have staged protests outside embassies, turned people away outside hospitals to prevent foreign nationals from accessing state medical services, and conducted door-to-door searches of businesses in poorer areas demanding to see identity documents

In August, Philani Gumede, a 36-year-old from Durban, was convicted of hate speech after sending a voice-note to members calling on them to evict foreigners from businesses[…]
In 2022, Operation Dudula followers camped outside Kalafong hospital in Atteridgeville, a suburb of South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, preventing people, including pregnant women, from entering the hospital

“People were turned away by the protesters based on their appearance and accent,” said Sibusiso Ndlovu, a health promotion supervisor for Médecins Sans Frontières. “They have even demanded that critically ill patients who are migrants must be ‘unplugged’ and taken out”[…]
The Operation Dudula party’s spokesperson, Isaac Lesole, said the transition from civil movement to political party would mean a tempering of tactics

“We want to demilitarise Operation Dudula. We know the military angle did not appeal to a lot of people”[…]
But its core ideology would not change, he said. “We view illegal immigrants as criminals, and they must go back to their countries”

Elon Musk #conspiracy #racist theguardian.com

Elon Musk has accused George Soros’s foundation of wanting to destroy western civilisation, as the tech tycoon prepares to meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in California

Musk made the comment in reply to a post by a user sharing footage of people arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa from north Africa that referred to a “George Soros led invasion” of Europe

“The Soros organization appears to want nothing less than the destruction of western civilization,” X’s owner posted[…]
Civil rights groups, including the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the ADL, have issued findings that the volume of hate speech on X has grown under the stewardship of Musk

Travis Ikeguchi #homophobia #psycho theguardian.com

A 27-year-old man who fatally shot a store owner in California had torn down her Pride flag and shouted homophobic slurs, officials said on Monday.

Laura Ann Carleton, 66, who went by “Lauri”, died at the scene of the shooting on Friday outside her Mag.Pi clothing store in Cedar Glen, an unincorporated community in the mountains roughly 60 miles (100km) east of Los Angeles.

San Bernardino’s county sheriff, Shannon Dicus, identified the shooter as Travis Ikeguchi in a Monday press conference. Ikeguchi fled on foot, and when he was confronted by officers, he opened fire on them and hit multiple squad cars, Dicus said. Sheriff’s deputies fired back and fatally shot Ikeguchi a mile from the store.

Ikeguchi, who lived in Cedar Glen, had a history of posting hateful content online, the sheriff said, adding that his family had reported him missing the day prior. He shot Carleton with a semiautomatic handgun, which was not registered to him, and he did not have a concealed carry license, according to Dicus.

Florida State Board of Education #dunning-kruger #racist theguardian.com

Kamala Harris went to Florida on Friday to address the state board of education’s controversial new standards for Black history, which include the contention that some Black people benefited from being enslaved[…]
On Wednesday, the Florida board of education approved new standards for how public schools should teach Black history.

According to a 216-page document, public school students will now be taught that some Black people received “personal benefit” from slavery – because it taught them useful skills

“Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” one curriculum benchmark said

The new curriculum also says Black people perpetrated violence during some race massacres, including the 1906 Atlanta race riot and the 1921 Tulsa massacre

On Thursday, at a conference for the Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, Harris condemned the updated education standards as “revisionist history”[…]
The Florida Education Association, a union representing more than 150,000 educators, called the new curriculum a “disservice to Florida students” and a “big step backwards”

Kari Lake #wingnut #psycho theguardian.com

The Arizona Republican Kari Lake’s vow of armed resistance over Donald Trump’s indictment for retaining classified records “threatens the very core of our democracy”, an Arizonan Democratic congressman said[…]
Lake, a TV news anchor turned far-right firebrand, lost the election for Arizona governor last year. She continues to insist without evidence her defeat was the result of fraud

Speaking to Georgia Republicans on Friday, she said: “I have a message tonight for [US attorney general] Merrick Garland, and Jack Smith, and Joe Biden. And the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one’s for you

“If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me

“And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA [National Rifle Association]. That’s not a threat – that’s a public service announcement

“We will not let you lay a finger on President Trump. Frankly, now is the time to cling to our guns and our religion”

Lake was speaking in place of Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president who escaped the mob Trump sent to the Capitol on January 6[…]
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lake’s remarks in Columbus on Friday met with a standing ovation

Responding to a reporter, Lake tweeted: “I meant what I said”

Yoweri Museveni, Anita Annet Among & Martin Ssempa #fundie #homophobia #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

Ugandan president signs anti-LGBTQ+ law with death penalty for same-sex acts

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts.

The move immediately drew condemnation from many Ugandans as well as widespread international outrage.

Early on Monday, the speaker of the Ugandan parliament, Anita Annet Among, released a statement on social media confirming Museveni had assented to the law first passed by MPs in March. It imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, and anyone convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” faces a 14-year sentence.

Among tweeted on Monday morning: “The president … has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. As the parliament of Uganda, we have answered the cries of our people. We have legislated to protect the sanctity of [the] family.

“We have stood strong to defend our culture and [the] aspirations of our people,” she said, thanking Museveni for his “steadfast action in the interest of Uganda”.

Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of the bill, presented it as a victory against the US and Europe and suggested Uganda needed to push back against groups working to tackle HIV. He said: “The president has shown great courage to defy bullying of the Americans and Europeans. That bullying we shall not give you money. They intimidate and threaten you.”

In a joint statement, the heads of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNAids and the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) reacted with “deep concern” and said progress on tackling Aids and HIV was “now in grave jeopardy”.

Museveni claimed in March that his government was attempting to resist western efforts to “normalise” what he called “deviations”.

“The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” he said.

Iranian judiciary #fundie theguardian.com

Iran has hanged two men convicted of blasphemy, according to authorities, carrying out rare death sentences for the crime as the number of executions soars across the Islamic Republic after months of unrest[…]
The pair executed, Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, died at Arak prison in central Iran. They had been arrested in May 2020, accused of being involved in a channel on the Telegram message app called Critique of Superstition and Religion, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Both men spent months in solitary confinement and could not contact their families, the commission said

The Mizan news agency of Iran’s judiciary confirmed the executions, describing the two men as having insulted the prophet Muhammad and promoted atheism. Mizan also accused them of burning a copy of the Qur’an, though it was not clear whether it was claimed the men did that or such imagery was shared via the Telegram channel[…]
In 2022, Iran executed at least 582 people, up from 333 in 2021, according to Iran Human Rights. Amnesty International’s most recent report on executions put Iran as the world’s second-largest executioner, behind China, where thousands of people are believed to be put to death a year

Ted Cruz #fundie theguardian.com

[Article title: ‘Spare us your prayers’: Ted Cruz faces backlash after Texas mall shooting kills eight]

Texas US senator Ted Cruz’s comment that he was “praying” for families of the eight victims killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in his state has sparked outrage as many critics say the Republican should advocate for meaningful gun control rather than repeatedly invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence.
[...]
Criticism of Cruz grew several hours after the shooting when he tweeted: “Heidi and I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific mall shooting in Allen, Texas. We pray also for the broader Collin county community that’s in shock from this tragedy.”
[...]
After a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on 24 May 2022, Cruz commented: “Heidi and I are lifting up in prayer the entire … community during this devastating time and we mourn the lives that were taken by this act of evil. None of us can imagine the anguish the parents in Uvalde are going through. Our hearts go out to them.”
[...]
After authorities said that a Mexican national who had previously been deported shot five neighbors to death last month, Cruz tweeted: “Thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to apprehend this mass murdering illegal alien who killed 5 innocent people. The victims deserve justice. And this monster when convicted deserves the death penalty.”
[...]

Vladimir Putin #fundie #conspiracy #psycho theguardian.com

[Article title: Putin recycles old grievances on Victory Day as Russian army battered in Ukraine]

[...]
But the Russian leader’s Victory Day message to the nation on Tuesday was nearly identical to that of last year as he cast the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against an aggressive, Russophobic and woke west.

“Today, civilisation is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said as he delivered an angry yet somewhat routine speech in which he drew false parallels between today’s fight with Ukraine’s “criminal regime” and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Putin also recycled some of his other go-to grievances, blaming “western globalist elites” for “destroying the family” and “traditional values”.
[...]

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