One doesn’t expect much substance or insight from the UK’s left-wing Guardian, and a recent opinion piece there – “Getting fit is great – but it could turn you into a rightwing jerk” – did not disappoint on that score, but it did accidentally raise a worthwhile question: does becoming healthier and stronger incline one toward right-wing politics, even fascism?
In the aftermath of the European elections last Sunday, the German establishment has been trying to come to terms with radically altered political realities. Despite advance polls predicting a notable shift to the Right, the result still shook the country. Less than a third of voters stuck with the parties of the ruling centre-left coalition, and the Right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) became the second largest political force after the conservative Union. Young people in particular defied expectations, many turning their backs on the Greens and switching to the Right.
Millions of Europeans have not suddenly turned into fascists. We need a new political language.
As the EU establishment struggles to make sense of last week’s revolt in the European elections, one thing is clear: our outdated vocabulary is not up to the task of describing today’s political landscape.
Gains for France’s National Rally, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been described as a ‘far-right surge’ in newspapers and TV reports, not just across Europe but around the world. Even before the election results came in, labels like far right and extreme right were bouncing off commentators’ keyboards. All agree that the far right is on the rise and ordinary people need to worry. This is Europe’s ‘Trump moment’, explained Politico. Some go further. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is described as ‘neo-fascist’, while academics calmly ask if the AfD is the new Nazi Party. ‘Fascism has arrived’, declared French author Emilia Roig when the election results became clear. Yet with almost a quarter of Europe’s voters having backed a party branded ‘far right’, it is worth asking how accurate this label is and what purpose it now serves.
These are the first pictures of the seemingly unassuming American tourist whose secret double life as an alleged assassin-for-hire was exposed after a jammed gun saw her botch a contract killing in Birmingham.
Aimee Betro, 44, flew over from her native Milwaukee to kill boutique clothing store owner Sikander Ali on the orders of rival Mohammed Aslam, 56, and his son Mohammed Nazir, 30.
A trial in the UK heard how the hitwoman, who worked as an administrator for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, disguised herself in a hijab before trying to gun Ali down outside a house in Acocks Green, Birmingham on September 7, 2019.
Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden post-conviction, recent national surveys found.
A survey from the Economist/YouGov — taken well after the Manhattan jury’s guilty verdict — asked registered voters, “In November 2024, who do you plan to vote for in the presidential election?”
The bad news: there is no plan to ramp down diversity-based funding and the use of racial quotas in the federally funded research landscape. The good news? More and more people have noticed — including the academics at the heart of the system.
In the latest development, about 40 Canadian university professors have recommended to the House of Commons that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in federally funded research be abolished. Such policies have multiplied within the three agencies responsible for funding research, known collectively as the Tri-Council, since the Liberals took office.
They come from as far afield as Comox, B.C., Grande Prairie, Alta., and Guelph, Ont.
Once strangers, these new Canadian Armed Forces recruits are now seldom more than a few metres from one another — eating, sleeping and exercising as a unit — all part of the bonding process designed to create the soldiers, sailors and airmen (and women) of tomorrow.
They’re among the first cohort to pass through Basic Military Qualification, or basic training, under new guidelines aimed at removing hurdles and boosting numbers — changes the Department of National Defence (DND) hopes will solve a personnel crisis that Defence Minister Bill Blair called a “death spiral” for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
A suspect is facing sexual assault charges in connection with an alleged child luring and Toronto police say they are concerned there could be further victims.
According to police, a 38-year-old man communicated with a child online via Snapchat, pretending to be a 17-year-old.
Police allege that the suspect, aware of the victim’s age, met up with them in person and sexually assaulted them.
It’s possible to be both astounded and completely unsurprised by the allegations that some members of Parliament have colluded with foreign states to serve both their own interests and those of governments like China and India.
For years now, Canada’s elite have been acting as if there is no real legitimate national interest. Imagine a new prime minister trying to invoke a Canadian version of JFK’s self-abnegating admonition to, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” Young Canadians would say: “But I thought you told us we lived on stolen land?”
You can do anything you set your mind to, don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Yes, you can perform a titillating pole dance in lucite heels and full-length Tweety Bird Underoos. Men, I’m talking to you. pic.twitter.com/wpsJDoVGMu
— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) June 12, 2024
No records have been kept on the environmental benefits of the Trudeau Liberals’ $8 billion Net Zero Accelerator program, the Department of Environment admitted Tuesday, per Blacklock’s Reporter.
The 2021 initiative, dubbed the $8 billion slush fund, subsidizes factories that adapt to its environmental policies.
All I can say here is… VOLUME UP. pic.twitter.com/LZk0KgQUUI
— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) June 12, 2024
Last night, I went to New York City’s Union Square to cover a rally against the “massacre in the Nuseirat Camp regions of Gaza.” That’s what pro-Palestinian protesters are calling the operation that freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least a hundred Palestinians—a mix of Hamas combatants and civilians caught in the chaos as Hamas fired RPGs at the hostages. All around the country, similar anti-Israel protests sprung up to rouse those furious at the hostage rescue operation.
I had been at this particular protest in Union Square for about 45 minutes, watching and taking notes, when a man wearing a neck gaiter, sunglasses, and a Hezbollah flag fashioned as a headscarf suddenly pointed at me. “She’s a Zionist!” he shouted. “Get her out of here.”
The Free Press reporter @Olivia_Reingold filed a police report after an anti-Israel mob swarmed her at a protest Monday in Union Square. While shouting “blood on your hands” and “genocide supporter,” they restricted her movement and blew air horns in her ears. One even grabbed… pic.twitter.com/991j0sMrmQ
— The Free Press (@TheFP) June 11, 2024
Americans haven’t come to terms with their scientifically politicized reality.
One of the more disturbing outcomes of the late 2023 congressional investigation into the prevalence of antisemitism on America’s college and university campuses was the discovery of widespread plagiarism. No sooner was it clear that Harvard president Claudine Gay may have committed publishing piracy nearly 50 times over the course of her career when stories began breaking about the frequency of similar transgressions at Columbia, Brown, and elsewhere.
Yet as gravely as plagiarism is (or at least should be) treated within scholarly circles, its impact is typically limited to distorting a reader’s perception of who first expressed some important idea or observation, not the accuracy of the secretly copied material itself. It would be far more consequential if academics were either intentionally or unconsciously misrepresenting facts that could seriously mislead average citizens as well as compromise the usefulness of contemplated social programs. Unfortunately, this later intellectual sin is far more common than generally known.
