Democrats panicked after Biden’s debate disaster and donor pressure continues to mount to oust him, but it’s also important to note another incident that seemed to trigger the coup to remove Biden from the ticket.
A lot of the sudden ‘concerns’ about Biden have been coming out of Europe after his G7 visit.
Media quotes about Biden’s condition repeatedly cited European sources from the G7 visit. Politico (which is Euro-owned) has collected a whole lot of recent “concerns” from the upcoming NATO summit about whether Biden should run.
Diplomats and world leaders preparing for next week’s NATO summit are privately expressing acute concern about President Joe Biden’s age, health and ability to win the 2024 presidential election.
POLITICO spoke with 20 people connected to NATO or the alliance’s upcoming summit over the past month and heard that many allies already had quiet reservations about putting their trust in Biden well before the debate.
Biden’s mental state is out there, but it’s wildly inappropriate for foreign government officials to be interfering in an American election.
And they are interfering.
Speaking to POLITICO before the U.K.’s change of government on Thursday, a U.K. minister put it most bluntly: “Can the Democrat donors please get their act together and get Biden retired, so we have some chance of a candidate credible for voters?”
If this is what he’s saying to a media outlet, you can bet he’s saying it to any American officials he’s talking to.
“It seems to me that’s going to be very tough for him to pursue his campaign and to stay on,” said one senior EU diplomat, who added that while it was up to the Democratic Party whether to replace him, they should be “considering all options.”
What we should be considering is the role that the Euros are playing in this election interference.
There was definitely a sizable European role in the Russiagate frameup and it’s worth asking how much of the campaign to replace Biden originated in Europe after some leaders were less than impressed by his presence at G7.
Americans pick their own leaders. And the European intervention in American politics raises troubling questions especially when those Euros are championing an undemocratic coup by donors.
“Can the Democrat donors please get their act together and get Biden retired,” a foreign government official asks.
One explosive question is how much of the Democrat donor coup aimed at Biden is being masterminded by donors with European connections and financial interests?
Turkey lost the match against the Netherlands and thus missed out on the semi-finals of the European Football Championship. Was it really significant that the Turks squandered their goal against the Netherlands with an own goal under the watchful eye of President Erdoğan?
As much as you have to take into account the fact that the Turks have a more “lively” way of dealing with victories and defeats than the cool northerners and that football is also a way of acting out aggression that would otherwise be directed against the powerful in a more or less controllable way, the Turks have not made themselves any friends worldwide with the behaviour of some of their compatriots during this European Championship.
“Jewish cancer”
This was not only the case with the famous ISIS pointing finger, which turned out not to be one after all, and the wolf salute, which has increased enormously in popularity since Merih Demiral’s ban, but also the reactions of some Dutch people with a Turkish migration background after the game.
Sick Dutchmen and sick Jews were shouted there.
Kank*r Nederlanders en kank*r Joden wordt geroepen. Wat een schande! Wat een gefaalde integratie, terwijl we inmiddels bij de vierde generatie zijn aanbeland. Wat een diepe, diepe afkeer en haat. #DenHaag#NEDTURpic.twitter.com/te6iIaxyf6
It is important to remember that it was only after left-wing influencers and politicians in Germany became completely politicised that the Turks followed suit with a politicisation from their perspective. For example, this gentleman after the Turks’ victory over Austria in the current European Championship:
Wenn die Deutschen für dich und deine türkischen Anhänger alles nur komische „Schweinefresser“ sind, junge, was machst du dann in Deutschland? Dann nimm deine Sippe und VERPISS DICH EINFACH ZU DEINEN ERDOGAN! #EM#ESPGER#Demiral#Wolfsgrußpic.twitter.com/rRXrCQZtQt
Once again, imported anti-Semitism is showing its frightening face. It is fitting that Erdogan had to be lectured in the newspaper “Die Welt” a few years ago that Turkey – unlike the Dutch – collaborated with the National Socialists: “Erdogan accuses the Dutch of being “Nazi descendants”. In fact, hundreds of thousands lost their lives under German rule, while Turkey made money from trade with the Nazi regime.”
Netherlands: integration failed – successful in Germany?
“What a pity! What a failed integration, even though we have now reached the fourth generation. What deep, deep disgust and hatred,” complains one Dutchman.
Integration in Germany is a different story. There, Ben Brechtken has the impression that the Turks – in view of the thousands of young Turkish men who give the wolf salute – have integrated into the Germany of 1939 in an exemplary manner:
Harvington Hall in Worcestershire can be used as a structural analogy for the future of conservatism in England. Owned by a Catholic family for centuries, and still in the ownership of the Catholic Church, it contains more ‘priest hides,’ better known as priest holes, than any other home in England. It is believed to have been built by the most prolific maker of priest holes in England, St. Nicholas Owen. The hides were created to make sure that Catholic priests could be hidden from the agents of the state, as they ministered to the Catholic minority, the followers of the ‘old religion.’ From the time of Queen Elizabeth I, being a Catholic priest in England was a crime punishable by death, as was harbouring a priest. This placed the owners of Harvington Hall—and all such houses where the Faith was kept and priests hidden—in grave danger.
These Catholic families, and all who kept the ‘old religion,’ came to be known as recusants, from the Latin recusant, meaning to demur or object. It was applied to those who refused to attend the services of the state church—the Anglican Church. In reality, it was much more than objecting to Anglican services and refusing to attend them. The Recusancy Acts of 1558, which remained the law of England until 1888, attempted to make the practice of the Catholic faith impossible, by subjecting recusant Catholics to fines, loss of lands, liberty and, sometimes, death.
As recusant history developed, the word was also used to indicate “stubbornly refusing to submit to authority,” surely a worthy cause when that authority is immoral, unjust, or illegal.
In our own time, it is unlikely that conservatives will need political holes to hide in just yet, or that they will be subject to the death penalty for their beliefs, even though potential ‘hate crime’ laws—which are just a new kind of blasphemy law against all manner of free speech—may bring some unpleasant penalties. However, the image of conservative recusancy is relevant now, in terms of refusing to submit to the prevailing orthodoxy. It is also true that conservatives may go into a period of hiding and renewal, only to finally be revealed when the time is right, much like the recusants of old. This, as Peter Hitchens has written in a moving obituary for conservatism, has nothing to do with the Conservative Party, which is a wet neo-Whig and thoroughly useless party, conservative in name only. The party deserved the political cremation it received on July 4th.
It is the very ‘old religion’ of conservative thought, theory, and practice, which will have to endure a period of recusancy, most certainly by stubbornly resisting state-imposed orthodoxy, but also by privately strengthening the real foundation of conservatism. As the political journalist and historian Tim Stanley notes, this will only come about when the spiritual is acknowledged and built upon, something the Conservative Party and most of its former and current members of Parliament, ignore. In his eulogy, Hitchens writes of the central role of faith, of the “wells of Christianity from which true conservatism springs.” This statement is profoundly true, but this period of recusancy will also have to deal with the fact that in England those wells are almost dry.
While not denying that a socialist can be a Christian—although some would argue with how socialism has been implemented—a Christian, and certainly a Catholic can, one might say, naturally be a conservative. Once again, this has nothing to do with party, but philosophy, which may eventually emerge in party form, and will go through many changes, deaths, and rebirths. Hitchens points to the late Sir Roger Scruton as the man who “strove hardest to preserve conservatism.” He wonders if, just as Scruton and others took conservative philosophy and theory to the dry wells behind the Iron Curtain, Hungarians or Poles will someday bring conservatism to the recusants in hiding here.
England will not need political holes, but places of intellectual safety and civility and, it should be said, conviviality, because true conservatism is always convivial; it is not without reason that Sir Roger was also an expert on wine.
The prospect of recusancy was a moment of choice for Catholics in a hostile environment. Many took the wide road of ease and social mobility, acceptance and economic advancement. While not pushing the analogy of recusancy too far, the total defeat of a party, once conservative, but utterly bereft of both conservative ideas and governing, will bring a real time of forging in the fire, where a powerful exterior philosophy and practice will attempt to make it impossible for conservatism to emerge from the shadows.
At the moment, it seems we have the bland leading the bland, but recusant conservatives, even if a minority, can use this time to decide and deliberate what is worth fighting for, and it is most certainly not more of the same.
The Saarland police have revised their statements regarding an alleged xenophobic attack in Saarlouis. The incident, in which an unknown person is said to have set a sheepdog on a Syrian man, “did not actually happen”, the police headquarters told the newspaper Welt. The investigation is now focussed on the person who filed the complaint. There is a “suspicion of faking a criminal offence”. The authorities did not want to give any further details “for tactical investigative reasons”.
In June, the police reported that a 28-year-old Syrian had been seriously injured in a dog attack in Saarlouis and that a “xenophobic motive” could not be ruled out. The authorities are looking for the unknown perpetrator and are asking the public for information.
In recent decades, reports of alleged right-wing extremist attacks have repeatedly turned out to be false. In 2006, for example, the killing of Ermyas Mulugeta, who was of Ethiopian origin, was initially categorised as a racist murder. Subsequent investigations established that the offence had a non-political background.
In 2007, the ” chase of Mügeln” led to a similar misjudgement. In 2018, the first reports of ” manhunts” in Chemnitz subsequently turned out to be false.
Majid Freeman (left), Shockat Adam Patel (right), images via YouTube/ BBC and Middle East Eye
On Friday (5th July), an Indian-origin independent candidate named Shockat Adam Patel was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from the Leicester South constituency.
Shockat ran his election campaign on a pro-Palestine agenda and defeated Jon Ashworth of the Labour Party by a margin of 979 seats.
“We as a city have done this. We as a city are a shining example to the rest of the world that it is the people that matter, not those that rule over (us). This is for the people of Gaza,” he made his intentions clear soon after the election results.
“This is for Gaza.”
Shockat Adam, the newly elected independent MP for Leicester South, addressed the crowd, calling for unity and dedicating his win to Gaza. Adam has unseated Labour shadow cabinet minister Jon Ashworth. pic.twitter.com/11KYHbWfpb
The 51-year-old has been associated with a radical Islamic outfit named ‘Muslim Engagement and Development’ (MEND) for quite a long time, even holding the position of ‘Leicester Chair.’
An article published by The New York Times in October 2022 however identified Shockat as a resident of Leicester and a ‘volunteer’ at MEND.
Interestingly, the American newspaper tried to whitewash the organisation as “a charity that fights against Islamophobia.”
MEND has been flagged for 'promoting extremism'. Henry Jackson Society has termed MEND as "Islamists masquerading as Civil Libertarians". 4/14 pic.twitter.com/ao4DduC4sL
— Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) (@HinduHate) September 30, 2022
MEND was exposed as early as 2017 by the ‘Henry Jackson Society’ as “Islamists Masquerading As Civil Libertarians.”
According to the think-tank, MEND provided a platform to extremists with a history of sympathising with terrorists, inciting violence, support corporal punishment against Jews, homosexuals and ‘disbelievers’.
“Several of the organisation’s employees and volunteers, including senior figures, have publicly expressed a range of disturbing views on terrorism and anti-Semitism. This has included expressing support for terrorists overseas, dismissing recent terror attacks in the UK, promoting anti-Semitic conspiracies and even calling on British Mosques to hold prayers for the Mujahedeen,” the Henry Jackson Society emphasised.
Peddling ‘Muslim victimhood’ narrative during 2022 Leicester violence
OpIndia had extensively reported on the violence carried out by radical Muslim mobs in Leicester in England’s East Midlands region in 2022. We also pointed out how widespread disinformation was weaponised to justify the targeted attacks against the Hindu community.
At that time, Shockat Adam had attempted to downplay the violence carried out by his co-religionists by labelling it as a ‘reaction to provocation.’
During his interview with The World in October 2022, the new MP from Leicester South claimed, “The Muslim community didn’t just start going and beating up Hindu individuals. This was in response to what they felt was provocation for a sustained period.”
After trying to justify the actions of his radical co-religionists, Shockat tried to undo the damage. “There’s absolutely no condoning of any form of violence and innocent people have been caught up in it, which is unacceptable,” he added.
At the same time, he also promoted the conspiracy theory about mass influx of Hindus associated with the RSS from India to Leicester which set the stage for violence.
“I was saddened, heartbroken almost, but not shocked unfortunately. We have seen, for the last decade, a change in how people were behaving to each other. We were becoming a lot more ghettoized with people living in different communities. And there’s been an influx of a new community that has come from a very nationalistic India,” Shockat Adam told The World.
Even though such a baseless theory was popularised by Islamists amid the Leicester violence, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) grudgingly conceded that there was no evidence to back such a claim.
Lies about RSS and BJP
In one interview with Byline Times in 2022, Shockat Adam further amplified the lie about rise of Hindu nationalism in Leicester.
“There has been an undercurrent of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and [Hindu] nationalism creeping into our city. Some of these members of the new community have come to this country from an India which is in the fervour of nationalism, and the RSS, so they have come with a background of [Hindu] supremacy,” he claimed albeit without evidence.
The MP from Leicester South also glossed over the fact that a large section of Muslims in India voted for the creation of an exclusionary Islamic country ‘Pakistan’ in 1947 based on a divisive concept of ‘Two nation theory.’ He then tried to guilt-trip Hindus for seeking their own State.
“The BJP is the political wing of the RSS. This was a result of colonialism and from a time when India was finding its feet. The narrative was out there that there is a state for every other religion, so therefore India should be for the Hindus. That was that ideology. Whereas the forefathers of India at independence were passionate that India should be a secular country, and it should be for all and for all religions, the RSS oppose that ideology,” he claimed by shrewdly omitting the rationale and context behind the creation of Pakistan.
Anti-India Propaganda
Shockat Adam also did not shy from carrying out anti-India propaganda from the United Kingdom. Through the radical Islamic outfit ‘MEND’, he organised a webinar titled ‘Indian from Partition to Persecution’ in December 2020.
He had roped in a serial fake news peddler CJ Werleman to spread canards about his country of origin. During the webinar, Shockat said, “Our discussion in the show revolves mainly around how India, from its post-colonial birth 73 years ago, after 200 years of imperial subjugation, has now gone through a process where individuals on the ground, commentators, political commentators and human rights activists are saying that they are subjugating their own people.”
“Indian citizens are almost second to third class graded people in their own country, leading to blatant discrimination and even persecution,” the Leicester South MP alleged.
During the webinar, he also pleaded with his fellow co-religionists to donate to MEND so that he could continue to further radical Islamic propaganda in the country.
“I also implore you to support organisations like MEND which are 100% community-funded, community-inspired and a community-run organisation that is tackling Islamophobia in this country and raising awareness of Islamophobia around the world so that we can ensure that what is happening in certain parts of the world will not happen to maybe not ourselves but maybe to our children or even to our children’s children,” Shockat Adam was hear saying.
Majid Freeman and his support to Shockat Adam
Majid Freeman, a rabid Islamist who was at the forefront of instigating violence against Hindus during the 2022 Leicester episode, extended his support to pro-Palestine Shockat Adam.
In one tweet, he said, “Remember this from the other week? @JonAshworth will be regretting this right now. The best man @ShockatAdam won and has now replaced him in Leicester South.”
Just like Shockat Adam, Majid Freeman left no stone unturned to rationalise the violence carried out by frenzied Muslim mobs. Freeman took it a level further by constantly peddling fake news and instigating his fellow co-religionists to ‘teach Hindus a lesson’.
Screengrab of the tweet by Majid Freeman
In September 2022, the rabid Islamist alleged that 3 men had tried to abduct a teenage Muslim girl. “CONFIRMED: An incident took place this morning not far from a college in Leicester,” he tweeted.
“A Muslim teenager was approached by 3 men but she ran away into the school. The college & police are aware of it and the family have been given an incident number by Leicester Police,” he claimed.
The conspiracy theorist even claimed to have met the family of the girl, who was traumatised by the alleged kidnapping attempt. “The girl is very shaken but she is ok alhamdulillah. They’ve reported the incident to the police. Hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of this and the people behind it are caught,” he said.
Screengrab of the tweet by Majid Freeman
Screengrab of the tweet by Majid Freeman
The fake news was then amplified by other Islamists, who alleged the role of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the alleged abduction attempt. The Hindu man, falsely accused of kidnapping the Muslim girl, was doxxed on Facebook and his residential address was leaked on social media.
Later, the Leicester police debunked the disinformation through a press release. It said, “Yesterday we issued an appeal following a report that a teenage girl had been approached by three men in the area of Richmond Way, Leicester, on Monday morning.”
“A full investigation has been carried out. Following extensive enquiries, we have established that the incident did not take place and no offence was committed,” the cops confirmed.
Islamists also tried to use the trope of provocation to justify their attacks on the Hindu community. They claimed that Hindus raised anti-Islamic slogans whereas they only chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Vande Mataram.’
Majid Freeman was yet again at the helm of this fake news.
Second Claim: Racist Hindu mob raised anti-Islam slogans on streets was widely shared by Islamists & local media (without any evidence).
Fact: Mob was shouting slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’ & ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to protest the violence against them, indicating no communal angle.
Interestingly, Majid Freeman was also interviewed by the BBC to set the narrative in favour of the perpetrators.
A @LeicsPolice statement has confirmed that Majid Freeman lied about Hindus acting against Muslims in Leicester. Why are the BBC interviewing someone who has already been proven a liar? Why no interview of the Hindu community who suffered the attacks from #Islamists for weeks? pic.twitter.com/tBHDu9FkEz
The deliberate attempt by Majid Freeman to stoke hysteria in the Muslim community and lay the foundation of violence against the Leicester Hindus did not stop the then city Mayor from arranging a meeting with him.
A diplomatic row sparked by Turkish defender Merih Demiral’s controversial goal celebration against Austria threatens to overshadow the upcoming Euro 2024 quarterfinal clash between Turkey and the Netherlands.
Screen grab youtube
Demiral’s hand gesture, deemed nationalist and linked to an ultra-nationalist group by critics, earned him a two-match ban from UEFA for bringing the sport into disrepute. This decision ignited outrage from Turkish officials, who accused Germany, the host nation, of xenophobia, further escalating the situation. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, initially absent, will now attend the match in a show of support.
This incident casts a long shadow over what promises to be a thrilling encounter. Both teams are eager to progress beyond the quarterfinals for the first time since Euro 2008, with Turkey aiming to replicate their semi-final appearance that year.
Key Talking Points:
Turkish “ultras” plan to defy UEFA by replicating Demiral’s gesture during the national anthem and the match, potentially further fueling the controversy.
Turkey faces significant selection headaches. While captain Hakan Calhanoglu returns from suspension, Demiral is banned, and midfielders Orkun Kokcu and Ismail Yuksek are also suspended.
The Netherlands, seeking their sixth semi-final appearance, are sweating on the fitness of defender Nathan Aké, who picked up a knee injury in their last game.
On the Pitch:
The Netherlands, despite a shaky group stage, boast a potent attack and will look to exploit any defensive vulnerabilities caused by Turkey’s suspensions. Turkey, fueled by their passionate supporters, will rely on their fighting spirit and tactical awareness, hoping to exploit any Dutch weaknesses identified by assistant coach Daniele Russo.
With high stakes and simmering tensions, the match promises to be a captivating encounter both on and off the pitch.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) announced July 5 that it had declared former U.S Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to be guilty of “schism” and automatically excommunicated.
In a statement issued without warning to the Holy See press corps, the DDF stated that its Congress met on July 4 to decide against Viganò. The statement read:
On 4 July 2024, the Congress of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith met to conclude the extrajudicial penal process referred to in canon 1720 CIC against the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò, titular Archbishop of Ulpiana, accused of the reserved delict of schism (canons 751 and 1364 CIC; art. 2 SST).
His public statements manifesting his refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council are well known.
At the conclusion of the penal process, the Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò was found guilty of the reserved delict of schism.
The Dicastery declared the lataesententiae excommunication in accordance with canon 1364 § 1 CIC. The lifting of the censure in these cases is reserved to the Apostolic See. This decision was communicated to the Most Reverend Viganò on 5 July 2024.
Under the terms of the latest edition of Canon Law, one who is excommunicated is prohibited from offering the sacraments.
On June 20, Viganò revealed that the DDF had, by way of a letter dated June 11, begun an “extrajudicial penal trial” against him, accusing the prelate of “the crime of schism.”
Issued by Monsignor John Kennedy, who leads the DDF’S Disciplinary Section, the Vatican’s letter alerted him to “the crime of schism of which he has been accused (public statements which result in a denial of the elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church; denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis; a rupture of communion with him; and rejection of the Second Vatican Council).”
.@CarloMVigano excommunicated by same Vatican that rehabilitated sex abuser Rupnik
Rebuffing the accusation, Viganò stated at the time that “I claim, as Successor of the Apostles, to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, with the Magisterium of the Roman Pontiffs, and with the uninterrupted doctrinal, moral, and liturgical Tradition which they have faithfully preserved.”
He further added that “I repudiate, reject, and condemn the scandals, errors, and heresies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who manifests an absolutely tyrannical management of power, exercised against the purpose that legitimizes authority in the Church: an authority that is vicarious of that of Christ, and as such must obey Him alone.”
In an expansive statement issued June 28, the former U.S. nuncio issued a blistering response to the DDF’s charge of schism, attesting that “[a] schismatic sect accuses me of schism: this should be enough to demonstrate the subversion taking place.”
Continuing, the archbishop stated:
… in order to separate myself from ecclesial communion with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, I would have to have first been in communion with him, which is not possible since Bergoglio himself cannot be considered a member of the Church, due to his multiple heresies and his manifest alienness and incompatibility with the role he invalidly and illicitly holds.
Turning the Vatican’s charges against them, Viganò then accused Pope Francis of schism, writing:
I accuse Jorge Mario Bergoglio of heresy and schism, and I ask that he be judged as a heretic and schismatic and removed from the throne which he has unworthily occupied for over 11 years. This in no way contradicts the adage Prima Sedes a nemine judicatur, because it is evident that, since a heretic is unable to assume the Papacy, he is not above the Prelates who judge him.
Archbishop Viganò has been contacted for comment in response to the Vatican’s ruling, and this report will be updated accordingly.
Migrants crossing the border of Hungary and Austria on their way to Germany. Photo: Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Afghan embassy in Berlin is still operational and able to help with deportation orders—despite claims to the contrary by Germany’s green-party-controlled foreign ministry—according to the tabloid Bild. Reports indicate that the authorities are being deceptive, rather than admit that the former Afghan ambassador still works in Berlin. In fact, he retains diplomatic recognition and may sign off on deportation documents for Afghans in Germany illegally.
Germany and most European countries not recognising the resurgent Taliban regime in Kabul has been a major sticking point for returning failed asylum seekers. Berlin is currently negotiating with Afghanistan’s northern neighbour Uzbekistan as an intermediary, aiming to help start deportations rather than deal directly with the Taliban.
It is not the first time Germany’s foreign ministry has been accused of turning a blind eye to asylum abuses. In March last year, Berlin’s top diplomatic official to Pakistan, Alfred Grannas, publicly complained that asylum applications from Afghanistan were being fast- tracked without proper oversight, allowing numerous Salafists to enter Germany.
Germany is still struggling to deal with an influx of Afghan refugees following the collapse of the American-backed government in Kabul in 2021. Estimates compiled last year suggest that approximately 400,000 Afghans are currently living in Germany.
The massive influx of Afghans has been linked to multiple high-profile crimes in Germany, including the attempted assassination of a right-wing speaker by a knife-wielding refugee that left one police officer dead just last month.
The murder in the town of Mannheim prompted discussion in the German Bundestag, aiming to hasten deportation procedures for the over 200,000 illegal aliens who have received orders to leave the country. Even Chancellor Olaf Scholz made rhetorical gestures about returning failed asylum seekers by suggesting deporting them to Syria. The vague proposals would even extend to criminals, a deportation process suspended since 2011, on account of the Syrian civil war.
Green Party representatives such as Omid Nouripour have claimed that any prospective asylum deal with the Taliban should be prohibited due to the risk of foreign aid making its way into the hands of an Islamist regime. The right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) sees the decade-long migration crisis as a key national problem, obviously reflecting the feeling of a large number of Germans, as the populist party’s vote was strengthened in last month’s elections to the European Parliament where it finished in an unprecedented second place.
Europe’s and Germany’s Afghan asylum woes are expected to get much worse in the coming weeks and months. Pakistan is commencing the mass deportation of Afghan refugees in response to an Islamist insurgency gaining ground on its western frontiers. Some 800,000 refugees are expected to be expelled.
France will mobilise a massive police presence on election day amid fears of left-wing rioting.
A force of 30.000 officers will be deployed throughout the country, with 5,000 to be located in Paris alone, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on July 5.
Darmanin said that he asked the Paris police prefect to ban an “anti-fascist” rally in front of the RN headquarters, at 8 p.m. on Sunday, adding that he anticipates excesses from the ultra-left.
The police prefect told France Inter that on the evening of the European elections, Paris had witnessed “demonstrations” followed by “unruly roaming groups that required forceful intervention to prevent damage, adding that “The demonstrations themselves did not result in public disorder”.
Darmanin expects “other possible excesses in certain cities that we know well, in Paris but also in Lyon, Rennes, Nantes, where there are hotbeds of the ultra-right or ultra-left”.
The French interior minister also commented on the growth of electoral violence during this year’s campaign season. Between last week Sunday, when the first round vote was held and Friday, some “51 candidates, substitutes or activists” had been “physically attacked”, leading to over thirty arrests.
Darmanin said France is on edge.
The first round also saw its share of violence. On June 20, for example, a group of people attacked a 70-year-old RN candidate, who suffered a stroke as a result of the brutal assault on June 20 and was taken to hospital.
Around the same period, a young activist of the campaign team of Thomas Mesnier, spokesman for Horizons, a centre-right party that is allied with President Emmanuel Macron, was attacked in Charente while putting up posters before the first round of the legislative elections.
He allegedly was called homophobic slurs and the assailants stole his phone. A doctor prescribed 20 days of medical leave.
According to a source close to the ongoing investigation, the attacker belongs to the “ultra-left”. “They reproached me for having damaged billboards in their camp, in the city,” the attacked activist told Charente Libre.
RN candidate and MEP Marie Dauchy was forced to suspend her campaign after an attack while handing out flyers at a market on Wednesday, July 3.
On Wednesday evening, government spokeswoman Prisca Thévenot and her team said they were attacked by a group of youths, leading to injuries, including a fractured jaw.
A trans-identified male recently convicted of raping a woman was a vocal “anti-TERF” activist who targeted women critical of gender ideology. Lexi Secker, also known as Lexi Bowen, was “tried as a woman” for the horrific crime.
The assault is said to have taken place in Blunsdon, Wiltshire, in April of 2021. While details are extremely limited, it is known that Secker began identifying as woman in the period between the assault and his court hearings. At the time of his arrest, he was known as Alexander Secker.
In a statement on the arrest, Wiltshire Police referred to Secker as a “person convicted of rape,” adding that he was recorded as a male by police but “tried as a woman” in court. Media subsequently utilized “she/her” pronouns to refer to Secker, with most outlets referring to him as a “transgender woman.”
As previously reported by Reduxx, prior to his transition Secker had been known as an “award-winning filmmaker” and a father of two. Secker had also been a Creative Media Practitioner at Digital Writes – a registered charity which receives funding from the UK Arts Council and describes itself as “enriching creative experiences” for youth.
Secker has directed 10 films, most of which were in the horror genre. One of his most recent releases, Follow the Crows (2018), was funded in part using an Indigogo campaign. The year prior, Secker had won a People’s Choice Award at the Swindon Fringe Festival for his debut stage play, a political thriller called The Door.
A rapist who began identifying as transgender after his arrest had his identity obscured by British news outlets, which referred to him as a woman named "Lexi."
The man is in fact a father of two who claims to have "regularly" appeared on BBC Wiltshire.https://t.co/pUnZn2X6xx
But alternative social media profiles belonging to Secker have now been uncovered, demonstrating that he was a rabid activist who targeted women critical of gender ideology.
Secker appears to have adopted the name “Lexi Bowen” following his transition with the intention of launching his career as a film critic and YouTuber.
He uploaded his first “video essay” in April of 2023 in which he discussed the iconic Hitchcock thriller Psycho. Confusingly, the video begins with clips of Harry Potter author JK Rowling giving a speech on artistic freedom. Secker goes on to sarcastically praise Rowling, highlighting her successes, before abruptly stating: “Anyway, let’s talk abut Psycho.”
Secker goes on to largely condemn the film, accusing it of having a “problematic legacy” and paving the way for “trans-coded killers in movies.”
Many of Secker’s video essays were centered around condemning classic horror films which played on the tropes of crossdressing villains. One of his other uploads focused on The Silence of the Lambs, slamming it as having a transphobic legacy.
Alexander “Lexi” Secker before and after he began identifying as a “woman.”
“In recent years, people have started to acknowledge the harm it has done to the transgender community … Regardless of where you sit on the issue of the ‘legitimacy’ of their transness, Buffalo Bill is a trans character and that creates an issue,” Secker says in the video. “And as a transgender woman I can confirm that the film had a negative impact on me and who I am.”
Secker was also prolific on Medium, where he described himself as a “trans girl horror fan.” His last post was made on June 9, just one month before he would be convicted of rape.
Titled “Rosie Duffield is a transphobic bigot,” he condemned both the Labour MP and TV writer Graham Linehan.
“In 2023, Duffield liked a tweet from the transphobic abuser and former comedy writer Graham Linehan that appeared to include Holocaust revisionism, denying that trans people and gay people were targets of the Nazis,” Secker wrote. “She also appeared on Linehan’s podcast and claimed, falsely, that trans children were being allowed to ‘cut your body parts off and render them completely infertile.’”
Secker also claims that “even Duffield’s own constituents have had issues with her brazen transphobic bigotry,” concluding his piece by stating: “Rosie Duffield is a hateful bigot who makes false claims about gender-affirming surgery, gleefully insults trans people as a “joke,” ignores historical facts about the Holocaust, and constantly paints trans women as predators, and I don’t think anyone should be standing up for that.”
In April of 2024, Secker published a post titled “Blow it out your Cass,” in which he smeared Dr. Hillary Cass, the leading researcher behind a controversial NHS-commissioned review of the gender identity services for minors in the UK.
“Is Dr. Hilary Cass a TERF? I don’t know. I don’t really care. In fact, it doesn’t really matter. The simple truth is that, regardless of her views on trans people, I don’t have a particularly high opinion of the woman, and she seems to be determined to ensure that it keeps plummeting,” Secker wrote.
Secker seemed to have a particular animus towards those who wanted to end the medical transitioning of minors, accusing those opposed as having “blood” on their hands.
“What we need to understand is that while they may claim they’re protecting women and girls, while they may clutch their pearls and scream about how someone needs to think of the children, while they might use words like ‘mutilation’ and ‘brainwashing’ and ‘irreparable harm’, absolutely none of it, not a single letter, means anything close to what they really want. For the cult of the gender-critical, the only acceptable result is the complete and total eradication of trans people,” Secker wrote in March.
On X, formerly Twitter, Secker has multiple viral posts in which he condemns women critical of gender ideology. One such post, which racked up over 5,000 ‘likes,’ was made on May 14, in which Secker speculated that “Rowling has pushed her hate too far.”
In another post, made on June 14, Secker expressed his delight at the announcement of a police investigation into Maya Forstater, the co-founder of Sex Matters, for her comments on single-sex medical care. He similarly described Kellie-Jay Keen as a “nazi.”
'if it wasn't illegal to discriminate against people we could discriminate against them'
wow. what a fucking genius 🙄 more unhinged ranting from the nazi not a feminist. https://t.co/749njehklU
In March, Secker claimed to have been invited on GB News for one such political post on social media – an offer he appears to have declined. Prior to transitioning, Secker had also been a regular guest on BBC Wiltshire.
But amongst the most consistent themes in Secker’s X timeline is his hatred for JK Rowling. A cursory search of his X account shows he has made hundreds of posts about or towards Rowling since the creation of his account in June of 2022. Secker labeled Rowling a holocaust denier, Nazi, fascist, and transphobe, even going so far as to condemn her for advocating for single-sex rape crisis shelters.
The theme is replicated on his Medium, where several of his lengthy posts are dedicated to condemning Rowling.
mornin' folks. last night i wrote this. since j k rowling has gone full holocaust denier, i think its important we understand how cults like the gender critical operate, preying on ppl via vulnerabilities, inevitably leading to more dangerous ideologies.https://t.co/bxCi6yiSAc
In one entry to his Medium, Bowen even suggested Rowling and other women with similar concerns about gender ideology were directly responsible for the death of Brianna Ghey – a transgender teenager who was murdered by other teens in Cheshire, UK.
“So, yeah… I’m fucking angry. I’m so fucking angry. And, frankly, I’ve had enough of pretending like I’m not. We cannot, nay, will not let this happen again. What is their justifcation? What reason do they have that explains why their cruscade of anti-trans hate was worth the life of a young girl. Explain yourselves,” Secker wrote, in a screed that insisted Ghey’s death was the result of transphobia when no such evidence exists.
