Month: August 2026

NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo interviews William Clouston, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Laurence Fox, leader of The Reclaim Party about their decision to stand against Nigel Farage in the Clacton by-election.

People who raise flags on lampposts or other street infrastructure in Oxfordshire face imprisonment following a ruling from the High Court.

Last year, the grassroots Operation Raise The Colours campaign swept the United Kingdom, as citizens used the peaceful flag-raising civil disobedience movement to express their opposition to the government commandeering hotels to house mostly young male migrants in their midst.

The outpouring of patriotic fervour riled the feathers of many local councils, including Oxfordshire County Council, which has been awarded a High Court injunction barring anyone from attaching England or UK flags to lampposts or public infrastructure, or from painting their image on roads in the county.

Those found to have breached the order face the seizure of their assets, potentially unlimited fines, and imprisonment, the Oxford Mail reported.

Commenting on his ruling, Mr Justice Dexter Dias said that council workers have faced intimidation while attempting to take the flags down, and said: “The affixing of flags and the painting of insignia on the highway has continued consistently and persistently since August 2025. There is little prospect absent an injunction that it will stop.”

While some have claimed that the council was merely acting out of concern for citizen safety and that it would have sought an injunction against any flag being flown, Liberal Democrat Council leader Tim Bearder said last month that the application for an injunction was motivated by a desire to stop “fear and division within our communities.”

However, opponents were quick to slam the decision by the High Court, including Reform UK Shadow Education Secretary Suella Braverman, who wrote on X: “Joke country. Flying the national flags in Oxfordshire now amounts to breaking the law. Only Reform will bring this nonsense to an end.”

British comedian John Cleese quipped, “Is it OK to put up flags showing that we support countries other than England? Or would that intimidate the English legal system? And to think that I once trained as a lawyer… Lucky escape.”

Council leader Tim Bearder hailed the ruling, saying: “This is a welcome judgement. We’re very pleased with the result.”

“This sets a legal precedent and will hopefully deter people in not just Oxfordshire but around the country from partaking in this criminal activity,” he said.

The council claimed that it has spent around £80,000 removing flags from lampposts and other street infrastructure in Oxfordshire and that it incurred around £40,000 in legal costs, which it plans to seek to recover.

breitbart

A serial rapist serving a 167-year sentence for seven sexual assaults on women has begun claiming to be transgender while behind bars. Aaron Michael Pernell, who now refers to himself as “Arya Milan” Pernell, has initiated a civil rights complaint demanding transsexual surgeries in a bid to obtain “a fully sexually functional female anatomy” before an eventual transfer to a women’s prison.

On December 13, 2009, Pernell, then a Specialist with the 82nd Airborne Division, broke into the home of Maria Durden, a military spouse residing on base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Pernell, who was intoxicated at the time, then raped Durden in front of her child.

After being detained in January 2010, Pernell told investigators that “Jason”, a voice inside his head, instructed him to attack women. During questioning by Army CID agents, Pernell blamed his internal voice, saying : “I myself would not commit these crimes. The voice in my head makes me do bad things.”

He consented to provide a DNA sample to law enforcement, which matched the biological evidence recovered from the crime scene. That December, Pernell pleaded guilty during a general court-martial at Fort Bragg to rape and burglary.

Following his conviction, Pernell was sentenced to 50 years in prison, reduced in rank, and dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army.

However, after he was initially sentenced, DNA evidence connected him to a series of unsolved home break-ins and sexual assaults against women in the surrounding communities of Fayetteville and Hoke County, North Carolina, dating back to 2008.

Prior to the Fort Bragg assault, Pernell had been arrested by Fayetteville police in September, 2009, for burglarizing a home and assaulting its occupants with a pellet gun.

Following this incident, Pernell went on a sexual assault spree, and was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting three women in Cumberland County, and another three women in Hoke County. During court proceedings, family members said that Pernell had returned from a 15-month deployment to Iraq in 2006 as a troubled man.

According to court records, Pernell legally changed his name to Arya Milan in 2020, and notified the Federal Bureau of Prisons in January 2021 while demanding that the judgement and commitment file in his case be updated to reflect his new identity. Pernell also told the FBOP that he had been diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” in 2019 after having attempted self-castration.

Now, Pernell is demanding several taxpayer-funded surgeries that would ultimately allow him to secure a transfer to the female prison estate.

“ARYA has identified as transgender since 2016. ARYA declared herself as transgender to FBOP staff in 2016 during her first year confined in the FBOP,” Pernell wrote in a legal complaint filed in February 2023. “In September 2016 she was diagnosed by a psychologist as being male to female transgender. In April of 2019 ARYA was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. In August of 2019, ARYA began her medical transition by undergoing female hormone therapy.”

Pernell goes on to state that he has been provided with makeup and “female undergarments” and “lives as a female.” Included in his submission are recent photographs of him in prison as evidence for his claim of being “female.”

Convicted serial rapist Pernell claims to have experienced “unwanted sexual attention” from other male inmates as a result of his appearance. He also says he was “the victim of three separate Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) incidents” while he was incarcerated at FCI Fairton, in New Jersey.

After he was transferred to USP Marion in October 2021, Pernell says he was sexually harassed while he was attending the Sex Offender Treatment Program.

“In July of 2020, ARYA attempted self-castration. ARYA used a safety razor and cut open her scrotal sack fully exposing one testicle. ARYA had to be hospitalized for four and a half days to recover.”

During his hospital stay, Pernell was evaluated by Dr. Karim Ghobrial-Sedky, who recommended him for “gender reassignment surgery.”

However, the legal complaint filed by Pernell argues that he has not yet received the surgeries he has been demanding, and says that he has attempted suicide on multiple occasions at being denied “fully sexually functional female sex anatomy.”

“After Transgender Executive Council (TEC) meetings on March 8, 2021 and April 14, 2021, an initial recommendation was made by the TEC finding ARYA appropriate for transfer to a low-security male facility in preparation for GCS [gender confirmation surgery] and eventual transfer to a female facility. The TEC has provided that these transfers were part of the TEC’s requirements for GCS to be provided. ARYA has consistently requested GCS before transfer to a female facility,” Pernell’s complaint reads.

The serial rapist is demanding that the TEC “immediately arrange to have ARYA obtain gender confirmation surgeries to include: vaginoplasty, clitoroplasty, vulvaplsty, labiaplasty and any other surgeries that provide ARYA with a fully sexually functional female sex anatomy… ‘Fully sexually functional’ defined by appearance, realism and sensation… ARYA does request GCS procedures to be completed prior to movement to a female facility where post-operative care would be available.”

The lawsuit accuses the TEC of “deliberate indifference to a serious medical need” and “failure to protect from sexual abuse”. He also accuses the TEC of discrimination, citing protocols established by lobby group the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an organization known to have collaborated with anonymous members of a pedophilic forum when creating their most recent guidelines.

There have been several cases, documented by Reduxx, of male inmates serving life sentences who have requested transsexual surgeries and a transfer to a women’s prison. In some instances, dangerous convicts have also been released early, or not sent to prison at all, based on their self-declared “transgender” status.

In one recent example, a trans-identified male convicted of the grisly murder of an infant was released on parole a full 30 years early. Jonathan Richardson, who now uses the name Autumn Cordellioné, was convicted in 2002 after his 11-month-old stepdaughter died in his care while her mother was at work. Having served less than half of his 55-year sentence, Richardson was quietly released in late December of 2025.

🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨

A trans-identified male convicted of murdering a baby has been quietly released from prison 30 YEARS EARLY.

Jonathan "Autumn Cordellioné" Richardson was turned loose in Evansville, Indiana, with no notice given to prosecutors or the public.https://t.co/DZbbXPe6Ys

— REDUXX (@reduxx) April 9, 2026

Without an official statement from the DOC, it is unclear why Richardson was released early. However, the decision may have been linked to an injunction granted in state court that required the IDOC to provide Richardson with taxpayer-funded cosmetic surgeries. Releasing Richardson early may have been the IDOC’s strategy to avoid paying for the court-ordered cosmetic enhancements.

As previously reported by Reduxx, in 2023, the ACLU of Indiana filed a legal complaint on behalf of Richardson claiming that the IDOC was subjecting him to “cruel and unusual punishment” by denying him the various plastic surgeries he had demanded.

In the suit, ACLU lawyers referred to Richardson as an “adult transgender female prisoner confined in a male institution,” and complains that “the total ban on gender-affirming surgery violates [his] right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.”

Among a list of demands prepared by Richardson and presented as evidence in court was a document titled “Surgeries to Reach My Ideal Self.” The first item on the list, the court heard, was a “vagina,” followed by: breast implants, a brow lift, a brow reduction, a tummy tuck, gluteal implants (BBL), a uterus transplant, hair removal, and wigs.

reduxx

The project Demokratie leben! (Living Democracy!), which has existed since 2015, receives enormous and substantial funding from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs—that is, from the German taxpayer. In 2026 alone, the sum amounted to approximately 190 million euros. 

For nearly as long as the project has existed, the patriotic opposition has accused it of a glaring lack of transparency, of functioning as covert state financing for political activity, and even of allowing funds to flow into networks that include violence-prone extremist groups. The latter accusation has now been confirmed: in no fewer than 34 cases involving organizations that are grantees of the program, authorities have acknowledged the existence of “findings relevant to the protection of the constitution.”

It would be of profound interest to examine these ‘constitutional protection findings’ in greater detail. For we know full well that when the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, with its distinctly left-leaning eye, classifies left-wing organizations under the category of “findings relevant to the protection of the constitution,” this is unlikely to refer merely to the communal reading of Marx and Engels beneath an apple tree.

Yet it is by no means only left-wing extremist violence—undeniably a massive problem in itself — that renders the entire framing of Demokratie leben! problematic. 

Democracy is supposed to be beautiful, kind, diverse, anxiety-reducing, social, transgender, or ‘woke.’ Democracy is to belong to those who define it as such. Democracy is to be everything. Democracy can be everything. Democracy is allegedly paradise on earth. 

This, or something very like it, is the view held by many self-proclaimed democrats within today’s centre-left spectrum.

It is curious, however, that democracy can in fact be none of these things. 

Democracy is a form of state. It is an organizational form (Carl Schmitt) and may also be understood as a set of “rules of the game” (again, Carl Schmitt). Has anyone ever described a board game—whether Risk or chess—as diverse, kind, transgender, or woke? Anyone who made such a claim would at the very least be regarded as eccentric. Yet this analogy, in my view, is entirely apt. Rules are rules. Whether one actually adheres to rules and order is, of course, another question. In contrast to the average leftist, the rightist would answer this question in the affirmative.

Is democracy therefore merely a structure? Yes—it is a structure that can guarantee the greatest possible degree of freedom and justice among all forms of state. This does not mean, however, that democracy constitutes a personification of Greek eudaimonia (flourishing) or Roman Iustitia. One might dismiss this deliberate overcharging as childish play and decline to take it seriously. This essay urgently warns against taking that path. For the infantilization of democracy and its ideological overburdening ultimately make the actual, sober concept of democracy and its corresponding form of state appear cold and austere once one realizes that democracy is neither a god nor something divine, nor a substitute for religion.

Life itself is often not democratic at all. Decisions about one’s workplace are frequently made not by a committee but by a single superior. Nor is democracy a universal tool applicable to every conceivable situation. Nevertheless, the consequences of democracy—the genuine and enforceable claim to a right sui generis—may be regarded as the most outstanding, if not the consummate culmination of European civilization and culture.

Yet—and herein lies the difficult point—democracy means the explicit articulation, interpretation, and application of one’s own political opinion within clear boundaries. It is precisely these boundaries that deserve emphasis. For they represent a deliberate restraint in thought itself. One might, borrowing from Nicholas of Cusa but stripping the term of its original context, speak of docta ignorantia —learned ignorance—a conscious recognition of oneself as a deficient being. This is meant here in a sense quite different from that of Arnold Gehlen. It is not about the channeling of instinctual surplus that makes institutions necessary. Within democracy and its reinterpretation, one is constantly thrown back not only upon the weakness of the entire system (the worst form of government except for all the others) but also upon this personal limitation.

This boundary—the refusal to absolutize one’s opinions, decisions, and intentions through democratic means—is intimately connected with another vital component of democracy: freedom of opinion (German Constitution: Article 5, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law) and freedom of science and research (German Constitution: Article 5, Paragraph 3, Sentence 1 of the Basic Law). 

One might well ask about their inherent connection. Just as human dignity in Article 1 of the German Constitution is not only the most important provision but also functions as a system of checks and balances protecting against the “tyranny of the majority,” a similar relationship exists here. The boundary inherent in the democratic system correlates, I contend, with the awareness of non-absolute knowledge in science—an awareness that itself underpins the freedom of scientific inquiry. In other words: because everything in science can, at least in principle, be questioned at any time, much remains relative. This very claim to relativity reflects our own fallibility and the frailty of our opinions, decisions, and courses of action. For whoever believes he knows with one hundred percent certainty falls into genuine fanaticism and radicalism. 

This is precisely what occurred in Marxist dictatorships, which, as Carl Schmitt incisively observed, were prefigured in Jacobinism. The absolute shatters the democratic boundary and replaces tentative exploration with dogmatic coercion. Ultimately, theory—understood here as the realm of the possible—saves democracy.

This boundary, this kind of rule of the game, demands that one never absolutize one’s own political opinion. It means neither enforcing it through violence nor through intense hatred of the political opponent, but rather truly enduring dissenting views and leaving the final decision to the true sovereign—the people—at the ballot box. 

The established parties in Germany have forgotten how to refrain from asserting their own claims at all costs. This is regrettable, for a strange correlation has emerged over time: the more incessantly ‘democracy’ is invoked, the less it is actually lived or practiced in its authentic form.

Statesmen of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s—even those of the 1990s—did not speak of democracy in constant, mantra-like, inflationary fashion. For these genuine statesmen, democracy was a self-evident organizational form or set of rules that one naturally accepted. They accepted it because they knew perfectly well that only democracy makes a genuine concept of law possible: namely, that even the legislator remains bound by the constitution, and that the norma normans—the norm that norms—is the idea of the rule of law, guarded and protected by the Constitutional Court as its custodian.

These men also knew exactly what happens when democracy and its guarantee of law collapse, giving way to pseudo-law or the perversion of law, in which public and private law become virtually indistinguishable, and the legal order retains only one characteristic: coercion. The legal order and its enforcement then degenerate into a pure coercive order devoid of right, enforced with extreme brutality.

To take democracy seriously means never to absolutize one’s own political opinion.

To truly live democracy means to accept boundaries and rules of the game.

To live democracy means to take democracy seriously as a rule, an organizational form, and/or a set of rules of the game, and to align one’s own political actions accordingly.

To truly live democracy means to understand oneself politically as a deficient being—that is, as a being that can be profoundly mistaken or deceived.

europeanconservative

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has shared a video on Instagram revealing the “soundtrack of my summer” while his country reels from a migrant “invasion”.

His music recommendations were shared as the Spanish army was being deployed to repel an incursion of some 60,000 African migrants into the exclave of Ceuta.

At least 77 people are known to have died so far in the chaos as thousands of migrants, the majority of whom were young men, swam and scrambled over border protections and charged through the streets.

Ceuta, a historic Spanish city on the African continent, is separated from Morocco by a fence extending into the Mediterranean, which the streams of migrants easily circumvented.

Videos of thousands of individuals celebrating and mobbing streets as they overwhelmed the small Spanish community sparked panic and fury across the European continent.

At the same time, Mr Sanchez announced: “This summer, I’ve put together a playlist with some of the songs I’ve been listening to most this year.

“It’s pretty eclectic, so I’ll highlight three that are sure to give you an idea of where I’m at,” he said.

“I hope you like it and that it keeps you company during these holidays. Happy summer!”

Among his favourite tunes was SS26 by British artist Charli xcx.

Despite limiting who could comment on the post, a debate raged beneath the video.

One wrote: “Is this real? You have no shame!”

“This is AI, right? Because if not, I’m freaking out,” another fumed.

A third fumed: “Dude, we’re not here for playlists and all that c***.”

However, some were more supportive, with one comment reading: “It’s great to have a president who communicates with his people and wishes them a happy summer.

“Spain, take care of your president; he’s a very good person,” another said.

At the same time, heavily armed Spanish troops were on the streets of Ceuta to remove tens of thousands of migrants from the city.

Addressing the crisis earlier, Mr Sanchez condemned the incident as “a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity”.

Speaking from the city, he said: “What has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling.”

The socialist leader said it has “spread like wildfire”.

Footage of the carnage sparked outrage across Europe, with Italy suspending Spain’s access to the EU’s open borders Schengen Zone.

gbnews

At Western German Broadcasting (WDR), they have now reached the next stage of left-wing madness, in which multiculturalism, climate concerns and heat-related hysteria are simply conflated. On Thursday, the WDR ‘Cosmo’ radio programme – which is due to be taken off air shortly – posted on Instagram: ‘Put some clothes on!’ – specifically, Islamic garments as protection against the heat. Instead of walking around in skirts and breezy tops, people are told they should cover up. This is illustrated, amongst other things, with clothing from Pakistan, India, Somalia and Saudi Arabia. The long ‘djellaba’ robe is particularly touted.

No mention was made of the fact that this, alongside the niqab and burqa, is one of the ‘cloth prisons’ into which Muslim women are often forced. Nor was there any mention of the fact that it is by no means advisable to squeeze oneself into such a hideous garment in extreme heat – or at all. For headwear, Cosmo recommends either a Mexican sombrero, a Vietnamese conical hat or the ‘kufiya’, which enjoys great popularity amongst left-wing anti-Semites. Just last month, ‘Cosmo’ called on women to buy ‘modest’ or ‘covering’ fashion – in effect, to dress as closely as possible in accordance with Sharia law.

Apparently, people still don’t consider the urban landscape in Germany to be sufficiently influenced by Islam. Those forced to pay the licence fee have to foot the bill for this nonsense too. WDR, Radio Bremen and RBB pump almost one million euros a year into producing this type of programme. However, an end is in sight. The Reform State Treaty is forcing the public broadcaster ARD to cut back on its radio programmes. As a result, WDR has decided to integrate the ‘Cosmo’ editorial team for ‘diversity, society and pop culture’ into the editorial team of the youth station ‘1LIVE’ and to launch a new programme called ‘1LIVE Street’. This would spell the end for ‘Cosmo’ by April 2027.

journalistenwatch

Leading left-wing lawmakers in Germany have suggested that “foreign forces” like Russia may have been behind the Islamist attack on Berlin’s Pride Parade last week in order to sway upcoming elections.

Despite Abdul Ballout, the 21-year-old Lebanese-heritage terrorist, reportedly declaring his allegiance to the so-called Islamic State before taking a van and mowing down attendees at the Christopher Street Day parade last week in the German capital, the attack may not be all that it seems, Social Democrat Bundestag members have suggested.

Commenting on the attack that killed one woman and left 31 injured, Social Democrat MP Sebastian Fiedler remarked that previous attacks such as those in Solingen nad Manheim had been shortly ahead of elections. He noted in remarks reported by Die Welt that amid the attack in Berlin, “there’s a heated election campaign underway in Saxony-Anhalt”.

The parliamentarian claimed that the perpetrators of such attacks are being “directed” by unknown actors “behind the scenes”. However, he also noted that “Russia is conducting hybrid warfare and a significant influence operation via Europe, and Germany in particular.”

Fiedler further asserted that Russia has ties to Islamist networks and therefore questioned whether Moscow was clandestinely using jihadists to influence elections in Germany.

Fiedler’s comments were shared by Karl Lauterbach — who previously served as the leftist Social Democrat’s lockdown chief during the Chinese coronavirus — who said: “It is indeed very noticeable that there are more attacks immediately before elections,” and that it was “very conceivable that foreign forces are involved.”

Fiedler’s comments were shared by Karl Lauterbach — who previously served as the leftist Social Democrat’s lockdown chief during the Chinese coronavirus — who said: “It is indeed very noticeable that there are more attacks immediately before elections,” and that it was “very conceivable that foreign forces are involved.”

Top anti-extremism expert Ahmad Mansour said: “How far removed from reality must one be to spread such nonsense?”

“Anyone who ventures outside their own social media bubble, talks to teachers, reads the MOTRA study, is familiar with the Berlin studies on violence in schools, walks through Berlin, visits universities, or takes note of the assessments of the federal and state offices for the protection of the constitution, as well as the Federal Ministry of the Interior, knows that Islamist radicalization is a real and serious challenge,” he wrote on X. “One simply has to be willing to acknowledge the facts.”

However, Lauterbach and Fiedler were not alone in apparently attempting to shift blame away from radical Islamism, with the media and establishment being quick to raise concerns over the so-called far-right. In Britain, left-wing Labour Party MP Kate Osbourne even attempted to claim that the Islamist terror attack in Berlin was somehow a result of the “hate” in British politics with the rising popularity of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

breitbart

On today’s show, Michael Murphy, Head of Journalism at Outpost Studios, Peter Barnes, political strategist and commentator, and Jack Hadfield, independent journalist discuss the week’s stories with NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo.

Topics:

1. IRA threat to Princess Anne?
2. Two-Tier Terrorism: Media & Politicians blind to Far Left & Islamist terror
3. Andy Burnham’s first few days as Prime Minister – reviewed
4. Reform’s fortunes

A Somali man is officially classified as armed and violent by Bremen security authorities – police officers are explicitly warned about him. And yet, the 28-year-old walks freely through the streets. NIUS has obtained exclusive internal documents showing that the man himself announced to the police his intention to injure people and also threatened to destroy cars and houses. Classified as a politically motivated offender with a religious ideology, security sources even suspect him of Islamist extremism. This story highlights a problem that has been highly topical since the Islamist attack on Christopher Street Day in Berlin: The attacker, Abdul Balout, was also well known to the authorities, was under surveillance, and was most recently classified by the Counter Terrorism Centre as “high risk,” the highest alert level. This did not prevent the attack. How many such cases are there in Germany? NIUS therefore conducted an exclusive survey of all 16 state interior ministries for the first time. The result is clear: 410 potential terrorists are currently known and under observation nationwide.

NIUS

German authorities have revoked the citizenship of only two dual nationals for fighting with terrorist organizations abroad, despite approximately 1,150 Islamists having traveled from Germany to Syria and Iraq between 2011 and 2024 to join the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, or other Islamist groups.

The issue has returned to the political spotlight following the Islamist attack on Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade, with calls to strip convicted Islamist extremists of their German citizenship where legally possible.

Germany introduced a legal provision in 2019 allowing dual nationals to be stripped of their German citizenship if they actively participate in combat operations for terrorist organizations abroad. The measure was adopted after hundreds of Germans traveled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.

However, figures provided exclusively to Apollo News by the Federal Ministry of the Interior show the law has been used only twice. According to the ministry, “Since the regulation came into force, the Register of Decisions in Citizenship Matters (EStA) shows two cases in which the conditions under Section 28 Paragraph 1 Number 2 of the Nationality Act were met.”

The mentioned provision only applies to dual nationals, as German law does not permit individuals to become stateless, and it does not apply to minors.

The figures stand in stark contrast to the scale of Islamist departures from Germany over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2024, around 1,150 Islamists left Germany to join the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, or other Islamist organizations in Syria and Iraq. Approximately half of those who traveled also possessed German citizenship.

The debate became especially fierce since the attack on Berlin’s LGBT parade by Abdul Ballout, an Islamist who managed to ram his van into the parading crowd despite being under active surveillance by police. Ballout had also been convicted of preparing a serious act of violence after attempting to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State. However, the court suspended his 22-month prison term and released him on probation after accepting that he had distanced himself from extremist ideology.

After the attack, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) politicians called for the deportation of all foreign nationals deemed to be a threat and the stripping of all Islamists residing in Germany of their German citizenship.

europeanconservative