A Somali criminal seeking asylum in the UK has avoided deportation after a judge ruled that returning him to his home country would cause him too much “stress.”
The unnamed asylum seeker, who has been dependent on alcohol since 2006, would suffer stress if deported to Somalia, which would worsen his mental health.
Judges in the upper immigration tribunal ruled that deportation would breach article three of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against persecution and inhumane treatment.
The Home Office had argued the man, jailed for unspecified crimes, could receive necessary medication and treatment in Somalia for his schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations.
The Upper Tier Tribunal was told the man moved to the UK in 1999 when he was 29, claiming his family faced persecution due to their clan membership.
He was accompanied by his support worker during the hearing and was described as having a “high level of vulnerability” and “complex needs” with long-standing health problems.
“The severity of his mental health problems is closely linked to his stress levels and use of alcohol,” the tribunal noted.
The man has been “significantly dependent” on alcohol since 2006 and has served prison time for crimes that were not specified in court papers.
Lawyers representing the asylum seeker argued he would have “no real prospect” of making a living in Mogadishu and would receive only limited financial support. They claimed he had previously been “targeted for money” by others after they learned he received disability benefits.
His legal team insisted the man required “24-hour support and monitoring” that his clan could not provide, and he would have to pay for antipsychotic medication.
The Home Office countered that Somalia recognises schizophrenia as a mental health disorder and has “some psychiatrists”.
They argued a £750 payment through the Facilitated Return Scheme would enable him to access medication and support in his homeland.
Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Ian Jarvis concluded: “I conclude that the weight of the evidence before the Tribunal indicates that the [man] will very quickly become noncompliant with his medication… without the 24/7 support and monitoring which he currently receives in the United Kingdom.”
The judge upheld the asylum seeker’s appeal, ruling his mental health would “seriously deteriorate” if returned to Somalia.
The man’s lawyers had warned he would “very quickly decline” mentally if deported, potentially falling into “destitution” and ending up in an internally displaced person camp with “dire conditions” and risk of violence.
The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example where failed asylum seekers or convicted foreign criminals have attempted to halt deportations by claiming human rights breaches. There are currently a record 41,987 outstanding immigration appeals, largely on human rights grounds.
The new German federal government is planning hundreds of billions of euros in new debt. With this, Germany joins the ranks of the heavily indebted states of the Eurozone. Officially, the funds are intended for military capability and infrastructure development. But what strategy is the government really pursuing? The coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD is prepared to burden German taxpayers with over one trillion euros in debt. That’s a steep price for a policy that continues the stagnation of the Merkel years: no economic reforms to promote the private sector, but instead a push for greater centralization.
Revolution in the Bond Market
Germany’s fiscal turnaround signals a small revolution in the bond market. Massive bond issuances are already driving interest rates upward. The announcement of the debt program caused yields on ten-year government bonds to surge by 40 basis points. The return of the bond vigilantes looms — those investors who critically scrutinize the debt positions of struggling debtors. For decades, German government bonds were synonymous with stability. But with public debt projected to rise from 63% to as much as 95% of GDP — barring a deeper recession — that image is starting to crumble.
A New Reserve Asset?
It was Bloomberg that revealed the secret: Until now, Germany’s relatively conservative debt policy made it an unlikely candidate for the role of a reserve asset — a product that banks and investors can use as collateral to secure liquidity and credit. In Europe, that role was ironically filled by Italy, which, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 140%, offers a sizable bond market. Now, however, Bloomberg suggests German government bonds could become an alternative to the globally dominant system of U.S. Treasuries. The idea is enticing: a liquid market of euro-denominated securities offering investors a hedge while the U.S. pushes its own fiscal and monetary limits.
Investor Skepticism
But will international investors actually accept German government bonds as credit collateral? That’s highly doubtful, given the economic and fiscal troubles of the Eurozone. The urgency has grown since the U.S. Federal Reserve rapidly raised interest rates and shows no willingness to follow the swift easing course of its European, Japanese, and Chinese counterparts. Investors will carefully consider whether they can trust these new European securities amid the Ukraine crisis, energy problems in Europe, and the EU’s reluctance to embrace market-oriented reforms.
But behind the façade of fiscal responsibility, the Eurozone’s paper empire relies on fragile trust — and Germany is printing its way into the heart of it. The credibility of euro-denominated debt rests less on sound economics than on political cohesion and institutional promises. In such a system, any serious deviation — economic, geopolitical, or fiscal — could trigger a confidence shock with far-reaching consequences.
Europe in Global Competition
Germany’s rising debt is not an isolated event. It fits into a long history of European debt policy that relies on state intervention rather than reform. The tariffs introduced by U.S. president Donald Trump give the EU an excuse to further centralize political power and meddle in markets. Brussels dreams of grandeur while the coffers run dry — a prime example is the air taxi startup Volocopter, which, despite 150 million euros in subsidies from the federal government and Bavaria, filed for insolvency in December 2024 because neither the market nor investors believed in the vision. Yet these measures fall short of securing Europe’s competitiveness. Europe continues to lose direct investments to the U.S. — in 2023 alone, a net total of around 20 billion euros in investment capital flowed from Europe to North America. Jobs are being created there in the private sector, while Europe relies on state subsidies and believes the government can efficiently allocate capital.
Numbers and Reality
A look at the numbers reinforces the skepticism. While the U.S. benefits from its role as the world’s reserve currency and a dynamic economy despite high debt (over 120% of GDP), the Eurozone struggles with stagnation. Germany may create a larger bond market with its new debt, but it lacks credibility. Yields on ten-year US Treasuries currently stand at around 4%, while German bonds, despite a recent uptick, barely exceed 2%. For investors seeking safety and liquidity, the dollar remains more appealing — not least due to Europe’s geopolitical uncertainties.
The Looming Debt Mountain
This is how it will play out: German government bonds will only add to Europe’s debt mountain. Without far-reaching social reforms and a return to market-oriented policies, the EU faces significant socioeconomic tensions. The momentum cannot be underestimated once citizens realize their money is losing purchasing power faster than the EU can point to external culprits. The federal government hopes its debt programs will secure Germany a new role in the global financial system. But the reality is sobering: without fundamental reforms, Germany — and with it the Eurozone — will continue to lose ground. The bond vigilantes are watching, and markets don’t forgive illusions. German government bonds as an alternative to U.S. Treasuries? A bold hypothesis that, in practice, is likely to falter on Europe’s weaknesses.
Careless and cynical statements by a Hungarian opposition MEP have caused a huge uproar in Hungary, revealing the true nature of the opposition Tisza Party.
Supporters of the Hungarian conservative government are organising a protest this weekend against the centrist Tisza Party for having “allied with Brussels” and “betrayed Hungary.”
As we previously reported, MEP Kinga Kollár said that by withholding billions of euros of funds, the EU had deprived Hungary of the chance to invest in public infrastructure and provide money for social services and hospital renovations.
“On the positive side, the deteriorating standard of living of Hungarians actually strengthened the opposition, and there I’m very positive about the 2026 elections,” she said.
This is outrageous! The Hungarian opposition is working against the interests of the Hungarian people.
The Hungarian voters sent MEPs to the European Parliament to work for the interests of the Hungarian people. This footage proves that the opposition Tisza Party MEPs are… https://t.co/yXDXQtIZ3m
In an interview on Friday, April 11th, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—whose government has been deprived of EU funds under the pretext of ‘rule-of-law violations’—slammed the Tisza Party for betraying Hungary’s interests.
“They’re not ashamed of working against their own country—they’re proud of it,” he said, adding that they are working to come to power “in collusion with a foreign power, the Brussels bureaucrats.”
❗️ @PM_ViktorOrban: Now we’re facing a situation where in the Tisza party, they’re proud that the worse it is for Hungary, the better for them and they are doing this in collusion with Brussels. pic.twitter.com/S7f63HXxLv
Well-known conservative commentator Zsolt Bayer announced on Friday that he is organising a protest in front of the European Commission’s Budapest offices on Saturday.
Zsolt Bayer accused MEP Kinga Kollár—who used to work for the EU Commission—of reaching an agreement with Brussels and wanting to destroy the Hungarian economy and the living standards of Hungarians in order to gain power.
Kollár is an MEP of the Tisza Party which formed last year after its leader, Péter Magyar, publicly split ties with Fidesz, Orbán’s party. Raking in the support of disgruntled anti-government voters, Tisza surprisingly came second in the European Parliament elections last June, with 29.6% of the votes, finishing behind Fidesz who got 44.8%.
Tisza joined the ranks of the centrist-liberal European People’s Party (EPP), whose leader Manfred Weber has made his intentions of wanting to get rid of Fidesz publicly known.
Viktor Orbán has accused Brussels of plotting to get rid of the current conservative government and to impose “a Brusselite puppet government on the country.”
His fears are not unsubstantiated.
The liberal elites in Brussels are upset by Hungary’s sovereignist and pro-peace foreign policy, tough anti-immigration stance, pro-family values, and its battle against LGBT propaganda.
As Mick Hume, editor-in-chief of europeanconservative.comwrote last year:
The fact that, in taking these conservative stands, Prime Minister Orbán might simply be reflecting the views of the majority of the Hungarian population only further infuriates the anti-democrats of the European Commission and their allies in the we-know-what’s-best-for-the-rest club.
Under the pretext of ‘rule-of-law violations,’ the European Commission has been withholding tens of billions of euros worth of funds from Hungary.
Brussels was similarly hostile towards the previous conservative government in Poland, but immediately released EU funds after pro-Brussels Donald Tusk and his leftist-liberal government came into power in 2023. The money was allocated to Warsaw despite the new government not introducing a single reform.
A similar scenario would not be surprising if Tisza came to power after the national elections in Hungary next year.
As Hungarian lawyer and a founding member of the National Resistance Movement (NEM) Gábor Szűcs wrote in his commentary for europeanconservative.com:
Just as was the case with Poland, we can expect that all Brussels concerns regarding the rule of law in Hungary would magically evaporate should Magyar gain power.
Jacek Karnowski is a Polish journalist and publicist, editor-in-chief of the weekly “Sieci” and the conservative television channel “wPolsce24”. On April 9th, a court annulled the channel’s licence for its digital terrestrial television.
We talk about the situation for conservative media and freedom of speech in Poland.
After the Tusk government’s latest scandals, there was just a new attack on the Polish conservative media. In this case, against your television channel.
Yes, the Administrative Court at the level of the Warsaw Voivodeship (region) has unexpectedly decided to cancel the decision of the National Media Board (KRRiT) that had given wPolsce24 the licence for digital terrestrial television. The court has used as a pretext the documents of a very small and unknown company, called ‘Free Media,’ which lost the tender. This is a totally new precedent because, according to the law, the KRRiT is free to make its decisions regarding radio and television. This is another example of the intrusiveness of the judiciary and politics in the media. Never before has a court cancelled the concession of a media outlet and, of course, the judge is linked to the opposition to the previous Law and Justice government.
Of course, all this falls under the broad umbrella of Tusk’s government. He calls it “fighting democracy,” which in Polish sounds very much like “barking democracy,” and the latter term is becoming very popular to define what Tusk is doing: turning Poland into a kind of regime, a new regime that we cannot compare with those of the past, but which is no longer a democracy. Right now, we have opposition parties that illegally do not receive state money; MPs and activists in jail; a huge number of trials and accusations against the opposition; and actions against the media. This is typical of regimes like Russia or Belarus in their early stages, and it is very dangerous.
What are the consequences of this cancellation, and can you continue to broadcast?
It is not the last stage of the procedure and KRRiT is going to appeal to a higher administrative court. So we can continue broadcasting and we also have a satellite and cable TV concession. But, at the same time, they have initiated parliamentary proceedings against the head of KRRiT, because they want to remove him from his post and paralyse the institution. If the higher administrative court upholds the cancellation, a new procedure has to be initiated to grant the concession, but that will not happen if the KRRiT is paralysed.
To me, it is obvious that this is a political decision; they want more control because economically and socially the government has disenchanted even its own base. If you look at the deeper data, attitudes towards the government, satisfaction with the standard of living, and optimism about the economic situation, they are falling. They are losing and that is why they are resorting to more persecution, more circus instead of bread.
In the European context, we have to look at what has happened in Romania and France. Poland seems to be turning into a laboratory of a liberal democracy that uses illiberal and anti-democratic tools to suppress discontent and preserve its power. There is only one democratic act left in Poland, and that is voting, which I hope will be counted correctly, but the balance of power, judicial independence, and impartial institutions are over.
This is precisely what Brussels accused Law and Justice of when it was in government.
Yes, but all this was a false alarm created for political reasons and widely spread around the world. Now our democracy is in real danger, some say it is already finished, and there is absolute silence in the vast majority of the media.
And what about the non-conservative Polish media?
For decades, these media have been bought to attack Law and Justice by ‘post-colonial’ forces, forces that try to keep Poland as if it were a colony. They have always pretended to be objective, but during the eight years of the last Law and Justice government, in which there were great economic and social successes, they gave no credit to the government. Now they act as Tusk’s soldiers and are much more aggressive and disciplined. For example, national television, which should be independent, has started a campaign against the presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki, using his private life and all kinds of rumours to attack him. There are some private media that maintain a certain impartiality, but they seem more interested in receiving state subsidies. Only the conservative and right-wing media are standing up to the Tusk government, the rest are repeating its messages and participating in its propaganda actions: arrests, accusations, etc.
Regarding Nawrocki, do you think the conservative candidate has a chance?
Trzaskowski, the government candidate, is very confident, but the sum of the two right-wing candidates, Nawrocki and Mentzen, is much higher in votes. In Poland, we are seeing that the youth, including women, are turning right-wing, especially towards the Konfederacja party. This does not seem to affect Trzaskowski, who says he will win the second round with 58% of the vote when no candidate has ever got more than 54%. It will be very tough, but I am convinced that the tide is against the Tusk government. People want change and I am quite optimistic that Trzaskowski will not be crowned as the next king of Poland at a time when we are celebrating the millennium of the coronation of the first Polish king in 1025. It is very symbolic that this date coincides with this clash of visions.
Next Saturday there is a march in Warsaw in connection with this historic event, but I have seen that there is a call to defend the freedom and independence of the media.
Yes, the demonstration is organised by MEP Patrick Jaki to celebrate the millennium, but of course there is a political component in this context. The message is that Poles are fighting and not giving up. These are times when people have to be united because we live in very difficult times.
Canadian director Denys Arcand’s film “The Decline of the American” Empire opens with a professor, played by Rémy Girard, telling his students: “Three things are important in history: numbers, numbers, and numbers again”.
Khomeini knew about numbers and in 1989 he wrote a letter to Communist Party Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in which the ayatollah invited the Soviet leader to embrace Islam to “fill the void in your system.”
The Soviet Union fell, Khomeini and Gorbachev died, but that letter seems to have found its way thanks to numbers.
There are 25 million Muslims in Russia, or 17 percent of the total population. They are the majority in 7 of the 21 republics of the Federation. Not only does Russia have a far greater percentage of Muslims than any other European country (almost double that of the UK), but China and the Islamic Ummah have only to watch the war in Ukraine and alternately root for both sides while waiting for a historical phenomenon ignored by Western newspapers to run its course.
The Telegraph reveals that “Rybar”, alias Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former Russian officer with 1.3 million followers and founder of one of the most followed Telegram channels “Z”, blacklisted by the European Union and the Kiev government, has just published a scathing analysis of demographic changes in Russia, using the Moscow suburb of Kotelniki to illustrate the point: “In schools, only 50 percent are Russian”.
Responding to Rybar, Ria Katyusha, another nationalist channel, compared the situation in Kotelniki to “similar stories about Paris, Hamburg or British cities”. Boris Rozhin, a blogger with over 850,000 subscribers, says Moscow’s transformation is reminiscent of “minority-dominated neighborhoods in Marseille and Paris.”
St. Petersburg in recent days: 150,000 Muslims gathered for prayers at the walls of the central mosque, near the Gorkovskaya metro station. The mosque could not accommodate everyone who wanted to come, streets were closed, changes were made to the operation of public transport, and tram service was suspended.
Political scientist Yuriy Podorozhniy says: “The Muslim population of Russia is growing. In a certain period, the share of Slavic and Muslim populations will change. Russia will naturally turn into a Muslim country. That is why Putin is negotiating with them, this will be a significant topic in the future.”
Sergey Mironov of the Duma said in December that Russia’s demographic rates were driving the country to “extinction.” Extinction.
By the middle of this century, Russia could have a Muslim majority.
According to Paul Goble, a leading analyst of Russian affairs, Moscow will be Islamic in 20 years.
Last year, more than 8.5 million migrants arrived in Russia, including more than a million from Tajikistan. And that’s not counting the growing number of Russians who have converted to Islam.
Russia imported 11 million migrants between 1991 and 2023 (officially, 11 more are needed million by 2040), while the population of the federation has shrunk by 16.7 million.
The Atlantic Council, a US think tank, said: “Vladimir Putin’s war has virtually guaranteed that for generations to come, Russia’s population will not only be smaller, but also older, frailer and less educated. It will certainly be less ethnically Russian and more religiously diverse.”
In 1991, 120 mosques. In twenty years, they have built 8,000. The largest mosque in Europe is in Moscow.
And the imam of the Great Mosque of Moscow, Ildar Alyautdinov, said: “Muslims have a great demographic mission: because of the high birth rate, to make Russia a Muslim majority country.”
A Jamestown Foundation report, “How Islam Will Change Russia,” explained what is to come: “Given demographic changes, Muslims will represent between a third (according to the most conservative estimates) and half (according to the most ‘alarmist’ assessments) of the Russian population by 2050”.
A third of Moscow will be Islamic by 2035, said the mufti. Sometimes the sensation caused by particular events plays a role, such as the Muslim prayer meetings that filled a large Moscow street, Olimpiyskiy Prospekt, giving the impression of an apocalyptic prophecy for the future of Russia.
Russian essayist Sasha Lensky writes in the Spectator: “In Moscow, the Muslim population has increased fivefold since the late 1990s. In St. Petersburg, in 2022, Eid, the Muslim holiday, was celebrated by 160,000 people; in 2023, the number doubled. Even if Muslims do not constitute 30 percent of the population by the end of this decade, as the Mufti has claimed, there will be enough of them to change the ‘Russian way of life.’ If things continue on this path, my children may see radical changes – in schools, legislation, dress codes and so on – and my grandchildren may study the Koran, rather than Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.”
It almost sounds like Aleksei Navalny’s prophecy.
“There is no prison in Russia where you can’t hear a Muslim praying on the other side of the wall,” Navalny said in a video link from the Siberian penal colony where he would die a month later. He was speaking to the Supreme Court against the ban on keeping more than one book in solitary confinement, a restriction originally imposed to ban the Koran and Islamic texts from prisons: “The system considers any element related to Islam to be a threat.”
Putin says that “Russia is a multinational and multiconfessional.” The European Union argues the same thing. The difference between the two cultural goulashes is that only in Europe do we see Ramadan in churches. But from Marseille to Moscow, the “multi” will always eventually give way to a single “uni.” Or, more precisely, a single ummah.
And as Andrei Kazantsev-Vaisman writes in a paper for the Israeli Begin Center, “the influence of radical Islam, with its anti-Western and anti-Semitic tendencies, could spread throughout Russia and begin to influence federal government policy. This could pose significant threats to Europe and Israel.”
Numbers, numbers and more numbers. And in the long run, all Europe is condemning itself.
Sweden has seen massive demographic changes over the last 25 years, and this is not only reflected in the demographic composition, but also the religious composition of the country. While churches continue to close their doors, the country went from approximately seven mosques in 2000 to now 300 in 2025.
The exact figures are difficult to ascertain, however, the 300 mosques refers to permanent prayer places built for Muslim worship, which often feature a minaret and a dome. If unofficial places of Muslim worship are factored in, such as converted shops or basements, the number would likely be far higher, according to Swedish newspaper Samnytt.
“If by mosque you mean a Muslim place of worship, the number may be close to 300,” said Frederic Brusi, the knowledge officer of the Swedish Agency for Support to Religious Communities.
As in other European countries, many of these mosques receive funding from abroad, and overall, the finances behind many of them remain murky.
“In several cases, Swedish mosque construction has been partially or completely financed with money from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar or Turkey. In the case of Saudi Arabia alone, there is talk of billions. There is also information in the media that every fourth Swedish mosque is financed by the Sunni Muslim and Wahhabi kingdom,” writes Samnytt.
Keeping track of the growth in mosques is very difficult due to a lack of public statistics, with the Swedish paper pointing to mosques like Masjid Aysha, which is run by the non-profit association Scandinavian Islamic Organization (SIO) based out of Stockholm. While the mosque has been operating for 20 years, it remains unclear if it is even registered as an official mosque in the country, as there is no public list of registered mosques.
More and more mosques are in the pipeline as well, with construction taking place across the country. In one city, Helsingborg, a mosque being billed as “Scandinavia’s largest mosque” has so far raised 68 million kroner (€6.3 million) for its construction.
The money has been collected through influencers and social media campaigns on TikTok and Instagram, but money is also flowing from international locations. Due to the huge sum the mosque has raised, questions are being asked about where the money is actually coming from. In one video clip posted by the mosque, recipients chant “Allahu Akbar” when their funding reached 10 million kronor.
Another mosque, which organizers are billing as the largest mosque in all of Northern Europe, is under construction in Skärholmen, a neighborhood in Stockholm. The money is not only financed by Swedish taxpayers but also foreign donors, which has sparked controversy within the country.
“According to information from the local newspaper Mitt i, the association behind the construction of the Skärholmen mosque has chosen to hire the Turkish construction company EMUG, which is linked to the Islamist movement Milli Görüs. The organization has previously been criticized for anti-democratic values and anti-Semitism, as well as for working to replace the Western social model with an Islamic social order,” writes Samnytt.
Government officials also say more mosques are on the way.
“We have freedom of religion in this country, we have countless churches and not nearly as many mosques, so of course we need to build more mosques as long as it takes for people to be able to practice their religion,” said Karin Wanngård, Stockholm’s finance mayor.
Certainly, the country’s demographic picture has been radically transformed, with Muslims making up a significant voting bloc, especially in the country’s cities.
Last year, Remix News reported that Yasir Qadhi, a Pakistani-born American theologian, predicted that in just one generation, half of Malmö’s population would be Muslim.
“Walking through the streets of Malmö is like walking through Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, or Damascus, the capital of Syria,” said Yasir Qadhi, a Pakistani-born American theologian, as reported in the Swedish newspaper Samnytt.
He also shared his theory with the world that the towns he mentioned would become Muslim towns because while Swedes have few children, it is not uncommon for a Muslim family to have five or six. In a generation’s time, Malmö will not be dominated by Swedes, according to the Muslim theologian.
As Remix News previously reported, ethnic Swedish children are already a minority in the school system of Malmö, with one Swedish academic reacting to the massive demographic transformation known as the Great Replacement by claiming that schools should be taught in Arabic, as Swedish is now a minority language.
Data also shows that migrants and those of a migrant background are responsible for the vast majority of murders, shootings, gang rapes, and robberies in Sweden. Unfortunately, many of these killings are perpetrated by members of the Middle Eastern community, which is predominantly Muslim.
In 2023, the leader of the right-wing Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson, said many mosques need to be torn down. He says that Islamic places of worship in Sweden are a breeding ground for radicalized thought and the anti-West propaganda that is infiltrating the country’s social fabric and sowing discord in Swedish communities.
“It is not a right to come to our country and build monuments to a foreign and imperialist ideology,” Åkesson told his party’s faithful. “In the long term, we need to start confiscating and demolishing mosque buildings where anti-democratic, anti-Swedish, homophobic, or anti-Semitic propaganda or general misinformation about Swedish society is spread.”
Two trans-identified males are set to compete in USA Fencing’s April North American Cup this weekend, just under two weeks after a dramatic knee-taking protest against men in women’s sports at a fencing event in Maryland.
Male fencer Anna Rose Suchoski claimed the women’s runner-up title at this month’s Fortune Fencing Regional Championships.
Despite starting fencing just 6 months ago, he triumphed over all but one veteran female fencer. He joins over 7 known male fencers winning elite women’s… pic.twitter.com/y22fdI3spb
Concerningly, Suchoski has posted multiple photos to his Instagram page where he has used filters to make himself appear child-like, a practice known as “affirming edits.” In one of the captions of the images, he claims he has been “doing a lot of work to heal [his] inner child.”
Crocket, who has been calling himself “Anne” since at least 2022, currently serves on USA Fencing’s Domestic Assignment Committee for Referees, meaning he has control over the hiring for the referees of the eight national tournaments held each season by the organization, including the North American Cup this weekend. Crocket is also a member of the Rules and Examinations Committee, which is responsible for making decisions on fencing rules and maintaining the USA Fencing rulebook.
The news of the men’s participation comes less than two weeks after a USA Fencing-organized event was subject to a protest by a female competitor for allowing a trans-identified male to play in the tournament.
Reduxx previously reported how Sullivan, currently studying at Wagner College in New York, was quietly transferred from the men’s fencing team to the women’s team, enjoying a significant improvement in his performance after he did so. Sullivan even went on to seizing gold in the women’s category at a junior Olympic qualifier.
Speaking to Reduxx on the inclusion of Suchoski and Crocket’s participation in tomorrow’s event, Turner encouraged female fencers to stand up for their right to single-sex sports.
“I encourage women to speak up and take action if they feel unsafe in competition or witness unfairness,” Turner said. “You have the right to stand up for yourself, whether by voicing concerns to US Fencing Association officials and peers or choosing not to fence. We have an opportunity to get our sport back, one that should not be wasted.”
USA Fencing first officially came out in November of 2022 with their Transgender and Nonbinary Athlete Policy which stated that placement would be based purely on self-declared “gender identity” or “gender expression” rather than biological sex. However, USA Fencing had allowed biological males to compete against women for at least a decade prior, with the majority of trans-identified players having previously fared poorly when facing male opponents.
In an interview with the Daily Mail published earlier this month, Turner expressed that she was scared of reaching out before the event to officials, as she knew that many of the higher-ups in the organization, such as Crocket, held pro-transgender views. “I was like, I don’t even want to reach out because if I do, then I won’t ever have a fair bout in my life,” Turner said.
“I would lose favor within the sight of referees and I could end up with a biased bout. I could lose friends who I don’t know what their position is on this. So what I was doing already was just avoiding tournaments where I knew there was a transgender fencer. But at this point, what else should I do? Should I just not sign up for any tournaments? I have no other options.”
Many officials at USA Fencing have expressed explicitly pro-trans sentiments, including At-Large Director of the USA Fencing Board, Damien Lehfeldt, who has repeatedly defended the inclusion of trans-identified men in the sport.
In 2023, he even went so far as to share an fabricated email exchange with a fictitious woman to his Instagram account in which he scolds her for being opposed to trans-identified males in women’s fencing.
“Dear Dorothy, the year is 2023 and as it turns out, you’re not in Kansas anymore,” Lehfeldt wrote in one of the bizarre messages, which he recently admitted were fake. “My daughter will compete against women, period. If she loses to a woman of any variety, I’m not going to pull her from the sport and write a whiny email announcing my departure,” he continued.
Earlier this week, USA Fencing faced two different legal challenges at the state and federal level. On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz sent a letter to USA Fencing in his capacity as the Chairman for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, demanding to know why the organization that serves as the National Governing Body (NGB) for fencing still allows biological males to compete alongside women in its sport. “USA Fencing’s commitment to ‘inclusivity’ is nothing less than full-throated support for males competing in women’s sports in violation of federal law,” Cruz argued in his letter.
“As the recognized NGB for fencing, USA Fencing is required to provide ‘support and encouragement for participation by women where separate programs for male and female athletes are conducted on a national basis’ as well as a ‘safe environment in sports.’ Failure to do so is grounds for the United States Congress to terminate USA Fencing’s certification as a NGB,” Cruz continued, noting that USA Fencing must also comply with President Trump’s executive order from February, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, which “protects the integrity of female athletics by ensuring that only women compete in women’s sports.”
The following day, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a Civil Investigative Demand to USA Fencing over potential violations of Texas state law. “USA Fencing is on the wrong side of history and potentially the wrong side of the law due to violations of Texas consumer protection laws,” Paxton said. “USA Fencing’s policies are not only potentially illegal, but also deeply insulting to the young women like Stephanie Turner who have sacrificed so much and dedicated countless hours to compete and succeed in competitions. I will fight to stop these unfair policies, and I will never back down from defending the integrity of women’s sports.”
In response to Cruz’s letter, USA Fencing refused to address the charges, instead directing journalists to a previous statement on the matter. “USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and non-binary athlete policy in 2023. The policy was designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces,” the statement reads.
“The policy is based on the principle that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports and was based upon the research available of the day… USA Fencing will always err on the side of inclusion, and we’re committed to amending the policy as more relevant evidence-based research emerges, or as policy changes take effect in the wider Olympic & Paralympic movement.”
Strange teaching content in religious education lessons at a primary school in Flachgau is causing quite a stir. Outraged parents are wondering why their children were forced to sing a religious Islamic song in Catholic religious education lessons. ‘Ramadan is the most beautiful time of the year’ is one line of a Ramadan song that the children in a fourth grade primary school had to sing at the behest of their religion teacher. The school is not in Cairo in Egypt, Tehran or somewhere in Syria, but in Salzburg’s Flachgau region. A mother was all the more surprised when her daughter told her about her religious education lessons and asked why ‘Allah is so big’, reports the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.
According to the girl’s account, the lessons were about Islam and its customs. The song in question was apparently also sung in the course of the lesson. The fact that the mother then had to explain to her daughter “that we have our God and not Allah” annoyed the woman enormously, reports the newspaper. As expected, the Salzburg specialist inspector for Catholic religious education was not forthcoming with the newspaper. She said that the teacher had ‘done nothing wrong’ in terms of the curriculum and interreligious dialogue. The song in question, the ‘Ramadan Rap’, came from the textbook for Muslim religious education.
Incidentally, there is said to be only one pupil of Muslim faith in the class in question – a rarity these days anyway. The question arises as to who the teacher was trying to please with her ‘Ramadan rap’ in Catholic religious education of all places.
