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Geopolitics In The News

Charlie Kirk Is Also A Rallying Cry For The Far Right Abroad

The assassination of Trump supporter Charlie Kirk has provoked strong reactions from the far-right internationally, as the culture war appears to accelerate around the world.

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In The News Society

The Rise Of “Blasphemy Scams” In Pakistan, When Blackmail Exploits Religious Law

An elderly couple recently had to flee their home in Karachi after their son was unjustly accused under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Their case highlights how religious laws in the country are increasingly exploited for extortion and vendettas, leaving families vulnerable to threats and violence.

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Ideas In The News Society

From Marx To Moralism: How The German Left Lost The Working Class

By trading class struggle for identity politics and lifestyle dogmas, Germany’s left has estranged ordinary citizens and handed the far right a chance to pose as their defenders.

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In The News Society

Inside Jungadler, The German Scout Group Accused Of Being A Hitler Youth Revival

A secretive organization is training children in nationalist ideology, drawing on the legacy of banned neo-Nazi groups. With ties to former extremists and echoes of Hitler Youth rituals, the Jungadler operates under the radar — and may have been active for over a decade.

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Geopolitics In The News

Time To Ban AfD? Why Friedrich Merz Can’t Avoid The Trickiest German Question Of Them All

As AfD grows in popularity, it gets potentially more dangerous — but also harder to ban. This could become a test for democracy and cripple his leadership from the outset.

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In The News

Neo-Nazi Tweens? Inside Germany’s Growing Far-Right Youth Movement

They train in the woods and strike at night against migrant and LGBTQ targets.Far-right youth groups are emerging across Germany. Die Zeit tracks a new generation of Neo-Nazis.

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In The News

Is That A Hitler Salute In Your Feed? Decoding Neo-Nazi’s Secret Emoji Language

On social networks, people on the extreme right use emojis to encode their ideology. Over the past eight years, two Dutch researchers have become experts in this symbolic language that operates across borders — in the United States, the Netherlands and Germany alike.

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Geopolitics

With Le Pen Convicted, France Risks Trump-Like Fervor From The Populist Right

How can we avoid a Trumpification of the debate in France? This is one of the big-picture questions after far-right leader Marine Le Pen was barred from running for public office, after her conviction in an embezzlement trial may mean she will not be able to stand for president in the 2027 elections

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics Ideas Society

Our World Has Swallowed That Old Poison: Politics Based On Blind Faith

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s creation of the White House Faith Office in early February, Loris Zanatta writes in Clarín that religious politics is already on the verge of becoming political religion, and the 2020s are starting to look an awful lot like the 1920s. And we know where that led.

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Geopolitics

USAID Cuts, A Gift To ISIS? Perils And Power Inside Syria’s Al-Hol Camp

A number of international humanitarian organizations, local associations, and organizations operate within the al-Hol refugee camp in northern Syria. Most of these organizations are primarily funded by the U.S., meaning that three sectors and several community segments are directly affected by the U.S. State Department’s decision to halt foreign aid.

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Society

Blasphemy In Sweden, Where Freedom Of Expression And Religion Collide

The Nordic country, which abolished its blasphemy statute half a decade ago, is being put to the test as it tries to make freedom of expression and of religion coexist.

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Geopolitics

In Syria’s Al-Hol Camp, U.S. Foreign Aid Freeze Is A Gift To ISIS

A number of international humanitarian organizations, local associations, and organizations operate within the al-Hol refugee camp in northern Syria. Most of these organizations are primarily funded by the U.S., meaning that three sectors and several community segments are directly affected by the U.S. State Department’s decision to halt foreign aid.

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Geopolitics

India’s Foreign Policy Is Failing, Both At Home And Abroad

Syria is the latest in a series of Indian foreign policy disasters. But can the government’s clear lack of vision on that front explain the flagrant haplessness of the Indian state on the global stage?

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Geopolitics Ideas Society

Glass Towers, Fire Outside: The Middle East Wealth-And-Horror Show Can No Longer Hold

In the Middle East and North Africa, divisions are as stark as they can be. War-torn nations stand side-by-side with wealthy oil-rich countries where the elites feel disconnected from the rest of the region. But, as Yemeni freelance journalist and a human rights defender Afrah Nasser, warns, these inequalities breed monsters, and wealth will not prevent oil-rich countries from experiencing chaos and destruction.

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This Happened

This Happened — September 26: Munich’s Oktoberfest Bombing

Updated September 26, 2024 at 11:30 a.m. On this day in 1980, the Oktoberfest terrorist attack happened in Munich. What was the Oktoberfest terrorist attack? The Oktoberfest terror attack was a deadly bombing that occurred during the opening ceremony of the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany. The attack was carried out by Gundolf Köhler, […]

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This Happened

This Happened — July 7: London Tube And Bus Bombings

Updated July 7, 2024 at 12:15 p.m. A total of four bombs were detonated in London on this day in 2005. Three of them targeted crowded subway trains, while the fourth targeted a double-decker bus. Who was responsible for the London subway bombings? The bombings were carried out by four suicide bombers who were later […]

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Geopolitics Ideas Israel-Palestine War

When Zionism Resembles Nazism — And Neo-Fascists Side With Netanyahu

Zionism shares with Nazism the claims of building what they call National Socialism, though the nationalism always takes over. There are lessons in the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest, and the current politics of the far right in Europe.

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This Happened

This Happened — June 3: Terror On London Bridge

Updated June 3, 2024 at 12:35 p.m. The London Bridge terrorist attack took place on this day in 2017.  What happened during the London Bridge attack? During the attack, a van drove into pedestrians on London Bridge, causing injuries and chaos. The attackers then left the van and proceeded to stab multiple people in the […]

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Ideas

The Middle East And Religion: An Islamic Reading Of The Golden Rule

Both Hamas and Israel should stop manipulating the language of faith and morals to justify extreme and indiscriminate violence, writes Islamic theologian Marwan Sarwar Gill. Religion (in good faith) ultimately offers a way out of conflict the bad faith has fueled.

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Geopolitics Ideas special series The Endless War

Hamas Is Fighting A Proxy War For Iran — That’s Where The West Should Strike Back

Will the West stop coddling the Iranian regime now, or continue its mix of appeasement and a cat-and-mouse game that Tehran has deftly exploited to undermine peace in the Middle East?

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In The News

This Happened — July 14: Nice Truck Attack

On this day in 2016, an attacker drove a truck into a crowd gathered to celebrate Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, killing 86 people and injuring hundreds more. Who was responsible for the Nice attack? The attack in Nice was carried out by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian-born French resident. He […]

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Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

Navalny To Khodorkovsky, The Painful Limits Of Russia’s Opposition

The ongoing show trial of prominent Putin critic Alexei Navalny continues. Yet even in the face of totalitarianism, Russia’s opposition cannot present a united front.

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Society

Why Is This Brazilian Town Displaying Nazi Photographs?

In a small town in southern Brazil, photos of Nazi flags and Hitler supporters are displayed in the entrance hall of a publish building. An investigation by independent media Agência Pública looks into how the Santa Catarina state, a bastion of support of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has a long history of extremist groups and hate speech.

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In The News

Is Israel’s Far Right More Extreme Than In Italy Or The U.S.?

French writer and political scientist Dominique Moïsi was in Israel last week for the country’s latest elections, which saw the victory of a hard right coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu. He warns that there is an inherent conflict between the self-declared “start-up nation” and the anti-science, anti-liberal program of the new government.

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Society Women Worldwide

Mahsa Amini, Martyr Of An Iranian Regime Designed To Abuse Women

The 22-year-old is believed to have been beaten to death at a Tehran police station last week after “morality police” had reprimanded her clothing. The case has sparked the nation’s outrage. But as ordinary Iranians testify, such beatings, torture and a home brand of misogyny are hallmarks of the 40-year Islamic Republic of Iran.

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Society

What It Means When The Jews Of Germany No Longer Feel Safe

A neo-Nazi has been buried in the former grave of a Jewish musicologist Max Friedlaender – not an oversight, but a deliberate provocation. This is just one more example of antisemitism on the rise in Germany, and society’s inability to respond.

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Son Of A Gunnar

Ten Years After Utøya, How A Democracy Faces Evil

Exactly a decade after Anders Breivik’s calculated massacre of terror shocked the world, we still struggle to make sense of the evil that cut short 77 lives.

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In The News

A New Brand Of Antisemitism, From France To Germany To Britain

The targeted murder by a Muslim of an elderly Parisian Jewish woman connects hatred of Jews today to that of Europe’s past. And it’s not just in France.

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Geopolitics Society

Fascism Masked? A Different Kind Of Far Right Movement In Germany

The IB group says they just want to preserve their country’s identity. But officials warn they are using “camouflage tactics” to hide their real proto-fascist intentions.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Europe, Why Today’s Far-Right Surge Is Not A 1930s Replay

-Analysis- PARIS — There is something rotten in Europe. A kind of fetid wind, or foreboding gust, is blowing through. The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) nearly won the presidential election, the best result for a far-right party since World War II. The FPÖ candidate, Norbert Hofer, might have shown the friendly face of […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

Even If Far Right Lost, Fear And Hatred Now Rule In Austria

The far-right candidate may have lost the Austrian presidential election in the end, but the campaign has already changed the country for the worse.

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Geopolitics Syria Crisis

The Depraved Brand Of Education ISIS Imposes In Deir Ez-zor

DEIR EZ-ZOR — As soon as ISIS fighters fully seized Deir ez-Zor, they made a number of draconian changes, one of which was to close schools. After a lengthy period, during which teachers were required to attend training courses in Islamic education, the schools reopened. The city’s schools are no longer housed in public buildings. Residents instead have volunteered their houses as classrooms and supplies, such as desks and boards, have been moved there from the schools. The curriculum has been modified — many subjects were omitted, while others were added — and the number of schools is limited, as […]

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blog

Extra! French President Joins Thousands For Tunis March

Thousands of protesters, including French President Francois Hollande, took to the streets of Tunis Sunday for an anti-terrorism march in response to the March 18 attack at Tunis’ Bardo Museum that left 22 dead. On its front page Monday, the Tunisian daily Attounissia features a picture of Hollande demonstrating alongside Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, […]

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Ideas Terror in Europe

Paris To Copenhagen, We Must Not Yield

The targets of the attack in the two capitals were the same, free speech and Jews. Now Europe has an obligation to both its future and past to stand up to this evil with not a single alibi.

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Geopolitics Terror in Europe

Married To Jihad: What Drove The Terrorists’ Wives Of Paris

PARIS — What first attracted Linda B. to her partner was his bad-boy side. He was, like her, from the French West Indies and was serving a prison sentence for repeated robberies and jailbreaks. When he converted to Islam while in prison, she started doing some research and bought “books to learn about and understand […]

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Geopolitics

Pro-ISIS Salafists Are Robbing German Churches

MUNICH — It began nearly a year ago, on the weekend after Christmas. On Saturday night, unidentified individuals broke into a church in the Cologne district of Porz-Urbach. They broke open the safe in the sacristy and got hold of the key to the church. They ended up stealing money from the collection boxes, liturgical […]

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Ideas

Faith In Sisi: How Islam Shapes Egypt’s New Leader

Egypt’s ostensible secular president, al-Sisi, seems to be guilty of the same sin for which he condemns the Muslim Brotherhood: using religion in politics. What will it mean for the people?

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Geopolitics Ideas

Jihad Makes Anti-Semitism Deadly Again In Europe

Like the Toulouse shootings two years ago, the cold-blooded killings at Brussels’ Jewish Museum show radical Islam mixing with anti-Semitism to target Jews 70 years after the Nazis’ demise.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Europe’s Extreme Right And Left United In Support Of Putin

The Russian leader’s propaganda machine attracts all sorts of extremist movements in the European Union, on both sides of the political spectrum.

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Geopolitics Society

Germany’s “Jihad Cheerleaders,” Running Off To Marry Islamist Terrorists

BERLIN — Sonya* disappeared during the fall school vacation in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The 16-year-old high school student, the daughter of an Algerian and a German, left her family’s house in Konstanz and never returned. Sonya’s parents called the police fearing the worst. Had their daughter been kidnapped? Was she possibly the victim […]

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