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Showing posts from January 22, 2017

Germany fears radicalisation of Reichsbürger movement after police attacks

German authorities are increasingly concerned about the radicalisation of a movement that rejects the legitimacy of the federal republic and its constitution, after two violent attacks on police officers within two days. On Thursday afternoon, a man threw punches at police officers at a town hall office in Salzwedel, Saxony-Anhalt. A day earlier a man   in the Bavarian town of Georgensgmünd opened fire on four officers carrying out a raid on his apartment, one of whom has since died of his injuries. Both men had self-identified as members of the  Reichsbürger   movement, which does not recognise the laws and institutions of modern Germany but instead adheres to the old German Reich that ceased to exist after the end of the second world war. Many, but not all, of its members are on  the extreme right . The incident in Salzwedel’s town hall escalated after a 43-year-old man with his 34-year-old wife had refused to register their dog, telling the official that he did not recognise

How Brazil’s far right became a dominant political force

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Recent  reports  indicate that far-right groups from the Ukraine have come to Brazil to recruit neo-Nazis to fight against pro-Russian rebels. Western readers reacted with shock and fascination – but however strange the story might seem, conservatism and political extremism have been on the rise in Brazil for some time. Many of the country’s hardline right-wingers come out of religious movements, such as  neo-Pentecostalism , evangelical Christianity and US-style churches. There are over 600 Christian TV and radio channels, including the second-largest TV channel in the country, Rede Record, which is owned by billionaire bishop  Edir Maçedo  of the pentecostal  Universal Church of the Kingdom of God . But the right’s most visible political advocates are gathered in Congress, where they form the Bullets, Bible and Beef ( BBB ) caucus. An increasingly dominant political bloc, the  BBB  began to form in 2012 during legislative discussions about Brazil’s forest code. Right-wing pro-d

All together now: Europe’s far-right parties seek common cause

Leaders of some of Europe’s far-right-wing parties met in Koblenz, Germany, on Saturday to coordinate strategies and capitalize in their own upcoming elections on the Brexit vote in Britain and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president. The host party of the conference was Alternative for Germany (AfD), represented by co-chairperson Frauke Petry. It is estimated to have the support of something above 10 percent of Germans. Elections are scheduled for Sept. 24. French National Front leader Marine Le Pen was there. She is gauged to become one of the two final candidates for France’s presidency, although the French political situation is fluid with President Francois Hollande’s popularity so low that he has declined to run in the spring elections. Normally the French left, center and right combine to keep the far right out of the Elysee Palace. Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, was there. He gets a lot of attention, but it is not expected that the basically stai

Cyberterrorism is focus of Citizen Corps ceremony in Palo Alto

Palo Altans' third-top-ranking concern, cyberterrorism, will be the focus of discussion by a top FBI expert on Thursday, Jan. 26, at Palo Alto City Hall. Elvis Chan, FBI supervisory agent, will speak on the topic during the seventh annual Palo Alto Office of Emergency Services Community Partnership Awards Ceremony. The Palo Alto/Stanford Citizen Corps Council honors, which are open to the public, are given to five individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements related to emergency services. Chan will discuss how people and companies can protect themselves from the threat. Cyberterrorism ranked third out of the top 10 perceived threats to the city's residents, a 2016 city survey found. The crime has been identified as a local threat in the city's  2014 Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Report , and it is one of the official Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Planning Scenarios, Kenneth Dueker, the city's dir

‘Ethical hackers’ prep for final round of annual cybersecurity contest

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Participants answer computer security questions in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Nov. 23 to prepare for Japan's annual 'white hat' Security Contest. | KYODO With cyberattacks proliferating worldwide, a Japanese contest for “white hat” hackers supported by organizations including the communications ministry and National Police Agency is gearing up for the final round this weekend. The Security Contest, dubbed Seccon, provides an opportunity for those aspiring to become white hat, or “ethical hackers,” to test their skills and link up with businesses seeking computer experts who can help prevent black hat hackers from infiltrating their systems and stealing or destroying data. The nation’s largest ethical-hacking contest was started in 2012 by the Japan Network Security Association, a nonprofit organization founded to improve the security of computer systems through education, research and information dissemination. For the 2016 competition, the organizer hel

German police arrest far-right extremists suspected of planning attacks

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German police have detained two people after a series of raids against far-right suspects accused of plotting attacks on refugees, Jews and police officers. Several of those targeted were considered close to the so-called  Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich ) movement, a shadowy extremist group whose members reject the legitimacy of the German republic. The chief suspect is a 62-year-old self-proclaimed Celtic druid, who had called for violence against Muslims and Jews in online posts, the DPA news agency and other media reported. Police swooped on 12 homes and other sites in six states, including Berlin, as part of a federal investigation based on suspicions individuals formed a rightwing extremist organisation, the prosecutor’s office said. The officers confiscated a variety of weapons including explosives, a spokeswoman said. Six suspects, believed to be connected primarily via social media, were accused of founding the group “and, in early 2016, beginning plans for ar

Trump Muslim Ban: How Did President Select Countries To Halt Immigration From?

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President Donald Trump was expected to sign an executive order placing a temporary ban on most refugees and a ban and a suspension on granting visas to seven majority-Muslim countries this week. Yet it remained unclear why certain countries have been selected while other nations that have been prevalent breeding grounds for terrorists have been excluded. In addition to halting the United States’ refugee program, visas will no longer be granted to those arriving from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen,  according to Reuters . Left off the list are Saudi Arabia – home of 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers – Afghanistan – where al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are active – and Pakistan – where the two perpetrators of the San Bernardino attack had their roots. “These are the easy targets,” Dr. Steven Spiegel, director of the center for Middle East Development at the University of California Los Angeles, told International Business Times. “Take Yemen, take Iraq, despite the

Fascist in the Family by Francis Beckett review – Britain’s far-right tradition

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How remote are the blackshirts of the 1930s from today? Biographies of John Beckett and ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ explore the history of fascism in the UK ohn Beckett was a loving father who dreamed of sending his son Francis to a top public school. The family didn’t always have money, but he took pains to furnish his son with the sort of patriotic books considered improving for a boy in 1950s Britain:  Kipling ,  Chesterton ,  Belloc ,  Waugh . Yet he also, without comment, once gave his son a copy of  Mein Kampf . He could recite the music hall lyrics of his childhood and shared the casual racism of his white middle-class neighbours, but he was also prone to more sustained outbursts; the young Francis grew up “certain, in some way that I cannot now pin down, that the Jews falsely pretended they had been persecuted in Nazi Germany”. Once, when Francis was young, the family left their house to find “Fascists Go Home” painted on the wall opposite. As Beckett recounts in his biography of his

Syrian girl who tweeted from inside Aleppo begs President Trump to save her friends

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Bana al-Abed used  her riveting Twitter account  to give the world a glimpse into war-torn Syria, amassing hundreds of thousands of followers along the way. Now that the 7-year-old Syrian girl has the world's attention, she's appealing to the new U.S. president to “do something for the children of Syria.” In a letter written to President Trump several days before his inauguration, Bana — currently living in Turkey after her family escaped Aleppo in December — requests Trump's help and promises her friendship in return. “Can you please save the children and people of Syria?” the letter states,  according to NBC News . “You must do something for the children of Syria because they are like your children and deserve peace like you.” “If you promise me you will do something for the children of Syria, I am already your new friend,” the letter adds. [ How a 7-year-old Aleppo girl on Twitter became our era’s Anne Frank ] View image on Twitter  Follow B