Hard-right Reform UK’s patchwork candidates face scrutiny

Hard-right Reform UK’s patchwork candidates face scrutiny
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage leaves after delivering a speech, in central London, on June 14, 2024, following the publication of an opinion poll ahead of the UK general election of July 4. (AFP)
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Updated 15 June 2024
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Hard-right Reform UK’s patchwork candidates face scrutiny

Hard-right Reform UK’s patchwork candidates face scrutiny
  • The veteran pro-Brexit populist has claimed that Reform is “now the real opposition” to predicted general election winners Labour
  • YouGov may be the only pollster so far to show a lead for Reform over the Tories

LONDON: As Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party registers gains in British opinion polls, its candidates are coming under greater scrutiny, with several accused of making racist and misogynistic comments.
The veteran pro-Brexit populist has claimed that Reform is “now the real opposition” to predicted general election winners Labour, after a single YouGov poll published on Thursday put them a point ahead of the ruling Conservatives.
YouGov may be the only pollster so far to show a lead for Reform over the Tories but the hard-right party stands to gain from the support of right-wing voters disgruntled with 14 years of Conservative rule.
Earlier this year, Reform was polling in single digits.
It only obtained its first MP in March, when former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson defected to Reform after being reprimanded by the Conservatives.
He was sanctioned after refusing to apologize for falsely claiming that London mayor Sadiq Khan was “controlled by Islamists.”
Reform now has some 609 general election candidates — nearly double the number from 2019, when it was known as the Brexit Party.
According to Hope Not Hate, which campaigns against racism and fascism, Reform has ditched 166 candidates this year, with many having to be dropped for making offensive or racist comments.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s snap election call last month left Reform rushing to find nominees before final nominations were due last week — following its pledge to run in all of the country’s 650 constituencies.
“The real danger lies in the haphazard approach of the party to candidate recruitment and vetting,” said Georgie Laming, director of campaigns at Hope Not Hate.
One candidate was dropped in April for being “inactive” but the party had to apologize when it later transpired that he had in fact died.
“Time and time again, Reform UK candidates are exposed for racism and extremism,” Laming said.
Farage admitted on Thursday that the party had failed to fully vet all its candidates.
“Don’t forget, I’ve come in right at the last minute. We have not had time to do full vetting of candidates,” said Farage in an interview with LBC radio.
Farage is standing in the seaside resort of Clacton in eastern England after previously ruling out a bid to seek election.
The party had earlier conceded it was fielding some “paper” candidates, with Reform chair Richard Tice saying the “press and scrutineers” were doing the vetting for them.
In the week since final candidate lists were published, the party has dropped at least two candidates over revelations of racism.
One used slurs against black people, among other offensive comments found by the Times newspaper.
Another liked an Islamophobic post calling London mayor Khan an “undercover jihadist.”
Since then, dozens of accusations have been made against other Reform candidates still running for seats in Westminster.
One apologized after the BBC revealed he had posted online claiming that Britain would be better off if it had “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality,” and another calling women the “sponging gender.”
Reform defended the comments, with one spokesman saying they were “written with an eye to inconvenient perspectives and truths.”
Multiple candidates who are still running have liked and retweeted posts supporting Enoch Powell, a firebrand right-wing politician in the 1960s who stoked fears of racial war if immigration went unchecked.
One candidate was found by LBC comparing “Islam and Nazis” as being “the same.”
Another retweeted a post saying Labour leader Keir Starmer was “owned by Muslims.”
Others have, like the party’s leadership, voiced climate change skeptic views.
One candidate’s biography on the Reform website called net zero a “dangerous false ideology” and cited UAE and Russia’s questioning of the “science of climate change.”
Farage, who wants the vote to be an “immigration election,” has been accused of dog-whistle politics himself.
He said UK-born Sunak — Britain’s first prime minister of color and of Asian heritage — did not understand “our culture.”


Man suspected in apparent assassination attempt on Trump charged with federal gun crimes

Man suspected in apparent assassination attempt on Trump charged with federal gun crimes
Updated 55 min 42 sec ago
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Man suspected in apparent assassination attempt on Trump charged with federal gun crimes

Man suspected in apparent assassination attempt on Trump charged with federal gun crimes
  • Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite being a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number
  • Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury

FLORIDA: A man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump was charged Monday with federal gun crimes, making his first court appearance in the final weeks of a White House race already touched by violence.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite being a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury.
Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, where he answered perfunctory questions about his work status and income. Shackled and wearing a blue jumpsuit, he smiled as he spoke with a public defender and reviewed documents ahead of his initial appearance. The lawyer declined to comment after the court appearance.
The episode occurred Sunday afternoon when Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away.
An agent fired and Routh dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera, authorities said. Routh was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.
It was the second apparent assassination attempt targeting Trump in as many months.
On July 13, a bullet grazed Trump’s ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Eight days later, Democratic President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, giving way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s nominee.


Germany wants trade with Kazakhstan, won’t circumvent Russia sanctions, Scholz says

Germany wants trade with Kazakhstan, won’t circumvent Russia sanctions, Scholz says
Updated 16 September 2024
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Germany wants trade with Kazakhstan, won’t circumvent Russia sanctions, Scholz says

Germany wants trade with Kazakhstan, won’t circumvent Russia sanctions, Scholz says
  • “I am grateful for the trusting dialogue between us, through which we want to prevent trade between us from being misused to circumvent sanctions,” Scholz said
  • Both Scholz and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said their countries were interested in increasing trade in oil, rare earths, lithium and other raw materials

ASTANA: Germany is interested in expanding trade with Kazakhstan while also ensuring such trade is not used to circumvent EU sanctions on Russia, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on a visit to the Central Asian nation.
“I am grateful for the trusting dialogue between us, through which we want to prevent trade between us from being misused to circumvent sanctions,” Scholz said.
After Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, prompting Moscow to seek circuitous routes for importing technology and goods.
Sources have told Reuters that Russian businesses seeking goods banned by the West sometimes procured them from companies based in neighboring Kazakhstan or other former Soviet nations. The Astana government has said it would abide by the sanctions.
Both Scholz and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said their countries were interested in increasing trade in oil, rare earths, lithium and other raw materials.
“Both sides benefit from this exchange because it allows us to diversify our economies and make them more resilient,” Scholz said. “A very concrete example of this is the oil supplies from Kazakhstan, which helped us a lot after Russia failed as a supplier.”
The two met ahead of a broader meeting between Scholz and all five Central Asian leaders, an example of more active Western diplomacy in what has traditionally been Russia’s backyard.
Kazakhstan has already stepped in to replace Russia as the supplier of crude for Berlin’s Schwedt refinery. Scholz’s visit comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to curb sales of metals such as titanium to “unfriendly” nations.


Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region

Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region
Updated 16 September 2024
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Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region

Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region
  • Moscow appears to be mounting a counter-offensive in the region
  • More than 150,000 people in the region have had to flee their homes since Kyiv’s offensive began on August 6

MOSCOW: Russia is evacuating a number of villages in the Kursk region close to the Ukrainian border, the local governor said on Monday, almost six weeks after Ukraine launched its surprise incursion.
Moscow appears to be mounting a counter-offensive in the region, claiming to have retaken at least a dozen villages from Ukraine’s control since last week.
Authorities have decided to order the “obligatory evacuation of settlements in the Rylsky and Khomutovsky districts that are within a 15-kilometer (nine-mile) zone adjacent to the border with Ukraine,” Governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.
He did not say which villages would be evacuated or the number of evacuees. There are dozens of villages and towns within this 15-kilometer radius.
More than 150,000 people in the region have had to flee their homes since Kyiv’s offensive began on August 6, state media reported Smirnov as saying last week.
Ukraine says its forces have advanced across tens of kilometers of Russian territory and seized dozens of settlements, including the border town of Sudzha.
Ukraine’s incursion — which began more than two years after Russia launched a full-scale military assault on its neighbor — caught Moscow off-guard.
It is the biggest incursion by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II.


Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid: Biden

Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid: Biden
Updated 16 September 2024
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Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid: Biden

Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid: Biden
  • “The (secret) service needs more help, and I think the Congress should respond to their needs,” Biden told reporters at the White House

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Monday that the US Secret Service needs more personnel to perform its duties after a second apparent assassination attempt against Republican election candidate Donald Trump.
“One thing I want to make clear, the (secret) service needs more help, and I think the Congress should respond to their needs,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
“I think we may need more personnel.”
Biden added that “thank God the president’s OK” following Sunday’s incident in which the Secret Service opened fire on a gunman, who was later arrested, at Trump’s golf course in Florida.


Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, UN says

Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, UN says
Updated 59 min 47 sec ago
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Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, UN says

Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, UN says
  • It comes as a setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious 
  • Any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress

DUBAI: The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.

Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.

News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.

A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.

The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.

“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”

Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.

During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.

But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.

Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20 percent in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.

Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.

Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.

“Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. “People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.”

There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.

The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.

The oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.

This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.