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.”


Harris, Trump shake hands as pivotal debate gets under way

Harris, Trump shake hands as pivotal debate gets under way
Updated 57 min 54 sec ago
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Harris, Trump shake hands as pivotal debate gets under way

Harris, Trump shake hands as pivotal debate gets under way

PHILADELPHIA: Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris took the debate stage on Tuesday night in what promised to be a pivotal moment in their closely fought presidential contest, shaking hands as they met for the first time in person.
The debate got under way at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Wednesday).
With eight weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate — the only one scheduled — presented both opportunities and risks for each candidate in front of a televised audience of tens of millions of voters.
Ahead of the debate, Trump, 78, said he would contrast the left-wing policies Harris proposed in her unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid — such as banning fracking — with the more centrist positions she has staked out now.
“You don’t know what to expect. She’s changed all of her policies over the years,” the former president told NBC News in a phone interview.
Harris, 59, indicated she would draw attention to Trump’s reliance on falsehoods.
“Donald Trump has a real problem with the truth,” she wrote in a social media post on Tuesday morning. Her campaign released an ad featuring former President Barack Obama ridiculing Trump’s false claims about crowd sizes at his events.
Harris will also talk about her plans to lower Americans’ daily expenses, campaign advisers said.
The encounter is particularly important for Harris, with opinion polls showing that more than a quarter of likely voters feel they do not know enough about her. Harris entered the race only seven weeks ago after President Joe Biden’s exit.
The debate offers Harris, a former prosecutor, a chance to make her case against Trump, whose felony convictions, outspoken backing for supporters convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and frequent falsehoods are all potential vulnerabilities.
Trump has proven an effective counter-puncher in past debates, knocking opponents off-balance with unpredictable attacks, and he knows how to command a camera thanks to his years as a reality television star.
The clash followed weeks of personal attacks on Harris by Trump and his allies that have included racist and sexist insults.
Trump’s advisers and fellow Republicans have urged him to focus on the high levels of inflation and immigration during Biden’s presidency, though both have dropped dramatically this year.
Presidential debates do not necessarily change voters’ minds, but they can transform the dynamics of a race. Biden’s poor performance against Trump in June led him to abandon his campaign on July 21.
In a contest that could again come down to tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states, even a small shift in public opinion could alter the outcome. The two candidates are effectively tied in the seven battleground states likely to decide the election, according to polling averages compiled by the New York Times.
The 90-minute debate, hosted by ABC News, was taking place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaigns, there was no live audience and candidates’ microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak.
Harris spent days preparing in Pittsburgh, holding mock sessions on a stage with lights to recreate the debate environment.
Trump instead relied on informal chats with advisers, campaign appearances and media interviews to prepare, with former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard — who had a memorably hostile exchange with Harris in a Democratic presidential debate in 2019 — offering advice.
On a call with reporters on Monday, Gabbard said Trump would treat Harris the same as any other opponent.
“President Trump respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man,” she said.
Harris is expected to attack Trump over abortion. The issue has been a priority for Harris and Democrats since 2022, when the US Supreme Court — powered by three Trump appointees — eliminated a nationwide right to the procedure in a broadly unpopular decision.
Harris has also sought to tie Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that proposes expanding executive power, eliminating environmental regulations and making it illegal to ship abortion pills across state lines, among other right-wing goals.


US government demands overhaul of Israeli conduct in West Bank after killing of US citizen

US government demands overhaul of Israeli conduct in West Bank after killing of US citizen
Updated 11 September 2024
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US government demands overhaul of Israeli conduct in West Bank after killing of US citizen

US government demands overhaul of Israeli conduct in West Bank after killing of US citizen
  • A surge in violent settler assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the hard-line settler movement

LONDON/JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank as they decried the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion, which Israel said was accidental.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who is also a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday at a protest march in Beita, a village near Nablus where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked by far-right Jewish settlers.

Turkish-American woman Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a graduate of the University of Washington, poses wearing her mortarboard and keffiyeh in a family photograph taken at the University of Washington's 2024 commencement ceremony, in Seattle, Washington, U.S,  June 8, 2024. (REUTERS)

Israel’s military said on Tuesday that its initial inquiry found it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed her but that her death was unintentional, and it voiced deep regret.
President Joe Biden later told reporters “it ricocheted off the ground” and a US official said that was the conclusion of the Israeli investigation, the results of which were presented to the United States on Tuesday.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Eygi's family demands independent US investigation

• Blinken and Austin call Eygi's killing unprovoked and unjustified

• Israeli military says gunfire aimed at another individual

Palestinian officials say that Eygi was struck in the head.
Eygi’s family called Israel’s preliminary inquiry “wholly inadequate” and demanded an independent US investigation.
Hamid Ali, Eygi’s partner, in response to Biden’s comments, said her death “was no accident and her killers must be held accountable.”
“The White House has not spoken with us. For four days, we have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing,” Ali said.
Blinken and Austin, in their strongest comments to date criticizing the security forces of Washington’s closest Middle East ally, described Eygi’s killing as “unprovoked and unjustified.” They separately said said Washington would insist to the Israeli government that it makes changes to how its forces operated in the West Bank.


SPOTLIGHT

Killing of US-Turkish citizen shows high price of expressing solidarity with Palestinians in occupied West Bank


“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views,” Blinken told reporters in London.

“In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.
“Now we have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It’s not acceptable,” Blinken said.
An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment on Blinken’s remarks.
Austin spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon said late on Tuesday, adding he expressed “grave concern for the IDF’s responsibility for the unprovoked and unjustified death” of Eygi. He also urged Gallant “to reexamine the IDF’s rules of engagement while operating in the West Bank,” according to the Pentagon.

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)


The Israeli military earlier said an investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division was under way and its findings would be submitted for higher-level review once completed.
“We’re going to be watching that very, very closely,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, saying a criminal probe was an unusual step by Israel’s military.
“We’re going to want to see where it goes now in terms of the criminal investigation and what they find, and if and how anyone is held accountable,” Kirby added.

PRELIMINARY INQUIRY
In a statement, the Israeli military said its commanders had conducted an initial investigation into the incident and found that the gunfire was not aimed at her but another individual it called “the key instigator of the riot.”
“The incident took place during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and hurled rocks toward security forces at the Beita Junction,” it said.
Israel has sent a request to Palestinian authorities to carry out an autopsy, it said.
“We are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional,” Eygi’s family said in a statement. A surge in violent settler assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the hard-line settler movement. Tensions have been heightened amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Palestinians have held weekly protests in Beita since 2020 over the expansion of nearby Evyatar, a settler outpost. Ultra-nationalist members of Israel’s ruling coalition have acted to legalize previously unauthorized outposts like Evyatar, a move Washington says threatens the stability of the West Bank and undercuts efforts toward a two-state solution to the conflict.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, an area Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state.
Israel has built a thickening array of settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes that assertion, citing historical and biblical ties to the territory.

 


Muslim advocacy group files civil rights complaint against University of Georgia

Muslim advocacy group files civil rights complaint against University of Georgia
Updated 11 September 2024
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Muslim advocacy group files civil rights complaint against University of Georgia

Muslim advocacy group files civil rights complaint against University of Georgia

WASHINGTON: The Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday it filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of some students at the University of Georgia alleging differential treatment of people of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim descent.
The complaint alleges the University of Georgia’s actions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. It was filed with the US Education Department and urges a federal probe into the university.
The council said pro-Palestinian students have been the target of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment since Israel’s war in Gaza began, adding the university did not do enough to prevent the harassment or remedy its effects.
The university said it supports free speech and does not discriminate based on race or religion while also enforcing its rules and holding accountable those who violate policies.
There have been numerous protests in the United States, including on college campuses, against US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, with some turning violent.
There has also been antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter protests. Human rights advocates have warned about rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered last Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.

 


Modi’s top rival Rahul Gandhi denounces ‘ideological war’ in India

Modi’s top rival Rahul Gandhi denounces ‘ideological war’ in India
Updated 11 September 2024
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Modi’s top rival Rahul Gandhi denounces ‘ideological war’ in India

Modi’s top rival Rahul Gandhi denounces ‘ideological war’ in India
  • In Washington, Gandhi said India had a problem with participation of weaker castes, pointing in particular to Dalits — the once so-called “untouchables” in India’s caste system

WASHINGTON: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday denounced an “ideological war” in the South Asian country, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party.
Rahul Gandhi said there were “two completely different visions” between his Congress party and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he spoke to the National Press Club in the US capital Washington.
“We believe in a plural vision, a vision where everybody has a right to thrive... an India where you’re not persecuted because of what religion you believe in, or what community you come from, or which language you speak,” he said.
Gandhi, 54, was appointed in June to lead India’s opposition in parliament, a key post that had been vacant for a decade.
He is the scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades and is the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.
His party’s result in the 2024 election — nearly doubling its parliamentary numbers — defied analyst expectations and forced Modi’s BJP to form a coalition to govern.
In Washington, Gandhi said India had a problem with participation of weaker castes, pointing in particular to Dalits — the once so-called “untouchables” in India’s caste system.
“So there is a very small percentage of India which is controlling the entire infrastructure,” Gandhi said.
He also criticized Modi’s handling of relations with China, with which India shares a 2,100 mile (3,500 kilometer) border that is a constant source of tension and occasional confrontation between the two nations.
“We’ve got Chinese troops occupying land the size of Delhi. I think that’s a disaster. I don’t think Mr.Modi’s handled China well at all,” he said.
Gandhi, on a multi-day visit to the United States mainly to engage with its large Indian diaspora, has also met with US lawmakers.
 

 


Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police

Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police
Updated 11 September 2024
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Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police

Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police
  • Manipur’s government is led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

GUWAHATI, India: Internet and mobile data services were suspended for five days and an indefinite curfew imposed in some parts of India’s northeastern state of Manipur on Tuesday after student protests over continuing ethnic strife turned violent.
After a brief lull, fighting broke out between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities on Sept. 1 and some attacks involved the use of drones to drop explosive devices, killing civilians. Police say they suspect that the drones were used by Kuki militants, a claim denied by Kuki groups.
Hundreds of Meitei students took to the streets on Monday to protest against the drone attacks, calling for a change in the leadership of the state’s “unified command” that oversees security.
Protesters threw stones and plastic bottles in front of the main gate of the state governor’s residence, police said in a statement. Police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds and about 45 protesters suffered minor injuries, a police officer said.
As protests spilled over into Tuesday, the local government imposed a curfew in the Imphal Valley and surrounding districts and suspended Internet services in five valley districts.
Government and private colleges in the state, which borders Myanmar, will also be shut on Wednesday and Thursday, according to an order issued by the government.
Authorities shut down the Internet in Manipur last year, in one of India’s longest enforced outages.
In the Thoubal district on Monday, police said a large mob “overpowered personnel on duty,” snatched arms and fired at the police.
“We are using minimum force as a preventive measure to control the crowd,” a police official said, and added that the situation had been brought under control.
At least 225 people have died and some 60,000 have been displaced since fighting broke out last year between the Meitei and Kuki communities over the sharing of economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education that are given to the tribal Kukis.
Manipur’s government is led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Modi or the BJP have not commented on the latest violence in the state.