Far Right

Trump-admiring Abelardo de la Espriella has vowed to ‘disembowel’ the left and kill criminals like ‘rats and cockroaches’When more than 20 women accused a Colombian evangelical pastor in 2012 of sexually abusing them, the defendant’s lawyer sought to discredit the allegations by telling the court that they were “trepadoras” – a pejorative term meaning social climbers.He ultimately secured his client’s acquittal – although the case remains under review by the supreme court – but footage of the remark resurfaced during Colombia’s presidential campaign, sparking outrage among many progressive voters. Continue reading...

Leftwing opponent alleges vote count irregularities after Trump-endorsed lawyer secures narrow majorityThe Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda.With 99.65% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, de la Espriella had secured 12.91m votes, or 49.65%, just 248,310 more than Cepeda, who received 12.67m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank. Continue reading...

Colombians will choose on Sunday between two men whose lives have been very differently shaped by the militias, and whose visions for the country are poles apartWhoever wins Sunday’s presidential runoff vote in Colombia, the country’s next leader will have a personal history intertwined with one of the criminal forces at the heart of a decades-long armed conflict that claimed nearly half a million lives.The lives of Iván Cepeda and Abelardo de la Espriella have, in very different ways, been shaped by their relationship with Colombia’s paramilitaries – private armies originally established by rightwing landowners, drug traffickers, businessmen, mining magnates and politicians to fight leftwing guerrilla groups. Continue reading...

• European Union leaders are convening for a summit in Brussels on Thursday, notably excluding Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for the first time in 16 years. • Orban's absence follows a bruising election loss, which many EU leaders viewed as a rebuke of his combative relationship with the bloc and his close ties to Russia. • Despite the defeat, Orban met with far-right allies in Brussels on Wednesday, asserting that his loss does not halt the "historical process" of rising patriotic and anti-migration movements across Europe.

In today’s newsletter: The far right are using social media to foster division, from Southampton to Belfast, but there are calls for clear and urgent ways to counter digital radicalismGood morning. Ten years after the murder of the MP Jo Cox by a rightwing extremist in the run-up to the Brexit referendum, her sister Kim Leadbeater, now herself a MP, issued a clear and urgent summons.In an interview on our Today in Focus podcast, she proposed that political hatred in Britain is worse now than at the time of her sister’s killing, but insisted “those voices who are sowing the division are in the minority.”UK news | A Russian warship fired warning shots within a few hundred metres of a British pleasure yacht sailing across the Channel amid a period of heightened tensions between London and Moscow.UK politics | The Lib Dems will urge Andy Burnham to end Labour’s “torpor and timidity” towards the EU as they call for the UK to rejoin the single market, in a notable strengthening of their own position.Middle East | Iran’s top diplomat has said a peace deal with the US would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, as concern grows that Israel could undermine diplomatic efforts to finally end the Middle East war.Media | A BBC presenter lauded by the corporation for his appeal to young male audiences has a history of making abusive and misogynistic remarks about women, whom he has variously called “slags”, “sluts”, “psychos” and “bitches”, the Guardian can reveal.US news | Joe Biden’s decision to seek a second term was “a terrible mistake” that cost Democrats the presidency and may have permanently damaged his legacy, Hillary Clinton has declared. Continue reading...

Police make several arrests as rival demonstrators take to streets of Brighton, Liverpool, Sheffield and GlasgowFar-right marches took place across the UK on Saturday after violent unrest in Belfast and Southampton in recent days.Several people were arrested on Saturday afternoon as far-right groups clashed with anti-racist and anti-fascist demonstrators in Brighton, Liverpool, Sheffield and Glasgow. Continue reading...

Geert Wilders’ PVV altered sketch of jailed Syrian brothers to make them look more menacingA Dutch court artist has received damages after an MP for the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) used one of her drawings without permission and manipulated it with AI to make the subjects look more menacing.Petra Urban, a court artist for 19 years, was shocked to discover a drawing she had made last year of two Syrian brothers jailed for the murder of their sister had been reworked and used in a video on Instagram and Facebook by the party’s Noord-Brabant region. Continue reading...