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Thousands of extremists IDed within far-right party

Thousands of extremists IDed within far-right party

Independent5 days ago

Germany 's domestic spy agency reports a 77 per cent surge in identified extremists within the ranks of the far-right AfD party in 2024, reaching approximately 20,000 people.
The increase in AfD extremists coincides with the party's overall membership growth and a shift towards more radical positions, according to the agency's annual report.
In May, the agency classified the AfD as "extremist" based on a 1,100-page report, allowing for increased monitoring, though the AfD has launched a legal challenge against this decision.
The agency noted that AfD leaders frequently made xenophobic and anti-Muslim statements, attacking the constitution during state election campaigns in eastern Germany in 2024.
Crime motivated by right-wing extremism in Germany jumped 47.4 per cent in 2024, including increases in attempted murders and arson cases.

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Macron sends blunt Trump a message as he lands in Greenland ahead of G7
Macron sends blunt Trump a message as he lands in Greenland ahead of G7

Daily Mail​

time25 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Macron sends blunt Trump a message as he lands in Greenland ahead of G7

French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a blunt message to Donald Trump by stopping in Greenland Sunday en route to the G7 – a massive territory the U.S. president says the nation 'needs.' Macron stopped in Nuuk, the same city visited by Donald Trump, Jr. and Vice President JD Vance in separate stops that alarmed some locals who favor moves toward independence or continued association with Denmark. And the French president, eager to flex his own as a European leader as Trump pulls back rhetorically from European allies and pivots away from Ukraine, did not hold back in his public comments. 'I don't think that´s something to be done between allies,' Macron said on a brief visit where he met Danish PM Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen. 'It´s important to show that Denmark and Europe are committed to this territory, which has very high strategic stakes and whose territorial integrity must be respected,' Marcon added. Macron's visit comes as Trump prepares to land in a country where locals are equally adamant against his call to make Canada the 51st U.S. state. ''I don't think he's playing around. I think he has intent around it. I think I think he's smart enough to know that we need them more than they need us, and he's willing to do whatever it takes,' local electrical contractor Curtis Reynard told the Daily Mail. With great powers scrambling for influence in the Arctic, Macron has also said the deep seas are not 'up for grabs.' Trump has been blunt in his claims about the need to obtain Greenland, which has stores of rare earth minerals under its permafrost and a strategic location between North America and Europe. 'We need Greenland for national security and international security,' Trump said in late March as the situation escalated. 'So we'll, I think, we'll go as far as we have to go,' Trump added. 'We need Greenland. And the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And, you know, we'll see what happens. But if we don't have Greenland, we can't have great international security.' 'I view it from a security standpoint, we have to be there,' said Trump. Last week, Denmark's parliament approved U.S. military bases on Danish soil, explanding a 2023 agreement. Denmarks PM has said Greenland 'will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by just anyone.' And early this year amid the pressure Denmark said it would pour $2 billion into Arctic defense. Last week Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers the U.S. had plans to invade Greenland or Panama if necessary. 'Our job at the Defense Department is to have plans for any particular contingency,' Hegseth said under questioning at a hearing. 'I think the American people would want the Pentagon to have plans for any particular contingency,' Hegseth added. The remarks prompted pushback from Alaska Senate Repulbican Lisa Murkowski. She told the Daily Mail she didn't 'think the Trump administration would like to buy Greenland once they realize what the price of Greenland would be.' Macron's trip comes after Trump and first lady Melania Trump viwed U.S. military might during a 250th anniversary Army parade that fell on Trump's birthday. It was during a trip to France to watch Bastille Day celebrations with Macon that Trump got the idea for a parade in DC.

‘Labour has made me feel like a scrounger': disabled people urge welfare cuts rethink
‘Labour has made me feel like a scrounger': disabled people urge welfare cuts rethink

The Guardian

time26 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

‘Labour has made me feel like a scrounger': disabled people urge welfare cuts rethink

Ministers are facing a backlash over planned disability welfare changes, but Rachel Reeves on Thursday resisted calls to abandon the cuts. After ruling out a U-turn, pressure is building on the UK chancellor to tweak qualification rules to protect many disabled people from being stripped of their benefits. On Thursday, she said the government was 'reviewing the criteria', but ministers are yet to release details. This week, the Guardian revealed that ministers were to offer mutinous Labour MPs an olive branch to help avert a major rebellion over the plans. Under the Pip plans, which will introduce a 'four-point rule', claimants would not qualify unless they score a minimum of four points on a single daily living activity. Assessments score the difficulty from 0 to 12 that people face in a range of living activities such as preparing and eating food, communicating, washing and getting dressed. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimates the cuts could push 250,000 people into relative poverty after housing costs by 2029-30, including 50,000 children. The Guardian spoke to four households after scores of people responded to an online callout asking how people could be affected. There are some things that Neil needs extra support with: cooking meals, washing clothes, changing bedsheets, cleaning his bungalow. The 50-year-old in Gateshead was working in banking in 2019 when he suffered a bleed to the brain related to a stroke he had aged four. Six years later, Neil says he still suffers with frequent falls, severe headaches and losing use of his dominant hand, so he relies on care, which he can afford due to the personal independence payment (Pip). But under Labour's 'four-point rule', Neil would lose everything. 'There is no chance of me being able to afford [that care],' he says. Neil gets £187.45 a week from Pip, but does not score four in any daily living category. He is angry and worried at the risk of debt, facing dilemmas of 'heat or eat', and being unable to even go out for a coffee. 'We've all got to have some enjoyment in life, otherwise what's the point.' After voting Labour last summer, Neil says he has lost faith in the party. 'I really didn't think Labour would be so heartless. I had to close my membership, I just couldn't support them any more. 'From a personal point of view, I feel like a scrounger, that's how the Labour party has made me feel. And it's not fair, we're just trying to live life as best we can.' The government says its welfare changes are needed to encourage people with disabilities to work. But Jo, a 46-year-old in Cumbria who suffers from pain, fatigue and cognitive and balance issues related to spina bifida from birth, says the proposals will have the exact opposite effect and push disabled people out of the workplace. 'It disgusts me really, because when this first came out, the rhetoric was [framing Pip] as an out-of-work benefit. It's not!' Jo says. 'It keeps a lot of people able to work.' She says Pip allows her to continue working part-time for a local charity. But losing it, because she does not pass the 'four-point rule', would force her to quit the job. 'Pip is a lifeline to a lot of people, and I don't say that lightly. They really need to think about the actual impact it's going to have,' says Jo, who is a single mother with a 17-year-old daughter. She urged the government to delay a vote until after the government's consultation, which ends on 30 June. 'I get that cost savings are probably needed but there are better ways of doing it.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Tim, 53, in Somerset was diagnosed in 2007 with muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease. He gets £103.10 a week from Pip and his wife, Ginny, 49 – with whom he has two school-age daughters – is his part-time carer, meaning she gets carer's allowance. But Tim would fail the four-point rule. That would also mean that Ginny, because the person she cares for would no longer be eligible for Pip, would lose her £210.68 a month carer's allowance. Tim has worked as a film-maker and more recently a casual library assistant, but for the last four years it has been difficult to find work because of his mobility and communication issues. He also experiences regular falls. It feels 'as if disabled people are lower down the pecking order in their importance to society, it seems like their only value lies in whether they can work or not', says Ginny. Tim says the government should tax the super-rich to raise revenue rather than cut welfare spending for vulnerable people. In the voting booth last summer, Richard, a 62-year-old in Welwyn Garden City, voted Labour for the first time. But in light of the party's planned welfare changes, he says: 'Never again.' 'I will not forget this,' says Richard, who has rheumatoid arthritis. He adds that many people he has spoken to locally seem to be abandoning Labour over its welfare policies and weighing up voting for Reform UK, which has been trying to portray itself as more pro-welfare. Richard was awarded £101.35 a week last year, but would fail the four-point rule and lose Pip, which he spends on support for cleaning, transport, help with bathing and other care. He believes fluctuating conditions are not treated adequately by the DWP. 'I could push a hoover around today,' he says, whereas some weeks he cannot move to the front door without constant discomfort. 'This is a party allegedly founded on welfare principles,' he says, adding: 'Come on Labour MPs: find some moral backbone, and find ways to support vulnerable people.'

NHS faces paying more for US drugs to avoid future Trump tariffs
NHS faces paying more for US drugs to avoid future Trump tariffs

Telegraph

time2 hours ago

  • Telegraph

NHS faces paying more for US drugs to avoid future Trump tariffs

Britain faces paying more for US drugs as part of a deal to avoid future tariffs from Donald Trump. The NHS will review drug pricing to take into account the 'concerns of the president', according to documents released after a trade agreement was signed earlier this year. White House sources said it expected the NHS to pay higher prices for American drugs in an attempt to boost the interests of corporate America. A Westminster source said: 'There's an understanding that we would look at the drug pricing issue in the concerns of the president.' The disclosure is likely to increase concerns about American interference in the British health service, which has long been regarded as a flashpoint in trade talks. It comes after Rachel Reeves announced a record £29 billion investment in the NHS in last week's spending review. The Chancellor's plans will drive spending on the health service up towards 50 per cent of all taxpayer expenditure by the mid-2030s, according to economists at the Resolution Foundation. The Telegraph has also learnt that under the terms of the trade deal with America, the UK has agreed to take fewer Chinese drugs, in a clause similar to the 'veto' given to Mr Trump over Chinese investment in Britain. The White House has asked the UK for assurances that steel and pharmaceutical products exported to the US do not originate in China, amid fears the deal could be used to 'circumvent' Mr Trump's punishing tariffs on Beijing. Mr Trump is enraged by how much more America pays for drugs compared with other countries and considers it to be the same issue as he has raised on defence spending. Just as the US president has heaped pressure on European nations to increase the GDP share they allocate to defence, he thinks they should spend more on drug development. An industry source said: 'The way we've been thinking about it and many in the administration have been thinking about it, it's more like the model in Nato, where countries contribute some share of their GDP.' Britain and the US 'intend to promptly negotiate significantly preferential treatment outcomes on pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients', the trade deal reads. Pharmaceutical companies are also pushing for reductions in the revenue sales rebates they pay to the NHS under the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (VPAG) – a mechanism that the UK uses to make sure the NHS does not overpay. Non-US countries are 'free-riding' Last week, Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chief executive, said non-US countries were 'free-riding' and called for a US government-led push to make other nations increase their proportionate spend on innovative medicines. He said White House officials were discussing drug prices in trade negotiations with other countries. 'We represent in UK 0.3pc of their GDP per capita. That's how much they spend on medicine. So yes, they can increase prices,' Mr Bourla said. Industry sources said there was no indication yet on what the White House would consider to be a fair level of spending. Whatever the benchmark, Britain will face one of the biggest step-ups. UK expenditure on new innovative medicines is just 0.28pc of its GDP, roughly a third of America's proportionate spending of 0.78pc of its GDP. Even among other G7 nations, the UK is an anomaly. Germany spends 0.4pc of its GDP while Italy spends 0.5pc. Most large pharmaceutical companies generate between half and three quarters of their profits in the US, despite the fact that America typically makes up less than a fifth of their sales. This is because drug prices outside of the US can cost as little as 30pc of what Americans pay. Yet, pharmaceutical companies rely on higher US prices to fund drug research and development, which the rest of the world benefits from. A month ago, Mr Trump signed an executive order titled 'Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients', which hit out at 'global freeloading' on drug pricing. It stated that 'Americans should not be forced to subsidise low-cost prescription drugs and biologics in other developed countries, and face overcharges for the same products in the United States' and ordered his commerce secretary to 'consider all necessary action regarding the export of pharmaceutical drugs or precursor material that may be fuelling the global price discrimination'. Trung Huynh, the head of pharma analysis at UBS, said: 'The crux of this issue is Trump thinks that the US is subsidising the rest of the world with drug prices. 'The president has said he wants to equalise pricing between the US and ex-US. And the way he wants to do it is not necessarily to bring down US prices all the way to where ex-US prices are, but he wants to use trade and tariffs as a pressure point to get countries to increase their prices. 'If he can offset some of the price by increasing prices higher ex-US, then the prices in America don't have to go down so much.' Mr Huynh added: 'It's going to be very hard for him to do. Because [in the UK deal] it hinges on the NHS, which we know has got zero money.' Under VPAG, pharmaceutical companies hand back at least 23pc of their revenue from sales of branded medicines back to the NHS, worth £3bn in the past financial year. The industry is pushing for this clawback to be cut to 10pc, which would mean the NHS would have to spend around 1.54bn more on the same medicines on an annual basis. The Government has already committed to reviewing the scheme, a decision which is understood to pre-date US trade negotiations. A government spokesman said: 'This Government is clear that we will only ever sign trade agreements that align with the UK's national interests and to suggest otherwise would be misleading. 'The UK has well-established and effective mechanisms for managing the costs of medicines and has clear processes in place to mitigate risks to supply.'

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