The Daily T: The trial of the century that beat the Holocaust deniers
Next week marks 80 years since VE Day — the end of the Second World War and the defeat of Nazi Germany. But in the shadow of that anniversary, and in the wake of the October 7th attacks, Holocaust denial is on the rise once again — fuelled by misinformation and conspiracy theories spreading online.
We look back at a landmark legal battle that confronted those lies head-on. It's been 25 years since historian David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt for libel — and lost. The trial exposed him as a Holocaust denier and neo-Nazi sympathiser, in a courtroom showdown that made headlines around the world.
Camilla and Kamal are joined in the studio by American academic Deborah Lipstadt and the lawyer who helped her win the case, Anthony Julius, to reflect on what was at stake then, and what's at stake now.
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Scotsman
12 hours ago
- Scotsman
Mainstreaming of far-right ideas in UK politics shows why John Swinney was right to raise alarm
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Received wisdom at Westminster has it that the far-right has never made it into UK politics. Coupled with that theory is then the debate by the same commentators around what constitutes the 'far-right'. However using the measurement of policies pursued, which is, after all, the very essence of a political movement or party, the far-right has most certainly arrived in UK politics. UK parties, across the political spectrum, now embrace the hardest of hard Brexit, unthinkable even in the aftermath of the referendum in June 2016, and a policy that has done untold damage to the economy and our rights. We also had a government that promoted the sending of asylum seekers to Rwanda and MPs who openly campaign on leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which has underpinned our rights since the end of the Second World War. Were the UK to leave, it would be joining Russia and Belarus in doing so, hardly polite company. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Brexit, leaving the ECHR, and the Rwanda scheme are or were mainstream policy proposals in the UK yet they are policies that far-right parties elsewhere in Europe would baulk at. Even the hardest of hard-right parties in other parts of Europe such as the National Rally in France, the Vlaams Belaang in Belgium or Alternative fur Deutschland in Germany have abandoned plans to leave the EU, given the UK's Brexit debacle. John Swinney's stances on the EU, Donald Trump and migration, among others, have won plaudits (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images An attack on justice Yet despite these policy failures, the mainstreaming of the far-right has become all too common in our politics along with their tactics. Over the past few days alone, Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary, Robert Jenrick, attacked the Labour Attorney General for doing his job and defending his clients. His remarks were described by former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve 'as a direct attack on our principles of justice'. As we saw in this week's Hamilton by-election, we in Scotland are certainly not immune. Nigel Farage's attack on Anas Sarwar, which he doubled down on when challenged by the press, should act as a warning to us all. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Such remarks are unacceptable and whereas I may have legitimate policy differences with the Scottish Labour leader, they should have no place in our political discourse. For all the heat of the campaign in the run-up to what was a hard-fought by-election, it was good to see SNP and Labour leaders call out these disgraceful comments. Zia Yusuf's resignation as chair of Reform on Thursday and his concerns around Reform in the Commons should also act as a warning. Calling out bigotry That is why the First Minister was right to bring together colleagues from across the political spectrum in a summit seeking to 'lock out' Reform from Holyrood earlier this year. John Swinney is right to call out their policies and the 'bigotry' that they represent and to call out Farage as 'an accomplice of the Russian agenda'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Fair play to the politicians and representatives of civil society who put any political differences aside and joined the First Minister. That meeting was criticised at the time by the Conservatives and a range of commentators. Given Reform's tactics and language over the course of the by-election campaign, we have seen just how badly needed that stance was and remains. Labour will be pleased with Thursday's win, and I congratulate them on it, however, no party can afford to be complacent about Reform. One of the lessons from Hamilton must be that the key to taking on the far-right is to challenge them on their ideas. Nigel Farage's track record is not a particularly good one. He has been a driving force campaigning to leave the EU for decades. That was a decision that has exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis, removed rights from UK citizens, damaged business, especially small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and ultimately made us all poorer. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He backed Donald Trump whose presidency has destabilised the world, seen tariffs introduced that have damaged the global economy, and undermined efforts to support Ukraine against Russian aggression. 'Island of Strangers' The Reform policy platform is weak. For their opponents, that should provide ample targets. Yet, in the Westminster bubble their policies are given far too much credibility. There is an omertà around discussing the glaring failure of the Brexit experiment and the less said about Keir Starmer's 'Island of Strangers' speech on migration frankly the better. John Swinney would be the first to admit that the Scottish Government haven't got everything right. However, on the big calls around our relationship with the EU, the impact of Donald Trump's presidency, migration, child poverty and the rights we should enjoy as citizens, the SNP leader has maintained credibility for his stances, winning plaudits at Westminster and further afield. Politics is about ideas and Reform's are simply not good ones. The Conservatives and Reform are increasingly aligning on a range of policies and a pact or even merger is not out of the question. This is to be expected, given that Reform draws its politicians and many voters from the Conservatives. They have, in turn, turned their backs on One Nation conservatism, and instead the party is dominated by the Johnson/Truss populist wing, which is not so different from Farage and Reform. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This week's by-election and the preceding campaign must act as a wake-up call. During the run-up to the Holyrood elections, there is an opportunity for all parties to set out their vision for Scotland. On the one hand, there is an inclusive, outward-looking and internationalist vision represented by John Swinney, on the other is Reform's inward and exclusive offering. I know which one I'm backing.
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Holocaust survivor burned in Boulder speaks after antisemitic attack
The one thing that remained constant: their family stayed together. It's a message that resonates with her nearly 90 years later and why she was marching in Boulder on Sunday. She was part of a small group bringing attention to the Jewish hostages held by Hamas to bring them home when she was attacked. A man threw Molotov cocktails at the group, injuring 12 people. Steinmetz, 88, told NBC News earlier this week that she and other members of the group Run for Their Lives were peacefully demonstrating when they were attacked. "We're Americans. We are better than this," she told the news outlet. They should be "kind and decent human beings." Steinmetz spent much of her life trying not to talk about what her family endured. Her father's message to her was always to move to forward. In 1998, she sat down to share her story with the University of Southern California's Shoah project, which documents the lives of Holocaust survivors. In an interview stretching almost three hours, Steinmetz talked about her family's escape, the relatives who died in the war, and the lessons they learned. She was 61 when she did the Shoah interview, one of thousands of 52,000 stories recorded over eight years. "Family is what's most important," Steinmetz said. She was too young to remember much from her family leaving Italy in 1938 when Benito Mussolini stripped Jewish people of their citizenship at the direction of Adolf Hitler. What she remembers, she said in the interview, was an atmosphere of trauma. Boulder attack: Firebombing suspect Mohamed Soliman charged with 118 criminal counts Her father, who had run a hotel on the northern Italian coast after leaving Hungary, visited embassies and wrote letters to various countries to try to move his family as Hitler's power grew. Each time, their move was temporary. Each time, they brought only what they could carry. But each time, they stayed together. "Things were not important, people are important. What you have in your brain and in your heart that is the only thing that's important," she said. "And that's totally transportable." In the past few years, Steinmetz has told her family's story at Holocaust remembrance events and classrooms, libraries and churches. She wants people to understand history to understand that Jewish people are being targeted again. "Hitler basically took (my father's) life, his dream away.... The rest of life was chasing, running, trying to make a living," she said. The family eventually settled in in Sosua where the Dominican Republic Resettlement Association (DORSA) had established a refugee camp for Jewish people. Life was difficult there, she said, as her family and had to learn to build houses, farm the rocky terrain, and raise their families. Steinmetz and her sister, three years older, were soon sent to a Catholic school, where only the head nun knew they were Jewish. A nun used to let her change the clothes of the Baby Jesus figurine at the church, and for a few minutes each day, she felt like she had a doll. She remembers sleeping next to her sister, and crying inconsolably. "I never cried again. Years and years and years later, when something happened, my mother and father died, I had a hard time crying. And to this day, I have a hard time crying," she said. "It is just something I don't do." The family didn't speak of these moves for years, she would say. "They couldn't help where they were living, it was the only thing they could do to stay alive." The family settled in Boston in 1945, and soon learned much of their family in Europe had died, some in the war, others after. The family would move several times again as her father found different jobs, and she and her sister began going to Jewish summer camps. It was there, she said, that she "fell into the Zionist spirit. I loved the feeling that there would be a state of Israel." She finally felt like she had a community, she said. "These were my people,"she said. "This group was very tight. I was very welcome there. It was a really important part of my life." Her life, she said, was shaped by the war. "It was an experience that affected everything we did," she said, lessons she and her husband, who died in 2010, passed to their three daughters. In all the years of moving from place to place, she remembers they never went to sleep without saying a prayer for their family in Europe, to "bless Aunt Virgie, Emra and Oscar and Pearl... our grandparents." When she met some of this family again in the mid 1950s, "I knew them. They had been part of my everyday life ... they were part of my vocabulary." At the end of telling her story, of two hours and 54 minutes of mostly emotionless factual testimony, the interviewer for the Shoah project asks if there is anythingshe hopes people could take away from her story. "We need a broader picture of all of humanity," she said. "We need to educate ourselves and always need to be on top of what is going on in the world and be alert and be responsive to it." And it's why she continues to tell their story, to warn about antisemitism - even as hate against Jews soars to historic levels. Just last year, Steinmetz showed up to a Boulder City Council meeting in support of her local Jewish community. A woman sat down next to Steinmetz, she recounted in a video interview in June 2024. The woman had a Palestinian flag and a sign that read, "from the river to the sea," a phrase that can be used to promote antisemitism. Steimetz turned to her and said: "Do you realize that that means you want to kill me? You want me destroyed?'" The woman just turned away. "Jews in Boulder and maybe Denver and probably in cities all around the world, are afraid of wearing their Jewish stars," Steinmetz said. People are taking down their mezuzahs so that no one will know that it's a Jewish house, she said. But in the following breath, Steinmetz rejected the notion that silence is ever an option. "It is up to each of us to say something, to say something and do something. 'You can say no; I'm a human being just like that other person. We are all humans.'"
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Donald Trump and Elon Musk: How did we get to 'KILL BILL' fallout
Musk's prominence has been highly controversial with Americans, with only 38% of Economist/YouGov's May 30-June 2 poll respondents saying they would like Musk to have an influence in the administration going forward. How did we get here? Take a look back and the dramatic rise and fall of their partnership: Skid marks: President Trump's fast start has hit some speedbumps Elon Musk endorsed Trump following 2024 assassination attempt Musk, the CEO of Tesla, bought Twitter in 2022 and reinstated Trump to the platform after he was banned following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. Musk became a growing ally to Trump over the next couple of years. Then, on July 13, 2024, Trump was shot in an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and Musk officially endorsed him for president shortly after. Musk gave more than $250 million to groups backing Trump in election Federal Election Commission records show Musk gave $238.5 million to his America PAC, which backed Trump's campaign. His contributions included $1 million daily payments to lucky voters in swing states who signed an online petition in support of the Constitution. The move raised legal questions, drew criticism from former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, and prompted former Republican officials to press former Attorney General Merrick Garland for an investigation. Elon Musk was slated to lead DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy During the campaign, Trump said he would establish a government efficiency commission headed by Musk if he won the election. Musk joined Trump at an October rally, jumping around on stage in a highly memeable moment. Shortly after winning the election, Trump announced Musk and former Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy would lead the new "Department of Government Efficiency", also known as "DOGE" with the mandate to slash federal government spending, waste and regulations. But Ramaswamy ultimately decided to run for governor of Ohio in 2026. Musk attended Trump's Inauguration with other billionaires Musk was at Trump's inauguration in Washington, D.C., and joined by fellow billionaires Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Musk delivered a speech at one of the inauguration events, during which he attracted controversy by giving a one-armed salute that some said appeared to resemble a Nazi-style gesture. "It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured," Musk said before making the gesture. DOGE comes for federal workforce, spending Musk's DOGE took a machete to federal spending, though he didn't cut nearly as much as he set out to. By some calculations, the workforce reduction efforts totaled in more than 100,000 layoffs, though the Trump administration is facing ongoing legal challenges to the swift cuts. Man of many hats at Cabinet meeting farewell At an April 30 Cabinet meeting, Musk appeared to bid farewell while joking about wearing lots of hats. Musk said at the meeting it was "an honor to work with your incredible Cabinet," and thanked the group. He had said at the time that DOGE was running more independently on its own and that he would spend less time in Washington as his companies needed him. (Tesla's earnings were down 71% in the first quarter of 2025.) On his way out, he participated in a seemingly friendly press conference with Trump in the Oval Office on May 30. But by his last day as a government employee, Musk had also appeared to diverge with Trump on a major piece of legislation going through Congress. Musk calls Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' a 'disgusting abomination' in post Just days after the White House sendoff, Musk appears to have embarked on a "kill bill" campaign on his X account. Trump's tax and domestic policy bill he has dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill," is under consideration in the U.S. Senate. But some Republicans have major concerns about the bill, like the deficit and health care and now, Musk. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination," Musk said in a June 3 post on X. "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it." "Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. "It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it." Contributing: Joey Garrison, Riley Beggin, Bart Jansen; USA TODAY. Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@ Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @
