How a fake news story about Islamist anti-dog-walking leaflets circulated in Canada and the UK
Did people really post Islamist anti-dog leaflets in Canada and the United Kingdom? Since early April, several photos of leaflets and fliers asking people to no longer walk their dogs out of respect for their Muslim neighbours have inflamed Islamophobic discussions online. However, all of these photos are old and were flagged as potential fakes even when they first came out. We take a look at how three different fake news items have circulated.
"Do not walk your dog here! Muslims do not like dogs. This is an islamic area now,' reads a flyer shown in a photo posted on X on April 15 by Ashlea Simon, the chairman of the British far-right political party Britain First.
"I'd prefer to keep the dogs and deport the Islamists if I'm honest,' she said in her post, which garnered more than 300,000 views in two days.
Quite a few British social media accounts shared the photo, showing a piece of A4 paper taped to a sign near a park.
'Should we be told where we can walk our dogs?" reads a post by the X account Simon Scissorhands, who describes himself as a 'proud patriot' in his bio.
But where did this flyer come from? It turns out that this flyer isn't recent. The conservative account Update News already shared it back in July 2024 in a post that garnered more than 1.5 million views on X.
However, the article did provide more information about the photo, which the article reported was taken in the borough of Tower Hamlets in East London.
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San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Everybody is scared:' Trump's travel ban leaves Bay Area residents on edge
Hundreds of people arrived at Raimondi Park in West Oakland Friday morning to pray in observance of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim celebration. Men lined up on a massive white tarp on the baseball field, removing their shoes and laying down their prayer rugs. Women did the same but in a smaller section under a white tent. As people arrived, Ali Albasiery, a business owner and president of the As-Salam Mosque in Oakland, greeted them with a smile, a pat on the back and a kiss on the cheek. Despite his smile and the warm greetings from his peers, Albasiery, who was born in Yemen and moved to the U.S. at 10, was preoccupied by President Donald Trump's recent travel ban on citizens from his home country and 11 others. And he could sense apprehension and fear in those gathering to pray. 'Everybody is scared,' Albasiery said. 'Everybody is rushing and people are panicking.' This past Wednesday, Trump reintroduced the policy from his first term that, when it goes into effect on Monday, will prohibit travel to the U.S. by citizens of Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya and Somalia. It limits travel from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Trump said the move — which includes the input of the secretary of state, attorney general, secretary of homeland security and director of national intelligence — will protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks and national security threats. 'As President, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,' Trump said. Trump did not point to any specific examples of terrorist attacks against the U.S. involving the countries banned. He spoke of the recent Colorado attack in which an Egyptian national, who had overstayed his visa, injured Jewish marchers supporting Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but Egypt is not included in the bans. Another justification for the move, according to the president's order, is to target countries whose visitors frequently overstay their visas. Courts blocked Trump's first two attempts to ban travel from certain countries, but in 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his third try, based on the president's authority over matters of national security. The issue of overstayed visas could give opponents fresh ammunition against the new order, and critics have already argued that it appears to arbitrarily target countries on those grounds. Bay Area groups that advocate for immigrants said they are preparing for a fight, noting that the administration's strategy has extended beyond countries with Muslim majorities and African nations. 'The administration is using a mish-mash of justifications (including what screening measures the targeted countries' governments employ, whether the targeted countries accept deportation flights, and the visa overstay rates from these countries) to assert its actions,' Carole Vigne, legal director at the Asian Law Caucus, said in a statement to the Chronicle. 'The fight to stop this new ban will require more creative and strategic approaches to expose the underlying racism and xenophobia.' Hundreds of people protested at major airports nationwide when Trump announced his first travel ban in 2017. But this week, as Trump issued a new ban involving more countries than he did in his first term, many remain warily silent. Many had been expecting the move, as Trump promised repeatedly to reinstate his bans in his campaign last year. The muted response isn't lost on Albasiery, owner of Shoprite and four other small convenience stores in Oakland, who said he is focusing on helping members of his community. The day after Trump's announcement, he was awakened at 1 a.m. by a Yemeni friend who said his father was forced to leave his mother in Yemen. His father had received a visa, but his mother had not yet; his father was worried he'd be banned from entering the U.S. if he did not leave right away. 'Everyone that has received their visa within the past week or two weeks, they are rushing to get into the states,' Albasiery said. 'They don't know, if they come (whether) they'll be turned back.' The Bay Area is home to more than 4,800 people born in Yemen. The total number of Bay Area residents who come from the 12 countries targeted by the full travel ban is at least 76,000, led by Iran and Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Census. The communities are even larger than those numbers indicate, with more having ancestry from the countries. These diasporas are spread throughout the Bay Area, and many are clustered in the East Bay. Fremont is known for its large Afghan population; Union City is home to a Myanmar community and cultural center; Hayward is a center for the Sudanese community; while the Iranian population is more dispersed throughout the region. Many first-generation immigrants here send money back to their families. Some people are concerned about traveling to their homelands to see their loved ones and possibly not being able to return, depending on their own immigration status. Alaa Suliman, a Hayward resident and professional development officer at the Sudanese Association for Northern California, which represents over 1,000 people from the country in the Bay Area, said this week's announcement is more painful than Trump's first round of travel bans. Sudan is in the midst of a civil war that has killed thousands of people. 'The Sudanese people are literally in the most dire need for support and for international attention,' Suliman said. 'We have to speak up, we have to protest, we have to resist. This is just the beginning of a really long, corrupted journey.' Suliman planned to attend a morning prayer in Hayward with her community on Friday to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Albasiery, who organized the event in Oakland, said he was spending the rest of the day with his sisters and cousins in Oakland to have cake and sandwiches. He fretted for his friends and for the current state of Yemen, where an 11-year civil war has resulted in 233,000 deaths, 131,000 of those caused by lack of food, services and infrastructure, according to the United Nations. On Friday, Albasiery said most people were trying to stay focused on the holiday. One man, who was standing with a group of friends at the end of the prayer, said he didn't want to talk about Trump's travel ban. 'Not today,' he said. Others said the ban made it hard to concentrate on the holiday. 'It's very discriminatory,' said Waleed Nasser, a 57-year-old San Leandro resident who is originally from Yemen. 'People are trying to come over here and have a better life. I really don't understand what Trump is doing.' Nasser and his son, Mohammed, 19, attended Friday's prayer together. Their mood was somber — they worried about the effect of the ban on their friends and family overseas. 'There's nothing to celebrate when your close Muslim brothers and sisters are struggling back home. 'People can't get food. Children are dying, " Mohammed Nasser said. He said he didn't understand the rationale behind Trump's ban.
Newsweek
4 hours ago
- Newsweek
NATO Ally 'Can't Rely' Solely on US for Protection, Ex-Trump Adviser Warns
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The U.S. can no longer be considered a reliable ally for Britain and the other NATO members, former Russia adviser to President Donald Trump Fiona Hill said in a recent interview with British newspaper The Guardian. "We're in pretty big trouble," the American-British national said during her interview about the U.K.'s vulnerable geopolitical situation. "We can't rely exclusively on anyone anymore," she said, casting doubt on Trump's determination to tackle Vladimir Putin's aggressive expansion ambitions in Europe. Why It Matters Hill's comments reflect widespread concerns in Europe that the U.S. is no longer the reliable ally it used to be for the continent, and European nations need to quickly get ready to fend for themselves, boosting military spending, forging new alliances or strengthening existing ones. Earlier this week, most NATO members voted to endorse Trump's demand for them to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of their GDP. But this goal might be hard to reach: already in 2023, NATO leaders agreed to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on national defense budgets, but 22 of the 32 member states are still falling short. During #DefMin, NATO Defence Ministers agreed an ambitious new set of capability targets to build a stronger, fairer, more lethal Alliance, and ensure warfighting readiness for years to come Tap to learn more ↓ — NATO (@NATO) June 5, 2025 What To Know While Hill was born in England, she lived and worked in the U.S. for 30 years, ascending to the role of the White House's chief adviser on Russia during Trump's first administration. Her role was cut short in the summer of 2019, when she was fired by the president, who later accused her of being "terrible at her job." The dismissal followed Hill's testimony at Trump's impeachment trial, where she spoke of Russian meddling at the heart of the White House. Since then, Hill has spoken repeatedly of Trump's admitted admiration for Putin, criticizing his soft approach to the Russian strongman. Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, on February 2, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, on February 2, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington said that Putin had "declared war on the West" through his invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin leader presented to his counterparts in China, North Korea and Iran as "part of a proxy war with the United States." But Trump, who has long admired the Russian president, appears unwilling to take a strong stance against him and instead "wants to have a separate relationship with Putin to do arms-control agreements and also business that will probably enrich their entourage further," Hill told The Guardian. While Trump has recently shown frustration with Putin, who has largely ignored or stalled on the U.S. president's calls for an end to the invasion of Ukraine, he has remained reluctant to impose further sanctions on Moscow—a type of punishment that European leaders have instead embraced. In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Hill said: "If you offer the Russians a carrot, they just eat it, or they take it and hit you over the head with it." What People Are Saying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in March: "If Europe wants to avoid war, Europe must get ready for war. By 2030, Europe must have a strong European defense posture." Though she recently insisted that the U.S. was still "an ally," in April she said: "The West as we knew it no longer exists." France's President Emmanuel Macron, who has long advocated for the creation of an EU army and boosting military spending, said in January: "What will we do in Europe tomorrow if our American ally withdraws its warships from the Mediterranean? If they send their fighter jets from the Atlantic to the Pacific?" Earlier this week, President Donald Trump described a phone call with Putin as a "good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace." 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A recent survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that Europeans are increasingly losing confidence in the U.S. from a geopolitical perspective. A majority, according to the study released in February, considered the U.S. a "necessary partner" rather than "an ally."
American Military News
5 hours ago
- American Military News
Trump revives travel ban, barring nationals from Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere entry to US as of next week
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. US President Donald Trump on June 4 signed a proclamation resurrecting the travel ban from his first term, ordering a new ban on citizens of 12 countries, including Afghanistan and Iran, from entering the United States. Trump said the travel ban is necessary to protect Americans from terrorist attacks such as a June 1 attack in Colorado in which authorities say a group of people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas was attacked by an Egyptian national. 'The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don't want them,' Trump said in a video message. The suspect in the Colorado attack, Mohammed Sabry Soliman, threw fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at the group, according to police. Fifteen people were injured. US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa. Trump compared the new travel ban to the 'powerful travel restrictions' he imposed on a number of mainly Muslim countries in 2017 shortly after his first term began. He described that action as one of the most successful policies of his first term and a key part of preventing major foreign terrorism attacks on US soil, citing terrorism attacks that occurred in Europe in recent years. 'We will not let what happened in Europe happen in America,' Trump said. 'We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen.' In addition to Afghanistan and Iran, the countries on the new travel ban are Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The ban takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Washington time on June 9. Though the restriction does not effect travelers from Egypt, Trump said in 'light of recent events' he ordered the secretary of state to update him on the review of the practices and procedures of Egypt 'to confirm the adequacy of its current screening and vetting capabilities.' In addition to the ban, there will be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela, the proclamation said. Trump said he remains 'committed to engaging with those countries willing to cooperate to improve information sharing and identity management procedures, and to address both terrorism-related and public safety risks.' The travel ban issued during his first term banned citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. It resulted in chaos and confusion at airports in those countries and at US airports as travelers were either barred from boarding their flights to the United States or detained once they arrived. The travelers affected included students and faculty as well as professionals, tourists, and people visiting friends and loved ones. Trump defended the ban on national security grounds, arguing it was not based on anti-Muslim bias. It was revised amid legal challenges until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. The new travel ban follows an executive order Trump issued in January requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on 'hostile attitudes' toward the United States. The executive order also asked for an assessment of whether entry from certain countries represented a national security risk.
