Latest news with #Holocaust-denying
Los Angeles Times
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Trump says he didn't know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic
WASHINGTON — President Trump says he didn't know the term 'shylock' was considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders. Trump told reporters Friday after returning from an event in Iowa that he had 'never heard it that way' and 'never heard that' the term was considered an offensive stereotype about Jews. Shylock refers to the villainous Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice' who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor. The Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat antisemitism, said in a statement that the term 'evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous. President Trump's use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible.' Joe Biden, while vice president, said in 2014 that he had made a 'poor choice' of words a day after he used the term in remarks to a legal aid group. Trump's administration has made cracking down on antisemitism a priority. His administration said it is screening for antisemitic activity when granting immigration benefits and its fight with Harvard University has centered on allegations from the White House that the school has tolerated antisemitism. But the Republican president has also had a history of playing on stereotypes about Jewish people. He told the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015 that 'you want to control your politicians' and suggested the audience used money to exert control. Before he kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump drew widespread criticism for dining at his Florida club with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist. Last year, Trump made repeated comments accusing Jewish Americans who identify as Democrats of disloyalty because of Democratic leaders' criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Critics said it perpetuated an antisemitic trope about Jews having divided loyalties and there being only one right way to be Jewish. On Thursday night in his speech in Iowa, Trump used the term while talking about his signature legislation passed by Congress this week. 'No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing some from, in some cases, a fine banker and in some cases shylocks and bad people,' he said. When a reporter later asked about the word's antisemitic association and his intent, Trump said; 'No, I've never heard it that way. To me, a shylock is somebody that's a money lender at high rates. I've never heard it that way. You view it differently than me. I've never heard that.' The Anti-Defamation League said Trump's use of the word 'underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country. Words from our leaders matter and we expect more from the President of the United States.' Price writes for the Associated Press.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rubio mocked for calling German policy ‘tyranny in disguise' and backing extremist AfD party
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is facing criticism after slamming Germany for giving 'its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition.' Rubio lashed out on Friday following the decision by Germany's domestic intelligence agency to classify the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a 'proven right-wing extremist organization.' 'That's not democracy—it's tyranny in disguise,' the secretary wrote on X. 'What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment's deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes. Germany should reverse course.' Within hours, the German foreign office responded, writing on Elon Musk's social media platform that 'This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law.' 'It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped,' the office added. 'Nothing to see here—just the Secretary of State attacking one of our strongest allies, falsely accusing it of 'tyranny in disguise,' all in defense of a far-right, Holocaust-denying, pro-Putin party. This is INSANE,' the group Republicans against Trump wrote. Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German Ambassador to the United States between 2001 and 2006, asked: 'You are aware a new German govt has been elected which will assume power next week, and which has already announced much tougher Immigration rules?' The conservative Christian Democratic Party, which ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel formerly led, came out victorious in the February elections, and incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to form a government with the Social Democrats, having joined with other parties to commit to blocking the AfD from power. The leaders of the AfD, which tops some polls, have trivialized the Holocaust, used Nazi slogans, and derided foreigners and immigrants. The decision by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution does give German authorities more power to conduct oversight and surveillance of the AfD. Previously, some state-level branches of the party have received the label, including in Saxony and Thuringia. However, this is the first time in modern German history that a political party represented across the country on the federal level has been classified as extremist, Politico noted. In the February federal elections, the AfD won 152 of the 630 parliamentary seats and received 20.8 percent of the vote. Following a three-year probe, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution published a 1,000-page report, pointing to breaches of constitutional principles such as human dignity and the rule of law. President Donald Trump and his allies have mostly been backing the AfD, whose co-leader, Alice Weidel, was invited to attend Trump's second inauguration. Meanwhile, Musk has continually supported the party, speaking at a campaign event for them in January of this year. 'Banning the centrist AfD, Germany's most popular party, would be an extreme attack on democracy,' he wrote on X on Friday. One AfD leader, Stephan Brandner, told the German news agency D.P.A., 'This decision by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is complete nonsense in terms of substance, has nothing to do with law and justice, and is purely political in the fight between the cartel parties against the AfD.'
TimesLIVE
22-04-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
Pope Francis: why his papacy mattered for Africa — and for the world's poor and marginalised
The death of Pope Francis at his residence on April 21 marks the end of a significant era for the Vatican and the global Catholic following of 1.3-billion faithful. The first pope from the Americas and also the first to come from outside the west in the modern era, Pope Francis was elected leader of the Catholic church on March 13 2013. By the time the Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope in 2013 there was a general feeling that the Catholic church was reaching the end of an era. At the time, the church was beset by crises, from corruption to clerical sexual abuse. Some of the challenges facing the church which the ageing Pope Benedict XVI could no longer handle included: the readmission of a Holocaust-denying bishop into the church mounting evidence of corruption in the Vatican Bank multiple cases of clerical sexual abuse in many parts of the world the confusion created in the English-speaking world with the translation of the New Roman missal into English. Moreover, the church was reeling from the revelation of papal secrets of his predecessor Pope Benedict by the papal butler. A book detailing these secrets portrayed the Vatican as a corrupt hotbed of jealousy, intrigue and underhanded factional fighting. The revelations caused the church a great deal of embarrassment. It meant therefore that Cardinal Bergoglio was elected by the Catholic cardinals with a mandate to clean up the church and reform the Vatican and its bureaucracy. He was to institute processes and procedures for transparency, accountability and renewal of the church and its structures, and address the lingering scandals of clerical abuse. The Pope's global legacy Three key things defined his papal role and legacy. First is concentrating on the core competence of the church: serving the poor and the marginalised. This is what the founder of the Christian religion, Jesus Christ, did. Francis focused the Catholic church and the entire world on one mission: helping the poor, addressing global inequalities, speaking for the voiceless and placing the attention of the world on those on the periphery. He also chose to live simply, forsaking the pomp and pageantry of the papacy. Second, he changed the way the Catholic church's message is communicated. In his programmatic document, Evangelii Gaudium, he called the church to what he calls 'missionary conversion'. His thinking was that everything that is done in the church must be about proclaiming the good news to a wounded and broken world.
Los Angeles Times
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Marine Le Pen brought the far right to France's front door
PARIS — For years, Marine Le Pen stood at the gates of power — poised, relentless and rising. She stripped the French far right of its old symbols, sanded down its roughest edges and built in its place a sleek, disciplined machine with the single goal of winning the country's presidency. In 2022, she came closer than anyone thought possible, winning more than 40% of the vote in the runoff against Emmanuel Macron. The Élysée Palace seemed within reach. Now her political future may lie in ruins. On Monday, a French court convicted Le Pen of embezzling European Union funds and barred her from holding office for five years. The sentence may have done more than just potentially remove her from the next presidential race. It may have ended the most sustained far-right bid for power in Western Europe since World War II — surpassed only, in outcome, by Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. But the political earthquake Le Pen set in motion will rumble for years to come. Le Pen was born in 1968 into a family already on the fringes of French politics. In 1972, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the National Front party rooted in racism, antisemitism and a yearning for France's lost empire. She was just 8 years old when a bomb destroyed the family's apartment in Paris in what was widely seen as an assassination attempt on her father. No one was seriously hurt, but the blast marked her for life. She has said it gave her a lasting sense that her family was hated, and that they would never be treated like other people. As a young woman, she studied law, became a defense attorney and learned how to argue her way through hostile rooms. In politics, she didn't wait for her turn. In 2011, she wrested control of the party from her father. In 2015, she expelled him after one of his Holocaust-denying tirades. She renamed the party the National Rally. She replaced leather-jacketed radicals with tailored blazers and talking points. She talked less about race, more about the French way of life. She warned of 'civilizational threats,' called for bans on headscarves and promised to put French families first. Her tone changed. Her message didn't. In one of her sharpest political maneuvers, she sought out a group long despised by her father: the LGBTQ+ community. Le Pen filled her inner circle with gay aides, skipped public protests against same-sex marriage and framed herself as a protector of sexual minorities against 'Islamist danger.' Critics called it 'pinkwashing' — a cosmetic tolerance masking deeper hostility. But it worked. A surprising number of gay voters, especially younger ones, started backing her. Many saw strength, clarity and the promise of order in a world spinning too fast. She ran for president three times: in 2012, 2017 and 2022. Each time, she climbed higher. In her final campaign, she was confident, calm and media savvy. She leaned into her role as a single mother, posed with her cats and repeated her calls for 'national priority.' She no longer shocked. She convinced. Behind her stood a constellation of far-right leaders cheering her on: Hungary's Viktor Orbán, Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni in Italy, the Netherlands' Geert Wilders. They saw in her not only an ally, but a leader. Her mix of cultural nationalism, social media fluency and calculated restraint became a blueprint. 'Marine Le Pen posts pictures of her cat, talks about being a mother. But when it comes to policy, there's no softening,' said Pierre Lefevre, a Paris-based consultant. 'It makes extreme positions seem more palatable, even to people who might otherwise be put off.' When Le Pen lost in 2022, she didn't vanish. She regrouped, stayed present in parliament and prepared for 2027. Polls had her leading. Macron cannot run again. Then came Monday's verdict. The court found that Le Pen had siphoned off millions of euros in public funds while serving in the European Parliament, paying party staff with money intended for EU assistants. Prosecutors described it as deliberate and organized. The court agreed. She was sentenced to two years of house arrest, fined $108,200 and banned from holding public office for five years. She said she would appeal. The house arrest sentence will be suspended during the appeal, but the ban on holding office takes effect immediately. Her allies erupted in outrage. Orbán declared, 'Je suis Marine' — I am Marine. Salvini called the ruling 'a declaration of war by Brussels.' Meloni lamented it was 'depriving millions of citizens of their representation.' President Trump decried it as 'a very big deal. ... It sounds like this country.' In Paris, her supporters called it political persecution. Her opponents fist-pumped in the streets. Even in disgrace, Le Pen remains one of the most consequential political figures of her time. She took a name that once evoked hatred and transformed it into a serious vehicle for national leadership. She made the far right electable. She blurred the line between fringe and power. Her party, the National Rally, became the largest last year in France's lower house of parliament. Her handpicked successor, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, now leads it. He is polished and popular, but he lacks broad political experience and name recognition. Whether Le Pen returns after her ban, fades into silence or reinvents herself again, her mark is permanent. She forced mainstream rivals to adapt to her language. She turned fear into votes and redefined what was politically possible in a republic once seen as immune to extremism. She never became president, but she changed the race and the rules. Adamson writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marine Le Pen brought the far right to France's front door
PARIS (AP) — For years, Marine Le Pen stood at the gates of power — poised, relentless and rising. She stripped the French far right of its old symbols, sanded down its roughest edges and built in its place a sleek, disciplined machine with the single goal of winning the country's presidency. In 2022, she came closer than anyone thought possible, winning more than 40% of the vote in the runoff against Emmanuel Macron. The Élysée Palace seemed within reach. Now her political future may lay in ruins. On Monday, a French court convicted Le Pen of embezzling European Union funds and barred her from holding office for five years. The sentence may have done more than just potentially remove her from the next presidential race. It may have ended the most sustained far-right bid for power in Western Europe since World War II — surpassed only, in outcome, by Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. But the political earthquake Le Pen set in motion will rumble for years to come. A family inheritance — reforged Le Pen was born in 1968 into a family already on the fringes of French politics. In 1972, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the National Front party rooted in racism, antisemitism and a yearning for France's lost empire. She was just 8 years old when a bomb destroyed the family's apartment in Paris in what was widely seen as an assassination attempt on her father. No one was seriously hurt, but the blast marked her for life. She has said it gave her a lasting sense that her family was hated, and that they would never be treated like other people. As a young woman, she studied law, became a defense attorney and learned how to argue her way through hostile rooms. In politics, she didn't wait her turn. In 2011, she wrested control of the party from her father. In 2015, she expelled him after one of his Holocaust-denying tirades. She renamed the party the National Rally. She replaced leather-jacketed radicals with tailored blazers and talking points. She talked less about race, more about the French way of life. She warned of 'civilizational threats,' called for bans on headscarves and promised to put French families first. Her tone changed. Her message didn't. In one of her sharpest political maneuvers, she sought out a group long despised by her father: the LGBTQ community. Le Pen filled her inner circle with openly gay aides, skipped public protests against same-sex marriage and framed herself as a protector of sexual minorities against 'Islamist danger.' Critics called it 'pinkwashing' — a cosmetic tolerance masking deeper hostility. But it worked. A surprising number of gay voters, especially younger ones, started backing her. Many saw strength, clarity and the promise of order in a world spinning too fast. From the fringe to the front line She ran for president three times: 2012, 2017 and 2022. Each time, she climbed higher. In her final campaign, she was confident, calm and media savvy. She leaned into her role as a single mother, posed with her cats and repeated her calls for 'national priority.' She no longer shocked. She convinced. Behind her stood a constellation of far-right leaders cheering her on: Hungary's Viktor Orbán, Italy's Matteo Salvini, the Netherlands' Geert Wilders. They saw in her not only an ally, but a leader. Her mix of cultural nationalism, social media fluency and calculated restraint became a blueprint. 'Marine Le Pen posts pictures of her cat, talks about being a mother. But when it comes to policy, there's no softening,' said Pierre Lefevre, a political consultant in Paris. 'It makes extreme positions seem more palatable, even to people who might otherwise be put off.' When she lost in 2022, she didn't vanish. She regrouped, stayed present in parliament and prepared for 2027. Polls had her leading. Macron cannot run again. Then came Monday's verdict. The fall The court found that Le Pen had siphoned millions of euros in public funds while serving in the European Parliament, paying party staff with money intended for EU assistants. Prosecutors described it as deliberate and organized. The court agreed. She was sentenced to two years of house arrest, fined €100,000 ($108,200) and banned from holding public office for five years. She said she would appeal. The house arrest sentence will be suspended during the appeal, but the ban on holding office takes effect immediately. Her allies erupted in outrage. Orbán declared, 'Je suis Marine' — I am Marine. Salvini called the ruling 'a declaration of war by Brussels.' In Paris, her supporters called it political persecution. Her opponents fist-pumped in the streets. A changed political landscape Even in disgrace, Le Pen remains one of the most consequential political figures of her time. She took a name that once evoked hatred and transformed it into a serious vehicle for national leadership. She made the far right electable. She blurred the line between fringe and power. Her party, the National Rally, became the largest last year in France's lower house of parliament. Her handpicked successor, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, now leads it. He is polished and popular, but he lacks broad political experience and name recognition. Whether Le Pen returns after her ban, fades into silence or reinvents herself again, her mark is permanent. She forced mainstream rivals to adapt to her language. She turned fear into votes and redefined what was politically possible in a republic once seen as immune to extremism. She never became president, but she changed the race and the rules.
