Did Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand release flyers for an anniversary celebration of Charlie Kirk’s assassination?
By Leonie Pfaller and Mascha Wolf
What’s happening: Just days after the populist right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) registered its largest-ever election showing in a German state election, NewsGuard has identified a new Russian influence effort that appears to be trying to boost the AfD ahead of Germany’s next state election.
Context: On Sept. 6, the AfD won a striking 43.8 percent of the vote in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a result that shocked the political establishment in Germany, where
AfD has been “firewalled” by mainstream German parties that refuse to cooperate with the party. Multiple state branches of the party, including the one in Saxony-Anhalt, are classified as “confirmed right-wing extremist” by Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Some high-ranking AfD figures have downplayed Nazi crimes, referring to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame,” and arguing that Germany should shift toward a more nationalist view of its history that minimizes national guilt. The party has referred to “passport Germans” and “biological Germans,” a framing critics have compared to the Nazis’ quest for racial “purity.”
Russian influence campaigns previously sought to boost the...
A woman has been jailed for posting a string of lies on social media about her police officer ex-husband, claiming he was a "rapist" and a "baby killer". Jennifer Pritchard, 47, from Tredegar in B...