Latest news with #Neo-Nazi
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Daily Mail
'Neo-Nazi' who bought gun from undercover MI5 agent Googled for living relatives of Adolf Hitler, court hears
A 'Neo-Nazi' teenager allegedly caught buying a gun for a terror attack in an MI5 sting searched for living relatives on Adolf Hitler and viewed extreme right-wing material in his bedroom, a court has heard. Alfie Coleman was aged 19 when he was arrested by counter terrorism police in a Morrisons car park moments after sourcing a Makarov pistol and ammunition in September 2023. Now aged 21, the defendant, from Great Notley in Essex, has admitted attempting to possess both a firearm and ammunition but denied he was preparing for a terrorist attack. On Wednesday, Coleman described being unhappy and suffering with his mental health at school and college, where he studied for a B Tech in business. But he said he did not always go into college when he was meant to and he did not have any friends there that he would talk to outside of college. Coleman said he spent more and more time in his bedroom on Telegram, not going outside, and isolated himself from his family. He said he would have Googled for living relatives of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler whilst watching a YouTube video, adding that he has an interest in history. His barrister Tana Adkin KC asked him: 'Did you ever intend to commit an act of terrorism?' Coleman denied it and added that he never intended to hurt anyone. Coleman, now aged 21, of Great Notley in Essex, has pleaded guilty to attempting to possess both a firearm and ammunition but has denied he was preparing for a terrorist attack Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, Coleman told jurors how he grew up with his parents and older sister in Braintree, Essex. Asked if he had any problems at secondary school, he said: 'I was struggling with my mental health at the time, aged 13 to 14.' He went to the doctor but refused the offer of counselling because he 'didn't feel like anybody would understand'. Just before the Covid pandemic struck, Coleman said his mental health was still 'not very good'. He told jurors: 'I felt very lonely, isolated, I guess. Despite the fact I was offered help I just didn't want it.' Coleman told jurors how he would spend hours a day in his bedroom playing Call Of Duty on Xbox and viewing content about conspiracy theories on TikTok. He told jurors he could not remember using his iPhone to search for the Klu Klux Klan when he was aged 14 but said it could be linked to a documentary he had seen on YouTube. At the time, Coleman said he was interested in history and 'military-related' content, jurors heard. Coleman was asked about writing down the Lord Mayor of London's address in a note entitled 'Important Stuff'. The prosecution has alleged Coleman identified the 'Mayor of London house' as an initial target and included the postcode of the Lord Mayor of London in an early abandoned attack plan. However, Coleman told jurors he probably found the address on a video about Ulez he had seen on TikTok in 2020. Coleman (pictured) has accepted having a significant quantity of extreme right-wing material and pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents which contain information likely to be useful to terrorists Asked why he made a note of it, the defendant replied: 'I don't know. I don't remember doing it myself. It was so long ago.' On how he was affected by the first lockdown in March 2020, he said: 'My whole school year was cancelled and there was no formal school for the rest of that year basically. 'Up until late 2020 when I started going to college there was no school. 'I didn't really like school at that time. I was not attending often. I was pretty lonely.' By early 2021, Coleman said he was spending 'a lot of time' on the internet and had discovered Telegram. He initially deleted it because the content about the extreme right-wing and firearms 'was a bit strong', he said. He soon returned to it, he said: 'Mainly I was just looking, I wasn't interacting at that point.' Asked how his mental health was then, he said: 'Pretty bad, I'd say. Started taking medication around that time not prescribed for me.' He took an overdose of pills which made him 'sleepy' but told jurors he 'got away with it' by staying in his room and not telling his family what had happened. Coleman told jurors that from then on the content he was viewing 'snowballed' as he viewed material about Germany and the Nazis as well as knives and firearms. He said he was following a lot of channels, some of which related to extreme right-wing material and which 'overlapped' with information on Nazis and Hitler. Previously, the court has heard that Coleman had accepted he had a significant quantity of extreme right-wing material and has pleaded guilty to possessing 10 documents which contain information likely to be useful to terrorists. The defendant does not dispute writing a text bearing similarities to other 'manifestos' written by convicted extreme right-wing terrorists nor that he engaged in chat on Telegram and Wire with people who proclaimed extreme right-wing views and idolised Hitler, jurors have heard.
Newsweek
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Warning Issued Over 'Explosion' of Neo Nazi Clubs in US
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. A warning has been issued over the increasing number of neo-Nazi clubs in the United States. According to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), there has been an "explosion" in the number of active chapters of neo-Nazi Active Clubs (ACs) in the U.S. and other countries. The group is raising alarm about this trend, calling it a "growing transnational threat." Why It Matters Active Clubs are a transnational network of sports clubs that were founded by the white supremacist Robert Rundo and the Russian neo-Nazi Denis Kapustin in 2020. Rundo is one of the founders of a U.S. far-right organization called the Rise Above Movement (RAM) and was sentenced to jail in 2024 for conspiracy to riot at Californian political rallies in 2017. Kapustin is a far-right figure who runs the Russian Volunteer Corps and has reportedly espoused Adolf Hitler's views. The decentralised groups engage in physical training with the purpose of being able to attack political opponents and also spread propaganda about white nationalism. Carrying shields, covering their faces, and holding upside down U.S. flags, marchers with the Alt-Right Neo-Nazi group "Reclaim America," march in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 2023. Carrying shields, covering their faces, and holding upside down U.S. flags, marchers with the Alt-Right Neo-Nazi group "Reclaim America," march in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 2023. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin The growth of ACs comes amid growing concerns about the rise of white supremacist incidents more broadly. According to the Anti-Defamation League, more than 750 white supremacist incidents took place from 2020 to 2024. They found that there were 282 events organized or attended by white supremacists in 2023, a 63 percent increase from 173 in 2022. What To Know The number of ACs in the U.S. has increased from 49 in October 2023, to 78 in June 2025. This is a percentage increase of 59.2 percent. Of these, GPAHE found that at least 19 clubs representing 42 states target teen boys aged 15 to 18. Some of these groups posted neo-Nazi propaganda on social media, as seen by GPAHE, including a quote by Adolf Hitler. GPAHE also found that globally, the number of Active Clubs has increased by 25 percent since 2023. This means that 187 chapters of the movement are now operating across 27 countries. GPAHE tracked ACs on social media to come to these findings. They found that the groups recruit on Telegram and TikTok. What People Are Saying GPAHE said the movement "represents a growing transnational threat, especially as it adapts to evade platform moderation and targets young recruits." What Happens Next Social media platforms can adopt policies to remove the groups presence from the internet while the government can also enact policies to clamp down on the neo-Nazi movement. However, there must be political will for this to happen. In the mean time, the extent to which these groups continue to flourish remains to be seen.
Indianapolis Star
19-06-2025
- Indianapolis Star
FBI releases records about FedEx mass shooter. Here's what they show
Four years after a mass shooting left nine people dead at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, the FBI is beginning to release records that provide a behind-the-scenes look at law enforcement's interactions with the killer. The records, which IndyStar first requested in 2021, include 147 heavily redacted pages. They confirm that 19-year-old Brandon Hole was on the FBI's radar more than a year before he murdered eight employees and killed himself at his former workplace on April 15, 2021. As early as March 4, 2020, the FBI opened an assessment of Hole for possible adherence to racially motivated violent extremism. The assessment began when IMPD seized a shotgun from Hole's residence after his mother reported that he had threatened suicide by cop. During the intervention, officers "observed computer monitors in Brandon's bedroom that displayed opened websites related to Nazi and Neo-Nazi killings along with a popular Neo-Nazi 4-chan forum that uses the moniker 'My Little Pony'. The forum was in German and a German to English translator website was converting the messages in the forum." In an email, an FBI task force officer said IMPD officers told him there were "20 tabs of nazi related material" and that Hole was posting on a forum about a gun he had recently purchased. Agents interviewed Hole on April 21, 2020, at his mother's home. He denied having extremist views and said his father killed himself when Hole was 3 years old. Hole said he played video games such as Warhammer 40,000, which has scenes of German soldiers fighting with gasmasks, and belonged to an Internet group for adult fans of the animated children's series ''My Little Pony." Members of the forum are also known as "Bronies" and while some genuinely enjoy watching the show with its bright colors and positive messages, it has also been a home for sexual, violent and racist fan art. Hole told the FBI agent he "enjoys Anime related to the TV Show." "Hole seemed to already know that some followers/fans of My Little Pony have been tied to White Supremacy, but denied any affiliation," according to the FBI's summary of the interview. Two days later, the FBI closed the assessment, noting Hole did not warrant further investigation. Read the records: Here's what the FBI has released so far on FedEx shooter Brandon Hole A few months later, on Aug. 19, 2020, Hole called the FBI task force officer who had previously interviewed him. He demanded to know why the FBI had interviewed him. Hole asked the officer if he "kneeled at BLM protests like other cops, and asked if White Supremacy was illegal." The records are consistent with IndyStar's reporting in 2021 that identified multiple warning signs and failed interventions in the months leading up to the massacre. That included more than a dozen mental health care and law enforcement encounters. The reporting was part of a series, "Red Flagged," that identified numerous instances where police and prosecutors had failed to understand and enforce Indiana's red flag law. The project was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The newly released records show that after the FedEx shooting, the FBI re-opened its investigation. During a walk-through of Hole's home the day after the shooting, agents made the following observations: "All four walls of the bedroom contained blankets, posters, tapestries, and painted murals of 'My Little Pony' characters. The bed was 'My Little Pony' themed and had a large stuffed animal of one of the characters from the tv show. In the closet there was the torso of a mannequin dangling from a hanger. This mannequin had a dress on it. Also in the closet was a box adorned with what appeared to be Japanese writing and a picture of a sex doll. In this bedroom, there was no visible literature, pictures, symbols, or trinkets that would be apparent representation of an extremist ideology." The records show agents also called or visited multiple gun stores in an effort to learn more about Hole's activities. Agents traced a Ruger AR-556 rifle that Hole purchased before the shooting to Indy Trading Post at 2851 Madison Ave. The store has since closed. Several records released by the FBI pertain to interviews agents conducted in May 2021 with employees at an Amazon warehouse in Plainfield, where Hole worked briefly in 2020. Hole got into an argument with another employee and became confrontational on June 12, 2020, according to the interviews. One employee "was worried about the possibility of HOLE committing workplace violence due to his violent outbursts and antiauthority inclinations." When questioned by management, Hole denied making any threats. During a meeting with human resources, Hole made repeated sarcastic comments and claimed he was being unfairly targeted because he was gay. At one point, he showed an FBI business card and said the company could call his FBI contact. A few minutes later Hole left the building. Security suspended Hole's badge and swept the parking lot, but he was not located, according to the records. Later that summer, Hole took a job with FedEx Ground near the Indianapolis International Airport, but he left the company in October 2020, about six months before the shooting. The motive for the shooting remained a topic of speculation for months. Many of the facility's employees were Sikh, and four of the eight people Hole killed in the shooting were Sikh. More than three months after the shooting, authorities announced that the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit had determined the shooting was "an act of suicidal murder" in which Hole decided to kill himself "in a way he believed would demonstrate his masculinity and capability while fulfilling a final desire to experience killing people." "Only the shooter knows all the reasons why he committed this horrific act of violence," then-FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan said, adding that Hole "did not appear to have been motivated by bias or desire to advance any ideology." Keenan said authorities reviewed Hole's online activity, but that World War II and Nazi-type propaganda was only a small percentage of his overall viewing. "I believe we reviewed about 175,000 files this computer and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of less than 200 files mainly of German military, German Nazi things," Keenan said. The records released so far are limited in scope. In addition to the heavy redactions, the FBI withheld hundreds of additional pages altogether, citing exemptions to public records laws for medical privacy and confidential law enforcement techniques. The FBI says the four batches of records that have been made public so far represent an "interim" release and that additional releases may come in the future.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The FTC Risks Chilling Speech With Its Advertising Boycott Investigation
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an investigation into Media Matters for America, a progressive nonprofit dedicated to "monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," for its role in an advertising boycott of X in May. On Monday, the FTC expanded the investigation to major advertisers, including Omnicron Group and the Interpublic Group, both of which are founding members of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). The FTC's investigation follows not only Elon Musk's intimate involvement with the Trump administration but also lawsuits filed by X Corp. against Media Matters and the WFA. In November 2023, X Corp. filed a lawsuit against Media Matters in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas accusing the nonprofit of making false and malicious statements disparaging the quality of X, which led to the subsequent loss of advertising contracts. In its complaint, X Corp. accuses Media Matters of publicly smearing the company by "knowingly and maliciously manufactur[ing] side-by-side images [of] advertisers' posts…beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content." X Corp. cites "99% of [its] measured ad placement in 2023 [appearing] adjacent to content scoring above the Global Alliance for Responsible Media's [GARM] brand safety floor" as contradicting Media Matter's portrayal of the platform. X Corp. filed an antitrust lawsuit against GARM's parent organization, the WFA, in August 2024. After Musk acquired Twitter (now X) in November 2022, members contacted GARM for advice on whether to continue advertising on the platform. At this time, the suit alleges, GARM "conveyed to its members its concerns about Twitter's compliance with GARM's standards"—concerns exacerbated by critical coverage from progressive nonprofits like Media Matters—prompting a boycott that caused revenues to dip 80 percent below forecasts. X Corp. alleges that WFA members violated the Sherman Antitrust Act's prohibition of conspiracies in restraint of trade by "withholding purchases of digital advertising from Twitter." Supreme Court precedent strongly suggests this allegation is meritless. Vikram David Amar and Ashutosh Bhagwat, both professors at the University of California, Davis School of Law, cite NAACP v. Claiborne (1982) as evidence that the First Amendment applies to politically motivated boycotts. Amar and Bhagwat explain that, in Claiborne, "the Court insulated the boycotters from liability under state laws seeking to protect fair economic competition and held that 'the nonviolent elements of [the boycotters'] activities [were] entitled to the protection of the First Amendment.'" Amar and Bhagwat also invoke 303 Creative v. Elenis (2023), where the Court ruled that "a seller of inherently expressive services…can't be compelled [by a consumer] to provide speech." It stands to reason that consumers (like advertisers) may not be forced to buy expressive services they disagree with. Forcing companies to pay for speech with which they disagree is unconstitutional. The FTC's advertising boycott investigation is a waste of the commission's time and taxpayers' money because, even if advocacy groups and advertisers colluded to boycott X, the First Amendment forecloses antitrust prosecution given the expressive nature of the X platform and its advertising service. The post The FTC Risks Chilling Speech With Its Advertising Boycott Investigation appeared first on
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Yahoo
Homegrown extremism: What is driving the rise?
Chris Piehota, former FBI agent and Director of the Terrorist Screening Center, joins NewsNation to discuss the growing threat of homegrown extremism in the U.S. This comes after two ex-military men were arrested in Washington state for stealing weapons and hoarding Neo-Nazi gear — and a man was arrested at JFK Airport for helping plan the bombing of a California fertility clinic. Piehota explains what's driving the rise in domestic extremism and how the U.S. can fight back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
