Sweden Democrats Pledge To Repeal New Gender Identity Law if Elected

 

The national conservative Sweden Democrats party has pledged to repeal the country’s new controversial ‘Gender Affiliation Act’ that came into effect on Tuesday, July 1st, proposing a three-step plan instead to fix the “madness” of ‘trans-affirming’ medical procedures exploiting minors if elected next year.

The new law allows minors to change their legal gender from the age of 16—as long as their adult guardian consents—and makes it easier for individuals identifying as transgender to get sex-change surgery without the need for a ‘gender dysphoria’ diagnosis or the permission of the National Board of Health and Welfare.

The law was approved in the Swedish parliament in April 2024 by a broad coalition of six parties from far-left to center-right, with only the national conservative Sweden Democrats (SD) and the smaller Christian Democrats (KD) voting against it.

As we wrote earlier, Sweden Democrat MP Richard Jomshof described the change as “madness, insanity, and folly,” while journalist Anders Gustafsson joked that it would soon be “easier to change your legal gender than to buy a bottle of wine during a vineyard visit” in Sweden.

And while the parliament adopted the bill with 234 votes in favor and only 94 against, public opinion seems to reflect the exact opposite ratio among regular Swedes. A poll conducted around the time found that 59% percent viewed it negatively, while only 22% supported it; the rest were undecided or afraid to state their opinion.

To mark its implementation, three SD lawmakers—Jessica Stegrud, Carita Boulwén, and Leonid Yurkovskiy—wrote an opinion piece in Svenska Dagbladet, criticizing the legislation as both “ill-conceived and harmful” to minors, and pledging to repeal it in the next parliamentary term if their party gets elected to the government in September 2026.

In the article, the MPs argue that the new law removes crucial medical safeguards and risks pushing vulnerable minors toward making life-altering decisions that they will come to regret later. 

These teenagers often confuse ‘normal’ psychological conditions (such as anxiety or depression) with gender dysphoria, they write, and while a significant number of gender identity issues automatically resolve after puberty, the effects of hormone therapy and sex-change surgery cannot be reversed.

To underline this point, the MPs recalled cases when teenagers, typically girls, underwent irreversible procedures such as mastectomy, only to later change their minds as adults when they realized that transitioning only worsened their mental health issues.

Therefore, the Sweden Democrats laid down three concrete proposals in response that they would enact once in government, the first of which is to immediately repeal the gender identity law.

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Soros Funds Islamist Extremist Groups in U.S. and Abroad, European Media Reports

 

In a new low for leftwing billionaire George Soros and his Open Society Foundations (OSF) the Hungarian philanthropist, who has invested huge sums to promote a radical globalist agenda, is funding entities associated with Islamist extremists in the United States, Europe and the Middle East under the pretext of human rights and combatting racism. 

Citing records uncovered by a foreign research institute, various European media outlets report that “millions of euros in funding” from OSF have gone to groups that “function as front organizations or intermediaries for the Muslim Brotherhood in their respective regions.” Most of the terrorist groups have received over a million dollars each from OSF and the money has been used for “political or ideological influence” and to support extremist networks, the records show.

OSF is directly linked to factions known to operate as fronts or intermediaries for the Muslim Brotherhood—one of the world’s most influential Islamist groups—throughout the world, according to research cited in one European news story. The extremist organizations with ties to Soros include the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the European Network Against Racism (ENAR). 

In Palestinian territories terrorist organizations such as Al-Haq and Al-Mezan, led by figures connected to the jihadist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), have received millions of dollars from OSF. In Europe, extremist platforms such as FEMYSO (Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations) and the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) have also received financial support from Soros. CCIF was dissolved by French authorities a few years ago for its extremist links, which include provoking acts of terrorism in France and abroad. 

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A "real" american...

 

RN President Bardella: Saving France is Now a “Civilisational Challenge”

 

Just over a year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly, plunging France into political chaos. No further dissolution was possible, as the French Constitution prohibits a dissolution of parliament within a year of the last one. The past year has reopened the field of possibilities. Jordan Bardella, president of the Rassemblement National (RN), was interviewed on CNews about new political prospects emerging between now and the next presidential elections in 2027.

Bardella appeared on the conservative channel in his dual role as president of France’s leading party, the RN, and as a potential candidate for his camp if the appeal lodged by Marine Le Pen in the European parliamentary assistants’ case fails, preventing her from standing in the 2027 presidential election.

The RN president painted a bleak picture of France in 2025 under Macron’s presidency: “If we don’t save our country in 2027, France could disappear,” he explained gravely, viewing the rescue of the country as a “civilisational challenge.” He denounced the deadlock in which the president had locked the French people: “The country is not moving forward, France continues to decline.” None of the major issues of concern to the French people are currently being addressed: immigration, security, purchasing power, or the energy crisis. The deadlock is also political: nothing can emerge at present due to the institutional gridlock created by the 2024 dissolution, which has resulted in a National Assembly without a majority and a government that is therefore without legitimacy.

If, according to Bardella’s analysis, “the central bloc has nothing left to say,” this means that new political avenues may open up. Bardella is calling for a new dissolution of the National Assembly, which alone could enable the country to break the current deadlock, even before the next presidential election: as things stand, nothing “healthy” can emerge. But for now, this is out of the question, if Macron’s statements on the subject are to be believed. 

For the first time, Bardella has outlined his prediction for the 2027 election—without, however, saying who will represent the national Right in the race, he or Marine Le Pen. According to him, it is entirely possible that the second round of the election will be a head-to-head between the RN and a left-wing candidate from La France Insoumise (LFI), as he believes that the centre and its satellites are now completely discredited. Such a confrontation would, of course, be to the advantage of the RN, as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party is now a powerful repellent for a large number of voters. Bardella lambasted the Left’s pervasive “communitarianism” as being always ready to fan the flames of separatism and defend foreign interests in the service of the dangerous cause of Islamism.

During the interview, Bardella refused to bet on the victory of any union of the Rights, despite having given assurances to this effect during his recent participation in the Summit of Liberties (Sommet des Libertés), which brought together the various families of the Right. His discourse is intended to be broader, addressing all “lovers of France.” Without saying so, Bardella is probably also counting on a split in the centre and centre-right vote between several candidates who are unable to agree—Retailleau, Wauquiez, Philippe, Attal—which would mathematically benefit the RN-LFI duel.

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Socialist Zohran Mamdani's government grocery plan built on $140M math error: report

 

Socialist Zohran Mamdani's policy to have government-run grocery stores is based on an accounting error, according to a new report from the Washington Examiner. According to the outlet, Mamdani's claim that he will pay for publicly-funded grocery stores in New York City with subsidies that are already going to private grocery stores is based on the socialist's misunderstanding of the tax breaks given to retail grocers in the New York, and the money he has said will pay for them is not available.

The Examiner reported, "Specifically, he wrongly believes that the city is spending $140 million to subsidize private grocery stores, and he thinks he can take half of that money and use it to build government groceries."

Mamdani has brought up the talking point before in one video when touting the idea of government-run grocery stores. “We will redirect city funds from corporate supermarkets to city-owned grocery stores whose mission is lower prices, not price-gouging," he said.

In another interview detailing how he would pay for it, Mamdani said that his five government-run grocery stores will cost $60 million and that "should be compared to the city’s existing program called City FRESH, where they are set to spend $140 million, subsidizing corporate grocery stores … So we would take less than half of the money the city is already set to spend, and actually deliver results."

The FRESH, or Food Retail Expansion to Support Health program, consists of tax breaks for stores that have opened up in so-called "food deserts," or neighborhoods where New York City has determined do have enough access to food. 

Those tax breaks, however, only save the "food desert" grocery stores a few million dollars every year. The city has given up around $30 million in tax revenue with the program, meaning that the numbers are not physical funding, but that the city does not receive taxes the local government would have originally received if not for the tax breaks. The average savings per year for the stores total is around $3.3 million and it would take 42 years to get up to the $140 million figure Mamdani has cited. 

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AI-Powered "Digital Workers" Deployed At Major Bank To Work Alongside Humans

 

If you’re working in banking, your next colleague could be a bot. Once unthinkable, the Bank of New York Mellon announced that it has deployed dozens of artificial intelligence-powered “digital employees” that operate with human employees, and even have their own company login credentials. 

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Similar to human employees, these digital workers have direct managers they report to and work autonomously in areas like coding and payment instruction validation, said Chief Information Officer Leigh-Ann Russell. Soon they’ll have access to their own email accounts and may even be able to communicate with colleagues in other ways like through Microsoft Teams, she said.

What the bank, also known as BNY, calls “digital workers,” other banks may refer to as “AI agents.” And while the industry lacks a clear consensus on exact terminology, it’s clear that the technology has a growing presence in financial services.

 

“This is the next level,” Russell told the Journal. “I’m sure in six months’ time it will become very, very prevalent.”

BNY said its AI Hub developed two digital employee personas in three months, according to Adrienne Russell. One persona is engineered to identify and resolve coding vulnerabilities, while the other verifies payment instructions. Each persona can operate in multiple instances—up to several dozen—with each instance confined to a specific team to limit company wide data access.

Soon, the bank plans to integrate its digital workforce with email addresses and Microsoft Teams access in the near future, enabling these AI personas to proactively communicate with human managers, but will maintain its focus on recruiting top human talent while simultaneously expanding its digital workforce, according to the Journal.

Of course, BNY isn’t the only bank looking to shift work from its human staff to AI. Goldman Sachs has already launched an internal AI assistant to 10,000 of its bankers, traders and asset managers to use. In an interview with CNBC, the bank’s Chief Information Officer, Marco Argenti, said the AI assistant will pitch in with basic tasks like proofreading documents and improving language. “Think about all the tasks that you might want to complete with regards to a variety of use cases for all those professions that can be now at your fingertips,” Argenti said. “The AI assistant becomes really like talking to another GS employee."

“As we progress, the second step is when you’re starting to have this agentic behavior, that is, ‘I’m completing a task on behalf of a Goldman employee, and I need to take a set of steps,’” he added. “That’s where the model is going to start to do things like a Goldman employee, not only say things like a Goldman employee.”

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Mamdani: 'It Is Socialism We Are Fighting For'

 

Despite insisting he's not a communist, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani told a group of young activists to remember "it is socialism that we are fighting for" and not to compromise on goals such as "seizing the means of production."

Mamdani, the likely Democrat nominee for mayor in November's election, was the keynote speaker at the 2021 Young Democratic Socialists of America Winter Conference.

"I think it's so critical that this journey into understanding the way in which we should relate to power, this journey and understanding that it is socialism that we are fighting for is a journey that should begin as soon as possible for every single person in this country and in this world," the self-described democratic socialist said.

Newsmax reached out to Mamdani's team for comment on his remarks.

Although he told NBC News last weekend that he is not a communist, Mamdani begged conference attendees to "remember what it is that we are fighting for and to remember that our agenda is an agenda that must not be dictated by calculus, but by conviction."

"Right now, if we're talking about the cancellation of student debt, if we're talking about Medicare for all, you know, these are issues which have the groundswell of popular support across this country," Mamdani said.

"But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it's BDS or whether it is the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment," he added, referring to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement on Israel.

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestment, and economic sanctions against Israel.

Mamdani told conference attendees his "journey in organizing" began in college with Students for Justice of Palestine.

"The lesson that experience taught me is one that informs every single aspect of my organizing and that is how to relate to power," he said. "And what I would say is for me at Bowdoin College, it was it was a hard lesson to come to, which was that you should always relate to power with a healthy dose of skepticism."

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Amazon Warehouses Now Employ 1 Million Robots - and 1,5 million humans

 

With more than one million robots at its warehouses, Amazon’s global workforce of 1.56 million people is on the verge of being outnumbered by the machines, The Wall Street Journal reports. The e-commerce giant, a bellwether for companies automating work, is planning to ramp up its use of robots further once they are equipped with artificial intelligence, which will enable them to respond to verbal commands.

In conjunction with this, Amazon is also equipping its warehouses with AI and connecting the robots with order-fulfillment processes, according to Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy. The aim, Jassy said, is “to improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and robot efficiency.”

Although Amazon is deploying more robots, maintains Amazon Robotics Chief Technologist Tye Brady, Amazon will continue to need workers. The robots are merely meant to help Amazon manage heavy staff turnover, reduce menial tasks, and make workers’ jobs easier — not to replace people, Brady said.

However, Jassy himself, in a June 17 company memo to employees as reported by CNBC, said the robots and generative AI “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” The robots have created a new “management” position at Amazon for 700,000 workers: overseeing the robots.

Jassy seemed to reference this new job in his memo, saying that while Amazon “will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today,” Amazon will need “more people doing other types of jobs.” Neisha Cruz, one of the Amazon workers who holds a robot manager position at an Amazon warehouse in Windsor, Conn., said the job pays 2.5 times what she was earning when she joined Amazon.

Amazon’s real goal is to drastically reduce its workforce, maintains Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director at Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of warehouse workers.

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