Writing on New Year's Day 2026, I feel the need to try to make some sense of the worst year of my 73-year life. I don't mean worse personally. My close family and I live in the relative safety and affluence of London, England, and we are all healthy and have fulfilling jobs. I mean, worst in the global sense.
From Jeff Bezos commandeering Venice for his lavish wedding at a time of a growing backlash over inequality, to the spectacle of Donald Trump returning to office for a second term, the material was endless for cartoonists, though often difficult to navigate. The less surreal included violence against Palestinians in Gaza by Israel, the entrenchment of the Russia-Ukraine war, the threat AI posed to human creativity and the return of the far right across Europe and the US.
The planet is experiencing a veritable global wave of autocratisation, according to the report 25 Years of Autocratisation: Democracy Trumped?, by the Swedish University of Gothenburg's V-DEM Institute. The world now has 88 democracies compared to 91 autocracies, which is a radical change from last year, according to the report. Liberal democracies have become the least common type of regime globally. Almost three out of four people, or 72% of humanity, now live in autocracies, the report points out.
Brazil was the testing ground for the new digital weapons of the Latin American far-right. And the success was so resounding that a provocative and virtually unknown congressman named Jair Messias Bolsonaro became president in January 2019. Four years later, the spotlight fell on Javier Milei: a vociferous Argentine economist with curly hair.
Hundreds of Spanish fascists marched through Madrid on Friday, a day after the country marked the 50th anniversary of divisive right-wing former dictator Francisco Franco's death. The Falange -- an organisation that sees itself as the successor to defunct fascist movements that helped bring Franco to power in a devastating 1936-1939 civil war -- protested against what it calls democratic Spain's 1978 constitutional "regime".
The UK and Ireland are entering a dark time, according to the singer Joy Crookes, who said the influence of far-right ideology on mainstream politics was comparable to the 1970s when the National Front was at its peak. Crookes, who has just played two sold-out shows at the O2 Academy in Brixton, said the recent wave of nationalism and the far-right march through central London in September made her feel unsafe in the UK.
Radiant and somewhat surprised, he repeated it on October 26 to celebrate the far right's victory in the midterm elections. In the speech, Milei celebrated the results of the election his party, La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances), won 40% of the vote across Argentina and indicated his willingness to work with other political groups. There are dozens of deputies and senators from other parties with whom we can find basic agreements, he said.
This election is a direct result of this fragmentation and instability. The far-right Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders dominated the last ruling coalition, but still pulled the plug in July, after less than a year. The various lessons that the Dutch media, political parties, and voters have drawn from this tumultuous experience should be relevant beyond the Netherlands, given that most European countries are struggling with a similar challenge: how to deal with the increasing electoral, ideological and political success.
The far-right has been steadily gaining ground across Europe in the past few years, with the right-wing populist Reform UK and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) now often leading opinion polls. This comes despite or perhaps because of the fact that political leaders of the major centrist parties have attempted to win over their voters by imposing ever-tougher measures on immigration and using more anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Kemi Badenoch left the crowd unmoved when she addressed her conference, even as she threw out the red meat of migrant-baiting she thought they wanted. It's not so much that they'd all woken up with a renewed sense of humanity; more that they didn't believe she'd ever be in a position to deliver it. It was, in effect, fake vegan meat. Tories hate that.
It's not just that [Nigel] Farage wants less workers' rights and all those things. Even though he poses as something else, he is now part of a global network of the far right, a global network of billionaires like Elon Musk who want to take away people's rights, take away people's freedoms, and we need to have that argument.
As far-right and anti-immigration influences take hold across the globe, people of colour are often struggling to know where they might feel safe. Encountering occasional racism has been a fact of life for people of colour in most countries in the west. Emboldened by the far-right movements, racist voices are now becoming louder and moving into the mainstream. One of the emergent themes within the therapy room has involved a resurgence of racial trauma, especially for those who have previously experienced significant such harm.
The decision to send former president Nicolas Sarkozy to prison for criminal conspiracy has laid bare France's political divisions. Sarkozy, seen as a mentor to many conservative politicians, was convicted on Thursday over a scheme enabling late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run. He must serve his sentence while awaiting the outcome of his appeal, and will be the first French post-war leader to serve jail time.
The crosses of St George are retailing for about 2.36 on Temu, depending on whether you want them car-window sized, or big enough to write the words GET OFF MY LAND in the white spaces. Keir Starmer has declared that he is a supporter of flags. Alas, at the time of writing the prime minister's position on other items of tactile fabric remains unclear.
Hasan asks whether Connor believes in democracy. No, Connor replies—he prefers autocracy, identifies as a fascist, idolizes General Francisco Franco, and believes free speech should be abolished after a Catholic nationalist ethnostate is actualized.
Johan Forssell, a Swedish migration minister, faced scrutiny after a family member's ties to violent far-right groups surfaced, raising concerns about parental responsibility and accountability.
The now-defunct far-right Identity and Democracy group allegedly spent at least 4.3 million euros in EU funds on unjustified transactions, raising concerns regarding misuse of public money.
