Rubio calls for global crackdown on far-left extremism

Rubio calls for global crackdown on far-left extremismImage source, Getty ImagesBySareen Habeshian and Tom Bateman , State department correspondentPublished1 minute agoUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on countries to collaborate against what he called a growing threat of left-wing terrorism. The Trump administration hosted representatives from more than 60 countries in Washington, where it argued left-wing political violence was the result of a "unique evil rooted in a deep resentment towards civilisation".But officials made no mention of countering far-right threats, and Democrats said Rubio's focus on left-wing groups was "politically partisan".The initiative aligns with the Trump administration's stated priority of confronting left-wing groups, particularly Antifa, a loosely organised far-left movement.At Thursday's session in Washington DC, Rubio called for a global effort to share intelligence to counter the "transnational" issue of far-left extremism. The invitation list included officials from most European nations, several Latin American countries and India, Indonesia and Singapore, reports the Washington Post. The Trump administration has already designated Antifa - short for anti-fascist - as a domestic terrorist group. At the session, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller characterised leftists as "fundamentally motivated by envy, by hatred, by jealousy".Also on Thursday, the state department announced a new visa restriction policy that targets members of what it labels as "Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups", including those that have allegedly participated in "economic sabotage". Washington has already designated four European anarchist groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Antifa Ost (based in Germany), the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece) and Revolutionary Class Self-...