STUTTGART, Germany: Twelve alleged far-right conspirators went on trial in Germany on Tuesday, suspected of planning attacks on politicians, asylum seekers and Muslims as part of a plot to overthrow the country’s democracy.
Eleven of the men, arrested in February last year, stand accused of membership of a terrorist organization and weapons law violations. The 12th has been charged with supporting a terrorist group.
The suspects, known as Gruppe S (Group S) after one of the founders, planned to spark “a civil-war-like situation” by carrying out “attacks on politicians, asylum seekers and people of Muslim faith,” according to federal prosecutors.
The group’s eight founding members had the goal of “destabilising and ultimately overthrowing” Germany’s democratic order, they said.
Those on trial, aged 33 to 62 and all German citizens, had an “openly National Socialist attitude,” referring to the Nazi party, and made no secret of their hatred of foreigners, Muslims and Jews, according to prosecutors.
One of them is accused of using an offensive slur against black people and calling them “subhumans, so up for a massacre” in a Telegram chat group.
When talking on the phone, they are said to have used code words for weapons such as “battery” and “bicycle.”
Investigators say the two main ringleaders of the group, named only as Werner S. and Tony E., organized three meetings where members took part in discussions and shooting exercises.
The group is said to have arranged to buy weapons worth 50,000 euros ($60,000) through a handler known to one of the members, and several other weapons were found during raids when the arrests were made.
The group had links to several right-wing extremist networks and are accused of using their connections to recruit members “whom they considered to be fast, clever and brutal fighters.”
They were also planning attacks against politicians including Robert Habeck, one of the co-leaders of Germany’s Green party, according to prosecutors.
The trial in Stuttgart comes as concern grows in Germany over the rise of violent right-wing extremism.
The number of crimes committed by far-right suspects in Germany jumped to its highest level for at least four years in 2020, according to provisional police figures released in February.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has declared far-right extremism the “biggest security threat” facing Europe’s largest economy.
A series of high-profile attacks have also rattled the country.
In January, German neo-Nazi Stephan Ernst was sentenced to life in prison for murdering pro-migration politician Walter Luebcke.
In February 2020, a far-right extremist killed 10 people and wounded five others in the central German city of Hanau.
And in 2019, two people were killed after a neo-Nazi tried to storm a synagogue in Halle on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
The Gruppe S trial is taking place under high security at Stammheim Prison in Stuttgart and is due to wrap up in August.
Germany opens trial of far-right ‘terrorist’ group
https://arab.news/8dwfk
Germany opens trial of far-right ‘terrorist’ group
- The suspects planned to spark ‘a civil-war-like situation’ by carrying out ‘attacks on politicians, asylum seekers and people of Muslim faith’
- Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has declared far-right extremism the ‘biggest security threat’ facing Europe’s largest economy
More than 100 immigrants detained at an illegal after-hours nightclub in Colorado
More than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the United States illegally were taken into custody early Sunday following a federal raid at an illegal after-hours nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, authorities said.
Video posted online by the Drug Enforcement Administration showed agents announcing their presence outside the building and ordering patrons to leave with their hands up. Other videos showed dozens of people fleeing the building through its entrance after federal agents smashed a window. Later, dozens of suspects were shown in handcuffs standing on a sidewalk waiting to be transported.
During his second stint as US president, Donald Trump ‘s unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement has pushed the limits of executive power, and he has clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him. The crackdown has included detaining more than 1,000 international college students, some of whom have seen their legal status restored, at least temporarily. The policies have slowed immigration at the southern border to a relative trickle.
On Sunday in Colorado, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement took the club-going immigrants into custody, said Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.
“Colorado Springs is waking up to a safer community today,” he said. The city, Colorado’s second largest, lies about 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Denver.
More than 300 law enforcement officers and officials from multiple agencies responded to the nightclub, which had been under investigation for several months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and “crimes of violence,” Pullen said at a news conference. Cocaine was among the drugs found, he said.
“When the cops showed up at the door, most of the drugs hit the floor,” Pullen said.
An undisclosed number of guns were seized, he said.
“Nothing good ever happens after 3 a.m.,” the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division posted on the social platform X.
Pullen estimated more than 200 people were inside the nightclub. Also among those detained were a dozen active-duty military members who either were patrons or working as armed security. Some patrons were arrested on undisclosed outstanding warrants, Pullen said.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that “as we approach his 100 days in office @POTUS Trump’s directive to make America safe again is achieving results!”
Pullen did not specify the countries where the detained immigrants were from.
Earlier this month a federal judge in Colorado temporarily blocked deportations of immigrants who face possible removal under Trump’s invocation of an 18th century law known as the Alien Enemies Act.
Zelensky says Ukraine not kicked out of Russia’s Kursk
- “The situation on the front lines and the actual activities of the Russian army prove that the current pressure on Russia to end this war is not enough,” Zelensky says
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday Ukraine’s army was still fighting in Russia’s Kursk despite Moscow claiming the “liberation” of its western region, as Washington signalled a “critical week” ahead for negotiations.
Kyiv had hoped it could use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which has seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since launching its offensive in February 2022.
“Our military continues to perform tasks in the Kursk and Belgorod regions — we are maintaining our presence on Russian territory,” he said in his evening address Sunday.
In a statement earlier Sunday, he conceded that the situation remained difficult in many areas including Kursk.
Russia said on Saturday it had captured Gornal, the last settlement under Ukrainian control in its border Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a shock offensive in August 2024.
Yet hours later Ukraine’s army dismissed Russia’s claim as “propaganda tricks.”
Several Russian military bloggers who closely monitor the conflict also said fighting was still ongoing around the forests on the border between Russia and Ukraine.
And a local Russian army commander in Kursk said the army was still conducting operations in the region, according to a state TV broadcast aired on Sunday.
“The situation on the front lines and the actual activities of the Russian army prove that the current pressure on Russia to end this war is not enough,” Zelensky said Sunday.
He called for increased pressure on Russia to create more opportunities for “real diplomacy.”
On Saturday, Zelensky discussed a potential ceasefire with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican.
After their brief talk in St. Peter’s Basilica, Trump cast doubt over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted an end to the war, which has devastated swathes of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.
The following night, Russia launched drone and missile attacks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed the importance of the coming week.
“We’re close, but we’re not close enough” to a deal to halt the fighting, Rubio told broadcaster NBC on Sunday. “I think this is going to be a very critical week.”
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Sunday Ukraine should not agree to all territorial concessions to Russia reportedly set out in the deal proposed by Trump.
“Ukraine has, of course, known for some time that a sustainable, credible ceasefire or peace agreement may involve territorial concessions,” he told broadcaster ARD.
“But these will certainly not go... as far as they do in the latest proposal from the US president,” Pistorius said.
Washington has not revealed details of its peace plan, but has suggested freezing the front line and accepting Russian control of Crimea in exchange for peace.
When he claimed that Russia had recaptured all of Kursk from Ukraine, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov praised the “heroism” of the North Korean soldiers who fought for Russia in the campaign.
It was the first time Moscow had admitted their participation in the conflict.
In August 2024, the Ukrainian army entered Kursk in an unprecedented counter-offensive on Russian soil. Among other gains, they seized a pumping station through which Russian gas used to flow to Europe.
Since then, Moscow has forced Kyiv’s soldiers onto the defensive, gradually recapturing much of the region.
After Ukraine was temporarily deprived of key US intelligence in March 2025, Russia redoubled its efforts, including through a surprise covert operation using an underground gas pipeline, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Russia has said that after Kursk’s recapture it will keep advancing in the four Ukrainian regions it claimed to have annexed in 2022.
Moscow was also planning to create a “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Russia, said Gerasimov.
Russia holds about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Trump’s first 100 days: America First president is overturning world order
- “What we’re seeing is a huge disruption in world affairs,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations. “No one is certain at this point what to make of what’s happening or what will come next”
WASHINGTON/TOKYO/BRUSSELS: He has launched an unprecedented global tariff war and slashed US foreign aid. He has disparaged NATO allies and embraced Russia’s narrative about its invasion of Ukraine. And he has spoken about annexing Greenland, retaking the Panama Canal and making Canada the 51st state.
In the chaotic first 100 days since President Donald Trump returned to office, he has waged an often unpredictable campaign that has upended parts of the rules-based world order that Washington helped build from the ashes of World War II.
“Trump is much more radical now than he was eight years ago,” said Elliott Abrams, a conservative who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush before being appointed US special envoy on Iran and Venezuela in Trump’s first term. “I have been surprised.”
Trump’s second-term “America First” agenda has alienated friends and emboldened adversaries while raising questions about how far he is prepared to go. His actions, coupled with that uncertainty, have so unnerved some governments that they are responding in ways that could be difficult to undo, even if a more traditional US president is elected in 2028.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Countries consider defense boosts, closer China ties amid US policy shifts
• Experts warn of lasting damage to US relations with traditional allies
• White House says Trump is taking swift action to bring peace and prosperity
All this comes amid what the Republican president’s critics see as signs of democratic backsliding at home that have raised concerns abroad. These include verbal attacks on judges, a pressure campaign against universities and the transfer of migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison as part of a broader deportation drive.
“What we’re seeing is a huge disruption in world affairs,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations. “No one is certain at this point what to make of what’s happening or what will come next.”
This assessment of Trump’s shakeup of the global system comes from Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former government officials, foreign diplomats and independent analysts in Washington and capitals around the world.
Many say that while some of the damage already done could be long-lasting, the situation may not be beyond repair if Trump softens his approach. He has already backtracked on some issues, including the timing and severity of his tariffs.
But they see little chance of a dramatic shift by Trump and instead expect many countries to make lasting changes in their relationships with the US to safeguard against his erratic policy-making.
The fallout has already begun.
Some European allies, for instance, are looking to boost their own defense industries to reduce reliance on US weapons. Debate has intensified in South Korea about developing its own nuclear arsenal. And speculation has grown that deteriorating relations could prompt US partners to move closer to China, at least economically.
The White House rejects the notion that Trump has hurt US credibility, citing instead the need to clean up after what it calls former President Joe Biden’s “feckless leadership” on the world stage.
“President Trump is taking swift action to address challenges by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table to end their war, stemming the flow of fentanyl and protecting American workers by holding China accountable, getting Iran to the negotiating table by reimposing Maximum Pressure,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement.
He said Trump was also “making the Houthis pay for their terrorism ... and securing our southern border that was open to invasion for four years.”
More than half of Americans, including one in five Republicans, think Trump is “too closely aligned” with Russia, and the American public has little appetite for the expansionist agenda he has laid out, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on April 21.
HIGH STAKES
At stake, say experts, is the future of a global system that has taken shape over the past eight decades largely under US primacy. It has come to be based on free trade, rule of law and respect for territorial integrity.
But under Trump, who has been scornful of multilateral organizations and often views global affairs through the transactional lens of a former real estate developer, that world order is being shaken up.
Accusing trading partners of “ripping off” the US for decades, Trump has set in motion a sweeping tariffs policy that has roiled financial markets, weakened the dollar and triggered warnings of a slowdown in worldwide economic output and increased risk of recession.
Trump has called the tariffs necessary “medicine” but his objectives remain unclear even as his administration works to negotiate separate deals with dozens of countries.
At the same time, he has all but reversed US policy on Russia’s three-year-old war in Ukraine and engaged in an Oval Office shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late February. He has warmed to Moscow and stirred fears that he will force NATO-backed Kyiv to accept the loss of territory while he prioritizes improved relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The administration’s belittling of Europe and NATO, long the central pillar of transatlantic security but accused by Trump and his aides of freeloading off the US, has caused deep unease.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after winning February’s election, expressed concern about European relations with the United States, saying it would be difficult if those who put “America First” actually made their motto “America Alone.”
“This really is five minutes to midnight for Europe,” Merz said.
In a further blow to Washington’s global image, Trump has employed expansionist rhetoric long avoided by modern-day presidents, which some analysts say could be used by China as justification if it decides to invade self-governed Taiwan.
With his blustery style, he has insisted that the US will “get” Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish island. He has angered Canada by saying it has little reason to exist and should become part of the US He has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, which was handed over to Panama in 1999. And he has proposed that Washington take over war-ravaged Gaza and transform the Palestinian enclave into a Riviera-style resort.
Some analysts say Trump may be seeking to resurrect a Cold War-style global structure in which big powers carve up geographic spheres of influence.
Even so, he has offered no details on how the US could acquire more territory, and some experts suggest he may be assuming extreme and even over-the-top positions as bargaining ploys.
But some countries are taking him seriously.
“When you demand to take over a part of the Kingdom of Denmark’s territory, when we are met by pressure and by threats from our closest ally, what are we to believe in about the country that we have admired for so many years?” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a news conference in Greenland in early April. “This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations.”
COPING WITH TRUMP 2.0
Other governments are also beginning to recalibrate.
The European Union — which Trump has claimed, without evidence, was formed to “screw” the US — has prepared a range of retaliatory tariffs if negotiations fail.
Some countries such as Germany and France are looking at spending more on their militaries, something Trump has demanded but which could also mean investing more in their own defense industries and buying fewer arms from the US
With its historic friendship with the US now strained, Canada is seeking to strengthen economic and security links to Europe. This comes against the backdrop of Canada’s national elections on Monday dominated by voter resentment of Trump’s actions, which have triggered a nationalist wave and fueled perceptions that the US is no longer a reliable partner.
South Korea, too, has been rattled by Trump’s policies, including his threats to withdraw US troops. But Seoul has vowed to try to work with Trump and preserve the alliance it regards as critical against the threat of nuclear-armed North Korea.
US ally Japan is also on edge. It was taken by surprise by the magnitude of Trump’s tariffs and “is now scrambling to respond,” said a senior Japanese government official close to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
A key question is whether some governments will quietly hedge their bets by forging closer trade ties to China, Trump’s number one tariff target.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing in early April, and China said recently it exchanged views with the EU on bolstering economic cooperation.
Beijing has cast itself as a solution for nations that feel bullied by Trump’s trade approach, despite its own record of sometimes predatory practices internationally, and is also trying to fill the vacuum left by his cuts in humanitarian aid.
Aaron David Miller, a former veteran US diplomat in Republican and Democratic administrations, said it’s not too late for Trump to shift course on foreign policy, especially if he begins to feel pressure from fellow Republicans uneasy over economic risks as they seek to retain control of Congress in next year’s mid-term elections.
If Trump holds firm, the next president could try to re-establish Washington’s role as guarantor of the world order, but the obstacles could be steep.
“What’s happening is not yet beyond the point of no return,” said Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “But how much damage is being done now to our relations with friends and how much adversaries will benefit is probably incalculable.”
South Sudan opposition MP accuses government of ‘mapping genocide’
- South Sudan has been plagued by instability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011
JUBA: A South Sudan opposition lawmaker on Sunday accused President Salva Kiir’s government of preparing a “genocide” of his rival Riek Machar’s Nuer community by classifying their homelands as “hostile.”
Months of clashes between Kiir’s forces and those loyal to the first vice president Machar, who was arrested in March, have stoked fears of a return to civil war in the world’s newest country.
Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s forces of threatening that deal by fomenting unrest in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of ethnic Nuer armed youths in the region.
“The Nuer ethnic group, one of the largest in South Sudan, played a significant role in the liberation struggle,” read a government statement.
“The community spans 16 counties... out of these, nine are considered hostile,” meaning aligned with Machar’s party, the statement added.
Nasir County was among those considered hostile.
That designation was “reckless and malicious,” said Reath Muoch Tang, a deputy and top official in Machar’s party who is Nuer himself.
“This dangerous labelling... this sinister plan constitute(s) nothing short of a mapping for genocide against the Nuer community,” Tang said in a statement published on Facebook.
“It is a deliberate and calculated attempt to justify collective punishment, instigate violence, and destroy an entire society under the false cover of security measures.”
In a statement, Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, acting chairman of Machar’s party, cited a 2014 African Union report that found that “male Nuers were targeted, identified, killed on the spot or gathered in one place and killed” at roadblocks, checkpoints and house-to-house-searches.
“We warn and strongly condemn (this) perpetuation of State Policy and of ethnic and tribal profiling, targeting and cleansing,” said Pierino.
He said the party was taking steps toward filing charges of crimes against humanity and genocide, among others, at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Clashes around Nasir contributed to the unraveling of Kiir and Machar’s fragile 2018 power-sharing agreement, which had put an end to a civil war that killed around 400,000 people.
Some 6,000 White Army fighters are estimated to have stormed a military camp in Nasir in early March, with a top-ranking general among the victims.
The government said the attack killed 400 members of the armed forces, and has said it has since retaken the city, as well as Ulang, nearly a week ago, with the support of Ugandan forces.
Since March the violence has led to the deaths of at least 200 people across several South Sudan states and displaced around 125,000 more, according to the United Nations.
South Sudan has been plagued by instability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.
Between 2013 and 2018, the fighting pitted the supporters of Machar against those of Kiir, who is from the Dinka ethnic group.
The Dinka and Nuer communities are the two largest groups in ethnically diverse South Sudan.
The president has moved to sideline Machar, who was placed under house arrest.
On Saturday, the South Sudanese government also discussed a “plan of action” to restore the peace agreement.
It suggested that it could choose which of the divided opposition factions is legitimate, potentially paving the way for Machar’s ousting, according to South Sudanese media.
Pierino, Machar’s ally, warned that “any attempt to change the structure” of the transitional government, “or replace the appointments therein... shall be rejected and resisted by all means at our disposal.”
Bessent does not back up Trump on China tariff discussions
- Trump’s erratic, and often confusing, rollout of tariffs has hit many countries including the largest US trading partners, like Canada, Mexico and China
WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday did not back President Donald Trump’s assertion that tariff talks with China were under way and said he did not know if the US president had talked to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Trump administration signaled openness last week to de-escalating a trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has raised fears of recession. Trump himself has said talks on tariffs were taking place with China and that he and Xi have spoken.
Yet Beijing has denied that any trade talks are occurring.
Bessent, a key player in US trade talks with multiple countries, said that he had interactions with his Chinese counterparts last week during International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, but did not mention tariffs.
“I had interaction with my Chinese counterpart, but it was more on the traditional things like financial stability, global economic early warnings,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi,” Bessent added. “I know they have a very good relationship and a lot of respect for each other.”
Asked why the Chinese were denying talks, Bessent said. “I think they’re playing to a different audience.”
Bessent, who said last week that tariff negotiations with Beijing would be a “slog,” did not give a timetable for any potential agreement with China.
He said a trade deal can take months, but a de-escalation and an agreement in principle can be achieved sooner and would keep tariffs from ratcheting back to the maximum level.
Trump’s erratic, and often confusing, rollout of tariffs has hit many countries including the largest US trading partners, like Canada, Mexico and China. The result has been almost unprecedented market volatility and serious damage to investor trust in US assets.
In a separate television interview on Sunday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the United States was holding daily conversations with China over tariffs, but did not elaborate.
“Every day we are in conversation with China, along with those other 99, 100 countries that have come to the table,” Rollins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
