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
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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
Two killed, 28 wounded in Russian strikes on Kharkiv: Ukraine official
KYIV, Ukraine: Russian strikes on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv killed two people and wounded 28 early Wednesday, the mayor said.
“Seventeen strikes by enemy UAVs were carried out in two districts of the city this night,” Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram, later adding: “There is information about two dead already.”
Northern Ireland town hit by ‘racially motivated’ riot
- “This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said
- Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday
BALLYMENA, United Kingdom: Northern Irish police said Tuesday that 15 officers were injured in clashes after “racially motivated” attacks sparked by the arrest of two teenagers for the attempted rape of a young girl.
The unrest in the town of Ballymena, some 30 miles northwest of Belfast, erupted Monday night after a vigil in a neighborhood where an alleged serious sexual assault happened on Saturday.
“This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said.
Tensions in the town, which has a large migrant population, remained high on Tuesday, as residents described the scenes as “terrifying” and told AFP those involved were targeting “foreigners.”
Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter, local media reports said.
The trouble began when masked people “broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties,” police said.
Houses and businesses were attacked and three people had to be evacuated, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said, adding it was investigating “hate attacks.”
Security forces also came under “sustained attack” with petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks thrown by rioters, injuring 15 officers including some who required hospital treatment, according to the force.
One 29-year-old man was arrested and charged with riotous behavior, disorderly behavior, attempted criminal damage and resisting police.
Four houses were damaged by fire, and windows and doors of homes and businesses smashed.
Cornelia Albu, 52, a Romanian migrant and mother-of-two who lives opposite a house targeted in the attacks said her family had been “very scared.”
“Last night it was crazy because too many people came here and tried to put the house on fire,” Albu, who works in a factory, told AFP.
“My family was very scared,” she said, adding she would have to move but was worried she would not find another place to live because she was Romanian.
A 22-year-old woman who lives next door to a burnt-out house in the same Clonavon neighborhood said the night had been “terrifying.”
“People were going after foreigners, whoever they were, or how innocent they were,” the woman, who did not want to share her name for security reasons, told AFP.
“But there were local people indoors down the street scared as hell.”
Northern Ireland saw racism-fueled disorder in August after similar riots in English towns and cities.
According to Mark, 24, who did not share his last name, the alleged rape on the weekend was “just a spark.”
“The foreigners around here don’t show respect to the locals, they come here, don’t integrate,” said Mark.
Another man was halfway up a ladder, hanging a Union Jack flag in front of his house as a “precaution — so people know it’s not a foreigner living here.”
“Ballymena has a large migrant population, a lot of people actually work in the town and provide excellent work,” Mayor Jackson Minford told AFP.
“Last night unfortunately has probably scared a lot of people. We are actively working to identify those responsible and bring them to justice,” said Henderson.
Footage on social media appeared to show protesters smashing the windows of houses and some masked individuals kicking in doors.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “disorder” in Ballymena was “very concerning.”
“Obviously, the reports of sexual assault in the area are extremely distressing, but there is no justification for attacks on police officers,” Downing Street added.
Spain’s economy minister says ‘overtourism’ challenges need to be addressed
MADRID: Spain could receive as many as 100 million tourists this year, according to some projections, which the country’s economy minister said poses challenges for the country’s residents that the government can no longer afford to ignore.
Last year, Spain received a record 94 million international visitors, making it one of the most visited countries in the world.
“It’s important to understand that these record numbers in terms of tourism also pose challenges,” Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. “And we need to deal with those challenges also for our own population.”
Tourism is a key sector for the Southern European nation’s economy, which grew faster than any major advanced economy last year at 3.2 percent, and is projected to grow at 2.4 percent this year, according to the Bank of Spain, well ahead of the expected eurozone average of 0.9 percent.
But a stubborn housing crisis in which home and rental costs have skyrocketed in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and elsewhere has led to growing frustration about one aspect tied to tourism in particular: the proliferation of short-term rental apartments in city centers.
The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Signs at demonstrations with slogans such as “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods” point to the growing anger.
In response, the government recently announced it was cracking down on Airbnb listings that it said were operating in the country illegally, a decision that the company is appealing.
“We are a 49 million-inhabitants country,” Cuerpo said. The record numbers of tourists illustrate the “attractiveness of our country, but also of the challenge that we have in terms of dealing and providing for a good experience for tourists, but at the same time avoiding overcharging our own services and our own housing,” he said.
The Bank of Spain recently said the country has a deficit of 450,000 homes. Building more public housing is critical to solve the problem, Cuerpo said. Spain has a lower stock of public housing than many other major European Union countries.
“This is the key challenge for this term,” the minister said of the country’s housing woes.
On the possibility of more US tariffs on EU goods, the top economic policymaker for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy said he believed the EU still wanted to reinforce economic ties with the US
“From the EU side, we are constructive but we are not naive,” Cuerpo said, adding that the bloc would pursue “other routes protecting our firms and industries” if no agreement with the Trump administration can be reached.
A 90-day pause on tariffs announced by the EU and the US is slated to end on July 14. About halfway through that grace period, US President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on steel imports. The US has also enacted a 25 percent tariff on vehicles and 10 percent so-called reciprocal tariffs on most other goods.
On how Spain’s current housing woes got here, the minister said a steep drop in construction in Spain following the 2008 financial crisis played a role. So did population growth due to immigration, Cuerpo said, and pressures from an increase in the number of tourists.
While building more housing is key, the minister advocated for an all-of-the-above approach, including regulating Spain’s housing market and short-term rental platforms.
“For us, there’s no silver bullet,” he said.
LA protests far different from ‘92 Rodney King riots
The images of cars set ablaze, protesters tossing rocks at police and officers firing nonlethal rounds and tear gas at protesters hearkens back to the last time a president sent the National Guard to respond to violence on Los Angeles streets.
But the unrest during several days of protests over immigration enforcement is far different in scale from the 1992 riots that followed the acquittal of white police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King.
President George H.W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to call in the National Guard after requests from Mayor Tom Bradley and Gov. Pete Wilson. After the current protests began Friday over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 4,100 National Guard troops and 700 Marines despite strident opposition from Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Trump cited a legal provision to mobilize federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday saying Trump had overstepped his authority. On Tuesday, Newsom filed an emergency motion in federal court to block the troops from assisting with immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Unlike the 1992 riots, protests have mainly been peaceful and been confined to a roughly five-block stretch of downtown LA, a tiny patch in the sprawling city of nearly 4 million people. No one has died. There’s been vandalism and some cars set on fire but no homes or buildings have burned.
More than 100 people have been arrested over the past several days of protests. The vast majority of arrests were for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting, vandalism and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail.
Several officers have had minor injuries and protesters and some journalists have been struck by some of the more than 600 rubber bullets and other “less-lethal” munitions fired by police.
Outrage over the verdicts on April 29, 1992 led to nearly a week of widespread violence that was one of the deadliest riots in American history. Hundreds of businesses were looted. Entire blocks of homes and stores were torched. More than 60 people died in shootings and other violence, mostly in South Los Angeles, an area with a heavily Black population at the time.
The 1992 uprising took many by surprise, including the Los Angeles Police Department, but the King verdict was a catalyst for racial tensions that had been building in the city for years.
In addition to frustration with their treatment by police, some directed their anger at Korean merchants who owned many of the local stores. Black residents felt the owners treated them more like shoplifters than shoppers. As looting and fires spread toward Koreatown, some merchants protected their stores with shotguns and rifles.
Correspondent Terry Moran out at ABC News, two days after suspension over Stephen Miller post
- Moran said Miller’s “hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
Correspondent Terry Moran is out at ABC News, two days after the organization suspended its correspondent for a social media post that called Trump administration deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “world class hater.”
The network said Tuesday that it was at the end of its contract with Moran “and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision not to renew.”
The Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, quickly condemned Moran for his late-night X post criticizing Miller, which was swiftly deleted.
Moran had interviewed President Donald Trump only a few weeks ago. He said in his X post that the president was also a hater, but that his hatred was in service of his own glorification.
But for Miller, Moran said, “his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
Moran, 65, had worked at ABC News since 1997. He was a longtime co-anchor of “Nightline,” and covered the Supreme Court and national politics. During an interview with Trump that was broadcast in prime-time a month ago, the president said “you’re not being very nice” in the midst of a contentious exchange about deportations.
In a particularly bad case of timing for him, Moran’s contract with ABC had been due to expire on Friday, according to people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about personnel issues.
His post, a breach of traditional journalism ethics on expressing personal opinions on reporting subjects, came at what was already a sensitive time for ABC News. The network agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library in December, in order to settle a defamation lawsuit over George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate assertion that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump aide Steven Cheung responded to Moran’s exit on Tuesday with a profane comment on X, saying those who talk down the president and his staff “get hit.”
