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Heavily armed police officers secure the scene. A car has crashed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg. Several people are killed and many injured.
Germany grapples with extremism after Christmas market attack
The Saudi doctor accused of killing 5 people in the Magdeburg Christmas market on Friday appeared in a German court on Saturday.Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, was charged with five counts of murder, multiple attempted murder and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm in an attack which also wounded over 200 people. One of those killed was9-year old André Gleißner, described by his mother in a social media post as “my little teddy bear”. A GoFundMe for the family has raised tens of thousands of dollars.
Anger is growing over missed opportunities to prevent the attack. Riyadhhad flagged the suspect to German authorities last summer,citing a post where he threatened that Germany would “pay a price” for its treatment of Saudi refugees. At the same time, al-Abdulmohsen called himself a“Saudi atheist” and evinced sympathies for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
While he appears not to fit the standard mold of an Islamic terrorist, on Friday the AfD held a 2000-person rally at a memorial site near the market, calling for “Remigration”, and chanting “Migration Kills.” The incident has putmigration and national security front and center in Germany’s upcoming national election, anticipated for February 23. The AfD is currently polling at around 19%, second only to the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at around 33%, but all other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with them.
Lebanon's Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem speaks during an interview with Reuters in Beirut's suburbs, Lebanon November 22, 2019.
Will Hezbollah’s new leader give peace a chance?
Hezbollah on Tuesday named cleric Naim Kassem, 71, as its new leader. Kassem was a longtime deputy of Hezbollah’s previous leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike last month.
Kassem inherits Nasrallah’s job at a precarious moment for Hezbollah, which has been fighting with Israel since Hamas attacked the Jewish state last October. The conflict escalated when Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon earlier this month.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant responded to Kassem’s appointment by posting his picture to X with the caption, “Temporary appointment. Not for long.”
Mixed signals. Kassem has often been the public face of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, a role that’s increased since Nasrallah’s death.
On Oct. 8, Kassem gave a speech in which he expressed support for a cease-fire in Lebanon, without explicitly linking a truce to an end of the Gaza war — a condition upon which Hezbollah previously insisted. But in another speech on Oct. 15, Kassem signaled Hezbollah wouldn’t agree to a deal that didn’t include an end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
In the days ahead, we’ll be watching to see if Kassem takes a clearer position on a cease-fire now that he’s officially the new voice of Hezbollah.
FILE PHOTO: Police officers stand at the entrance to a building during a raid in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Security forces have searched several properties in Berlin, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein in connection with the ban on the terrorist organization Hamas and the international network Samidoun in Germany.
US and Canada list Samidoun as a terrorist group
The United States and Canada both moved Tuesday to designate Samidoun as a terrorist entity, following Germany, which banned the group last year, and the Netherlands, which banned it last week. Samidoun, which is also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, is headquartered in Vancouver and is accused of having links to and advancing the agenda of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is already listed as a terrorist group.
The listing means that governments in both countries can freeze assets belonging to the group and prevent them from banking, for instance.
Calls for Samidoun to be listed increased after a rally in Vancouver on Oct. 7, the anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel, where a masked woman led a crowd in chants of “death to Canada, death to the United States, and death to Israel,” and Canadian flags were burned.
Prosecutors are weighing whether to file hate speech charges against one of the group’s leaders over an earlier rally.
In Canada and the United States, rallies against the war in Gaza have inflamed tensions, and antisemitic incidents have increased dramatically.
On Tuesday, Israel released a report warning that antisemitism in Canada is on the rise and that Jewish places of worship, community centers, and day schools have been targeted. On Saturday morning, a Toronto Jewish girls’ day school was shot at for the second time. Nobody was hurt, and students have returned to class, but the community is fearful.
Indian paramilitary soldiers stand alert while Jammu and Kashmir National Conference candidate Mubarak Gul arrives to file his nomination papers for assembly elections in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on September 2, 2024.
Can Kashmiri voters keep Modi’s party out of control in local assembly?
The Indian-occupied region of Kashmir kicks off its first phase of elections on Wednesday for its own truncated government and local legislative assembly, as New Delhi reintroduces some local authority after taking direct control in 2019. Kashmiris, the majority of whom are Muslim, have frequently boycotted elections in the past to protest Indian occupation but reportedly plan to participate this time to attempt to deny the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party control.
Who are the main players? Besides the BJP, which enjoys support from the regional Hindu minority, especially around the city of Jammu, the local People’s Democratic Party and National Congress party are the main contenders. PDP was in coalition with BJP from the last election in 2014 to 2018, while NC has allied with the Indian National Congress, BJP’s main rival on the national level. In addition, 145 independent candidates have registered – a record high — which some Kashmiris say is due to the BJP attempting to dilute the opposition vote. Vote counting is scheduled for Oct. 8, after two additional phases on Sept. 25 and Oct. 1.
The new assembly will have partial control over social policy like education, culture and taxation but not over the police, and it will not enjoy the special privileges it had prior to 2019.
The upshot? If Kashmiri parties can form a governing coalition, they will still be very limited in what legislation they can pass, but it may reduce the appeal of armed insurrection for disaffected youth. Violence in the Vale of Kashmir, which India accuses Pakistan of supporting, has already cost tens of thousands of lives, and we’re watching whether the ballot might prove mightier than the bullet.Members of civilian joint task force patrol in Maiduguri May 22, 2014. Civilian joint task force are government-sponsored civilian self-defence and community-policing groups within Borno state that some locals said have brought security to Maiduguri, according to local government officials.
Hard Numbers: Nigerian troops killed by gangs, Americans set to leave Niger and Chad, Russia arrests journalists, Zelensky appeals for aid
23: At least 23 members of Nigeria's civilian joint task force were killed Saturday in attacks by militants and an armed kidnapping gang in the northern part of the country. Suspected Islamic State West Africa Province fighters targeted a vehicle with an improvised explosive device in Borno state, killing nine, and another 14 members were ambushed and killed in Sokoto state by gunmen.
1,000: The United States plans to withdraw most of its 1,000 troops from Niger and 100 from Chad amid deteriorating relations with both governments, which are questioning Washington’s counterterrorism role in the region. Earlier this month, Russian trainers arrived in Niger to work with its air force, another sign of the pivot away from the US.
2: Russia has arrested journalists who work with international news outlets. Sergei Karelin, a Russian-Israeli citizen, and Konstantin Gabov, were charged with "extremism" for allegedly aiding opposition leader Alexei Navalny's banned organization. If convicted, they face a minimum of two years in prison.
21: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskymade yet another appeal for more defensive aid, specifically Patriot missile systems, and urged faster delivery following Russian missile strikes on Saturday that targeted energy facilities affecting EU gas supplies. The attacks, which disrupted water supply in Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, saw Ukrainian air defenses successfully intercept 21 out of 34 missiles.
Does Europe face a resurging terrorist threat after the Moscow attack?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm.
Is the terrorist threat to Europe back after what happened in Moscow?Well, the bad news is, yes, it's there. There's no question about it. It's still coming out. Central Asia, Afghanistan. We have a very disturbing situation in part of Africa with ISIS gaining ground in different ways, so not directly threatening Europe so far. And we should not forget that we have a situation in the Middle East with Gaza and all of the emotions that that is leading to, that is bound to be a recruitment possibility for these particular groups. The good news, if there is any, is of course that evidently the Americans were able to pick up advance warning of this particular terrorist attack. And that shows that we have intelligence capabilities combined with different countries that could give us somewhat more security than perhaps we had in the past. The bad news in this particular situation is, of course, the Russian authorities didn't listen and very many innocent Russians had to pay a very heavy price for that.
We have to learn all of these particular lessons as we move ahead.
Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a candle in memory of the victims of the Crocus City Hall attack, on the day of national mourning in a church at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia March 24, 2024.
Moscow mourns amid international blame game
President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning for the 137 people killed at the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow on Friday. Several gunmen opened fire at the popular music venue late Friday, injuring another 180 and leaving more than a third of the building on fire. Crews are still sifting through the debris for bodies.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, which came just weeks after Washington warned of possible terrorism at large venues in the Moscow area, which Putin notably ridiculed as fearmongering.
What motivated the militants? In a word: Syria. Russia has been helping the Assad regime ramp up its attacks on Islamic State strongholds in recent months, but the battles have been going on for years, with anger festering over Putin’s support for President Bashar al-Assad.
Still, Putin looks east. Despite the Islamic State’s admission, Putin tried to blame Ukraine. He also blamed “international terrorism” but said the perpetrators — 11 have been arrested, including four of the gunmen — were trying to flee to Ukraine after the attack.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied any role in Friday’s tragedy. Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities intensified over the weekend, with drones hitting Kyiv and Lviv, along the Polish border. While no one was injured, Poland reported that Russian cruise missiles had entered its airspace.
"Pointing the finger at Ukraine and sidelining the ISIS-K angle — at least in official statements — serves the Kremlin’s purpose of rationalizing a potential escalation in its military operations against the adversary," says Eurasia Group analyst Tinatin Japaridze, possibly including a new round of conscription, though Putin did not mention mobilization specifically on Saturday.
The pro-Palestine Japanese militants who once attacked Israel
Why had militants from halfway around the world come to Israel to carry out a terrorist attack like this? And what did a young woman from Tokyo known as “The Empress of Terror” have to do with it? This is the story of the Lod Airport Massacre, one of the most bizarre chapters in the long history of violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Watch the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer episode: Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah: Fears of escalation grow
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