World
Right-wing violence in Germany reaches record highs over past decade
Violence against politicians has been dominating the headlines, but instances of everyday racism and anti-Semitic attacks are causing German victim advice centres to sound the alarm. Euronews travelled to Thuringia, a right-wing hotspot, to speak with a victim of neo-Nazi violence.
Germany has witnessed a surge in right-wing, racist, and anti-Semitic violence, reaching unprecedented levels, since 2013.
Victim support group Ezra says there is a direct link between the increase in right-wing violence and support for the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), currently polling second nationwide and expected to make sweeping gains in the upcoming elections in three eastern states.
Mayar, a 20-year-old nurse who fled Syria during the war and has lived in Germany for nearly nine years, feels a strong sense of German identity, having grown up there. He recounts the moment of the attack:
“He (perpetrator) insulted me and then hit me. He then choked me and pushed me against the train, and then strangled me. strangling me with his thumbs pressed into my throat. His actions were inhumane; his intent was clearly not just to hurt me, but to cause severe harm”.
Mayar says the perpetrator is a “known neo-Nazi, known for his crimes”. Despite this being neither the first nor the last time the perpetrator committed a violent crime, the verdict was a suspended sentence.
Mayar says the crime had a big impact on him.
“During the day, things can be normal. I can still live my life, but it’s actually hard for me to leave the house late at night. Especially where I live, at that location,” he says.
According to Mayar, his area is “very well-known for right-wing extremists,” and adds, “I can’t just go out whenever I want. Or I’m very cautious about such things myself. And the word ‘security’ is missing for me when it comes to going out at night.”
Mayar witnesses the rise of racism firsthand.
“It’s gotten worse since before. For about a year, I’ve noticed that it’s become much, much more common. So, on the street, you see it very often by now. For me, on average, every two weeks, 1 to 2 weeks, I myself either am part of such cases on the street or I’m a witness to them. Also on the internet, it’s become everyday for me to simply see racism.” he says.
He blames the rise in support for the AfD, which has been designated as extremist by a German court.
“Whenever I think that sometime in the future, I could be deported just because I come from a different country, even though I grew up here, it’s sad, it scares me, and it makes me feel like a stranger. Now and then, I wonder, do I belong to the Arabs? Am I too German? And to the Germans, am I too much Arab? It’s not a nice feeling, definitely not.”
Country-wide mass protests were triggered in January when it emerged that AfD members held a secret meeting with German and Austrian far-right figures, including neo-Nazi leader of the Identitarian movement Martin Sellner, to discuss a “remigration” plan. Figures discussed deporting hundreds of thousands, sometimes naturalised German citizens, back to their countries of origin.
Whilst figures released by the Association of Counselling Centres for Victims of Right-Wing, Racist, and Anti-Semitic Violence e.V. (VBRG) put the number of attacks at a record high of 3,384, this number is only the tip of the iceberg. Not all crimes are reported to police and victim support centres and the figures are only taken from 11 out of 16 federal states.
Some convictions can take years, according to support groups
Spokesperson of Ezra, Franz Zobel, says there is a direct link between the increase in violence and AfD support.
“Here we had a strong increase especially in the Sonneberg district. This is the district where an AfD politician was elected district administrator for the first time. And there we experienced a massive increase in right-wing violence,” he says.
Zobel points to a representative study by Prof Dr Dancygier from Princeton University that suggests between 38.7% and 42.5% of hate crime supporters would vote for AfD.
But Zobel also says the increase in attacks isn’t just limited to Thuringia, or even Germany.
“The AfD and other extreme right-wing parties in Europe are very well connected and they are therefore also the greatest threat to the European Union and also to the idea of Europe and to the people because they experience this. This strengthening is not only in Germany or in East Germany, but we see this throughout Europe.”
Zobel also says that many AfD supporters “simply feel legitimised to strike,” and underlines the cases of AfD politicians who have attacked people themselves.
According to investigative outlet Correctiv, “48 AfD representatives and employees at district, state and federal level have recently been involved in violent acts”.
28 of these politicians have reportedly been convicted by a court or penal orders have been issued against them – and 14 are still politically active.
At least five other AfD representatives are under investigation, with some of the cases involving physical attacks and incitement to hatred.
“Here,” Zobel says, perpetrators “know that no consequences threaten them. If there are any, it’s only after years and with mild sentences. And then they don’t have to answer for the political motive behind their inhumanity.”
Zobel says Thuringia especially has a problem with the judiciary and many of the sentences are very mild.
“We have trials that take eight years until there is a conviction in the end. There are further problems that the motives are very, very rarely recognised. So in the judgments, you rarely find again that it is, for example, a racist offense.”
In the case of Mayar, for example, the conviction took several years.
“In the case here, for example, it concerns an organised neo-Nazi, so he (perpetrator) is part of the organised neo-Nazi scene. He has already been noticed with over ten offenses before, he has repeatedly been fined, and now, in the end, there is again a suspended sentence,” the spokesperson says.
“This encourages perpetrators to commit right-wing and racist violence, because without consequences, the perpetrators feel safe.”
According to Taz newspaper, judges in the Thuringia district of Gera share close ties with AfD politicians, both on a local and national level, and quote statistics where judges decide in favour of asylum seekers in single digit percentages. The judges deny being right-wing biased.
World
Minneapolis on edge after fatal shooting of woman by ICE officer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis was on edge Thursday following the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer taking part in the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown, with the governor calling for people to remain calm and schools canceling classes and activities as a safety precaution.
State and local officials demanded ICE leave the state after 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good was shot in the head. But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said agents are not going anywhere.
The Department of Homeland Security has deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area in what it says is its largest immigration enforcement operation ever. Noem said more than 1,500 people have been arrested.
Macklin Good’s killing Wednesday morning in a residential neighborhood south of downtown was recorded on video by witnesses, and by the evening hundreds of people came out for a vigil to mourn her and urge the public to resist immigration enforcement. Some then chanted as they marched through the city, but there was no violence.
“I would love for ICE to leave our city and for more community members to come to see it happens,” said Sander Kolodziej, a painter who came to the vigil to support the community.
The videos of the shooting show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with ICE agents earlier. After the shooting the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.
In another recording made afterward, a woman who identifies Macklin Good as her spouse is seen crying near the vehicle. The woman, who is not identified, says the couple recently arrived in Minnesota and they had a child.
Noem called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE officers, saying the driver “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
President Donald Trump made similar accusations on social media and defended ICE’s work.
Noem alleged that the woman was part of a “mob of agitators” and said the officer followed his training. She said the FBI would investigate.
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called Noem’s version of events “garbage.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” Frey said. “Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit.”
He also criticized the federal deployment and said the agents should leave.
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. Wednesday’s is at least the fifth death linked to the crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced the operation’s launch Tuesday, at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
A crowd of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting to vent their anger at local and federal officers.
In a scene that hearkened back to crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago, people chanted “ICE out of Minnesota” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Gov. Tim Walz said he was prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He expressed outrage over the shooting but called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show,” Walz said. “We can’t give it to them.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot Macklin Good.
Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
___
Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, Mark Vancleave in Las Vegas, Michael Biesecker In Washington, Jim Mustian in New York and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
World
‘Irregular’ armed guards aboard Russian shadow tankers alarm Nordic-Baltic governments
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The seizure of a Russian-linked oil tanker in the North Atlantic has highlighted “worry” among NATO and Nordic-Baltic governments over dark fleet vessels and the type of crews onboard, according to a maritime intelligence analyst.
U.S. military and Coast Guard personnel boarded the Marinera between Iceland and the U.K. Wednesday as it operated under deceptive shipping practices, including flying a false flag and violating sanctions.
According to Reuters, Russian authorities demanded the humane treatment and repatriation of the crew members.
Windward maritime intelligence analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann claimed the Marinera’s ownership had just been transferred to Burevestmarin LLC, a Russian company.
TREASURY TARGETS OIL TRADERS, TANKERS ACCUSED OF HELPING MADURO EVADE U.S. SANCTIONS
U.S. forces seized the Russian-flagged Marinera oil tanker in the North Atlantic Sea Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, according to the U.S. military. (US European Command)
“We do not know the status of these sailors and seafarers, who are Russian nationals,” Wiese Bockmann told Fox News Digital. “That lack of clarity is common with dark fleet tankers.
“The Marinera did have its ownership transferred to a newly formed Russian company, with the registered owner, ship manager and commercial manager being Burevestmarin LLC.”
She also suggested NATO and the Nordic-Baltic 8+ group of governments have been “worried” about sanctioned oil tankers with unauthorized personnel onboard, including “armed guards.”
WORLD’S BIGGEST OIL RESERVE HOLDER FACES US CHOKEHOLD AS TRUMP TARGETS VENEZUELA’S SHADOW TANKER FLEET
U.S. forces seized the Russian-flagged Marinera oil tanker in the North Atlantic Sea Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, according to the U.S. military. (US European Command)
“Increasingly, and I know the Nordic Baltic 8+ governments are worried about the fact that you are having unauthorized people also on board, also known as armed guards,” Wiese Bockmann said. “But it is highly irregular.
“Armed guards are rarely seen and typically used on ships that are transiting the Gulf of Aden or the Red Sea and are therefore assessed as at risk from attack by Houthis or pirates,” she added.
After the seizure, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected Russian demands for special treatment of the Marinera’s crew during her regular briefing Wednesday.
“This was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that had transported sanctioned oil,” Leavitt said.
“The vessel was deemed stateless after flying a false flag, and it had a judicial seizure order. And that’s why the crew will be subject to prosecution.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was “closely following” the situation, according to the state-run TASS news agency.
US COAST GUARD PURSUES THIRD ‘DARK FLEET’ OIL TANKER AS TRUMP TARGETS VENEZUELAN SANCTIONS EVASION NETWORK
A crude oil tanker waits its turn to be loaded with crude oil at Lake Maracaibo in Maracaibo, Zulia State, Venezuela, May 9, 2025. (Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images)
Wiese Bockmann noted that dark fleet crews are often multinational, typically involving a Russian master with Chinese, Indian or Filipino crew members.
“There is a blurring of commercial and military shipping around the dark fleet,” she said. “What we’re seeing now is something that has really only emerged in the last six or seven months.”
European authorities have also begun holding crews accountable, particularly when captains are “facilitating dangerous deceptive shipping practices, such as spoofing and going dark,” she explained.
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“The EU recently sanctioned the captain of a tanker who refused orders from the Estonian navy (Jaguar) to be stopped for inspection last May. And the French charged a captain over his refusal to comply with orders and failure to justify a flag’s nationality after authorities intercepted a dark fleet tanker in the Atlantic last October,” Wiese Bockmann added.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, a second vessel, the M. Sophia, was also boarded in international waters near the Caribbean while en route to Venezuela.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
World
Saudi-led coalition says STC’s al-Zubaidi fled to UAE via Somaliland
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Secessionist leader took a boat to Berbera and then boarded a plane that flew to Abu Dhabi via Mogadishu, coalition says.
Published On 8 Jan 2026
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen has announced that the leader of the secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) has fled to the United Arab Emirates via Somaliland after skipping planned peace talks in Riyadh.
In a statement on Thursday, the coalition said Aidarous al-Zubaidi “escaped in the dead of night” on Wednesday on board a vessel that departed Aden in Yemen for the port of Berbera in Somaliland.
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Al-Zubaidi then boarded a plane along with UAE officers and flew to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. “The plane turned off its identification systems over the Gulf of Oman, then turned it back on 10 minutes prior to arrival at Al Reef military airport in Abu Dhabi,” the statement said.
There was no immediate comment from the STC or the UAE.
If confirmed, the move could deepen the feud between Saudi Arabia and the UAE that came to light after the Abu Dhabi-backed STC launched an offensive against the Riyadh-backed Yemeni government troops in December.
The STC – which initially supported Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen – is seeking an independent state in southern Yemen. It seized the provinces of Hadramout and Mahra, which border Saudi Arabia, in a campaign that Riyadh described as a red line for its national security.
The Saudi-led coalition responded with air strikes on the Yemeni port of Mukalla on December 30, targeting what it called a UAE-linked weapons shipment, and backed a call by Yemen’s internationally recognised government for Emirati forces to withdraw from the country.
For its part, Abu Dhabi denied that the shipment contained weapons and expressed a commitment to ensure Riyadh’s security. On the same day, it announced an end to what it called its “counterterrorism mission” in Yemen.
Yemeni government troops, backed by Saudi Arabian air attacks, went on to reclaim Hadramout and Mahra, and the STC said on Saturday that it would attend peace talks hosted by Saudi Arabia.
But the coalition said al-Zubaidi was not on board the Yemeni Air flight that took the STC delegation to Riyadh on Wednesday.
It launched strikes on al-Zubaidi’s forces in Yemen’s Dhale governorate, while Yemeni government’s ground forces moved on the STC controlled Aden and seized the presidential palace in the city.
The head of the internationally recognised government’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, has meanwhile announced that al-Zubaidi has been removed from the council for “committing high treason”.
Al-Alimi said he has asked the country’s attorney general to launch an investigation against al-Zubaidi and take legal action.
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