Police raid conspiracy theorist group 'Kingdom of Germany'

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Updated 13 May 2025
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Police raid conspiracy theorist group 'Kingdom of Germany'

Police raid conspiracy theorist group 'Kingdom of Germany'

BERLIN: German authorities on Tuesday banned an extremist group called the "Kingdom of Germany", raided multiple locations nationwide and arrested four of its leading members.

The group is part of a right-wing conspiracy theorist movement known as the "Citizens of the Reich" ("Reichsbuerger"), which rejects the legitimacy of the modern German republic.

Among those detained was the group's self-proclaimed "king" Peter Fitzek, 59, a former chef and karate instructor.

He founded the organisation, which has claimed to have about 6,000 members.

Long dismissed as malcontents and oddballs, the Reichsbuerger have become increasingly radicalised and are considered a security threat by German authorities.

Hundreds of security forces searched properties in seven states linked to the group, known in German as "Koenigreich Deutschland".

The interior ministry said that over the past 10 years, the group had established "pseudo-state structures and institutions", issuing its own currency and identity papers and running an insurance scheme for its members.

The ministry declared the dissolution of the group, which it accused of "attacking the liberal democratic order" of the federal Republic of Germany.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that the members of the group had "created a 'counter-state' in our country and built up economic criminal structures".

"In this way, they persistently undermine the legal system and the Federal Republic's monopoly on the use of force."

Authorities said the association had financed itself primarily through prohibited banking and insurance transactions for its members as well as donations.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said Fitzek was arrested along with three other suspected ringleaders of the group, which was classified as a criminal organisation.

As the "so-called supreme sovereign," Fitzek had "control and decision-making power in all key areas", the Prosecutor's Office said.

"The Kingdom of Germany considers itself a sovereign state within the meaning of international law and strives to extend its claimed 'national territory' to the borders of the German Empire of 1871," it added in a statement.

Fitzek, who once ran unsuccessfully to enter parliament, anointed himself as "king" in 2012 in an elaborate ceremony complete with a crown and sceptre.

He told AFP in an interview in 2023 that founding the organisation was the only answer to the "mass manipulation" he saw in German society.

His followers tend to be people with a "pioneering spirit" who "want to make a positive change in this world", Fitzek told AFP in Wittenberg, the group's original base in eastern Germany.

In Tuesday's raids, police searched locations in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

There were around 23,000 members of the Reichsbuerger movement in 2022, according to Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

More than 2,000 of them were considered potentially violent.

While Reichsbuerger members subscribe to an ideology similar to that of the Kingdom of Germany, the Reichsbuerger movement is made up of many disparate groups.

In 2022, members of a group including an ex-MP and former soldiers were arrested over a plot to attack parliament, overthrow the government and install aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss as head of state.

Another high-profile case saw a group of Reichsbuerger members charged with plotting to kidnap the then health minister, Karl Lauterbach, in protest at Covid-19 restrictions.

 


Europeans and Iran meet in Istanbul as the return of sanctions looms over nuclear deadlock

Europeans and Iran meet in Istanbul as the return of sanctions looms over nuclear deadlock
Updated 58 min 35 sec ago
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Europeans and Iran meet in Istanbul as the return of sanctions looms over nuclear deadlock

Europeans and Iran meet in Istanbul as the return of sanctions looms over nuclear deadlock
  • The talks are centered on the possibility of reimposing sanctions on Iran that were lifted in 2015 in exchange for Iran accepting restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program
  • European leaders have said the reinstating of sanctions will start by the end of August if there is no progress on containing Iran’s nuclear program

ISTANBUL: Iranian and European diplomats are set to meet in Istanbul Friday to embark on the latest drive to unpick the deadlock over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Representatives from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3 nations, will gather at the Iranian consulate building for the first talks since Iran’s 12-day war with Israel in June, which involved US bombers striking nuclear-related facilities.

The talks are centered on the possibility of reimposing sanctions on Iran that were lifted in 2015 in exchange for Iran accepting restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program.

The return of sanctions, known as a “snapback” mechanism, “remains on the table,” according to a European diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.

“A possible delay in triggering snapback has been floated to the Iranians on the condition that there is credible diplomatic engagement by Iran, that they resume full cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), and that they address concerns about their highly-enriched uranium stockpile,” the diplomat said.

European leaders have said sanctions will resume by the end of August if there is no progress on containing Iran’s nuclear program.

Tehran, meanwhile, has said the US, which withdrew from the 2015 deal during President Donald Trump ‘s first term, needs to rebuild faith in its role in negotiations.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran’s engagement was dependent on “several key principles” that included “rebuilding Iran’s trust – as Iran has absolutely no trust in the United States.”

In a social media post Thursday, he also said the talks shouldn’t be used “as a platform for hidden agendas such as military action.” Gharibabadi insisted that Iran’s right to enrich uranium “in line with its legitimate needs” be respected and sanctions removed.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to leave the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which commits it to refrain from developing nuclear weapons, if sanctions return.

Friday’s talks will be held at the deputy ministerial level, with Iran sending Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-e Ravanchi. A similar meeting was held in Istanbul in May. The identity of the E3 representatives were not immediately clear but the European Union’s deputy foreign policy commissioner is expected to attend.

The UK, France and Germany were signatories to the 2015 deal, alongside the US, Russia and China. When the US withdrew in 2018, Trump insisted the agreement wasn’t tough enough. Under the original deal, neither Russia nor China can veto reimposed sanctions.

Since the Israeli and US strikes on Iran, which saw American B-52 bombers hit three nuclear sites, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused the E3 of hypocrisy, saying they failed to uphold their obligations while supporting Israel’s attacks.

Against the backdrop of the conflict, which saw Iran respond with missile attacks on Israel and a strike on a US base in Qatar, the road ahead remains uncertain

While European officials have said they want to avoid further conflict and are open to a negotiated solution, they have warned that time is running out.

Tehran maintains it is open to diplomacy, though it recently suspended cooperation with the IAEA.

A central concern for Western powers was highlighted when the IAEA reported in May that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent – just below weapons-grade level – had grown to over 400 kilograms (882 pounds).

In an interview with Al Jazeera that aired Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran is prepared for another war and reiterated that its nuclear program will continue within the framework of international law while adding the country had no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.

A spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said Thursday the country’s nuclear industry would “grow back and thrive again” after the recent attacks by Israel and the US


US lifts sanctions on Myanmar junta allies after general praises Trump

US lifts sanctions on Myanmar junta allies after general praises Trump
Updated 25 July 2025
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US lifts sanctions on Myanmar junta allies after general praises Trump

US lifts sanctions on Myanmar junta allies after general praises Trump
  • Human Rights Watch describes the American move ‘extremely worrying’
  • Suggests major shift was underway in US policy toward Myanmar’s military

WASHINGTON: The United States lifted sanctions designations on several allies of Myanmar’s ruling generals on Thursday, two weeks after the head of the ruling junta praised President Donald Trump and called for an easing of sanctions in a letter responding to a tariff warning.

Human Rights Watch called the move “extremely worrying” and said it suggested a major shift was underway in US policy toward Myanmar’s military, which overthrew a democratically elected government in 2021 and has been implicated in crimes against humanity and genocide.

A notice from the US Treasury Department said KT Services & Logistics and its founder, Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung; the MCM Group and its owner Aung Hlaing Oo; and Suntac Technologies and its owner Sit Taing Aung; and another individual, Tin Latt Min, were being removed from the US sanctions list. KT Services & Logistics and Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung were added to the sanctions list in January 2022 under the Biden administration in a step timed to mark the first anniversary of the military seizure of power in Myanmar that plunged the country into chaos.

Sit Taing Aung and Aung Hlaing Oo were placed on the sanctions list the same year for operating in Myanmar’s defense sector. Tin Latt Min, identified as another close associate of the military rulers, was placed on the list in 2024 to mark the third anniversary of the coup.

The Treasury Department did not explain the reason for the move, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On July 11, Myanmar’s ruling military general, Min Aung Hlaing, asked Trump in a letter for a reduction in the 40 percent tariff rate on his country’s exports to the US and said he was ready to send a negotiating team to Washington if needed.

“The senior general acknowledged the president’s strong leadership in guiding his country toward national prosperity with the spirit of a true patriot,” state media said at the time.

In his response to a letter from Trump notifying Myanmar of the tariff to take effect on August 1, Min Aung Hlaing proposed a reduced rate of 10 percent to 20 percent, with Myanmar slashing its levy on US imports to a range of zero to 10 percent.

Min Aung Hlaing also asked Trump “to reconsider easing and lifting the economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar, as they hinder the shared interests and prosperity of both countries and their peoples.” Myanmar is one of the world’s main sources of sought-after rare earth minerals used in high-tech defense and consumer applications. Securing supplies of the minerals is a major focus for the Trump administration in its strategic competition with China, which is responsible for 90 percent of rare earth processing capacity. Most of Myanmar’s rare earth mines are in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic group fighting the junta, and are processed in China.

John Sifton, Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, called the US move “shocking” and its motivation unclear.

“The action suggests a major shift is underway in US policy, which had centered on punitive action against Myanmar’s military regime, which only four years ago carried out a coup d’etat against a democratically elected government and is implicated in crimes against humanity and genocide,” he said in an emailed statement.

“The decision will cause deep concern among victims of the Myanmar military and everyone who has been fighting and advocating for a return to democratic rule in Myanmar,” Sifton said.


Tropical storm adds to Philippines’ weather toll with 25 dead and 278,000 evacuated this week

Tropical storm adds to Philippines’ weather toll with 25 dead and 278,000 evacuated this week
Updated 25 July 2025
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Tropical storm adds to Philippines’ weather toll with 25 dead and 278,000 evacuated this week

Tropical storm adds to Philippines’ weather toll with 25 dead and 278,000 evacuated this week
  • Tropical storm Co-may, locally called Emong, made landfall Thursday night with maximum sustained winds of 120kph hour and gusts of up to 165kph
  • At least 77 towns and cities, mostly in Luzon, have declared a state of calamity, a designation that speeds emergency funds and freezes the prices of commodities

MANILA: A tropical storm was blowing across the Philippines’ mountainous north Friday, worsening more than a week of bad weather that has caused at least 25 deaths and prompted evacuations in villages affected by flooding and landslides.

The storm was Typhoon Co-may when it made landfall Thursday night in the town of Agno in Pangasinan province with maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers (74 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 165 kph (102 mph). It was weakening as it advanced northeastward and had sustained winds of 100 kph (62 mph) Friday morning.

Co-may was intensifying seasonal monsoon rains that had swamped a large swath of the country for more than a week.

Disaster-response officials have received reports of at least 25 deaths since last weekend, mostly due to flash floods, toppled trees, landslides and electrocution. Eight other people were reported missing.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries directly caused by Co-may, locally called Emong, the fifth weather disturbance to hit the Philippines since the rainy season started in last month. More than a dozen more tropical storms were expected to batter the Southeast Asian country the rest of the year, forecasters said.

The government shut down schools in metropolitan Manila for the third day Friday and suspended classes in 35 provinces in the main northern region of Luzon. At least 77 towns and cities, mostly in Luzon, have declared a state of calamity, a designation that speeds emergency funds and freezes the prices of commodities, including rice.

The days of stormy weather have forced 278,000 people to leave their homes for safety in emergency shelters or relatives’ homes. Nearly 3,000 houses have been damaged, the government’s disaster response agency said.

Travel by sea and air has been restricted in northern provinces being pounded or in the typhoon’s path.

Thousands of army forces, police, coast guard personnel, firefighters and civilian volunteers have been deployed to help rescue people in villages swamped in floodwaters or isolated due to roads blocked by landslides, fallen trees and boulders.

After returning from his White House meeting with US President Donald Trump, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited emergency shelters Thursday in Rizal province to help distribute food packs to displaced residents. He later convened an emergency meeting with disaster-response officials, where he underscored the need for the government and the people to adapt to and brace for climate change and the larger number of and more unpredictable natural calamities it’s setting off.

“Everything has changed,” Marcos said. “Let’s not say, `The storm may come, what will happen?’ because the storm will really come.”

The United States, Manila’s longtime treaty ally, has pledged to provide military aircraft to airlift food and other aid to remote island provinces and the countryside if the calamity worsens, the Philippines military said.

The Philippines, which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Seas, is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. It’s often hit by earthquakes and has about two dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.


Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism

Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism
Updated 25 July 2025
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Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism

Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism
  • The university recently adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism
  • Columbia University genocide scholar Marianne Hirsch, is reconsidering her teaching role

NEW YORK: For years, Marianne Hirsch, a prominent genocide scholar at Columbia University, has used Hannah Arendt’s book about the trial of a Nazi war criminal, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” to spark discussion among her students about the Holocaust and its lingering traumas.

But after Columbia’s recent adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, which casts certain criticism of Israel as hate speech, Hirsch fears she may face official sanction for even mentioning the landmark text by Arendt, a philosopher who criticized Israel’s founding.

For the first time since she started teaching five decades ago, Hirsch, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, is now thinking of leaving the classroom altogether.

“A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry,” she told The Associated Press. “I just don’t see how I can teach about genocide in that environment.”

Hirsch is not alone. At universities across the country, academics have raised alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration, often under the threat of federal funding cuts.

Promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the definition lists 11 examples of antisemitic conduct, such as applying “double standards” to Israel, comparing the country’s policies to Nazism or describing its existence as “a racist endeavor.”

Ahead of a $220 million settlement with the Trump administration announced Wednesday, Columbia agreed to incorporate the IHRA definition and its examples into its disciplinary process. It has been endorsed in some form by Harvard, Yale and dozens of other universities.

While supporters say the semantic shift is necessary to combat evolving forms of Jewish hate, civil liberties groups warn it will further suppress pro-Palestinian speech already under attack by President Donald Trump.

For Hirsch, the restrictions on drawing comparisons to the Holocaust and questioning Israel’s founding amount to “clear censorship,” which she fears will chill discussions in the classroom and open her and other faculty up to spurious lawsuits.

“We learn by making analogies,” Hirsch said. “Now the university is saying that’s off-limits. How can you have a university course where ideas are not up for discussion or interpretation?”

A spokesperson for Columbia didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.

The ‘weaponization’ of an educational framework

When he first drafted the IHRA definition of antisemitism two decades ago, Kenneth Stern said he “never imagined it would one day serve as a hate speech code.”

At the time, Stern was working as the lead antisemitism expert at the American Jewish Committee. The definition and its examples were meant to serve as a broad framework to help European countries track bias against Jews, he said.

In recent years, Stern has spoken forcefully against what he sees as its “weaponization” against pro-Palestinian activists, including anti-Zionist Jews.

“People who believe they’re combating hate are seduced by simple solutions to complicated issues,” he said. “But when used in this context, it’s really actually harming our ability to think about antisemitism.”

Stern said he delivered that warning to Columbia’s leaders last fall after being invited to address them by Claire Shipman, then a co-chair of the board of trustees and the university’s current interim president.

The conversation seemed productive, Stern said. But in March, shortly after the Trump administration said it would withhold $400 million in federal funding to Columbia over concerns about antisemitism, the university announced it would adopt the IHRA definition for “training and educational” purposes.

Then last week, days before announcing a deal with the Trump administration to restore that funding, Shipman said the university would extend the IHRA definition for disciplinary purposes, deploying its examples when assessing “discriminatory intent.”

“The formal incorporation of this definition will strengthen our response to and our community’s understanding of modern antisemitism,” Shipman wrote.

Stern, who now serves as director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, called the move “appalling,” predicting it would spur a new wave of litigation against the university while further curtailing pro-Palestinian speech.

Already, the university’s disciplinary body has faced backlash for investigating students who criticized Israel in op-eds and other venues, often at the behest of pro-Israel groups.

“With this new edict on IHRA, you’re going to have more outside groups looking at what professors are teaching, what’s in the syllabus, filing complaints and applying public pressure to get people fired,” he said. “That will undoubtedly harm the university.”

Calls to ‘self-terminate’

Beyond adopting the IHRA definition, Columbia has also agreed to place its Middle East studies department under new supervision, overhaul its rules for protests and coordinate antisemitism trainings with groups like the Anti-Defamation League.

Earlier this week, the university suspended or expelled nearly 80 students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Kenneth Marcus, chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said Columbia’s actions were an overdue step to protect Jewish students from harassment.

He dismissed faculty concerns about the IHRA definition, which he said would “provide clarity, transparency and standardization” to the university’s effort to root out antisemitism.

“There are undoubtedly some Columbia professors who will feel they cannot continue teaching under the new regime,” Marcus said. “To the extent that they self-terminate, it may be sad for them personally, but it may not be so bad for the students at Columbia University.”

But Hirsch, the Columbia professor, said she was committed to continuing her long-standing study of genocides and their aftermath.

Part of that work, she said, will involve talking to students about Israel’s “ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide” in Gaza, where more than 58,000 Palestinians have died, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

“With this capitulation to Trump, it may now be impossible to do that inside Columbia,” Hirsch said. “If that’s the case, I’ll continue my work outside the university’s gates.”


What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida

What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida
Updated 25 July 2025
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What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida

What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida
  • Ryan Routh’s court-appointed federal public defenders asked to be taken off the case, saying he had refused repeated attempts to meet with their team
  • Separately, prosecutors trying the case asked a judge ahead of the September trial to rule out the introduction of inadmissible evidence, such as Routh’s previous writings, that may unfairly influence

A man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump in South Florida last year was back in court this week, asking a federal judge to let him represent himself, as prosecutors tried to block him from introducing irrelevant evidence during trial.

Ryan Routh’s court-appointed federal public defenders on Thursday asked to be taken off the case, saying he had refused repeated attempts to meet with their team.

Separately, prosecutors trying the case asked a judge ahead of the September trial to rule out the introduction of inadmissible evidence, such as Routh’s previous writings, that may unfairly influence jurors. The judge was planning to hear arguments over that matter on Friday.

Here’s what to know about the case.

The judge lets Ryan Routh represent himself

US District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off Thursday on Ryan Routh’s request to represent himself during his trial but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.

The judge told Routh that she believed it was a bad idea for Routh to represent himself, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood and would be ready.

On Friday, the judge was hearing a motion from prosecutors to limit unrelated evidence at trial. “As the Court knows, Routh has been very explicit in his desire to turn this trial into a circus where his supposed good character is weighed against the President’s,” the prosecutors wrote.

Routh is a self-styled mercenary leader

The 59-year-old Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.

In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.

In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.

Routh is charged with attempted assassination

Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, who was running for his second term last September as the GOP presidential nominee, while he played golf at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Judge presided over Trump’s classified documents case

If the judge’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case.

Last year, Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the US Justice Department. Cannon’s ruling halted a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office last January.

Cannon was a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020.

Trump was not hurt in the incident

He was fine. US Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.

Last September’s assassination attempt took place just nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.