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German Intelligence Agency Says Number of Extremists in Germany Increased in 2024  (DW)
In its annual report for 2024, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) revealed that it had monitored significantly more extremists last year than in previous years. The fact that the number of right-wing extremists increased by around 23% to 50,250 within a year is partly due to the growth in membership of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. According to the report, 20,000 members of the party were classified as potentially right-wing extremists last year. In November, the AfD stated that it had 50,000 members. Last month, the agency classified the party as a whole as “extremist” on the basis of a 1,100-page expert report, which enabled it to increase its monitoring of the AfD. However, the party has legally challenged this decision. Meanwhile, the number of right-wing extremists classified as violent rose again last year, by 800 people, reaching a total of 15,300.

German Police Say AfD Membership Incompatible with Service  (Richard Connor and Dmytro Hubenko, DW)
Germany’s Federal Police Commissioner Uli Grötsch has voiced disapproval regarding police officers’ membership in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Grötsch called it “incompatible” with serving in law enforcement. “AfD membership and working as a police officer are incompatible,” Grötsch told the Rheinische Post newspaper. Grötsch also said that officers who demonstrate clear commitment to the AfD should be dismissed. “For me, commitment means openly supporting the party, running for local or city council or even for the Bundestag,” he added. In early May, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classified the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization.

British Girl Who Took Life Was Radicalized by U.S. Neo-Nazis, Inquest Says  (Michael Holden, Reuters)
A British teenage girl, who had said she wanted to blow up a synagogue and became fixated with Adolf Hitler, had been sucked into far-right extremism by two American neo-Nazis, a British coroner said on Monday. Rhianan Rudd, who was 16, took her own life in May 2022 at a children’s home having been investigated by police and Britain’s domestic security service MI5 over extremist views.

Hamas Documents Reportedly Show Deep Ties, Coordination Between Qatar, Terror Group  (Times of Israel)
Documents seized in Gaza over the course of the war against Hamas and published by an Israeli TV channel Sunday night purport to shine a light on Qatar’s intensive collaboration with the terror group spanning a number of years, including attempts to thwart regional peace efforts by the US, marginalize Egyptian influence on Gaza, and bolster the roles of Turkey and Iran. The documents appear to contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent characterization of Qatar as a “complicated state, but not an enemy state,” and his attempts to downplay years of Qatari cash infusions of millions of dollars a month to Hamas in Gaza, which he last month claimed didn’t play a significant role in allowing the terror group to prepare for, and execute, its ongoing war against the Jewish state, which erupted with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

U.N. Agency Suspects North Korea Is Building New Uranium-Enrichment Site  (Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times)
The nuclear energy agency noted the construction of a site similar to current plants, as Kim Jong-un has been pushing to produce more fuel for nuclear bombs.

Migrants Responsible for Increase in Antisemitism, Says Merz  (DW)
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has told US media that migration is a factor behind the rise in antisemitism in Germany. In an interview with Fox News, Merz was asked what he was doing to combat antisemitism in Germany and he said: “This is, especially for Germany, a terrible challenge that we are faced with such an amount of cases of antisemitism in Germany.” “We are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down,” Merz continued. “We are prosecuting those who are against the law. And frankly, we have a sort of imported antisemitism with the big numbers of migrants we have within the last 10 years, and we have to tackle this and we have to resolve this problem.” “I would like to make it very clear, that the German government, and the vast majority of the German parliament, is strictly against antisemitism and against these people and we are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down.”