Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival

Update Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival
Syrian defendant Issa Al H. bends over as he sits next to judicial officers in the dock in the courtroom in Duesseldorf, western Germany, on May 27, 2025, at the start of his trial over a deadly knife attack that killed three people in August 2024 in Solingen, western Germany, during a summer city festival. (AFP)
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Updated 27 May 2025
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Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival

Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival
  • Issa Al Hasan, 27, made the confession at the start of his trial
  • “Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,” Hasan said of the attack in August in the western city of Solingen

DUSSELDORF, Germany: A Syrian man suspected of belonging to the Daesh group pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing three people and wounding 10 more in a stabbing spree at a German summer festival last year.

Issa Al Hasan, 27, made the confession at the start of his trial, which was held under tight security at the higher regional court in Duesseldorf.

In a statement read out by his lawyer, Hasan, sitting under police guard behind a protective glass screen, admitted having “committed a grave crime.”

“Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,” Hasan said of the attack in August in the western city of Solingen.

“Some of them survived only by luck. They could have died, too,” he said in the statement.

“I deserve and expect a life sentence.”

The stabbing spree at the mid-summer street festival was one of a string of attacks that shocked Germany and stoked security fears.

Hasan was an asylum seeker from Syria who had been slated for deportation.

German authorities’ failure to remove him from the country fired a bitter debate over immigration in the run-up to national elections in February this year.

Hasan faces charges including three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and membership of a foreign terror organization.

Prosecutors say he set out to harm “nonbelievers” at the “festival for diversity” in the center of the western city of Solingen.

Hasan allegedly saw his targets “as representatives of Western society” and sought “to take revenge against them for the military actions of Western states.”

A member of Daesh whom Hasan had contacted that month allegedly encouraged him to go ahead with the plan and promised him that the group would claim it and use it for propaganda purposes.

The group later said via its Amaq outlet on the Telegram messaging app that an Daesh “soldier” had carried out the attack in “revenge” for Muslims “in Palestine and everywhere.”

Prosecutors say Hasan had filmed videos in which he pledged allegiance to Daesh and forwarded them on to his Daesh contact just before he committed the attack.

In the statement read out by his lawyer, Hasan recanted his alleged motivation for carrying out the attack.

“I killed and injured innocent people, not unbelievers,” he said.

“Christians, Jews and Muslims, we all are cousins, not enemies.”

The Solingen stabbing spree was one in a series of attacks attributed to asylum seekers and migrants that pushed immigration to the top of the political agenda in Germany.

In May 2024, a man with a knife attacked people at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim, mortally wounding a police officer who intervened.

The Afghan suspect in the stabbing went on trial in February and is also alleged to be sympathetic to the Daesh group.

In December, a Saudi man was arrested after a car rammed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds.

And in January, a man with a kitchen knife attacked a group of kindergarten children in Aschaffenburg, killing a two-year-old boy and a man who tried to intervene.

A 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested at the scene of the attack, which came during campaigning for elections on February 23.

Just 10 days before the vote, an Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of plowing a car through a street rally in Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and injuring dozens.

The center-right CDU/CSU, which demanded tough curbs on immigration in the wake of the attacks, came first in the election with 28.5 percent of the vote.

The biggest gains however were made by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which saw its share of the vote more than double to over 20 percent.


French army leaves Senegal, ending military presence in west Africa

French army leaves Senegal, ending military presence in west Africa
Updated 11 sec ago
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French army leaves Senegal, ending military presence in west Africa

French army leaves Senegal, ending military presence in west Africa
  • France returned Camp Geille on Thursday, its largest base in the west African country, and its airfield at Dakar airport
  • Senegalese chief of staff said handover marked “an important turning point” in the two countries’ military partnership

DAKAR: France on Thursday formally handed back its last two military bases in Senegal, leaving Paris with no permanent army camps in either west or central Africa.
Ending the French army’s 65 years in independent Senegal, the pull-out comes after similar withdrawals across the continent, with former colonies increasingly turning their backs on their former ruler.
The move comes as the Sahel region faces a growing jihadist conflict across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger that is threatening the wider west African region.
A recent string of attacks this month in Mali included an assault on a town on the border with Senegal.
France returned Camp Geille, its largest base in the west African country, and its airfield at Dakar airport, in a ceremony attended by top French and Senegalese officials.
They included Senegalese chief of staff General Mbaye Cisse and General Pascal Ianni, the head of the French forces in Africa.
Cisse said the handover marked “an important turning point in the rich and long military journey of our two countries.”
He said the “new objectives” were aimed at “giving new content to the security partnership.”
Senegalese troops were working “to consolidate the numerous skills gained it its quest for strategic autonomy,” he added.
The general ended his speech with a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the French author of “The Little Prince,” who spent several months in Dakar: “For each ending there is always a new departure.”
Ianni said Paris was “reinventing partnerships in a dynamic Africa.”
“We have to do things differently, and we don’t need permanent bases to do so,” he said.
The French general however insisted that the pull-out “takes nothing away from the sacrifices made yesterday by our brothers-in-arms in Africa for our respective interests.”
Around 350 French soldiers, primarily tasked with conducting joint operations with the Senegalese army, are now leaving, marking the end of a three-month departure process that began in March.
After storming to victory in 2024 elections promising radical change, Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye demanded France withdraw troops from the country by 2025.
Unlike the leaders of other former colonies such as junta-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, however, Faye has insisted that Senegal will keep working with Paris.
Reinventing partnerships
Senegal was one of France’s first colonies in Africa.
After gaining independence in 1960, Senegal became one of France’s staunchest African allies, playing host to French troops throughout its modern history.
Faye’s predecessor, Macky Sall, continued that tradition.
However Faye, who ran on a ticket promising a clean break with the Sall era, has said that Senegal will treat France like any other foreign partner.
Pledging to make his country more self-sufficient, the president gave a deadline of the end of 2025 for all foreign armies to withdraw.
“Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country, and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” Faye said at the end of 2024.
He maintained nonetheless that France remained “an important partner for Senegal.”
Faye has also urged Paris to apologize for colonial atrocities, including the massacre on December 1, 1944, of dozens of African soldiers who had fought for France in World War II.
A lawmaker from the president’s ruling Pastef party, Guy Marius Sagna, hailed Thursday’s “end to the presence of the French occupying army.”
“Bravo to President Diomaye Faye!... Bravo to the patriots! Decolonization continues,” he told the press.
French former empire
With governments across Africa increasingly questioning the presence of French soldiers, Paris has closed or reduced numbers at bases across its former empire.
In February, Paris handed back its sole remaining base in Ivory Coast, ending decades of French presence at the site.
The month before, France turned over the Kossei base in Chad, its last military foothold in the unrest-hit Sahel region.
Coups in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali between 2020 and 2023 have swept military strongmen to power.
All have cut ties with France and turned to Russia instead for help in fighting the Sahel’s decade-long jihadist insurgency.
The Central African Republic, also a former French colony to which the Kremlin has sent mercenaries, has likewise demanded a French pull-out.
Meanwhile, the army has turned its base in Gabon into a camp shared with the central African nation focused on training.
Only the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti will play host to a permanent French army base following Thursday’s withdrawal.
France intends to make its base in Djibouti, home to some 1,500 people, its military headquarters for Africa.


Tourist magnet Barcelona to cut cruise ship capacity

Tourist magnet Barcelona to cut cruise ship capacity
Updated 44 min 38 sec ago
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Tourist magnet Barcelona to cut cruise ship capacity

Tourist magnet Barcelona to cut cruise ship capacity
  • Spain’s second-largest city hosts one of the world’s busiest ports for cruise traffic
  • Cruise passenger numbers grew by 20 percent between 2018 and 2024

BARCELONA: Barcelona unveiled on Thursday a plan to reduce the number of cruise passengers arriving at its port, part of a wider trend to combat overtourism in Europe’s most popular destinations.

The city of Barcelona and the port authority signed an agreement to reduce the number of cruise ship terminals from seven to five by 2030, cutting traveler capacity from 37,000 to 31,000.

Spain’s second-largest city hosts one of the world’s busiest ports for cruise traffic, having received 3.65 million such passengers in 2024, according to Barcelona’s Tourism Observatory.

Cruise passenger numbers grew by 20 percent between 2018 and 2024, Barcelona’s Socialist mayor Jaume Collboni said in a statement.

“For the first time in history, limits are being set on the growth of cruise ships in the city,” Collboni added.

The demolition of three existing cruise terminals and the construction of a new one will cost 185 million euros ($215 million), adding to previous investments since a first protocol was signed in 2018.

Tourism has helped drive the dynamic Spanish economy, making it the world’s second most-visited country with a record 94 million foreign visitors last year.

But the boom has fueled anger about unaffordable housing and concern that mass visitor numbers are changing the fabric of neighborhoods, sparking protests in tourism hotspots.

With its Mediterranean beaches and world-famous cultural landmarks such as the Sagrada Familia basilica, Barcelona is on the front line of mass tourism, receiving millions of visitors every year.

It announced last year a plan to scrap around 10,000 tourist rental apartments by 2028 in an attempt to ease local discontent.

Elsewhere in Europe, the popular Italian city of Venice introduced a charge for day visitors last year, while Greece is implementing a tax on cruise ships docking at its islands.


Russia says Trump’s new weapons pledge a signal for Ukraine to abandon peace efforts

Russia says Trump’s new weapons pledge a signal for Ukraine to abandon peace efforts
Updated 17 July 2025
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Russia says Trump’s new weapons pledge a signal for Ukraine to abandon peace efforts

Russia says Trump’s new weapons pledge a signal for Ukraine to abandon peace efforts
  • Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, condemned the move
  • “It is obvious that the Kyiv regime consistently perceives such decisions by the collective West as a signal to continue the slaughter and abandon the peace process“

MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump’s decision to ramp up arms shipments to Ukraine is a signal to Kyiv to abandon peace efforts, Russia said on Thursday, vowing it would not accept the “blackmail” of Washington’s new sanctions ultimatum.

Trump announced a toughened stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine on Monday, setting a 50-day deadline for Moscow to reach a ceasefire or face sanctions. The US also promised more missiles and other weaponry for Kyiv.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, condemned the move.

“It is obvious that the Kyiv regime consistently perceives such decisions by the collective West as a signal to continue the slaughter and abandon the peace process,” Zakharova told a news briefing in Moscow.

Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine in February, 2022, has led to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, with the United States estimating that 1.2 million people have been injured or killed.

Moscow says it was forced to launch the war to protect itself from an expanding NATO. Ukraine and most Western governments call Russia’s war a colonial-style land grab.

Russian forces now control around one fifth of Ukrainian territory and are slowly but steadily advancing across a vast frontline, sustaining what the US believes are heavy losses along the way.

Trump, who has made ending the conflict a priority of his administration, is threatening “100 percent tariffs on Russia” and secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire deal by his 50-day deadline.

“An unprecedented number of sanctions and restrictions have been imposed on our country and our international partners. There are so many of them that we view the threat of new sanctions as mundane,” Zakharova said.

“The language of ultimatums, blackmail, and threats is unacceptable to us. We will take all necessary steps to ensure the security and protect the interests of our country.”

’PROXY WAR’
Both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Trump have repeatedly cautioned over the escalatory risks of the conflict, which they cast as a proxy war between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.

US efforts to broker peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, however, have faced repeated setbacks.

Russia says it is ready to hold further talks, but has made it clear it wants all of the territory of four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own — terms which Ukraine say are unacceptable and would amount to a capitulation.

Moscow is also keen to revive its battered bilateral relationship with the United States if possible, though Trump’s latest moves on Ukraine have soured the atmosphere.

Trump said on Monday that he was “very unhappy” and “disappointed” with Putin and cast his decision to send more arms to Ukraine as intended to jolt Russia toward peace.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by threats of tougher sanctions, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance.

Earlier on Thursday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia had no plans to attack NATO or Europe. But he said it should respond and, if necessary, launch preemptive strikes if it believed the West was escalating what he cast as its full-scale war against Russia.

“We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes,” Medvedev was quoted as saying.

The remarks by Medvedev, reported in full by the TASS state news agency, indicate that Moscow sees the confrontation with the West over Ukraine escalating after Trump’s latest decisions.

“What is happening today is a proxy war, but in essence it is a full-scale war (launches of Western missiles, satellite intelligence, etc.), sanctions packages, loud statements about the militarization of Europe,” Medvedev said, according to TASS.


Slovenia bars two far-right Israeli ministers

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (L) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (L) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Updated 17 July 2025
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Slovenia bars two far-right Israeli ministers

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (L) and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
  • Slovenian government accused the ministers of inciting “extreme violence and serious violations of the human rights of Palestinians” with “their genocidal statements”

LJUBLJANA: Slovenia announced on Thursday that it would ban two far-right Israeli ministers from entering in what authorities said was a first in the European Union.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will be declared “persona non grata,” the Slovenian government said in a statement, accusing them of inciting “extreme violence and serious violations of the human rights of Palestinians” with “their genocidal statements.”
In June, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Norway imposed similar sanctions on Smotrich and Ben Gvir, key coalition partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Ben Gvir and Smotrich have drawn international criticism for their hard-line stance on the Gaza war and comments about settlements in the occupied West Bank, the other Palestinian territory.
Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement, has supported the expansion of settlements and has called for the territory’s annexation.
“This is the first measure of this nature in the EU,” Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said of the ban.
On May 21, President Natasa Pirc Musar in an address to the European parliament urged the EU to take stronger action, condemning “the genocide” in Gaza.
Slovenia was in May among six European countries to say that they “firmly reject any demographic or territorial change in Gaza” after Israel announced plans to expand its military offensive in the Palestinian territory.
Last year, Slovenia announced it was recognizing a Palestinian state after Ireland, Norway and Spain, in moves partly fueled by condemnation of Israel’s bombing of Gaza after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Nearly 150 countries recognize a Palestinian state.


Russia jails major general for six years over fraud at military theme park

Russia jails major general for six years over fraud at military theme park
Updated 17 July 2025
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Russia jails major general for six years over fraud at military theme park

Russia jails major general for six years over fraud at military theme park
  • Major General Vladimir Shesterov was detained last August for his role in the scheme at the Patriot Park
  • The scandal at Patriot Park is one in a slew of criminal cases against former top officials

MOSCOW: A senior Russian Defense Ministry official was sentenced to six years in prison on Thursday after being found guilty of fraud and forgery in relation to an embezzlement scheme at a military theme park, the RIA state news agency reported.

Major General Vladimir Shesterov was detained last August for his role in the scheme at the Patriot Park, a war-themed tourist attraction outside Moscow. Two other men, including Pavel Popov, a former deputy defense minister, are also facing prosecution.

RIA, citing the investigation materials, said Shesterov and the ex-director of the park, Vyacheslav Akhmedov, who is also in custody, forged documents related to completed construction work at the park in the amount of some 26 million roubles ($332,000).

The scandal at Patriot Park is one in a slew of criminal cases against former top officials that have engulfed the Russian army in recent months.

Shesterov fully admitted guilt, but insisted he had not received any material benefit from the scheme.

“I am to blame, I don’t whitewash myself, I sincerely repent,” he said in court, according to RIA.

Akhmedov has also entered a guilty plea in his trial.

The case against Popov, the former deputy defense minister, is ongoing. RIA reported that Popov had instructed Shesterov and Akhmedov to build him a two-story house, a guest house with a sauna, and a two-story garage on land Popov owned in the Moscow region — with the Defense Ministry footing the bill.

Popov has previously denied wrongdoing. Reuters was unable to contact his lawyer on Thursday.

Patriot Park displays a vast collection of Russian and Soviet weaponry, and offers visitors the chance to clamber on tanks and take part in combat simulations. On its website, it also features a photo gallery of “heroes of the special military operation” — Russia’s official term for its war in Ukraine.