Month: September 2026

Germany’s federal prosecutor charged seven men accused of being Hamas terrorists on Friday with procuring weapons and planning an attack against the Jewish community and Israel-linked individuals in Germany or Austria.

According to a statement released by the prosecutor, the suspects were tasked by high-ranking Hamas terrorists with gathering weapons and ammunition in preparation for the attack.

The suspects were identified as German national Abed Al G., Danish national Yousif C., Lebanese-born Borhan El-K., Lebanese-born Wael FM, German national Ahmad I., Lebanese-born Kamel M., and Bulgarian national Mohammad S.

At the time of the arrests of Abed Al G., Wael FM, and Ahmad I. in October 2025, the suspects had already acquired over 700 rounds of ammunition, a fully automatic rifle, and 13 pistols for use in the planned attack.

This is a developing story.

September 11, 2026 marks 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 when terrorists hijacked multiple commercial airplanes, flying them into the World Trade Center in Manhattan and the Pentagon in Washington.

Another airplane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

The attacks resulted in the destruction of the Twin Towers, damaged the Pentagon, and killed almost 3,000 people.

The event remains the deadliest act of terrorism in history as well as the deadliest plane crash of all time.

The attacks were carried out by the foreign terrorist organization al-Qaeda and resulted in the first, and so far only, instance of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty being invoked.

Consequently, the attacks prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and helped launch the broader global war on terror. The US invasion of Iraq followed in 2003.

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airlines: American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77, and United Airlines Flight 93.

The former two, which had departed from Boston’s Logan International Airport and were en route to Los Angeles, crashed into the Twin Towers.

Flight 77, which had departed from Dulles International Airport in Washington DC and was also bound for Los Angeles, slammed into the Pentagon.

The passengers aboard the fourth plane, Flight 93 from Newark International Airport, realized that they were caught up in a terrorist suicide attack, rather than a ransom.

The passengers fought back against the hijackers and ultimately managed to crash it into a rural field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its target, which remains unknown to this day.

The terrorist group's motivation for the attack was rooted in a myriad of different factors, including US support of Israel and India, US troop presence in Saudi Arabia, support for Russia in Chechnya, and more.

Many of these motivations were further outlined in the November 2002 "Letter to America" written by then al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who had declared a jihad against the US back in the 1990s.

Famously, however, US President George W. Bush claimed that al-Qaeda launched the attack because "they hate us for our freedoms."

This was further elaborated on in a speech Bush delivered to the US Congress just nine days later.

"They hate what we see right here in this chamber — a democratically elected government,” Bush said. “Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

Many also ascribed religious symbolism and motivation behind the attack.

The immediate impact of the 9/11 attacks saw the drastic rise in popularity of both Bush and then-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. 

Major changes were made in the US to pivot towards a new paradigm of warfare, carrying out widespread surveillance efforts in an attempt to better counterterrorism.

Examples of this include the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the Patriot Act.

It also led to the start of the 20-year-long NATO invasion of Afghanistan, motivated in part by a desire to hunt down bin Laden – something that was eventually achieved in 2011.

However, one of the most lasting impacts of the 9/11 attacks is the sudden focus on combatting Islamist ideology and terrorist organizations.

The problem of Islamist insurgent groups and ideologically motivated terrorism was given a global spotlight, seeing countries from all over the world with previously little to no involvement now weighing in and countries that had already been grappling with it, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, now increasing their own efforts to crack down on the issue.

But the 9/11 attacks also allegedly preceded a wave of racism and intolerance towards Muslims in the West, with allegations of Islamophobia skyrocketing since.

A 2021 Pew article by researcher Besheer Mohamed noted that Americans were more likely to say that Muslims faced discrimination than they were to say the same about other groups such as Jews or Evangelical Christians.

While 78% of US adults sampled responded that Muslims faced either “a lot” or “some” discrimination in the US, 68% percent said the same of Jews, and 44% of Evangelical Christians.

Those who were Democrats or leaned Democratic were more likely to say Jews and Muslims faced discrimination than those who were either Republican or leaned Republican, but even among the latter category, a distinct majority agreed that Muslims faced discrimination.

Based on data from 2010, a Gallup report from 2023 noted that six in ten American Muslims agreed that generally, most Americans are prejudiced toward Muslim Americans.

The only population that was more likely to say that Americans were prejudiced against Muslim Americans were American Jews, of whom 66% agreed that, in general, most Americans are prejudiced toward Muslim Americans.

The 9/11 attacks also allegedly led to an increase in antisemitism, with conspiracy theorists claiming that Jews, Israel, or Mossad were behind the 9/11 attacks. The ADL lists the term “dancing Israeli” as a common antisemitic dog whistle. The term refers to the idea that Israelis celebrated the al-Qaeda attacks on America.

British lawmakers will make a fresh push on Friday to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill people, hoping a groundswell of public support will help drive through a change in the law six months after a previous effort failed.

Opinion polls have long shown that a majority of people in the UK back the legalization of assisted dying, and supporters hoped a parliamentary vote in 2025 in favor of it would pave the way for the country’s biggest social change in a generation.

But that bill failed in March in the unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, after members ran out of time to debate hundreds of amendments proposed during that parliamentary session.

Lauren Edwards, a lawmaker in British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Labour Party, is now bringing back the legislation to the House of Commons, the lower chamber, through a mechanism known as a Private Member’s Bill whereby an individual lawmaker selected in a ballot can try to pass a law independently of the government.

The government is neutral on the legislation, meaning politicians can vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines. In 2025, the legislation passed in the Commons by 314 votes to 291 against.

Under the proposed bill, mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or fewer to live would be given the right to end their lives with medical help, after approval from a panel of professionals.

Concerns over how to protect vulnerable ill people from coercion derailed the last attempt to legalize assisted dying. Parliament had rejected a similar bill 10 years ago.

Edwards said that if the law was finally passed it would represent "the most pressing, progressive reform" of this parliament.

“It is time to… give terminally ill people the choice to exercise some control over the manner of their deaths,” she wrote in the Guardian newspaper.

"We owe it to them, and to the vast majority of voters who support them, not to sit back and allow a minority of unelected peers to stand in their way."

A poll published by Ipsos on Monday showed two in three Britons support the legalization of assisted dying in principle, though in some cases that backing hinges on additional funding being provided for palliative care.

Burnham has previously said the debate over legalizing assisted dying should wait until the country's palliative and adult social care systems have been fixed. He has said he will not vote on Friday.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday the Trump administration will sanction a large bank next week as it continues to apply economic pressure on Tehran to end a more than six-month US conflict with Iran.

He named neither the financial institution nor its country during his appearance on "Real America's Voice," but said the move would happen on Monday.

Bessent said the move was originally scheduled for Friday but was postponed because of the ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the deadliest assault on US soil.

"We are just going to continue with this process until everyone stops dealing with this regime," he said.

"We will make it so unprofitable that if you want to risk an extinction-level event for your company or for your person, your personal finances, then have at it. But we are coming for you."

The United States has imposed a range of economic measures against Iran since the conflict began in February, targeting oil exports, shipping networks, weapons procurement channels, financial intermediaries, digital asset exchanges and aviation links.

The Trump administration escalated its campaign last month with what Bessent called “Operation Economic Outcast,” imposing sanctions on nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels and expanding the scope of secondary sanctions on those doing business with Iran in sectors including shipping, aviation, technology, gold and digital assets.

Despite the increasing pressure on Iran, US President Donald Trump predicted on Wednesday that the war will not end until after November’s US midterm elections.

Several people have been killed and several others injured in a bus crash near the Alpine village of Susch in eastern Switzerland, police said on Thursday.

Emergency response teams were dispatched to the site of the accident involving a travel coach, police in the canton of Graubuenden said in a post on X.

"A hotline is available for relatives and consulates regarding the coach accident in Susch," police added in an additional X post. "Please contact the operations center of the Graubuenden Cantonal Police at 081 256 56 56."

A spokeswoman for the General Dutch Association of Travel Companies (ANVR), acting as spokesperson for tour operator OAD, said that a serious accident had taken place involving an OAD bus and that 48 passengers were on board, all Dutch nationals.

Pictures from the scene published by Swiss newspaper Blick showed a bus on its side surrounded by helicopters and emergency response vehicles.

Nearly a year after the infamous Louvre heist shocked the world, a new series of museum thefts across Europe has raised concerns in the art and antiquities world about the rising phenomenon.

On Tuesday, four paintings were stolen from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, and in mid-August, four paintings by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen from the Museo Regionale di Messina in the painter’s hometown.

Last month, the pan-European police body Europol said that art thieves in Europe are committing more violent robberies and specialist gangs have been replaced by ad hoc ​opportunists recruited through social media.

But the recent heists have not only been of priceless paintings, but of artifacts as well.

On August 27, thieves in Spain entered the Villena Museum (MUVI) and stole the majority of the Treasure of Villena, a collection of Bronze Age artifacts often described as one of the most significant prehistoric European finds.

The collection is made up of 66 artifacts of gold, silver, iron and amber. The gold artifacts including 11 bowls, three bottles and 28 bracelets.

It was originally discovered in 1963 by Spanish archaeologist José María Soler.

The theft happened “in a matter of minutes,” Villena Mayor Fulgencio Cerdán said during a press conference following the robbery.

He explained that the robbery took place around 5:20 a.m., with the thieves believed to have left the museum approximately four minutes later.

While most of the treasure had been taken, Cerdán noted that three silver vessels, a bracelet, some ornamentation of the bastón del reyezuelo, and the “Kingfisher staff.”

The stolen gold pieces are estimated to be worth €1.7 million, according to media reports.

“We are absolutely devastated,” Cerdán said. “I am shaking. The truth is that, for those of us from Villena, this destroys us. It is part of our heritage and part of our wealth and of what we feel proud of.”

Following the theft, MUVI stated in a social media post that it has temporarily closed its doors to the public, but will announce a reopening date as soon as possible.

“The MUVI's pieces and collections are not just heritage: they are shared memory, part of everyone's history,” the museum wrote. “We have full confidence in the ongoing investigations and the professionalism of the State Security Forces.”

That same day, two unmasked men smashed a display case at Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) and stolen a diamond necklace worth over $4 million.

It had been featured at the MAK as part of an exhibition titled “GLANZSTÜCKE: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry × Masterpieces from the MAK Collection.”

According to Austrian state broadcaster ORT, the unmasked thieves bought tickets to the exhibit prior to the robbery and commited the theft during the museum’s opening hours.

Police added that the two then “fled with the piece of jewelry in an unknown direction.”

Photographs and CCTV footage of the suspects have been shared by police, and has since been added to INTERPOL’s Stolen Works of Art database.

The museum noted in an August statement that it would not be sharing information regarding the investigation into the robbery.

Belonging once to Queen Nazli of Egypt (1913-1936), the second wife of King Fuad I, the necklace is adorned with 673 diamonds and weighs about 200 carats.

It, and a matching tiara, had been commissioned by Nazli for the wedding of her daughter Fawzia to, the at the time Iranian Crown Prince and later Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Reuters contributed to this report.

A British man appeared in a London court on Thursday accused of providing information about factories that manufacture drones and offering to sabotage them on behalf of Russian intelligence.

Joshua Cammidge, 31, has been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service and preparing an act of sabotage after contact with the GRU Volunteer Corps, which prosecutors said was controlled by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.

Appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, prosecutor Warren Stanier said Cammidge was accused of providing details of four drone factories near his home in Swindon, west England, and volunteering to commit an act of sabotage.

Prosecutors say he also conducted research about a Wi-Fi jamming device and undertook reconnaissance.

Cammidge did not enter a plea, but Stanier said that in a police interview he had strenuously denied the charges and said he had had no intention of carrying out any sabotage.

Russia's embassy in London has not commented on the case.

Stanier told the court that Cammidge, who was arrested in Swindon last week by counterterrorism officers, had been communicating between August 28 and September 3 with a British national who had gone to Russia to fight against Ukraine.

"The essence of those conversations was the location of factories in the UK which manufacture drones and the sabotage of those factories," Stanier said.

Stanier said other conversations Cammidge had had with an ex-partner and a trusted work colleague showed he was being requested to do so by the Russian intelligence services.

Cammidge was remanded in custody and will appear at London's Old Bailey court on September 25.

Relations between Britain and Russia have deteriorated sharply since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with British authorities increasingly warning about possible Russian espionage, sabotage and other hostile state activity.

Russia warned last month it could strike British military targets in response to Ukrainian attacks that use British-supplied long-range missiles.

"Russia is constantly probing us and testing us," British defense minister Wes Streeting told lawmakers on Thursday.

Two years ago, the UK's domestic spy chief said the GRU was seeking to cause "mayhem" across Europe, and there have been warnings from other European countries in recent weeks that Russia was stepping up a 'hybrid' war against allies of Ukraine.

Germany has blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle airport last month, though Moscow's embassy in Berlin said the Leipzig incident was just another example of unsubstantiated accusations.

"I know people will be concerned about recent incidents across Europe, intended to sow fear, create disruption and undermine support for Ukraine. They will not succeed," British security minister Dan Jarvis said on Wednesday.

In a separate case, Russia's FSB internal security agency said on Thursday that it had detained a former guard at the British Embassy in Moscow who it said had collected personal data on British diplomats on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence.

Two people have been arrested in London as part of an investigation into suspected National Security Act offenses linked to Iran, British police said on Thursday.

London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "The investigation is not connected to any of the incidents or attacks earlier this year that have been targeted at various venues and buildings linked to Jewish and Iranian communities across London."

This is a developing story.

Deep in Arctic waters near the remote Svalbard archipelago this spring, NATO allies caught Russian subs training to unleash a secret weapon designed to disable critical undersea cables without leaving any fingerprints.

The clandestine Russian operation, described to Reuters by two Western officials, was carried out by Moscow’s GUGI undersea warfare directorate, which used deep-sea submersibles to simulate the deployment of the sophisticated and destructive technology. 

A joint operation involving Britain, Norway and the United States tracked and confronted the Russian vessels at sea, said the two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. The vessels were prevented from completing their exercise and eventually left the area.

Britain and Norway disclosed in April that they had uncovered a covert Russian operation in Arctic waters. But the discovery of the new weapon, the location of the operation and the US involvement have not been reported.

The deep-sea face-off comes at a time when some Western intelligence officials fear the Kremlin is ramping up sabotage operations in Europe and preparing for a conflict with NATO.

Some US intelligence analysts are increasingly concerned Russia may test NATO's mutual defense pact, known as Article 5, three US officials said. If it does, destroying subsea cables could be a critical part of that effort, the Western officials said.

Cables no thicker than a garden hose, lying on the seabed or buried just below, are critical to global internet connectivity and financial transactions. Their economic and strategic importance has made them targets in past conflicts, including in the First and Second World Wars, when they were critical to delivering orders by telegraph or telephone.

Two 1,400 km subsea fiber-optic cables linking Svalbard to mainland Norway lie as deep as 2,700 meters below the sea's surface. They carry vast amounts of satellite data downloaded at the SvalSat satellite ground station, the world's largest and part of NASA's Near Space Network.

Russia's Defence Ministry didn't respond to a request for comment on the incident. The Kremlin consistently denies conducting sabotage operations in NATO countries or plotting any confrontation.

Some Western officials argue that Moscow's targeting of European states has increased in recent months as the front line in Ukraine has become largely static.

Countries including Poland, Lithuania, and Romania have confirmed various violations. Most recently, an attempted drone attack on the Leipzig/Halle Airport in August triggered a series of responses from Germany, including the closure of a Russian consulate in Bonn and a cultural center in Berlin.

In August, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe visited intelligence counterparts in Moscow, in part to warn Russia against escalating sabotage operations in Europe, said two people familiar with the matter.

Reuters couldn't determine if Ratcliffe raised Russia's covert subsea operations. The Kremlin declined to say what had been discussed or to provide any further details.

At the same time as the confrontations at sea, British and Norwegian officials took their findings to Moscow to show they were aware of the new technology – hoping it might make Russia hesitate to use it, the two Western officials said.

Russia didn't damage any cables. The exercise focused on simulating the deployment of the technology in the event of a conflict with NATO, the officials said. They declined to detail how the technology works.

Asked for comment, NATO referred Reuters to Norwegian and UK authorities.

"Through our joint operation, we sent a clear message to Russia that they cannot operate covertly," Norway's Defence Minister Tore ⁠Sandvik said in a statement.

"We have made it unequivocally clear to Russian authorities that any attempt to target our critical infrastructure will be detected and met with consequences," he said. "It is in no one's interest to escalate tensions in the High North."

Britain's Defense Ministry pointed to April 9 statements acknowledging attempted covert activities in and near Norwegian and British waters by Russia's Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, known by its Russian acronym GUGI. Washington and London have both imposed sanctions on the secretive directorate.

The White House didn't respond to a comment request. The CIA declined to comment.

Any escalation between Russia and NATO could quickly underscore the strategic importance of an icy expanse of water between the southern tip of the Svalbard archipelago and mainland Norway known as the Bear Gap, one of the Western officials said.

To reach the Atlantic, Russian nuclear submarines based in the Kola Peninsula would cross the 400-mile-wide stretch of water before passing Norway's remote volcanic island Jan Mayen.

Britain said this week it deployed forces to Jan Mayen in August alongside Norwegian and US allies for an exercise to demonstrate NATO's ability to operate jointly in the High North.

Norway plans to have new fiber-optic cable linking Svalbard and Jan Mayen to the mainland by 2028.

NATO allies have focused on subsea infrastructure security since the 2022 destruction of three of the four Nord Stream subsea pipelines supplying Germany with Russian gas. German prosecutors have indicted a Ukrainian man who was a special forces officer at the time of the attack. Ukraine denies any role in the sabotage.

And since 2023, more ships have sailed slowly over or near sensitive subsea infrastructure, including pipelines, power cables and telecoms cables, to map their location, an activity known as drifting.

Last year, drifting in the North Sea rose 52% to 13,079 vessels from the previous year, data from maritime risk analytics firm Windward showed, while activity in the South China Sea region jumped 88% to 18,401 vessels.

It's not illegal to survey infrastructure in international waters, but security experts see such extensive mapping as preparation for sabotage.

The activity and suspected interference with some cables prompted new initiatives launched in January last year, including NATO's Baltic Sentry monitoring system and the UK-led Nordic Warden, bringing navies together for increased patrols of critical infrastructure.

In the Baltic Sea – one focus area for monitoring – 2025 drifting activity was down 5% to 526 vessels from a year earlier, Windward data showed. It said at least 11 subsea cables had been damaged or cut in the Baltic from October 2023 through the end of last year.

"The current thinking is that Russia and China are probably the most active and critical underwater threats," said Windward Chief Executive Ami Daniel.

The global network of power and telecoms cables running across seabeds is expanding each year, supported by increases in demand for data and electricity, partly driven by artificial intelligence, and some analysts say Europe remains vulnerable.

"In the last 25 years, Europe did two things simultaneously. It dramatically expanded the extent to which it relies on seabed infrastructure, and it dramatically shrunk its capacity to protect that infrastructure," said Bruce Jones, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. "It's belatedly rebuilding now, in the face of a burgeoning Russian threat."

Russia's FSB internal security agency said on Thursday that it had detained a former guard at the British Embassy in Moscow who collected personal data on British diplomats, alleging that he had been working for Ukrainian intelligence.

The agency said the data collection was part of preparations for a Ukrainian false-flag operation against British diplomatic staff in Russia, aimed at accusing Russia of hostile actions at a later stage.

Relations between Britain and Russia have deteriorated sharply since Moscow launched its military action in Ukraine in 2022. Moscow sees Britain as Ukraine's main backer in the four-and-a-half-year conflict.

This is a developing story.