Tag: germany

Train Conductors in Germany Given Power Not to Check Tickets of Migrants in Order to Avoid Trouble

German train conductors in the state of Thuringia have been given permission not to check the tickets of foreign migrant passengers in an effort to reduce intimidating and violent behavior from asylum seekers.

A married couple who had recently traveled on a Süd-Thüringen-Bahn contacted the Thüringer Allgemeine newspaper to report that they had witnessed individuals who didn’t appear to be German not having their tickets checked while German citizens still had theirs scrutinized.

After the newspaper contacted the railway service provider, they initially denied the claim, insisting that all tickets were being checked.

However, after further enquiries, the company admitted that train conductors had been given powers not to check the tickets of passengers who posed a risk of being troublesome in order to de-escalate tensions.

If the conductors feel threatened or intimidated by approaching such individuals, they can bypass the ticket check and the individual effectively gets to travel for free.

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German police kept silent about rape of 12-year-old girl by Syrian national for 3 weeks

A 12-year-old girl is alleged to have been raped by a Syrian in a Braunschweig swimming pool, but the police kept the case quiet for several weeks. No measures are being taken against the alleged perpetrator.

Police and public prosecutors in Braunschweig are investigating a Syrian teen who allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl in a local swimming pool called the Wasserwelt (Water World). The 15-year-old foreigner first molested the child in the pool and then raped her in a changing room, reports the Braunschweiger Zeitung. The crime is said to have taken place on Aug. 10, at 5 p.m. but details are only being made public now, as the police kept mum about the case for three weeks.

The investigation was only confirmed after a reader contacted the regional newspaper, which then inquired with the authorities. According to the police, the incident had been kept quiet because the victim was still so young.

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German Court Forces Podcasters To Delete Episode Where They Referred To Balding Trans-Identified Male As “He/Him”

A podcast episode of Hoss and Hopf had to be deleted by court order because the moderators called a trans-identified man “a man” and used male pronouns to refer to him. The podcasters may be facing potential prison time or a fine of up to €250,000.

In the controversial podcast episode, the hosts discussed the case of Laura Holstein, formerly known as Nicolas. Holstein, a balding male who now identifies as a “woman,” has made multiple headlines over the past few months related to him demanding access to female spaces. Most recently, Holstein, with the support of the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, has been pursuing legal action against a female-only gym in Bavaria.

But the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court has now stopped in to order the censorship of the Hoss and Hopf episode related to Holstein. The hosts, Kiarash Hossainpour and Philip Hopf, have also been prohibited from referring to Holstein as a man and using male pronouns for him. 

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German envoy admits he spread lie about 7 October mass rapes

The German ambassador in Tel Aviv has admitted that he spread fabricated Israeli atrocity propaganda intended to give credence to Israel’s debunked claims of mass rapes by Palestinian fighters on 7 October 2023.

“I regret having believed – like so many others – that that suicide letter was real. It turns out it was a fake,” Ambassador Steffen Seibert posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “I find this an appalling act given that so many real lives were taken at the Nova festival, so many crimes committed, so many souls destroyed.”

Last week, Seibert shared a letter purporting to be from an Israeli who died by suicide because he was unable to live with the trauma he experienced at the Supernova rave on 7 October.

The fake letter was widely disseminated after it was shared by two notorious Israeli propagandists, Hen Mazzig, who translated it to English, and Aviva Klompas.

Mazzig had claimed that “After miraculously surviving the October 7 massacre, the young Israeli man decided to end his life after witnessing too many horrors, including the rape of a girl.”

“The overwhelming weight of everything he saw, heard and experienced, along with his inability to save the girl being assaulted nearby, made him feel incapable of continuing his life.”

Mazzig works for an Israeli propaganda outfit called the Tel Aviv Institute. Klompas, a former Israeli government speechwriter, is the CEO of another lobby group called Boundless Israel.

Both have been very active in pushing Israel’s debunked claims of mass rapes on 7 October.

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German authorities warn of incendiary devices in packages, dpa reports

German authorities are warning of unconventional incendiary devices sent by unknown persons in packages, German news agency dpa reported on Friday, citing a message sent to airlines and logistics companies.

The parcels were sent from European locations to other locations on the continent and caught fire on the way, the report said.

The security notice was sent issued by the domestic intelligence service BfV and federal crime agency BKA, it said.

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DJ Performing at ‘Festival of Diversity’ During Stabbing Attack Says He Was Told to Continue Playing Music to ‘Avoid Mass Panic’

The DJ who was performing at a ‘Festival of Diversity’ event in Solingen, Germany where three people were stabbed to death says he was told by “security personnel” to keep playing music in order to “avoid causing a mass panic.”

Eight other people received serious injuries during the incident when the killer began knifing random people, aiming directly for their throats, before subsequently escaping.

German authorities are treating the incident as a terror attack.

DJ Topic, who was performing on stage during the festival as the attack unfolded, told the bizarre story of how he was ordered to carry on playing music so as not to cause distress.

“During my set, security personnel from the city came to me and asked me to please continue playing to avoid a mass panic, as there were already people killed by a stabbing attacker,” he posted on Instagram.

“So I kept playing, even though it was incredibly hard. After about 10-15 minutes, the music was finally stopped, and the people were informed about the incident,” he added.

As to the identity of the perpetrator, one would expect the authorities to put out an accurate description of him given that he is now the subject of a manhunt.

However, rather strangely, the BBC reports that police are finding it “difficult” to say what he looks like because “witnesses are in shock or can’t speak at the moment.”

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Lithuania Begins Building Base to House German Soldiers

Vilnius started construction on a military base that would house over 4,000 German soldiers. The facility will be located just miles from the border shared with Belarus. 

Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Vaiksnoras described the construction as a “huge investment” that will cost over $1.1 billion. He said the German deployment represents “deterrence, to push the Russians out.” However, it is unclear where Lithuania plans to push Russia from as Moscow has not invaded the Baltic state. 

At least two dozen German soldiers are already stationed in Lithuania. The German troop deployment, which is scheduled to surge to 4,800 troops by 2027, is Berlin’s first permanent garrison of soldiers deployed to Lithuania since World War 2. From 1941-1945, Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania. Under Hitler’s control, nearly Lithuania’s entire Jewish population was wiped out.  

The deployment will provide a significant military surge to Lithuania, which has only 15,000 active duty soldiers. The base is located just 12 miles from the border with Belarus. Germany plans to deploy over 100 Leopard Tanks to the base. 

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“Apologize and Keep Quiet”: Polish PM Tells Germans To Shut Up about Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk took to Twitter to scold Germans who are outraged at the possibility that Ukraine, in collusion with European governments and the US, destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, depriving Germany of Russian natural gas.

“To all the initiators and patrons of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The only thing you should do today about it is apologise and keep quiet,” Tusk tweeted on Saturday.

Tusk was responding to August Henning, former head of the German Federal Intelligence Service, who alleged in a recent interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper that Tusk’s predecessor, Andrzej Duda, knew about plans to sabotage the pipeline.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Ukraine was responsible for the operation, which took place in September 2022.

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Turn in Illegal Knives for a Free Year of Netflix, German Police Suggest

People who voluntarily hand in banned and dangerous knives should be rewarded with a year-long Netflix subscription, the head of one of the largest German police unions has said.

The most popular pocket knife costs €17 while an annual Netflix subscription amounts to €170, making the exchange worthwhile for anyone willing to dispose of their knives. “For this measure to be effective, the federal government must create serious incentives for sellers,” Jochen Kopelke, head of the Gewerkschaft der Polizei (GdP), added.

Knife crime has been soaring in Germany: according to police statistics, close to 13,844 knife-related attacks were committed last year, a significant increase compared to the 10,131 cases recorded a year earlier. The Charité hospital in Berlin said this week that the number of patients treated for stab wounds this year has already reached 50 to 55—a number they usually tend to in a whole year. “This is a threatening development for society,” Ulrich Stöckle, managing director of the hospital’s Centre for Musculoskeletal Surgery, said.

Most of the perpetrators of violence in Berlin “are young, male and have a non-German background. This also applies to knife violence,” Barbara Slowik, the police commissioner of Berlin recently said in an interview.

Knife crime has been especially rife among the migrant communities in Germany, with Syrian and Afghan perpetrators making the headlines in recent months. One of the most shocking attacks was committed by an Afghan failed asylum seeker in May in Mannheim: the 25-year-old man, who had been living in the country illegally for nine years, murdered a policeman.

Most recently, a Syrian migrant seriously injured a four-year-old girl in a supermarket in the southern German city of Wangen im Allgäu, and a 17-year-old Syrian was arrested for stabbing a family of five in Stuttgart. The latter case is particularly disturbing, as the attacker had reportedly committed 34 criminal acts in 31 months—but the police kept letting him go.

Support for resuming deportations to both Syria and Afghanistan has increased, but the government is unwilling to deport dangerous criminals because Germany has declared both countries unsafe.

Readers of the German daily Bild, the country’s highest-circulation newspaper, vented their anger at the government for doing nothing. “Deport everyone who is dangerous. Enough is enough,” wrote one of them. “These types of criminals are ridiculing our country,” wrote another. A third reader compared the situation to recent violent protests in Britain, saying: “Politicians are horrified, but no one is taking action. We can already see in England where this type of behaviour leads to.”

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Russia Says It May Deploy Nuclear Missiles in Response to New US Missile Deployment to Germany

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday that Moscow won’t rule out deploying nuclear missiles in response to the US planning to deploy missile systems to Germany in 2026 that were previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

“I don’t rule anything out,” Ryabkov said when asked about the possibility of a nuclear deployment.

Ryabkov went on to reference Kaliningrad, the Russian Oblast on the Baltic Sea that’s wedged between Lithuania and Poland and separated from the rest of Russia. He said the territory “has long attracted the unhealthy attention of our opponents.”

Hinting Russia could respond to the US deployment by sending weapons to Kaliningrad, Ryabkov said, “Kaliningrad is no exception in terms of our 100 percent determination to do everything necessary to push back those who may harbor aggressive plans and who try to provoke us to take certain steps that are undesirable for anyone and are fraught with further complications.”

The INF, which the US withdrew from in 2019, prohibited land-based missile systems with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles. The planned US deployment to Germany includes a land-based version of nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 miles and are primarily used by US Navy ships and submarines.

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