Eye on Extremism: April 27, 2026
Top Stories
Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade on the country and an end to the war, while proposing that discussions on the larger question of its nuclear program would come in a later phase, two regional officials said Monday.
Washington Post: Al-Qaeda-linked militants launch coordinated attacks across Mali
Islamist militants with a powerful al-Qaeda affiliate and separatists launched attacks across the West African nation of Mali on Saturday, in what analysts say constitute the biggest strikes since militants overran much of the country in 2012.
CEP Mentions
Newsweek: Far-Right Extremist Fight Clubs Are Happening in America’s Forests
The decentralized groups, which are present in at least 34 states, engage in physical training and post white nationalist propaganda, according to the Counter Extremism Project.
Deutsche Welle: Updated: Press dinner shooting in D.C.: What we know so far
Hans-Jakob Schindler speaks about the shooting incident at the White House Correspondent dinner.
Bayerischer Rundfunk: "Disposable agents" – Putin's covert war in Germany
Hans-Jakob Schindler speaks on on Iranian and Russian espionage activities in Germany.
Analysis
Iran International: Iran’s new military-led order may mean greater dangers abroad
The Islamic Republic that has emerged from the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may prove more operationally aggressive than the one it replaces, analysts say. Dominated by the Revolutionary Guards, the leadership in Tehran may be less constrained by theology and more driven by revenge.
Hezbollah has been increasing its use of drones over the course of its war with Israel while seeking to use new types of drones and learn from other conflicts. The group is also drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine, where both Russia and Ukraine have invested heavily and significantly scaled up their use of drones on the battlefield.
Mali, in northern Africa, has seen an unprecedented advance by armed groups in recent days. One of the groups, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), is considered a jihadist organization. Another group, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), is considered a group seeking an independent region or state for the Tuareg people. The groups have attacked cities in northern Mali, and the country has seen massive setbacks as its officials have been killed and Russian mercenaries have fled.
The Conversation: Climate change is worsening violent extremism in Kenya – what can be done
Climate change and its associated impacts can worsen security challenges, including those associated with violent extremism. This is particularly the case in areas that are both vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and characterised by social and political instability.
United States
Fox News: WHCD shooting suspect planned to target Trump officials, manifesto reveals
The suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting told law enforcement after his arrest Saturday night that he intended to target Trump administration officials, senior federal law enforcement sources confirmed to Fox News. Authorities identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Allen, of Torrance, Calif., adding that he prepared a manifesto outlining his intent and shared anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on social media.
The U.S. military carried out a lethal strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two suspected narco-terrorists, according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
A federal appeals court reversed a terrorism-related conviction for the 2017 New York City subway bomber in a decision that could have wide-reaching effects for the prosecutions of accused terrorists. Akayed Ullah detonated a pipe bomb inside a busy Manhattan transit station in 2017, causing panic among commuters and injuring nearby civilians. Ullah later told investigators he carried out the attack in support of the terrorist group ISIS.
Jewish social justice organizations are sharply criticizing the Trump administration’s decision to indict the Southern Poverty Law Center, framing the move as part of a broader campaign against civil society groups that monitor extremism. The Department of Justice alleges that SPLC engaged in bank and wire fraud and conspired to commit money laundering, arguing that its use of paid informants to monitor extremist groups amounted to a funding mechanism for those same groups. SPLC has not yet issued a detailed public response to the charges.
Nika Soon-Shiong, the publisher of Drop Site News who is also the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, is circulating conspiracy theories seeking to tie a California-based Jewish couple behind a major pistachio processor to the recent U.S.-Israeli military strikes in Iran.
ABC News: Harvard 'failed its Jewish students' and must face antisemitism lawsuit, judge rules
Harvard University "failed its Jewish students" and must face a lawsuit over antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, a federal judge in Boston ruled. Judge Richard Stearns said Jewish students plausibly claimed Harvard had been indifferent to their fears of walking through the campus and missing classes and extracurricular activities when they were allegedly harassed by pro-Palestinian protesters.
Times of Israel: US reportedly denying green cards over anti-Israel social media posts
Immigrants seeking a path to United States citizenship could now reportedly have their green card applications rejected for expressing anti-Israel sentiment on social media or participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, along with other behavior deemed anti-American.
Jerusalem Post: Man with Iranian flag shirt charged in Brooklyn hate crime assaults on three Jews
A Queens man was charged with three hate crime assaults against Brooklyn Jewish residents on Friday, according to the New York Police Department and Williamsburg Shomrim. Forty-one-year-old Andrzej Wnuk was charged with three hate crime assaults, said the NYPD, after the force responded to reports of multiple assaults.
After reports by Boston Marathon participants that they were saluted by a man dressed as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler standing on an Israeli flag, the Boston Athletic Association and Anti-Defamation (BAA) League New England denounced the incident on Friday.
KTSA: New York City Mayor Faces Backlash Over Vetoing Antisemitism Legislation
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism after issuing his first veto, which blocks a bipartisan proposal intended to address antisemitism by increasing security measures around protests near schools and other educational sites.
Austin American-Statesman: Austin synagogue vandalized with swastika, antisemitic graffiti
Antisemitic graffiti was found at a central Austin synagogue on Thursday, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Congregation Beth Israel in the Hyde Park area was vandalized with a swastika alongside the phrase “Death to Israel.” In a statement, ADL Austin Regional Director Jackie Nirenberg said the organization is working with the synagogue and security partners in response to the incident.
Canada
Times of Israel: Record 6,800 antisemitic incidents recorded in Canada last year, study says
Antisemitic incidents in Canada reached a record high in 2025, with 6,800 acts of hate reported nationwide, according to a new report released by B’nai Brith Canada. That was 9.3 percent higher than the previous record set in 2024, the organization says in its annual audit, which it has published since 1982. The figures translate to an average of 18.6 incidents per day targeting the Jewish community.
JNS: Canadian police probing ‘hate/bias-motivated incident’ at Toronto synagogue
The York Regional Police in Ontario said on Saturday that it is probing what it calls a “hate/bias-motivated incident,” which occurred at 9:35 a.m. that day at Sephardic Kehila Centre in Vaughan. A suspect, whose photo the department shared, “attempted to force his way into a synagogue and assaulted a victim prior to fleeing the scene,” the department said. “The victim was not injured.” It added that its hate crime unit is investigating.
Colombia
The number of people killed in a bombing in a volatile region in southwest Colombia rose to 20, officials said Sunday. The attack happened Saturday when an explosive device was detonated on a bus traveling along the Pan-American Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. So far, 15 women and five men are among the victims, according to Octavio Guzmán, governor of the region of Cauca.
Germany
Naharnet: German court jails Hezbollah supporter over videos showing weapons
A German court on Friday sentenced a supporter of Lebanon's Hezbollah to more than three years in jail Friday over for "illegal access to weapons" and social media posts supporting the group. Earlier in the same trial the 30-year-old was acquitted on charges of actually fighting for Hezbollah and being a member of the group.
Italy
Several Jews attending a rally in Milan celebrating the anniversary of Italy’s liberation from the Nazis and fascists at the end of World War II were insulted and prevented from continuing along the event’s itinerary on Saturday. Eventually, police urged Jewish participants, marching under the banners of the WWII Jewish Brigade and other Jewish organizations, to leave the event for safety reasons.
Netherlands
A Hamas network has been involved in organizing protests in the Netherlands, according to a Thursday General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) report, which also detailed that it had identified individuals raising funds and lobbying on behalf of the Palestinian terrorist organization in the country.
United Kingdom
A member of the British group Palestine Action told a court on Thursday that he believed it was “reasonable” to strike a police officer with a sledgehammer during a 2024 attack on an Israeli defense firm’s UK factory
Iran International: UK releases man jailed for spying on Iran International in 2023 terror plot
A man jailed in the UK for conducting surveillance on Iran International has been released early and deported to Austria, despite being sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for gathering intelligence that could have aided a terrorist attack.
JNS: 26th suspect arrested in connection with antisemitic attacks in London
Another suspect was arrested in the United Kingdom on Sunday in connection to the series of recent antisemitic attacks against Jewish-affiliated sites in London, according to the Metropolitan Police. The 37-year-old man was detained near Barnstaple, Devon by officers from the Counter Terrorism Policing unit.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan International: Allegiance To Unseen Leader Was Wrong, Says Ex-Taliban Commander
Salahuddin Salar, a Tajik commander and former deputy intelligence chief in the Taliban’s defence ministry, says they pledged allegiance “without seeing their leader” and did not fight for “ethnic supremacy”. Salar on Sunday shared a video of a Taliban member criticising the group’s ethnic conduct, writing that the aim of the war was to “end the occupation” and establish an “Islamic government”, not to bring the Taliban leaders’ own ethnic group and linguistic peers to power.
Gaza Strip/West Bank
Times of Israel: PA leader Abbas’s loyalists win local elections, including in Gaza’s Deir al‑Balah
A list backed by the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party won most races in the weekend’s Palestinian municipal elections, election officials said Sunday, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the Gaza Strip run by Hamas, the terror group that violently ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007.
Times of Israel: Woman and child injured in fresh spate of settler attacks on Palestinian villages
Extremist Israeli settlers raided the Palestinian village of Duma, in the central West Bank, wounding a woman and a child in one of several settler attacks against Palestinians throughout Saturday as the violent phenomenon continued unchecked.
The IDF said Saturday that a recent airstrike in central Gaza killed several Hamas operatives who planned attacks on Israeli troops, including a terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, as Palestinian officials reported that at least 13 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave the same day.
Iran
IranWire: IRGC Quds Force Chief Signals Stronger “Axis of Resistance”
Esmail Ghaani, the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, who has not been seen or heard from officially since the beginning of the war between the U.S. and Israel, has now issued a statement signaling continued support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and a strengthening of the “Axis of Resistance.”
Middle East Monitor: IRGC commander warns US and Israel of “stronger response” to any new attack
A senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned that any new attack on the country would be met with a stronger response, amid escalating regional tensions. Mohammad Jafar Asadi said Iran “is not Venezuela to have its resources plundered”, stressing that Tehran would respond forcefully to any further military action.
Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the IDF to go after Hezbollah targets “with force” on Saturday, as the terror group and the Israeli military continued to trade fire in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, despite the extension of the tenuous ceasefire between the warring sides by several more weeks.
Lebanon
Naharnet: Report: Aoun, Berri, Salam to hold consultations, new ceasefire MoU to be issued
Extensive consultations will begin in Beirut among President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Nawaf Salam, and also with the political forces, to "pave the way for decisions described as pivotal that Lebanon must make regarding the negotiation process between Lebanon and Israel," a media report said on Monday.
Hezbollah "categorically rejects direct negotiations" with Israel, the terror organization's Secretary-General Naim Qassem said on Monday. "It is the responsibility of the Lebanese government to stop direct negotiations with the Israeli enemy and return to indirect negotiations," Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen cited him as saying.
The IDF located a weapons cache belonging to Hezbollah in a children’s bedroom during a targeted raid in the area of Aadshit al-Qusayr in southern Lebanon over the past few days, the military said on Monday. Numerous explosives, ‘Kalashnikov’ rifles, grenades, RPGs, machine guns, munitions, and combat equipment were found in the cache.
Naharnet: Hezbollah says will keep responding to Israel's violations
Hezbollah has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's accusation that it was jeopardizing a ceasefire and said it would keep responding to Israel's own violations and occupation of south Lebanon. In a statement Sunday, Hezbollah said its attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon and northern Israel were "a legitimate response to the enemy's persistent violations of the ceasefire since the first day of the announcement of the temporary truce".
Naharnet: Netanyahu says Hezbollah 'dismantling' ceasefire with Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Hezbollah's actions were threatening the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, as he pledged to "vigorously" target the Iran-backed group. "It must be understood that Hezbollah's violations are, in practice, dismantling the ceasefire," Netanyahu said during a weekly cabinet meeting.
Congo
Associated Press: Congo creates a paramilitary mining guard backed by US and UAE funding
Congo on Monday announced the creation of a paramilitary guard to secure its vast mining operations, backed by U.S. and Emirati investments, as Washington tries to lock in access to critical minerals amid a fragile peace process in the troubled east.
Mali
Arab Weekly: Major attack by al-Qaeda affiliate, Tuareg group jolts Mali, sparks concern
A major attack by an al-Qaeda affiliate and a Tuareg group has jolted Mali and sparked regional and international concern. Mali Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed in an attack on his residence, the government said on Sunday, a high-profile fatality during coordinated assaults staged the previous day by Tuareg insurgents and al Qaeda-affiliated extremists.
Nigeria
Associated Press: Gunmen attack orphanage in northern Nigeria and abduct 23 pupils
Gunmen raided an orphanage in north-central Nigeria and abducted 23 pupils, authorities said Monday. Fifteen have since been rescued. The attack took place in an “isolated area” of Lokoja, capital of Kogi State, according to a statement by the state’s commissioner, Kingsley Femi Fanwo. The facility, Dahallukitab Group of Schools, was operating illegally, he said.
Somalia
A cargo vessel carrying cement and flying the flag of St. Kitts and Nevis was hijacked off Somalia’s coast, a local maritime security official said Monday. The ship was seized off the coastal town of Garacad in the Somali region of Puntland, according to an operations officer from the Puntland Maritime Police Force, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Sudan
The National: Ex-Sudan minister warns of Iranian arms being sent to Islamist army factions
Iranian arms supplies to Islamist-aligned factions within Sudan’s military have been continuing throughout the country’s civil war, a former Sudanese minister has said. The relationship between Sudan’s Islamist movement and Iran dates back more than four decades, said Khalid Yousif, a former cabinet minister of Sudan’s short-lived civilian government. He added that Tehran had provided economic support and technology transfer to what he described as Sudan’s military-industrial complex established under Islamist rule.
Australia
The Australian: Bondi Beach benefit concert cancelled over ‘antisemitism’
A collaborative Jewish-Greek choral concert to raise money for Bondi Beach massacre victims’ families has been cancelled due to vehement political opposition by some choir members to Jewish participation in the event. Ironically titled Concert for Hope and Unity, the Australian Hellenic Choir was to join forces with the Sydney Jewish Choral Society in conjunction with a major Australian choir for a rousing two-hour performance at the Sydney Town Hall on June 28.
But at a vote taken at a meeting last Monday ahead of rehearsals, more than half of the Hellenic choir “politically objected’’ to performing with a Jewish choir at the Town Hall concert, with others fearing for their personal safety, citing a potential attack.
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