Eye on Extremism: August 28, 2025
Top Stories
Reuters: Shooter kills two Minneapolis school children in Catholic church, wounds 17 others
An assailant armed with three guns fired through stained-glass windows into a Catholic church where parish school students were attending Mass on Wednesday, killing two children and wounding 17 other people, officials said. The shooting ended when the lone suspect, identified as Robin Westman, 23, "took his own life" at the rear of the church, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, who declined to offer a possible motive for the attack. A videotaped message by the suspect showed Westman struggled with depression and was fascinated by the perpetrators of past mass shootings. FBI Director Kash Patel said his agency was investigating the attack as an "act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics."
B'nai B'rith: A Climate of Fear and Exclusion: Antisemitism at European Universities
This report from B’nai B’rith International, democ and the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) documents the surge of antisemitism on university campuses across Europe in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Since then, Jewish students and faculty have faced harassment, intimidation and violence, creating a climate of fear and exclusion across campuses.
CEP Mentions
OC Media: Three detained after anti-Azerbaijan protest in Saint Petersburg
The Other Russia of E.V. Limonov is an unregistered party founded in 2010 by Eduard Limonov. According to the Counter Extremism Project, the party subscribes to National Bolshevism and promotes the occupation of territories inhabited by Russian speakers in post-Soviet countries. The group has also been sending fighters to fight against Ukraine since 2014.
Analysis
A recent petition submitted to Syria’s interim government is seeking citizenship for foreign fighters who traveled there to take part in the civil war. While President Ahmed al-Sharaa hinted at taking this step for some foreign fighters earlier this year, it is unclear how (or even if) Damascus will answer the current petition, which many have dismissed given the manner in which it was raised (via social media) and the person who initiated it (Bilal Abdul Kareem, a U.S. citizen who is not associated with the factions that lead post-Assad Syria).
United States
New York Times: Minneapolis Suspect Knew Her Target, but Motive Is a Mystery
On social media, some conservative activists have seized on the shooter’s gender identity to broadly portray transgender people as violent or mentally ill. The police did not provide any motive for the attack, but Ms. Westman’s extensive social media history was a contradictory catalog of anger and grievance. In seemingly stream-of-consciousness videos that she posted, she fixated on guns, violence and school shooters. She displayed her own cache of weapons, bullets and what appear to be explosive devices, scrawled with antisemitic and racist language and threats against President Donald Trump.
Transgender Minneapolis shooter Robin Westman spoke of murdering “filthy Zionist Jews” and spewed other antisemitic bile in a twisted manifesto before he opened fire at a Catholic school Wednesday morning, killing two children. Westman, 23, also wrote slogans such as “Free Palestine” in a journal he wrote in the Cyrillic alphabet, which The Post translated, after YouTube clips showing the diary pages were posted online on his since-deleted channel. “If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews,” he wrote in one disgusting entry.
The shooter who killed children attending a Catholic mass at their school in Minneapolis on Wednesday allegedly used a gun that featured antisemitic and anti-Israel writing, as well as the name of the man convicted of the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
Reuters: Trump holds Gaza policy meeting with Tony Blair and Jared Kushner
President Donald Trump presided over a policy meeting on Israel's war in Gaza and post-war plans for the Palestinian territory on Wednesday with input from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Trump Middle East envoy Jared Kushner, a senior White House official said. Trump, top White House officials, Blair and Kushner discussed the hostage crisis, plans to escalate food aid deliveries, post-war plans and more, the official told Reuters.
Le Monde: After Minneapolis shooting, Trump's supporters charge 'trans-terrorism'
Mass shootings in the United States have become regular news, year after year. The tragedy that unfolded on Wednesday, August 27, at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, was more than just a crime story, it was also a political moment. Two children were killed and 17 people were wounded, including 14 children. The shooter, a trans woman (assigned male at birth but identifying as female), was labeled by the FBI as an act of both "terrorism" and a "hate crime" targeting Catholics. In Make America Great Again (MAGA) circles on social media, one term circulated relentlessly throughout the day: "Trans-terrorism."
New York Times: In Trump’s Second Term, Far-Right Agenda Enters the Mainstream
During President Trump’s first turn in the White House, right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys were on the streets, weekend after weekend, raising their voices — and oftentimes their fists — about issues such as immigration, the squelching of conservative speech and the removal of Confederate-era statues. But in the first seven months of Mr. Trump’s second term, there has been a conspicuous absence of far-right demonstrations. And that, some leaders of the movement say, is because the president has effectively adopted their agenda.
Vice: Inside the Neo-Nazi Prison Magazine Radicalizing Americans in Their Cells
A new far-right newspaper, the White Prison Newsletter (or WPN), has recently been gaining traction in extremist circles. Its publication was first announced on The American Futurist, an accelerationist site founded by former members of the Atomwaffen Division—a thankfully now-defunct neo-Nazi organization linked to a number of murders and terror attack plots.
WIRED: This Is the Group That's Been Swatting US Universities
A self-proclaimed leader of an online group linked to the violent extremist network The Com tells WIRED he is responsible for the flurry of hoax active-shooter alerts at universities across the US in recent days as students return to school.
Speaking to members of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus over Zoom on Wednesday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) accused the Trump administration of not working in good faith to combat antisemitism, discussed recent Democratic National Committee votes on Israel and offered a strong defense of Israel against a growing chorus of critics.
CBS News: Former public safety official says Concord, Massachusetts has "an antisemitism problem"
A former top public safety official for Massachusetts said his hometown of Concord has "an antisemitism problem." Kurt Schwartz is speaking out to WBZ-TV after his home was hit with vandalism and graffitti, apparently sparked by his display of support for Israeli victims of Hamas. Schwartz spent nine years as director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, helping keep us safe during storms.
Canada
City News: Montreal groups call to meet city over DEI policy, rise in hate crimes and extremism
Five organizations serving racialized communities in Montreal are calling to meet with the city’s new anti-racism commissioner — Maty Diop — following prior concerns over the city’s new diversity, equity, and inclusion policy. They had been asking the city to declare hate crimes and extremism a public security priority, and on Monday the city council voted to include these concepts.
Argentina
Argentine police continued their hunt Wednesday for a 18th-century Italian portrait believed to have been looted 80 years ago from a Jewish collector by a fugitive Nazi officer who settled in Argentina after World War II. A raid on a villa Tuesday in a seaside resort south of Buenos Aires reopened a shadowy chapter in the history of this South American nation, which sheltered scores of Nazis who fled Europe to avoid prosecution for war crimes, including high-ranking party members and notorious architects of the Holocaust like Adolf Eichmann.
France
Nordic Monitor: Turks among top groups stripped of French citizenship over jihadist terror links
In the past decade Franco-Turkish nationals have emerged as one of the leading categories of individuals stripped of French citizenship over terrorism charges linked to jihadist organizations such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaeda, as France has increasingly turned to the revocation of nationality as part of its counterterrorism strategy, particularly against dual nationals implicated in extremism.
Germany
Deutsche Welle: German trans neo-Nazi accused of abusing the law
"Trans-fascism" and "parasites of society" — these were the kinds of phrases that the right-wing extremist who now identifies as Marla-Svenja Liebich used for decades as a leader of the "Blood and Honor" neo-Nazi group. In 2023, Liebich was found guilty of incitement to racial hatred and defamation, amongst other crimes. Last year, having exhausted all legal avenues to avoid prison, she was sentenced to serve 18 months in jail. And then, just weeks after a new national gender identity law was introduced in November 2024, Liebich legally registered as a woman.
According to the security authorities, the left-wing extremists were expecting this and are said to have already reacted. At the beginning of the week, unknown persons vandalized the office of a Berlin resident who owns a majority stake in the British company that owns the building. The State Security Department of the State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) is alarmed and, according to the Tagesspiegel, assumes a targeted action by left-wing extremists: According to this, the owner - in the view of the security authorities - is to be intimidated and threatened so that no further action is taken against the squatters. The perpetrators are said to have emptied fire extinguishers in the offices.
Telegraph: Armed escorts and £900 handouts: How Germany sent migrants back to the Taliban
When Nigel Farage announced his plan to deport 600,000 illegal migrants from Britain, he put forward Germany as an example of how it could be done. The Reform UK leader pointed to two deportation flights organised by Berlin, transporting a total of 102 failed Afghan asylum seekers back to their homeland. The flights were the first to leave Germany for Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power and the European nation closed its embassy in Kabul in 2021.
Greece
Israeli tourists are briefly blocked and attacked by anti-Israel protesters when departing from the Crown Iris cruise ship in Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete. The protesters, some waving Palestinian flags, clash with police who were seeking to secure the passageway of the Israeli tourists.
Italy
Jewish News Syndicate: Unfriend all Jews on Facebook, Italian law professor saysv
The University of Palermo in Sicily on Tuesday distanced itself from remarks that one of its professors made online, urging social media users to “unfriend” all Jews on Facebook to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Romania
Balk Magazin: The Romanian far-right incites against guest workers
AUR Hungarian-hating politician Dan Tanasă urged Romanians on his social media page not to accept food orders unless they are delivered by a Romanian courier and to stop employing Asian or African workers, because he believes that the West is also sinking because of immigration. After Tanasă's statements, star police officer Marian Godină filed a criminal complaint against him for inciting hatred and discrimination, while a few days later Romanian and Nepalese workers fought at the IKEA factory in Nagybánya.
United Kingdom
Telegraph: ‘IS Beatle’ wants to return to Britain ‘so he can see his friends’v
A member of an Islamic State (IS) terror cell dubbed “The Beatles” has applied to return to Britain from the US. El Shafee Elsheikh, known as Jihadi Ringo, was part of a gang that videoed the killings of hostages, including British aid worker David Haines.
The Guardian: Tommy Robinson will not be charged over alleged St Pancras assault, police say
The far-right activist Tommy Robinson will not face charges over allegations he punched a man to the ground at a London train station, police and prosecutors have announced. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after the incident on 28 July at St Pancras train station.
The National: MSP demands 'formal BBC apology' after host echoes far-right rhetoric
On Wednesday morning, BBC Good Morning Scotland host Gary Robertson was interviewing SNP MP Stephen Gethins when he asked if anti-immigration protesters outside Home Office hotels had “a point” that asylum seekers are given advantages that aren’t given to “the indigenous population”. The use of the term “indigenous” has long been used by the far right to describe white people in Britain, as well as more widely in racist European movements.
Afghanistan
Reuters: Afghan Taliban government accuses Pakistan of deadly drone strikesv
Afghan officials said Pakistani drones struck homes in Nangarhar and Khost provinces late on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding seven, prompting the Taliban government to summon Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul on Thursday in protest. In Khost’s Spera district, a southeastern border region adjacent to Pakistan’s North Waziristan, three children were killed and several others wounded when drones hit the home of Haji Naeem Khan, according to the province’s media chief.
Afghanistan International: Taliban Leader Reportedly Pressures Hamid Karzai Into Exile
Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has urged former Afghan President Hamid Karzai to leave the country, according to sources familiar with the matter. The demand followed a secretly recorded conversation in which Karzai allegedly described himself as Akhundzada’s greatest political threat, saying his presence could mark the end of the Taliban chief’s rule.
Amu: Rights groups urge UN to establish investigative body for Taliban abuses
A coalition of 107 organizations, including Human Rights Watch, has urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism for Afghanistan to address what they describe as widespread impunity for grave crimes committed under Taliban rule. In a joint letter released Wednesday, the groups said the Taliban’s ongoing crackdown on human rights — particularly against women and girls — requires urgent international accountability. Human Rights Watch has classified the Taliban’s actions as gender persecution, which it says amounts to a crime against humanity. United Nations experts have also referred to the situation as “gender apartheid.”
Amu: Taliban pressure Kabul community representatives to report women’s secret beauty salons
The Taliban PVPV enforcers have instructed community representatives in parts of Kabul to identify and report home-based women’s beauty salons, warning them of punishment if they fail to cooperate, multiple local sources told Amu TV. The directive was issued by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV) in District 11 of the capital, where each neighborhood is overseen by a local liaison known as a wakil-e-gozar — a traditional community representative who serves as a point of contact between residents and local authorities.
Gaza Strip
IDF troops continued to operate on the outskirts of Gaza City on Wednesday, as a military spokesman urged civilians in the area to evacuate ahead of a planned offensive deeper into the city, dismissing the notion that there was not enough room in the south of the Strip for the displaced. The comments come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to move ahead with the decision approved by the cabinet earlier this month to conquer Gaza City, as Israeli officials continue to dismiss proposals for a partial hostage release deal, saying Jerusalem will only agree to a complete deal to free all hostages and disarm Hamas.
Israel
New York Times: Israel’s Exhausted Soldiers Complicate Plans for Gaza Assault
Over the past few months, an increasing number of Israeli reserve soldiers have not been showing up for military service. Some cite exhaustion, as well as the need to save strained marriages or foundering careers. Others say they are increasingly disillusioned with the war. The rising discontent in the ranks threatens to complicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take control of Gaza City in an effort to decisively rout Hamas. The military has said it plans to call up an additional 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.
Anywhere there is terror financing in the West Bank, the IDF will seize it, even if it is in the Palestinian Authority’s capital, Ramallah, Lt.-Col. A, the IDF’s 668th Ram Battalion commander, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview just after his unit busted Hamas’s last banks in Ramallah on Wednesday. Pressed on whether he was concerned about entering the PA’s capital, where the IDF operates much less frequently, he responded, “If there is terror financing, I will get there. There is no hesitation.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently requested approval from Israel's attorney general for a "policy document" he drafted on protests aimed at significantly restricting the right to demonstrate.
Jerusalem Post: Why Israel has failed to stop Houthis, and when it might change
From October 2023 until July 2024, when a Houthi drone killed an Israeli civilian in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem’s approach was to avoid directly confronting the Houthis and to try to leave any fighting with them to the US. Top Israeli officials – with US officials agreeing with them – during the early stages of the war told the Post that the Shi’ite Houthis were the craziest Iranian proxy in the region and that getting into a tit-for-tat battle with them would go poorly for the Jewish state because they were virtually not deterrable.
Times of Israel: 7 extremist settlers arrested over past month freed to house arrest
Seven of eight West Bank settlers arrested by security forces earlier this month were released to house arrest today by the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court, according to the right-wing legal aid group Honenu. One of them remains in custody.
Lebanon
Reuters: UN Security Council set to renew Lebanon peacekeepers for final time
The United Nations Security Council will vote on Thursday to extend a long-running peacekeeping mission in Lebanon until the end of 2026, when the operation will then begin a year-long "orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal," diplomats said. The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), established in 1978, patrols Lebanon's southern border with Israel. The mandate for the operation is renewed annually, and its current authorization expires on August 31.
Naharnet: Palestinian factions in south Lebanon hand weapons to army
Palestinian groups in three refugee camps in south Lebanon handed over heavy weapons to the Lebanese army on Thursday, under a disarmament deal reached earlier this year, Lebanese and Palestinian authorities said. During a visit to Beirut in May, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun agreed that weapons in Lebanon's Palestinian camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities.
Naharnet: Macron tells Aoun disarmament plan has broad European and international support
French President Emmanuel Macron told Thursday President Joseph Aoun, in a phone call, that the army's plan for arms monopolization will receive "broad European and international support" and must be characterized with "accuracy." Macron and Aoun discussed the plan that the army will develop to implement the Cabinet's decision to disarm Hezbollah and other armed factions. Macron lauded the step as "important", said it should be done with precision, and assured that the plan will have broad European and international support.
Naharnet: Berri says anyone who attacks army is a 'dog, son of a dog'
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has reportedly warned against confronting the Lebanese Army. “Whoever throws (even a) rose at the Lebanese Army is a dog, a son of a dog, and this is the stance of the Amal and Hezbollah duo,” LBCI television quoted visitors of Berri as saying.
Syria
Times of Israel: IDF said to raid Syrian army site near Damascus with helicopters, ground troopsv
Israeli ground troops conducted a commando raid overnight Wednesday-Thursday on a Syrian site it had already bombed on the two previous days, Syrian state media reported, in a major operation said to have included helicopters and fighter jets as well as dozens of ground troops. Israel first struck the site outside Damascus on Tuesday, killing several Syrian soldiers, according to Damascus’s foreign ministry, and bombed it again on Wednesday, according to state television.
Yemen
Jerusalem Post: Israel attacks Houthis in Sanaa during terror leader's televised speech
The Israeli air force attacked Houthi targets in Sanaa on Thursday as their leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, was giving a nationally televised speech. Sky News is reporting that the targets in Sanaa included a presidential location and a central Houthi military camp.
Bangladesh
Efforts are underway to erase Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War from people's memories, BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged on Wednesday, asserting that those who "helped enemies" are now "speaking loudly". Speaking at an event in the capital, Alamgir, the secretary general of former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said that it was "not possible to forget" the country's Liberation War against Pakistan.
India
Times of India: Woman arrested with drugs, militant nabbed in Manipur
Manipur Police have arrested a 49-year-old woman, Manneihoi Baite, for possessing 1,200 WY tablets, a banned psychotropic substance valued at approximately Rs 10 lakh. The arrest, made at her residence in S Munnuam under Churachandpur Police Station, marks a significant breakthrough in the state's ongoing anti-narcotics operations. Meanwhile, in a robust anti-insurgency operation, Manipur Police arrested Nongmaithem Naocha Meetei, 26, an active member of the banned insurgent group PREPAK (PRO), in Imphal East.
Free Press Kashmir: Two militants killed while attempting infiltration in Bandipora: Army
The Army on Thursday said two unidentified militants were killed in an anti-infiltration operation along the Line of Control near Naushehra Nard in Gurez sector of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district. In a post on X, the Army’s Chinar Corps said the operation was launched jointly with Jammu and Kashmir Police following intelligence inputs about a likely infiltration attempt.
Nigeria
The Cable: Youth group launches platform to combat violent extremism
The Youth Against Violence Extremism (YAVE) has launched a new digital platform aimed at empowering young Nigerians to combat violent extremism through creativity and innovation. In a statement by Victory Idogho, its interim national media and publicity manager, YAVE said platform was designed as an interactive hub for young people to exchange ideas, co-create solutions, and champion peace initiatives across the country.
Somalia
Hiiraan: Puntland forces kill 3 ISIS militants in Bari region
Puntland security forces killed three ISIS fighters and seized weapons during a planned operation in the Calmiskaad mountains on Tuesday, regional officials said. The raid targeted militants hiding between Maragaale and Kalidaad in the Togga Baallade area, where the group has attempted to establish bases and corridors for launching attacks against Puntland forces, according to security sources.
Sky News: 'I don't regret anything,' smiling ISIS militant on death row tells Sky News
Blindfolded and under armed guard, a captured ISIS fighter is brought before us. When the blindfold is removed, he doesn't look surprised to see a camera crew and several counterterrorism officers, one of whom interrogated him when he was first caught. The 24-year-old militant is on death row in Somalia awaiting execution by firing squad, having been accused of being an ISIS commander, as well as a sniper and a member of a two-man bomb squad.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong conducted its largest-ever counterterrorism drill, which saw strong levels of public participation, on Thursday afternoon at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal to simulate a terrorist attack on critical infrastructure.
Australia
The organisers of an anti-immigration march scheduled for Sunday have been linked to white nationalist ideas, including, in one case, sharing pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler memes, an investigation of the march's website and social media of the organisers has found.
Jerusalem Post: Exposing a global strategy of antisemitism as political warfare
In an unprecedented diplomatic move, Australia expelled Iran’s top diplomat and severed formal ties after its intelligence services verified Tehran’s role in two antisemitic attacks: an arson at a synagogue in Melbourne and an assault on a kosher food company in Sydney. This was not street-level hate – it was state-sponsored extremism. For many Australians, these revelations were a wake-up call. But for those who track Iran’s playbook, they were entirely predictable. The Islamic Republic has long weaponized antisemitism, not just as domestic rhetoric, but as a projection of global power. What we’re witnessing in Australia is not an isolated act of hostility, but part of a broader campaign: undermining Western democracies by attacking their pluralistic foundations from within.
SBS News: Australia's most wanted man is a sovereign citizen. What do they believe?
The man wanted by Victoria police for allegedly murdering two police officers is a "very active" member of the sovereign citizen movement — an "isolationist" who believed "police were demons", extremism experts say. Dezi Freeman, born Desmond Filby, remains on the run a day after allegedly shooting dead two police officers and injuring another, as the officers were executing a search warrant in the rural Victorian town of Porepunkah.
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