Eye on Extremism: July 13, 2026
Top Stories
Fox News: UK pins string of antisemitic attacks on Iran-linked group, bans IRGC
The United Kingdom on Monday blamed an Iran-linked proxy group for a string of antisemitic arson attacks targeting British Jewish sites, prompting the government to ban Tehran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and impose sweeping new powers to crack down on foreign-backed sabotage.
JTA: Most American Jews feel less safe in the US since Oct. 7, poll finds
About 6 in 10 Jewish adults said they feel “less safe” living in the United States than they did before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, according to a new survey released Friday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
CEP Mentions
ZDFheute Live: Who is in charge in Iran and how the people are faring
How strong is the support for Iran's leadership within the country? And how are the people doing more than four months after the start of the war? Carsten Rüger discusses these questions with ZDF correspondent Phoebe Gaa in Tehran. Also joining them is Iran expert Hans-Jakob Schindler.
WELT TV: IRAN VS. USA: Shots fired at cargo ships! Why the conflict is becoming more dangerous now!
The situation in the Middle East is escalating: The US is once again attacking Iranian targets, while Iran is putting pressure on US bases and shipping in the Persian Gulf. Middle East expert Hans-Jakob Schindler analyzes the current escalation between the US and Iran, explains the role of the Revolutionary Guard, and assesses the risk of a regional war.
Hans-Jakob Schindler speaks to Newstime on the situation concerning the war in Iran,
Iran expert Hans-Jakob Schindler strongly contradicts Tehran's account: The Strait of Hormuz was never truly open. In an interview, he explains why the Revolutionary Guard is sabotaging promises and why the risk of further attacks is growing.
Hans-Jakob Schindler says that on the one hand, Germany stands firmly by the side of Israel, the arch-enemy of the Islamic Republic. On the other hand, while members of the federal government and the Chancellor have voiced criticism regarding the US war with Iran, it was Merz who predicted the regime's downfall.
In this episode of THE WILD HOUSE, podcast host Angela van Brakel and security and Iran expert Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler analyze whether the war between the US and Iran is reigniting or whether it never truly ended. They contextualize the recent attacks and explain why the statements from Washington and Tehran could hardly be more contradictory.
Analysis
Iran International: Can Tehran seek revenge and negotiate with Washington?
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s renewed call for revenge over his father’s killing has emboldened hardliners demanding concrete action, while raising questions over how such threats can be reconciled with Tehran’s stated openness to diplomacy.
Iran International: Revenge becomes Iran's language of unity after Khamenei’s death
Iranian officials are calling for national unity after Ali Khamenei’s death, but the message is increasingly being shaped by demands for revenge, attacks on officials accused of compromise and warnings that internal division serves the enemy.
United States
NPR: With the white nationalist group Patriot Front, what you see is not what you get
The sight of hundreds of masked men roaming the streets of Washington, D.C., on July Fourth weekend, wearing khakis, blue shirts and uniform patches, was chilling to some of the city's residents. For many Americans, it was the first they heard about Patriot Front, a white nationalist organization that was born out of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. A now-viral Reuters photo prompted reflections on the experience of a lone African American woman who was photographed in a Metro subway car, surrounded by white supremacists.
CBS News: Pittsburgh man indicted on charges of threatening to kill a member of Congress
A Shaler Township man has been indicted on several charges of threatening to kill a member of the United States Congress. According to information provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office, 32-year-old Robert Hlovchiec was indicted on Friday.
WIRED: White Supremacists Love Armie Hammer’s New Movie
In Citizen Vigilante, Armie Hammer plays Sanders, a former US soldier who has inherited his father’s real estate empire in an unnamed European country. Angered by what he sees as a Muslim takeover of the continent, Sanders embarks on an extrajudicial killing spree of migrants, youths, and judges he views as complicit.
Christian parents whose two daughters were seized by the Swedish government more than three years ago brought their custody battle to Washington, D.C., on Friday. A crowd of Romanian Americans gathered outside the Swedish Embassy in Washington on Friday morning to show their support for Daniel and Bianca Samson, Christian parents who have been separated from their daughters, Sara and Tiana, since December 2022.
Axios: Ted Cruz-aligned group blasts Florida's Fishback in ad targeting antisemitism
The Front Line, a political nonprofit group aligned with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, announced it's spending $400,000 on an ad buy targeting Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate James Fishback for making antisemitic statements.
France
AFP: Weapons found in car parked near synagogue in Paris Jewish suburb; terror probe launched
French anti-terrorist prosecutors on Sunday opened an investigation after weapons were found in a car parked in a Paris suburb that is home to a large Jewish population.
Associated Press: Macron warns of resurgent demons of antisemitism as France honors Alfred Dreyfus
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday decried a resurgence of the ″demons of antisemitism″ that have darkened France’s past and present. The French leader and others were inaugurating a statue honoring Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, whose wrongful 19th century treason conviction exposed deeply rooted anti-Jewish bias in France. Sunday marked 120 years since Dreyfus’ exoneration by France’s highest court, where the statue now stands.
Germany
AFP: Iraqi couple jailed in Germany for enslaving Yazidi girls
A German court jails an Iraqi couple who were members of the Islamic State group for keeping two girls from the Yazidi minority as slaves. The man, previously partially named by prosecutors as Twana H. S., is given a life sentence, while his wife Asia R. A. is handed a term of nine and a half years.
A far-left group calling itself “Kommando Angry Birds” has claimed responsibility for the fires set on Friday targeting the railway infrastructure between Cologne and Düsseldorf. Service resumed Saturday evening after the damaged cables were repaired, but German police are verifying the authenticity of the message and investigating possible links to other attacks.
Deutsche Welle: How a Jewish heir is taking on Germany's far-right AfD
A convoy of retro-looking Simson mopeds roars through the forests of Thuringia. The state was once part of Communist-ruled East Germany. The motorcade is the central image of a campaign video for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Styled like a 1970s road movie, the video leans heavily on nostalgia. Even the soundtrack seems designed to evoke a lost era. Leading the two-wheeler rally is Björn Höcke, one of the AfD's most recognizable hard-liners.
Italy
Police conducted searches in Rome, Savona, and Caserta on three young men aged between 20 and 26, under investigation for online propaganda and incitement to crime based on racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination. From analyzing chats, investigators determined that the three, who openly adhered to the subversive neo-fascist ideology of the " Third Position ," expressed violent intentions in their conversations, including through the use of weapons. They operated using instant messaging platforms such as Telegram to spread ideas related to supremacism, anti-Semitism, and the defense of national identity.
Poland
A memorial service commemorating 85 years since the Jedwabne massacre went ahead despite protests by Polish nationalists who called it “Jewish lies.” The Jedwabne massacre was the killing of hundreds of Jewish residents of the town of Jedwabne in northeastern Poland on 10 July 1941, shortly after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet-occupied part of Poland during Operation Barbarossa.
United Kingdom
Iran International: UK summons Iran ambassador after IRGC designation
Britain summoned Iran's ambassador on Monday following its designation of the Revolutionary Guards, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said, according to a Sky News reporter.
Reuters: UK plans to spend £250 million over three years to protect Jewish communities
Britain will spend over £250 million ($335 million) across the next three years to better protect its Jewish communities, the government said on Monday, following a series of recent antisemitic attacks.
The Telegraph: Online extremism fuels record high in child Prevent referrals
More children are being radicalised online than at any time on record, according to new figures from the Government’s Prevent counter-terror programme. More than 1,400 children under the age of 18 who were referred to Prevent as a potential terror risk in 2024-25 had been drawn into extremism largely through online influences.
The Guardian: Ann Widdecombe death: counter-terrorism police take over investigation
Counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of the former MP and Reform spokesperson Ann Widdecombe in light of “new information and evidence”.
The Guardian: Police arrest 12 over suspected far-right threat against Islamic event in Suffolk
Twelve people have been arrested, including three on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, over a suspected far-right threat against an Islamic event held this weekend, police have said.
The Guardian: Tommy Robinson’s Musk-funded Russia trip spurs call to defend UK democracy
The UK must do more to defend its democracy after it emerged that Elon Musk’s family foundation had taken the far-right activist Tommy Robinson to Russia, Ed Davey has said. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was brought to Russia by the Musks, the billionaire tech mogul’s father told the Guardian.
Afghanistan
New York Times: Inside Herat, Where a Taliban Campaign Targets a Cosmopolitan Outpost
Province by province, the Taliban government’s leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, has tightened his grip over Afghanistan. With a recent show of force in the western city of Herat, he has asserted control over one of the last havens where people had still been able to quietly ignore some of the Taliban’s restrictions.
Afghanistan International: Taliban Army Chief Seeks To Bring Dissident Commander To Kabul
Sources in Badakhshan told Afghanistan International that Taliban army chief Fasihuddin Fitrat is trying to persuade dissident commander Juma Khan Fateh to travel to Kabul for further talks with the group’s leadership.
Afghanistan International: Taliban Intensifies Crackdown On Independent Media, Says Rights Group
The Afghanistan Media Support Organisation says journalists and media outlets face a multilayered, organised and widespread crisis under Taliban rule, with arrests, physical violence and interference in media affairs increasing over the past month.
Gaza Strip/West Bank
A senior UN official on Monday accused Hamas of interfering with humanitarian deliveries in Gaza and intimidating aid workers, warning that the terror group’s actions were making relief operations increasingly dangerous.
Times of Israel: IDF says it hit weapons site in Gaza, as 6 said killed in Strip, including girl
Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday reportedly killed at least six people, including a 9-year-old girl, as Palestinian media reported a series of particularly heavy strikes in Gaza City, which the army said targeted a weapons production site and killed Hamas operatives who were working there.
Times of Israel: In memo before October 7, Sinwar predicted Israel might respond with nuclear strike
Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader who masterminded the terror group’s October 7, 2023, massacre, assessed ahead of the onslaught that Israel might respond with a nuclear strike on the Gaza Strip, but chose to carry out the invasion anyway, according to a newly revealed document written in the terror chief’s own hand.
JTA: Ro Khanna says armed settlers detained him in the West Bank; IDF disputes account
California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who is eyeing a 2028 presidential bid, says he was detained last week by armed Israeli settlers in the West Bank last week — and that Israeli soldiers who arrived “took the settlers’ side.”
Iran
Iran International: Revolutionary Guards say Iran will maintain control of Strait of Hormuz
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they would continue to enforce Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz, accusing the United States of “putting global oil and gas supplies at risk through its actions” in the strategic waterway.
Iran International: Trump says Mojtaba Khamenei is 90% dead
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran's top commanders had been killed, and Mojtaba Khamenei was 90% gone.
Iran International: Khamenei doubles down on revenge after Trump vows to decimate Iran if targeted
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei renewed his vow Saturday to avenge his father’s killing after US President Donald Trump said he had ordered the US military to “decimate and destroy” Iran if Tehran attempted to assassinate him. In a message issued after the burial of former supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei described retaliation for his father’s death in a February 28 airstrike as “a national demand”, adding that it “will most certainly be carried out.”
New York Times: Inside Israel’s Secret Operation to Cultivate Ahmadinejad
His current status remains uncertain. But four senior Iranian officials said that Mr. Ahmadinejad was in the custody of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence wing, under house arrest now that Iran has learned about much of his interactions with Israel.
Iranian officials spent the week of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s multi-day funeral reaffirming their commitment to the “Axis of Resistance,” according to a series of photos and statements released by Iran’s Foreign Ministry and state media throughout the week.
Naharnet: Iran tells Hezbollah, Berri that ending war, withdrawal are priorities in talks with US
Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah’s leadership have received a “new message” from the Iranian leadership, which was sent on Sunday, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday. “Tehran informed the Qatari and Pakistani mediators that ending the war on Lebanon and completing the Israeli withdrawal are priorities that are equal in importance to the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as implementing the memorandum of understanding signed with the United States,” informed sources told the daily.
Israel
Survivors of the October 7 Supernova music festival massacre are facing a wave of online abuse from bots, which are suspected to be part of a coordinated campaign by Iran, according to a report by Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA).
Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said that the IDF will only withdraw from Lebanon if Hezbollah is removed from pilot zones in the country's south, during an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," broadcast on Sunday.
Braden Eric Peters, known online as Clavicular, left a Monday interview midway after being pressed by Channel 13's Bar Shem-Ur about his recent antisemitic incidents, which involved being kicked out of a club in January alongside the white supremacist Nick Fuentes for singing Ye’s “Heil Hitler.”
Lebanon
AFP: ISF says detained Islamic State commander
Lebanese authorities said Monday they had detained a Syrian commander from the Islamic State group, as Damascus investigates an IS-linked cell accused of bombings during a visit by France's President Emmanuel Macron.
Naharnet: Hajj Hassan says framework agreement is an 'Israeli-Israeli agreement'
MP Hussein al-Hajj Hassan of Hezbollah on Monday suggested that "the Presidency and the government are committing to things they cannot implement” in the negotiations with Israel.
Qatar
Associated Press: Qatar’s former ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has died at 74
Qatar’s political reach today stretches from North Africa to Afghanistan and it hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the world’s most-watched soccer event. Sheikh Hamad, though long out of power, received thunderous applause from Qataris attending its opening match. But Qatar’s rise under Sheikh Hamad also rankled regional and Western allies with its independent-minded policymaking, including its close ties to Shiite powerhouse Iran, the Palestinian militant Hamas group and Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Yemen
Reuters: Houthis accuse Saudi Arabia of striking Sanaa airport, vow retaliation
The Houthi movement that controls northern Yemen accused Saudi Arabia on Monday of launching airstrikes against the international airport in Sanaa, and vowed to retaliate, testing a truce in the long-running conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group.
Yemeni forces struck the runway of the Houthi-controlled Sana'a International Airport to prevent an Iranian plane from landing, the anti-Houthi Yemeni Defense Ministry confirmed.
Congo
Reuters: Rebels in Congo see Ebola as chance to show governing credentials
Congo's AFC/M23 rebels have used a small Ebola outbreak in territory they control to showcase their ability to govern, mounting a response largely separate from authorities in Kinshasa and supported in part by neighbouring Rwanda, according to response teams and official documents.
Nigeria
Reuters: Nigeria rescues schoolchildren, teachers abducted in Oyo, presidency says
At least 39 schoolchildren and six teachers kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria's southwestern Oyo state nearly two months ago have been rescued by security forces, a presidential spokesperson said on Friday.
Sudan
Reuters: Sudan army says US peace plan must call for full RSF withdrawal from cities, documents show
The Sudanese army has conditioned any broad acceptance of a U.S. proposal for ending the country's three-year-old civil war on the full withdrawal by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces from cities it has occupied, according to documents seen by Reuters.
South Korea
The Chosun Daily: 20s Man Indicted for High School ISIS Affiliation
A person in his or her 20s who attempted to join ISIS (Islamic State), an Islamic extremist group, during high school has been arrested and indicted. The Cheongju District Prosecutors’ Office announced on the 13th that it referred Mr. A to trial under arrest on charges of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Australia
JNS: Antisemitism rampant in Australian medical profession, report says
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday spotlighted a report describing a pandemic of antisemitic behavior by Australian healthcare workers against Jewish patients. It called the investigation by The Australian a “deeply troubling picture and should serve as a wake-up call.”
Technology
Deutsche Welle: Could AI help al-Qaeda and other groups plan terror attacks?
Followers of extremist groups regularly ask how AI can help them plan terrorist attacks. A new study suggests that about one-third of AI chatbots might help them, if asked the right way.
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