Eye on Extremism: September 23, 2026
Top Stories
It took Houthi rebels less than 48 hours to seize Yemen’s Red Sea coast from pro-government forces in a resounding blow to U.S. interests and Washington’s regional allies. But the Houthis didn’t do it alone. Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisers were in the field helping direct the battle, people familiar with the offensive told The Associated Press, marking Iran’s most direct intervention in favor of its longtime ally since Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014.
The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) documented a significant surge of online hate speech, glorification of violence, and antisemitic conspiracy theories in relation to the shooting outside the Sons of Jacob synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, during Erev Yom Kippur services. One police officer, Constable Jeff Smith, was injured during the attack while protecting the community as congregants took cover inside, and there were no further injuries.
Analysis
The metastasizing online crypto casino industry, which operates in a largely unregulated space, should be of considerable concern for those focused on combating far-right radicalization and hate. These casinos, which function outside of traditional gambling-industry norms and regulations, market their businesses by engaging directly with right-leaning and far-right influencers and streamers, whose audience consists of primarily young men.
Swiss Info: How poring over old journals gives insight into right-wing extremism today
Swiss historians are analysing periodicals published by right-wing networks after the Second World War. This research can help in understanding the communication strategies of today’s right-wing extremists.
JNS: US freezes out Palestinians again at UN as dispute over ICC, terror payments deepens
For the second time in two years, the United States has barred Palestinian Authority delegates and officials from attending the United Nations General Assembly (Sept. 8-28). A Sept. 16 State Department media note similar in tone and content to one it released in July 2025 said the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the dominant force within the P.A., have failed to live up to their commitments, contradicting U.S. law.
United States
Jewish Insider: Two Seattle Jewish leaders warn of Jewish complacency in face of rising antisemitism
Two of Seattle’s top Jewish leaders are sounding the alarm about the costs of ignoring rising antisemitism, offering up their own city as a “canary in the coal mine” — a warning of how Jewish communal apathy can allow individual acts of discrimination to slowly erode Jewish life.
The attorney for a North Carolina girl accused of helping two teens who carried out a deadly attack on a San Diego mosque says prosecutors haven’t provided enough information to allow him to defend his client. Sarah Santiago, 17, is charged as an adult with three counts of murder by aiding and abetting and one count of conspiracy. Prosecutors say she helped California teens Cain Clark and Caleb Vazquez, who shot and killed three people at the Islamic Center of San Diego on May 18 before killing themselves.
Axios: Scoop: Biggs left positive reviews of Islamophobic and anti-immigrant books
A Goodreads account seeming to belong to GOP nominee for governor Rep. Andy Biggs left positive reviews for books that argue the growth of Muslim and Latin American populations threaten predominantly white Western societies.
NBC 7: Teen suspect jailed in series of antisemitic graffiti in Imperial Beach
A teenager suspected of defacing several South Bay homes with antisemitic graffiti was jailed Tuesday on suspicion of a dozen criminal offenses, half of which have a hate-crime component. Kristoffer Wilheim Vonhassel, 18, was booked on suspicion of six counts each of vandalism and causing property damage motivated by civil-rights violations, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.
JNS: Judge rules Bay Area school district not complying with state mandates to address Jew-hatred
The Alameda County Superior Court ruled on Friday that the Oakland Unified School District, which educates about 34,000 students in 82 schools, has not complied fully with the California Department of Education’s directives to address Jew-hatred on its campuses.
Michigan Jewish leaders on Tuesday urged former Vice President Kamala Harris — who is set to campaign with the party’s Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, in Michigan this week — to appeal to El-Sayed on issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
JNS: Seattle area-public school district bracing for Oct. 7 anti-Israel walkouts
The Bellevue School District in Washington state, which operates 28 schools with more than 19,000 students, told JNS that it is monitoring social media for outside agitators looking to influence students to participate in a walkouts on Oct. 7 in solidarity with Hamas. Groups like Puget Sound Revolutionary Youth, which described the Oct. 7 terror attacks as “the heroic Palestinian resistance,” called on students to walk out of schools statewide for a third year.
ABC 27: York leaders coming together in response to racially charged flyers
York police are investigating racially charged flyers put up over the city last weekend, with community leaders joining together in unity against racism. York City police said that a white supremacist group posted the racially charged flyers threatening violence, which have since been taken down.
ABC 7: Swastika found painted on slide at Highland Park playground: officials
Antisemitic vandalism was found at a north suburban park on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Highland Park officials said a swastika was painted on a slide at Devonshire Park. Park personnel have since removed it.
A teenager suspected of defacing several South Bay homes with antisemitic graffiti and hate symbols was jailed Tuesday on suspicion of a dozen criminal offenses. Authorities booked the teen, 18, on suspicion of six counts each of vandalism and causing property damage motivated by civil-rights violations, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
Canada
The shooting Sunday at the Sons of Jacob synagogue in Belleville, Ont., represents a dramatic escalation of attacks targeting Jewish institutions in Canada, one that has left many in the community shaken and has led advocates to call on authorities to tackle the issue.
Times of Israel: Gunman who fired on police outside Canada synagogue dies of gunfight wounds
The gunman who was shot by Canadian police after firing on officers outside a synagogue at the start of Yom Kippur on Sunday evening has died, an official said Tuesday.
Global News: Belleville gunman spouted COVID-19 conspiracies while in army, say sources
The gunman accused of opening fire at police outside an Ontario synagogue left the army after expressing conspiracy theories about COVID-19, according to military sources.
France
Le Monde: French court sentences jihadist Othman Garrido to 30 years in prison
A French court on Tuesday, September 22, sentenced a former member of the Islamic State group in Syria, Othman Garrido, to 30 years’ imprisonment for murders committed as part of an organized group.
French President Emmanuel Macron accused Israel of violating Palestinian rights in the West Bank, questioning the justification for its actions and making a remark that was translated as "Hamas was never active in the West Bank.”
The 35-year-old officer, who was serving in the Yvelines department west of Paris, was arrested by anti-terrorism investigators on 23 August as he left work. He is suspected of planning violent attacks against state interests and of manufacturing weapons using a 3D printer, according to French broadcaster TF1/LCI, which revealed the case last Thursday.
Germany
Bloomberg: German Far Right Wargames Policy Agenda With Overture to Merz
Germany’s far-right party, fresh off election victories in two eastern states, laid out a hardline policy blueprint that it said could be delivered with the help of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives.
TVP World: Germany weighs limits on far-right access to classified intelligence
Germany’s federal government is preparing measures to restrict access to classified military and intelligence material if the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party forms a government in Saxony-Anhalt, the New York Times has reported.
Montenegro
Iran International: Iranian hacker in IRGC-linked cyber case to be extradited to US
Montenegro will extradite Iranian-Turkish hacker Amir Barati to the United States, where he faces charges over a sweeping cyber campaign that US prosecutors say stole research and data for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and other entities.
United Kingdom
Guardian: Police believe they have foiled ‘imminent’ attack on Manchester’s Jewish community
Police believe they have stopped an imminent plot to attack Jewish communities in the Manchester area. The announcement on Tuesday follows the arrest of two men on Sunday at 2.45pm in Manchester and comes during the period of festivals at the beginning of the Jewish new year.
Metro: Tommy Robinson ‘detained by anti-terror police’ at airport
Far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, has reportedly been arrested at an airport by counter-terrorism police. A post on his X account reads: ‘Tommy has been detained again, at an airport by Counter Terrorism Police.’
Russia
Moscow Times: Russia Brands Exiled YouTuber Yury Dud ‘Terrorist and Extremist’
Russia’s financial monitoring agency Rosfinmonitoring added exiled journalist and YouTuber Yury Dud to its database of “terrorists and extremists” on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether Dud faces criminal charges, but an asterisk marked alongside his entry in the database indicates that he is under criminal investigation.
Middle East
Jewish Insider: Saudi Arabia’s Houthi crisis is partly of its own making, analysts say
Saudi Arabia is facing an escalating Houthi offensive along the Red Sea coast and direct attacks on its own territory, in what regional analysts describe as a turning point in Riyadh’s conflict with the Iran-backed terror group — and a crisis they say was created in part by Riyadh’s own miscalculations.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan International: Taliban Forces Raid Karzai’s Home, Disperse Visitors, Say Sources
Taliban forces stormed former president Hamid Karzai’s home and dispersed a group of people who had gone there to meet him. The reason for the raid remains unclear. Reliable sources in Kabul told Afghanistan International that Taliban forces prevented Karzai’s guests from meeting the former president.
KabulNow: Pakistan Says More Than 24 ‘Terrorist Groups’ Are Operating in Afghanistan
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said that more than 24 “terrorist groups” are operating inside Afghanistan, warning that their activities pose a threat to regional and international security. Dar made the remarks at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Afghanistan on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
8AM Media: Taliban Arrest Shia Cleric and Raid His Home in Ghor
Local sources in Ghor say that a Shia cleric, along with several members of his family, has been arrested by the Taliban. Sources told the Hasht-e Subh Daily on Wednesday, September 23, that Sheikh Mohammad Hamidi, a Shia cleric in Lal wa Sarjangal district of Ghor province, was arrested by the Taliban on Monday.
Afghanistan International: Afghanistan’s Aid Plan Faces 70 Percent Funding Gap, Says UN
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says 21.9 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance, but only about 31% of the funding required to address the crisis had been secured by mid-September.
Gaza Strip/West Bank
Reuters: Four killed in Gaza in strikes, Israel says it killed a Hamas finance chief
Israeli airstrikes killed at least four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health officials said, and Israel said one of the attacks targeted a Hamas finance chief. Medics said two of the Palestinians, Osama Abu Khater and Mohammad Abu Elwan, were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in western Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave. Two other people were wounded, they added.
An Israeli man in his 30s was seriously injured in a car-ramming attack at the Maccabim Junction in the West Bank a short while ago, the military and medics say.
Two Palestinians reportedly attempted to run over the owner of a farm in the Hebron Hills on Wednesday. The farm owner began shooting at them in accordance with the "suspect arrest procedure," wounding one of the individuals in the leg, according to reports.
Israel shot back angrily Tuesday at French President Emmanuel Macron who, in an address to the United Nations, criticized Israeli actions in the West Bank and claimed Hamas was never active in the territory that is home to the Palestinian Authority.
Iran
Iran International: IRGC says Iran does not reject diplomacy, seeks to impose its terms
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards do not reject diplomacy but see negotiations as another means of imposing Tehran’s conditions on its adversaries, IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi told Al Araby TV on Tuesday.
Iran International: Iran has moved weapons development fully underground - IRGC outlet
Iran has moved the research, development and production of weapons “completely underground,” the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency reported Tuesday, citing a senior Iranian security source who said the work was continuing around the clock.
Israel
The United Arab Emirates’ intelligence service warned the Shin Bet in September 2023 that Hamas could carry out a violent action by the end of the month — days before the October 7 massacre took place — Channel 12 reported Tuesday, saying the intelligence warning was what prompted UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed’s subsequent phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the matter.
Lebanon
The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, has said that Hezbollah has conducted a deep review of the course adopted since October 8, 2023, objectively identifying any flaws or shortcomings in its performance.
Yemen
News.Az: Alleged al-Qaeda member killed in suspected US drone strike on Yemen
A suspected U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle carrying two suspected members of al-Qaeda in Yemen’s southeastern Hadramout province on Tuesday evening, killing one person and injuring another, a local security official said.
The New Arab: Yemen’s Houthis to target US interests if it supports Saudi-led strikes
A Houthi military adviser said that the group would attack US interests in the region if Washington intervenes in Yemen's war in support of Saudi Arabia or tries to unblock the Bab al-Mandeb strait.
Wall Street Journal: Carriers Shift More Containerships Through Red Sea, Despite Houthi Gains
Ocean carriers are returning more containership services to the Red Sea and Suez Canal after largely avoiding the route for nearly three years, even as Yemen’s Houthi militants tighten control of the Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint at the corridor’s southern entrance.
Pakistan
Afghanistan’s Taliban forces shelled Pakistani border posts overnight after Pakistani troops foiled what they described as a cross-border infiltration attempt by militants, local Pakistani officials said Wednesday.
Africa
Africa Defense Forum: Diplomatic Divide Threatens Sahel Security
Nigeria’s northern states are experiencing a surge in terrorism spreading from the Sahel as strained diplomatic relations with Niger’s ruling junta complicates cross-border security. Tensions between the two countries began after the 2023 coup that overthrew Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. The situation worsened when Niger joined Burkina Faso and Mali in the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES) and withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2025. It later exited the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which confronts terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin.
Central African Republic
Reuters: International Criminal Court convicts Central African militia leader
Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted a former Seleka militia leader from the Central African Republic of crimes against humanity including torture. Prosecutors accused Mahamat Said Abdel Kani of running a prison where suspected supporters of then-President Francois Bozize were beaten and tortured. He denied all charges.
Ethiopia
Reuters: Tigrayan leaders say new war with Ethiopian government has begun, as fighting erupts
Forces from the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray launched a major offensive against the federal government on Wednesday, a senior Ethiopian official said, shattering a four-year-old peace deal and threatening a wider regional conflict. Tigray's leaders said in a statement they had entered a "defensive" war to counter aggression by the federal government.
Mali
Africa Defense Forum: Terrorist-Tuareg Alliance Leaves Mali’s Junta on Shaky Ground
Two years after canceling a peace agreement with Tuareg separatists, Mali’s ruling junta is no closer to restoring security to the country, according to analysts. Instead, the junta appears to have undermined its own counterterrorism efforts by prompting the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) to align with terrorists.
Australia
Counterterrorism police have charged a Melbourne man accused of spreading extremist material as an online propagandist for the Islamic State (IS) terror group.
Technology
Jerusalem Post: ADL launches research, resource hub for online pathways to youth violence, extremism
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center on Extremism launched a new research and resource hub examining online communities that influence young people to engage in targeted and mass violence on Wednesday.
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