Germany

Police say four victims face life-threatening injuries, suggest suspect may have have suffered a ‘psychological emergency’.

Authorities in Germany have arrested a woman after at least 17 people were injured in a knife attack at the main train station in the northern city of Hamburg.

At least four of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries in Friday evening’s mass stabbing incident, which took place in the middle of the city’s evening rush hour, emergency services said.

The suspect, a 39-year-old German woman, was arrested at the scene by law enforcement, a Hamburg police spokesperson said.

Officers “approached her, and the woman allowed herself to be arrested without resistance”, spokesman Florian Abbenseth told journalists in comments carried by public broadcaster ARD.

“We have no evidence so far that the woman may have had a political motive,” Abbenseth said.

“Rather, we have information, based on which we now want to investigate, whether she may have been experiencing a psychological emergency.”

The suspect was thought to have “acted alone”, Hamburg police said in a post on X.

Four of the victims have suffered life-threatening injuries, Hamburg’s fire department spokesman said, revising down an earlier figure.

The suspect was thought to have turned “against passengers” at the station, a spokeswoman for the Hanover federal police directorate, which also covers Hamburg, told the AFP news agency.

Images of the scene showed access to the platforms at one end of the station blocked off by police and people being loaded into waiting ambulances.

Four platforms at the station were closed while investigations were ongoing, and railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by the attack. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also expressed his shock in a call with the mayor of Hamburg following the attack.

Germany has been rocked in recent months by a series of violent attacks that have put security at the top of the agenda.

The most recent, on Sunday, saw four people injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld. The investigation into that attack had been handed over to federal prosecutors following the arrest of the suspect, who is from Syria.

‘Suspicious and unwarranted’ arrests of Iranians come amid lingering tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme and the fallout of Russia-Ukraine war.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the United Kingdom’s charge d’affaires over what it called “suspicious and unwarranted” arrests of several Iranian nationals.

The UK earlier this month accused several Iranian nationals of offences without offering evidence, wilfully refrained from informing Iran’s embassy in time, and prevented consular access contrary to international norms, the ministry said in a statement issued late on Sunday, according to state media.

It also accused the British government of harbouring “political motivations to exert pressure on Iran” with the arrests.

The diplomatic spat comes two days after British police charged three Iranians with suspected espionage for Iran’s intelligence services under the country’s National Security Act of 2023.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, were accused of conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024 and February 16, 2025.

They appeared before a Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, where they were also charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance with the intention of committing or supporting serious violence against a person in the UK.

Their cases were referred to a central criminal court, and the next hearing is scheduled for early June.

The three are among eight individuals arrested in May, including seven Iranians, as part of two separate operations which Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said were some of the biggest investigations of their kind in recent years.

The four other Iranians were arrested as part of a “counterterrorism” operation, with investigations ongoing. The eighth man was released without charge last week.

In a stated effort towards improving national security against covert foreign influences, the UK has placed Iran on its highest tier under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS).

Strained ties

The arrests come amid strained ties between Iran and three European powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The UK, France and Germany have repeatedly criticised Iran for a purported lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme remains peaceful.

The trio, branded the E3 in the context of the negotiations, were party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which the United States unilaterally abandoned in 2018.

However, the US has reopened talks with Tehran in a bid to secure a new deal, and amid four rounds of talks mediated by Oman, Iran has emphasised it is open to holding more talks with the E3 as well.

Senior diplomats from the two sides gathered on Friday in Turkiye’s Istanbul for their first meeting since the nuclear talks with Washington commenced last month. Both sides stressed a commitment to continued diplomacy, but there was no breakthrough.

Rather, Iran has repeatedly warned that there will be “serious ramifications” if the E3 push to invoke the “snapback” mechanism of the comatose 2015 nuclear deal, which would reinstate the United Nations Security Council sanctions that were lifted as part of the landmark accord.

Tehran and Washington have also failed to see eye to eye so far when it comes to enrichment of uranium, with Iran reiterating on Monday that it will not back down from its right to have a civilian nuclear programme.

After US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said President Donald Trump’s administration would not allow Iran to enrich uranium even to 1 percent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “unrealistic” demands would only lead to a dead end.

The E3 is also concerned about numerous reports that Iran has been arming Russia for its war in Ukraine, accusations that Tehran denies.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tehran has yet to receive a written proposal from the US to advance to a fifth round of negotiations, which is expected soon.

He also said Iran has not proposed a joint enrichment venture with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but backs such an effort.

“The West Asia region, and specifically countries of the Persian Gulf, may increasingly require nuclear energy and to build power plants requiring nuclear fuel, so it won’t be bad if nuclear fuel facilities or consortiums are created in our region so everyone can invest in them.”

May 13 (UPI) — The leader of a secessionist group known as the “Kingdom of Germany” was arrested Tuesday morning with supporters for allegedly running a counter-German state, which government officials have now banned.

Peter Fitzek, 59, along with three others, were arrested in raids across seven German states aided by roughly 800 law enforcement personnel as leaders of the so-called “Reichsburger” — also known as “citizens of the Reich” — which seek to establish the Konigreich Deutschland, or a “Kingdom of Germany.”

“These extremists created a counter-state in Germany and ran criminal financial operations,” German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Tuesday in a statement, accusing the group of trying to “undermine the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, a fifth property was searched in Switzerland.

Founded in 2012 to the east in Wittenberg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the so-called “Kingdom of Germany” allegedly ran unlicensed banking operations, promoted its own set of laws, had currency, a flag and ID cards with Fitzek as “King Peter I,” who in turn appointed two deputies and a finance chief in the scheme.

The German Empire under the Hohenzollern dynasty ended with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918 at the end of World War One which then saw to several years of instability and ultimately the rise of facism lead by Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler, who became German chancellor in 1933.

“This is not about harmless nostalgia,” Dobrindt said Tuesday.

According to officials, Fitzek was previously convicted of running an illegal banking operation.

Dobrindt said no weapons had been seized in the raids.

“However, that was not to be expected,” he pointed out, adding how the group did not appear to be particularly interested in weaponry, but others “are known to have a fundamental affinity for” them.

There are roughly 25,000 “Reichsburger” members nationwide in groups who seek to overthrow Germany’s government, according to its domestic intelligence agency.

They’re known to be largely right-wing or anti-Semitic extremists in numbers that have grown over the years.

“I have no interest in being part of this fascist and satanic system,” Fitzek told the BBC in 2022, calling the German state “destructive and sick.”

The arrests arrived on top of calls to ban the far-right “Alternative for Germany” party, backed by White House adviser Elon Musk, which is now the largest opposition party in the German parliament.

“They reinforce their bogus claim to power with antisemitic conspiracy theories,” Dobrindt added.

In March, five people tied to the “Citizens of the Reich” were jailed in an alleged plot to overthrow Germany’s federal government in a far-right coup.

“A constitutional democracy cannot tolerate this,” the Germany interior minister stated Tuesday.

These are the key events on day 1,174 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Tuesday, May 13:

Ceasefire

• Moscow has yet to say whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin will attend direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy slated for Thursday in Istanbul and proposed by Kyiv over the weekend. The leaders have not met since December 2019.
• United States President Donald Trump said he is “thinking about flying over” to Istanbul to join the potential Putin-Zelenskyy talks.
• “I don’t know where I’m going to be on Thursday – I’ve got so many meetings – but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen,” Trump said. “Don’t underestimate Thursday in Turkey.”

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he held a joint call with Ukrainian and European officials to discuss a “way forward for a ceasefire” on Monday.
• Europe will reportedly push the White House for new sanctions on Moscow if Putin either fails to attend the Istanbul meeting, or fails to agree to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire”, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
• Germany said it is also preparing sanctions against Moscow if the talks stall.

Fighting

• Ukraine says that Russia is “completely ignoring” calls for a 30-day ceasefire made over the weekend by the US and Europe. It was due to begin on Monday.
• “Russian shelling and assaults continue,” Zelenskyy said in a nightly address. “Moscow has remained silent all day regarding the proposal for a direct meeting. A very strange silence.”
• Ukraine’s military said that there had been 133 clashes with Russian forces along the front lines up to Monday night.
• The heaviest fighting continues in the Donetsk region on Ukraine’s eastern front and Russia’s western Kursk region. Ukraine’s military said the intensity remains unchanged since the ceasefire was supposed to begin.
• Moscow called the 30-day ceasefire an excuse by Europe to “provide a breather for Kyiv to restore its military potential and continue its confrontation with Russia”.