Police in Germany arrested five teenagers accused of involvement with a right-wing extremist group calling itself “Last Defense Wave” that allegedly aimed to destabilize the country’s democratic system by carrying out attacks on migrants and political opponents.
The early-morning arrests in various parts of the country on Wednesday were accompanied by searches at 13 properties, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Four of those arrested — identified only as Benjamin H., Ben-Maxim H., Lenny M. and Jason R., in line with German privacy rules — are suspected of membership in a domestic terror organization. The fifth, Jerome M., is accused of supporting the group. Two of the arrested also are accused of attempted murder and aggravated arson. All are between the ages of 14 and 18.
Prosecutors said they are also investigating three other people, ages 18 to 21, who are already in custody. All the suspects are German citizens.
According to the prosecutors, the group was formed in mid-April 2024 or earlier. They said that its members saw themselves as the last resort to defend the “German nation” and aimed to bring about the collapse of Germany’s democratic order, with attacks on homes for asylum-seekers and on facilities associated with the left-wing political spectrum.
Two of the suspects set a fire at a cultural center in Altdöbern in eastern Germany in October, prosecutors said, adding that several people living in the building at the time escaped injury only by chance.
In January, another two suspects allegedly broke a window at a home for asylum-seekers in Schmölln and tried unsuccessfully to start a blaze by setting off fireworks. They daubed the group’s initials and slogans such as “Foreigners out,” “Germany for the Germans” and “Nazi area,” as well as swastikas, prosecutors said.
Also in January, three suspects allegedly planned an arson attack on a home for asylum-seekers in Senftenberg, but it never came about because of the earlier arrests of two of the men.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said it was “particularly shocking” that all of those arrested Wednesday were minors at the time the group was allegedly founded.
“This is an alarm signal and it shows that right-wing extremist terrorism knows no age,” Hubig said in a statement.
In a separate case a week ago, German authorities banned a far-right group called “Kingdom of Germany” as a threat to the country’s democratic order and arrested four of its alleged leaders.
In an annual report released Tuesday, the Federal Criminal Police Office said that the number of violent crimes with a right-wing motivation was up 17.2% last year to 1,488. That was part of an overall increase in violent politically motivated offenses to 4,107, an increase of 15.3%.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a leading contender in the New York City mayoral race, over his testimony to Congress last year, according to a person familiar with the matter.
House Republicans had requested a federal investigation into Cuomo, a Democrat, arguing he lied to the House Oversight Committee last year when he said he hadn’t been involved in reviewing a report from the state Health Department about the state’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic when he was governor.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday night. The New York Times first reported the investigation.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, questioned the timing of the news.
“We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple—something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against,” Azzopardi said in a statement.
He also defended Cuomo’s congressional testimony.
“Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political,” Azzopardi said.
The Republican-led committee said that it had questioned Cuomo about whether he knew people outside the Health Department who played roles in drafting or editing the review; Cuomo indicated he didn’t.
A former executive assistant to Cuomo had testified that the notes written on a draft of the report looked like they were in his handwriting, the committee said. It also put forward a June 2020 email addressed to staffers in the governor’s office that the “Governor’s edits are attached for your review.”
Cuomo resigned as governor in August 2021 after state Attorney General Letitia James’ office published a report that found he had sexually harassed multiple women, including former aides, and the state Assembly launched an impeachment investigation. Cuomo has denied the allegations in James’ report.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia launched the probe before former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro replaced Ed Martin as interim U.S. attorney, according to the person familiar with the matter.
Early in Trump’s second term, several Justice Department officials resigned over the handling of a federal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who is seeking re-election as an independent.
Trump administration officials wanted the corruption case against Adams dropped after he began cooperating with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement. Then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said the criminal investigation was hampering Adams’ ability to tackle “illegal immigration and violent crime.”
A federal judge last month permanently dismissed the charges against Adams, saying potential future charges couldn’t be used as “leverage” over him.
Japan’s farm minister Taku Eto stepped down on Wednesday, domestic media reported, following public outrage over his comments on getting free rice.
Eto said Sunday that he has never had to buy rice as he received ample amounts of the grain as gifts from supporters — a comment that struck a nerve with locals struggling with rocketing prices of the beloved staple.
Japan has been grappling with soaring rice prices for months as inclement weather and the country’s long-held policy to protect local farmers’ interests crimps supplies.
Taku’s resignation comes at a time when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government has been grappling with low approval ratings ahead of a pivotal Upper House election this summer and ongoing tariff negotiations with the U.S. NHK World reported that former Environment Minister Koizumi Shinjiro will succeed Eto.
Ishiba’s cabinet approval rating has dropped to an all-time low of 27.4%, as voters grow increasingly discontent with the administration’s failure to address soaring rice prices and rejection of consumption tax cuts in response to rising inflation, according to a Kyodo News poll released Sunday.
While Japan’s agriculture ministry has been trying to curb soaring prices by releasing government stockpiles, the move has had little effect in reining in prices.
Rice prices in around 1,000 supermarkets nationwide reportedly climbed to an all-time high in the week ending May 11. Prices for a 5-kilogram bag of rice rose 54 yen week-on-week to 4,268 yen ($29.63).
“Following Japan’s rice shortage and subsequent high prices in summer 2024, prices have continued to soar, despite the arrival of the new domestic crop and record imports,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a March report.
The spike in rice prices reflects the lingering effects of poor harvests last year, with domestic rice consumption being overwhelmingly supported by local production rather than imports, said HSBC’s chief Asia economist Frederic Neumann.
Straining the supply side issue is the fact that rice in Japan is produced mostly by elderly people running small farms, so they’re not very efficient, said Sayuri Shirai, a professor of economics under Keio University’s faculty of policy management, who added that the number of farmers is also dropping with the aging population.
“Japanese like Japanese rice. They don’t really like foreign rice,” she said.
Japan’s rice economy remains fairly isolated from the world market, with stiff duties on imported rice aimed at protecting its rice farmers.
To make matters worse, demand for Japanese rice has skyrocketed on the back of high tourist footfall, the professor noted.
The sharp increase in rice prices is also partly attributable to panic-driven hoarding by both households and businesses, said Takuji Okubo, chief economist of the Japan Risk Forum.
While some retailers announced plans to import rice, unfamiliarity with imported rice among both consumers and businesses makes it unlikely that such imports will meaningfully alleviate the supply-demand imbalance, he told CNBC.
Japan’s inflation rose 3.6% year on year in March. Although the figure was lower than the 3.7% seen in February, it still marked three straight years that the headline inflation figure has remained above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target.
“That is very high compared to the U.S. or Europe,” said Shirai, who added that Japan’s inflation picture has more to do with cost pressures that are mostly derived from food prices.
“That is why a lot of consumers are very angry,” Shirai said.
Additionally, the cheap yen also makes food imports expensive, she noted.
LONDON — Indian author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi won the International Booker Prize for fiction Tuesday for “Heart Lamp,” a collection of 12 short stories written over a period of more than 30 years that chronicle the everyday lives and struggles of women in southern India.
The award was announced by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter in his role as chair of the five-member voting panel, at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern.
It is the first time the award has been given to a collection of short stories. Bhasthi is the first Indian translator — and ninth female translator — to win the prize since it took on its current form in 2016. Mushtaq is the sixth female author to be awarded the prize since then.
The stories were originally written in Kannada, which is spoken by around 65 million people, primarily in southern India. Porter praised the “radical” nature of the translation, adding that “it’s been a joy” to listen to the evolving appreciation of the stories by members of the jury.
“These beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects,” Porter said. “It speaks of women’s lives, reproductive rights, faith, caste, power and oppression.”
The book, which beat five other finalists, is made up of stories written from 1990 to 2023. They were selected and curated by Bhasthi, who was keen to preserve the multilingual nature of southern India in her translation.
Mushtaq, who is a lawyer and activist as well as a writer, told a short list reading event on Sunday that the stories “are about women — how religion, society and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates.”
The 50,000-pound ($66,000) prize money is to be divided equally between author and translator. Each is presented with a trophy as well.
The International Booker Prize is awarded every year. It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction, which will be handed out in the fall.
A Southern California man was charged with felony animal cruelty after he was accused of using food to lure and kill multiple cats over a period of months.
Alejandro Oliveros Acosta, 46, of Santa Ana, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on charges that also include theft of a companion animal, a Bengal lynx he is accused of luring and stealing, and possession of methamphetamine, prosecutors said.
It wasn’t clear whether has a lawyer in the case. The Offices of the Orange County Public Defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
A recovered Bengal lynx cat named Clubber.Courtesy City of Westminster
Oliveros was arrested April 24 amid ongoing investigations by police in Santa Ana and Westminster and freed on $40,000 bail, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Tuesday.
Authorities said reports of a man luring cats with canned food and killing them by beating or stomping them began in Oliveros’ neighborhood and other central Orange County communities late last year and continued to come in through spring.
The Santa Ana and Westminster police departments zeroed in on Oliveros after witnesses identified him as a suspect in crimes against cats, and a search of his home on April 23 turned up evidence linking him to the attacks, Santa Ana police said in a statement.
A man accused of mutilating and killing cats in Santa Ana has been arrested.Santa Ana Police Department
The DA’s office and police also noted multiple incidents in which witnesses described a white Toyota pickup used by the person.
According to the DA’s statement Tuesday, crimes alleged to be connected to the defendant include an April 5 fatal stomping of a cat captured on security video, an April 3 report of a man holding a cat over his head and slamming it down and a March 21 report of a companion animal, a Bengal lynx, stolen after it was lured by a man with a can of food who was using a white Toyota Tacoma pickup.
That cat, named Clubber, was ultimately returned to its owner, authorities said.
“Between November and April, seven reports of dead and injured cats were reported to Santa Ana Animal Control, including animals suffering from broken backs and bloody faces,” the DA’s office said.
On April 27, some of the residents who attended a nighttime Santa Ana vigil urging justice in the matter became unruly, vandalized property and threw objects, the city’s police said in a statement.
“While we support the community’s right to peacefully assemble, the Santa Ana Police Department will not tolerate acts of violence, vandalism, or any threats to public safety,” it said.
Oliveros’ ability to remain free amid the ongoing investigation and case has angered some animal advocates. On Tuesday, the district attorney’s office said it will seek a much higher bail amount, $100,000, arguing Oliveros poses a danger to the public.
He faces the possibility of more than five years behind bars if he is convicted on all counts, the DA’s office said.
Santa Ana, the seat of Orange County, is about 33 miles south-southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Republican Jack Ciattarelli is leaning on his endorsement from President Donald Trump to win next month’s GOP primary for governor in New Jersey, pledging support for the president and saying during a debate Tuesday that he would not challenge Trump’s executive orders in court.
“I’m going to continue to work with the president. We spoke about that last week when we spoke about making the country and New Jersey safe again. We do that by getting rid of sanctuary cities, by getting rid of our sanctuary state status,” Ciattarelli said during an exchange on immigration policy.
“I told him my attorney general will not be suing the White House for executive orders. We’re not going to waste taxpayer dollars,” Ciattarelli said, later adding that he would “follow [Trump]’s lead” on deportations and that criminals should be deported.
“At the end of the day, if he’s going to deport all 14, 15 or 16 million, I support the president,” Ciattarelli said. “He was elected on the promise of making the country safe again.”
Ciattarelli went on to defend his support for giving drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, saying, “If by chance there are people he is not going to deport, we have to know who they are.”
Ciattarelli touted Trump’s endorsement multiple times throughout the debate, at which he faced off against former radio host Bill Spadea, a staunch Trump supporter, and state Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Trump critic. Two other GOP candidates on the ballot for the June 10 primary did not meet the fundraising threshold to qualify for the debate, which was hosted by On New Jersey, the New Jersey Globe, Rider University and Save Jersey.
Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman who narrowly lost in the general election against Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021, has been leading the primary field in limited public polling and campaign spending. Ciattarelli’s campaign also launched a TV ad Tuesday that highlighted Trump’s endorsement.
Spadea acknowledged at the debate that Trump opted to endorse Ciattarelli, but he suggested Trump was swayed by skewed polling.
“The president endorsed a poll — a poll that was conducted and paid for by Jack’s campaign,” Spadea said in his opening statement. “The president did not endorse a plan. The president did not endorse a set of principles.”
The candidates were asked how, as Trump allies, they would navigate Republican-led cuts to federal programs that could negatively affect New Jersey residents.
“Did not the recession back in 2011 impact our ability to do this and do that, but yet we met that challenge? And I believe we can meet this challenge,” Ciattarelli said. “But the first job of any governor is to provide for health and safety. And that [means] taking care of our most vulnerable people, whether it’s people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, people on Medicaid, we will find a way.”
Spadea noted he has disagreed with Trump on “multiple occasions.”
“Disagreement is OK. You have to protect this state,” Spadea said.
Bramnick pledged “to fight for New Jersey, even if it means disagreeing with Washington Republicans. New Jersey’s got to come first; it’s simple as that.”
Ciattarelli pitched himself as the candidate most likely to win in November. He lost to Murphy by 3 points four years ago, and this year’s race is expected to be competitive. A crowded field of Democrats are competing in next month’s primary to replace Murphy, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits.
Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor defeated Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey in the city’s hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary, The Associated Press projected Tuesday, after a race which garnered national attention as a notable proxy fight between progressives and center-left Democrats.
With more than 85% of the vote in, O’Connor led Gainey 54%-46% in the nominating contest.
Tuesday’s election was one of the first major Democratic primaries since the 2024 election in which the party’s progressive and center-left wings faced off. And the mayoral race followed an election cycle where Democratic governance of cities took center-stage in Republican campaign messaging.
Gainey and his allies painted O’Connor, the county controller and the son of a former mayor, as beholden to President Donald Trump and monied real estate interests, pointing to campaign donations from Trump backers and developers. The mayor, who was first elected in 2021, also pointed to drops in violent crime, local job growth and the city’s improved credit ratings to counter O’Connor, who portrayed Gainey as an unproductive mayor who’s failed at managing city finances, its police department, and on general quality-of-life fronts
O’Connor launched his campaign late last year, emerging as a favorite early on and raising more money than Gainey, though polling showed the race tightening as Election Day neared. Last month, both campaigns touted internal polling showing them with an advantage in the tough-to-model local race: Gainey’s campaign survey showed him up 7 points, while O’Connor’s showed him up by 4, though that was considerably closer than other polls his campaign touted earlier in the cycle that showed the challenger up double-digits.
Gainey, the city’s first Black mayor, won a contested primary in 2021, knocking off incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto in a three-way primary with a plurality of the vote. His win was part of a county-wide progressive advance, preceding wins by Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, among other candidates on the left who have won major offices in the area in recent years.
The Pittsburgh mayoral race elevated housing policy to the forefront of the local discussion. Gainey has sought to enact inclusionary zoning policies throughout Pittsburgh that require new developments to set aside at least 10% of units for affordable housing. Those policies currently apply to only a few neighborhoods, and O’Connor came out against making inclusionary zoning citywide policy.
Meanwhile, a key point of contention in the race focused on just how many affordable units have been or are being built in the city since the start of Gainey’s term as mayor.
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden was never diagnosed with prostate cancer until last week, and the last time he was screened for it was more than a decade ago, a spokesperson for the former president said Tuesday.
“President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014. Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer,” the spokesperson said.
Screening for prostate cancer often involves a prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, test, which measures the level of protein produced by the prostate and could indicate potential disease. The test has a high proportion of false positives, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force does not recommend it for men 70 and older since they are more likely to die of other medical conditions than prostate cancer.
In recent years, doctors have increasingly begun screening for the disease in older patients. President Donald Trump, 78, received a PSA screening as recently as this year, according to medical records released by the White House.
Since he revealed his diagnosis Sunday, Biden has faced scrutiny over whether the cancer had grown recently or whether it could have gone undiagnosed during his time as president.
A diagnosis of prostate cancer so advanced is rare but not unheard of, according to doctors who treat it. Biden’s cancer has advanced to an aggressive form, with medical experts saying it is treatable but not curable.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who did not treat Biden but served on his transition Covid advisory board, said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the cancer had most likely been “growing there and spreading” for years. Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, told NBC News that in Biden’s case, “we definitely would anticipate that he has had prostate cancer for many, many years.”
Still, there are exceptions — and some doctors have said that in rare cases patients can develop a high-risk form of the cancer that spreads quickly and aggressively.
Call it the “Kermencement” at the University of Maryland, where the graduation stage Thursday night will feature a froggy favorite: Kermit the Frog, delivering what will be his first commencement address in nearly 30 years.
“I’m so humbled by it,” Kermit said. “I’m kind of taking this seriously — as seriously as a singing, dancing frog can take anything.”
Maryland knows Muppets well: Their creator, Jim Henson, earned his degree there in 1960 after majoring in home economics. He and his wife, Jane, met on campus in a freshman puppetry class. Henson’s honored with a statue at the university’s College Park campus, alongside his amphibian sidekick.
Kermit the frog.NBC News
Kermit’s message to grads this year? Take the proverbial “leap” into opportunity, and remember that this big step into adulthood doesn’t mean leaving behind their inner child.
“Maybe we’re at our best when we allow ourselves to continue to grow and learn something new every day,” Kermit said.
“I kind of hope these graduates keep that sophisticated childlike sense of curiosity, and imagination, and innovation as they travel down their paths.”
House Democrats plan to introduce legislation overnight that would prevent further Trump administration cuts to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funding or staffing after severe storms across the country drew attention to staffing cuts in National Weather Service field offices.
The measure, which will be offered as an amendment to the Republican budget reconciliation bill, would also block NOAA from being dissolved, from having its work transferred to other federal agencies and from having its website or datasets degraded, according to a copy of the amendment reviewed by NBC News.
Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Eric Sorensen of Illinois, Joe Neguse of Colorado and Wesley Bell of Missouri plan to introduce the amendment as soon as early Wednesday.
The bill highlights congressional concern about National Weather Service staffing levels after the Trump administration fired probationary workers and offered early retirement to veteran employees. Short-staffed weather forecast offices dealt with a severe thunderstorm and tornado outbreak over the weekend, during which at least 28 people died in the Midwest and the South.
“Hurricane season is just days away, and extreme weather is only intensifying. It’s not the time to put NOAA at risk,” Moskowitz, the former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in an emailed statement.
Sorensen, the only meteorologist in Congress, added:
“As a meteorologist who has covered severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, I know how important it is that National Weather Service offices are fully staffed around the clock. This amendment Congressman Moskowitz and I introduced with our colleagues will help protect NOAA from any more reckless cuts by this Administration and keep our communities safe.”
Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., in Rockford, Ill., in 2023. Chris Nieves / USA Today Network
The amendment does not have a likely path to success with Republicans in control of the House. The Trump administration’s initial budget request would slash more than $1.5 billion from NOAA, a move that all living former directors of the National Weather Service warned could lead to unnecessary deaths.
The National Weather Service has been scrambling to fill staffing holes this spring. Last week, NOAA opened a “period of reassignment,” asking for 76 meteorologists to transfer into critical roles left empty after cuts.
At least eight of the country’s 122 weather forecasting offices — including those in Sacramento, California; Goodland, Kansas; and Jackson, Kentucky — are no longer able to operate overnight, or they plan to cut overnight operations within the next month and a half, said Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. Fahy said that many forecast offices are dealing with significant staffing shortages and that 52 out of the country’s 122 weather forecast offices have staffing vacancy rates above 20%.
The National Weather Service declined to provide more information about staffing levels across its weather forecasting offices.
“The National Weather Service continues to meet its core mission of providing life-saving forecasts, warnings, and decision support services to the public, our partners and stakeholders,” Kim Doster, NOAA’s communications director, said in an emailed statement. “In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources. These revised standards reflect the transformation and prioritization of mission-essential operations, while supporting the balance of the operational workload for its workforce. NWS continues to ensure a continuity of service for mission-critical functions.”
The short-staffed Jackson, Kentucky, forecasting office was tested last weekend as dangerous storms roared across the state. Fahy said in an interview Monday that staffers worked overtime to respond to the “all hands on deck” situation, which was predicted days in advance.
“We had a long lead time with a supercell that we were able to monitor,” Fahy said, adding that severe events could surprise in the future. “A strong thunderstorm can produce a tornado or multiple tornadoes, and those are the events you haven’t had an opportunity to anticipate.”
Outside meteorologists said forecasters in Jackson and at other offices performed well during a violent weekend, but they worried that the strain could catch up to a patchwork staff.
“The tornado warnings have been really good in this outbreak,” said Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist and research program manager for Wisconet, a network of weather stations across Wisconsin, but he added that it remains to be seen whether strain on the staff will manifest with time.
“How do forecasters recover from that physically, mentally and emotionally, and is that going to impact warning performance?” he said.
Vagasky said warning times for the tornadoes forecast by the Jackson office were issued more than 15 minutes in advance, which is better than average.
Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, said that it is difficult to assess the effects of short staffing but that it is possible that researchers will identify a reduction in forecast quality over time because the weather service is releasing fewer weather balloons and has fewer meteorologists.
“It’s really hard to judge a performance based on one significant event,” Gensini said. “We should expect a degradation in performance with fewer and fewer people, but quantifying it will be hard.”
