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Pope Inaugural sideshow starring Vance, Zelensky and the EU and extremist arrests and a knife attack in Germany

Pope Inaugural sideshow starring Vance, Zelensky and the EU and extremist arrests and a knife attack in Germany

Welcome to the new Alpine Security Monitor. This project is only in its pilot stage at present. However, you can sign up and subscribe for weekly updates on security and geopolitics as it concerns the Alpine region, namely Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland (ok, little Liechtenstein and Monaco too when merited).

Currently, three tiers of subscriptions are offered: the free version (sign up below), member and warrior, available already for those who might stumble onto this site as we test what works and what does not.

ROME, ITALY – Meloni brings Vance and von der Leyen together for trilateral talks

  • The Washington Post reports Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni brought US Vice-President and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen together for rapprochement talks in Rome last Sunday, the same day as the new Chicago-born Pope’s Inauguration.
  • The talks mostly focused on trade and tariffs and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
  • Also in Rome: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky who met with Vance and US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio as well as top European officials.

 

GERMANY – Five 'Last Defense Wave' teens arrested over planned attacks

  • AP reports five German teenagers belonging to the far-right organization "Last Defense Wave" were arrested Wednesday across the country for plotting attacks on migrants and political opponents while thirteen properties were searched.
  • All the suspects arrested Wednesday were between the ages of 14 and 18; three others aged 18 to 21 years old are already in custody.
  • Authorities believe the group formed in April 2024 or earlier and described members as believing they were "the last resort to defend the 'German nation'".

HEILINGHAUS, GERMANY – Police arrest Syrian fugitive knife attacker

  • AP reports that a 35-year-old Syrian national named only as Mahmoud M., in line with German privacy laws, was arrested in Heilinghaus near Düsseldorf following knife attack that injured five in Bielefeld in the early hours of Sunday morning.
  • Victims were attacked indiscriminately before the attacker was overpowered by bystanders but able to flee on foot, leaving a backpack behind. A forensic team secured a weapon described as "a walking cane with a retractable blade."
  • Authorities believe the incident may be religiously motivated and the case has been handed over to federal prosecutors who are responsible for many terror and national security investigations.

 

MUNICH, GERMANY – Three dual Russian-German citizens on trial for espionage activities

  • The Guardian reports three dual Russian-German citizens are on trial for conducting reconnaissance and planning attacks on the country's critical infrastructure and industry on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.
  • The three men are accused of uncovering codes used to describe military matériel, gathering confidential information about a Bavarian oil refinery and US military training facility near the town of Grafenwöhr and plotting bomb attacks on facilities used to support Ukraine.
  • The trio were arrested in the town of Bayreuth in April 2024 by Bavarian police; one of the men stands accused of previously fighting on behalf of Russia in Russian-occupied Donetsk.

 

BERLIN, GERMANY – Interior Ministry report shows spike in politically motivated crimes

  • Reuters reports the German Interior Ministry is out with a new report showing politically motivated crimes surged 40.2% on the previous year, with 84,172 such cases recorded in 2024 of which 4,107 were violent incidents.
  • Forty-five percent of the victims of these crimes were injured by far-right actors; Politico adds that crimes carried out by the far-right surged 50% on the previous year constituting "by far the largest proportion of all politically motivated crimes."

 

BERLIN, GERMANY – Merz backs Nord Stream pipelines ban

  • FT reports that the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz backs a ban on the Nord Stream pipelines that brought Russian gas to Germany, despite US and Russian efforts to restart the flow of liquified natural gas (LNG).
  • Earlier in the week, Merz said he backed the measure as part of the latest proposed sanctions package against Russia over its war against Ukraine.
  • While there is no state control over the four deactivated Nord Stream pipelines since the attempted full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Berlin would still have to grant certification to permit Russian gas to flow again.

 

BERLIN, GERMANY – Germany drops opposition to nuclear power, pleasing France

  • The FT reports Berlin will not block Paris' demand that nuclear energy be treated on par with renewables in EU energy policy legislation; only Austria remains strictly against nuclear power now.
  • A senior French diplomat described the move as "very pragmatic" while a German official described it as "a sea-change policy shift".
  • What’s behind the move: Chancellor Merz wants Germany to fall under France’s nuclear shield to deter the possibility of future Russian aggression.

 

PARIS, FRANCE – Report alleges Muslim Brotherhood front groups lobbying EU institutions

  • The French government believes organizations with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood including the Council of European Muslims (CEM) and the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) were engaged in "significant lobbying activities" in order to influence EU institutions in particular, Politico reports.
  • The Muslim Brotherhood's allies sought to see blasphemy criminalized and promoted a vision of religious freedom at odds with France's secularism in particular.
  • The report was the topic of a national security council meeting chaired by President Emmanuel Macron Wednesday and is expected to be released in redacted form later in the week. An early version was leaked to the conservative publications Le Figaro and Valeurs Actuelles.

 

PARIS, FRANCE – Pavel Durov says French intelligence asked that Romanian conservative voices be blocked

  • Reuters reports Pavel Durov, the exiled Russian founder of Telegram, wrote on X Monday that Nicholas Lerner, the head of French intelligence agency DGSE, met him at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris where he is staying and asked him to block conservative Romanian voices, a request Durov says he refused. Nicuşor Dan, Bucharest’s centrist mayor, won Sunday’s elections after pro-Russian hard-right candidate George Simion won in the first round of the country's redo elections.
  • Durov is staying at the Hotel de Crillon while he remains under French judicial supervision following his arrest last August as he is investigated for alleged organized crime activities on Telegram. 
  • Separately, Politico reports French authorities denied his request to travel to the US for "negotiations with investment funds."

 

VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, FRANCE – Downing of Indian Rafale jet raises concerns in Europe

  • The downing of an Indian Rafale fighter jet by a Chinese-made PL-15E air-to-air missile from a Pakistani Air Force Chinese-made Chengdu J-10 multi-role fighter is raising alarm bells in Europe.
  • While Delhi continues to deny the loss of the aircraft in Operation Sindoor, the visual evidence has presented itself as it does in the 21st century: on social media. The news immediately pushed down share prices of Dassault Aviation, makers of the Rafale fighter jet.
  • The Neue Zürcher Zeitung asks, "What if the system is not up to the task of engaging in air-to-air combat against Russian and Chinese air defenses? What would that mean for Europe's efforts to reach a point of strategic autonomy, which are heavily reliant on the Rafale?"

 

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Bern Cantonal Police arrest five in Chinese human trafficking ring

  • Five defendants are accused of trafficking 146 Chinese women to Switzerland as sex workers, Swissinfo reports.
  • The women were unable to leave the housing provided for them and were forced to pay their sex working wages to the alleged pimps.

 

And finally, this week…

BLATTEN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss village at imminent risk of landslide

  • Three hundred residents in Blatten, located in the Lötschenthal Valley in the canton of Valais, were evacuated Monday due to the imminent danger of a rockslide from the mountains that could release two to five million cubic meters of water, Swissinfo reports.
  • BBC had dramatic footage of cows being "moo-ved" from the village posted on its Instagram feed.

Be kind and stay safe!

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