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Germany Tag

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has proposed "enhanced controls" along the border with Switzerland after a migrant pushed a boy to his death at Frankfurt's railway station. The Eritrean refugee, who had received asylum in Switzerland, had shoved an eight-year-old boy and his mother in front of a high-speed train on Monday. The boy's mother survived and was being treated for shock, media reports said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has attacked U.S. President Donald Trump and sided with the "attacked" congresswomen in his ongoing spat with the four progressive lawmakers. "I firmly distance myself from it and feel solidarity toward the attacked women," Merkel said at a press conference on Friday, referring to President's remarks.

Germany has called for a European Union-wide 'redistribution coalition' to settle migrants who are presently entering into Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. "We need a coalition of willing for a mandatory distribution mechanism," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. Germany will be taking a "leadership role" in accepting migrants coming from the Mediterranean route, the Foreign Minister added.

Serious concerns over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's health have grown after she was seen shaking uncontrollably in public for the third time in the last few weeks. Chancellor Merkel, whose term ends in 2021, downplayed the trembling episodes claiming she was doing "very well" and "no one should be worried." The first bout of trembling occurred on June 18 when she stood alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the playing of the national anthems. Days later she was seen shaking during a public appearance with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Iran tried to procure weapons technology to build up its nuclear program in 2018, Germany's federal intelligence service BfV disclosed in its annual report published on Thursday. The intelligence agency found "clear rise in evidence" that Tehran has been working to acquire technical capabilities to enhance its nuclear weapons delivery systems.

The number of individuals classified as Islamists by Germany's domestic intelligence service has crossed 26,000, German newspapers reported. The threat from Islamic terrorism in Germany "remains at a high level," the spy service disclosed. The Islamic State is "restructuring itself into an underground terrorist group" following its military defeat in the Middle East. The terrorist organization was particularly shifting towards a strategy of hitting soft targets, the intelligence report said.

In a rare showing of bipartisan consensus, several U.S. lawmakers have called upon Germany to reconsider the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported. "For once, Democrats and Republicans in the US agree on something: The project is a really bad idea," the public broadcaster added. In February, the European Union had revised its energy guidelines to approve the Nord Stream 2 project, a 760-mile Baltic Sea pipeline that upon completion will link Russia to Germany. Close to 60 percent of the project has already been realized, the oil and gas journal Offshore reports.

In a major shift, Germany has acknowledged Iran's involvement in the last week's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that their was "strong evidence" that Tehran was responsible for the attacks on the tankers.

Germany's leading national student associations have joined forces to fight the anti-Israel boycott movement—Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)—on college campuses. Perhaps the first academic initiative of its kind in Europe, the alliance comprises student groups from across the political spectrum.

The United States has sanctioned Iran's biggest oil company because of its links to the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), a designated terrorist group. Tehran's Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC) and its 39 subsidiaries have been providing "financial lifelines to the IRGC," the U.S. Treasury Department said.

The German government's commissioner for Antisemitism has warned Jews living in Germany against wearing Kippah, or the Jewish skullcap, in public. "I can't advise Jews to wear Kippah at all times and everywhere in Germany. I have to say this with regret," Felix Klein, who heads the German government's Antisemitism office, told German newspaper group Funke.

In a devastating blow to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, Germany's parliament has passed a resolution condemning BDS as antisemitic. The resolution titled "Stand Resolutely Against the BDS Movement: Combat Antisemitism" calls for cutting state funding to organizations supporting anti-Israel boycott. The motion is first of its kind adopted by any European country.

Germany's domestic intelligence service has published its first detailed report on Muslim anti-Semitism spreading across the country. Muslim anti-Semitism poses a significant threat to German society, the report titled "Antisemitism in Islamism" concluded. "The antisemitic ideology being spread by Islamist group and individuals poses a significant challenge for the peaceful and tolerant coexistence in Germany," the 44-page document said.

Germany's center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP) has introduced a bill to end government support for anti-Israel BDS Movement. The proposed legislation seeks a ban on state funding to organizations involved in boycott and delegitimization campaign against Israel. Germany—directly as well as thorough European Union institutions—hands out millions of euros each year to activists and NGOs that run the anti-Israel boycott campaign.