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Germany Grants Citizenship to Record Number of People in 2025; Syrians Top List

A general view of Berlin, Germany. (AFP)
A general view of Berlin, Germany. (AFP)
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Germany Grants Citizenship to Record Number of People in 2025; Syrians Top List

A general view of Berlin, Germany. (AFP)
A general view of Berlin, Germany. (AFP)

Germany ‌granted citizenship to a record 332,500 people last year, a 14% increase, with Syrians making up the largest group for the fifth year in a row, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Office on Wednesday.

One in five people naturalized ‌in 2025 was ‌Syrian. However, compared with ‌2024, ⁠the number of ⁠Syrians gaining German citizenship dropped by 21%

Many Syrians who arrived as refugees during 2015 and 2016 became eligible for naturalization during 2024

The office ⁠attributes the increase to June ‌2024 reforms that ‌reduced residency requirements for naturalization ‌from eight years to five, as ‌well as allowed individuals to hold dual citizenship

After Syrians, the largest groups to naturalize were Turks (10%, or ‌34,100 people) and Russians (6%, or 19,700 people).

Particularly ⁠strong ⁠year-over-year growth was also seen for Bosnians (126%, or 8,800 people), the United States (100%, or 6,600 people), and Albanians (97%, or 6,100 people).

The number of people who naturalized through restitution laws that restore citizenship to individuals, and their descendants, who were stripped of it by Nazi Germany, rose by 61% to 12,000.

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Türkiye Arrests 119 Accused of Links to ISIS

Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)
Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)
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Türkiye Arrests 119 Accused of Links to ISIS

Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)
Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)

Türkiye's interior ministry said on Saturday that authorities had arrested 119 people across the country accused of links to ISIS terror group.

"(The) 199 suspects were arrested in a police operation carried out in 30 provinces against the ISIS terrorist organization," including in Istanbul and Ankara, the ministry said, using another name for the ISIS militant group.

Charges levelled against those apprehended included ISIS group membership, posting ISIS propaganda on social media and financing ISIS through intermediaries or "so-called charities", the ministry said.

In late June, Turkish police killed a man suspected of ISIS links in an exchange of gunfire in the south of Ankara, two weeks before a NATO summit was held in the capital.

After that, 209 people suspected of links to the ISIS group or to far-left groups were arrested in Ankara on orders from the city's chief prosecutor.

World

Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Killing a Security Force Member during 2022 Protests

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
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Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Killing a Security Force Member during 2022 Protests

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Iranian authorities said Sunday they have executed a man convicted of killing a member of security forces during the 2022 nationwide protests that erupted after the death of a woman in custody of the country’s morality police.

Authorities said the fatal shooting took place during unrest in Tehran, where protesters blocked roads and clashed with security forces.

They said Aref Khoshkar was armed with a pellet gun and fired at security personnel, wounding Salman Amirahmadi, who later died in a hospital.

According to the authorities, Khoshkar confessed that he fired the gun from the roof of a house and threw it in a trash bin.

The execution is the latest reported in connection with the 2022 protests, which had spread after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in police custody following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.

Rights groups have criticized the trials over the deaths of security forces during the protests, saying defendants were denied due process.

World

7 Killed in Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Regions

17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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7 Killed in Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Regions

17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Seven people were killed and 51 others were wounded in Russia overnight by Ukrainian drone attacks, Russian officials said Saturday.

Kyiv's forces are continuing their relentless aerial campaign against energy infrastructure and military targets inside Russia, aiming to undermine Moscow’s war effort and make Russians feel the consequences of the Kremlin's all-out invasion of Ukraine that is well into its fifth year.

Two sprawling warehouses of Russia's major online retailer, Wildberries, were hit by Ukrainian drones overnight, according to Russian officials: one in the town of Kotovsk in the Tambov region, some 360 kilometers (roughly 220 miles) from the border with Ukraine, and another one in the city of Elektrostal, about 50 kilometers (some 30 miles) east of Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian long-range strikes hit two “significant logistical facilities in the Moscow and Tambov regions."

“These facilities were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment,” he wrote. An oil facility was also hit, The Associated Press quoted him as saying.

Ukrainian special operations also conducted strikes against targets in the Sea of Azov and in occupied territory, Zelenskyy said.

Seven night shift workers were killed at the warehouse in Kotovsk, and 25 others were wounded, Tambov regional governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said. A total of 24 people were wounded in Elektrostal, according to the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov.

Two more people were wounded in the Moscow region city of Noginsk, just north of Elektrostal, where an oil depot was on fire after a Ukrainian drone strike, Vorobyov said. A nearby maternity hospital was evacuated as a precaution, as well as one residential building, he added.

In the city of Vladimir, some 180 kilometers (over 110 miles) east of Moscow, a Ukrainian drone hit a residential building, sparking a brief fire, Vladimir governor Alexander Avdeyev said. There were no casualties, he added.

Overall, the Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 379 Ukrainian drones over 19 Russian regions, as well as the illegally annexed Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.