Overview

• Hessian police and Frankfurt prosecutors arrested several suspects in a July 7 operation targeting ‘grandchild’ and shock-call fraud gangs accused of defrauding seniors of over €600,000
• North Rhine-Westphalia forces executed dawn raids on six private residences on July 9, detaining a 27-year-old Bosnian-Herzegovinian suspect over allegations of financing a planned Islamist-inspired attack
• Augsburg authorities say a 38-year-old man remains in pretrial detention after seriously wounding his estranged wife with a knife during a July 8 domestic dispute
• Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected AfD leader Alice Weidel’s “liar-chancellor” charge and defended his administration against accusations of broken promises in a heated Bundestag general debate
• SPD parliamentary leader Matthias Miersch called anew for a constitutional ban on the AfD, branding its rhetoric “verfassungsfeindlich” and urging formal prohibition proceedings