Allegations of espionage against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been raised by the interior minister of the state of Thuringia. In an interview with Handelsblatt, Social Democrat (SPD) Georg Maier expressed concern that the AfD is abusing its parliamentary powers to gather information about Germany's transport infrastructure, water supply, digital infrastructure and energy supply. "With its requests, one gets the impression that the AfD is working through a list of tasks assigned by the Kremlin," Maier told the newspaper this week.
Staff within the Stakeholder Engagement Division, as well as the cyber-defense agency's Infrastructure Security Division, were targeted with reduction-in-force notices, or RIFs, said the people. OMB Director Russ Vought announced the actions on Friday in line with Trump administration promises to enact layoffs during the ongoing government shutdown. The Integrated Operations Division is also believed to have been impacted, one of the people said.
dozens of flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers left stranded on the eve of a German national holiday and the famous Oktoberfest. A week earlier, Copenhagen and Aalborg airports were closed following sightings of unmanned aerial systems in Danish airspace. In the month since a swarm of Russian drones violated Polish airspace — three were shot down — a rash of similar incidents has been reported across Germany, the Baltic and Nordic countries, often over power plants and military bases.
