“Operation Charlotte’s Web” - A Purge Fantasy With an Open Ending From the Ministry - Why Help Is Struggling to Keep Up and Why Europe Should Not Look Away
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced an operation with a martial name on November 18. “Charlotte’s Web” is meant to clean the streets, targeting “bad guys.” Language straight out of a campaign clip from the worst days, not from a statement rooted in the rule of law. Arrests are announced, deportations celebrated, countries of origin stamped as final destinations. Who exactly was arrested, why, and on what legal basis remains unclear. The end of the operation? Open. Investigations are staged as hunts, prey being human beings. The promise is order, the language is intimidation.
Noem spoke of the “worst of the worst.” It sounds decisive, but it remains propaganda. No one is told which acts are being referred to, on what legal basis the actions are taken, or where these cases are being adjudicated. Deportation is sold as justice, even though there is often no verdict, let alone a warrant.
Minnesota warned of ICE operations over the holidays and was right
The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, warned of an increase in ICE raids around the holidays. In the Twin Cities, an extremely intensified deportation offensive by the Trump administration has been underway for weeks. Officially, authorities say they are targeting people with outstanding removal orders. In practice, insecurity extends far beyond that group. Communities are preparing for operations in residential neighborhoods, schools and aid organizations are on alert. Holidays that should have promised safety became days of heightened fear. The state government sees social stability at risk.
Community against the state of exception
As in Chicago, schools and neighborhoods in Charlotte and across Minnesota are responding with solidarity. Parents walk school routes together, shop for families who no longer leave their homes. Celebrations are moved indoors, events canceled, windows closed. While tear gas lingers in the neighborhood, a school must decide whether to cancel a celebration or lock its doors.
Another woman cancels her celebration of Hispanic culture and sends everyone home. Even people who support deportations turn away when they see armored operations. When parents vanish from classrooms, every theory collapses. What remains is the realization that this is not about anonymous numbers, but about families you know. Investigations here serve less to uncover the truth than to spread disinformation. The pattern is old, familiar - and no one wants to return to those times.
Our work does not end with documentation. Where state action violates or disregards constitutional principles, fundamental rights, and human rights, we intervene.
How Hindu right wing extremism conquered everyday life
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is today more than a political movement. It operates through hostels, schools, blood banks, yoga centers, and charitable organizations in India and worldwide. What looks harmless follows a clear strategy: Hindu nationalism is to become part of everyday life. Research teams have mapped thousands of institutions in dozens of countries that are linked by personnel or ideology. Violence is not in the foreground, normalization is. Children learn, families receive help, communities gain stability, and with all of that a worldview. Power thus emerges not at the ballot box, but long before.
Networks instead of street violence – the Sangh’s long game
The closeness of the RSS to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is well known, as is Narendra Modi’s past in the organization. But elections are only one tool for the network. Decisive is the restructuring of society from the bottom up. Educational offerings replace state structures, media shape interpretations, social services create loyalty. Similar models can be found in Hungary, Myanmar, or the United States. Right wing extremism rarely comes as a storm. It comes as infrastructure. And that is precisely why it can only be stopped where it nests: in everyday life.
Zelensky in Canada: diplomacy under continued fire
Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Canada and met Prime Minister Mark Carney for talks on support and political pressure. Zelensky made clear that Russia continues to attack Ukrainian cities and civilians. Moscow had rejected proposals for a Christmas ceasefire and further intensified the brutality of missile and drone attacks. That was a clear signal of how diplomacy is understood there. Internationally, this stance is still not taken seriously enough, Zelensky warned. Words are not enough as long as attacks escalate. Ukraine needs a sufficient level of support, militarily and politically. At the same time, tangible pressure on Russia is necessary. Diplomacy without consequences remains ineffective as long as missiles speak. The meeting in Canada thus stands for urgency, not routine. Zelensky’s message is unmistakable: peace requires backing and consistency at the same time.
Dropkick Murphys dismantle the Trump myth on an open stage
The Dropkick Murphys played “First Class Loser” and let images speak. While the song played, the screen showed a montage of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. No commentary, no explanations, just the sober sequence of well known images. Music as a stance, not as decoration. The audience immediately understood what it was about. The band combined its long standing anti Trump position with a clear political statement without losing a single extra word. Punk as a memory aid. Anyone who knows the song knows the message: power protects itself until someone pulls back the curtain. On this stage nothing was claimed, it was shown. And that is precisely why it worked.
America 2025: when insult becomes a street chant
America 2025: After Donald Trump publicly insulted the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, as “seriously retarded,” the language moved from the stage to the street. Followers of the MAGA cult appeared in front of Walz’s home and chanted the word like a slogan. No demonstration, no political demand, but targeted dehumanization. What comes from the president is treated as a license, not as a slip. The insult is adopted and carried on, mockery becomes shared practice. It is not about criticism, but about intimidation through imitation. Language knows no boundary once it is backed by power. The private space becomes a stage, the home a target. What is said continues, not as an opinion, but as an action. America 2025 shows how quickly political language arrives at the front door.
Nigeria: when a U.S. missile fragment lands next to the clinic
One day after a fragment of a missile fired by the United States struck their village, shock and disbelief prevail in Jabo. The piece of debris landed just a few meters from the only medical facility. People speak of confusion, fear, and the question of why their place of all places was hit. Jabo is not considered a center of extremist activity. Villagers say their daily life had been calm, without armed groups or known networks. Christian minorities have lived there peacefully with the Muslim majority for years. The missile still came, fired by the United States, without any visible connection to village life. What is sold as a strike against terrorism hit civilian infrastructure. The proximity to the clinic makes the incident particularly explosive. For the people on the ground, military justifications and their reality blur. Security here does not feel like protection, but like chance. Nigeria once again experiences how global military logic rolls over local innocence.
Kyiv in the snow: silence after the night of attack
Nach 24 lauten und erschöpfenden Stunden liegt KAfter 24 loud and exhausting hours, Kyiv lies for a moment under a calm blanket of white snow. The city appears quiet, almost peaceful, as if winter had briefly halted the war. These are the moments that unsettle in times of war because they feign normality. Everything has changed, and yet at the same time nothing seems to have changed. The night before, Russia had launched a massive attack on Ukraine. Thirty two people were injured, one person was killed. The snow does not conceal destruction, it merely settles over it. Around 500,000 families remain without electricity and without heating. Winter intensifies what bombs have begun. Everyday life becomes a question of survival, not of habit. The silence in Ukraine is not peace, but a pause between attacks. It is beautiful, and precisely because of that so hard to endure.
48th Street Resistance – banners and light above the highway
In Sacramento, the “48th Street Resistance” appeared for the first time by name and with setup. Eight people attached fabric banners and illuminated signs to the overpass of U.S. Highway 50 during the weekly banner drop. and leuchtende Schilder an der Überführung der U.S. Highway 50 an.
Rain on the asphalt, red traffic backup, yellow and blue LEDs in view. “ICE out” and “No war” were not just held up, but secured above the traffic. Honking, hand signals, brief approval from cars. No covered stage, no microphone, just craftsmanship over concrete. Presence instead of event, regularity instead of performance. The name is new, the method is not. Anyone driving underneath understood the message. Bravo!
Justice Horn – When Campaigning Is Treated as a Crime
It is about Justice Horn, a candidate for the county legislature in the 1st district. Young, Black, openly queer – and for some, that alone already makes him a disruption. It began in Lake Tapawingo and continued in Lake Lotawana. While Horn was going door to door to speak with people, two older residents followed him, confronted him, and told him he did not belong there. Horn calmly said that he was a candidate. The response was not dialogue, but reaching for a phone. The police were called. Horn kept going, finished his door to door canvassing, and did exactly what democratic practice requires. None of it was unlawful. The fact that the door in question was not even on his list exposes the incident for what it was: deterrence. Intimidation. An attempt to control political activity. This is what campaigning looks like when political engagement is treated not as a right, but as a provocation. For Justice Horn, this is reality. And that is exactly why he does not stop.
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