Saturday’s ramming attack by a Muslim man with known Islamist associations on the Berlin Pride festival — an attack in which he also attacked bystanders with a machete, killing one person and injuring several others — brings to mind the history in recent decades of Islamist attacks in Germany. Germany’s experience with Islamist terrorism has been a near-constant barrage of failed plots ranging from organized cells with international links to a more recent pattern of attacks carried out by individuals, often immigrants, acting alone with knives, vehicles, or improvised weapons. Below is a chronological account of the major incidents, compiled from court records, prosecutorial statements, and news coverage. In July 2006, a device planted in a suitcase aboard a regional train at Cologne’s central station failed to detonate because of a construction flaw, narrowly averting what could have been a mass-casualty bombing. The following year, in September 2007, Germany’s GSG 9 anti-terror unit broke up the so-called Sauerland Group, arresting two German converts to Islam and a Turkish national with ties to al-Qaeda. The cell had planned coordinated car bombings targeting airports in Dortmund and Düsseldorf in an attack intended to kill at least 150 people. The first fatal Islamist attack on German soil came on March 2, 2011, when 21-year-old Arid Uka, a Kosovo Albanian, opened fire on American servicemen at Frankfurt Airport, killing two and wounding two others while shouting, “Allahu Akbar.” In December 2012, a bomb was discovered on a platform at Bonn’s main train station; it failed to explode. The suspected perpetrator was a German convert to Islam identified as Marco G. After the migration significantly increased in 2015, 2016 followed with a major escalation, with five major incidents in the space of ten months. In February 2016, 15-year-old Safia S., a German-Moroccan girl who had been in contact with Islamic State members online, stabbed a federal police officer at Hannover’s central station and inflicted life-threatening injuries. In April 2016, three youths detonated a homemade bomb at a Sikh temple in Essen, injuring three people; the attackers said they considered Sikhs “unbelievers.” Then came a horrific eight-day period in July: On July 18, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked passengers with an axe and knife aboard a train near Würzburg, injuring five before being shot dead by police; the Islamic State claimed responsibility. Six days later, on July 24 in Ansbach, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker detonated a bomb outside a music festival, killing himself and injuring 15 others, again claimed by the IS. The deadliest Islamist attack in German history came on December 19, 2016, when Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri drove a stolen truck into a Christmas market at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, killing 12 people and injuring 56. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. In April 2020, Muharrem D., a 27-year-old German citizen of Kurdish descent, carried out a string of arson attacks against Turkish-owned businesses and a mosque in the Bavarian town of Waldkraiburg, including a fire at a supermarket that endangered 26 people living above it. A Munich court found he had become radicalized toward Islamic State ideology from 2017 onward. On August 18, 2020, a 30-year-old Iraqi man, Sarmad A., deliberately rammed his car into motorcyclists across three separate collisions on Berlin’s A100 ring road, seriously injuring three people, before rolling out a prayer rug on the highway and shouting, “Allahu Akbar.” In November 2021, a knife attack aboard an ICE train involved a 27-year-old assailant, Abdalrahman A., attacking four passengers. In April 2023, a Syrian national, Maan D., who had come to Germany as an asylum seeker around 2015–2016, carried out two knife attacks in Duisburg nine days apart: fatally stabbing a man in the city’s old town on April 9, then wounding four more people at a gym on April 18. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court found he had acted from jihadist motivation. On May 31, 2024, Sulaiman Ataee, a 25-year-old Afghan national, stabbed six people, including prominent anti-Islam activist Michael Stürzenberger at a rally organized by the group Pax Europa in Mannheim.  Police officer Rouven Laur, who intervened, later died of his injuries. On August 23, 2024, Syrian asylum seeker Issa Al H. stabbed festival-goers at Solingen’s 650th anniversary celebration, killing three and injuring eight, targeting victims’ necks. He had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in videos before the attack. On December 20, 2024, Taleb A., a 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist, drove into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five and injuring more than 200. On February 13, 2025, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, Farhad N., deliberately drove his car into a trade union demonstration, killing a 37-year-old municipal employee and her two-year-old daughter and injuring roughly 39–44 others. On February 21, 2025, a 19-year-old Syrian man stabbed a Spanish tourist in the throat at the Holocaust Memorial, shouting “Allahu Akbar.” He was found carrying handwritten Quranic verses and a pledge of allegiance to Islamic State. On May 18, 2025, Mahmoud M., a Syrian who had arrived in Germany as an asylum seeker around 2023, attacked football fans outside a bar in Bielefeld using a modified walking stick fitted with an 18-centimeter blade, seriously wounding four people. He was found to have joined Islamic State in Raqqa around December 2014. Separate from this list of terrorist attacks are the mass sexual assaults and thefts reported by hundreds of women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve 2015–2016, primarily attributed to men of North African and Arab appearance.

A Muslim man with known Islamist associations reportedly rammed a vehicle into Berlin’s Pride festival on Saturday before attacking bystanders with a machete, leaving one person dead and several others injured, according to German authorities. A massive manhunt is underway for 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, who police say deliberately drove a white van into Berlin’s Tiergarten Park around 10 p.m., killing one woman and injuring at least 29 others before attacking festival goers with what authorities said may have been a machete. Ballout is said to have fled the “horrific scene” on foot. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt connected the attack to Islamist ideology, according to CBS News.  “Everything we see here indicates that this was an Islamist terror attack,” Dobrindt said at the scene.  The BBC reported Sunday Ballout is a German citizen of Lebanese background who was known to police for being part of Berlin’s “Islamist scene” and had previously “committed a number of crimes.” Ballout was born in Germany, and his mother became a naturalized German citizen in 2002, three years before his birth, police told the Associated Press. The Telegraph reported Ballout is a convicted terrorist who tried to join the Islamic State terror group. German authorities previously arrested Ballout in Lebanon after accusing him of attempting to join the Islamic State in Syria and plotting a terrorist attack. Then, he was returned to Germany, where, according to Die Welt, he was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison for plotting a “serious act of violence that threatened the state.” Prosecutors had sought a sentence of two years and 10 months, the newspaper reported. He was released just months prior to Saturday’s attack. With the manhunt underway, German authorities warned the suspect may be armed and dangerous, and issued a stark warning to the public.  “We cannot rule out the possibility of copycat attacks,” the interior minister said, announcing the country’s threat level will be raised as a result, according to the BBC.  The terror attack left Pride attendees reeling, including Ricarda Hofmann, a presenter at one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ celebrations.    “What happened today has changed something in me,” she wrote on Instagram. International leaders across the political spectrum swiftly condemned the attack, with some arguing it highlighted what they described as a growing alliance between Western LGBTQ activist groups and Islamist ideology. “Horrendous attack in Berlin last night,” Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K.’s right-wing Reform UK party, said. “The strange left-wing alliance between Islamists and the LGBT community in this country cannot last.” Multiple people reported struck after vehicle rams into crowd at Christopher Street Day event in Berlin -BILD https://t.co/heweK6iW41 — Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 25, 2026

A growing grassroots effort led by families of 9/11 victims is demanding that New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani be banned from attending the upcoming 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero. The group pointed to his long record of troubling ties, radical associations, and statements regarding Islamic extremism. A petition posted on Change.org has already garnered more than 5,200 signatures, including over 300 from family members of 9/11 victims. It contends that Mamdani’s presence at the Ground Zero event would be an insult to the memory of the nearly 3,000 Americans murdered by al-Qaeda terrorists. Organizer Giovanni Galante, who lost his 29-year-old wife Grace in the attack, stressed that the silver-anniversary ceremony must remain a sacred space for mourning rather than a platform for figures connected to far-left anti-American rhetoric. “This day is sacred to us,” he said. “It is not political, and it is not a platform for those connected to such views. His presence would be deeply hurtful and inappropriate — like an unwelcome guest at a deeply personal ceremony.” The petition centers its objection on Mamdani’s public record, citing “concerns [that] have been raised about Mr. Mamdani’s public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric that many perceive as hostile to these shared values.” Among the key points highlighted in the petition, grieving family members detail a long pattern of radical associations and statements that they say dishonor the victims. The petition notes Mamdani’s refusal to reject violent anti-Israel incitement, specifically citing a “perceived reluctance to clearly and unequivocally condemn phrases such as ‘globalize the intifada,’ which many interpret as endorsing or normalizing violence.” It also notes that Mamdani has openly praised radical Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a figure “named as an alleged co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing” who also “served as a character witness for the ‘Blind Sheikh.'” The petition points out that Mamdani has previously blamed the U.S. government for radicalizing al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki, which critics have slammed as blaming the victim rather than the perpetrators. In addition,it notes that Mamdani appointed Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented an al-Qaeda operative convicted in a tanker bombing plot, as NYC’s chief counsel. He has also endorsed figures like Aber Kawas, who dismissed 9/11 as an attack where “a couple of people did in the context of U.S. capitalism, racism, white supremacy, and Islamophobia,” and recently campaigned alongside DSA primary winner Darializa Aria Chevalier, who boasted on social media about wiping her hands on the American flag. The petition highlights that Mamdani’s own father, who shaped his worldview, authored a book after 9/11 arguing suicide bombers should be “understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism” — all while drawing a moral equivalence between America and al-Qaeda. The New York Post reported: Organizer Cheri Sparacio, whose 35-year-old husband Thomas was killed on 9/11, quipped there are  “so many other examples” why it would be “disrespectful” for Mamdani to attend the ceremony that “we couldn’t fit them on the list.” They include Mamdani’s longtime association with vile left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said “America deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, and Mamdani’s outlandish claim that he and other fellow Muslims were also victims of 9/11 because it supposedly triggered a horrible wave of “Islamophobia,” added Sparacio, of Staten Island. “For 9/11 families, this is not simply a public ceremony — it is a deeply personal day of mourning,” the petition states. “The presence of individuals whose words or associations are perceived as conflicting with the solemn purpose of the event risks detracting from that focus and causing additional pain. … The 25th anniversary should remain centered on remembrance, unity, and an unambiguous rejection of the violence and extremism that defined that day. Ensuring that all participants reflect these principles is essential to preserving the integrity of the commemoration.” City Hall signaled that Mamdani has no intention of stepping aside, with a spokesman confirming Mamdani still intends to attend.

Former CNN host Don Lemon is considering a presidential run in 2028. After several months of teasing the idea, Lemon insisted he was “serious” in an interview last week. His statement comes at a time when the Democrats are scrambling for direction. So far, he isn’t looking like the answer. Lemon made his career as a particularly harsh Trump critic during the first administration. He was eventually fired from CNN after “unprofessional behavior towards women” or, as it’s known when the subject in question is not a Democrat, being a world-class sleazebag. Since then, he’s gone independent, espousing ridiculous takes that somebody is probably bored enough to listen to. In January, he was arrested for joining a mob in harassing a pastor over ICE deportations. He’s louder since having gone independent, but his brand relies on cheap provocation, not political craftsmanship. A Candace Owens of the Left, in many respects. Could Don Lemon stand a chance in the Democratic primary? He has the identity advantage of being black and gay. These characteristics make it harder for the progressives to slander his character and provide easy defenses to any attacks from the Right. I’d be hard-pressed to say it’s impossible, but I’m skeptical. The fact that he considers himself a viable candidate speaks more to the spiraling priorities of the Democratic party than anything else. With no political experience or original vision, Lemon seems to be of the belief that sharp anti-Trumpism qualifies one for the highest political position on the planet. Ironically, Lemon seems to be trying to channel Trump from 2016 in his political ambitions. Like Trump in the Obama years, he’s a hypercritical celebrity with a well-established ego who seems to have decided that he would be a gift to the world of politics at a time where his party is starved for leadership and direction. His casual comment, “I actually think I would be a really good president of the United States” echoes Trump’s “I might do something” statements in the years leading up to 2016. He’s also recycling the anti-lobbying rhetoric by insisting that he’d run “without having to beg for money.” He explicitly compares himself to the president by musing, “It seems in this day and age you don’t have to have a ton of political experience because our current president had none — that’s very obvious.” The only problem is that, frankly, nobody cares about Don Lemon. Trump spent a lot of time teasing his run, and whenever he would, it would electrify his enthusiastic following. So far we’re yet to see anybody get excited by the prospect of President Don Lemon except for, well… Don Lemon. But he’s been tough on Trump! And that’s what matters. His delusions of grandeur show what the Left’s institutional Trump Derangement Syndrome can do to one’s own sense of self-importance, a hallmark of the Democrats today. Though he wasn’t a politician, Trump energized a massive base that he had built through decades of critical commentary and tabloid fame. Merging the post-Tea Party populism with his own personal brand was far less of a stretch than starting essentially from scratch which is precisely what Lemon would have to do. Even when a Trump victory looked unlikely, nobody viewed his candidacy with disinterest. In 2016, disgruntled populist voters had no real alternative to Trump. Of the 10 Republicans on the first debate stage in 2016, nine of them were pretty much saying the same thing. For better or for worse, Trump was saying something different. That made him the natural heir to any and all anti-establishment sentiment within the party. The same cannot be said for today’s Democrats. While they’re not without their problems, very few things remain unsaid. If you’re a Democrat who’s mad about something, there’s damn well someone out there complaining on your behalf. But it’s not like they’re swimming in great options for 2028, they don’t seem to care and Lemon might actually be a good fit for the vibes the Party is giving: unhinged, radical, still appealing to identity ideology of half a decade ago, and rampantly socialist. Between California Governor Gavin Newsom’s establishment feel and the DSA’s poor showing with minorities, it’s likely that Lemon would be able to perform at least reasonably well with young black men. But even if he overperforms significantly with that demographic, it’s hard to see how he pulls together a winning coalition. Ultimately, Lemon is not the representative of a powerful movement. He doesn’t have a unique charisma or entertainment factor. He has no political experience and no unique vision. But then again, neither do the Democrats.

With a hot summer well underway in America, it’s the season to sweat. Meanwhile, the shelves of grocery stores are filling with rows of electrolytes. No longer is Gatorade the only sports drink. Instead, energy drink companies and health companies alike have crowded into whole displays at stores across the country to sell powdered and bottled products promising to help buyers hydrate better.  But what’s less obvious than the over-the-top hype is whether sugar-salt water is really better than plain water — or which electrolytes are worth your money.   The marketing pitch is simple: The salt content in electrolytes helps our bodies rehydrate, refuel, and recover more quickly.  And the research backs this up. Our bodies use electrolytes — minerals such as sodium and potassium — to conduct electrical charges to contract muscles and move water in (and out) of cells. But when we sweat, we lose some of those key minerals that have to be replenished via our diets. Chugging a mix of these minerals dissolved in water is a fast way to get that water into our cell membranes and avoid muscle cramps. However, it’s also possible to get too much of these minerals, with serious health side effects ranging from muscle spasms to heart arrhythmias.  As the original sports drink, Gatorade is a mix of potassium and sodium electrolytes as well as sweetener that can play a key role in rehydration as well. Glucose (sugar), along with the sodium, can help water quickly pass through the small intestine and ultimately be absorbed into our cells. It’s why Gatorade is so effective for rehydrating when you’re suffering from the stomach flu. However, the rest of the ingredients list is an unfortunate mix of food dye, unnamed “natural flavors,” and a wood rosin additive.  Many of the electrolyte mixes and drinks on shelves today are not much better — with a litany of unpronounceable ingredients, food dyes, and artificial flavors. Popular brands such as Liquid I.V. and LMNT rely on “natural flavors” and variations like “natural lemon flavor” that can be just as opaque as artificial flavors when it comes to information on the actual contents or origin of the flavoring agent. The only truly natural flavoring option is a blend of fruit powder or, in pre-mixed drinks, fruit juice or fruit juice concentrate.  To keep the calories low and the recipe sugar-free, many “sugar-free” drinks rely on sugar alcohols such as erythritol, but these sweeteners may be linked to cancer in some individuals and can cause gastrointestinal issues when consumed in excess.  Brands that tout a more natural label often rely on stevia for sweetness or its chemical compound “fermented Reb M” (sometimes also derived from rice). This zero-calorie sweetener is typically marketed as more natural since it’s derived from the stevia plant. However, some studies on rats have found it can have contraceptive effects, and it is used by women for pregnancy prevention in Paraguay where the plant grows. The pros and cons of stevia are up in the air, but it’s certainly better than artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols.  Even better sweetener options such as monk fruit extract or plain old sugar are pronounceable and identifiable. Or if sweet isn’t your favorite flavor profile and you’re willing to indulge the saltiness — or you’re willing to forego the additional absorption properties of sugar in favor of fewer calories — choosing an unsweetened or unflavored mix could be the way to go.  Finally, there’s the most important ingredient: the electrolytes themselves. This category of mineral includes more than just salt, though salt is often the main electrolyte included in the powders and drinks. Potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride, phosphate, and bicarbonate also make the list of these minerals.  Most electrolyte mixes include the first three minerals for their important hydrating properties. Sodium helps conduct nerve impulses, regulates muscle function, and balances water and minerals through the body. Potassium has similar effects and complements sodium’s functions. And in addition to these benefits, magnesium can aid in smooth digestion.   However, overdosing on any supplement can be dangerous, so despite the rebrand of salt and the heavy push for electrolytes, there’s no upside to taking them unless you’re doing some serious sweating or know you have a particular mineral deficiency. In particular, it’s worth checking the nutrition facts for the quantities of each electrolyte per serving. More isn’t always better. And unfortunately, there’s no perfect blend of these minerals that works for every individual. Typically, sodium is the main mineral with others following in lesser quantities, but a quick peek at the ingredients list will reveal if there are extremely high levels (usually above 20-30% of the daily value for a 2,000 calorie diet) of any individual electrolyte. There’s a litany of other ingredients that some companies add to the mix — from ones to avoid (food dyes) to ones with mixed benefits (caffeine) to additional supplements. But with these key markers, the grocery aisle with dozens of options narrows substantially.  My mix of choice has become Just Ingredients for a tasty, fruity drink after a good sweat. It’s flavored with fruit powder and sweetened with a mix of monk fruit and stevia, and the calories stay low. A blend of sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride are its main minerals. And as a bonus, it’s starting to show up in stores such as Target and Whole Foods. For an unflavored option, I also like to grab Trace Minerals, a mix of minerals suspended in water ideally reconstituted before drinking.  But if sugar is your preferred sweetener, Sport Drink offers a mix of plain and flavored blends for online order, with the flavored versions using fruit powder. Last but not least, in a pinch, adding a few dashes of salt to your water will up the hydration factor. It’s not as tasty as a fruity blend, and it’s not as glamorous as pink- or blue-colored water, but it’s electrolytes all the same.  Either way, as we swelter away in the sunshine, it’s time to drink up, stay hydrated, and enjoy the dog days of summer while they last. *** Jordan Jantz is the assistant editor at IW Features as well as a freelance writer, editor, and website designer. This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.