German police are searching for a 48-year-old man suspected of deliberately damaging electricity infrastructure at multiple sites. The most serious incident occurred on Tuesday at a substation in Bergheim, west of Cologne, where launch devices fired cables across overhead lines and caused a short circuit that forced five units at the nearby Niederaussem coal plant to temporarily disconnect from the network.
On the same day, a similar attack occurred near the Jänschwalde plant in eastern Brandenburg, with more than a dozen launch devices discovered. A passer-by found unused devices at a substation in Dormagen on Thursday, and police said the equipment matched gear used in the other incidents.
The German news agency DPA reported Friday that a man from a town near Dortmund claimed responsibility for the attacks in two letters, stating he wanted to draw attention to fossil fuels in electricity production. Police found explosives at the suspect's home and searched a truck in a wood roughly 100 kilometers away, but did not locate him.
The FBI has added German national Bernhard Fritsch to its Most Wanted Fraudsters list after his conviction in Los Angeles last year of defrauding investors of about $26.8 million through a fake celebrity-influencer app. Fritsch was sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia after fleeing to Mexico but has since fled to Germany and is believed to be in the Munich area.
Four German states have called on the federal government to increase annual funding for inland waterways to at least €2.5 billion following summer drought conditions on the Rhine River. The states said the investment is needed to modernize and maintain waterways, which carry more than 5 percent of all freight transported, and that rivers and canals have been neglected compared to roads and railways.
Thousands of people are expected at rallies in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt before Sunday's state parliament election. Police registered 12 demonstrations in the state capital, Magdeburg, with additional events planned in Halle, most organized by trade unions and civil society groups against the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which recent polls show at over 40 percent support.
