German authorities have arrested seven suspected supporters of the IS terror group as part of an investigation into terrorist financing, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
At the same time, authorities conducted 19 raids in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as in one property in the Netherlands, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The individuals arrested are suspected of belonging to an international network that solicited financial donations for IS in Syria through platforms including Telegram and subsequently transferred them to the group or its intermediaries.
At least 65,000 euros ($71,552.00) were transferred in this manner, prosecutors said, adding that the money was used to support IS members imprisoned in Syria, in some cases allowing them to escape from prison camps.
The seven suspects are to appear on Wednesday and Thursday before a magistrate who will decide whether they are to remain in pre-trial detention.
Britain's Prince William expressed optimism on Wednesday about tackling global environmental challenges at a star-studded event in Rio de Janeiro for the fifth edition of his EarthShot Prize.
The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Kalmaegi rose to 114 with another 127 people still missing, the disaster agency said on Thursday, as the storm that devastated the country's central regions regained strength as it headed towards Vietnam.
US federal safety investigators have located the "black box" recorders from the wreckage of a UPS cargo plane that crashed in flames on takeoff from the airport at Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least 12 people, officials said on Wednesday.
Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, won the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday, capping a meteoric rise from a little-known state lawmaker to one of the country's most visible Democratic figures, and the first Muslim mayor of the largest US city.