CEP Non-Resident Fellow Ari Heistein writes: "It has been widely acknowledged that the Houthi attacks against Israel and international shipping that followed Hamas’s deadly October 7th attacks last year, were used to defuse a domestic crisis. Shortly before that terrible day, the Houthis were facing unprecedented opposition at home due to growing resentment over their misrule. That changed in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, and Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Since the Houthis started bombarding Israel and international shipping one year ago, the group has promoted massive public rallies in Yemen to celebrate its “resistance” throughout the territory under their control. It has been generally assumed that the Houthi offensive had redirected public anger, but recent public opinion polls tell a different story."

“There was no shortage of strong words immediately after the news broke. For Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the execution of German-Iranian dual citizen Jamshid Sharmahd is a "scandal". According to Annalena Baerbock, her Foreign Office campaigned "tirelessly" for the businessman, who was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020, and sent high-ranking teams to Iran to prevent the execution of the death sentence: "We have repeatedly made it unmistakably clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen will have serious consequences." […] According to Hans-Jakob Schindler, it is possible but not certain that "Tondar" was actually responsible. "After the attack, the German embassy in Tehran assumed that Islamists were more likely to be the perpetrators," says the senior director of the international Counter Extremism Project.”

"Moderated by Laura Ellsworth, summit founder and board co-chair, the panel included Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project; Mark Dwyer, extremism funding investigator at the Anti-Defamation League; and Alexander Ritzmann, senior advisor of the Counter Extremism Project."

"“Love or loathe him, all can agree that Tommy Robinson faces a torrid time as he is committed to imprisonment after pleading guilty to contempt of court. At Woolwich Crown Court this week, we heard from Mr Justice Johnson that Robinson’s breaches of an injunction following a libel trial that he lost were so serious that any suggestion of a non-custodial sentence was impossible… Ian Acheson, the former head of security at HMP Wandsworth, told me the authorities will face ‘a big headache when dealing with Robinson' s custody.’ He said that on the one hand the offence for which he received a prison sentence is relatively minor and there is no record of him misbehaving in his previous sentence.”

"Robinson was also kept isolated during his last stint in prison, something which would be a "headache" for prisoner officers, according to former prison governor Ian Acheson."

"Writing in August, Ian Acheson, a former counter-terrorism official who also worked as director of community safety at the Home Office, warned that pursuing a strategy of minimal information risked creating a void that would be exploited by elements of the far-right determined to break community cohesion. Acheson called for all the facts about the background of the alleged perpetrator to be disclosed “as soon as possible,” urging the police not to engage in “further dithering”."

"Qassem, 71, was among the founding members of Hezbollah in 1982 and has served as the party's second in command since the group entered the political realm in the early 1990's, according to The Counter Extremism Project, an international organization. He was born in 1953, and his family is from the village of Kfar Fila, on the border with Israel."

"Former prison governor Ian Acheson said the decision where to put Robinson would be a 'real headache' for the prison service.

'You have someone who would not be considered an escape risk, hasn't been convicted for a crime of violence and has been found guilty of breaking a civil restriction, so normally he could be put in open conditions,' he said.

'But open prisons are very unsupervised and that could leave Robinson at risk of being attacked.

'There is also a risk of his presence disrupting the good order of the prison due to the presence of people who might sympathise with him - particularly as the far-right push the narrative of the rioters being ''political prisoners''.' "

“Egypt has proposed a two-day truce in Gaza as a prelude to a longer cease-fire. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Hamas to free four of the Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. He proposed more negotiations to follow that release within ten days.
Meanwhile, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 45 people, mainly in the north of the strip. UN Chief Antonio Guterres said he was shocked by what he called the "harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction." Egypt proposes temporary truce in Gaza. DW speaks with Hans-Jakob Schindler, Middle East security expert and Senior Director at the Counter Extremism Project in Berlin”

"According to the experts of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), France has decided on a strategic partnership with Qatar. Only a fraction of this alliance is transparent — at the beginning of 2024, the emirate pledged to invest €10 billion into the French economy."