Fact:
On April 3, 2017, the day Vladimir Putin was due to visit the city, a suicide bombing was carried out in the St. Petersburg metro, killing 15 people and injuring 64. An al-Qaeda affiliate, Imam Shamil Battalion, claimed responsibility.
Eye on Extremism: April 7, 2025
Top Stories
The Guardian: UK police chiefs draw up plans for national counter-terrorism force
Plans for a new national police body to lead the fight against terrorism and serious organised crime are being drawn up, as UK police chiefs consider the biggest overhaul of policing since the 1960s. Under the proposals, counter-terrorism policing units would gain independence from local forces and become part of a new force covering at least England and Wales, and sitting in a newly created national centre for policing. Counter-terrorism policing (CTP) is currently headquartered with London’s Metropolitan police, with its head appointed by the Met commissioner. The proposed changes come amid mounting concerns that the UK’s current system – in which 45 local forces sometimes cooperate on national issues – can no longer match societal changes in the nature of crime, which is increasingly national or international.
Jerusalem Post: Katz unveils intercepted document connecting Iran to Hamas Oct. 7 invasion
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday disclosed to the public a document and communications for what he said was proof of the Hamas and Iran connection relating to the Gaza terror group seeking financial support for the October 7 invasion. The document was intercepted by Israeli soldiers during the invasion of Gaza and forwarded to the IDF intelligence Catalogue unit, which analyzes intercepted foreign intelligence items. According to Katz, the document and communications show that Hamas requested $500 million from the Islamic Republic "to destroy Israel", sometime before or leading up to the October 7 invasion. Further, the defense minister said that the head of Palestinian Affairs for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, known as "Izadi," approved the request made by now-deceased Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif.
CEP Mentions
CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: All is not well inside the last Hermit kingdom in public service. I’m referring to His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), a closed and secretive fiefdom that has acquired a reputation for security scandals and managerial incompetence that even high walls, literal and figurative, can’t contain. Behind the austere perimeters of the prison side of business, another disgrace looms – corruption.
UnHerd: Britain’s progressive super-prison masks wider dysfunction
CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: At the end of last week, the Ministry of Justice — so often a stranger to public scrutiny — released a glossy, self-congratulatory 20-minute video celebrating the construction and delivery of HMP Millsike, a new 1468-place male resettlement prison in East Yorkshire. It was built ahead of schedule and on budget, and Britain is desperately short on prison spaces for those who should be incarcerated, but larger challenges remain than what Millsike can fix.
The Spectator: The dark side of social media —Part 2
According to a study by the Counter Extremism Project, social media platforms have been used to spread extremist ideologies, recruit new members, and plan violent attacks.
United States
The Guardian: US neo-Nazi group with Russia-based leader calls for targeted Ukraine attacks
A US neo-Nazi terrorist group with a Russia-based leader is calling for targeted assassinations and attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine in an effort to destabilize the country as it carries out ceasefire negotiations with the Kremlin. The Base, which has a web of cells all over the world, was founded in 2018 and became the subject of a relentless FBI counter-terrorism investigation that led to several arrests and world governments officially designating it as a terrorist organization. This is the first time the Base has openly allied itself with the Kremlin’s broader geopolitical goals, a sudden change experts say signals its likely involvement in Russian sabotage and propaganda operations now being carried out across Europe.
ABC News: What we know about the foreign college students targeted for deportation
President Donald Trump's administration has set off a legal and ethical firestorm by targeting international students at United States colleges for deportation, including some who the government alleges participated in protests or activities on campuses in support of Palestine. The administration has claimed, without presenting evidence, that some of those students supported the terrorist organization Hamas, while the students say the White House is treading on their constitutional right to free speech and the longstanding tradition of participating in campus demonstrations.
As World War II raged, the US became the reluctant home for hundreds of thousands of Nazi soldiers – many still rabidly loyal to Hitler and determined to keep fighting for him at any cost. Even if it meant murdering their own comrades in cold blood. Living in more than 600 hastily set-up POW camps, scattered in small farm towns across rural America, nearly 400,000 German soldiers settled into their new routine – enjoying a set up so comfortable, many dubbed the camps the Fritz Ritz. And while some of those POWs turned their backs on Hitler and assimilated into US life, becoming friends with farming families - a few even married American women - the most dangerous Nazis carried on the war from inside the barbed wire, establishing small but devoted enclaves of Nazi Germany on American soil.
The Guardian: US student journalists go dark fearing Trump crusade against pro-Palestinian speech
Fearing legal repercussions, online harassment and professional consequences, student journalists are retracting their names from published articles amid intensifying repression by the Trump administration targeting students perceived to be associated with the pro-Palestinian movement. Editors at university newspapers say that anxiety among writers has risen since the arrest of the Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention fighting efforts to deport her. While the government has not pointed to evidence supporting its decision to revoke her visa, she wrote an op-ed last year in a student newspaper critical of Israel, spurring fears that simply expressing views in writing is now viewed as sufficient grounds for deportation.
The Hill: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out on ‘abduction,’ calls on students to take action
Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested in March by immigration authorities, spoke out about his “abduction” in a Friday opinion piece. Khalil, a former lead negotiator for Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian encampment, said in his Columbia Daily Spectator opinion piece that the school “laid the groundwork for my abduction” and pushed for the school’s students to “not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression.”
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is awaiting an update from the federal government's investigation into a claim of antisemitism on the state's flagship campus, the only complaint of its type at UT in the past decade. In the past 10 years, UT has received formal civil rights complaints from eight students, but only the one under investigation is related to antisemitism, according to UT spokesperson Kerry Gardner.
The Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism described the action taken by the board of trustees as an “important step toward advancing negotiations” for the restoration of $400 million in canceled federal funding, in a March 28 statement. “The action taken by Columbia’s trustees today, especially in light of this week’s concerning revelation, is an important step toward advancing negotiations as set forth in the pre-conditional understanding reached last Friday between the University and the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism,” the statement reads.
Colombia
A rebel group called the Commoners of the South has begun handing its weapons over to Colombia’s government, the Defense Ministry said Saturday, as part of peace talks expected to lead to the group’s disarmament in the coming months. The group of about 250 fighters operates in Colombia’s Southwestern Nariño province and has been in negotiations with the government since last year.
France
Jerusalem Post: French police arrest trio suspected of ISIS-inspired suicide plot
French police arrested three men aged 19-24 on suspicion that they wished to carry out a suicide attack inspired by the 2015 attack at the Bataclan concert hall, Le Parisien reported on Sunday. The three, originally from Lille and Dunkirk in the North of France, were looking to conduct an attack in the name of ISIS to whom one of the suspects, Morad M., had pledge allegiance. The named suspect had shared posts with extreme rhetoric on Snapchat, calling to "drain in blood all the unbelievers." The trio had begun making a suicide belt and were looking into making Acetone peroxide online. The three wanted to target a site belonging to the Jewish community, various public spaces, a restaurant, and a night club.
Politico: French far right floats toppling government in wake of Le Pen verdict
Two high-ranking officials from France’s biggest far-right party publicly opened the door on Monday to bringing down the government a week after Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement and subsequently barred from running for president. National Rally President Jordan Bardella and party Vice President Sébastien Chenu revealed in separate interviews that the party is contemplating ousting Prime Minister François Bayrou, just four months after backing the French left’s effort to take down his predecessor, Michel Barnier.
Associated Press: Le Pen supporters rally in Paris, turning a protest into a populist show of force
Convicted of embezzling public funds and banned from running for office, far-right politician Marine Le Pen stood unshaken before a sea of French flags in Paris on Sunday. “For 30 years I have fought against injustice,” she told the crowd. “And I will continue to fight.” Thousands of supporters gathered at Place Vauban, near the golden dome of Les Invalides and the tomb of Napoleon, for what was billed as a protest — but observers said it had all the markings of a campaign rally.
France 24: Marine Le Pen: France's Martin Luther King? Papers react to far-right rally
French papers are covering Sunday's National Rally gathering in Paris in support of Marine Le Pen following her conviction for embezzlement. Libération calls the rally a "flop" after it saw a relatively small turnout. L'Humanité, meanwhile, calls it a farce. Le Pen had initially announced a demonstration of force, but the paper says the rally did not live up to expectations. The Catholic paper La Croix says that Le Pen has started a "reconquering campaign". A strategy that the paper calls risky, and which could be a bad start for her "banned" presidential campaign.
Germany
Deutsche Welle: Buchenwald: A warning against the dangers of extremism
The buildings stand in a place that seems to have been lifted up out of the surrounding landscape. The densely wooded Ettersberg, a hill located not far from the cultural hub of Weimar in the eastern German state of Thuringia, can be seen from far off. It seems like an idyllic area. But the picturesque appearance belies the fact that this was once a place of horror. The plateau of the hill was the site of one of the biggest Nazi concentration camps in Germany. From 1937 to 1945, the Nazis imprisoned hundreds of thousands of people here in the Buchenwald concentration camp, including political opponents, communists, homosexuals, foreign prisoners, Jews, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses and undesired clergy. Buchenwald was a hell, one of the many hells created by the Nazi machinery of persecution and killing. Some 280,000 prisoners suffered within the Buchenwald system, which included the camp on the Ettersberg and more than 50 small subcamps, mostly near factories producing key wartime commodities.
ARD: "Saxon separatists" - Connections to Austrian neo-Nazi scene
The suspected terrorist group "Saxon Separatists" has more far-reaching connections to Austria's right-wing extremist scene than was previously known. According to MDR research, there was a meeting with an Austrian neo-Nazi figure. Jörg S., the alleged leader of the "Saxon Separatists", who are being prosecuted as a terrorist organization, is said to have sold a silencer - to an explosives expert who also worked for the Austrian Ministry of the Interior and is said to have connections to the right-wing extremist scene in Austria.
United Kingdom
The Telegraph: Isolated young British Muslims ‘becoming national security risk’
Isolated young British Muslims are becoming “a national security risk”, a senior Islamic figure has said. The Gaza conflict has deepened divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims, which could allow extremism to grow on both sides, according to Sheikh Dr Muhammad bin Abdulkarim al-Issa, the secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL).
GBN: Jihadi bride who travelled to Syria to join Isis could be allowed to RETURN to Britain
A jihadi bride who travelled to Syria to join Isis could be allowed to return to Britain. Immigration judges ruled that the Home Office should not block her from coming back because she needs medical care and has a son. They have asked Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to reconsider the application “as soon as possible”.
Jewish Chronicle: Exclusive: Lib Dem former Mayor likened Hamas to Warsaw Ghetto heroes
The former Lib Dem mayor of Thatcham compared Hamas to Jews who fought the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, the JC can reveal. John Boyd, a councillor in the West Berkshire town, made the comments in a WhatsApp group of party members obtained by the JC. He and other members appeared to express sympathy for the Islamist terrorist organisation during the chain of messages.
Israel
Jewish News Syndicate: Police, Shin Bet foil terror plot in Jerusalem
The Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) thwarted a planned terrorist attack in Jerusalem and arrested a resident of the city’s east suspected of preparing to carry out a bombing, the agencies said on Sunday. The suspect planed a combined attack on civilian targets in the southern part of the city, the statement continued. Potential targets included the Jerusalem Light Rail, a public bus and a restaurant.
Hamas fired 10 rockets at southern Israel on Sunday night in the largest such barrage in months. Five of the ten rockets were intercepted by Israel’s air defenses, the Israel Defense Forces said, but at least one of the other five hit Ashkelon, causing damage. A 30-year-old man was lightly injured by shrapnel, and taken to the city’s Barzilai Hospital for treatment. The Magen David Adom emergency services said that two other people were hurt while running to shelters, while several people were treated for acute anxiety following the attack. The rockets were launched toward the coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod shortly after 9 p.m. from central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, an area where the IDF has not been operating. Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket barrage shortly after it was launched.
Associated Press: Israel controls 50% of Gaza after razing land to expand its buffer zone
Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in the Gaza Strip since relaunching its war against Hamas last month. It now controls more than 50% of the territory and is squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land. The largest contiguous area the army controls is around the Gaza border, where the military has razed Palestinian homes, farmland and infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability, according to Israeli soldiers and rights groups. This military buffer zone has doubled in size in recent weeks.
Lebanon
Reuters: U.S. envoy says Hezbollah must be disarmed 'as soon as possible'
U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that Hezbollah and other armed groups should be disarmed "as soon as possible" and that Lebanese troops were expected to do the job. Ortagus spoke to Lebanese broadcaster LBCI at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut, where she met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and other officials and political representatives.
Naharnet: Report: Lebanon vows to disarm Hezbollah, US to give army helicopters
Lebanon’s top leaders Joseph Aoun, Nabih Berri and Nawaf Salam pledged to U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus that arms would be limited to the state’s hands and withdrawn from Hezbollah as an obligatory gateway for the state to extend its authority across its territory, presidential sources said. “They told her that the exclusivity of arms has become indisputable, undebatable and settled and that only the timing remains for removing illegal weapons,” the sources told Saudi Arabia’s Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
Naharnet: Aoun says Lebanon committed to reforms, disarming Hezbollah
President Joseph Aoun vowed Monday that Lebanon is committed to reforms and to Hezbollah’s disarmament, revealing that efforts to devise a "national security strategy" will begin "soon." "Lebanon needs time and space to resolve these matters calmly," Aoun said, adding that disarming Hezbollah would happen through dialogue and communication. "Hezbollah after all is a Lebanese component and the Israeli occupation of the five hills (in south Lebanon) would not help Lebanon but only complicate the situation further."
Times of Israel: IDF says drone strike killed Hezbollah rocket unit commander in southern Lebanon
A Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon’s Taybeh earlier today, the military announces. Muhammad Adnan Mansour, according to the IDF, headed Hezbollah’s rocket unit in the Taybeh area. During the war he led numerous rocket attacks on the Upper Galilee, the military adds.
New York Times: Trump Envoy Visits Lebanon Amid Fears Over a Shaky Cease-Fire
A top Trump administration envoy to the Middle East was in Lebanon on Saturday amid U.S. pressure on the country to crack down on Hezbollah and as tensions with Israel flare despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire. Morgan Ortagus, President Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy, met with senior officials after strikes over the past two weeks threatened the truce that went into effect in November.
Syria
New York Times: Inspectors Say More Than 100 Chemical Weapons Sites Could Remain in Syria
More than 100 chemical weapons sites are suspected to remain in Syria, left behind after the fall of the longtime president, Bashar al-Assad, according to the leading international organization that tracks these weapons. That number is the first estimate of its kind as the group, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, seeks to enter Syria to assess what remains of Mr. al-Assad’s notorious military program. The figure is far higher than any that Mr. al-Assad has ever acknowledged. The sites are suspected to have been involved in the research, manufacturing and storage of chemical weapons. Mr. al-Assad used weapons like sarin and chlorine gas against rebel fighters and Syrian civilians during more than a decade of civil war.
Turkey scoped out at least three air bases in Syria where it could deploy forces as part of a planned joint defence pact before Israel hit the sites with air strikes this week, four people familiar with the matter said. The bombardment signals the risks of a deepening rift between two powerful regional militaries over Syria, where Islamist rebels have installed a new government after toppling former leader Bashar al-Assad in December.
Jerusalem Post: Russia rejects Syrian request to hand over former regime leader Assad
Russian authorities have said they will not hand over Syria's former president, Bashar al-Assad, following requests from the acting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Jordanian newspaper Rai-al-Youm reported on Sunday. Assad fled Damascus by plane on Sunday, December 8, escaping the rebel coup in the capital. He flew to Russia's Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, and from there on to Moscow, where he met with his family.
Iran
Reuters: Iran wants indirect talks with US, warns regional countries over strikes against it
Iran is pushing back against U.S. demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear programme or be bombed, warning neighbours that host U.S. bases that they could be in the firing line if involved, a senior Iranian official said. Although Iran has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for direct talks, it wants to continue indirect negotiations through Oman, a longtime channel for messages between the rival states, said the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. Iran has issued notices to Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey and Bahrain that any support for a U.S. attack on Iran, including the use of their air space or territory by U.S. military during an attack, would be considered an act of hostility, the official said.
Newsweek: Iran Puts Army on High Alert Over US Threats: Report
Iran's armed forces have been placed on high alert by order of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent threats against Tehran, according to a Reuters report citing an Iranian official. The move signals a sharp escalation in tensions between the two nations, with the potential for military confrontation looming.
Newsweek: Satellite Image Shows US Aircraft Carrier Nearing Iran
New satellite imagery shows the USS Carl Vinson entering the Indian Ocean via the Malacca Straits, marking a significant step in the U.S. military's increased presence in the region. This move comes as tensions with Iran and the Houthis in Yemen escalate, signaling the potential for a more aggressive U.S. stance in the coming days and weeks.
Iraq
Reuters: Exclusive: Iran-backed militias in Iraq ready to disarm to avert Trump wrath
Several powerful Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq are prepared to disarm for the first time to avert the threat of an escalating conflict with the U.S. Trump administration, 10 senior commanders and Iraqi officials told Reuters. The move to defuse tensions follows repeated warnings issued privately by U.S. officials to the Iraqi government since Trump took power in January, according to the sources who include six local commanders of four major militias.
Yemen
Suspected U.S. airstrikes over the weekend targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed at least six people, the group said Sunday, while a bombing video posted by U.S. President Donald Trump suggested casualties in the overall campaign may be higher than the rebels acknowledge. A strike Sunday night in Sanaa, the rebel-held capital of Yemen, hit a house, killing at least four people and wounding 16 others, the Houthis said. Their al-Masirah satellite news channel showed images of the damaged home and people receiving care in a hospital.
CNN: Far from being cowed by US airstrikes, Yemen’s Houthis may be relishing them
For weeks, US airstrikes have pounded Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting oil refineries, airports and missile sites, with President Trump vowing to use “overwhelming force” until the US achieves its goal of stopping the Houthis from targeting shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthis began the campaign in solidarity with Palestinians when Israel went to war in Gaza in October 2023. The group has carried out more than 100 attacks and have sunk two vessels. The result: 70% of merchant shipping that once transited the Red Sea now takes the long route around southern Africa. The US says the campaign is working. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said that multiple Houthi leaders had been killed. But every round of strikes provokes more defiance.
Pakistan
Associated Press: Pakistani security forces kill 9 militants in a raid near the Afghan border
Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest near the Afghan border, killing nine militants, the military said Monday. The military said in a statement that a high-value militant Shireen was among those insurgents killed in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. All the militants who were killed were the “Khwarij,” a phrase the government uses for Pakistani Taliban, and Shireen was behind last month’s killing of an army Capt. Hasnain Akhtar in a shootout in the region, the military said.
Afghanistan
NBC News: Rifts growing in the Taliban over the ban on girls' schooling
Rifts are growing among Taliban officials over the group's decision to ban girls from secondary education, leading at least one minister to leave Afghanistan and forcing families to move so their daughters can continue their schooling. As religious police patrol large parts of the country to ensure that rules are enforced, the restrictions have become so repressive that some senior members of the militant group have called for them to be rolled back in recent months, three Taliban officials told NBC News, which agreed not to identify them so they could speak candidly.
BBC: Son of British couple held by Taliban asks US for help
The son of a British couple who were detained by the Taliban nine weeks ago is calling on the US to help secure their release from an Afghan prison. Peter Reynolds, 79, and wife Barbie, 75, were arrested on 1 February while returning to their home in the central Bamiyan province. Their son, Jonathan, called on the White House to intervene after Faye Hall, an American who was detained alongside them, was released last week by the Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Azerbaijan
Washington Post: Iranian plot to kill rabbi in Azerbaijan foiled, security officials say
In the fall, an officer from Iran’s Quds Force met with Agil Aslanov, a drug trafficker from Georgia, according to Western and Middle Eastern security officials. The officer handed Aslanov a photo of a prominent Jewish figure in Azerbaijan and detailed instructions on how to kill him, the officials said. Aslanov agreed to kill Rabbi Shneor Segal for a price tag of $200,000, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
Africa
BBC: Mali accuses Algeria of sponsoring terror after downing drone
Mali has accused neighbouring Algeria of being a sponsor and exporter of terrorism after Algeria shot down a Malian drone close to their common border last week. A strongly worded statement from Mali's foreign ministry on Sunday challenged Algeria's earlier explanation that the unmanned surveillance aircraft had violated its airspace. The statement described the downing of the drone as a "hostile premeditated action". Algeria has not responded to the accusation.
Australia
The Guardian: NSW police officer signed NDA with AFP over Sydney caravan ‘fake terrorism’ plot
A senior New South Wales police officer signed a non-disclosure agreement after being told by the federal police in early February that the motivation of the “mastermind” behind Sydney’s “fake terrorism” caravan plot was to influence prosecutions. Monday’s revelation – which one NSW MP labelled “extraordinary” – came during the first hearing of an upper house inquiry into when the premier, Chris Minns, and members of his cabinet knew that the caravan found laden with explosives in January on the outskirts of Sydney was not a terrorism event.
Technology
New Yorker: The Brazilian Judge Taking On the Digital Far Right
Alexandre de Moraes’s efforts to fight extremism online have pitted him against Jair Bolsonaro, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump.
Jerusalem Post: Encampment students use Telegram to learn violent police obstruction, report finds
Encampment participants were taught how to violently obstruct an arrest by "pigs" over Telegram, a report launched by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) claims. One year after the eruption of the campus encampment movements across the US and beyond, the JCFA released a report regarding the usage of the encrypted Telegram app for mobilization and coordination of actions, as well as the dissemination of violent pro-terror material and anti-American incitement.
Viewers of the hit Netflix show, Adolescence, were shocked to learn of the double meanings behind emoji including the '100', pill, beans, and orange heart. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. MailOnline's interactive chart reveals the true meaning of 60 popular emoji. Some of the emoji - including the pill, mushroom, and balloon - are code for drugs, while others have Neo-Nazi connotations.
Daily Dose
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
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