Associated Press: A Top Hamas Official Says The Group Is Losing Faith In The US As A Mediator In Gaza Cease-Fire Talks

“A top Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group is losing faith in the United States’ ability to mediate a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of a new round of talks scheduled for this week amid mounting pressure to bring an end to the 10-month-old war with Israel. Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that Hamas will only participate if the talks focus on implementing a proposal detailed by U.S. President Joe Biden in May and endorsed internationally. The U.S. referred to it as an Israeli proposal and Hamas agreed to it in principle, but Israel said Biden’s speech was not entirely consistent with the proposal itself. Both sides later proposed changes, leading each to accuse the other of obstructing a deal. Hamas is especially resistant to Israel’s demand that it maintain a lasting military presence in two strategic areas of Gaza after any cease-fire, conditions only made public in recent weeks.”

Associated Press: U.S. Envoy Visits Lebanon And Warns That Regional Tensions Could Easily Slip 'Out Of Control'

“A senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday it’s critical to take advantage of “this window for diplomatic action” to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and ongoing hostilities along the Lebanon-Israel border, fearing that escalations could spiral “out of control.” Amos Hochstein, tasked with shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon and Israel, spoke to journalists after meeting Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, as the region anxiously anticipates retaliatory attacks from Iran and the allied Lebanese Hezbollah group on Israel. Hochstein met with Israeli officials Tuesday. Cease-fire talks between Hamas and Israel are expected to resume in Qatar on Thursday with Qatari, Egyptian, and U.S. mediators. Hezbollah and Israel have traded strikes since Oct. 8, a day after Palestinian Hamas militants’ surprise attack into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.”

CEP Mentions

Integrity Insights Podcast: Countering Right-Wing Extremism With Sanctions

“In this episode, Filip Brokes sits down with Hans Jacob Schindler, a renowned expert in the field of counter-terrorism and extremism. Hans provides an in-depth analysis of the growing threat of right-wing extremism, its financing mechanisms, and the international response to this rising danger. Drawing from his extensive career, including pivotal roles within the German government and the United Nations, Hans offers a unique perspective on how these extremist groups operate and what can be done to counter them.”

The Cipher Brief: Three Years After Taliban Return, Terrorists Find Safe Haven In Afghanistan

“Three years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power, the country has once again become a haven for terrorist organizations. Former Afghan officials and United Nations workers say that since the collapse of the Afghan government in August 2021, more than a dozen terrorist groups have established – or reconstituted – safe havens in Afghanistan, helped by the presence of a Taliban regime that is either unable or unwilling to stop them. The latest report from Islamabad-based Security Studies Center of Research (CRSS) found that Afghanistan experienced a surge in terror attacks during the second quarter of 2024. Some 240 attacks and counter-terror operations resulted in 380 deaths and 220 injuries among civilians, security personnel, and suspected terrorists.”

FDD’s Long War Journal: New UN Report On Jihadi Threat In Africa, Asia, And The Middle East

“Bill is joined by Long War Journal and Generation Jihad regulars Edmund Fitton-Brown and Caleb Weiss to discuss the latest report by the UN’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team on the status of jihadi groups in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.”

24 Rhein: Sabotage Against Bundeswehr Bases In NRW: “There Is Much Evidence For A Russian Attack Attempt”

“... Hans-Jakob Schindler, for example, a terrorism expert from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), sees three groups as possible suspects: Russian or Russian-backed actors, radical Islamists or left-wing extremists. He considers one suspicion to be particularly likely: "The first thing I would check is whether it was a Russian or Russian-backed attack attempt or whether it was at least Russian-initiated," said Schindler in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA. There is much to support this theory. Germany has been the focus of Russian attackers since 2022 at the latest, if not since the Minsk Agreement in 2015. And the NATO base in Geilenkirchen in particular plays a special role in the context of the Ukraine war: AWACS aircraft are stationed there, which can be used to observe movements on NATO's eastern flank.”

GBN: UK Prepares For Mass Evacuation Of 60,000 Britons Amid Fears Of Attack On Israel

“... Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor to the Counter Extremism Project and former Ambassador of the UK to Yemen said "it could all very easily spiral out of control". "In essence, I think Iran and Israel would both prefer to avoid escalation out of control," he told the MailOnline. "But Iran (and Hezbollah) both want to be seen to respond to the Israeli assassinations. "Calibrating such responses in such a way as to save face and yet avoid escalation gets more difficult with each successive round of skirmishing."”

CapX: In Nottingham, State Failure Saw Three Stabbed To Death

“It was an atrocity that shook the nation. In June last year, Valdo Calocane stabbed to death 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar in Nottingham, going on to kill 65-year-old Ian Coates. Calocane then stole Mr Coates’ van and used it to seriously injure three more people by mowing them down in the street before police apprehended him. The attack had all the hallmarks of a terrorist incident, and the people of Nottingham and far beyond certainly felt terrorised in the initial hours and days after the event. The courts decided that Calocane was guilty of manslaughter through diminished responsibility, a decision bitterly resented by the bereaved families. It is likely he will never be released from a secure hospital where he is now detained. The brutal trajectory of this attack was laid out in court, so the how of these killings is easy to determine.”

Iran

CNN: Iran’s Mixed Signals Leave Some Allies In The Dark And Set Region On Edge

“The mood in Lebanon’s restive capital has darkened in the two weeks since Israel’s July 30 attack in southern Beirut that killed Iran-backed Hezbollah’s top commander Fu’ad Shukr and four civilians. The city woke up the next morning to find that another Iran-supported official, Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, had been killed in an assassination in the heart of the Iranian capital, Tehran. The chances of war, for months stowed away into the deeper crevices of this city’s psyche, had grown manifold. “Do you think I am sitting in Hezbollah’s war room?” said one exasperated political leader with ties to the powerful Beirut-based armed group. “I have no idea what’s going to happen next. You probably know more than I do.” Other officials in contact with Iran and Hezbollah said they were similarly in the dark as to how Tehran and its allied non-state fighting groups might deliver the “severe revenge” its top military officials, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have promised.”

Turkey

Reuters: U.S. Tells Turkey Syrian Kurdish YPG Moving Back To East Of Euphrates - Sources

“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday that Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters were retreating to the east of the Euphrates river, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said. In an early morning call, the two emphasised that the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq would continue together, the sources said. Syrian rebels backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes entered one of Islamic State's last strongholds on the Turkish-Syrian border on Wednesday, in Turkey's first major U.S.-backed incursion into its southern neighbour. The role of the Syrian Kurdish YPG has been a sticking point between NATO allies Turkey and the United States. Washington backs the fighters against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade violent insurgency in its Kurdish southeast.”

Associated Press: Turkey’s Erdogan Meets With Palestinian Leader Abbas Ahead Of Speech To Parliament

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for talks that focused on the conflict in Gaza, Erdogan’s office said, ahead of a planned address to parliament Thursday. Erdogan’s office said late Wednesday that the two discussed “the massacres committed by Israel in Palestinian territories” and “the steps that need to be taken for a permanent cease-fire and peace” at the presidential palace in Ankara. The statement, released on the social media platform X, said Erdogan pledged continued support to “Palestine’s just cause” and to work to “increase the pressure on Israel by the international community … especially the Islamic world” to deliver humanitarian aid and bring peace. Abbas arrived Wednesday for a visit that comes as the threat of Iranian retaliation against Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh fueled concerns of the war spreading across the Middle East.”

Afghanistan

Associated Press: Taliban Have Deliberately Deprived 1.4 Million Afghan Girls Of Schooling Through Bans, Says Unesco

“The Taliban have deliberately deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls of schooling through bans, a United Nations agency said Thursday. Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans female secondary and higher education. The Taliban, who took power in 2021, barred education for girls above sixth grade because they said it didn’t comply with their interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. They didn’t stop it for boys and show no sign of taking the steps needed to reopen classrooms and campuses for girls and women. UNESCO said at least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since the takeover, an increase of 300,000 since its previous count in April 2023, with more girls reaching the age limit of 12 every year.  “If we add the girls who were already out of school before the bans were introduced, there are now almost 2.5 million girls in the country deprived of their right to education, representing 80% of Afghan school-age girls,” UNESCO said.”

Lebanon

Reuters: US Envoy Hochstein Says He Thinks Israel And Lebanon's Hezbollah Can Avoid War

“U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said on Wednesday he believed all-out war between Israel and Lebanon's powerful militant group Hezbollah could be avoided but that Israel and Hamas needed to move towards a peace agreement for Gaza without further delay. Iran-backed Hezbollah began cross-border attacks on Israel soon after Israeli forces began a military assault on Gaza in response to the deadly Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Israeli fire, initially confined to Lebanon's border area, has now targeted senior Hezbollah, Hamas and other figures further north. Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, landed in Beirut on Wednesday to deter an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, after the latter killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut's southern suburbs last month. "We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel," Hochstein said after talks with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a strong Hezbollah ally.”

BBC: Lebanese Hold Their Breath As Mediators Scramble To Avert All-Out War

“The Middle East is in turmoil. International diplomacy is in overdrive. And for once many in Israel, Lebanon and Iran have something in common - a war of nerves. They worry and they wait for what may come next. It feels like the whole region is holding its breath. Is this the slide towards an all-out regional war? Can a ceasefire be wrestled from the ruins of Gaza? How will Iran, and its proxy militia Hezbollah, retaliate against Israel for back-to-back assassinations in Beirut and Tehran? Will they heed calls for restraint? In Lebanon, the stultifying heat of summer is overlaid by a layer of anxiety. Heart-stopping sonic booms interrupt the hum of traffic in Beirut, as Israeli warplanes break the sound barrier in the skies above. Many foreign nationals are gone, heeding the advice of their governments. Plenty of Lebanese have fled too. Others cannot tear themselves away - like the 30-year-old chef of a hip café (Beirut has too many of these to count). She is tattooed and candid but prefers not to be named.”

Middle East

Reuters: Hamas To Stay Out Of Gaza Truce Talks But May Meet Mediators Afterwards

“Hamas said on Wednesday it would not take part in a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks slated for Thursday in Qatar, but an official briefed on the talks said mediators expected to consult with the Palestinian group afterwards. The U.S. has said it expects indirect talks to go ahead as planned in Qatar's capital Doha on Thursday, and that a ceasefire agreement was still possible, while warning that progress was needed urgently to avert a wider war. Axios reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to the Middle East that had been expected to begin on Tuesday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that CIA Director Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk will represent Washington at the talks on Thursday in Qatar. Three senior Iranian officials have said that only a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil last month.”

Europe

NBC: Taylor Swift Fans Flock To London For Final Leg Of Eras Tour After Vienna Terrorism Plot

“Taylor Swift is poised to wrap up the European leg of her record-breaking tour with five performances in London starting on Thursday amid tight security following a thwarted terror plot that targeted her show in Vienna. Last week, Austrian authorities prevented what was believed to be an ISIS-linked terror plot targeting one of her shows in Vienna. Three shows were canceled. Swift’s team is working closely with organizers in the U.K. to ensure heightened security this weekend as fans flock to Wembley Stadium for the second time this summer. Katrina Hutchins said she surprised her 9-year-old son Callahan with tickets to Thursday's London show as a Christmas gift last year. While the news from Vienna rattled them, Hutchins said her son was primarily concerned about Swift's mental health and well-being. "I keep reassuring him that the security will be tighter than ever, and Wembley may just be the very safest place to be in the next couple of days," Hutchins said.”