NPR: First Israeli Hostages And Palestinian Prisoners Freed In Ceasefire Deal With Hamas
“Around 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were freed from Israeli jails and into the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as part of an exchange under ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that went into effect Sunday morning. Their release comes hours after three Israeli women were set free by Hamas-led Palestinian militants who held them hostage in Gaza for 471 days. This was the first of several hostage and detainee exchanges set to take place during the planned six-week ceasefire in Gaza that's aimed at ending the 15-month war. Negotiations to extend the deal are expected to begin in coming weeks.”
Reuters: Negotiators Zero In On Potential Deal To Disarm Syria's Last Battleground
“Negotiators are zeroing in on a potential deal to resolve one of the most explosive questions looming over Syria's future: the fate of Kurdish forces that the U.S. considers key allies against Islamic State but neighbouring Turkey regards as a national security threat. Diplomatic and military negotiators from the United States, Turkey, Syria and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are showing more flexibility and patience than their public statements suggest, a dozen sources told Reuters, including five directly involved in the intensive web of discussions in recent weeks.”
The Times: Criminal Gangs Taking Control Of Uk Prisons, Ex-Governors Warn
“... Writing in today’s Times, Ian Acheson, who held senior positions at several prisons including governor of HMP Erlestoke, John Podmore, the former governor at HMP Belmarsh and HMP Brixton, and Professor David Wilson, a criminologist and former assistant prison governor at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, said that the situation was even worse than Taylor has warned. They said that some prisons were in danger of becoming like some jails in South America where organised crime groups (OCGs) are in control.”
The Spectator: Empty Pledges Won’t Solve The Knife Crime Epidemic
“On 23 September last year at 6.30 p.m. in the evening in a street in Woolwich, London, Daejaun Campbell cried out, ‘I’m 15, don’t let me die’ as he bled out on a pavement after being stabbed. You probably won’t remember Deajaun but he was a one of nine children murdered by knives in London last year. He was a young black man in a city where victims and perpetrators often share the same ethnicity. An investigation by the Times has revealed that over half the 576 black people murdered by knives between 2013 and 2023 were aged between 16 and 24.”
The Spectator: Prevent Is Not Solely To Blame For Southport Failings
“The assailant in the Southport massacre has pleaded guilty to the murders of three children in the town last year. Keir Starmer has leapt with unusual speed to authorise a public inquiry into what drove Axel Rudakubana into his frenzy of killing and if it could have been prevented. We now know that the state’s protective agencies crossed Rudakubana multiple times; he was referred three times to the government’s Prevent strategy, which is supposed to spot and stop tomorrow’s terrorists before hateful thought turns into lethal action. The Prevent strategy has been under huge scrutiny recently following the publication of a review of its effectiveness by the writer Sir William Shawcross. My organisation, the Counter Extremism Project, agreed with the key findings of his 2023 report.”
“... They make no mention of their neo-Nazi sympathies and avoid public discussion about “politics, Jews or history,” the New York-based Counter Extremism Project reports. Members are encouraged to look and act like “regular guys” and maintain a focus on recruitment. “The large-scale fight nights, that sometimes attract upwards of 60 or more attendees from a range of white supremacist groups across the United States and even abroad, allow the groups to fraternize and recruit, while also fulfilling the Active Club’s goal of crafting a transnational white fraternal brotherhood,” Moon said.”
“We are rapidly becoming a low trust society and this has serious implications for ‘community cohesion.’ The term, coined by academics after the 2011 riots has lately become a soubriquet for institutional cowardice in the face of a national child safeguarding catastrophe. But when it was originally conceived, it was a way of describing the ties that bind communities together and a means of breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions that can fuel sectarian alienation and even translate into ideological violence. The gatekeeper against increasing distrust that fuels this cycle of decline is the Government. And here lies the problem.”
Associated Press: Trump Seeks To Designate Drug Cartels As Foreign Terrorist Organizations
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday saying the United States would designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in a move that could push a militarized agenda for the border and Latin America. The order highlighted Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American criminal groups like Venezuela gang Tren de Aragua and Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), which it said “threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” The order did not list the groups by name, but said Cabinet secretaries would recommend groups for designation as terrorist organizations in the next 14 days.”
“The FBI assistant special agent in charge who told the media and the public the New Orleans attack was "not a terrorist event" has been reassigned, Fox News has learned. Multiple sources tell Fox News that FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan has been temporarily reassigned following her initial press conference in which she stated: "This is not a terrorist event." It was terrorism. After the original presser, the FBI put out a statement using the word "terrorism." Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Biden also used the word "terrorism" in their statements.”
“A Utah State University student was arrested after authorities say he contaminated his dorm with hydrochloric acid gas, forcing mass evacuations, just hours after being questioned by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Joshua Peter Jager, 20, was arrested Thursday night and is charged with causing a catastrophe recklessly and disorderly conduct, according to an indictment. USU authorities responded to a fire alarm just before 7:45 p.m. Thursday at Mountain View Tower and found the entire first floor covered in a vaporous substance, later found to be hydrochloric acid gas, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in 1st District Court.”
NBC News: He Oversaw The Public Executions Of Two Women. Now He's Syria's New Justice Minister.
“In a shaky video recorded in 2015, a woman cloaked in black and kneeling on a public street begs to see her children for the last time. Instead, a man identified as Shadi al-Waisi, Syria’s new justice minister, motions to a gunman, who shoots her in the back of the head. A second video shows al-Waisi reading out a death sentence for another woman, who, like the first, was convicted of corruption and prostitution. She is shot and drops to the ground. The videos were recorded a decade ago, when al-Waisi was a judge for Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria’s northern Idlib province.”
Reuters: Afghan Taliban Member Freed From US Custody In Exchange For Two Americans, Kabul Says
“The United States has freed an Afghan convicted by an American court on charges of drug smuggling and terrorism in exchange for two U.S. citizens held in Afghanistan, authorities in Kabul said on Tuesday. Afghan officials said the man, Khan Mohammad, had landed in Kabul after being released. Mohammad was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 by a U.S. court, which was the first conviction on narco-terrorism charges, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The prisoner exchange was the result of "long and productive" negotiations between Afghan and American authorities, Afghanistan's foreign ministry said in a statement.”
Voice Of America: Taliban Minister Urges Leadership To Lift Afghan Female Education Ban
“A senior Taliban leader has publicly criticized his government’s policy of prohibiting female education in Afghanistan, calling it a “personal choice” rather than an interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia. The rare public rebuke from Sher Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, comes amid persistent international calls for Afghanistan’s rulers to permit girls’ education in secondary schools and beyond, as well as to remove restrictions on women’s access to public life at large.”
“Funding cuts to Afghanistan are the biggest threat to helping the country’s women, the chief of a top aid agency warned Sunday. Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said women and girls were bearing the brunt of dwindling financial support for nongovernmental groups and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The NRC helped 772,484 Afghans in 2022. That number fell to 491,435 in 2023. Last year, the aid agency helped 216,501 people. Half of its beneficiaries are women. Egeland, who has made several visits to Afghanistan since 2021, said: “We see one after the other peer organization cutting programming and staff in the last two years.”
“Pakistani security forces launched an operation targeting militants in a restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Monday, following a surge in attacks and sectarian strife. It is the first large-scale operation in the area in recent years. The latest attack in Kurram, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was on Friday when unidentified gunmen ambushed and burned aid trucks, killing two security personnel and at least five drivers. The district has been cut off from the rest of the country since November after authorities blocked roads following clashes between heavily armed Shiite and Sunni tribes.”
Reuters: US Imposes Sanctions On Yemeni Financial Institution In Action Against Houthis
“The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on a Yemen-based financial institution that Washington accused of financially supporting the Houthis, as President Joe Biden's administration sought to further pressure the militant group before Biden leaves office. The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on Yemen Kuwait Bank, accusing it of helping the Houthis exploit the Yemeni banking sector to launder money and transfer funds to allies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. The Iran-backed Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships since November 2023. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.”
“Yemen’s Houthi rebels signaled Monday they now will limit their attacks in the Red Sea corridor to only Israeli-affiliated ships after a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip, but warned wider assaults could resume if needed. The Houthis’ announcement, first made in an email sent to shippers and others late Sunday, likely won’t be enough to encourage global firms to reenter the route that’s crucial for cargo and energy shipments moving between Asia and Europe. Their attacks have halved traffic through the region, cutting deeply into revenues for Egypt, which runs the Suez Canal linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.”
Business Insider: What Lebanon's Shifting Political Landscape Means For Hezbollah
“Lebanon elected General Joseph Aoun, the head of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), as president earlier this month, ending a more than two-year presidential vacuum. Just days later, Nawaf Salam, who had been serving as the president of the International Court of Justice, was named as prime minister, replacing the Hezbollah-backed caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati. The moves marked a dramatic shift in Lebanon's power balance and highlighted the weakened state of Hezbollah, one of the country's most powerful political players. Here's what we know about Lebanon's shifting political landscape and what it means for Hezbollah.”
Reuters: Gazans Cheer As Ceasefire Between Israel And Hamas Takes Hold
“Thousands of Palestinians burst into the streets across Gaza as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, some in celebration, others to visit the graves of relatives, while many rushed back to see what remained of their homes. "I feel alive again," said Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year. "I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months," she told Reuters via a chat app. In the north of the territory, where some of the most intense Israeli airstrikes and battles with the militants took place, drone footage showed hundreds of people walking on a dusty road through a devastated landscape of crushed concrete and twisted metal.”
Reuters: UK's Starmer Vows To Uncover Failings, Lead Change After Southport Murders
“UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Tuesday to "leave no stone unturned" to uncover failings in preventing the killings of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event, saying an inquiry could lead to a change in terrorism laws. Starmer defended his government's stance to not divulge many details earlier about the British teenager guilty of the killings by saying he did not want to collapse the case, but admitted there were failings. Axel Rudakubana, 18, unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, in the English town of Southport in July, and to producing ricin and possessing an al Qaeda training manual.”
BBC: Man In Court On Terrorism Charge
“A man from East Yorkshire has appeared in court accused of of a terrorism offence. Jordan Richardson, 20, of Oliver Close, Howden, near Goole, was arrested on 19 December and charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of an act of terrorism between 1 August and 19 December last year. Appearing on a video link from Doncaster prison at the Old Bailey on Friday, Mr Richardson spoke only to confirm his identity. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb set a plea hearing at the Old Bailey for 2 May, and set a provisional trial date of 7 October at Leeds Crown Court. Mr Richardson was remanded into custody.”
Reuters: Three Navalny Lawyers Sentenced To Years In Russian Penal Colony For 'Extremist Activity'
“Three lawyers for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny were found guilty by a Russian court on Friday of belonging to an extremist group and sentenced to years in a penal colony. Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev were arrested in October 2023 and added the following month to an official list of "terrorists and extremists". They were sentenced respectively to 3-1/2, 5 and 5-1/2 years after a trial held behind closed doors in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow. "Vadim, Alexei and Igor are political prisoners and must be released immediately," Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late politician, posted on X.”
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded southern Israel where, in the space of eight hours, hundreds of armed terrorists perpetrated mass crimes of brutality, rape, and torture against men, women and children. In the biggest attack on Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, 1,200 were killed, and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza—where 101 remain. One year on, antisemitic incidents have increased by record numbers.
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