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CEP Mentions
The Telegraph: If ministers can’t get to grips with prisons like Frankland they must resign
CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: The last time I visited HMP Frankland, where three prison officers were reportedly attacked and seriously injured by a terrorist yesterday, was in 2015. Then, I had been tasked by the government to investigate Islamist extremism in the prison system. The best way of knowing what is happening on the front line, far from the HQ bureaucrats’ reach, is to go there. And so I visited every high-security prison holding extremists – including Frankland, just outside Durham – to ask staff how they kept safe and what more they needed. I can still remember the chilling ordinariness of men and women in uniform explaining how they worked to avoid being taken hostage and murdered by dangerous ideologues who viewed them as available targets for jihad. One officer said that the only thing that kept him safe each day was not his employer but “sheer blind luck”.
The Spectator: The HMP Frankland attack should never have happened
CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: How do you break the rule of law inside our jails? You could do worse than try to murder a prison officer on duty, which by all accounts nearly came to pass yesterday. The terrorist Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, reportedly came within seconds of doing so in a frenzied attack on prison officers in the separation unit of HMP Frankland. Three were sent to hospital, seriously injured by a combination of stab wounds and burns from hot oil. I know a thing or two about separation units. I called for their creation when I did an independent review of Islamist extremism in our prisons, as ordered by the editor of this magazine, who was then Justice Secretary. I made almost 70 recommendations to fix serious and systemic failings in the prison service when it came to dealing with the cancer of violent extremism.
Spiked: Lucy Connolly shouldn’t be in prison
CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: Riots are, thankfully, relatively rare in the UK. This is in large part thanks to the deterrent effect of the British justice system’s quick and harsh sentencing for rioters. Before last August, the last widespread social disorder we had in this country was in 2011. Then, disturbances took root across the UK, sparked by the killing of Mark Duggan, a young black man who was shot by police. The state response to this unrest through the courts was punitive. Over 2,000 people were convicted. No comparable insurrection happened for another 13 years.
Mirror: Warning prison officers will die after Manchester bomber attack
Former prison governor Ian Acheson said Abedi’s past showed he posed such a danger he should have been held under tighter security conditions than the ones at the separation unit. Mr Acheson also warned that the assault “moves us closer to the day when a prison officer will be murdered on duty by a terrorist”, adding that it is only a matter of time. The Justice Secretary Ms Mahmood said at the weekend: “I am appalled by the attack of three brave officers.”
United States
New York Times: Suspect Arrested in Arson at Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion
Pennsylvania state authorities have arrested a 38-year-old Harrisburg man they said set fire to the governor’s mansion while Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family slept, forcing them to evacuate early Sunday before the blaze severely damaged part of the building. The man, identified as Cody Balmer, 38, jumped a fence and managed to evade state troopers after he broke into the building, the authorities said, adding that he had used homemade incendiary devices. He fled the scene and was arrested in Harrisburg on Sunday afternoon, officials said at a news conference. Mr. Balmer is in custody and is expected to be charged with attempted murder, arson and terrorism. Law enforcement officials said they could not provide any information about a motive. During the news briefing outside the fire-scarred mansion, Governor Shapiro, a Democrat who gained national prominence last year when he was on the short list of possible running mates for Kamala Harris, said that the F.B.I. was assisting in the investigation.
Reuters: Iran, US hold 'positive' talks in Oman, agree to resume next week
Iran and the U.S. said they held "positive" and "constructive" talks in Oman on Saturday and agreed to reconvene next week in a dialogue meant to address Tehran's escalating nuclear programme, with President Donald Trump threatening military action if there is no deal. I think we are very close to a basis for negotiations and if we can conclude this basis next week, we’ll have gone a long way and will be able to start real discussions based on that,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state television. The White House called the talks involving Trump's Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff, U.S. Ambassador to Oman Ana Escrogima and Araqchi "very positive and constructive." These issues are very complicated, and Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome," it said in a statement. "The sides agreed to meet again next Saturday."
Reuters: US immigration judge rules Palestinian Columbia student Khalil can be deported
A U.S. immigration judge ruled on Friday that Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported, allowing President Donald Trump's administration to proceed with its effort to remove the Columbia University student from the United States a month after his arrest in New York City. he ruling by Judge Jamee Comans of the LaSalle Immigration Court in Louisiana was not a final determination of Khalil's fate. But it represented a significant victory for the Republican president in his efforts to deport foreign pro-Palestinian students who are in the United States legally and, like Khalil, have not been charged with any crime.
Germany
Deutsche Welle: Berlin station stabbing: Syrian attacker dies from injuries
A man suspected of stabbing another man to death at a Berlin underground station has died after being shot by police, the public prosecutors' office said on Sunday. There is no evidence to suggest the attack had an Islamist terrorist motive, a joint statement from the police and the prosecutor's office added. Police said an altercation on Saturday between the men escalated when the alleged perpetrator, a 43-year-old Syrian man, pulled out a kitchen knife and allegedly stabbed his victim three times, a 29-year-old German man. The injured man reportedly managed to leave the Sophie-Charlotte-Platz station in western Berlin on his own but collapsed on the platform. He died at the scene. The suspected attacker tried to flee the scene but was shot by police officials following an altercation. Both the victim and the alleged attacker were known to the police and the justice system. They had both been previously convicted of other crimes including assaulting law enforcement officers and violating the Narcotics Act, according to Berlin police.
NTV: Security agencies doubt ZDF report on Russian connection in attacks
On Sunday, ZDF reported in a "Terra X History" piece that, together with internet profiler Steven Broschart, they had discovered suspicious search queries from Russia in the run-up to the attacks by analyzing data from the Google Trends service. There had apparently been search queries from Russia for "terrorist attack in Mannheim" four days before the attack. Last year, there were several Islamist-motivated attacks before the European elections and the state elections in eastern Germany, but there were also such attacks before the federal elections in February. These are partly blamed for the AfD's high election results. However, security authorities doubt the validity of the research: the results of the trend analysis were not based on the number of searches actually carried out in a selected region and at a selected time, but on random samples and the probabilities calculated from them. "The exact terms entered are not necessarily examined, but also word stems or even just individual words in the query," said the BND spokesperson. In trend analyses with search volumes that are too small, so-called artefacts are created due to the algorithms, which are not designed for this type of use. "The supposed correlation with these artefacts and a reference to Russia can also be reproduced for numerous other countries, which makes an attribution to Russia appear less plausible," it said. In addition, anonymizing VPN usage is not reliably taken into account by Google Trends. "Search queries therefore allow only limited or no conclusions to be drawn about the actual location of the user," said the BND spokesperson, referring to the suspected Russian connection.
Russia
New York Times: How a Ukrainian Teen Became a Suspected Foot Soldier for Russia
The job offer, pitched to appeal to a 17-year-old Ukrainian refugee without work, promised a BMW car and about $11,000 in cash. Daniil Bardadim, a teenager on the run from war in Ukraine, received the offer early last year after making his way to Warsaw in neighboring Poland, according to investigators. He accepted and was given a BMW, albeit an old one, but not the cash. And what probably once seemed an attractive proposition soured even more badly. It landed him in jail in Lithuania on a raft of terrorism charges, accused of setting fire to an IKEA store. The job, offered through a shadowy group, turned Mr. Bardadim into an unwitting foot soldier for Russia as part of a multipronged campaign of sabotage attacks on targets across Europe, Lithuanian investigators say.
Israel
Times of Israel: IDF fully surrounds Rafah as Katz warns Gazans of ‘final moment to remove Hamas’
The Israel Defense Forces announced at noon Saturday that it had completed the capture of the Morag Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip, cutting off the city of Rafah from Khan Younis. The military said Rafah was now surrounded by its forces, with the 36th Division holding the Morag Corridor and the Gaza Division operating in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border area. Defense Minister Israel Katz called on Palestinians to “remove Hamas and release all the hostages” before the military further expands its operations in the Strip. “This is the final moment to remove Hamas and release the hostages and bring about an end to the war,” Katz said in a statement. “Intensive IDF activity will soon expand to additional places in most of Gaza, and you will have to evacuate the combat zones.”
Lebanon
Jerusalem Post: Lebanese Army takes control of most of Hezbollah bases in south Lebanon, some sites in north
The Lebanese Army has taken control of most Hezbollah military sites in southern Lebanon and has begun to take control of sites north of the Litani river, according to reports in Lebanese media on Saturday. Sources close to Hezbollah told AFP early on Saturday that the terror group had handed control of most of its military sites in southern Lebanon over to the Lebanese Army, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement that required only Lebanese Army and UN forces to be present south of the Litani. Hezbollah is reported to have surrendered control of 190 of the 265 military positions it held south of the Litani. Lebanese media widely reported that the army had nearly completed the dismantling of Hezbollah's infrastructure in the south.
Nigeria
Associated Press: A roadside bomb kills 8 bus passengers in northeast Nigeria
A roadside bomb suspected to have been planted by Islamic extremists in northeastern Nigeria struck a passenger bus, killing eight people and wounding more than a dozen others, authorities said. The bus was traveling along the Damboa-Maiduguri highway in the conflict-battered Borno state on Saturday when it drove over the explosive device, Borno state police spokesman Nahum Daso said in a statement. Islamic extremists with the Boko Haram group took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law. The conflict, Africa’s longest struggle with militancy, has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbors and has left some 35,000 civilians dead and more than 2 million displaced, according to the U.N.. The insurgents who once controlled dozens of villages in the region have mostly been pushed to remote forests and the fringes of the Lake Chad. However, they still carry out ambushes and rampant attacks on communities where security forces are outnumbered and outgunned.
Congo
Associated Press: At least 50 people killed in east Congo as government and Rwanda-backed rebels trade blame
At least 50 people were killed in weekend attacks in Congo’s conflict-battered east, authorities said Saturday. The government traded blame with Rwanda-backed rebels over who was responsible for the violence that quickly escalated the conflict in the region. The renewed violence that residents reported in and around the region’s largest city of Goma — which the M23 rebels control — was the biggest threat yet to ongoing peace efforts by both the Gulf Arab state of Qatar and African nations in the conflict that has raised fears of regional warfare. Goma resident Amboma Safari recounted how his family of four spent the night under their bed as they heard gunfire and bomb blasts through Friday night. “We saw corpses of soldiers, but we don’t know which group they are from,” Safari said. In the second city of Bukavu, which the M23 also controls, dozens of the armed Wazalendo local militia members who fight alongside Congolese forces marched for a few hours towards the local airport as they appeared to stage a challenge against the rebels.
Sudan
Associated Press: Attacks on famine-hit camps in Sudan’s Darfur leave at least 100 people dead
Sudan’s notorious paramilitary group launched a two-day attack on famine-hit camps for displaced people that left more than 100 dead, including 20 children and nine aid workers, in the Darfur region, a U.N. official said Saturday. The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias launched an offensive on the Zamzam and Abu Shorouk camps and the nearby city of el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, on Friday, said U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami. El-Fasher is under the control of the military, which has fought the RSF since Sudan descended into civil war two years ago, killing more than than 24,000 people, according to the United Nations, though activists say the number is likely far higher.
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