Our picksTerrorism in U.K. & the Libya Connection | America’s White Supremacist Cops | Spy for Hire, and more

Russia Reportedly Offered the Taliban Bounties for American Soldiers. Trump Denies Knowing about It. (Riley Beggin, Vox)
Democrats and Republicans alike demand answers from an administration that’s long been soft on Russia.

Terrorism in Britain and the Libya Connection (European Eye on Radicalization)
The recent terrorist attack in Reading highlighted the ongoing threat from Islamist extremism, and renewed questions about Britain’s extremism policies.There is another aspect to this story. Saadallah came to Britain from Libya in 2012 and was given leave to remain in 2018. As the London Times has highlighted, the issue of Libyan Islamists in the UK is a long-standing one. When the former regime of Colonel Gaddafi cracked down on jihadists in the 1990s and drove the Al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) out of the country, much of its infrastructure ended up in Britain.

Only Mill in the U.S. Able to Process Uranium-Rare Earth Ores Open for Business (Valentina Ruiz Leotaud, Mining)
As the U.S. pushes to dilute China’s monopoly and develop a domestic rare earth supply,  Colorado-based Energy Fuels is working toward being at the forefront in the race. Energy Fuels is the owner of the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the only fully licensed and operating conventional uranium mill in the United States. The facility is normally used to process radioactive ore and produce yellowcake but now some areas are likely to be transformed to allow for the processing of uranium-rare earth ores.

Can Facial Recognition Restrictions Enhance Tech Privacy? Probably Not (Grit Daily)
Facial recognition has always been a controversial technology, especially when it comes to the government using it and tech privacy. As tensions between the public and police have risen, some big names in the technology have taken a stand. Amazon, Microsoft and IBM have all stated that they’ll stop selling facial recognition tech to the police.
To be clear, they’re not putting an end to this practice altogether. Amazon and Microsoft have stepped back from selling the technology until Congress enacts laws about its use. They hope that with legislation in place, they can be sure that authorities will use their equipment ethically.
Will restrictions on facial recognition technology improve privacy? Most signs say they won’t.

How a Little Known Delhi-Based Cyber Firm Became Top Spy for Hire (Neha Alawadhi, Business Standard)
While the private investigators pleaded guilty to conspiring to hack into computers, Gupta and two others continued to face charges of conspiracy as of July 2015

U.S. Presses Europe to Uproot Chinese Security-Screening Company (Kate O’Keeffe, Drew Hinshaw, and Daniel Michaels, Wall Street Journal))
American agencies lobby allies against Nuctech, saying maker of cargo, baggage-scanning systems at Western gateways poses threat to security, businesses

Inside the New Push to Expose America’s White Supremacist Cops (Kelly Weill, Daily Beast)
Fourteen years ago, the FBI documented racist infiltration of law enforcement in America. Now members of Congress want the full story.

The Imagined Threats of 5G Conspiracy Theorists Are Causing Real-World Harm (Elizabeth Braw, Foreign Policy)
Attacks on cell phone towers are merely the latest evidence that virtual disinformation is leading to actual violence.