Our picksTelegram: Nazis and Cryptocurrency | EMP Worries? | Armed U.S. Agents on City Streets, and more

Nazis and Cryptocurrency: The Evolution of Telegram (Ray Robinson, Medium)
How a tiny technology company became a platform for the far right, challenged authoritarian governments, and invaded the cryptocurrency world.

African Militant Islamist Groups Set Record for Violent Activity (Africa Center for Strategic Studies)
African militant Islamist groups have demonstrated a decade of nearly uninterrupted growth in violent activity, though the focus of this has shifted over time. Militant groups in the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin, and Mozambique have exhibited the sharpest increases in violent activity over the past year.

The Russia Report: Key Points and Implications (Nigel Gould-Davies, IISS)
The report argues that Russia was able to spread its influence for so long because the UK ‘took its eye off the ball’. Its responses were limited, reactive, fragmented and unevenly resourced. The ISC is particularly critical of UK domestic weakness that enabled Russia to pose this threat, notably the welcoming ‘light touch regulation’, golden visas. It points to the role of ‘enablers’ in the legal, financial, property and PR sectors that profitably laundered money and reputations.
The ISC also highlights an electoral process vulnerable to ‘digital influence campaigns’, including from overseas. Only the ‘paper-based’ voting system is endorsed as largely immune to direct interference – implicit advice not to move towards an electronic system of voting.

4 Key Takeaways from the British Report on Russian Interference (Amy McKinnon, Foreign Policy)
The U.K., in contrast to the United States, never sought to establish how much Russia may have interfered with the 2016 Brexit referendum, a parliamentary committee concluded.

Foreign Fighters Key to ISIS Resurgence as Thousands Join New Militias (Nicky Harley, National)
Latest figures from Kings College London show up to 53,000 people travelled to Syria to join ISIS

Ex-Counterterrorism Chief: Cutbacks Raise Risk of New Attacks (Greg Myre, NPR)
A recently ousted counterterrorism chief says the country is risking the gains made against terrorist threats by cutting back resources with little or no public debate. In an interview with NPR, Russ Travers also expressed frustration at the poor state of relations between the intelligence community and the Trump administration.

“If people believe that conditions have so changed and the threat is so diminished that we can go back to the way things were [before the 9/11 attacks], so be it,” said Russ Travers, who served as acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

“I just personally don’t believe that’s the right answer. And I don’t like the quality of the discussion that has gotten us to this point,” Travers told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly, co-host of All Things Considered, in his first broadcast interview since leaving his government post.

MPs Back New Terror Laws as Government Warned It Can’t “Lock Terrorists Away for Longer and Hope for the Best” (Lizzie Dearden, The Independent)
Government plans to keep extremists in jail for longer after three terror attacks by released prisoners

Bruce G. Blair Manned Nuclear Weapons, Then Warned about Them (Michael R. Gordon, Wall Street Journal)
A lifelong crusade aimed to convince world leaders of the threat posed by miscalculation or accidental attack

Electromagnetic Pulses Are the Last Thing You Need to Worry About in a Nuclear Explosion (Kelsey D. Atherton, Foreign Policy)
One of America’s weirdest strategic obsessions won’t go away.

Heavily Armed U.S. Agents on City Streets: Can Trump Do That? (Ben Fox, FNN)
The Trump administration has deployed agents with tactical gear to confront protesters in downtown Portland, Oregon. That has sparked debate over the use of federal power as local and state officials, and many in the community, condemn their tactics and demand they leave. Far from backing down, the administration plans to send agents to Chicago to respond to gun violence. And President Donald Trump says federal agents could be deployed elsewhere as he makes law and order a central element in his struggling re-election campaign.