Our picksChernobyl’s Radiation | ISIS & Australia’s Bush Fires | Psychology of Extremism, and more

Published 10 August 2020

·  Unwanted Truths: Inside Trump’s Battles with U.S. Intelligence Agencies

·  Islamic State Video Urges New Recruits to Light Bushfires in Australia

·  Child Gold Miners in Africa Have to Deal with Floods, Collapse, and Now, Al Qaeda

·  ISIS Terrorist Fails in Test Case to Overturn U.K.’s New Terror Laws

·  When the Treatment Is Torture: ICE Must Stop Using Solitary Confinement for COVID-19 Quarantine

·  Just 30% of Brits Say They Would Definitely Get a Coronavirus Vaccine, with Scientists Blaming Anti-Vaxxer Conspiracy Theories and Mistrust in Government

·  Dark Triad Traits and Entitlement Linked to Both Authoritarian Political Correctness and White Nationalist Beliefs

·  “Do You Want Iran Promoting Terror with or without a Nuke?”

·  Forest Fires Are Setting Chernobyl’s Radiation Free

Unwanted Truths: Inside Trump’s Battles with U.S. Intelligence Agencies (Robert Draper, New York Times)
Last year, intelligence officials gathered to write a classified report on Russia’s interest in the 2020 election. An investigation from the magazine uncovered what happened next.

Islamic State Video Urges New Recruits to Light Bushfires in Australia (Phoebe Loomis, The Australian)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed a “sick” video has been released by Islamic State encouraging new recruits to set fire to bushland in Australia. Today, Mr Morrison said there was a “new recruitment video this morning telling followers to deliberately light bushfires in places like Australia.”

Child Gold Miners in Africa Have to Deal with Floods, Collapse, and Now, Al Qaeda (Henry Wilkins, Vice)
Hundreds of children are stuck working in gold mines in Burkina Faso, regarded as the newest front line in the war on terror.

ISIS Terrorist Fails in Test Case to Overturn U.K.’s New Terror Laws (Nicky Harley, The National)
Mohammed Zahir Khan had tried to challenge a new UK ban on early prison release for convicted terrorists

When the Treatment Is Torture: ICE Must Stop Using Solitary Confinement for COVID-19 Quarantine (Samara Fox, Ellen Gallagher, and J. Wesley Boyd, STAT)
After months of social distancing, many of us are feeling its effects. Experts have delineated the mental and physical health impacts of isolation caused by the pandemic, and those who have experienced home quarantine have been particularly vulnerable to loneliness and depression.
Imagine though, if quarantine meant you were confined to a single bare room and deprived of the things that could keep you happy and sane — video chats with loved ones, digital entertainment, a sense of purpose through work, and of course, occasional human contact.
Yet that has been the experience of the pandemic for many in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, where isolation in a single cell is being used as a substitute for medical quarantine. Attorneys and other advocates have begun reporting ICE’s inappropriate use of solitary confinement to media outlets and the court system.

Just 30% of Brits Say They Would Definitely Get a Coronavirus Vaccine, with Scientists Blaming Anti-Vaxxer Conspiracy Theories and Mistrust in Government (Adam Payne, Business Insider)
Scientists say the U.K. government must fight misinformation to convince people to get a vaccine. Just 30% of Brits told an opinion poll that they would definitely get a coronavirus vaccine. 16% said they were unlikely to get a vaccine or definitely wouldn’t. The researchers said conspiracy theories and public mistrust were fueling vaccine skepticism. Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month said anti-vaxxers were “nuts.”

Dark Triad Traits and Entitlement Linked to Both Authoritarian Political Correctness and White Nationalist Beliefs(Eric W. Dolan, PsyPost)
People with “dark” personality characteristics, such as psychopathy, as well as people with a greater sense of entitlement are more likely to be adherents of White Identitarianism or politically correct authoritarianism, according to new research that appears in the journal Heliyon. The findings suggest that those on the far-left and those on the far-right share some common personality dispositions.
The researchers found that those who scored higher on measures of psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism and entitlement tended to display more attitudes consistent with political correctness authoritarianism and White Identitarianism, but not political correctness liberalism. In other words, participants who agreed with statements like “I honestly feel I’m just more deserving than others” and “Payback needs to be quick and nasty” were more likely to embrace coercive tactics to achieve social equality or embrace beliefs associated with white nationalism.

“Do You Want Iran Promoting Terror with or without a Nuke?” (Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post)
Former U.S. defense secretary tells ‘Post’ US should rejoin JCPOA

Forest Fires Are Setting Chernobyl’s Radiation Free (Braxton Little, The Atlantic)
Trees now cover most of the exclusion zone, and climate change is making them more likely to burn.