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and Protestants wanting to stay in the United Kingdom. The violence, known as “The Troubles” in which some 3,600 people died, was largely brought to an end with the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

German Prosecutors Seek Life for Right-Wing Extremist Who Attacked Synagogue on Yom Kippur (AP / NBC News)
“German prosecutors called Wednesday for a court to impose a life sentence on a 28-year-old right-wing extremist who attacked a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle last year, killing two people after he failed to gain entry to the building. The attack on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day, is considered one of the worst anti-Semitic assaults in Germany’s post-war history. The defendant, Stephan Balliet, has is alleged to have posted a screed against Jews before trying to shoot his way into the synagogue on Oct. 9, 2019, while broadcasting the attack live on a popular gaming site. Federal prosecutors asked the court in nearby Magdeburg to convict Balliet of murder, attempted murder, incitement to hatred and attempted violent extortion. They urged the judges to find the defendant “seriously culpable,” meaning that he would be barred from early release after 15 years. During his trial, which began in July, Balliet admitted he wanted to enter the synagogue and kill 51 people inside. When he was unable to open the building’s heavy doors, the German shot and killed a 40-year-old woman in the street outside and a 20-year-old man at a nearby kebab shop, and wounded several others. Federal prosecutor Kai Lohse said the shooting had been an attack not just on the people inside the synagogue but on Jewish life in general in Germany.”

A Hungarian Linguist at Norwich University Dissects Online Far-Right Propaganda (Ken Picard, Seven Days)
Among the various professionals recruited to work in national security, law enforcement and counterterrorism, linguists usually don’t rank high on the list. Those with advanced degrees in linguistics are far more likely to find careers in education, law, journalism, marketing, and speech and language pathology. But linguist Eszter Szenes has chosen to focus her attention on the words and symbols that neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far-right extremists use to incite violence.
Szenes, 40, is a visiting research fellow from Central European University in Austria and Hungary, who holds a doctorate in systemic functional linguistics from the University of Sydney in Australia. The Hungarian native will spend the next two years at Norwich University’s Peace and War Center analyzing the online language and symbolism used in far-right disinformation and propaganda campaigns.

New Report Makes Stark Warning over Far-Right Philosemitism (Lee Harpin, Jewish Chronicle)
Move to embrace Jews by radical right is feeding ‘reciprocal radicalisation’ of the far left, says new report by Hannah Rose

The China Strategy America Needs (Economist)
President Joe Biden should aim to strike a grand bargain with America’s democratic allies.

After Biden Win, U.S. Intelligence Community ‘Probably Doing Cartwheels’ (Amy McKinnon and Jack Detsch, Foreign Policy)

Long maligned and vilified under Trump, the spy agencies hope to restore normality under Biden.