Facebook Giving “Free Pass” to Terrorists? | How Risky is Nuclear Energy? | 1958 Nuke Almost-War, and more

Before the county could answer the letter, however, the auditors tweeted out a claim that the county had “deleted a directory full of election databases” before turning election equipment over.
That was quickly spun into a claim by former President Donald Trump that the county’s entire election database had been deleted.
That was too much for county officials, most of whom are Republican, who sent Fann a blistering letter that called the “accusations false, defamatory and beneath the dignity of the Senate.” The letter urged Fann to abandon the audit investigation saying, “it’s harming all of us.”

Conductors of ‘Embarrassing’ Arizona Audit Told to Preserve All Documents in Hint at Lawsuit  (Jason Lemon, Newsweek)
An attorney representing Maricopa County in Arizona sent the state’s Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, a four-page litigation hold and preservation notice on Friday, suggesting that the county may take legal action in the wake of several demonstrably false statements made by those auditing 2020 election results.
President Joe Bidennarrowly won Arizona in the 2020 election, but former President Donald Trumpand his allies have baselessly claimed this was due to widespread fraud without providing evidence to substantiate the extraordinary allegation. Despite previous recounts already having been conducted in Arizona, state Republicansin the southwestern state have pushed forward with a disorganized and widely mocked audit. One GOP state senator has even described the process as “embarrassing.”
On Friday, Maricopa County’s attorney Allister Adel sent the notice to Fann after false and possibly defamatory claims were made by the election auditors. The audit’s official Twitteraccount tweeted earlier this month that election databases had been deleted by county officials. The false claim was later amplified by Trump, who released a statement pushing the groundless conspiracy theory.

Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County Recorder, slammed Trump after he released statement last week falsely claiming that the database had been deleted.
“Wow. This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now,” Richer, a Republican tweeted on May 15, sharing the former president’s statement. “We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country. This is as readily falsifiable as 2+2=5. If we don’t call this out…,” he wrote.

Are the Risks of Nuclear Energy Overblown?  (Editor OilPrice.com / Yahoo Finance)
A fairly average-sized (1,000 megawatts) nuclear energy plant produces as much energy in a single day as was released by the atomic bomb that detonated over Nagasaki, a 21 kiloton weapon that leveled 90% of the city. And now, in this day and age, neither a 1,000mw nuclear plant nor a 20kt nuclear weapon are particularly big. 
this, in combination with high-profile nuclear disasters over the last few decades, most notably in Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima, has led to a lingering fear and paranoia about the hazard of nuclear energy.
But the reality is that nuclear energy is much, much safer than many of us are led to believe. In fact, a 2013 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology found that up to that point, nuclear energy had actually saved an estimated 2 million lives since 1971. By replacing coal-fired and other high-emissions energy generation, nuclear energy has prevented approximately 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths, as well as kept 64 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere.
With proper training and security measures, nuclear could continue to be a very safe and extremely climate-friendly energy source for the foreseeable future, especially as technology advances and we understand the science and its limitations better than ever.

MI5 Chief Ken McCallum Accuses Facebook of Giving “Free Pass” to Terrorists  (Fiona Hamilton, The Times)
Facebook has given terrorists a “free pass” by allowing stronger encryption on its network, the head of MI5 has said in his first criticism of Mark Zuckerberg’s company.
Ken McCallum said that the social media giant’s plans to install end-to-end encryption would block hundreds of counterterrorism investigations by the Security Service.
He told Times Radio: “Decisions taken in California boardrooms are every bit as relevant to our ability to do our jobs as decisions taken in Afghanistan or Syria.”

Leaked Emails Show Crime App Citizen Is Testing On-Demand Security Force  (Joseph Cox, Vice)
Citizen would deploy private security forces at the request of app users, according to documents and sources.

FBI Employee Indicted for Stealing Classified Info on FBI Cybersecurity Work  (Shannon Vavra, Cyberscoop)
A federal grand jury has charged an FBI employee for stealing classified documents and keeping them in her home between 2004 and 2017, the FBI announced Friday.
The employee, Kendra Kingsley, allegedly took documents that detailed the FBI’s sources and methods the FBI uses to counter cyber threats, as well as those it uses in its counterterrorism and counterintelligence work, according to the indictment. Some of the documents detail specifics of investigations in multiple field offices, details on human sources and gaps in intelligence about foreign intelligence services, according to the indictment.

Terrorist Threat Moves to North and Central Africa  (James Wilson, New Europe)
The current situation in North and Central Africa is highly explosive and poses certain risks not only to regional security but to Western Europe as well. There is a concentration of armed groups of terrorists, and militants, mainly of non-Arab origin in Fezzan (the south of Libya), with mercenaries being transferred from Niger, Nigeria and Sudan. The Chadian opposition groups FACT and CCMSR are also concentrated there. Worryingly, the presence of members of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations is also evident in the ranks of the militants. A new zone of instability is being created in Libya, shifting the focus of terrorist activity from the center of Africa (Lake Chad) and bringing it closer to Europe. Another region that currently faces the threat of destabilization is the Republic of Chad. The death of the recently re-elected President Idriss Déby has pushed Chad into a period of high vulnerability to foreign interference as the current transitional government does not have either well-established ties and partnerships in place or the unanimous support of its population.

Manhunt for Rogue Soldier in Belgium Focuses Attention on Extremists in Western Militaries  (James Marson, Wall Street Journal)
A weeklong manhunt for a Belgian soldier whom authorities suspect of planning a terrorist attack is highlighting concerns over right-wing extremism in Western militaries. Jurgen Conings, who was on a security watch list for his extremist views, disappeared Monday after taking weapons including rocket launchers from his army base and making threats against public figures and institutions, Belgian authorities said. Belgian media said he had threatened to kill a prominent virologist, who was placed under police protection after Mr. Conings was spotted near his house. The discovery of Mr. Conings’s SUV near a national park Tuesday sparked a search involving hundreds of police and soldiers. Authorities called off the search Friday, saying they had been unable to locate the 46-year-old in the more than 30,000 acres of pine forests, heathlands and lakes in Hoge Kempen, a national park near Belgium’s borders with the Netherlands and Germany. Western militaries are grappling with far-right extremism in their ranks.

To Protect Free Speech, Europe Must Answer the Christchurch Call  (David Ibsen, New Europe)
The 2019 Christchurch massacre was a ‘performance crime’ perpetrated by Brenton Tarrant. The Australian was first radicalized in a series of far-right online echo chambers and infamously chose to livestream his shootings, with the clip he posted attaining more than 4,000 views before it was eventually taken down. Various reuploads can still be found on the internet to this day, where they continue to inspire extremists worldwide. Christchurch was not the first mass terrorist incident with links to online platforms. In the years leading up to it, Europe alone had endured five deadly terror attacks in Brussels, London, Paris, Nice, and Berlin, which were all either coordinated via social media or perpetrated by attackers who had been radicalized online. Clearly an international problem, it required an international solution. Exactly two months following the Christchurch attacks on May 15, 2019, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron brought together leaders from around the world to adopt the Christchurch Call to Action. The Christchurch Call was a commitment by governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online while ensuring that the internet remained otherwise free and secure for all.