The Long Goodbye to Covid-19 | YouTube’s Algorithm Pushes Hate | Buying Land to Stop Floods, and more

Commander Smith told Assembly Members that the number of terror offences currently being investigated “remains high”, and that of roughly 800 active investigations taking place in the UK, a “very substantial proportion” are based in London. Commander Smith said: “The numbers of people under investigation between ourselves and our primary partner in MI5 are very significant and there is also a very large number of closed subjects of interest who may still pose a residual threat. “I wouldn’t want anyone to be complacent – neither the public nor any of our partners – about the scale of the threat. We may not be seeing the dreadful succession of offences that we saw in 2017, but there have been 29 well developed plots disrupted since then, largely a mixture of right-wing and Islamist terrorist plots.

Al-Qaeda Poses ‘Serious Risk’ to U.K.- Expert Warns of ‘Power-Sharing Deal’ with Taliban  (Laura O’Callghan, Express)
Twenty years after it carried out the 9/11 attacks the jihadist group remains active and has retained close ties with the Taliban. The network now poses a major risk to the security of the UK and its interests abroad, according to Robert Clark, a defense fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, who called it “incredibly worrying”. He told Express.co.uk: “In terms of the threat that Al-Qaeda more significantly poses is absolutely the threat of further radicalization and the fact that they can inspire through their messaging such large, disenfranchised sections of both British communities, Western communities and the local population as well. “Similarly to ISIS, they can inspire British citizens to conduct atrocities and terrorist activities and attacks in Britain in their name which we’ve seen over the last 20 years from both Al-Qaeda and ISIS. “If they’re allowed to gain more control, power, terror, recruitment, funding, then, of course, those capabilities will only magnify. “You cannot rule out the threat posed by returning fighters from ISIS, we saw this in Iraq and Syria and the threat that they posed, and the aspects of radicalization have to be considered of people returning from those areas.

Downtown S.F., North Beach Included in New Bay Area Tsunami Hazard Zones  (Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle)
On Thursday, the California Geological Survey released new tsunami hazard maps for San Francisco, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties, along with several in Southern California, for the first time since 2009.

Why does Baton Rouge Want to Buy Empty Land? It’s about Stopping Floods.  (David J. Mitchell, The Advocate)
The parish is eyeing a low-lying green patch on Lee Drive between Liberty Magnet High School and St. James Place retirement communities, some 200 acres of lowland swamps along Bayou Duplantier.

As France Plans to Shrink Sahel Force, Jihadi Threat Grows  (Sam Mednick), Associated Press)
In June, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the end of Operation Barkhane, France’s seven-year effort fighting extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State in Africa’s Sahel region. France’s more than 5,000 troops will be reduced in the coming months, although no timeframe has been given. Instead, France will participate in a special forces unit with other European countries and African countries will be responsible for patrolling the Sahel.

YouTube’s Algorithm Pushes Hateful Content and Misinformation: Report  (Clothilde Goujard, Politico)
The Mozilla Foundation found that a majority of problematic videos were recommended by the platform itself.