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Anjem Choudary: Islamist Hate Preacher Banned from Twitter  (Mark White, Sky News)
Islamist hate preacher Anjem Choudary has been banned from Twitter, less than a week after he set up a profile on the social media platform. The 54-year-old confirmed to Sky News that his account had been suspended. Twitter has not yet commented on the move. Choudary had been the subject of significant legal restrictions, preventing him from speaking publicly, since his release from prison in October 2018. He was convicted on terrorism charges in 2016, which included inviting support for the terrorist group Islamic State. Most of the legal conditions preventing him from speaking publicly expired 10 days ago and Choudary, also known as Abu Luqman, set up a Twitter profile just days later. Reacting to the news of his ban, he told Sky News: “That was quick, a record, just five days after I set up my account.” He said Twitter had not given him a reason for the suspension and that he believed he had been “quite moderate” in his posts. The hate preacher served his sentence at the high-security Frankland prison in Durham, which houses a number of terrorist prisoners. Counter terrorism police have previously described Choudary as one of the most influential Islamist extremists in Europe.

Al Qaeda Launches 1st Public Campaign in 4 Years to Encourage Lone Wolf Terrorist Attacks  (Chuck Goudie and Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel and Ross Weidner, ABC News)
More than 10 years ago the I-Team uncovered Al Qaeda’s plans for “Open Source” Jihad against the Chicago skyline. Now they’re back with a new high-gloss publication for radical followers and a new video, encouraging violent attacks on America by one-person jihadists and lone wolf terrorist. Hundreds of people were killed and injured by truck-ramming attacks from terrorist groups in the past decade. The one-man rampages were encouraged by Al Qaeda and ISIS leaders targeting cities worldwide.  The playbook for those attacks date to a more than 10-year-old edition of al Qaeda’s “Inspire Magazine,” set with Chicago as a backdrop and a pick-up truck as “the ultimate mowing machine.” But there have not been any public marching orders for lone-wolf jihadists since 2017. Until now. The new edition of Inspire is once again calling for attacks on Americans in the U.S., and praising recent mass murderers who claimed to have been fighting for the jihadist cause. That includes Ahmad Al-Issa, an American from Syria who is accused of killing 10 people last March in a Colorado grocery store.

Central Bank Digital Currencies May Pose a National Security Risk if the U.S. Waits to Lead  (Julia Friedlander, Atlantic Council)
Of the four historically most influential central banks in the world, (the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England), the United States is furthest behind in its work on digital currencies. The U.S., as the leading economic and financial power in the world, is in a unique position to shape the trajectory of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). This leadership is imperative. Without new standards and international coordination through fora like the Group of Twenty (G20) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global financial system could face an interoperability problem. Equally important, the US could miss out on an opportunity to foster financial inclusion, increase cybersecurity, and maintain dollar dominance.

The Anti-vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable  (Brooke Harrington, The Atlantic)
Why targets of deliberate deception often hesitate to admit they’ve been deceived.

The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Misinformation Online  (Sheera Frenkel, New York Times)
Researchers and regulators say Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines.