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New Zealand Plans Stronger Hate Speech Laws in Response to Christchurch Attack  (Reuters)
New Zealand said on Friday that it plans to strengthen its hate speech laws, and increase penalties for inciting hatred and discrimination, in response to the attack by a white supremacist in Christchurch two years ago that killed 51 Muslims. The move comes after a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch attack on March 15, 2019 recommended changes to hate speech and hate crime laws, which it said were weak deterrents for people targeting religious and other minority groups with hate. New Zealand’s hate speech laws have resulted in just one prosecution and two civil claims so far, the Royal Commission had noted. “Protecting our right to freedom of expression while balancing that right with protections against ‘hate speech’ is something that requires careful consideration and a wide range of input,” Justice Minister Kris Faafoi said at a press conference. The government proposed new criminal offences for hate speech that it said would be clearer and more effective. Under the proposal a person who “intentionally stirs up, maintains or normalizes hatred” would break the law if they did so by being threatening, abusive or insulting, including by inciting violence, the government said.

Frontline: Germany’s Neo-Nazis and the Far Right’ Review: From Whence It Came  (Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal)
It was Yom Kippur, it was not every day,” says a witness in “Frontline: Germany’s Neo-Nazis and the Far Right” (Tuesday, 10 p.m., PBS), which opens with memories of the October 2019 attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany. The attacker, too, knew that it was not every day. It was the one in the year that was most sacred to Jews, which was why there would be a great many of them in the synagogue—a condition essential to his plan. The assassin had come to the scene attired in full combat fatigues. That fact comes from a broadcast bringing word of the attack, a description characteristic of the detail that gives this riveting and richly complex “Frontline” presentation ( Evan Williams, reporter-director) its powerful sense of immediacy. So—if with far less subtlety—do the furious efforts of the attacker with murder in his heart, who keeps trying, and failing, to break through the locked door of the synagogue. Which doesn’t prevent him, a while later, from killing two people at random before he’s captured. This killer, we learn, is 27-year-old Stephan Balliet, a man who lives with his mother and who, as he soon shows, now considers himself a loser: His plan had been to kill many people, and in that he had fallen far short.

Biden Administration Forces Out Trump-Era Border Patrol Chief  (Eileen Sullivan, New York Times)
The chief, Rodney S. Scott, had become known for his support of President Donald J. Trump’s signature border wall, and had resisted a Biden initiative to stop using the phrase “illegal alien.”

Chris Krebs Sees a Big Future for CISA  (Joseph Marks, Washington Post)
Chris Krebs, the ex-director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, envisions far broader responsibilities for his former agency in the coming years.
As cyberattacks rise against U.S. industries and increasingly threaten economic security and public safety, Krebs sees a greater role for CISA helping industries protect themselves from hackers and possibly policing minimum cybersecurity requirements in highly critical sectors.
“I think that what you’re seeing is a recognition across the senior levels of government that the status quo is not working right now, given the escalation in the threat landscape,” he said.

There’s an app for that: Biden plans to bring tips on domestic terror to police phones  (Michael Wilner, News  Observer)
The Biden administration with “a sense of urgency” is developing new tools such as a mobile app and handheld booklets to help local law enforcement combat violent domestic extremists, a senior White House official said.
After intelligence agencies concluded earlier this year that domestic terrorism posed an elevated threat to the country, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) is moving quickly to build a new mobile app that will provide police with unclassified, yet sensitive federal intelligence information on potential threats, two White House officials said.
Once the app is ready, “you can, if you’re a cop on the beat, get those sorts of FOUO [For Official Use Only] products from your federal partners on your phone,” said the senior White House official, who spoke with McClatchy on condition of anonymity. “Frankly, that’s where it should be — it should be at the fingertips of those on the front lines of this.”

QAnon as Neo-Noir  (Thomas Plank, JStore Daily)
The popular conspiracy theory has intriguing parallels with classic noir by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.