Complacency ahead of Hurricane Season | Terrorists Are Gaming the System | The Return of the Machine Gun, and more

Prosecutors said in a statement that Marvin E., ‘shares the ideology’ of Atomwaffen Division (Atomic Weapons Division, AWD), an international neo-Nazi terrorist network founded in 2015 in the United States. Marvin E. intended from the summer of 2021 to launch ‘a civil race war’ over the next three years ‘to preserve the white population’, they said. Investigators found 600 homemade explosive devices when they searched his apartment in September last year, as well as a far-right manifesto in which Marvin E. called for the ‘race war’, reports local news site Hessenschau.

Terrorists Like Sir David Amess’ Killer Are Gaming the System  (Ian Acheson, CapX)
When two unarmed officers arrested the murderer of Sir David Amess MP, they did society an enormous favour. The assailant, Ali Harbi Ali, now a convicted Islamist terrorist due to be sentenced today, wanted to be martyred. Denying him that narcissistic prize, and putting him on trial, has helped us know more about what needs to be done to stop violent extremists. I hope that gift wakes him up every morning for the decades he will spend behind bars. We can’t talk to dead terrorists, however much some deserve that fate. So it’s people like Harbi Ali who hold a mirror up to the systems and doctrines we use to try to interrupt the journey from thought and lethal action. It’s not a pretty sight. This is his reported experience of our national ‘Prevent’ scheme – the strand of our counter terrorism strategy that attempts to identify people at risk of descending into violent extremism. While doing his A levels he was referred to Prevent by a teacher because his academic performance crashed at the same time as many young people were making their way to Syria to join IS. He was interviewed by two police officers who were concerned enough to refer him to Prevent’s ‘Channel’ program, which decides and implements interventions for those most at risk of being radicalized. To give this some context, in 2020/21 government statistics say only 14% of those initially referred to Prevent actually received a Channel intervention.

We’ve Never Seen a Carbon-Removal Plan Like This Before  (Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic)
Companies including Google and Facebook are pouring more than $900 million into a nascent technology that’s essential to zeroing out emissions.

Sweden’s NATO Decision Isn’t Just About Security  (Megan Gibson, New Statesman)
The Nordic country looks set to join Finland in applying for membership, but the debate in Stockholm is far from straightforward.

U.K. Police Anti-Terror IT System Was “Not Fit for Purpose” - Former Officer  (Richard Watson, BBC)
A key intelligence database used by police to investigate extremists was “not fit for purpose” when introduced in 2014, a former counter-terrorism officer has told the BBC.

Abusive Passengers Act Proposes TSA-Controlled No-Fly List  (Kylie Bielby, HSToday)
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) of America, the nation’s largest airline union representing over 65,000 aviation workers, has welcomed the introduction of the Protection from Abusive Passengers Act which aims to protect airline crew members, security screening personnel, and passengers by banning abusive passengers from commercial aircraft flights.
Introduced by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA-15) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), it will implement a list of “abusive passengers” – those who intimidated, threatened or assaulted an aviation worker. Any individual on the list would be prohibited from boarding any commercial aircraft.

Scientists Risk Arrest to Demand Climate Action  (Chelsea Harvey, Scientific American)
A growing international movement called Scientist Rebellion calls on world leaders to end the burning of fossil fuels

The Return of the Machine Gun  (Alain Stephens and Keegan Hamilton, The Trace)
For decades, fully automatic weapons were expensive, collectable, and rarely used in crimes. Auto sears, which can cost less than $20 online, have changed that.