OUR PICKSBanning TikTok in U.S. | Firewall to Stop Jihadism | Drying Calif. Wells, and more
··Lawmakers Intro Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S.
Chinese-owned TikTok is said to pose a national security threat
··Pan Am Flight 103: The Story of the UK’s Deadliest Terror Attack
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London
··U.S. Builds New Firewall to Stop Spread of Militant Islamists
Niger offers hope of stopping the seemingly inexorable spread of jihadism in Africa
··White-Supremacist Messages on Call of Duty, Fortnite; Hate-Crime Charges in Club Q Shooting
Colorado Springs club shooter influenced by online extremists
··Water Wells Go Dry as California Feels Warming Impacts
A record number of water wells in California have gone dry
Lawmakers Intro Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S. (Frank Konkel, Nextgov)
TikTok poses a national security threat, according to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
Pan Am Flight 103: The Story of the UK’s Deadliest Terror Attack (Jack Guy, CNN)
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 may have taken place more than 30 years ago, but the appearance of alleged bombmaker Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi in a US court on Monday has sparked a new wave of interest in the attack. Here’s what you need to know about the deadliest terrorist attack to have taken place in the United Kingdom. On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London. Two hundred and fifty-nine people on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 were killed, along with 11 people on the ground. Witnesses in Lockerbie and the surrounding areas reported portions of the aircraft falling “from the sky, some of which appeared to be engulfed in flames,” according to a 2020 affidavit by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent, shared by the US Department of Justice. “As pieces of the aircraft hit the ground, some exploded. One such incident created an explosion that witnesses likened to a “mushroom cloud,” and left a crater approximately 40 feet deep where, moments before, residential homes had stood in the town of Lockerbie,” the agent said in the affadavit. Afterward, United States and British investigators found fragments of a circuit board and a timer, and ruled that a bomb, not mechanical failure, caused the explosion. Over three years, investigators from the United States, Britain, Germany and other countries questioned more than 15,000 people in more than 30 countries and collected thousands of pieces of evidence.
U.S. Builds New Firewall to Stop Spread of Militant Islamists (Michael M. Phillips, Wall Street Journal)
The front lines in the war between the West and militant Islamists have shifted to Africa, from Somalia on the continent’s eastern tip to the West African Sahel, a semidesert strip south of the Sahara. In the Sahel, the U.S. and its allies are betting that Niger, the worst-off country in the world by a U.N. measure, offers the best hope of stopping the seemingly inexorable spread of al Qaeda and Islamic State. In the heart of the region, the nations of Mali and Burkina Faso are
