Banning TikTok in U.S. | Firewall to Stop Jihadism | Drying Calif. Wells, and more

losing ground, roiled by militant attacks and military coups. In contrast, the elected civilian government in neighboring Niger is making slow headway against insurgents with the help of Western forces, U.S. and Nigerien officials said. Mali’s ruling junta has hired Kremlin-linked mercenaries to provide security, while Niger has shunned Russian intervention and welcomed U.S. and French forces. “We’ve invested a lot with the Nigeriens, and we’re seeing a payoff from that,” said Lt. Col. Chris Couch, commander of U.S. special-operations troops in West Africa. Niger, he said, is emerging as a cornerstone of regional security. The U.S. and its allies are helping Niger try to stop the advance of al Qaeda and Islamic State across West Africa. In a typical operation, U.S. Army Green Berets helped plan a recent Nigerien raid on Torodi, an al Qaeda stronghold straddling a well-used trade route between Burkina Faso and Niamey, Niger’s capital. French military helicopters delivered members of an elite, U.S.-trained Nigerien strike force to the village in the dark of night.

White-Supremacist Messages on Call of Duty, Fortnite; Hate-Crime Charges in Club Q Shooting  (Will Carless, USA Today)
New details and reporting have emerged about the motives behind the deadly shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ-friendly venue in Colorado Springs, the perpetrator of which was officially charged with hate crimes this week. Meanwhile, a study claims that exposure to white supremacist ideologies via online gaming doubled this year. And America’s most notorious neo-Nazi troll returns triumphantly to Twitter. It’s the week in extremism. The man accused of shooting up Club Q, an LGBTQ friendly bar in Colorado Springs was officially charged this week with 305 counts ranging from murder in the first degree to bias-motivated crimes. As I examined in this story last month, the attack, in which 5 people died and 17 were injured was shocking, but not surprising, to extremism experts, who have been waiting for an incident like this to happen, given the recent focus on the LGBTQ community from far-right extremist groups. The defendant’s attorneys announced in court documents that the defendant identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, which led to confusion and speculation as to the motive for the attack NBC reported this week that the FBI has questioned the suspect’s neighbors about two websites, one reportedly created by the shooter, that contained racist and antisemitic posts. The other website is the infamous hate site 8kun, formerly 8Chan, a haven for far-right extremist activity.

Water Wells Go Dry as California Feels Warming Impacts  (Anne C. Mulkern, Scientific American)
Officials say climate change is driving an increase in dry wells in drought-stricken California