WORLD ROUNDUPThe EU’s Digital Markets Act is a Gift to China | Why Russia’s Vast Security Services Fell Short on Deadly Attack | U.S. Support for Israel’s War Has Become Indefensible, and more
· Why Russia’s Vast Security Services Fell Short on Deadly Attack
The factors behind the failure to prevent a terrorist attack include a distrust of foreign intelligence, a focus on Ukraine and a distracting political crackdown at home.
· ‘We Knew Radicalization Was Going to Happen After October 7 – the Government Was Behind the Curve’
Dame Sara Khan, the UK’s adviser for social cohesion, explains how the extremism she witnessed as a child has gone mainstream.
· World’s Best Fighter Jet Gets an Upgrade for War Against China
Blistering performance in every way except one
· U.S. Support for Israel’s War Has Become Indefensible
A good pretext for war is not enough to make a war just
· A Family Feud in the Philippines Has Beijing and Washington on Edge
Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are battling over the country’s future
· The EU’s Digital Markets Act is a Gift to China
China has made it no secret that it wants to overtake the United States and its allies as the global leader in the innovation and development of next-generation technologies
Why Russia’s Vast Security Services Fell Short on Deadly Attack (Paul Sonne, Eric Schmitt and Michael Schwirtz, New York Times)
What made the security lapse seemingly even more notable was that in the days before the massacre Russia’s own security establishment had also acknowledged the domestic threat posed by the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.
Internal Russian intelligence reporting that most likely circulated at the highest levels of the government warned of the increased likelihood of an attack in Russia by ethnic Tajiks radicalized by ISIS-K, according to information obtained by the Dossier Center, a London research organization, and reviewed by The New York Times.
The full picture is still unclear, and U.S. and European officials, as well as security and counterterrorism experts, emphasize that even in the best of circumstances, with highly specific information and well-oiled security services, disrupting covert international terror plots is difficult.
But they say the failure most likely resulted from a combination of factors, paramount among them the deep levels of distrust, both within the Russian security establishment and in its relations with other global intelligence agencies.
They also point to the way Mr. Putin has hijacked his domestic security apparatus for an ever-widening political crackdown at home — as well as his focus on crusading against Ukraine and the West — as distractions that probably did not help.
‘We Knew Radicalization Was Going to Happen After October 7 – the Government Was Behind the Curve’ (Lizzie Dearden, The Telegraph)
The hatred, extremism and division coursing through the UK as a result of the Israel-Gaza conflict did not come as a shock to Dame Sara Khan, the Government’s independent adviser for social cohesion. She saw the consequences coming as soon as Hamas launched its bloody rampage on October 7, and thinks ministers should have too.
“It was pretty obvious that it would have a radicalizing effect, that it would feed hate crime and growing levels of extremism in our society,” she says. “And when it did there was no infrastructure in place to deal with it.”
The Israel-Gaza conflict is assessed to be just one contributing factor, alongside anger over the cost-of-living crisis, polarization on social media, disinformation, conspiracy theories and the “mainstreaming of extremism”. (Cont.)
