• Recaptured Italian former militant Battisti admits 1970s murders

    Former communist militant Cesare Battisti has admitted four murders carried out in the 1970s, during Italy’s so-called “Years of Lead,” weeks after being jailed in Italy for the killings that were part of a failed bid to spark a far-left revolution.

  • Assessing the risk of violence by extremists

    A new directory has been assembled from frameworks that have been developed in recent years to assess aspects of extremist violence, a term used to encompass terrorist violence that is framed by ideology and targeted violence that is framed by idiosyncratic beliefs. A new CREST report published today provides detail on several frameworks that are used to assess risks of extremist violence.

  • Social media create a spectacle society that makes it easier for terrorists to achieve notoriety

    The shocking mass-shooting in Christchurch last Friday is notable for using livestreaming video technology to broadcast horrific first-person footage of the shooting on social media. The use of social media technology and livestreaming marks the attack as different from many other terrorist incidents. It is a form of violent “performance crime.” That is, the video streaming is a central component of the violence itself, it’s not somehow incidental to the crime, or a disgusting trophy for the perpetrator to re-watch later. In an era of social media, which is driven in large part by spectacle, we all have a role to play in ensuring that terrorists aren’t rewarded for their crimes with our clicks.

  • Exploring how propaganda is used to recruit terrorists

    How do terrorists use propaganda to entice people to join their ranks? Which personality types are the most influenced by it and what types of messaging are most effective in countering these recruitment campaigns? A DOD-funded research hopes to stem recruitment of individuals to terrorist cells – particularly young people age 18 to 26, the most targeted demographic.

  • Biotechnology advances offer opportunities for actors with malicious intent

    Over the past decade, the biotechnology economy has experienced remarkable growth, resulting in the rapid expansion of biological knowledge and application. These advances create openings for actors with malicious intent to harness readily available tools and techniques to create biological threats or bioweapons.

  • Former East German agents questioned in Lockerbie bombing probe

    Hundreds were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the Scottish village of Lockerbie in December 1988. Libya later took responsibility and paid compensation to the victims’ families — and one of its secret agents spent eleven years in jail for the attack. Scottish and German investigators, acting on newly revealed information, are now looking onto the possibility that agents of STASI — East Germany’s secret police — were involved.

  • Satellite technology detects, and may prevent, genocide

    Many of the world’s worst human rights abuses, including genocides, occur in areas that are difficult to observe. “Smallsat” — short for small satellite — technology can detect human rights abuses and violations. The information collected by this technology provides evidence that can be used to corroborate refugee accounts of atrocities in international courts.

  • Corbyn comments from 2011 lamenting creation of Israel due to “Zionist forces” surface

    The British Labour Party faced fresh accusations of anti-Semitism on Wednesday amid reports that leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Britain of “conceding to Zionist forces” in allowing the creation of the State of Israel.

  • Do we need a moratorium on germline gene editing?

    In the wake of the news from China about He Jiankui’s gene-edited babies, many scientists are calling for a moratorium on germline gene-editing. Nature considered the topic sufficiently important to publish the call by several top researchers and ethicists for a moratorium.

  • Four ways social media platforms could stop the spread of hateful content in aftermath of terror attacks

    Monitoring hateful content is always difficult and even the most advanced systems accidentally miss some. But during terrorist attacks the big platforms face particularly significant challenges. As research has shown, terrorist attacks precipitate huge spikes in online hate, overrunning platforms’ reporting systems. Lots of the people who upload and share this content also know how to deceive the platforms and get round their existing checks. So what can platforms do to take down extremist and hateful content immediately after terrorist attacks? I propose four special measures which are needed to specifically target the short term influx of hate.

  • 49 killed in terrorist attack on mosques in New Zealand

    At least forty-nine people were killed and more than twenty seriously wounded Friday in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Three men and one woman are in custody. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said none of them were on security watch lists. The terrorist group’s leader, a 28-year old Australian, has been charged with murder.

  • New Zealand attacker’s “manifesto”: White supremacist, anti-immigration ideology

    Brenton Tarrant, the 28-years on Australian mastermind behind the attacks on two mosques in New Zealand on Friday, posted a 74-page “manifesto” explaining his motivations. The manifesto expresses his far right, white supremacist, anti-immigrant ideology. He describes himself as an ethnonationalist and a fascist. The manifesto says that the attack on the mosques aims to send a message to Muslims that “nowhere in the world is safe,” and create “an atmosphere of fear” among Muslims.

  • Christchurch mosque shootings must end New Zealand’s innocence about right-wing terrorism

    Public opinion surveys of attitudes tend to show that a majority of New Zealanders are in favor of diversity and see immigration as providing various benefits for the country. But extremist politics, including the extreme nationalist and white supremacist politics that appear to be at the core of this attack on Muslims, have been part of our community for a long time.

  • 3,000 ISIS fighters surrender as end of caliphate nears

    ISIS once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, but now thousands of ISIS fighters have handed themselves in. Kurdish-led units reported some IS fighters were continuing to resist.

  • U.K.’s Equality Commission to investigate Labour Party over failure to counter anti-Semitism

    In an explosive development, Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced Thursday that it had begun proceedings against the Labour Party over its failure to stamp out anti-Semitism in its ranks. The equality watchdog said it has reason to believe that Labour has “unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs” over the party’s handling of anti-Semitism complaints.