Terrorism Watch

  The U.S. for the first time attended a summit on Saturday with tech giants and world leaders as part of an international effort to stop extremist violence from proliferating online while also protecting freedom of speech,   AP reports . Why it matters:  The effort was created by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron in the aftermath of the 2019  Christchurch, New Zealand, shootings  and deadly attacks in France that were streamed or shared on social media platforms. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets.  Subscribe for free. Context:  The effort, called the Christchurch Call, involves around 50 countries and major tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon. The purpose of Saturday's meeting was to strengthen coordination efforts and encourage more tech companies to become involved. What they're saying:  “The existence of algorithms themselves is not necessarily the problem, it’s whether or not they

  Myanmar's army battled local militia fighters in the northwestern town of Mindat on Saturday, residents said, to try to quell a rebellion that has sprung up to oppose the junta which seized power in the Southeast Asian country in February. The fighting is some of the heaviest since the coup and underlines the growing chaos as the junta struggles to impose order in the face of daily protests, strikes and sabotage attacks after it overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "We are running for our lives," one resident told Reuters from Mindat, a hill town just over 100 km (60 miles) from the border with India. "There are around 20,000 people trapped in town, most of them are kids, old people," the resident added. "My friend's three nieces were hit by shrapnel. They are not even teens.” The junta imposed martial law in Mindat on Thursday and then stepped up attacks on what it called "armed terrorists". A junta spokesman did not answer calls requ

  Thirty people were sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday for their role in anti-police violence marking the end of Ramadan in the capital Kinshasa. A policeman was killed on Thursday as rival Muslim groups fought over the right to mark the end of Ramadan at a major sports stadium, officials said. The government has also confirmed that one policewoman is in critical condition and 46 others were injured with eight in a serious state. Also read |  Sex abuse row tarnishes WHO in Congo About ten police vehicles were damaged including one that was completely incinerated. A total of 38 people who had been arrested appeared at Friday's trial. The trial was broadcast live on public television and lasted until the early hours of Saturday. Also read |  Islamist militia kills Malawian peacekeeper in east Congo: UN A lawyer for civil parties, Chief Tshipamba, told AFP 30 people were sentenced to death and a recording of the proceedings obtained by AFP confirmed th

A study by the UK’s Sheffield Hallam University reports the majority of the solar panel manufacturing is being done by the forced labour of the Uighur community in China’s Xinjiang area. As per the report, nearly 45 per cent of the polysilicon manufacturers are based out of the Xinjiang area of China, where the Uighur community is allegedly tied in forced labour by the Chinese government. Also read |  China gets cornered on Xinjiang, deploys imams for defence The researchers claimed the Chinese government is making the Uighur labour work in "an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment," the report reads. Experts have also alleged that many of the manufacturing companies are benefitting from the companies and authorities that employ the minority groups in absolute inhumane conditions. Also read |  Birth rate fell in Xinjiang after implementation of birth control policies: Report It "determined that many of th

 If we do not unite in death how do we unite in life? Dear is a great leveler, everyone comes to the lap of mother earth and begins a new jopurney. But sadly for the Indian seculars, even death becomes a matter of political and ideological apartheid. The way an Indian nurse Soumya Santosh’s unfortunate killing by an Islamic terrorist organization Hamas’s rocket was treated with reservations by Indian politicians and media, reflects on our fractured mindset. Soumya , like many other Kerala’s brave young women, went to Israel as a caretaker at a Jewish household in Ashkelon, Israel. On Tuesday afternoon, during a video call with her husband back home, the building she was residing in was hit by a rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. She had a nine-year-old son in her hometown Idukki. Entire India, crossing all ideological and political lines should have been unanimous in condemning the Hamas attack and mourning her death. But as secularism is defined in a dif

  According to a Saturday statement, the military identified the fatalities s Ronelo Quirante, Roger Fat, Rodrigo Lubay, and Celerina Lubay. “The four were suspected by the NPAs to be responsible for the major setback they suffered during the encounter in the mentioned area on 23 March 2021,” the Army said. Ten NPA members were killed while one was wounded during the encounter. Lieutenant Colonel Melvin Flores, the 62nd Infantry Battalion Commander, said the victims were killed in front of their families. “The families were left were traumatized by the barbaric acts of the terrorist group,” said Flores. The Philippine Army also expressed its condolences to the victims' families.  Source:  https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/npa-allegedly-kill-4-negros-oriental-civilians-e2-80-93philippine-army/ar-BB1gLqu3?ocid=BingNewsSearch

  After months of stalled negotiations, the Afghan government's negotiating team and the Taliban leadership met in Doha, Qatar on Friday to discuss speeding up peace talks.  "Today a meeting was held in Doha between the delegations of both negotiating sides," the Afghan government's peace team said in a tweet. Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen also confirmed the news on his Twitter account.  "Besides Eid greetings, the two sides discussed the status quo and the speeding up of the intra-Afghan negotiations. They emphasised to continue negotiations after Eid," Taliban Spokesperson tweeted.  This comes as at least 12 people were killed in an explosion inside a mosque in Kabul on Friday afternoon despite a three-day ceasefire, TOLO news reported. So far, no group has taken responsibility. Taliban in a statement had denied involvement in the attack.  A three-day ceasefire agreed by both sides came to mark the Eid holidays, following the surge in violence in rec

  Shortly after exchanging Eid sweets with their Pakistani counterpart, the Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday said it had recovered arms and ammunition dropped with the help of a drone from Pakistan near the International Border (IB) in Samba sector of the Jammu region. The recoveries, which was wrapped in a yellow-coloured polythene and lying on the ground, included one AK-47 rifle, one 9mm pistol, one pistol magazine, 15 bullet rounds and a wooden frame used to support the payload of the drone, they said. The drone is suspected to have flown back into the Pakistani territory after it dropped the consignment, officials said. “The yellow colour polythene bag was spotted in a field. It contained 1 AK -47, 1 pistol, 1 magazine 15 round of 9 mm, 1 wooden frame (used to attach payload with drone) and wrapping material,” a BSF spokesman said. The efforts of alert BSF troops deployed in multi-tiered grid have once again resulted in neutralizing the designs of Pakistan, the spokesperson s

The case was initially filed as an First Information Report (FIR) at PS Chakpikarong, District Chandel, Manipur relating to an ambush on Record of Proceedings (ROP) of 4th Assam Rifle at Chamol-Sajik Tampak Road. This ambush resulted in the martyrdom of one AR personnel and severe injury to one other. Two terrorists were killed in the encounter as well. The NIA have taken over the investigation and have re-registered the case as RC-01/2018/NIA-GUW dated March 29, 2018, under sections 121/ 121(A)/ 302/307/326/400 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 25(1-C) of Arms Act, Section four of Explosives Act & 16, 18, 20 & 38 of UA(P) Act. During the investigation it was revealed that Mayanglambam Siromani was involved in the conspiracy to attack the road opening party of Assam Rifles.  Based on the evidence, a charge sheet was made about him while he was absconding.  Further he was declared proclaimed offender and a cash reward of Rs 2 lacs was announced for information leading t

Domestic terrorism has proven to be more difficult for Big Tech companies to police online than foreign terrorism. The big picture:  That's largely because the politics are harder. There's more unity around the need to go after foreign extremists than domestic ones — and less danger of overreaching and provoking a backlash. Flashback:  When tech firms  came together  in 2017 to tackle foreign terrorism, the bipartisan view that ISIS was a serious national security threat allowed them to take blunt actions, often relying on automation, to weed out gruesome terrorist content without fear of political retribution if they inadvertently over-censored content.  Today, tackling domestic extremism is a politically-charged debate.  It's not always clear where the line is between a fringe group with protected free speech rights and a group that's actively plotting attacks like the one on the Capitol. "The reason companies are less likely to   use sweeping automation is becau

Turkey is “undermining Nato’s strategic relevance” in the Middle East with Ankara’s military campaigns making it harder for the alliance to bring stability, leading security academics said. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s  interference in conflicts was making Turkey “the most unpredictable actor” in the region, the Royal United Services Institute was told. The military excursions, largely mounted to deflect domestic attention from the failing economy, could also lead to a greater conflict as Turkey continues to encroach on Iran’s “sphere”. Ankara’s actions are causing significant difficulties for Nato as it sends more troops to stabilise Iraq, while Turkey, which joined the alliance in 1952, conducts its own military operations in the north of the country. “By doing so it actually undermines Nato’s strategic relevance and weight,” said Maria Fantappie, a special adviser for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. She said this was a “key challenge” for Nato. This week, Greek Defence Min

  One of the first things you see when you step outside Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the ageing arena in Phoenix, is the   Crazy Times Carnival , a temporary spectacle set up in the parking lot. In the evenings, just as the sun is setting, lights from the ferris wheel, the jingle of the carousel and shrieks of joy fill the massive desert sky. Inside the coliseum – nicknamed the Madhouse on McDowell – there is another carnival of sorts happening. The arena floor is where the Arizona senate, controlled by Republicans, is performing its own audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa county, home of Phoenix and most of the state’s registered voters. The effort, which comes after multiple audits affirming the results of the November election in the county  in favor or Joe Biden , includes an examination of voting equipment, an authentication of ballot paper, and a hand recount of the nearly 2.1m ballots cast there. Republicans in the state legislature are simultaneously considering measu

  BUTUAN CITY  – Authorities arrested the alleged acting finance and liaison officer of a unit under the communist New People's Army's (NPA) North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee (NEMRC)in a joint manhunt in Surigao del Sur Friday, a police official said. Col. Canilo Fuentes, Butuan City Police Office (BCPO) director, identified the suspect Marcela Basa Diaz alias “Silay Diaz,” who was arrested in the Surigao del Sur town of Marihatag by police officers from the BCPO, the intelligence unit of Police Regional Office in Caraga (PRO-13), Surigao del Sur Police Provincial Office (SDSPPO), and the Army's 3rd Special Forces Battalion (3SFBn). “Diaz is also a member of the Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan, an underground mass organization (UGMO),” Fuentes said. Diaz was arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest for attempted homicide under Criminal Case No. 3197 issued by the Municipal Circuit Trial Court (MCTC) of Tubay-Santiago, Agusan del Norte on March 15, 2021. Fuent

  LEGAZPI CITY  – Motivated by their trust and confidence in government troops who are persistent in their call for communist terrorist group (CTG) members to return to the fold of the law, a new batch of CTG members and supporter has withdrawn their membership and patronage from the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Palanas, Masbate. In a statement on Friday, Capt. John Paul Belleza, 9th Infantry Division (9ID) spokesperson, said seven members of the NPA's "Militia ng Bayan" and one supporter voluntarily surrendered to the combined operatives of the Army and police in the province last Wednesday.  “Also turned in by the group were eight low-powered firearms, such as two caliber .45 pistols, three caliber. 357 revolvers and three caliber .38 revolvers," he said. Belleza, citing a statement from one of the surrenderers, said "the testimonies of their former comrades who chose the path of peace, helped them realize that the soldiers