Terrorism Watch

Accusations of violent interceptions and human rights violations levelled at EU-funded Libyan services by NGOs More than a dozen NGO rescue vessels operating in the Mediterranean have suspended communication with the Libyan coastguard, citing escalating incidents of asylum seekers being violently intercepted at sea and taken to camps rife with torture, rape and forced labour.  The 13 search-and-rescue organisations described their decision as a rejection of mounting pressure by the EU, and Italy in particular, to share information with the Libyan coastguard, which receives training, equipment and funding from the EU. Source:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/07/civil-rescue-groups-in-mediterranean-cut-ties-with-libyan-coastguard

The Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that another individual has been detained in Tbilisi for organizing and participating in group violence near a supermarket. The agency says the suspect — Sh.A., born in 1997 — was arrested in connection with the November 2 incident, in which two supermarket employees were assaulted. Earlier, police  detained  five individuals: Manana Giorgobiani (born in 1970), J.Ch. (1996), L.G. (2000), D.P. (1999), and D.K. (1995). The investigation, conducted under Article 225 , Parts 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code of Georgia — organizing and participating in group violence — carries a sentence of up to nine years in prison. Related story:   MIA detains Manana Giorgobiani for organizing group assault on supermarket staff — six suspects identified   Source:  https://georgiatoday.ge/police-detain-sixth-suspect-in-tbilisi-group-violence-case-near-supermarket/

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that he does not believe supporting revolutions in Georgia aligns with the European Union ’s interests, though he claimed that ‘certain forces’ within European bureaucracy negatively influence the EU’s decision-making process. In an interview with  TRT World , Kobakhidze said it was ‘quite clear’ that some elements were encouraging political unrest in Georgia. “I don’t think it is in the EU’s interests to support the overthrow of the Georgian government,” he said. “However, there is a certain influence that is quite obvious.” He used an incident on October 4 as an example, when, as he claimed, opposition groups attempted to storm the presidential administration building. “Just before this attempted coup, an official spokesperson for the European Commission expressed support for the protest under the slogan ‘peaceful revolution’. These are facts,” Kobakhidze noted. “We do not believe that backing such actions serves the EU’s objecti...

European Union naval forces have rescued 24 sailors from a Maltese-flagged oil tanker that was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia . The Hellas Aphrodite , carrying petrol from India to South Africa, was seized on Thursday when armed pirates opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades before boarding the vessel.  The crew locked themselves inside a fortified citadel while the attackers took control of the ship. A Spanish warship, the ESPS Victoria , operating under the EU's anti-piracy mission Operation Atalanta , reached the tanker on Friday afternoon. Special forces boarded the vessel and found all 24 crew members unharmed. "The crew is safe and no injuries have been reported. Throughout the incident, they remained in the citadel in direct contact with Atalanta," the EU mission said, adding that a "show of force" had prompted the pirates to abandon the ship before the warship arrived. It added that the threat risk in the area "r...

  A pair of teenage jihadists from a wealthy New Jersey suburb plotted to kill “500 Jews” and join Islamic State (IS), prosecutors allege. Milo Sedarat , 19, and Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzel, 19, were taken into custody on Wednesday after the FBI linked them to a plot to bomb gay bars in Detroit in an IS-inspired attack on Hallowe’en. The teenagers from Montclair , 20 miles from New York City, were allegedly on an encrypted messaging chat with several others, at least one of which was based in the UK, a police source told The Wall Street Journal . The alleged scheme was foiled last week by the FBI and the NYPD ’s intelligence bureau, which said the plot was intended to copy IS’s terror attack in Paris in 2015 . Mr Sedarat had bragged about being “the biggest anti-Semite in America”, ranted about wanting to murder his artist mother’s Jewish friends and posed for pictures in his $1.2m family home with swords and knives, according to court documents obtained by The New York Post . Milo S...

US strikes have destroyed at least 18 vessels, but Washington has yet to make public any concrete evidence that its targets posed a threat to America  US forces struck another alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing three people, defense secretary Pete Hegseth has said, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration’s controversial campaign to at least 70. The US began carrying out such strikes – which some experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers – in early September, taking aim at vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Source:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/07/us-strikes-another-alleged-drug-boat-latin-america

  Chinese   authorities harassed several dozen Chinese film directors and producers, as well as their families in China, causing them to pull films from the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival in New York City, Human Rights Watch said today. On November 6, 2025, the festival’s organizer, Zhu Rikun, announced that the film festival, scheduled for November 8-15, had been “suspended.” “The Chinese government reached around the globe to shut down a film festival in New York City,” said  Yalkun Uluyol , China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This latest act of transnational repression demonstrates the Chinese government’s aim to control what the world sees and learns about China.” Chiang Seeta, a Chinese artist and activist,  reported  that nearly all participating directors in China faced intimidation. Even directors abroad, including those who are not Chinese nationals, reported that their relatives and friends in China were receiving threatening calls from police...

  President Ahmed al-Sharaa will become Syria 's first leader to pay an official visit to the White House on Monday, a crowning achievement for the ex-jihadist who since taking power has ended his country's isolation. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, will meet President Donald Trump during the unprecedented visit. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said earlier this month that Sharaa will "hopefully" sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS). The United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus "to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel ", a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP. Just days before the visit, the United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday to lift sanctions on Sharaa, who until now had needed a UN exemption for every trip abroad. The resolution was drafted by the US, whose ambassador to th...

  ASSOCIATED PRESS CAIRO (AP) — For more than two years, Sudan ’s military and a powerful paramilitary force have  torn the country apart  in a war for power, both digging in against peace efforts even as atrocities mount and  starvation spreads . One reason they can keep going is the support each reportedly gets from other nations looking for influence. International alarm has grown since Oct. 26, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized  the key city of el-Fasher  in Sudan’s Darfur region from the military and reportedly went on a rampage. Witnesses and aid groups say fighters have killed hundreds of civilians, and the fate of thousands more is unknown. Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF are accused of committing atrocities throughout the war. The United States says the RSF is committing genocide with repeated mass killings and rapes. U.S. intelligence assessments for many months have found that the  United Arab Emirates , a clos...

Israel’s counteroffer to Asim Munir’s Gaza plan exposed a military stripped of pride, trust and global respect.   Washington:   Pakistan’s military has weathered scandal after scandal, but none cut as deep as this. Inside guarded army circles, a shocking “rate card” has surfaced. It allegedly puts a cash price on the life of a Pakistani soldier. Circulating among officers and leaked to media networks, the off-the-record military and diplomatic briefings have become a symbol of national disgrace. It suggests a hierarchy of motivation inside the ranks: a soldier paid 8,000 Pakistani rupees skips duty, 80,000 buys his retreat from the battlefield and only a payment of around 28 lakh convinces him to risk his life. Sources with direct knowledge of the planning say Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir proposed a large deployment of Pakistani troops to Gaza as part of a disarmament and stabilization mission. The proposal envisaged roughly 20,000 soldiers who were not meant to confron...

  Israeli   jets struck several towns in southern   Lebanon   on Thursday after urging residents to leave, marking an escalation in their near-daily strikes on the country. The airstrikes came hours after militant group  Hezbollah  urged the Lebanese government not to enter negotiations with Israel. Israeli  Arabic  spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned residents in Tayba near the border, Teir Debba located just east of the coastal city of Tyre, and Aita al-Jabal in southern Lebanon, to flee 500 meters (about 1,600 feet) away from residential buildings they are targeting, which they say have been used by Hezbollah. It later issued more warnings for the towns of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah and Kfar Dounin. The Israeli military said it targeted military infrastructure for Hezbollah in those areas. It accused the group of rebuilding its capabilities almost a year after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect that ended a monthslong war. While most resident...

  COPENHAGEN: In 2021, Danish video game live-streamer Marie Watson received an image of herself from an unknown Instagram account. She instantly recognized the holiday snap from her Instagram account, but something was different: Her clothing had been digitally removed to make her appear naked. It was a deepfake . “It overwhelmed me so much,” Watson recalled. “I just started bursting out in tears, because suddenly, I was there naked.” In the four years since her experience, deepfakes — highly realistic artificial intelligence-generated images, videos or audio of real people or events — have become not only easier to make worldwide but also look or sound exponentially more realistic. That’s thanks to technological advances and the proliferation of generative AI tools, including video generation tools from OpenAI and Google . These tools give millions of users the ability to easily spit out content, including for nefarious purposes that range from depicting celebrities Taylor Swift...