MI5: 31 late-stage terror plots foiled in four years in UK
By Lauren Turner
BBC News
A total of 31 late-stage terror plots have been foiled in the UK in the past four years, the head of MI5 has said.
Director general Ken McCallum, who revealed in October there had been 27 attacks thwarted since 2017, said there had been six during the pandemic.
He said they were largely Islamic extremist plots, but a "growing number" were planned by right-wing terrorists.
He also warned that the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban was likely to have "emboldened" UK terrorists.
Hong Kong: Tiananmen vigil organisers charged with inciting subversion
Hong Kong Alliance leaders face charges under national security law Beijing imposed last year
Hong Kong police have charged the group that organises the city’s annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil and three of its leaders with subversion under the national security law, amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China said that the group, its chairman, Lee Cheuk-yan, as well as vice-chairs Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung were charged late on Thursday with “inciting subversion of state power”, under the national security law Beijing imposed more than a year ago.
Russia may launch all out war with Ukraine, says President Zelensky
A multi-year undeclared war has already displaced millions and cost over 13,000 lives
Seven years into a simmering conflict that has cost thousands of lives, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has starkly warned that Russia has not given up on the idea of all-out war.
Speaking at the Yalta security forum in Kiev on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said a major military operation remained a "palpable possibility”. Tensions between Kiev and Moscow were growing to such an extent that a "precipice" was now emerging between the two neighbours.
"All-out war would be the biggest blunder on Russia’s part," he said. "It’s a spooky scenario but unfortunately it isn’t unlikely. The danger is reaching a point of no-return."
Taliban: Afghan families flee to Pakistan over forced marriage fears
Many Afghans who fled to Pakistan to escape life under a Taliban regime say fear of the group's fighters marrying women and girls from their families was a major reason behind their decision to leave their homeland.
Khalid Shinwari, 25, is more than relieved after managing to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and reaching Pakistan in recent days.
A father of three, Shinwari's family first moved to Pakistan during the Afghan civil war of the 1990s that brought the Taliban to power.
"My father then thought that Pakistan would be a safe place to come to, given the volatile situation in Afghanistan," he said, adding that his family had settled in Kohat. "We spent several years in that city working hard day and night."
A ‘turbocharged’ security state: How 9/11 fueled America’s border crackdown
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the US government created a new agency, the Department of Homeland Security, with sweeping powers not just to fight terrorism, but to enforce immigration laws like never before. Both documented and undocumented immigrants, as well as many US citizens, have seen their lives transformed as a result.
When the planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Hassan* had been living in the United States for about three years. He had moved to Pasadena, California from Tunisia in 1998, originally on a tourist visa, and was working night shifts at a local motel. He had a driver’s license and was seeking to obtain a student visa that would allow him to stay in the country legally.
Then, one night, the life he had made for himself in the US came to an abrupt end.
Palestinians hold ‘day of rage’ solidarity protests for escapees
Palestinians in occupied territories hold protests in solidarity with the six escaped prisoners, as well those still in Israeli jails.
Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are gathering for a day of rage on Friday in support of the six Palestinian prisoners, who escaped from an Israeli prison, heeding the call of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups.
They are also protesting against the punitive measures that the Israeli jail authorities have imposed on imprisoned members of the Islamic Jihad, another group active in the Gaza Strip, in the wake of a brazen escape from one of the country’s most secure prisons.
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