Radical Homecoming
UK AUTHORITIES WARNED OF A FUTURE THREAT FROM ISIS
And said the danger justifies greater government surveillance powers
A screen grab from an ISIS recruitment video featuring British jihadists
Videos by VICE
(via)
A top Scotland Yard official has said that UK police will have to deal with British fighters returning from Syria for “many years”.
Following the release of an ISIS recruitment video that features several Britons, Met Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick warned that the conflict represents a “long-term” extremist threat.
Dick told the BBC that, until recently, police believed that around 460 radicalised British Muslims had left the UK to fight in Syria, but said the figure could now be around 500.
Former defence secretary – and current Conservative MP for North Somerset – Liam Fox argued that this justifies greater surveillance powers for Britain’s security services.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, he said that authorities could confiscate the passports of British citizens returning from Syria and Iraq, but stressed that powers should be increased to monitor the communications of extremists.
In Iraq this weekend, ISIS seized three border crossings into Syria and Jordan, and four nearby towns, giving the Sunni militant group control over much of the country’s western region.
Mass Death Sentences
EGYPT SENTENCED THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD LEADER TO DEATH
As well as 182 followers of the banned organisation
(via)
An Egyptian court has confirmed the death sentence of Mohamed Badie, leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and at least 182 supporters.
They were charged over violence in the southern town of Minya last July, where one senior police officer was killed.
Lawyers say the ruling can be overturned on appeal, but the sentences have already called into question the independence of the judiciary.
It’s not clear exactly how many sentences had been confirmed – lawyers estimated between 182 to 197 – but either way it would be the largest mass death sentence in Egypt in recent memory.
President Peace
PUTIN CALLED ON BOTH SIDES IN UKRAINE TO LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS
On the same day that he ordered large-scale military exercises
Vladimir Putin hanging out with some animals (Photo via)
(via)
Vladimir Putin has urged both sides in the Ukraine conflict to put down their weapons, as well as expressing his support for Ukraine’s unilateral ceasefire.
However, he warned that the truce would not be “viable and realistic” unless moves were made to start peace talks between the opposing sides.
These statements were made the same day that the Russian president ordered large-scale military exercises, which NATO criticised as likely to raise tensions.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hopes that the unilateral ceasefire will inspire a wider peace plan that would include an amnesty for pro-Russian separatist fighters who drop their weapons.
Bad Ideas
A TORY MP JOKED ABOUT PUNCHING A WOMAN IN THE THROAT
It didn’t go down very well
(Screen grab via)
(via)
Michael Fabricant, the Tory MP for Lichfield, tweeted that he would never appear on a discussion show with journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown because he would “either end up with a brain haemorrhage or by punching her in the throat”.
Shockingly, this didn’t go down very well; David Cameron told LBC radio that it was “not an acceptable thing to say”, and Alibhai-Brown said that Conservatives like Fabricant think “people like me should be ayahs or selling you curry”, before calling for him to be kicked out of the party.
Fabricant later explained that the whole thing had just been one big misunderstanding, tweeting: “Just out of dentist. 1 It appears that some people who don’t know me think I actually go round punching ‘in the throat’. Not true.
“2. If anyone believes I would seriously threaten someone with violence, I of course withdraw and apologise.”
He then apologised directly to Alibhai-Brown, while at the same time telling her that he found her to be “utterly infuriating”.
Good Time Guys
A LEADING SCIENTIST TRIED TO CROWD-SURF AT A CLASSICAL CONCERT
And was quickly thrown out
The Bristol Old Vic, where the attempted crowd-surfing happened (Photo via)
(via)
A respected scientist was thrown out of Bristol’s Old Vic theatre by other audience members after trying to crowd-surf during a performance of Handel’s Messiah.
Guests were invited to “clap or whoop when you like, and no shushing other people”, but the theatre’s artistic director, Tom Morris, suggested that Dr David Glowacki had become “very overexcited” during the “Hallelujah Chorus”.
Dr Glowacki – a Research Fellow at the Royal Society – attacked the crowd’s response, saying: “Classical music, trying to seem cool and less stuffy, reeks of some sort of fossilised art form undergoing a midlife crisis.”
