Security and Society

If there was ever a unifying speech by an American President, this was probably it.

Only the most hard-line Republicans, determined to complain no matter what, will have much to say that doesn't support the vast majority of Biden's proposals. Yes, it was loaded with tacky rhetoric and tub-thumping and he lost his way from time to time but the general thrust of his speech was this: capitalism and social responsibility can live side by side and in doing so create a fairer and more wealthy society.

27 year old Jared Trent Atkins, of Phoenix, Arizona, USA used Iridium-192 in his work where it was used, in sealed capsules, to examine underground pipes. For reasons not made public, he became suicidal and stole some of the material. But first he committed several acts of violence unrelated to the theft of the material. All signs were that he was setting up a situation where he could invite "suicide by cop," as the USA entertainingly puts it. There is nothing entertaining about the spiral of behaviour in this case.

The UK recently banned flights from the UAE because of fears over growing corona virus risks. It also added Turkey and Qatar to its red list. Ireland is a special case and there is free movement between the UK and Ireland.

Trying to fly to the UK from the Far East is difficult. At the moment, many flights are via the Middle East or Turkey. Some are via Singapore which is on the UK's "Green list."

But one middle east airline has found a way to circumvent the UK's ban on flights from there - and to facilitate dishonest passengers who want to avoid spending GBP2,000 on quarantine and testing and, of course, risk spreading CoVid-19 into the UK's population.

The USA is using Taiwan to bait China, as it did with Hong Kong, and China is responding.

The authorities in Malaysia say that the corona-virus triggered lockdown in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, has led to a 67% reduction in crime. That, of course, might not be all that it seems - crime and reported crime not being the same and if people can't get to a police station, they can't make reports. Also, Malaysians have an odd habit: they make "police reports" at the drop of a hat, for all kinds of reasons, often political or for matters that in other countries would be regarded as civil matters not as police matters. When they do, they often issue a press release tp say they are going to do it and - incredibly, Malaysian media turns up to photograph them entering, or leaving, the police station. If people can't go out, they can't do that, either, so that may (we put it no higher than that) distorts the crime figures anyway.

But that aside, organised crime gangs, which are a business, are finding that their commercial activities are curtailed along with their movements. They...

There are things that biased media push down our throats as they pretend independence but run a subversive agenda, from politics to social change. But there are some things that transcend the self-interest of media outlets, where the generally left-leaning press and politicians have got it absolutely right.

Analysis of many of the messages that begin the radicalisation of the vulnerable, often but not always teenagers and those in their early 20s, shows that there are a number of specific triggers that the originators use. At the heart of it is, of course, using the name of a deity which, for simplicity, we will call god (no capital G in this context) and, ideally, saying that god needs your support and that god will support you. But the form of the message is as important as the content.

The Law Society of England and Wales has issued a notice criticising the policy of "release under investigation" which sees suspects in criminal cases released free of conditions. Not only is it not working, it's proving dangerous, says LawSoc.

Mark Steven Domingo, 26, of Reseda, a former U.S. Army infantryman with combat experience in Afghanistan, faces federal charges. It is alleged that he expressed support for violent jihad, a desire to seek retribution for attacks against Muslims and a willingness to become a martyr. He was, the authorities allege, developing a terrorist plot in which he planned to detonate an improvised explosive device (IED) for the purpose of causing mass casualties.

Mark Zuckerberg is great at making things up but over the weekend, he's proved that he's also great at coming up with other people's ideas. How do I know? Because the other people whose ideas he's come up with is me and I published them in a book in 2015 that leaned on material I'd published, originally, in the late 1990s.

When Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian man, turned on the camera on his mobile phone and filmed himself and his actions during a murderous attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 50 people, it brought home to the world that the idea of web-casting, so beloved of American TV cop-show writers, can be even more horrifying when fiction turns to fact. Yet, the dangers of live streaming have long been known and criminals in a wide range of activities have been making use of it for a long time. Is this a "freedom" too far?

In his Newbury and Hobbes series of novels, author George Mann writes fantastical stories about where the Victorians' obsession with developing new technologies might go. They provide a bleak and terrifying future where automatons are available to pretty much anyone with money to spare and a will to kill. There are no benevolent butlers, no automated beauties as Hollywood portrays - only clunky machines with the single purpose of destruction - some with a worrying tendency to act alone once given instructions. Set 100 years ago, they are a parable for what some now want to ban. But the tech is only part of the problem. What about the people?

“The charges unsealed today are the result of years of investigative work conducted by the FBI and our law enforcement partners,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said announcing the charges "unsealed" by United States Attorneys Offices in the Eastern District of New York and the Western District of Washington. The list reads as if someone decided to find a copy Title 18 of the US Code and throw it at Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Sadly, Wray's language is political and intemperate and undermines the credibility of the action from the outset.

It's almost too convenient: as the USA tries to find support for its push against Iran, the USA has managed to find two men it says were behind major ransomware attacks ranging from 2015 until September 2018. They are Iranian.

Even more bizarre is that some nit at the FBI thinks that a US assistant Attorney General is being original, perhaps even clever, by calling ransomware attacks "21st Century Blackmail." There are some who will be delighted at the news: US President Trump and his pro-Israeli groups have been angling for any persuasion they can to encourage action against Iran by other countries, almost all of which do not line up with the USA. Others will stand back and say "Really?"

If enough people get to see it, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's press conference in Bourke Street, Melbourne this morning will go down as one of those jaw-dropping moments in politics. It was a no-holds barred, balls-out, unequivocal challenge to "communities" in Melbourne to identify and report indicators of extremism for the sake of Australia and, importantly, for their own sake. A straight-talking poli? Strewth.