British officials are engaged in behind the scenes reviews designed to address the threat from hundreds of ISIL fighters trying to return to the country from front lines in Syria and Iraq.
Security sources believe the number of potential returnees remains more than double the 150 suspects known to have been stripped of citizenship for terror activity abroad in recent years. Work is under way in the main administrative buildings in Whitehall, London, to target ISIL veterans.
Sources said that lengthening official watch lists of British citizens and residents recruited to ISIL ranks had become a priority for the security services. Newspaper reports have revealed that 40 of the 150 people stripped of British nationality since 2011 — under so-called deprivation orders — were sanctioned in the past year.
There are believed to be at least 350 still active in the region but primed to come back. Experts believe another 400 Britons have already returned and while some are under close surveillance, others have slipped through the net.
Addressing the figures, Ben Wallace, the Home Office minister for security, hinted that a wide range of measures were being rolled out as ISIL loses territory. “We are using a range of tolls to disrupt and diminish that threat.”
Hannah Stuart, a security expert at the Policy Exchange think tank, told The National that the government's extremism strategy was under careful scrutiny in the wake of multiple terror attacks in London and Manchester in the early summer. "Government has been very aware work needs to be done on a number of levels, not just counter-radicalisation efforts but also exclusion orders and other measures," she said. "Officials are looking at some of the programmes needing a harder edge, the impact of police cuts, issues of rules of engagement with communities and operations of anti-terror police."
Not all those displaced from Syria and Iraq are necessarily targeting a return to Britain. Matteo Toaldo, a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Affairs in London, said Libya remained a plan B destination for extremists fighting with ISIL and others.
“The European intelligence services, starting with MI5 and MI6, now have lists focused on secondary territorial movement,” he said. “Parts of Libya are seen as safe havens by foreign fighters who want to continue the battle.”
The loss of Mosul and the inexorable crumbling of Raqqa's defences has seen a shift in ISIL’s own communications with its followers, particularly foreign recruits.
Charlie Winter, a researcher at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, detected a decisive change to advising its loyalists to mount attacks in their homelands or places of residence earlier this year. The group no longer sold itself as an emerging paradise.
“In early 2017, the Islamic State produced 74 per cent less utopia-themed propaganda, and 100 per cent more warfare-themed propaganda, than it did in the summer of 2015,” Mr Winter said. “As its territorial clout, leadership, and manpower depleted over the course of 2016 and early 2017, the group was forced to recalibrate the strategic parameters of its propaganda narrative. In so doing, it reverted to salafi-jihadist type, coming to rely more than ever before on military-themed media than governance propaganda.”
According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, ISIL has expanded globally as its territory has shrunk. The group's "global attack network is now more robust, dispersed, and resilient than ever”, it concluded in a recent report.
Leading European countries are struggling to hit on a model for handling the rise of extremism.
Emmanuel Macron’s government has announced plans to shut its only residential counter-extremism centre in Pontourny, western France, which opened in September 2016 to convince 18 to 30-year-olds to change their views. With rooms for 25 people, it never held more than nine at any one time.
"The experiment of this centre, which operates on a voluntary basis, has shown its limitations. The government has therefore decided to end the experiment," interior minister Gerard Collomb said.
Meanwhile the German newspaper Bild has defied tough new mobile phone and internet laws to demonstrate how easily ISIL can radicalise residents in the country. A reporter made contact with two English-speaking handlers who told him to destroy his existing SIM card, pick up a temporary replacement and communicate by the secure messaging app Wickr. The message he received was direct incitement. "Go into a hospital, find the seriously ill and slaughter them," wrote the Syria-based contact. "Don't plan too much, hit out quickly, the more time you allow yourself the more mistakes can happen."
In the race to keep ISIL operatives out of Britain, there is one under-used power that could come to the fore, sources said. Temporary exclusion orders allow the authorities to ban Britons from entering their own country unless they agree to join a deradicalisation programme or co-operate with a surveillance regime. “I think we will see a series of announcements in the autumn,” Ms Stuart said.
The specs: 2018 Jaguar F-Type Convertible
Price, base / as tested: Dh283,080 / Dh318,465
Engine: 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 295hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.2L / 100km
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
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Read more about the coronavirus
Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Results
Stage 7:
1. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal - 3:18:29
2. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - same time
3. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious
4. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep
5. Cees Bol (NED) Team DSM
General Classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 24:00:28
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:35
3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:02
4. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:42
5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
MATCH INFO
Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73’)
Arsenal win 5-4 on penalties
Man of the Match: Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal)
MORE ON TURKEY'S SYRIA OFFENCE
What is type-1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is a genetic and unavoidable condition, rather than the lifestyle-related type 2 diabetes.
It occurs mostly in people under 40 and a result of the pancreas failing to produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugars.
Too much or too little blood sugar can result in an attack where sufferers lose consciousness in serious cases.
Being overweight or obese increases the chances of developing the more common type 2 diabetes.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
List of alleged parties
- May 15 2020: Boris Johnson is said to have attended a Downing Street pizza party
- 27 Nov 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff
- Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson
- Dec 13 2020: Mr Johnson and his then-fiancee Carrie Symonds throw a flat party
- Dec 14 2020: Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative Party headquarters
- Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
- Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Results:
Men's 100m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 15 sec; 2. Rheed McCracken (AUS) 15.40; 3. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 15.75. Men's 400m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 50.56; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 50.94; 3. Henry Manni (FIN) 52.24.
'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Rating: 1 out of 4
Running time: 81 minutes
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
