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Focus on Britain
Starting with Patrick Henningsen and Mike Robinson on UK Column
G7 leaders back Theresa May's call for a crackdown on extremist content online
The
premier defends her record on tackling terrorism in the face of
police cuts and the failure to stop returning jihadi fighters.
Theresa
May secured support from fellow G7 leaders on tackle extremists
online and stop foreign fighters returning to the UK and Europe, as
the Prime Minister put counter-terrorism centre stage of the annual
summit of leading industrial states.
Mrs
May warned the threat from Islamic state was moving "from the
battlefield to the internet" as she led sessions on
counter-terrorism in Taormina in Italy.
In
the wake of the Manchester bombing the PM and her counterparts agreed
a series of measures to step up the fight against terror and backed
her call for more pressure to be put on internet companies such as
Google, Facebook and Twitter to target extremist content.
But
she was forced to defend her record on tackling violent extremism in
the face of police cuts and the failure to stop jihadi fighters
returning to Britain.
Mrs
May described the G7 joint statement as "a significant step
forward", and said she wanted to see terrorist material taken
down "more urgently and more rapidly than it is at the moment".
She
added: "It is also the case that I think it's important that
companies recognise their social responsibility and do report matters
that they become aware of to the authorities.
"We
need to work together to fight against the evil of terrorism. And
nobody can be in any doubt, after what we saw in Manchester, of just
how evil those terrorists are."
However,
she denied cutting police numbers by 20,000 had made it necessary to
put troops on to the streets in the wake of the atrocity.
She
told a press conference at the summit: "The plan to ensure that
there was military support available to the police is a well-prepared
plan, it's one that was developed a while ago.
'It
was done so that at a time when we got to 'critical' in our threat
level - which of course is determined independently by the Joint
Terrorism Analysis Centre - extra support could be made available.
And that is exactly what has happened."
Mrs
May was also asked by Sky News if she had "dropped the ball"
as home secretary, given figures that showed 400 foreign fighters had
returned to the UK since 2014.
The
PM said: "It is the case that we believe a number of foreign
fighters who went to Syria have returned to the UK.
"We
actually took some extra powers in legislation when I was home
secretary to manage the return of individuals, and those are looked
at on a case-by-case basis.
"Over
the last six to seven years, I excluded more hate preachers from the
United Kingdom than any home secretary has ever done before. We did
not hesitate to act in protecting our national security."
MSM trying damage control as May is mocked all over social media
Last
night’s televised “Battle for No. 10” proved a cataclysmic
disaster for the Tories. Before the debate even ended #TheresaMayGIFS
was a trending hashtag on Twitter, representing her perceived failure
in animated form. But this hasn’t stopped the establishment trying
to rewrite history to turn defeat into victory
Migrant summer chaos as thousands try to sneak into Britain, French official warns
A NEW wave of violence will erupt in Calais this summer as thousands of migrants try to sneak into Britain, a French official warned last night.
THE Conservatives will lose their outright majority clinched by David Cameron in 2015 in the upcoming June 8 election, a YouGov projection has claimed.
The
calamitous news for Theresa May comes from the first seat by seat
projection for the campaign, and suggests the Conservatives will fall
16 seats short of an overall majority.
The
YouGov prediction would leave Theresa May with 310 MPs – 20 fewer
than at the time of dissolution of the last Parliament – while
Labour are set to surge from 229 to 257 MPs on June 8 election, a
gain of 28 seats in the Commons.
The
shocking scenario could leave Theresa May’s hand weakened ahead of
Brexit negotiations – or see her ousted by an opposing coalition
government
West
Midlands and Surrey police offer £1.5bn contract under which private
firms may investigate crime and detain suspects
Private
companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes,
patrolling neighbourhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical
privatisation plan being put forward by two of the largest police
forces in the country.
West
Midlands and Surrey have invited bids from G4S and other major
security companies on behalf of all forces across England and Wales
to take over the delivery of a wide range of services previously
carried out by the police.
The
contract is the largest on police privatisation so far, with a
potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible
£3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved.
This
scale dwarfs the recent £200m contract between Lincolnshire police
and G4S, under which half the force's civilian staff are to join the
private security company, which will also build and run a police
station for the first time.
Is this going to be the next stage in 'identity politics"? The normalisation of this perversion.
Is this going to be the next stage in 'identity politics"? The normalisation of this perversion.
A
paedophile has the 'same ingrained attraction that a heterosexual
female may feel towards a male', psychologist says
The
UK’s ‘Big Brother’ culture of surveillance and suspicion in
combatting terrorism is “inherently flawed” and could be
promoting extremism rather than combatting it, a UN report has found.
The
report, which was drawn up before the May 22 suicide bombing in
Manchester that killed 22 people, is highly critical of many policies
overseen by Prime Minister Theresa May in her prior role as home
secretary.
It
comes just 10 days before a general election that polls say May could
win with a narrow majority.
The
report, written by Maina Kiai, who was the UN’s Special Rapporteur
on freedom of peaceful assembly until last month, slammed the
government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy, which aims to safeguard
vulnerable individuals who are at risk of radicalization.
The
strategy relies on intelligence coming from community leaders and
schools.
“Overall,
it appears that Prevent is having the opposite of its intended
effect: by dividing, stigmatizing and alienating segments of the
population. Prevent could end up promoting extremism, rather than
countering it,” the UN report says.
The
report also criticized Britain’s Investigatory Powers Act,
introduced last year, as “intrusive … bound to have a detrimental
impact on the legitimate activities carried out by civil society and
political activists.”
“The
specter of ‘Big Brother’ is so large, in fact, that some families
are reportedly afraid of even discussing the negative effects of
terrorism in their own homes, fearing that their children would talk
about it at school and have their intentions misconstrued.”
The
report also warns of an “alarming” shift towards criminalization
of peaceful protest and free expression in the UK. It says British
society is a “national treasure” at risk from police tactics,
anti-terrorism legislation and curbs on charities and trade unions.
Kiai
wrote that he had information that the police may have used
“International Mobile Subscriber Identity Catchers” to gather
intelligence from protesters’ phones during peaceful protests in
Birmingham, London, Leicester and in Wales last year, which he said
was a violation to their privacy.
The
report, to be debated at the UN Human Rights Council next month,
follows a critical report on British policing that Kiai wrote in
2013.
MI5
formally launched an internal investigation on Monday to review
whether it should have paid more attention to warnings about the
behavior of Salman Abedi, the Manchester suicide bomber.
Security
services had identified Abedi as a possible radical, but did not have
him under surveillance, a source told Reuters.
Around
23,000 jihadist extremists currently living in the UK have been
identified by intelligence services as potential terrorists, the
Times reports, citing government officials. About 3,000 of those are
under investigation as possible threats.
“The
huge scale” of the terrorist threat in Britain has been revealed in
the wake of the Manchester bombing, the Timesreported on Saturday,
saying the number was disclosed by unnamed Whitehall sources
Once again - the reality of what happens behind closed doors in Britain's mosques
FBI
warned MI5 about bomber months before Manchester attack
Although the FBI was one of many groups that warned the UK about the Manchester attacker, MI5 “closed” its file on him, meaning the security organization deemed that he did not pose a significant threat. British authorities are scrambling to arrest anyone who was a part of last week’s bombing. RT's Anastasia Churkina has the details of the ongoing investigation
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