The ‘app of choice’ for jihadists: ISIS seizes on Internet tool to promote terror

When the Islamic State was seeking volunteers for a holiday killing rampage in Europe, it sent word over its favorite social-media channel: the messaging service known as Telegram.

“Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years Day is very soon,” began a Dec. 6 posting on one of the terrorist group’s usual Telegram bulletin boards. “So let’s prepare a gift for the filthy pigs/apes.”

Two weeks later, when a truck mowed down pedestrians at a crowded Berlin Christmas market, the group again used Telegram, this time to claim credit for the attack. On Friday, after chief suspect Anis Amri was killed in a Milan shootout, Telegram broadcast his posthumous video. The Tunisian migrant had fled Berlin and crisscrossed France and Italy before being stopped by Italian police looking for a burglary suspect. In his video he pledges allegiance to the Islamic State and issues a chilling warning to Westerners: “God willing, we will slaughter you.”

The words and images flew across the globe over a network that terrorist leaders describe as ideal for their purposes — one that is highly discreet, with its heavy encryption and secret chat rooms, but also highly permissive, allowing violent Islamist groups to exchange ideas and spread propaganda with minimal interference. The same conclusion has been reached by terrorism analysts who say Telegram is now overwhelmingly preferred by extremist groups such as the Islamic State, in part because the company has failed to adopt the aggressive measures used by its competitors to kick terrorists off its channels.

A report this week by an organization that monitors Islamist militants’ Internet communications calls Telegram “the app of choice for many ISIS, pro-ISIS and other jihadi and terrorist elements.” The study describes the terrorists’ mass migration to Telegram as one of the most striking developments in the field recently. ISIS is one of the common acronyms for the Islamic State.

“It has surpassed Twitter as the most important platform,” said Steven Stalinsky, lead author of the report by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, also known as MEMRI. “All the big groups are on it. We see ISIS talking about the benefits of Telegram and encouraging its followers to use it.”

Trump releases 'very nice letter' from Putin

US President-elect Donald Trump has released what he says is a "very nice" letter from Russia's President Vladimir Putin calling for a thaw in ties between the rival powers.

Trump's transition team said late on Friday that the president-elect received the letter from Putin urging him to act "in a constructive and pragmatic manner" to "restore the framework of bilateral cooperation".

The letter, dated December 15, also noted that serious global and regional challenges "show that the relations between Russia and the US remain an important factor in ensuring stability and security in the modern world".

Trump Transition releases what it says is a letter from Putin. Trump says he agrees & hopes "we do not have to travel an alternate path." pic.twitter.com/1kBvwg8zVQ — Olivier Knox (@OKnox) December 23, 2016

In response, Trump agreed with Putin, adding that he hopes "we do not have to travel an alternate path".

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Saturday that Putin sent the letter, "voicing hope for an improvement of bilateral ties," according to the Interfax news agency.

The exchange comes on the heels of comments by Trump and Putin about the need to strengthen their countries' nuclear arsenals.

Trump tweeted on Thursday that the US should "greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability". He said the nation must do so until the rest of the world - as he put it - "comes to its senses" regarding nuclear weapons.

Those comments echoed an earlier statement by Putin, who said that strengthening his country's nuclear capabilities should be a chief military objective in the coming year.

Putin said he saw "nothing unusual" in Trump's pledge to strengthen the US nuclear forces, and claimed that his country's military is stronger than that of any potential aggressor, but acknowledged that the US military is bigger.

He also cast the modernisation of Russia's nuclear arsenal as a necessary response to a US missile defence system.

The US currently has an estimated arsenal of about 7,000 nuclear warheads, second only to Russia, which has a few hundred more.

During the next decade, US ballistic missile submarines, bombers, and land-based missiles - the three legs of the nuclear triad - are expected to reach the end of their useful lives.

Maintaining and modernising the arsenal is expected to cost at about $1 trillion over 30 years.

May Christmas message urges unity after Brexit vote

Theresa May has urged Britain to "unite and move forward" after the Brexit vote in her first Christmas message as PM.

In the year that saw the UK vote by 52% to 48% to leave the EU, Mrs May said there was an "historic opportunity" to forge "a bold new role".

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn highlighted the plight of homeless people at Christmas.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron asked people to welcome child refugees while the Greens urged a "fight for the future" based on equality and hope.

The prime minister said there had been much to celebrate in 2016 - with the Queen's 90th birthday and British successes in the Olympics and Paralympics.

She added: "As we leave the European Union we must seize an historic opportunity to forge a bold new role for ourselves in the world and to unite our country as we move forward into the future."

She pledged to "stand up for the freedom of people of all religions to practise their beliefs in peace and safety" and paid tribute to those who work over Christmas, including health and care workers, emergency services and the armed forces.

"Wherever you are this Christmas, I wish you joy and peace in this season of celebration, along with health and happiness in the year ahead," she said.

In a separate message to the armed forces, including the 5,000 deployed on operations over the holiday period, she said: "Just as your commitment to our country is unfaltering, so in return we owe you the same deep commitment and unflinching support."

She pledged to "honour the commitments" to help service personnel buy their own home and support their children in school.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn used his Christmas message to point to Shelter figures suggesting 120,000 children would spend Christmas without a home to call their own while rough sleeping had increased by 30% in the last year.

He praised charity workers, adding: "It's the goodwill and generosity of ordinary people, public service and charity workers who give tirelessly to help the most vulnerable and the lonely.

"They remind us of Christmas values: love for your neighbour, working together and hope, hope that things can be different."

In a message filmed at a child refugee centre in Paris, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the Christmas message should encourage the UK to open its doors.

He said the children were fleeing "appalling circumstances" and wanted to come to the UK "because of Britain's reputation as a place of peace and of security and tranquillity" to start afresh, urging Britons to "be true to British values and be really proud of our country".

The Green Party's newly elected co-leaders, Jonathan Bartley and Caroline Lucas, praised people who work with refugees and those who campaigned on climate change, as well as NHS workers.

Noting that 2016 had brought the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump in the US, Mr Bartley said: "Nobody owns the future.

"Not Donald Trump. Not Nigel Farage. Not Theresa May. We have to fight for the future we want to see - a future based on fairness, on equality, on hope."

Egypt: Trump convinced Sisi to withdraw UN resolution

Egypt agreed to postpone a vote on a UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements after US President-elect Donald Trump called President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian president's office said.

Egypt had circulated the draft late on Wednesday, demanding Israel halt settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, and a vote was initially scheduled for Thursday.

But it requested that the resolution be postponed after Israel launched a frantic lobbying effort, including calls from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the US to use its veto power at the Security Council to block the resolution.


On Friday, Sisi's spokesman said the two leaders agreed to allow Trump's incoming administration a chance to tackle the issue.

"During the call, they discussed regional affairs and developments in the Middle East, and in that context the draft resolution in front of the Security Council on Israeli settlement," said spokesman Alaa Yousef.

"The presidents agreed on the importance of affording the new US administration the full chance to deal with all dimensions of the Palestinian case with a view of achieving a full and final settlement."

A similar resolution was vetoed by the US in 2011.

Earlier, diplomats from New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal told Egypt that if it did not clarify on whether it planned to call the vote, they would press ahead without Cairo's involvement.

Trump, who campaigned on a promise to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, had called on Washington to use its veto to block the resolution.

"The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed," the Republican said in a statement released hours ahead of the scheduled vote.

"As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations.

"This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis," Trump added.

Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and seen as a major stumbling block to peace efforts as they are built on Palestinian land occupied by Israel.

The United Nations maintains settlements are illegal, but UN officials have reported a surge in construction over the past months.

Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel occupied in a 1967 war.

Israel disputes that settlements are illegal and says their final status should be determined in any future talks on Palestinian statehood.

UN Security Council urges end to Israeli settlements

The UN Security Council has voted in favour of a resolution demanding the halt of settlement activity by Israel on occupied Palestinian territory with the United States notably abstaining.

The resolution was put forward at the 15-member council for a vote on Friday by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and US president-elect Donald Trump.

Israel and Trump had called on the United States to veto the measure.

"This is a day of victory for international law, a victory for civilised language and negotiation and a total rejection of extremist forces in Israel," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters news agency.

"The international community has told the people of Israel that the way to security and peace is not going to be done through occupation ... but rather through peace, ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state to live side by side with the state of Israel on the 1967 line," Erekat said.

The resolution was adopted with 14 votes in favour to a resounding round of applause. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years.

"Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms," a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The United States' abstention was the biggest rebuke in recent history to longstanding ally Israel, allowing the Security Council to condemn its settlements and continuing construction in Palestinian territory as a "flagrant violation" of international law.

The resolution said Israel's settlements on Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, have "no legal validity.

It demanded a halt to "all Israeli settlement activities", saying this "is essential for salvaging the two-state solution".

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had backtracked on the move to condemn Israel's settlement policy on Thursday after receiving a phone call from US president-elect Donald Trump, who spoke out in favour of a US veto.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said his government had expected a US veto of "this disgraceful resolution".

"I have no doubt that the new US administration and the incoming UN secretary general will usher in a new era in terms of the UN's relationship with Israel," said Danon after the vote.

Trump said in a tweet: "As to the UN, things will be different after Jan 20th."

Trump is likely to be a more staunch supporter of Netanyahu's right-wing policies. He named a hardline pro-Israel ambassador and vowed to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Israeli settlements are seen as a major stumbling block to peace efforts as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.

The United Nations maintains that settlements are illegal, but UN officials have reported a surge in construction over the past months.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz accused the US of abandoning Israel by abstaining.

"This is not a resolution against settlements, it is an anti-Israel resolution, against the Jewish people and the state of the Jews. The United States tonight has simply abandoned its only friend in the Middle East," Steinitz, who is close to Netanyahu, told Channel Two News.

Some 430,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank and a further 200,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as the capital of their future state.

Gambia: Africa bloc vows to send troops if Jammeh stays

West African leaders will send troops into The Gambia if its longtime ruler who lost elections does not step down next month, the president of the Economic Community of West African States said on Friday.

Marcel de Souza told reporters the regional bloc has chosen Senegal to lead any military intervention if President Yahya Jammeh does not hand over power.


"The deadline is January 19 when the mandate of Jammeh expires," de Souza said. "If he doesn't go, we have a standby force, which is already on alert. And it's this standby force that should be able to intervene to restore the will of the people."

This would not be the first time the bloc has intervened in a regional crisis. De Souza spoke to reporters in Bamako, Mali, even as ECOWAS continues to use diplomacy to get Jammeh to accept his December 1 defeat.

Jammeh at first shocked Gambians by accepting the loss, but announced a week later he had changed his mind. He said irregularities in the vote count made him question the win of Adama Barrow, a little-known businessman who was the opposition coalition candidate.

Troops seized the office of Gambia's electoral commission after Jammeh's later announcement, and he has mobilised troops across the tiny country that is almost completely surrounded by Senegal.

The UN Security Council this week urged Gambian security forces to "demonstrate maximum restraint" and again pressed Jammeh to accept defeat.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, called the troop deployment "deeply worrying, given the record of human rights violations in Gambia, including excessive use of force against demonstrators, arbitrary detention and deaths in custody, as well as allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees".

Jammeh took power in a coup 22 years ago.

Co-op recalls chocolate Santas after batteries found inside

The Co-op is recalling chocolate Santas after batteries were found inside two of the foil-wrapped figures.

The national recall was announced after the retailer informed the police and Food Standards Agency about the discovery.

The Co-op says it has sold 165,000 of the German-manufactured chocolates, which sell for £1 each.

A Co-op spokesman said: "We are concerned about two separate instances of alleged product tampering involving our hollow milk chocolate Santa foil figures, which have been found to contain a small battery inside.

"As a result we have begun a UK-wide product recall. Customers with one of these products should not eat it but call our customer relations team for a full refund."

The retailer has said there is no suggestion of blackmail and that it has not been threatened.