On August 23, 1973, an attempted bank raid at Stockholm's Norrmalmstorg Square went badly wrong.

Four hostages were taken and the drama ended only five days later when tear gas forced the robbers to surrender.

The hold-up would doubtless have been forgotten but for the odd reaction of the hostages, who formed a close bond with their jailers.

And it was the events of those few days that gave their name to something now commonly described as Stockholm Syndrome.

This phenomenon has often been identified in the half-century since Norrmalmstorg Square.

But it has been remarkable to see it exhibited by whole swathes of the British public over the past year.

After 16 months of being told by the state when we could leave our homes, whether we could see our families, with whom we were allowed to have sex, or what kinds of sports we were permitted to play, many of us are eager to regain the human dignity that comes with the exercise of our own free will.

Others react differently.

With many focusing on tomorrow's Cyber Polygon exercise, less attention has been paid to the World Economic Forum's real ambitions in cybersecurity - to create a global organization aimed at gutting even the possibility of anonymity online. With the governments of the US, UK and Israel on board, along with some of the world's most powerful corporations, it is important to pay attention to their endgame, not just the simulations.

Amid a series of warnings and simulations in the past year regarding a massive cyber attack that could soon bring down the global financial system, the "information sharing group" of the largest banks and private financial organizations in the United States warned earlier this year that banks "will encounter growing danger" from "converging" nation-state and criminal hackers over the course of 2021 and in the years that follow.

The organization, called the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), made the claim in its 2021 "Navigating Cyber" report, which assesses the events of 2020 and provides a forecast for the current year. That forecast, which casts a devastating cyber attack on the financial system through third parties as practically inevitable, also makes the case for a "global fincyber [financial-cyber] utility" as the main solution to the catastrophic scenarios it predicts.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, an organization close to top FS-ISAC members has recently been involved in laying the groundwork for that very "global fincyber utility" — the World Economic Forum, which recently produced the model for such a utility through its Partnership against Cybercrime (WEF-PAC) project. Not only are top individuals at FS-ISAC involved in WEF cybersecurity projects like Cyber Polygon, but FS-ISAC's CEO was also an adviser to the WEF-Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report that warned that the global financial system was increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks and was the subject of the first article in this 2-part series.

Beirut: Leading Lebanese businessman Najib Mikati secured enough votes in parliamentary consultations on Monday to be designated the next prime minister, raising hopes for an urgently needed viable government to tackle a crippling financial crisis.

Mikati, who has been prime minister twice before and unlike many Lebanese leaders does not hail from a political bloc or dynasty, received 72 votes out of a total of 118 members of parliament.

No wonder Washington wanted to block it

The US and Germany came to a historic agreement last week over the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as a compromise between the hawks who have sought to sink the project and those who want to do business with Russia.

However, efforts to draw a line under the debate over the almost-finished energy link have clearly not pacified Ukraine's foreign minister. Dmytro Kuleba was quick to reply to the news on Wednesday, saying in a joint statement with Poland's foreign minister that the proposals put forward to alleviate the "security deficit" caused by Nord Stream 2 "cannot be considered sufficient."

The pipeline, which stretches through the Baltic Sea and connects the gas fields of Siberia directly to Germany, is already 98% complete, with the final stretches set to be laid in August. Though US President Joe Biden's White House has sought to portray the new settlement with Berlin as the final word on the matter, some American lawmakers are still pushing to see the US impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 project.

Relations between Jordan and Iran have been icy since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Relations worsened further after Amman expressed support for the overthrow of the Syrian government of Bashar Assad in the early 2010s, which Iran supported diplomatically and militarily, and amid Jordan's warm ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has alleged that his country has been attacked by Iranian-made drones.

Abdullah II said, speaking to CNN on Sunday:

"Unfortunately, Jordan has been attacked by drones that have come out that are Iranian signature that we have to deal with."

Asked when these attacks took place, the king said that they occurred "in the past year or so." He did not provide any additional information, such as who was using the drones or what they targeted, but went on to urge Amman's American allies to discuss a range of security matters with Iran.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician-turned-congressman, says he's "terrified for our country" in the wake of President Joe Biden's disastrous town hall this week — and that he doubts whether the commander in chief has the cognitive ability to make it through a full term.

"He's completely LOST it!" Jackson (R-Tex.) tweeted Saturday, along with a video clip — recorded this week — in which Biden bizarrely answered a reporter's question about defunding the police by claiming that Republicans accuse him of "sucking the blood out of kids. Needs a cognitive exam NOW!" Jackson posted.


Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., says the president isn't inspiring confidence at home or on the world stage on Hannity.

Joe Biden and the Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, are expected to announce on Monday an agreement to end the US military combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, according to a senior Biden administration official.

The plan to shift the US military mission, whose stated purpose is to help Iraq defeat the Islamic State, to a strictly advisory and training role will be spelled out in a broader communique to be issued by the two leaders following a White House meeting on Monday afternoon, said the official.

The official said Iraqi security forces were "battle-tested" and have proved themselves "capable" of protecting their country. Still, the Biden administration recognizes that Isis remains a considerable threat, the official said.

Isis was largely routed on the battlefield in 2017. But it can still carry out high-casualty attacks. Last week, the group claimed responsibility for a roadside bombing that killed at least 30 and wounded dozens in a suburban Baghdad market.

Given the lack of any deep thinking going on in the White House, Americans could easily find themselves in yet another Afghanistan.

The inability of the United States to comprehend what it was becoming involved in when, in the wake of 9/11, it declared a Global War on Terror, has to be reckoned one of the singular failures of national security policy over the past twenty years. Not only did the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq make bad situations worse, but the fact that no one is Washington was able to define "victory" and think in terms of an exit strategy has meant that the wars and instability are still with us. In their wake has been hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars spent to accomplish absolutely nothing.

As a result, Iraq is unstable and leans more heavily towards America's adversary Iran than it does to Washington. The Iraqi Parliament has, in fact, asked U.S. forces to leave the country, a request that has been ignored both by Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Trump actually threatened to freeze Iraqi bank assets to pressure the Iraqis into accepting the continued U.S. occupation. At the same time, American troops illegally present in neighboring Syria, continue to occupy that country's oil fields to deprive the government in Damascus of much needed resources. Neither Iraq nor Syria threatens the United States in any way.

The French parliament approved a bill early Monday that will require a health pass for access to restaurants, bars, trains and planes from the beginning of August. All venues accommodating more than 50 people already require proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid-19 test, including museums, cinemas and swimming pools.

France's parliament approved a law early Monday requiring special virus passes for all restaurants and domestic travel and mandating vaccinations for all health workers.

Both measures have prompted protests and political tensions.

Scientists who are skeptical of chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci's proclamations about the coronavirus pandemic don't want to go public with their concerns for fear it will affect their funding, Sen. Rand Paul claimed Tuesday.

Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, told Fox News Primetime of Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984:

"He's been there for 40 years, probably 39 years too long, but he controls all the funding, so people are deathly afraid of him. I get letters from scientists all the time. You can find them. They're very distrustful of what he's saying.

"They don't think he's making sense. They don't think he's reading the science accurately, but they're afraid to speak out because many of them are university scientists and they depend on NIH [National Institutes of Health] funds, and to cross him means it's the last money you'll ever get."