MI5 Chief warns of growing terror AI threat as right-wing extremism reaches children as young as 13
McCallum said right-wing cases are increasingly turning violent, while MI5 will create a new centre to assess AI threats.
- On Tuesday, MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum warned that anti-Muslim and anti-migrant grievance is tipping into "terrorist intent," with the UK terrorism level remaining "severe" and driven in significant part by extreme right-wing terrorism.
- Violent disorder has persisted since the 2024 Southport riots, with attacks on addresses believed to house asylum seekers in Thetford, Norfolk, and a Portsmouth Marriott protest where crowds wrongly targeted a visiting Pakistani cricket team.
- Data released in July by the British Muslim Trust shows one mosque in Britain is attacked every five days, with 78 verified attacks and incidents at Muslim places of worship tracked over the past year.
- Extreme right-wing terrorism often skews young and is "driven by the internet," McCallum noted, citing a 16-year-old from Inverclyde jailed for 10 years for planning to firebomb the Inverclyde Muslim Centre in Greenock.
- Beyond domestic threats, the MI5 chief warned terrorists could exploit "AI-enabled drones" and radicalizing material, while naming Russia as "aggressor number one" and the most serious foreign state threat to UK security.
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Right-wing extremists increasingly likely to consider terror attacks, MI5 chief warns
Extremists with anti-migrant opinions are becoming increasingly likely to consider carrying out terrorist attacks against hotels housing asylum seekers and immigration centres, the head of MI5 has warned
UK faces rising threat from far-right terrorism, warns MI5 chief
The UK is facing a growing threat from extreme right-wing terrorism, with cases involving anti-immigration and anti-Muslim grievances increasingly escalating into terrorist intent, the head of British domestic intelligence service MI5 said Tuesday.
MI5 Warns of “Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism” Threat
MI5 chief Ken McCallum has used his annual speech to warn of threats to the UK from Iran and right-wing extremists. Plus: The chancellor has rejected calls to match capital gains and income tax rates, Nigel Farage is publicly briefing against Robert Jenrick, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon pledges more support for small business owners. With Aaron […]
Anti-Muslim rhetoric in UK shifting toward ‘terrorist intent,’ MI5 chief warns
LONDON: People in the UK who hold anti-Muslim beliefs are becoming more likely to consider staging terrorist attacks against migrant centers and asylum hotels, the head of MI5, the country’s counterintelligence and security agency, warned. In an annual threat update, Ken McCallum said the agency had documented a significant shift from radicalized, right-wing sentiment toward violence, The Guardian newspaper reported. He described this change as …
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