RUTHFULLY YOURS

ISIS issued a special message to moms in the most recent issue of their multi-language recruiting magazine: Don’t listen to people who say raising kids as pint-sized jihadists is ruining their childhood or trashing their innocence.

The May issue of Rumiyah, published and distributed online in 10 languages including English, emphasized that the “tremendous grace” of giving birth in the Islamic State is “not granted to many other women,” so jihadi moms should “painstakingly endeavor to raise her children in a manner that pleases her Lord and brings benefit to her ummah [Muslim community].”

The article warns of “reckoning and punishment” if a Muslim woman “shows neglect concerning her flock,” starting with Quran and Arabic education and providing a model example as “the uprightness of the children is connected to the uprightness of the mother.”

She’s also supposed to raise her kids, the article states, “so that the worldly life becomes trivial to them and the Hereafter becomes significant to them, with the mother nurturing them upon a difficult life and some aspect of rough living.”

ISIS’ recruitment model has emphasized luring or creating jihadist families so that young children can be raised in the terror organization. The ISIS “cubs” have been featured in gory training videos, including child jihadists hunting down bound prisoners and young kids killing prisoners tied to ruins of carnival games. Many children in liberated Mosul were held out of school for the two-plus years of occupation as parents didn’t want their kids raised in ISIS indoctrination programs, which have included military training and even kids’ apps.

The Rumiyah articles dictates that “the generation of the Khilafah [caliphate] must be raised upon so that it becomes a firm and course generation which life has tested and strengthened, and so it can thereby prepare to bear the trust, take up the banner, and assume authority in the land.”

An ISIS mom “should recognize and take advantage of” her kids being “raised in the home and under the wing of a mujahid father,” it adds.

“So they grow up with their eyes becoming accustomed to seeing weapons and equipment, including rifles, tactical vests, bullets, grenades, and explosive belts. Likewise, watching the mujahidin’s video releases and following their written and recorded news nurtures within the lion cub the love of jihad and the mujahidin and hatred towards their enemies,” ISIS continues. “The mother may hear criticism from some people who would argue that the manner in which she raises her children might kill their childhood and destroy their innocence.”

“…We ask Allah to grant us righteous offspring and to bring forth from us a generation that will wage jihad for His cause and bring victory to His religion.”

The article includes a picture of an armed child about junior high-age with the caption, “A soldier of the Khilafah who was incited to wage jihad by his mother.”

ROME—Europe’s establishment breathed a sigh of relief after the pro-European Union centrist Emmanuel Macron was elected French president this week. But another populist storm is brewing in Italy, where the euroskeptic 5 Star Movement has remained strong.

Fueled by discontent with slow growth, high unemployment and disillusionment with mainstream politicians, 5-Star has won local elections in Rome, Turin and elsewhere, partly on the strength of its leaders’ call for a referendum on Italy’s use of the European single currency.

Pollsters say about 30% of Italian voters support the movement founded by comedian Beppe Grillo, a level of popularity that has stood firm despite a series of high-profile stumbles, especially by its mayor in Rome. The self-described association of free citizens has replaced the center-left Democratic Party at the top of most polls ahead of national elections to be held by May 2018.

Now, the group that has flouted the rules of the game for establishment parties in Italy is experiencing growing pains as it prepares for the possibility of taking power.

The prospect of Mr. Grillo and his supporters winning and forming a government has made investors nervous and pushed up yields on Italian bonds in recent months. On Friday, the spread between Italian and German 10-year sovereign bond yields was 1.85 percentage points, nearly five times the corresponding spread between French and German bonds.

Mr. Grillo and 5 Star waged a successful campaign to block constitutional changes sought by former Democratic Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, effectively forcing him from office in December. Since then, a caretaker government has run Italy. CONTINUE AT SITE

BERLIN—Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union beat the center-left Social Democrats in the regional election Sunday in Germany’s biggest state, providing a major boost to the German leader ahead of national elections in September.

The center-right Christian Democrats finished ahead of the Social Democrats 33% to 31.5% in Sunday’s state election in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to a projection based on exit polls and early results released by ARD public television.

The result represented a major upset in German politics and underlined Ms. Merkel’s political strength as she prepares to run for a fourth term. North Rhine-Westphalia—whose population of 18 million is more than one-fifth of Germany’s total—has long been a stronghold of the Social Democrats, who have governed in the state for all but five of the last 50 years.
The upstart, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party took 7.4%, meaning it will now have seats in 13 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments. But the party’s hopes of soaring into the double digits in a region with many working-class voters failed to materialize.

The pro-business Free Democratic Party won 12.5% according to the projection, its best-ever result in the state, building momentum ahead of the party’s campaign to try to regain seats in the national parliament in the federal election on Sept. 24.

The campaign in the state turned in part on the record of the Social Democratic premier, Hannelore Kraft, who has governed in partnership with the environmentalist Greens since 2010. Armin Laschet, the Christian Democratic candidate, slammed her performance on the economy and in education. Security was also a major issue, in part because several suspected Islamist extremists, including the Berlin truck attacker Anis Amri, spent time in the state.

But the closely watched vote also sent a message nationwide, showing that despite German discomfort with Ms. Merkel’s acceptance of more than a million refugees and migrants in the last two years, many voters still back her. Of those who voted for the Christian Democrats, 40% said the chancellor played a “very important” role in their decision, according to an Infratest Dimap exit poll. CONTINUE AT SITE

SEOUL—North Korea’s launch on Sunday of its most-sophisticated missile yet offered new clues into how serious the country is in its nuclear ambitions.

In the past three years, North Korea has launched more major missiles than in the three previous decades combined.

That acceleration is one of the most dramatic signs of leader Kim Jong Un’s push to overhaul the country’s weapons program since he took power in late 2011. He has modernized production of nuclear and missile parts, upgraded the program within the military hierarchy and overtly pampered engineers, forcing Western leaders to worry more about Pyongyang’s intentions than ever before.
On Sunday, North Korea launched a newly developed intermediate-range missile, its 10th missile firing this year. Mr. Kim attended the test of the nuclear-capable missile and described it as a “perfect weapon system,” according to a state media report. Initial projections from several experts suggested it would be able to reach U.S. military forces in Guam.

Even apparent failed missile launches, like one that blew up within minutes on April 28, are now seen by independent experts as signs of North Korea’s progress. Learning from those failures would move the regime closer to its ultimate goal of mastering a long-range missile that could threaten the U.S. with nuclear attack.
The Threat From North Korea’s Missiles

VIEW Interactive

For decades, Mr. Kim’s father and grandfather used the country’s missile program to gain leverage in diplomatic talks and revenue from weapon exports. Technological advances came slowly. That changed when Kim Jong Il died and was succeeded by his youngest son, believed to be 33 years old.

The dictator has shown no interest in negotiating with the U.S. about the missile program, and North Korea’s nuclear ambition and skill are advancing much more quickly.

The country is conducting missile tests with the frequency needed to ensure the weapons can be reliably used in conflict. A range of recent breakthroughs has forced the U.S. and its allies to review their missile defenses.

“Kim Jong Un very much wants to reach out and touch the homeland,” Gen. Lori Robinson, head of the U.S. Northern Command, the part of the military responsible for defending the U.S. mainland, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April.

Tackling the threat could become an early point of tension between U.S. President Donald Trump, who is trying to pressure Pyongyang into changing course, and new South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who favors diplomacy and economic engagement with North Korea.
In a factory about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the capital city, dozens of computer-controlled machines, similar to those used by Samsung Electronics Co. to make smartphones, churn out intricate parts that can be used in missiles and nuclear centrifuges, according to photographs released by state media.
In a visit to the same factory in 2013, Mr. Kim angrily demanded that engineers replace old devices for making parts with robots and computer numerical control, a process for high-precision machine tools, according to a state media report at the time. The government has composed songs about CNC machines and put them on postage stamps.

Photos from a return visit by Mr. Kim last August showed CNC machines with bright orange, robotic arms bearing the logo of Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd.

Weapons experts who study satellite images and photos released by North Korea say the newer machines have become ubiquitous in North Korean missile plants. The machines allow faster, more precise manufacturing of parts around the clock, reducing the need to skirt sanctions by importing similar parts. The United Nations bans any imports that could be used in weapons programs.

Weaponry in a military parade in April in Pyongyang to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Mr. Kim, included rocket casings that might have been made by the new CNC machines, missile experts say. North Korea also showed off what appeared to be at least one new long-range missile.

“Basically, they can now produce anything [for missiles] that’s made of metal,” says Jeffrey Lewis, a missile specialist at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey, Calif.

A U.N. panel that monitors sanctions on North Korea identified Tengzhou Keyongda CNC Machine Tools Co. of China as a supplier of the new CNC machines.

A sales manager at the company who declined to provide his name says it sent machines worth about $40,000 to North Korea through an intermediary company “two or three years ago.” The person says North Korea tried to buy more machines this year, but the company declined “since relations between the two countries are tense.”

An ABB spokesman says the Zurich company doesn’t sell equipment to North Korea but couldn’t rule out the possibility that some products were resold there. CONTINUE AT SITE