The Mirror

Bath Time: London Terror Attacker’s TV Debut, Journalists Crowd The Hill Like Never Before

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One London terrorist we should’ve seen coming — One of the three men who carried out the London terrorist attacks has been 10 inches from our face all along, reports The Guardian.

Khuram Shazad Butt, a British citizen who was born in Pakistan, was identified as one of the three attackers, but this is not the first time he has been connected to the extremist Islamic Group. Butt appeared in The Jihadis Next Door, a 2016 documentary featured on Netflix and British TV.

Butt seemed like a normal guy, inviting his neighbors over for a casual BBQ and hanging out at his local pool. Well, about as normal a man can be when he’s not filming a program centered on Muslim extremists in Britain.

During filming, a bystander complained about a scene where a “black flag associated with ISIS was publicly unfurled.” Police were advised to make a formal request for footage of the doc, but the advice fell on deaf ears.

Had police investigated the scene further, they might have been able to identify Butt, who was shot dead during the attack.

Netflix nixed the program. Check out the rest of the story here.

From peace to pandemonium — Don’t be fooled by the vibrant flowers and snake-line vines that weave overhead.

Squirreled away in this garden is a small-town nirvana called Horto, a seemingly perfect hiatus from the hustle and bustle of Rio de Janeiro.

That was until the recent years, when authorities began to threaten eviction upon the 3,000-person village. As a botanical garden, “What cannot be allowed is people living inside the perimeters,” said garden director Sergio Besserman in a story by Agence France-Press that appeared in the Manila Bulletin.

The proud residents of Horto basically said screw you, Besserman, we had it first. They formed a mini militia and built barricades to protect their home” “Every day, starting at 5 a.m., volunteers take positions at the main entrance to Horto, noting everyone who comes in and out, ready to sound the alert.”

Recent confrontations have “ended in bruising clashes with riot police.”

Ironically, in the midst of all the choas, both sides risk losing what really matters: the preservation of these beautiful gardens. “Imagine the logs and burning tires right in front of such beautiful nature,” 78-year-old Marlene Miranda said. “It’s such a paradox.”

Read more here. 

Reporters Gone Wild – ‘It’s not you it’s me. We just need some space’ lawmakers are saying to the information-hungry journalists flooding Capitol Hill.

A big Style section story by WaPo’s Elise Viebeck and Ben Terris reports that the Senate press gallery warned news organizations that the chaos has got to stop. The letter said, “Collectively, the press following Senators have become large and aggressive. We are concerned someone may get hurt.”

Veteran staffers said the daily crowd on the Hill is even larger than crowds during Watergate or Clinton’s impeachment. At a pro-Israel resolution event one staffer outlined a “red zone” to prevent reporters from swarming lawmakers.

The only thing scarier than forgetting their voice recorder is losing access to coverage, which one reporter said they are “one tripped senator away from.”

Though I’ve never heard of ‘death by journalist stampede,’ with the James Comey drama looming,  good luck, Capitol Hill. Anything can happen.

For more about this so-called danger, read here.