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Belgium Probes Jihadist Infiltration In Nuclear Plants

Nuclear power plant in Doel, Belgium
Nuclear power plant in Doel, Belgium

BRUSSELS — With Belgium already on high alert after several of its citizens took part in November's attacks in Paris, authorities in Brussels are raising new concerns about potential jihadist threats to nuclear safety.

The Belgian daily L'Echo reports Thursday that authorities have confirmed that the brother-in-law of a jihadist, who himself had extremist Islamic views, had been in line to become a top manager at a nuclear power plant in Doel, Belgium.

The nuclear engineer was ultimately fired by the Electrocabel authorities three years ago after admitting that he was a radicalized Muslim. L'Echoreports that Belgian authorities have now confirmed the former power plant manager's family ties to jihadist leader Azzedine Kbir Bounekoub, a member of the ISIS-lnked group Sharia4Belgium in Antwerp.

Kbir Bounekoub, also known as Abou Abdullah, is currently fighting in Syria and is wanted by the police after being sentenced last year to 12 years in prison for participation in a terrorist organization.

The brother-in-law, whose identity was not published, was in training at Electrabel to become a supervisor at the plant. A source at Doel was quoted by L'Echo as citing several signs of radicalization, including the employee's refusal to shake hands with his female superior. He was eventually fired for openly displaying such behavior deemed unacceptable at the company.


Electrocabel says that it has very strict security measures, which were reinforced after the suspected sabotage on the Doel 4 reactor in 2014 when 90,000 litres of oil leaked into the steam turbine, causing it to overheat.

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Society

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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