Two themes run through today's edition, and both are about the machinery of the state catching up with the threat.
Britain has used its new state-threats powers for the first time. On 17 July the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Russia's GRU Volunteer Corps and the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right became the first bodies designated under the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026. Supporting them or taking their money now carries up to 14 years, and prosecutors no longer have to prove a foreign-power link in every case.
At home, the counter-terrorism provisions of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 introduce the Youth Diversion Order, a civil route for under-21s pulled into terrorism-related activity. It answers a hard fact: 13 per cent of MI5's terrorism investigations now involve children, three times the share in early 2021.
The backdrop is unchanged. The threat to the UK from terrorism remains SEVERE, meaning an attack is highly likely, and the threat to Northern Ireland from Northern Ireland-related terrorism remains SUBSTANTIAL. For operators the message is steady: the threat is diversifying by actor and by age, and the legal ground is moving under it.
