World News
US woman led all-female Islamic State unit, charged with planning attacks
A woman who once lived in Kansas has been arrested after federal prosecutors accused her of joining the Islamic State group and leading an all-female battalion of AK-47 militants.
Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, U.S. Attorneys in Alexandria, Virginia, announced Saturday.
The criminal complaint was filed under seal in 2019 but was made public Saturday after Fluke-Ekren was brought back to the U.S. on Friday to face charges. Her alleged involvement with the Islamic State had not been made public until Saturday’s announcement.
Prosecutors said Fluke-Ekren wanted to recruit agents to attack a U.S. college campus and discussed a terrorist attack on a shopping mall. According to an FBI affidavit, she told a witness, “she believes any attack that doesn’t kill a large number of people is a waste of resources.”
The affidavit by FBI special agent David Robbins also claimed that Fluke-Ekren became the leader of an Islamic State force known as “Khatiba Nusaybah” in the Syrian city of Raqqa in late 2016. The all-female unit was trained to use AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide belts.
In all, the affidavit cites the opinions of six different witnesses, some of whom have been charged with terrorism offences and others who are being held in prison camps for former Islamic State members.
A detention memo filed Friday by 1st Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh noted that Fluke-Ekren even trained children how to use an assault rifle, and that at least one witness saw one of Fluke-Ekren’s children, about 5 or 6 years old, take a with a machine at home in Syria with guns.
“For many years, Fluke-Ekren has been a fanatical follower of ISIS’s radical terrorist ideology, having traveled to Syria to engage in or support violent jihad. Fluke-Ekren has translated her extremist beliefs into action, serving as the designated leader of ISIS military battalions and organizers, directly training women and children to use AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts in support of ISIS murder targets,” Parek wrote.
Fluke-Ekren moved to Egypt in 2008 and traveled frequently between Egypt and the United States for the next three years, according to court documents. She has not been to the United States since 2011.
Prosecutors believe she moved to Syria around 2012. Prosecutors said her husband was killed in early 2016 in an attempted terrorist attack in the Syrian city of Ter Abyad. Later that year, prosecutors said she was married to a Bangladeshi ISIS member who specialized in drone research, but he died in late 2016 or early 2017.
Four months after the man’s death, she remarried a prominent Islamic State leader in charge of the Islamic State group’s defense of Raqqa.
Complete News Source : Hindustan Times
Music
Winner of BTS’ Jungkook lookalike competition in Chicago is an all-too-familiar face as ‘lore runs deep’
On Sunday, The BTS Jungkook lookalike contest winner was crowned in Chicago. Impersonators sporting his signature piercings and tattoos swarmed the venue.
Social media personality Andrew Alexander, who’s previously been documented as sharing “striking similarities” with BTS’ Jungkook, won the K-pop star-focussed lookalike competition in Chicago on Sunday, November 24, 2024. (Instagram )
The chain reaction set off by YouTuber Anthony Po’s super-viral Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in Manhattan on October 27, led fans to the K-pop chapter of this journey a month later.
On Sunday, November 24, the new US trend surrounding celebrity lookalike contests saw BTS’ Jungkook enthusiasts turning up for registration in droves. As the Hindustan Times (and several other outlets) previously reported, the event held at Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chicago, Illinois, handed out a $20 cash prize and a bottle of Soju to the winner. As it turned out, some older fans of the K-pop septet already knew the much-debated winner of the anticipated turnout.
A flurry of fan-shared videos and photos popped up online on Sunday (US time), capturing the three finalists in action as the trio, like other Jungkook impersonators showed up dressed in variations of black outfits. Ultimately, Andrew Alexander, a widely renowned YouTube sensation, was crowned the winner. Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, some BTS fans will remember the content creator from a years-old YouTube video, in which his sister “turned” him into the beloved K-pop group’s maknae.
Who is Andrew Alexander, the winner of Chicago’s Jungkook lookalike competition?
According to the social media personality’s YouTube videos, Andrew is a third-year university student living in California. He clearly flew into Chicago, especially for the Jungkook contest scheduled this week.
Over four years ago, Alexander’s sister, Ashley, posted a video titled “I turned my brother into BTS Jungkook,” as she highlighted how “a lot of people say he looks like” the K-pop star. Given their “striking similarities,” as reflected not only their resemblance (though not validated by a lot of fans) but also their mannerisms, Andrew’s other sister (presumably), Amber, said at the time, “It’s so funny every video we post, there’s at least 20 new people that are like ‘I don’t know if anyone’s ever said this but, Andrew looks like Jungkook’”.
However, Andrew himself did not admit to the similarities. That didn’t stop BTS fan pages from drawing comparisons between him and the BTS singer.
In a video posted before the viral winning announcement, Andrew’s sister documented the scene at the competition venue. Ashley wrote confirmed in the caption, “He flew from LA we flew from NY.” Ironically, the ultimate Jungkook lookalike contest participant was also registered as #7, a number that holds great emotional significance in the BTS fandom, given the group’s member count.
A netizen who’d had been a longtime fan of the Alexander siblings clan – all YouTube personalities – commented on one of Andrew’s posts on November 24, “been a fan since 2018,” as they added a reference to Ashley’s YouTube channel “ur mom ashley.”
In yet another video posted by Amber Alexander, she also recorded the full-circle moment: “He flew all the way from California for this (crying emoji) after years of getting comments saying he looks like Jungkook @andrewalexander WON THE LOOKALIKE COMPETITION.”
Hours before show time, Ashley also took to her TikTok profile (@aaashleyk), showing a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the family ‘Jungkook-ified’ Andrew by drawing the pop star’s famously known hand tattoos and suggesting that he needed a lip ring as well. For his final look, Andrew also showed up with Jungkook’s eyebrow and ear piercings.
Fans react to the winner being crowned for the lookalike contest
While some instantly approved the decision with comments like “Andrew is actually the ONLY one who looked like jungkook, the others literally have no similarity at all,” others who probably never tracked the siblings’ years-old digital footprints were lost why this win was especially gaining momentous traction online.
“If Andrew didn’t win, I would have hosted another one to make sure he won,” someone else wrote in the comments. Others quipped along the lines of how Jungkook had returned from the military and “Kinda crazy how they let Jungkook win his own lookalike competition.”
Those familiar with Andrew’s journey, definitely agreed with how the contest “cooked” with its final decision, especially since “the lore runs deep.” Who could’ve known that this was years in the making at a time when lookalike contests weren’t a norm?
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