Midday Roundup: ISIS executioner 'Jihadi John' unmasked

Foreign fighter. Two news organizations have identified the ISIS executioner who appears in beheading videos and speaks with a British accent. The Washington Post and BBC say the man known as “Jihadi John” is Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Londoner who graduated from the University of Westminster with a degree in computer science. British and U.S. intelligence authorities have known the man’s identity for some time and say capturing him is a top priority. Emwazi is believed to have been in Syria since 2012. The Post reported he previously tried to go to Somalia to fight with the al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab.

Net neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote today on the controversial topic of net neutrality. The debate centers on whether the government can block internet service providers from charging customers to speed up internet users’ access to web content. Without regulation, ISPs could charge high-bandwidth services such as Netflix more money to get their content to users faster. Proponents of regulation, who support net neutrality, say the ISPs are on the road to choking out individual voices on the internet who can’t afford premium prices. But the ISPs say if high-bandwidth users don’t start paying more, the internet will be slower for everyone. The FCC is expected to vote to regulate ISPs, enforcing net neutrality, but it won’t be the final word. ISPs are expected to take the issue to court, and Congress could weigh in with legislation on the matter, too.

Terror next door. The Justice Department is charging three New York City residents with plotting to travel to Syria to join ISIS. The men had planned to commit domestic terrorism if they could not get to the Middle East. Two of the men are citizens of Uzbekistan, and the other is from Kazakhstan. The men allegedly told undercover agents they planned to buy guns and shoot police and to harm the president because of “Allah.” One of the men was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport while trying to board a flight to Turkey.

Cultural cleansing. ISIS has posted a video of its members destroying ancient artifacts in a museum in Mosul, Iraq, a city that once prized its connection to biblical history. The video shows militants using sledgehammers to smash statues from as far back as ancient Assyria in the ninth century B.C. ISIS said the statues were idols and needed to be demolished. The destruction of the museum, along with the recent burning of Mosul’s central library, are part of an attempt by ISIS to remove all cultural influences outside of its Islamist ideology from the territories it controls.

Extramarital activities. A South Korean court today abolished a 62-year-old law against adultery, saying it limited personal freedoms. About 5,400 people have been charged with adultery in South Korea since 2008, but prison sentences for the crime are rare. Debate over the law pitted pro-family and marriage groups against those who opposed government interference in people’s private lives. As the ban lifted, stock prices for the condom company Unidus Corp. shot up by 15 percent.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard contributed to this report.