Important Takeaways:
- Iran is accelerating online activity that appears intended to influence the U.S. election, in one case targeting a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday.
- Iranian actors also have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, laying the groundwork to stoke division and potentially sway American voters this fall, especially in swing states, the technology giant found.
- The findings in Microsoft’s newest threat intelligence report show how Iran, which has been active in recent U.S. elections, is evolving its tactics for another election that’s likely to have global implications. The report goes a step beyond anything U.S. intelligence officials have disclosed, giving specific examples of Iranian groups and the actions they have taken so far.
- The report also reveals how Russia and China are exploiting U.S. political polarization to advance their own divisive messaging in a consequential election year.
- Iran’s U.N. mission sent The Associated Press an emailed statement: “Iran has been the victim of numerous offensive cyber operations targeting its infrastructure, public service centers, and industries. Iran’s cyber capabilities are defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces. Iran has neither the intention nor plans to launch cyber attacks. The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere.”
- Microsoft’s report aligns with recent warnings from U.S. intelligence officials, who say America’s adversaries appear determined to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims ahead of November’s vote.
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Important Takeaways:
- United States and Canadian fighter jets intercepted four Russian and Chinese bombers that were flying in international airspace near Alaska on Wednesday, officials said.
- Wednesday’s joint Russian and Chinese flight was…notable for being the first intercept of Chinese military aircraft near Alaska
- The joint Russian and Chinese flight reflects the growing military ties between the two nations.
- NORAD stressed that the flight “is not seen as a threat” and that it will continue to monitor activity near North America “and meet presence with presence.”
- “We’re keeping a watchful eye on how they’re developing their capacity for operating in the region,” Iris Ferguson, deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for Arctic and Global Resilience, told reporters Monday.
- “As we say in the department, you know, they are our long-term pacing challenge. And I think that includes in the Arctic.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Senior Hamas terrorist Musa Abu Marzouk announced on Tuesday the signing of a Palestinian unity agreement that includes Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, which rules areas of Judea and Samaria.
- “Today, we sign an agreement, and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity. We are committed to national unity, and we call for it,” said Abu Marzouk.
- The “Beijing declaration” was signed by 14 Palestinian factions that took part in negotiations hosted by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
- The Islamist group reportedly also gave its blessing to P.A. chief Abbas’s proposal to establish a “government of technocrats” whose primary purpose would be the reconstruction of Gaza after the war prompted by Hamas’s murder of some 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7.
- Hamas is an “essential part of the Palestinian political mosaic,” then-P.A. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told world leaders gathered in Qatar in December.
- “We want a situation in which Palestinians are united. … I think it is time that Hamas call the Palestinian president and tell him we’re all united behind you, and you are the legitimate authority of the Palestinian people and we are ready to engage,” Shtayyeh stated at the Doha Forum.
- Amid the unity talks, Shtayyeh submitted the collective resignation of his government last month. Abbas then appointed Fatah loyalist Mohammad Mustafa to fill the prime minister’s role.
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted that an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” should ultimately govern Gaza.
- The Biden administration wants the P.A. to assume control of the Strip after Israel’s war against Hamas ends, a move that Jerusalem rejects because of Ramallah’s overt support for terrorism.
- According to recent polls, 89% of Palestinians support establishing a government that includes or is led by Hamas. Only around 8.5% said they favor one controlled exclusively by Fatah.
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Important Takeaways:
- Here are a few examples, laid bare at last week’s conference, where the U.S. and its allies are being challenged:
- In space, China aims to “displace the United States as the global leader” and exploit it “in a way that is to our detriment,” said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the Defense Intelligence Agency director.
- When China blew up a satellite in 2007, “they put us on notice,” and “we have only seen their development of counter-space weapons just rapidly, breathtakingly, increase,” said U.S. Space Command boss Gen. Stephen Whiting.
- Online, Russia peddles disinformation that influences elections. China absconds with sensitive information that springboards its weapons development and broader economy.
- “If Xi Jinping were sitting on this stage, he would say, ‘Thank you very much for allowing us to cherry-pick, to pick your pocket, of leading technologies and IP,'” said Jon Huntsman Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to China and Russia.
- On the ground and at sea, Russia and China use their troops to muddle borders. Those nearby document the belligerence, but denunciations have done little to stop them.
- “If we allow it to become the norm, that a larger state can change its smaller neighbors’ borders with force, then which border remains secure?” said Jonatan Vseviov, the secretary general of Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- “I think it’s underappreciated in our country, in the United States, just how much our European allies have awakened to the fact that the house is on fire,” said Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the head of U.S. European Command.
- “This is not a show, and this is not just rhetoric. This is true concern about the stability of their continent and the survival of their states.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The Chinese defense ministry said in a statement that forces from both sides recently patrolled the western and northern Pacific Ocean and that the operation had nothing to do with international and regional situations and didn’t target any third party.
- The exercise aimed to demonstrate the capabilities of the navies in addressing security threats and preserving peace and stability globally and regionally
- NATO’s European and North American members and their partners in the Indo-Pacific increasingly see shared security concerns coming from Russia and its Asian supporters, especially China.
- In response, China accused NATO of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia. Its foreign ministry maintained that China has a fair and objective stance on the war in Ukraine.
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Important Takeaways:
- China Sends Most Warplanes Ever Across Key Line With Taiwan
- Some 56 aircraft crossed the so-called median line as of early Thursday, the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei said on the X social media site. Taiwanese aircraft, naval vessels and missile systems were used “in response” to the flights by the People’s Liberation Army, the military added, without providing details on what that entailed.
- The latest warplane flights add to the pressure campaign China has rolled out since the election victory in January of Lai, who Beijing accuses of pursuing independence. That drive has included holding major military drills just after he took office in May, peeling off one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies and expanding a law targeting what it sees as “separatists.”
- The PLA has stepped up incursions across the demarcation in recent years, effectively shrinking the buffer zone between the two sides and slashing the amount of time that Taiwan’s smaller military has to react to any attack from China.
- China has vowed to bring the archipelago of 23 million people under its control someday, by force if necessary.
- President Joe Biden has repeatedly said the US would come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of a Chinese invasion. The US has also stepped up military aid to the archipelago that produces the bulk of the world’s advanced semiconductors in recent years in the hopes of deterring any attack.
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Important Takeaways:
- China Scans ‘World’s Largest Naval Base’ In USA; US Navy’s Norfolk Naval Station ‘Unmasked’ By Spy Satellite
- In a display of its growing space prowess and surveillance capabilities, radar images of a US Navy base taken by a Chinese satellite are circulating online. Appearing first on China’s domestic social media platform Weibo, defense analysts later identified the spacecraft as the Taijing-4 03 “flat-plate radar imaging satellite” and identified the naval facility as the Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.
- The radar image showed three aircraft carriers, what appeared to be two Arleigh Burke-class warships. Four other vessels in the image, however, cannot be identified.
- The Norfolk base, on the east coast of the US, is one of the premier naval bases responsible for projecting power and operations in the Atlantic Ocean and is home to the Military Sealift Command and the submarines of the Atlantic Fleet. It is also the world’s largest shore-based naval establishment, supporting 75 ships and 134 aircraft alongside 14 piers and 11 aircraft hangars.
- According to one report, the Taijing-4 03, the first Chinese commercial satellite of phased-array radar imaging in the Ku band, is a part of the Taijing series of satellites. These play a crucial role in China’s “remote sensing capabilities,” offering various applications such as “disaster and environmental surveillance, natural resource exploration, agricultural yield estimation, and land and maritime mapping.”
- In January this year, satellite images showed that China had built a replica of the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford for use as a target. The mock-ups reflect the trend of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) focus on counter-US aircraft carriers and other capital ships. The targets are more representative of reality and help obtain more accurate data during tests.
- At a broader level, the satellite is also part of the private space race between the US and China, apart from the general intensifying space exploration contest and the overall military, technological, and political competition.
- Beijing, too, has seen several private space technology companies mushroom over the last few years, rivaling US giants like SpaceX, Boeing, and Blue Origin.
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Important Takeaways:
- China rehearses assault on US stealth fighter bases: Beijing military stages attacks on F-35 and F-22 jets as it looks to deter American intervention in Taiwan
- China is bombing models of American fighter jets as part of a rehearsal of a military assault, new satellite photos have revealed.
- The images, taken by Planet Labs over a remote desert area in northwest China, show massive scorch marks next to low-tech models of F-35s and F-22s, some of the most advanced jets used by the US Army.
- The photos also show a long runway with several scotch marks at the top end.
- It is not currently known exactly what weapons were used to leave the marks, but the Times reported that the scale of them would suggest precision missiles were used.
- The desert, the Taklamakan in Xinjiang province, already hosts military testing sites. Three years ago, it was revealed that China had built up models of an American Ford-class aircraft carrier and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
- It comes as a Chinese military drone hovered near an airport on a remote Taiwan island causing delays to flights, Taipei’s military and local media said on Wednesday.
- In addition to military pressure from Chinese warplanes and vessels that maintain a near-daily presence around the island, Taiwan has faced incursions from civilian and unidentified drones that surveil and harass troops.
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Important Takeaways:
- In a short interview with LifeSiteNews, Colonel Douglas Macgregor sounded the alarm about an Israeli attack on Hezbollah that could well widen the war, as well as the escalation of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
- We thank Colonel Macgregor for this interview, whose answers he wrote in the middle of last night.
- In recent weeks, you have sounded the alarm on the situation in Israel with regard to Hezbollah. What do you see happening very soon and when do you think it will happen?
- [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu must escalate or admit defeat. Attacking Hezbollah presents him with the opportunity to entangle American military power in his war for Jewish supremacy in the Near East. The prospect of employing U.S. military power (air and naval forces) against Israel’s enemies is probably appealing to Israelis.
- What will be the effects on the region in the Middle East and in the world should such an attack by Israel on Hezbollah take place within the next couple days?
- I expect the assault on Hezbollah to begin any time after June 24. The effects will be profound. More Muslims will flee to Europe. The economic life of the region will be destroyed, and Russia + China and Iran will likely directly engage Israeli and U.S. forces involved in the war.
- Do you expect Israel to use nuclear weapons?
- The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] can employ tactical nuclear weapons. Given the density of Hezbollah defenses and the numbers of rockets and missiles Hezbollah can launch against targets in Israel, a tactical nuclear weapon is the most appealing option. Heavy casualties in Gaza have reduced IDF fighting power. Israel cannot afford the heavy losses that systematic IDF conventional attacks on Southern Lebanon would produce. However, the use of these weapons would likely precipitate massive Iranian missile attacks against Israel in retaliation. From there the war will spread and other nation states will turn out to have nuclear weapons. Instead of abruptly ending the war as the Israelis hope, it will widen and lengthen the war with ominous implications for Israel’s very existence.
- What would you tell the leaders of our country in light of the escalation in both conflict regions, Israel/Palestine and Ukraine/Russia?
- Washington is taking unacceptable risks in its relations with Moscow. It would be wise as well as humane to end the suffering in Ukraine. It is time for the [U.S. government] to admit defeat and reach an accommodation with Moscow that ends the war in Ukraine.
- Meanwhile, Israel is overreaching. It runs the risk of war with Iran and the whole region if it acts in Southern Lebanon as anticipated above. Washington has no strategic interest that justifies a regional war with Islam in the Near East. If Washington persists, it will discover that Russia will not abandon Iran and that many other countries, including China, will line up in support of Iran and Russia against Washington.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Chinese aren’t exactly being subtle about what they are trying to do. Today, they own more than 300,000 acres of farmland inside the United States, and they have been specifically targeting areas that are located near important military bases.
- In fact, the New York Post has “identified 19 bases across the US from Florida to Hawaii which are in close proximity to land bought up by Chinese entities
- They include some of the military’s most strategically important bases: Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) in Killeen, Texas; Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California, and MacDill air force base in Tampa, Florida.
- We know that the Chinese are very interested in our military bases.
- Do you remember the Chinese spy balloon that was allowed to fly over our country?
- The path that it took allowed it to gather intelligence on Malmstrom Air Force Base, which is where some of our key nuclear assets are located.
- And the Wall Street Journal has reported that Chinese nationals have been caught accessing “military bases and other sensitive sites” inside the United States close to 100 times…
- At the same time all of this spying is going on, there has been an unprecedented surge in Chinese migrants coming across the southern border…
- US border officials said they detained 37,000 Chinese migrants attempting to cross the border in 2023, or 10 times the number detained in the year before. The true number of those attempting to cross the border is likely higher.
- The flow of Chinese migrants continued to surge in 2024, with CBS reporting in February that it observed 600 migrants, many of whom were Chinese, entering the US in a single day.
- The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability said in May that the number of Chinese nationals encountered by authorities at the US border in March had jumped 8,000% from the same period in 2021.
- The Chinese have become extremely aggressive, and it is just a matter of time before we are at war with them.
- But even though many of our leaders publicly talk about the coming war, we are still allowing the Chinese to take advantage of us in unthinkable ways.
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