Our picksElection Engineering | The Real James Bond | The Militia Menace, and more

Published 23 September 2020

·  The Rise of the Foreign Funds that Distort Western Politics

·  Election Engineering: How U.S. Experts Are Making Sure Your Vote Will Count

·  Repairing Humanity’s Relationship with the Planet Will Be Cheaper Than Continuing to Let It Slide

·  We Live in a Potemkin Autocracy Now

·  Blocking Students Is Not the Answer to Chinese Spying in America

·  ASIO Reveals Up to 40 Percent of Its Counterterrorism Cases Involve Far-Right Violent Extremism

·  The Unanswered Question of Our Time: Is Trump an Agent of Russia?

·  Around 20 DHS Intelligence Reports Recalled in the Wake of Portland Controversy

·  The Militia Menace

·  Britain Sent the Real James Bond to Spy on Cold War Poland

The Rise of the Foreign Funds that Distort Western Politics (Financial Times)
Covert Russian and Chinese money is playing an ever increasing role

Election Engineering: How U.S. Experts Are Making Sure Your Vote Will Count (PCMag / Medium)
The coming election will almost certainly face a host of threats, from foreign-sponsored disinformation campaigns to the logistics of counting the inevitable surge in COVID-driven mail-in ballots. How can Americans be sure their votes are secure and accurately counted? The nation’s top security experts have been working on that.

Repairing Humanity’s Relationship with the Planet Will Be Cheaper Than Continuing to Let It Slide (Carter Roberts and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Foreign Policy)
The choice is simple: accept devastating wildfires, extreme weather, species loss, and disease outbreaks or secure a sustainable future at a fraction of the cost.

Blocking Students Is Not the Answer to Chinese Spying in America (Economist)
Some visas are being revoked for no good reason.

ASIO Reveals Up to 40 Percent of Its Counterterrorism Cases Involve Far-Right Violent Extremism (Paul Karp, Guardian)
Australian Security Intelligence Organization warns Covid-19 has created a greater opportunity for rightwing activists to recruit online

The Unanswered Question of Our Time: Is Trump an Agent of Russia? (Tim Weiner, Washington Post)
Neither Mueller nor the FBI took it on. It’s crucial someone does. This is a case for super-secret mole hunters.
The FBI faced a national security nightmare three years ago: It suspected that the new president of the United States was, in some unknown way, in the sway of Russia.
Was an agent of a foreign power in the White House? Should they investigate Donald Trump? “I can’t tell you how ominous and stressful those days were,” Peter Strzok, then the No. 2 man in FBI counterintelligence, told me. “Similar to the Cuban missile crisis, in a domestic counterintelligence sense.” (Cont.)