OUR PICKSU.S. Intel. Wanted Pegasus Spyware | Bill Tasks CISA With SolarWinds Report | Powering Up in Space, and more

Defense Firm Said U.S. Spies Backed Its Bid for Pegasus Spyware Maker  (Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman, New York Times)
The American contractor L3 Harris is said to have cited support from intelligence officials for its effort to acquire NSO, the Israeli spyware company blacklisted by the Biden administration.

Combating Abortion Misinformation in the Post-Roe Environment  (Julia Rollison, Route-Fifty)
False information could get worse amid rapidly changing laws around abortion access. But states, employers and others have ways to quash these efforts.

Why the Jan. 6 Committee Rushed Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony  (Robert Draper, New York Times)
Committee members were so alarmed by what they considered a clear case of witness tampering that they decided to hold an emergency public hearing.

Chinese Company’s Purchase of North Dakota Farmland Raises National Security Concerns in Washington  (Eamon Javers, Defense One)
Chinese food manufacturer Fufeng Group bought 300 acres of land near Grand Forks, North Dakota, to set up a milling plant. The project is located about 20 minutes from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, raising national security concerns. Both the Democratic chairman and the Republican ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee told CNBC they are opposed to the project.

House Bill Tasks CISA With SolarWinds Report  (Adam Mazmanian, Govexec)
A key lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee wants more details on what was breached and what was lost when the SolarWinds Orion platform was compromised in a supply chain attack.

China’s Espionage Poses Urgent Threat to the UK and US  (Katie Stallard, New Statesman)
Amid political turmoil in Westminster, the FBI and MI5 warn about the danger of “game-changing” Chinese operations.

Strongest Evidence of Guilt: Chart Tracking Trump’s Knowledge and Intent in Efforts to Overturn the Election  (Ryan Goodman, Justin Hendrix, and Clara Apt, Just Security)
The January 6th House Select Committee has produced substantial evidence about former President Donald Trump’s knowledge and beliefs as he tried to overturn the 2020 election. This body of evidence carries potentially great legal (and moral) weight. That’s because several of Trump’s actions would amount to criminal (and morally outrageous) conduct if he acted with particular forms of knowledge and intent.

Donald Trump’s Impeachment Lies to Congress  (Bob Bauer and Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare)
The big reveal from Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony and the Jan. 6 hearings that nobody’s talking about.

Wildfires Followed by Severe Rain Will Become More Common  (Clara Moskowitz and Jen Christiansen, Scientific American)
Climate change tends to bring out the worst in the weather, be it extreme cold or heat, rain or fire. A new study found that the warming atmosphere increases the likelihood that a wildfire in the Western U.S. will be followed by intense rainfall. This confluence of events raises the risk of landslides and flash floods. Graphics show how the two weather extremes will more often pair up.

Powering Up in Space: Is Nuclear the Answer?  (Ryan Weed, War on the Rocks)
Speed, power, and response — these factors decide success and failure in space. Players who want to lead in space have to push the envelope, and maybe even take a few longshots. At the Defense Innovation Unit, we believe that compact nuclear power will get us there in space.
On paper, the United States should be light-years ahead of other nations in nuclear space tech. Six decades ago, America launched a nuclear reactor into space (it’s still up there), and the nation has since spent more than $15 billion on a dozen government programs to develop a nuclear space capability, without a single launch. Meanwhile, Russia is building a nuclear space tug, and China has announced a nuclear system 100 times more powerful than current U.S. designs. And while these claims may oversell the technical reality, those in the field have to ask: Is the United States still in the lead?