WORLD ROUNDUPChina’s Global Port Empire | Is Senegal’s Exceptionalism Over? | Ukrainian IT Army’s Campaign in Russia, and more
· Examining China’s Global Port Empire
Beijing is now the world’s largest holder of international port assets
· Russia Deepfake Video Mocks Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden
Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Ursula von der Leyen also targeted in clip shared by Moscow’s embassies in Europe
· Australia Blocks New Russian Embassy on Security Grounds
Moscow wanted to leave cramped premises and move to a more prestigious address near parliament
· Israel’s New Hypersonic Defense System Defies Russia and Iran’s “Impossible” Boast
Announcement hints at potential new technological era, with ‘deepening engagement’ between Europe and Israeli firms
· Deterrence Better Than War: Pottinger
Taiwan can look to Ukraine and Israel to learn about deterrence, which is a better option than war
· Is Senegal’s Exceptionalism Over?
The defenses that made the country unique are falling one by one—leaving political discontent and spiritual voids exposed to al Qaeda
· Explaining Beliefs in Electoral Misinformation in the 2022 Brazilian Election
The role of ideology, political trust, social media, and messaging apps
· Khashoggi’s Widow Sues Israeli Company Over Spyware She Says Ruined Her Life
In the lawsuit, Hanan Elatr says Saudi Arabia used NSO’s Pegasus spyware to track her and her husband’s whereabouts before he was murdered
· The Dynamics of the Ukrainian IT Army’s Campaign in Russia
The Ukrainian IT Army offers a unique viewpoint into the decisions and actions of the offensive side in cyberspace
· Argentine Judge Calls for Detention of Four Lebanese Citizens in AMIA Bombing Probe
Argentine prosecutors have long alleged that Iranian officials used the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah to carry out the deadly attack
· Security Firm: Suspected Chinese Hackers Breached Hundreds of Networks Globally
State-backed Chinese hackers used a security hole in a popular email security appliance to break into the global networks
Examining China’s Global Port Empire (Christopher J. Watterson, National Interest)
Recent data confirms that Chinese state ownership of ports, or investment firms that own ports, carries a unique array of economic, strategic, and political risks for recipient port states. Through a network of dozens of state-owned port operators, contractors, investment firms, and banks, the Chinese state has invested upwards of $110 billion in foreign port operation and development projects across eighty port states, a value equivalent to the total outward foreign direct investment (ODFI) stock of Israel.
These investments were mostly made in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, when demand for capital was high and the rehabilitative and mutually beneficial effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) were presumed.
There are growing unease about “handing over the keys” of one’s critical infrastructure to a foreign government. Such concerns are not unfounded. In a recently published article in the journal Marine Policy (available open access) my co-authors and I argue that the political nature of these investments vis-à-vis Chinese state ownership of the investing firms carries a unique array of economic, strategic, and political risks for the recipient port states.
Russia Deepfake Video Mocks Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden (Joshua Thurston, The Times)
Rishi Sunak spins the wheel of sanctions and lands on a hedgehog, in Brussels Ursula von der Leyen is taking a hard line on salads and wolfhounds, and in Berlin Olaf Scholz is out of ideas and turns to ChatGPT for help.
If the most sophisticated deepfake videos blur the line between reality and make-believe, Moscow’s latest propaganda push takes a sledgehammer to it.
Recently the Kremlin has doubled down on its disinformation campaign. On Tuesday it was revealed Russia was responsible for a fake news story designed to convince French people that the country was threatened by a radioactive cloud caused by British weapons supplied to Ukraine.
The vast disinformation campaign involved cloning western newspaper websites in an attempt to undermine support for Ukraine, according to Catherine Colonna, the French foreign minister.
