China’s Global Port Empire | Is Senegal’s Exceptionalism Over? | Ukrainian IT Army’s Campaign in Russia, and more

Australia Blocks New Russian Embassy on Security Grounds  (Bernard Lagan, The Times)
The Australian government has rushed through emergency laws to prevent Russia from building its new embassy next to Canberra’s parliament because it posed a grave security risk.
“The government has received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence, and so close to Parliament House,” Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, told a press conference on Thursday. “To be clear, today’s decision is one taken in the national security interests of Australia.”
The new laws prevent Russia from building on a site it obtained in 2008.

Israel’s New Hypersonic Defense System Defies Russia and Iran’s “Impossible” Boast  (James Rothwell, The Telegraph)
Israel is building the world’s first air defense system dedicated to shooting down hypersonic missiles in a major challenge to Russia and Iran, who have claimed that they are impossible to shoot down.
The Israeli defense firm Rafael is working on a new “Sky Sonic” system that is specifically designed for intercepting hypersonic missiles, which can fly in the upper atmosphere and travel at five times the speed of sound.
The announcement hints at a potential new era of European air defense in which Israel – which is also selling Germany a £3 billion Arrow 3 interception tool – plays a major role.

Deterrence Better Than War: Pottinger (Chen Yun and Liu Tzu-hsuan, Taipei Times)
Taiwan can find inspiration in Ukraine and Israel, which has deterred an invasion for 50 years, former US security adviser Matt Pottinger said.
Pottinger, chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is visiting Taiwan at the head of delegation of US and Israeli security experts who are also members of the foundation.

Is Senegal’s Exceptionalism Over?  (Elodie Toto, Foreign Policy)
The atmosphere of Senegal’s capital is changing. Dakar, the epicenter of teranga—the Wolof term for hospitality—is spiraling into violence. Columns of black smoke emerge from strategic points around the city. In sandy seaside streets renowned for their relaxed lifestyle, people are clashing with police following the June 1 sentencing of Ousmane Sonko, Senegalese President Macky Sall’s number one opponent, on defamation and rape charges. If Sonko’s sentence is upheld on appeal, it would render him ineligible as a candidate for the Senegalese presidency in 2024. The response has been an uproar that has left 15 people dead.
For several months, Senegalese President Macky Sall has been hinting at a bid for a third term in the February 2024 elections, despite running on a campaign promise that he would only serve for two. With the presidential election looming, Sonko’s trial has taken a politically charged turn. His supporters are accusing the government of preventing him from running, an accurate charge levied against a man who, apart from Sonko, faces no serious contenders.
Regardless of whether the 2024 election will be fair, Sonko’s trial and the unrest it is creating ahead of the vote raise a deeper concern. Sonko is popular with Senegal’s younger population, which is particularly disenchanted with Sall, disproportionately dying in the protests, and uniquely vulnerable to regional terrorist groups exploiting political instability for recruitment. Al Qaeda might recognize the fallout resulting from Sonko’s trial as the Achilles’ heel of a country regarded by the West as a pillar of stability in a tumultuous region and set up shop in the country.

Explaining Beliefs in Electoral Misinformation in the 2022 Brazilian Election  (Patricia Rossini et al., Misinformation Review)
The 2022 elections in Brazil have demonstrated that disinformation can have violent consequences, particularly when it comes from the top, raising concerns around democratic backsliding. This study leverages a two-wave survey to investigate individual-level predictors of holding electoral misinformation beliefs and the role of trust and information habits during the 2022 Brazilian elections. Our findings demonstrate that susceptibility to electoral misinformation is affected by factors such as political ideology, trust in the electoral process and democratic institutions, and information consumption, with those who participate in political groups in messaging apps being more likely to believe in electoral misinformation.

Khashoggi’s Widow Sues Israeli Company Over Spyware She Says Ruined Her Life  (Dana Priest, Washington Post)
The Israeli spyware firm NSO Group destroyed the life of Hanan Elatr, the wife of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s wife, forcing her to live in fear and isolation, never able to safely return to, or even visit, her family in Egypt or have a normal life, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia where Elatr lives and works as she awaits approval of her request for political asylum, asserts that NSO infected her cellphone with the Pegasus spyware to spy on him. It asks for unspecified damages.

The Dynamics of the Ukrainian IT Army’s Campaign in Russia  (Kyle Fendorf, Lawfare)
Our understanding of cyber operations is almost entirely driven by defenders. Reports from cybersecurity companies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies offer a view into what and whom cyber operations target, but this perspective is partial, only catching bits and pieces of the overarching campaign. Leaked documents, most notably Edward Snowden’s leak of  Presidential Policy Directive 20andother documentsfrom the National Security Agency, and the occasional statementfrom U.S. Cyber Command offer some visibility into how and where offensive operations are conducted, but still leave many gaps in understanding the landscape. However, the Ukrainian IT Army, a hacktivist group organized in response to the ongoing Russian invasion and likely affiliated with the Ukrainian government, offers a unique viewpoint into the decisions and actions of the offensive side and how cyberspace can be leveraged during a war.

Argentine Judge Calls for Detention of Four Lebanese Citizens in AMIA Bombing Probe  (AP)
A federal judge in Argentina has called on Interpol to detain four Lebanese citizens, so they can be questioned for their suspected role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that killed 85 people. ‘Regarding these individuals, there are well-founded suspicions that they are collaborators or operational agents of the … armed wing of Hezbollah,’ judge Daniel Rafecas wrote in a resolution dated June 13 that the Associated Press obtained Thursday. Argentine prosecutors have long alleged that Iranian officials used the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah to carry out the deadly attack. Iran has long denied any involvement in the incident. Both the United States and Argentina have designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Most of the Lebanese citizens now being sought by Rafecas have ties to the porous tri-border region that connects Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and that the United States has long said is a hub for terrorism financing.

Security Firm: Suspected Chinese Hackers Breached Hundreds of Networks Globally  (Associated Press / VOA News)
Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers used a security hole in a popular email security appliance to break into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally, nearly a third of them government agencies including foreign ministries, the U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday.
“This is the broadest cyber espionage campaign known to be conducted by a China-nexus threat actor since the mass exploitation of Microsoft Exchange in early 2021,” Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technical officer, said in an emailed statement. That hack compromised tens of thousands of computers globally.