OUR PICKSHow China Extended Its Repression into an American City | Terrorism Threats on the Rise 3 Years After Afghanistan Exit | U.S. Doesn’t Have the Troops for Another War, and more
· How China Extended Its Repression into an American City
China has stepped up efforts to intimidate and spy on its diaspora, as Beijing’s influence grows outside its borders
· Powerful Spyware Exploits Enable a New String of ‘Watering Hole’ Attacks
Suspected Russian hackers have compromised a series of websites to utilize sophisticated spyware exploits that are eerily similar to those created by NSO Group and Intellexa
· Family Members of 9/11 Victims Call on Harris and Trump to Oppose U.S.-Saudi Deal
Families oppose any Middle East peace deal with Saudi Arabia until the U.S. government holds the country accountable for any role it might have played on Sept. 11
· Terrorism Threats on the Rise 3 Years After Afghanistan Exit
In Washington and among the broader American public, there is no appetite for long-term foreign invasion missions to combat terrorism
· America Isn’t Ready for Another War — Because It Doesn’t Have the Troops
The US military’s recruiting crisis, explained
How China Extended Its Repression into an American City (Shibani Mahtani et al., Washington Post)
Chinese diplomats and pro-China diaspora groups based in the United States organized demonstrations in San Francisco that harassed and silenced protesters opposed to Beijing’s policies, including through violence, during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the city in November, a six-month investigation by The Washington Post shows.
The events in San Francisco illustrate how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is willing to extend its intolerance of any dissent into the United States and target people exercising their First Amendment rights in an American city. It is part of a broader global pattern of China attempting to reach beyond its borders and suppress parts of its diaspora advocating against the CCP and ongoing rights abuses in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and mainland China, the U.S. government and human rights groups say.
A number of diaspora group leaders have long-standing links to Beijing, according to Chinese state media, photos of high-level events and interviews, including with Chinese activists, former FBI officials and researchers. These include ties to the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Communist Party which uses non-state actors to further China’s political goals overseas, blurring the line between civilians and state officials.
Powerful Spyware Exploits Enable a New String of ‘Watering Hole’ Attacks (Lily Hay Newman, Wired)
In recent years, elite commercial spyware vendors like Intellexa and NSO Group have developed an array of powerful hacking tools that exploit rare and unpatched “zero-day” software vulnerabilities to compromise victim devices. And increasingly, governments around the world have emerged as the prime customers for these tools, compromising the smartphones of opposition leaders, journalists, activists, lawyers, and others. On Thursday, though, Google’s Threat Analysis Group is publishing findings about a series of recent hacking campaigns—seemingly carried out by Russia’s notorious APT29 Cozy Bear gang—that incorporate exploits very similar to ones developed by Intellexa and NSO Group into ongoing espionage activity. (Cont.)
