THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONA Russian Airline Bomb Plot? What We Know About the Polish PM's Accusations

By Mike Eckel

The accusation was as blunt as it was serious: Russia is plotting terror attacks against unspecified targets utilizing aircraft, Poland’s prime minister said. Though shocking, the Polish leader’s comments were not out of the blue: there’s been a growing number of suspicious, alarming, and unexplained incidents in recent months.

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CHINA WATCHU-M Ends Partnership with Chinese University

By Elyse Apel, The Center Square

The University of Michigan has announced it will end its Joint Institute with Chinese Shanghai Jiao Tong University, following growing concerns from lawmakers about national security.

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SPIESThe World’s Most Bizarre Secret Weapons: How Pigeons, Cats, Whales and Even Robotic Catfish Have Acted as Spies Through the Ages

By Stefan Wolff and David Hastings Dunn

The death of a spy is rarely newsworthy, but when a white beluga whale suspected of spying for Moscow was found dead in Norwegian waters in September, the animal soon became a minor celebrity. The whale is one in a long line of animals which have been used by the intelligence services.

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CHINA WATCHChina-Based Hacker Conspired to Develop and Deploy Malware That Exploited Tens of Thousands of Firewalls Worldwide

Chinese hacker and his co-conspirators worked at the offices of Sichuan Silence Information Technology Co. Ltd. to discover and exploit a previously-unknown vulnerability (an “0-day” vulnerability) in certain firewalls.

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INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITYRep. Michael McCaul Calls Tulsi Gabbard a “baffling” Pick to Lead Intelligence Community

By Matthew Choi

The Austin Republican leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee and predicted Gabbard’s nomination would fail in the Senate.

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CHINA WATCHWhat is Salt Typhoon? A Security Expert Explains the Chinese Hackers and Their Aattack on U.S. Telecommunications Networks

By Richard Forno

Lost in the noise of the story is that Salt Typhoon has proved that the decades of warnings by the internet security community were correct. No mandated secret or proprietary access to technology products is likely to remain undiscovered or used only by “the good guys” – and efforts to require them are likely to backfire.

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CHINA WATCHProtecting U.S. Allies and Partners from Chinese Economic Coercion

By Elliott Abrams, Ezra Hess, and Joshua Kurlantzickr

China’s growing willingness to defy the international order, and its increasingly aggressive leadership, have led it to increasingly utilize economic coercion against countries it believes have defied China’s interests. This coercion can be powerful, and the United States and its partners have not been well-prepared for Beijing’s actions. The U.S. and others need to develop a response immediately.

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