• Immigrant infants too young to talk called into court to defend themselves

    The Trump administration has summoned at least seventy infants to immigration court for their own deportation proceedings since 1 October 2017, according to Justice Department data. These are children who are unable to speak and still learning when it’s day versus night. The number of infants under age 1 involved has been rising — up threefold from 24 infants in the fiscal year that ended last 30 September, and 46 infants the year before.

  • Labor leader Corbyn under fire from his own party, rabbis for anti-Semitism

    British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has been accused by his own MPs of being an “anti-Semite and a racist,” who turns a blind eye to anti-Jewish sentiments in the Party. Veteran Labor MP Dame Margaret Hodge on Tuesday labelled an “anti-Semite and a racist” three hours after Labor’s highest governing body ignored pleas of the Jewish community and rejected the internationally recognized definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

  • Extremist candidates appear on ballots around U.S.

    Far-right extremists – and at least one on the far left — are making their presence felt in mainstream American politics, and voters will find a record number of them on the ballot this fall. Around the country, in blue and red states alike, members of the extremist right – and their racist, anti-Semitic views – are enjoying more exposure today than at any time in recent history.

  • EU law enforcement, Google take on terrorist online propaganda

    Europol, the European law enforcement agency, conducted a 2-day gathering of European law intelligence and enforcement services, attended by representatives from Google, to improve the tracking and removal of online terrorist propaganda being disseminated on various Google platforms.

  • Russia, post-World Cup, plans to intensify aggression against West: U.S., U.K. intel sources

    Sources familiar with intelligence collected by the United Kingdom, the United States, and other allies say that Russian intelligence agencies are about to ramp up operations targeting Western countries. The growing concern about Russia’s plans preceded the meeting earlier this week between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Intelligence officials in the United States and the United Kingdom told CNN that the Russians ordered a relative lull in activity during the month-long soccer tournament, which was hosted by Russia.

  • U.S. steps up charges against alleged Russian “agent” in Washington

    A U.S. grand jury has stepped up criminal charges against a woman accused of acting as a covert agent for Russia by cultivating ties with U.S. politicians, while Russian officials denounced the case. The U.S. grand jury late on 17 July charged Maria Butina, 29, a student at American University in Washington and founder of a Russian gun-rights group, with conspiracy and acting as an agent of the Russian government.

  • Congress must adopt stronger safeguards for wireless cybersecurity: Expert

    Thanks to the advent of cell phones, tablets and smart cars, Americans are increasingly reliant on wireless services and products. Yet despite digital technology advancements, security and privacy safeguards for consumers have not kept pace. One expert told lawmakers that Congress should take immediate action to address threats caused by cell-site simulators by “ensuring that, when Congress spends about a billion taxpayer dollars on wireless services and devices each year, it procures services and devices that implement cybersecurity best practices.”

  • Donald Trump’s fight with his own intelligence services will only get worse

    Those wanting a robust response by the United States to Russian foreign policy in Europe and the Middle East were worried about the Trump. But the worst was yet to come: in an extraordinary 46-minute joint news conference after the two men met, Trump refused to support the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia had intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While it’s foolhardy to predict the future at the best of times, never mind under the Trump administration, it’s certain that America’s spies and President Trump face a stormy future.

  • U.S. charges woman with links to Kremlin, U.S. politicians as covert Russian agent

    Maria Butina, a 29-year old Russian national in the United States on a student visa, cultivated ties with American conservative politicians and groups – especially the NRA – and was close to people around Donald Trump. She bragged at parties in Washington that she could use her political connections to help get people jobs in the Trump administration after the election. She was arrested on Monday and charged with being a covert Russian agent. The criminal complaint says that she reported to Aleksandr Torshin, a Russian oligarch who doubles as a cut-out for Russian intelligence. Torshin became a lifetime member of the NRA in 2012, and is now being investigated for allegedly steering millions of dollars from the Kremlin to the NRA in 2016, which the NRA then used to fund pro-Trump advertising and campaign events.

  • Iran sues U.S. at World Court for leaving nuclear deal

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has confirmed that Iran has filed a lawsuit against the United States over the re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, claiming the move violates the nuclear treaty Tehran signed with the United States and five other world powers.

  • Iranian nuclear archives show advances about which “international inspectors were unaware”

    Information contained in the Iranian nuclear archives extracted by Israel in a daring January raid contain more detailed information about the extent of Iran’s nuclear weapons program including specifics “about which international inspectors were unaware,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

  • Helping state, local election officials enhance cybersecurity

    The University of West Florida Center for Cybersecurity recently partnered with the Florida Department of State and election officials across Florida to provide training for supervisors of elections and key personnel to enhance cybersecurity resiliency ahead of the 2018 elections. In January 2017, DHS designated voting systems as critical infrastructure. In May 2018, DHS, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence spoke to Congress about the importance of preparing state and local election officials for the coming Russian government cyberattacks on U.S. election systems, attacks which experts expect to be more sophisticated – and disruptive — than those the Kremlin launched in 2016.

  • Reports detail Israeli raid on Iran's nuclear documents

    Israel has revealed new details of how its spy agency smuggled out nuclear documents from Iran earlier this year, although the material does not appear to provide evidence that Iran failed to fulfill its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

  • U.S. intel chief on Russia’s unrelenting cyberattacks: “The warning lights are blinking red”

    Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Friday that the U.S. digital infrastructure “is literally under attack” by Russia. “These actions are persistent, they’re pervasive, and they are meant to undermine America’s democracy on a daily basis, regardless of whether it is election time or not.” Coats emphasized that Russia’s hostile cyber activities go beyond targeting elections and sowing division, to attempts to target vulnerabilities in critical U.S. infrastructure, trying to infiltrate energy, water, nuclear, and manufacturing sectors. He compared today’s warning indicators related to Russian cyberattacks to the warning indicators in the run-up to 9/11. “It was in the months prior to September 2001, when according to then-CIA director George Tenet, the system was blinking red,” he said. “And here we are nearly two decades later, and I’m here to say the warning lights are blinking red again.”

  • U.S. Homeland Security chief: Russia sowing divisions among Americans

    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said U.S. intelligence officials are seeing “persistent Russian efforts” to use social media and other resources to create divisions among the American people. She said the Russians are using social media, “sympathetic spokespeople, and other fronts to sow discord and divisiveness amongst the American people.” “Though votes were not changed” during the 2016 election, she said, “any attempt to interfere in our elections — successful or unsuccessful — is a direct attack on our democracy.”