Daily Intel Brief
China threatens retaliation if Pelosi visits Taiwan, Putin receives support from Iran, and Russia and China are labeled as enablers of human trafficking...
Counterterrorism
A US airstrike killed two members of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Somalia in the first major action by American forces in the East African nation since President Joe Biden sent Special Operations troops back there in May. US Africa Command said it conducted the…
Civilians in a part of northern Togo attacked by suspected Islamist militants last week have been fleeing their homes en masse to seek refuge in nearby cities, a local mayor said. More than 25 people were killed in the attacks on four villages in the Kpendjal district, near the…
Military & Defense
China will take “resolute and strong measures” should the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi proceed with reported plans to visit Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency, is due to…
Russian missiles struck cities and villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, hitting homes, a school and a community center on Tuesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin won strong support support from Iran for his country’s military operation. In Kramatorsk, a city in…
Cybersecurity
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a terrible throwback to attrition warfare. Having failed in their opening salvo against Kyiv, Russian forces have settled into a grinding campaign in other parts of the country, using artillery bombardments in advance of slowly moving infantry…
Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), whose primary goal is to defend Google users from state-sponsored attacks, said today that Russian-backed threat groups are still focusing their attacks on Ukrainian organizations. In a report regarding recent cyber activity in Eastern…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
President Volodymyr Zelensky has continued his purge of Ukraine's security service (SBU) by dismissing the organisation's deputy director. Volodymyr Horbenko is the latest official to lose his job after Mr Zelensky said bosses failed to root out pro-Russian elements in the…
A group of Republican senators wrote to the heads of the U.S. Treasury and Defense departments last week requesting they review a Chinese subsidiary's purchase of farmland in North Dakota. The move by Florida Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota Senators Kevin…
Transnational Organized Crime
California parole officials have approved the release of a notorious former Mexican Mafia prison gang leader who has been cooperating with law enforcement for nearly 20 years. Two consecutive governors previously blocked parole for Rene “Boxer” Enriquez in part based on…
The United States has hit out against Russia and China, accusing the two countries of enabling human trafficking in a US Department of State annual report on the subject. The 634-page document, released on Tuesday, covers policies on human trafficking around the…