All posts tagged: intelligence agencies

China’s military, state media slam U.S. after report on SpaceX spy satellites

China’s military, state media slam U.S. after report on SpaceX spy satellites

Chinese military and state-run media on Sunday accused the United States of threatening global security, days after a Reuters report which found Elon Musk’s SpaceX was building hundreds of spy satellites for a U.S. intelligence agency. Orlando Sentinel | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Chinese military and state-run media on Sunday accused the United States of threatening global security, days after a Reuters report which found Elon Musk’s SpaceX was building hundreds of spy satellites for a U.S. intelligence agency. SpaceX’s Starshield unit is developing the satellite network under a classified $1.8 billion contract with the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO, Reuters reported on Friday, citing five sources familiar with the program. A social media account run by the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, said the SpaceX program exposed the United States’ “shamelessness and double standards” as Washington accuses Chinese tech companies of threatening U.S. security. “We urge U.S. companies to not help a villain do evil,” Junzhengping, an account run by the PLA, posted on social media platform Weibo on Sunday. The account has 1.1 million followers. “All countries worldwide should be vigilant and protect against new and even bigger security threats created by the U.S. government,” the post said. Wang Yanan, chief …

U.S. spy chief ‘cannot rule out’ that China would use TikTok to influence U.S. elections

U.S. spy chief ‘cannot rule out’ that China would use TikTok to influence U.S. elections

China could use social media app TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. elections, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday. Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images China could use social media app TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. elections, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday. Asked by Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi if China’s ruling Communist Party, or CCP, would use TikTok to influence the elections, Haines said: “We cannot rule out that the CCP would use it.” Krishnamoorthi is also the ranking Democrat on the House select committee on China. He and that panel’s Republican chair Mike Gallagher last week introduced a bill that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the short video app used by 170 million Americans. The House is due to vote on Wednesday under fast-track rules that require two-thirds of members to vote “yes” for the measure to win passage. President Joe Biden said last week he would sign the bill, but the app is popular and getting legislation approved by both the House and Senate in an election year may be difficult. The …

Amir Tibon on How His Family Survived the Hamas Massacre

Amir Tibon on How His Family Survived the Hamas Massacre

When I first heard that Israeli civilians were being massacred on the country’s Gaza border, I thought of my friend Amir Tibon. Amir is an exceptionally talented journalist who is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, and has devoted his life and skills to humanistic coverage of what can often be a dehumanizing region. His writing includes award-winning reporting on efforts to achieve a two-state solution and a biography of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. On Sunday, I didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. That’s because Tibon lives in Nahal Oz, a small community bordering Gaza that has no Iron Dome missile defense to protect it. On Saturday, it came under mortar fire from above and was invaded on the ground by Hamas terrorists. During their incursion into Israel, they murdered more than 900 Israelis, while brutalizing and kidnapping many others, most of them civilians. The death toll is continuing to rise. Tibon and his family survived the indiscriminate slaughter, but only after enduring a horrifying ordeal. Just before he put his two …