Hackers Hit Targets In 37 Nations In Vast
Spying Plot
Posted By: J. Arthur Brown, 2/5/2026 10:51:52 AM
An Asian cyber-espionage group has spent the past year breaking into computer systems belonging to governments and critical infrastructure organisations in more than 37 countries, according to the cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks, Inc.. The state-aligned attackers have infiltrated networks of 70 organisations, including five national law enforcement and border control agencies (snip.) The US Cybersecurity Agency said it was aware of the campaign. The agency is working with its partners to stop hackers from exploiting any [identified] vulnerabilities (snip.) Representatives of the FBI and CIA declined to comment. The NSA didn't respond to a request for comment.
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J. Arthur Brown"
Armenian-speakers in Los Angeles County utilize California's In-Home Supportive Services program at a rate roughly 700% higher than their proportion of the county's population, an analysis by The Center Square found -- renewing attention to potential fraud concerns in the community amid the ongoing public dispute between CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and Gov. Gavin Newsom. A top fraud expert said that The Center Square's data analysis likely reveals organized fraud networks are operating in Los Angeles County's Armenian-speaking community -- with participants allegedly getting kickbacks and funneling large amounts of cash out of the country through cash-based hawala networks.
An in-depth investigation by City Journal is raising questions about whether a Minneapolis-based anti-ICE network is pushing civilians into dangerous confrontations with federal immigration agents after the shooting deaths of two activists in less than a month. (snip) According to City Journal, one group sits at the center of Minneapolis' anti-ICE movement: Defend the 612. The organization oversees a large network of Signal chats that monitor immigration enforcement, coordinate protests, and mobilize rapid-response actions across Minneapolis neighborhoods. (snip) [City Journal's] investigation found that members and "related officials have encouraged protesters to impede law enforcement; pushed civilians toward legally and physically risky confrontations; and helped mobilize a counter-protest that turned violent."
An Asian cyber-espionage group has spent the past year breaking into computer systems belonging to governments and critical infrastructure organisations in more than 37 countries, according to the cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks, Inc.. The state-aligned attackers have infiltrated networks of 70 organisations, including five national law enforcement and border control agencies (snip.) The US Cybersecurity Agency said it was aware of the campaign. The agency is working with its partners to stop hackers from exploiting any [identified] vulnerabilities (snip.) Representatives of the FBI and CIA declined to comment. The NSA didn't respond to a request for comment.
For nearly a decade Natalie Starbird has been one of the most influential academic voices shaping how "misinformation" is defined, studied, and ultimately moderated online. Her research helped supply the intellectual framework used by major platforms, government agencies, and NGO's to justify sweeping censorship of election-related speech after 2016 and 2020. (snip) Now, Starbird is applying the same framework to a new domain: immigration. A recently published paper (snip) coauthored by Starbird (snip) does not investigate falsehoods, it investigates political dissent. Specifically how Americans use government data to criticize immigration policy.
The European Union now constantly violates fundamental Western rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion and claims the power to ban speech across the globe, European witnesses testified to the U.S. Congress Wednesday morning. (snip) "American speech is already being affected," testified Lorcan Price, an Irish lawyer. (snip) The House Judiciary Committee recently released two reports (snip) indicat[ing] that the hub of Western speech suppression online has shifted rom the United States under the Biden presidency to the European Union.
Schumer Threatens To Shut Down Government
So Republicans Can't Stop Noncitizens
From Voting 15 replies
So Republicans Can't Stop Noncitizens
From Voting 15 replies
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY)threatened Monday to shut down the government unless Republicans drop their efforts to secure elections and keep noncitizens from voting. (snip) [A]s Congress debates a new spending bill (snip) Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested there could possibly be efforts to vote on the SAVE Act as a standalone bill in the Senate. While noncitizen voting is already illegal, current federal law is largely toothless. Prospective voters check a tiny square box on a federal form attesting under penalty of perjury that they are a citizen. Such an insecure system has led to thousands of noncitizens either register to vote or even vote.
Sen. Susan Collins (R) says she secured new funding and legislative language aimed at combating Chinese-linked illicit drug operations in Maine as the 2026 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs (NSRP) Appropriations Act heads too President Donald Trump's desk (snip.) Collins (snip) said the measure is intended to support efforts to disrupt drug and money laundering operations tied to PRC-linked criminal syndicates. "PRC-linked criminal syndicates continue to expand their illegal marijuana grow operations in Maine while contributing to the flow of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals that threaten communities in our state and across the country," Collins said.
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Joe Biden quietly placed a radical mail-in voting advocate with deep influence over the administration of the fraud-rife 2020 election on the US Postal Service Board of Governors. That's the body that governs the Postal Service and oversees the ballot delivery infrastructure. Meet Amber McReynolds (snip.) McReynolds did not come from a background in logistics, shipping, or postal operations. She came from partisan election policy. In October 2020 Time published (snip) "Meet the Woman Behind the Country's Effort to Embrace Mail-In Voting in 2020," (snip) [praising] McReynolds for leading dozens of states and advising the federal government [on] how to change election administration and laws in response to Covid-19.
The Washington Post is announcing mass layoffs Wednesday morning, dealing another big blow to a storied media company and a newsroom that has reached a breaking point. Executive Director Matt Murray and human resources chief Wayne Connell sent an email to staffers Wednesday morning instructing employees to "stay home today" but attend an 8:30 a.m. ET meeting via Zoom during which the Washington Post's leadership will announce "significant changes across the company." Those actions include shutting down almost the entire Sports section, closing the Books section and cancelling the daily Post Reports podcast, sources at the newspaper said.
The European Commission's coercion of Big Tech to censor disfavored narratives goes much further than previously thought, according to a House Judiciary Committee staff report released Tuesday concerning an Irish comedian who was arrested in London for criticizing gender ideology while visiting the U.S.. (snip) The EC's supposedly "voluntary" and "consensus-driven" regulatory initiatives are neither (snip.) One particularly farcical section from a 2023 handbook by the EC-created EU Internet Forum shows tech companies were expected to moderate content from "populist rhetoric" and "anti-elite" censorship to "political satire" and "meme subculture."
Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Jorge Ventura said Monday that left-wing activists assaulted him and a colleague when they documented an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) checkpoint in Minneapolis. (snip) "They actually caused my right hand to bleed. They attacked the photo journalist I was with" (snip.) "This was called a filter blockade. It was essentially makeshift checkpoint in Minneapolis," Ventura said. I honestly couldn't believe it was still up after 24 hours. I didn't see any law enforcement when I arrived." Minnesota law allows only authorized persons to direct traffic. "[I]t really seems the whole city is working together."
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Tempers flare between Dem Rep. Maxine
Waters and Scott Bessent over inflation:
‘Can you shut up?’ 28 replies
Waters and Scott Bessent over inflation:
‘Can you shut up?’ 28 replies
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) lashed out at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — telling him at one point to “shut up” — after a tense exchange over inflation. Waters suggested that President Trump’s tariffs were inflationary and immigration enforcement was tanking housing affordability during a House Financial Services Committee hearing about the state of the US economy. “Will you be the voice of reason in the administration and urge Trump to stop waging a war on American consumers?” the California Democrat pleaded. “Yes or no?" “You seem confused as to the definition of inflation,” Bessent began before Waters interrupted him to re-ask the question.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson continues to dismay. Her attendance at the rancidly partisan anti-ICE Grammy Awards on Sunday was a joke. The 55-year-old Biden DEI candidate was nominated for a Grammy for narrating the audiobook of her memoir “Lovely One,” which she unashamedly believes herself to be.
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California’s already sky-high gas prices are expected to surge after Valero abruptly shuttered its Benicia refinery amid a spiraling “oil crisis,” a new report claims.
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“We are in an unprecedented oil crisis,” oil expert Mike Ariza told the publication.
Valero Energy Corp. announced its plans last spring to pull the plug on its 145,000-barrel-per-day refinery by April,
Epstein Victim: Bill Barr, Leon Black
“Present” While Jay-Z and Harvey Weinstein
Abused Her 16 replies
“Present” While Jay-Z and Harvey Weinstein
Abused Her 16 replies
Newly unsealed files from the Department of Justice have thrust several high-profile figures back into the spotlight of Jeffrey Epstein’s sordid world. A redacted FBI intake form from July 2019 details harrowing accusations from a woman who says she was repeatedly abducted, drugged, and sexually assaulted in settings tied to the convicted sex offender. Among those named in her account: rapper Jay-Z (Shawn Carter), disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, billionaire financier Leon Black, and former Attorney General William Barr.
(snip). The victim described being snatched from her home in 1996 by an unknown person, only to wake up in what she believed was Epstein’s Florida mansion.
Schumer Threatens To Shut Down Government
So Republicans Can't Stop Noncitizens
From Voting 15 replies
So Republicans Can't Stop Noncitizens
From Voting 15 replies
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY)threatened Monday to shut down the government unless Republicans drop their efforts to secure elections and keep noncitizens from voting. (snip) [A]s Congress debates a new spending bill (snip) Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested there could possibly be efforts to vote on the SAVE Act as a standalone bill in the Senate. While noncitizen voting is already illegal, current federal law is largely toothless. Prospective voters check a tiny square box on a federal form attesting under penalty of perjury that they are a citizen. Such an insecure system has led to thousands of noncitizens either register to vote or even vote.
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“The [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] is an independent entity.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is onto something. And the right people are terrified.
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Chief Justice Roberts Finally Moves to
Secure Supreme Court Processes; Leaky
Media Hardest Hit 14 replies
Secure Supreme Court Processes; Leaky
Media Hardest Hit 14 replies
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has made a move to secure the deliberations, private discussions, and working drafts of the court. According to the New York Times, Roberts is requiring all clerks and permanent staff to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
The writer writes about this in a hushed tone, as though she is laying out the plot of a murder mystery. But there is nothing mysterious about the erosion of the court's integrity, which points directly to publications like the NYT and POLITICO happily disseminating what is leaked to them.
The chief justice acted after a series of unusual leaks
The Trump administration is pulling 700 federal agents out of Minnesota, White House border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday, just over a week after he arrived in the Twin Cities to overhaul an immigration enforcement operation that was facing massive public backlash.
An “unprecedented” number of counties have begun informing Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they have an immigration target in custody, allowing ICE agents to collect the individual in the safety of the jail rather than on the street, Homan said. That change, which Homan said was facilitated by Minnesota’s Democratic leaders, will allow ICE to reduce its footprint by nearly 20 percent “effective immediately.”
“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration
Melinda Gates reacted to the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails involving her ex-husband Bill Gates, including horrific allegations Epstein made such that Bill was attempting to dose her with antibiotics to fight an STD without her knowledge, by saying Bill and other Epstein associates “need to answer to those things.”
I think we’re having a reckoning as a society,” Melinda Gates told NPR’s Wild Card podcast host Rachel Martin on Tuesday. “No girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him.”
State Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday she is launching a dedicated team in her office that will keep careful eyes on ICE agent activities around New York.
According to James, the operation — dubbed the Legal Observation Project — will be tasked with gathering information stemming from what she called “significant enforcement actions” throughout the Empire State while also sending personnel to observe and document ICE and protest activity.
The attorney general said these observers will serve as neutral witnesses, recording information that may inform future legal action. Their efforts will help ensure that accurate, real-time information is collected and preserved, and that any violations of law are identified
Comments:
The report by Palo Alto Networks identified neither the rogue nation responsible for the hacking nor most of its targets. (Reportedly a technology firm associated with the Venezuelan government was hacked during the US raid on the Maduro government.)