Huawei founder: US cannot crush technology firm

Ren Zhengfei hits back at criminal indictments he calls politically motivated

The US cannot crush Huawei, the company’s founder has insisted, as he hit back against criminal indictments levelled at the firm and allegations that it poses a security threat.

Washington has warned allies off using Huawei products in recent weeks. But Ren Zhengfei, whose daughter Meng Wanzhou – a fellow senior Huawei executive – is among those charged by US prosecutors, told the BBC on Monday that the firm would survive the pressure.

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Skripal poisoning: UK team looks into possible Bulgarian case link

Bulgarian PM says UK team is on ground to investigate suspected poisoning of local arms dealer

A team of British investigators is in Bulgaria looking into whether the 2015 suspected poisoning of a local arms dealer has links to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter last year in Salisbury.

“There is a British team here on the ground,” Bulgaria’s prime minister, Boyko Borisov, told the Guardian in an interview in Sofia. “They are jointly conducting an investigation with Bulgarian law enforcement authorities.”

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Former US air force officer charged with spying for Iran

Monica Witt, who defected in 2013, worked as a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for more than 10 years

A former US air force intelligence officer who defected to Iran in 2013 has been charged with espionage, giving away the identity of a US agent and other secrets.

Monica Witt, aged 39, was a cryptologist and a counter-intelligence investigator for the US air force for more than 10 years before working as an intelligence analyst for the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton for five months in 2008 and doing other private sector work.

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‘I’ll talk, but then I have to call Putin’: steakhouse at centre of EU spy alert

Flabbergasted owner says EU must have been referring to his place when warning diplomats to avoid a Brussels restaurant

Eleven years since opening his restaurant in the shadow of the European commission’s vast Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels, Philippe Weiner can safely boast that the Meet Meat Steak and Wine House is a firm favourite of the better-fed Eurocrat.

Sharp-suited diplomats and officials flock to its minimalist dining room for lunch and dinner. The president of the European council, Donald Tusk, and his team have been known to enjoy the kitchen’s meat offerings, best served à point or saignant.

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World’s biggest intelligence headquarters opens in Berlin

New home for Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service took 12 years and €1bn to build

No mobile phones. No private laptops. No checking personal emails or social media. And at the end of the day, all access cards must be locked in a safe.

More than €1bn (£870m) and 12 years after construction began, Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has officially opened its new Berlin home, the world’s biggest intelligence headquarters.

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New York state security: Manhattan’s KGB Spy Museum – in pictures

A museum in New York claims to be the only collection focusing on the KGB’s espionage operations in the world. The newly opened exhibition hall, housed in a former warehouse on 14th Street, is home to 3,500 original period objects, which the designer of the museum, Julius Urbaitis, has gathered after 30 years of research around the world

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State secrets were on US man during Russia arrest, says his lawyer

Paul Whelan, ex-marine accused of spying, may have been unaware of possession

A Russian lawyer for Paul Whelan, the US citizen accused of spying on Russia, has said his client was carrying state secrets when he was arrested in Moscow but may not have realised it.

Whelan, an ex-marine, has been accused of an unspecified “act of espionage”, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

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Russia denies former US marine is being held as a bargaining chip

It was suggested Moscow could use Paul Whelan to barter for release of Russian jailed in US

Moscow has denied that a former US marine is being held as a bargaining chip for a jailed Russian spy, after Jeremy Hunt warned against using Britons as pawns.

Paul Whelan, 48, who has UK citizenship, was arrested in the Russian capital last week, apparently on espionage charges.

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Hunt warns Russia not to play games with Briton on spying charge

British foreign secretary says Paul Whelan should not be used as a diplomatic pawn

The British foreign secretary has warned Russia not to try to use Paul Whelan, the British–American national arrested on spying charges, as a diplomatic pawn.

Jeremy Hunt said the UK was “extremely worried” about Hunt and had offered consular assistance. It emerged on Friday that Whelan, detained a week ago in Moscow, also holds Irish and Canadian passports, adding more layers of complexity to a potentially fraught diplomatic incident.

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