Category Archives: US national security

Australia says AI will be used to help track Chinese submarines under new Aukus plan

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Defence minister Richard Marles and counterparts from the UK and US say new technologies will be deployed by militaries

Artificial intelligence, drones, and deep space radar are among the technologies that will be used by Australia and its Aukus allies to counter China’s aggression in the Pacific.

Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, met with his counterparts from the United States and United Kingdom – Lloyd J Austin and Grant Shapps – in California on Saturday to announce the second “pillar” of the Aukus deal.

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Henry Kissinger, secretary of state to Richard Nixon, dies at 100

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The towering diplomat and Nobel prize winner shaped decades of US foreign policy but was seen by critics as a war criminal

Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state under Richard Nixon who became one of the most prominent and controversial figures of US foreign policy in the 20th century, has died. He was 100.

His consulting firm Kissinger Associates announced his death in a statement on Wednesday evening, but did not disclose a cause.

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US charges ex-intelligence officer with trying to give defence secrets to China

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FBI alleges former sergeant Joseph Daniel Schmidt tried to set up a meeting with Chinese consulate in Turkey

A former US army intelligence officer has been charged with attempting to provide classified defence information to the Chinese security services during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic – including some listed in a Microsoft Word document titled “Important Information to Share with Chinese Government”.

Authorities on Friday arrested former sergeant Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 29, at San Francisco international airport as he arrived from Hong Kong, where he had been living since March 2020, the Justice Department said. A federal grand jury in Seattle returned an indictment on Wednesday charging him with retention and attempted delivery of national defence information.

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Sarah Palin says US civil war ‘is going to happen’ over Trump prosecutions

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Former vice-presidential nominee condemns prosecutors over ‘travesty’ and says ‘we’re not going to keep putting up with this’

A second US civil war is “going to happen” if state and federal authorities continue to prosecute Donald Trump, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said.

“Those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice, I want to ask them what the heck, do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen,” Palin told Newsmax on Thursday night.

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Former top Trump aide says he was unaware of document declassification – report

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Ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows’ admission could complicate the ex-president’s defense in his classified documents case

The former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told investigators he had no knowledge of Donald Trump either talking about or declassifying confidential information, it was reported on Sunday, potentially skewering the ex-president’s defense in his classified documents case.

Meadows’ alleged admission to the special counsel Jack Smith, reported by ABC News, suggests Trump made no blanket declassification of secret papers later seized from his Mar-a-Lago resort by FBI agents, leading to 40 criminal counts against him.

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US ‘concerned’ over reports of Russia-North Korea nuclear cooperation

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National security adviser Jake Sullivan makes comments as US, Japan and South Korea agree to new security pledge

The United States is “concerned” about the national security implications of North Korea and Russia reportedly cooperating on nuclear missile technology, the Biden administration said, as the US welcomed the leaders of Japan and South Korea to Camp David on Friday for an unprecedented trilateral summit.

The US, Japan and South Korea agreed to a new security pledge committing the three countries to consult with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific, according to the Biden administration.

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US says it killed Islamic State leader Usamah al-Muhajir in Syria

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Statement says that strike was carried out by the same drones that were earlier harassed by Russian aircraft

The US military said on Sunday it conducted a strike that killed Usamah al-Muhajir, an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria.

“The strike on Friday was conducted by the same MQ-9s that had, earlier in the day, been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours,” a statement from US Central Command said.

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Donald Trump charged with illegal retention of classified documents

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Ex-president is being prosecuted for violating Espionage Act and obstruction over documents held at Mar-a-Lago and has been summoned to court next week

Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump over his retention of national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, a historic development that poses the most significant legal peril yet for the former president.

The exact nature of the indictment, filed in federal district court in Miami, is unclear because it remains under seal and the justice department had no immediate comment.

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US announces $300m arms package for Ukraine – with a caveat

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The shipment comes with a warning that the weaponry should not be used to attack within Russia

The United States has announced a new $300m arms package for Ukraine, including air defense systems and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition – but warned Kyiv that US weaponry should not be used to attack within Russia.

“We have been very clear with the Ukrainians privately – we’ve certainly been clear publicly – that we do not support attacks inside Russia. We do not enable and we do not encourage attacks inside Russia,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

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Intruder at home of Biden adviser Jake Sullivan bypassed Secret Service agents

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National security adviser confronted apparently intoxicated man at 3am then told his protectors what happened, report says

The US Secret Service was investigating after an apparently intoxicated and confused man walked past agents and into the Washington home of Joe Biden’s national security adviser.

Jake Sullivan confronted the man and told him to leave, the Washington Post first reported, of an incident that happened at about 3am one night in late April. There were no signs of forced entry.

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Pentagon leak suspect may still have access to classified info, court filings allege

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Jack Teixeira, 21, expected to appear in Massachusetts court on Thursday as prosecutors urge judge to keep him behind bars

The Massachusetts air national guardsman suspected of leaking highly classified US intelligence documents is set to appear in federal court on Thursday, after federal prosecutors urged a judge to keep the suspect behind bars.

Jack Teixeira, 21, is expected to appear at 1pm ET for a detention hearing in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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Trump lawyers say Mar-a-Lago boxes contained foreign leader briefings

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New letter sent to Congress attempts to paint Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents at Florida home as inadvertent

Donald Trump’s lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation found the 15 boxes the former president returned to the National Archives a year after the end of his presidency mostly contained briefings for calls with foreign leaders, according to a new letter they sent to Congress.

The majority of the letter – seen by the Guardian and earlier reported by CNN – served to characterize Trump’s retention of classified-marked documents as inadvertent, and due to White House staffers sweeping all documents into boxes during a chaotic departure at the end of the administration.

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Pentagon leaks: US seeks to mend ties after claims Washington spied on key allies

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Defence secretary speaks to South Korean counterpart after leak suggesting US was spying on Seoul’s internal discussions on arms sales

The US is attempting to mend fences with key allies after leaked Pentagon documents claimed Washington had been spying on friendly countries including South Korea and Israel.

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his South Korean counterpart on Tuesday as officials in Seoul denied the possibility that the president’s office could have been the source of leaks over South Korean arms sales to the US.

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Latest leak highlights how many have access to US top secret material

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Classified documents revealing Ukraine military troubles and US intel gathering against allies were probably spread through gaming servers

The evidence emerging on the leak of classified US defence documents suggests that it was probably not some dastardly hacking or disinformation plot by Russia or the US, but rather another example of how carelessly Washington handles its secrets.

The least likely version of reality is the one being circulated among Kremlin supporters, that it was a clever piece of CIA distraction ultimately aimed at demoralising Russians by showing how many lives they had lost, and how badly their war was going in Ukraine.

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John Bolton chose not to brief Trump on Russia Havana syndrome suspicion

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Former national security adviser tells podcast ‘we didn’t feel we would get support’ from president during Russia investigation

Donald Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, did not brief the president on suspicions Russia might be behind mysterious “Havana syndrome” attacks on US diplomats because he did not think Trump would support him.

“Since our concern was that one of the perpetrators – maybe the perpetrator – was Russia,” Bolton said, “we didn’t feel we would get support from President Trump if we said, ‘We think the Russians are coming after American personnel.’”

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TikTok unveils European data security plan amid calls for US ban

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Move comes as White House backs bill that could give it power to ban Chinese-owned app nationwide

TikTok has announced a data security regime for protecting user information across Europe, as political pressure increases in the US to ban the social video app.

The plan, known as Project Clover, involves user data being stored on servers in Ireland and Norway at an annual cost of €1.2bn (£1.1bn), while any data transfers outside Europe will be vetted by a third-party IT company.

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US and Ukraine ‘still having discussions’ amid pressure to supply F-16 jets

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UN ambassador says US must ensure Ukrainians ‘have the training necessary … to use weapons systems we provide’

The US ambassador to the United Nations indicated on Sunday that the White House could reverse its refusal to supply F-16 jets to Ukraine.

“We’re still having discussions on the ground with the Ukrainians,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN’s State of the Union, adding that Washington was working “very closely and directly” with Kyiv to identify “what their needs are and when they need them”.

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Three objects shot down after Chinese spy balloon may be benign, White House says

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Flying objects could be commercial- or research-linked, while US military admits first shot at object over Lake Huron missed

Three unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets since Friday may turn out to be balloons connected to “benign” commercial or research efforts, a White House official said on Tuesday.

The US has not found any evidence to connect the objects to China’s balloon surveillance program nor to any other country’s spy program, national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters.

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Hunt for mysterious object shot down in remote Yukon faces daunting odds

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The Canadian territory is an aircraft graveyard – now the difficult search is on for a downed unidentified craft in its vast environs

The rugged, “unpeopled” landscape of Canada’s Yukon territory is a graveyard for aircraft, with more than 500 planes crashing in its forests, mountains and lakes over the years.

Now, Canada’s military and police, alongside their US counterparts, are searching the unforgiving landscape in midwinter for a mysterious object recently shot on Saturday by a fighter plane.

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‘Significant’ debris from China spy balloon retrieved, says US military

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Sensors and electronics pulled from waters off South Carolina, says military, after White House says Beijing’s surveillance program dates back years

The US military has recovered “significant debris” from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this month, the Pentagon has said, after the White House claimed China had been operating a high-altitude balloon program spying on the US and its allies for many years.

The US Northern Command said in a statement: “Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure.”

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