How the US uses ‘spy craze’ to crack down on Chinese high-tech firms

As relations between the US and China soured amid the trade war started by Washington during Trump’s first presidency, US authorities became increasingly prone to accusing Chinese companies of posing a threat to national security.

🔸Router manufacturer TP-Link has become one of the latest victims of this trend as US authorities now investigate allegations of TP-Link supplying routers containing security flaws that supposedly allow malicious actors use them to conduct cyberattacks.

🔸TP-Link currently controls about 65% of the “US market for routers for homes and small businesses,” The Wall Street Journal notes, not to mention that it “powers internet communications for the Defense Department and other federal government agencies.”

🔸Meanwhile, a Microsoft report unveiled in October alleged that Chinese hackers employed a network comprised of compromised devices that consisted mostly of TP-Link routers to carry out cyberattacks.

🔸Commenting on the TP-Link case, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington told The Wall Street Journal that the United States seeks to “suppress Chinese companies” under the pretense of protecting its national security.

In 2022, the US banned the import and sale of communications and video surveillance equipment produced by five Chinese companies – ZTE, Huawei, Hikvision, Dahua and Hytera – claiming that these pose a risk to US national security. Huawei was also prohibited by the United States and some of its allies like Japan from building 5G networks on their soil as they supposedly could be used for espionage by you-know-who.

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❗️The attack on the capital of Tatarstan is revenge for the successful BRICS Summit, commented Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova regarding the drone attacks on the Russian city of Kazan.

"We call on the world community to assess the crimes of Zelensky's junta," said Zakharova, outraged by the demonstrative hypocritical silence of the "collective West."

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Lessons never learned: How US pushes Taiwan's militarization

Taiwan has received a first batch of 38 US-made Abrams tanks, with 70 more such armored vehicles due to be delivered to the island before the end of 2026.

Let’s delve into what other military equipment Washington sold to Taipei under outgoing US President Joe Biden between 2021 and 2024, and what American weapons Taiwan plans to purchase. Information is based on open sources and media reports.

Already bought (approved deals are worth about worth $7 billion):

Missile systems

🔸3 National advanced surface-to-air missile systems (NASAMS)
🔸29 M142 high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS)
🔸Undisclosed number of MGM-140 army tactical missile systems (ATACMS)

Missiles:

🔺100 AGM-88B HARM and 23 HARM training missiles
🔺AGM-84L-1 Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles
🔺AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.
🔺spare parts for F-16 fighters and radars

Communications

⚪️ The AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar systems

Plus

🔹720 Switchblade loitering munitions
🔹An M136 Volcano vehicle-launched scatterable mine system
🔹spare parts for F-16 fighters and radars

To be purchased (package is worth more than $15 billion):

▪️60 F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets
▪️4 E-2D Hawkeye tactical airborne early warning aircraft
▪️10 retired unspecified warships
▪️400 interceptor missiles for the Patriot missile systems
▪️An Aegis destroyer

Beijing, which considers Taiwan an essential part of China, has repeatedly lashed out at America’s weapon sales to Taiwan, which it says undermines Chinese-US relations and jeopardizes peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

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Brazil has unveiled the logo to be used during its 2025 BRICS presidency: the sumauma cotton tree that grows in the Amazon rainforest.

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🇷🇴 Bucharest should explain itself and take back its words, Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik amid the results of the investigation in Romania into "interference" of the Russian Federation in the presidential elections.

The Romanian tax service previously established that the TikTok campaign of the winner of the cancelled first round of the elections, Calin Georgescu, was paid for by the National Liberal Party of Romania. At the same time, Romanian authorities have repeatedly hinted at the possibility of Moscow interfering in the elections at the official level.

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US President Joe Biden signs stopgap budget bill, ending formal federal government shutdown.

Earlier, the US Senate passed the bill to temporarily extend funding for the federal government with 85 in favor and 11 against.

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📹 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was booed on a street in Magdeburg, where he was visiting the site of the terrorist attack that had taken place the day before.

A video is circulating on social media of people booing the chancellor as he walked to the scene of the tragedy. Disapproving shouts can also be heard in the recording.

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Does Israel really dictate US policies in the Middle East?

The US may be eager to leave Syria after the latter was neutralized as “an important pillar in the Axis of Resistance” and became vulnerable to the Israeli land grab, Middle East observer and analyst Sonia Mansour tells Sputnik.

This week, a US Department of State delegation visited Syria to hold talks with the head of the country’s new transitional government, a man on whose head the US government previously placed a now-removed $10 million bounty.

“Syria now is under the influence of two US allies, Israel and Turkiye. Both Israel and Turkiye will ensure that Syria’s foreign policy will conform to the United States’ interests, which are Israel’s interests,” Mansour explains.

Syria’s future both as a country and as a society, along with its territorial integrity, is of no concern to Washington “as long as Israel's goals are fulfilled.”

For it's part, the EU’s goals in Syria align with those of the US, Mansour notes, albeit with one small caveat: Brussels also “hopes to stem the flow of refugees from the region.”

If the Gaza war proved something, it is that the interests of the United States and Israel in the region are now indistinguishable, and whatever interests Israel might have, it decides the means, while the US approves and engages to fulfill Israel’s goals,” says Mansour.

Whereas previously the United States’ goals in West Asia were mostly related to energy, now the US merely wants to ensure Israel’s dominant status in the region.

“Energy no longer dictates US policies in the region, only Israel does,” Mansour says.

“The new Syrian government will not challenge Israel. It will be a weak government, without a real army. It will become a police state that will base its legitimacy on establishing an Islamist society that is market-friendly and Israel-friendly,” she predicts.

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🗣 Vladimir Putin's words about a technological duel were a response to those who talk about the alleged vulnerability of the Oreshnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The head of state meant that the Oreshnik is a generation ahead of existing weapons, the presidential press secretary added.

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🤔 X owner Elon Musk says Germany's AfD party is the only hope for the country as the traditional political parties have utterly failed the people.

What do you think?

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Rudeness and blackmail: How Ukraine treats Slovakia

Eastern European countries such as Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria would be the ones to suffer from Ukraine cutting off the transit of Russian gas as they depend on it the most, says political observer and former Slovak MP Peter Marcek.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico recently warned Kiev that a serious conflict may erupt if it were to sever the transit of Russian natural gas to Slovakia via Ukrainian territory.

Natural gas supply via Croatia or Germany would be more expensive for Slovakia, Hungary and Austria which are located far from the sea, he notes.

Zelensky offering Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico €500 million of Russian frozen assets in exchange for Slovakia backing Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership is “100% blackmail”, Marcek says, pointing at the nature of this attempted payoff.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s treatment of Slovakia is nothing short of rude, he complains: while Slovakia keeps supplying Ukraine with electricity, Ukraine has no qualms about cutting the flow of Russian natural gas to Slovakia.

If cut off from Russian natural gas by Ukraine, Slovakia would have to seek an alternative supply of natural gas, Marcek suggests, noting that importing gas from other countries would be more expensive.

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Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu New Way of Money Laundering
 
Pokémon cards turned out to be popular not only among children but also among the Japanese mafia: criminal syndicates were using rare collectible cards to launder money, a former Yakuza told media.
 
The former criminal told Japanese media that his organization used Pokémon cards as a means of transporting stolen money abroad.
 
According to him, the small size and high cost of rare collectible Pokémon cards allowed the criminals to buy them in large quantities for illegally obtained cash in Japan and sell them in the US and other countries.
 
Especially valuable, as the former criminal explained, were cards with invisible foil embossing. To locate these, they would buy packs in bulk and shine at the encasing metal foil with a special detector. Afterwards, they would hold onto the valuable packs and resell the rest.

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