Influence campaigns
‘Think I get orders from the CIA?’ Top Russian propagandist taunts US
Alexey Navalny lampooned Margarita Simonyan for years with the nickname “beaver-eater” after a 2012 social media post where she outlined her plans to boil up a beaver head for broth.
- by Robyn Dixon
Latest
US charges Russians, seizes websites in pushback on 2024 election interference
With two months until election day, the US Justice Department has also warned of “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity” - including a recent attempt to hack into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
- by Farrah Tomazin
FBI probing Iranian hack attempts against Biden and Trump campaign
Trump’s campaign said over the weekend that Iran had hacked one of its websites and the FBI said it was investigating that.
- by Jasper Ward
Trump-era Pentagon ran secret anti-vax social media campaign aimed at the Philippines
Hundreds of US-backed social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and China’s Sinovac inoculation, the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines.
- by Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman
The grey zone of misinformation: Iran, Russia’s payments to US media outlet revealed
Legal experts say US journalists who were paid by sanctioned Iranian media entities could be in legal jeopardy.
- by Joseph Menn
Iran’s top leader praises pro-Palestine student protesters in the US
Writing from a country where protest is violently suppressed, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said they were standing on the right side of history.
- by Chris Zappone
This ‘Russian’ woman loves China. Too bad she’s a deepfake of an unrelated Australian
The videos are often labelled with hashtags such as “Russian beauty” and the women describe how accomplished Chinese men are.
- by Vivian Wang and Siyi Zhao
Poland to clamp down on Russian diplomats’ movement
Relations between Poland and Russia have deteriorated sharply since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.
- by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk
French officials see Azerbaijan’s foreign interference behind deadly riots in New Caledonia
Azerbaijan had invited separatists from the French territories last year, resulting in a group whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.
- by Chris Zappone
Online dump of Chinese hacking documents offers rare window into pervasive state surveillance
The trove catalogues apparent hacking activity and tools to spy on both Chinese and foreigners.
- by Frank Bajak and Dake Kang
Nancy Pelosi suggests Russia links to some Gaza ceasefire protests in US
The influential Democrat said the financing for some of the protests could be linked to Russia and she wanted to ask the FBI to investigate the matter.
- by Kanishka Singh