Chinas Staats- und Parteichef Xi Jinping hat bei den Gipfelgesprächen mit den EU-Spitzen heute davor gewarnt, im Ukraine-Konflikt „Öl ins Feuer zu gießen und die Spannungen anzuheizen“. In dem per Videokonferenz organisierten Gespräch mit EU-Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen und Ratspräsident Charles Michel sagte Xi ferner, die „Grundursache der Ukraine-Krise sind die regionalen Sicherheitsspannungen in Europa, die sich über Jahre ausgebaut haben“.
Daily Archives: 1. April 2022
China rejects sanctions as Ukraine war tops summit agenda
At a virtual summit, European Council President Charles Michel, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sought signs from Chinese President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang that Beijing would help to end the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine denies attacking fuel depot inside Russia, mayor says fire almost out
„For some reason they say that we did it, but according to our information this does not correspond to reality,“ said Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov.
Kremlin says Ukraine strike on Russian fuel depot creates awkward backdrop for talks
Russia accuses Ukraine of helicopter strikes on fuel depot in Russian territory
In a statement, Russia‘s Ministry of Defense said that the helicopters „entered the airspace of the Russian Federation at extremely low altitude,“ at 5 a.m. Moscow time and „launched a missile attack on a civilian oil storage facility located on the outskirts of Belgorod.“
Red Cross convoy to Mariupol turns back, to renew attempts Saturday -ICRC
The Red Cross team of three cars carrying nine staff members had aimed to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and a number of private vehicles out of the city, where up to 170,000 people are without power and have limited food, according to the mayor.
U.S. bars ex-spies from becoming ‚mercenaries,‘ following Reuters series
(March 16, 2022)
“We don‘t want our best trained intel officers going straight into the hands of foreign governments for the sake of money,“ Castro said. „This discourages intelligence mercenaries and protects our national interest.“
The UAE spying operation, called Project Raven, hacked into Facebook and Google accounts and thousands of Apple iPhones, targeting activists that human rights groups say were later arrested and tortured
Intelligence community gears up for surveillance powers renewal
(today)
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently started convening an informal team of representatives from a handful of relevant spy agencies to study, and potentially plot a course for, the reauthorization of the sweeping warrantless program allowed under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, two sources familiar with the effort told The Record. The powers are due to sunset in December 2023 unless lawmakers act.
Congress last extended the life of the surveillance powers — which allow the federal government to collect the emails and electronic communications of foreign intelligence targets from U.S. companies like Google, but also incidentally vacuum up the personal data of Americans — in early 2018.
Lawsuit accusing tech giants of spying is allowed to proceed
(September 14, 2022)
In the legal battles with a focus on listening devices like “smart speakers,” etc, that are currently active in the US, Google and Amazon are not spared either. Reports, including by Reuters, say that a number of filings allege that their devices and apps are recording users’ conversations without their consent, and that Big Tech companies use this material to make money by giving it to advertisers, who can then more precisely target people based on knowledge of their behavior and interests.