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The Washington Times

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Google says it stopped Iran-sponsored efforts to hack into the campaigns of President Biden and former President Donald Trump, the latest sign in what is now a clear pattern of attempted election interference by Tehran.

…Ukrainian troops are reportedly using British-supplied tanks as they press deeper into Russian territory.

…House Republicans want answers from the Pentagon about Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz’s nearly 30 trips to China, some of which may have taken place when the Minnesota governor was a senior enlisted Guardsman in the Army.

…Thailand’s Constitutional Court has removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office for an ethical violation after it ruled he improperly appointed a convicted criminal to his Cabinet.

…A Russian court on Thursday sentenced U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Khavana to 12 years in prison on a treason conviction for allegedly raising money for the Ukrainian military.

…And Hamas health officials say the civilian and militant death toll in the Gaza Strip has surpassed 40,000 since its Oct. 7 attack, though the numbers have not been independently confirmed.

Tehran wants to disrupt the U.S. presidential election

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during a debate, Oct. 7, 2020, in Salt Lake City, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a debate, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. Trump said Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, that he's pulling out of a scheduled debate with his likely Democratic opponent, Vice President Harris, and instead has agreed to a date earlier in September on Fox News Channel, furthering the uncertainty that the two will face each other on stage ahead of the November election. (AP Photo)

Each day brings new details about Iranian-backed efforts to interfere in the American presidential election. Washington Times reporter Ryan Lovelace has been all over this story for weeks and is tracking fresh information from Google, which says it stopped Iran-sponsored efforts to hack into the campaigns of Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.

TAG, a Google unit focused on combating government-backed hackers, said it detected and disrupted a “small but steady cadence” of “phishing” attempts from the Iranian APT42 hacking group to gain access to the email accounts of senior campaign officials on both sides.

The latest developments come less than a week after the Trump campaign said Iranian hackers were behind the theft of internal documents. They also come on the heels of revelations from a top cyber intelligence firm that Iran is behind a coordinated effort to spread conspiracy theories about the July assassination attempt on Mr. Trump. Microsoft has offered its own recent warnings about Iranian election-meddling efforts.

Key lawmakers on Capitol Hill say the situation has become urgent, and they want both political parties to work together to counter adversaries’ attempts to influence U.S. elections.

“Protecting the integrity of our elections from foreign meddling requires constant attention. This includes bolstering campaign cybersecurity, heightened vigilance from media outlets on the potential of spreading hacked or manipulated content from foreign intelligence services, and a commitment by both political parties to call out foreign election influence efforts,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner, Virginia Democrat, and Florida Vice Chairman Sen. Marco Rubio, the panel’s ranking Republican, said in a joint statement late Wednesday.

Is an Israel-Hamas cease-fire still possible?

President Joe Biden talks with reporters Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Mr. Biden certainly believes so, and he argued that it’s the best way to avoid another round of direct Iranian strikes against Israel.

Asked by reporters during a visit to New Orleans this week whether a deal could prevent a promised retaliation for the targeted killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, the president replied, “That’s my expectation.”

But the president acknowledged that achieving an agreement — one that would end hostilities in Gaza and free the remaining hostages held by Hamas — is “getting harder.”

Mediators from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt are set to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar on Thursday. Reaching a cease-fire agreement is widely seen as not only the path to avoiding Iranian attacks against Israel but also to forestall a major Israel-Hezbollah conflict and other instances of escalation across an increasingly tense and dangerous Middle East.

Western weapons helping Ukraine drive deeper into Russia

A Ukrainian tank passes by a burning car near the Russian-Ukrainian border, Sumy region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukraine’s stunning incursion into Russia has rapidly reshaped the dynamics around a war now well into its third year. It’s not yet clear whether Kyiv intends to hold Russian territory over the long term or merely used the foray onto Russian soil to put the Kremlin on its heels and take pressure off of Ukrainian forces in the besieged Donetsk region.

But what has become clear is that Western powers, long reluctant to allow Ukrainian troops to strike inside Russia, are watching as their weapons and vehicles are now playing a key role in the campaign. The BBC reported Thursday that British Challenger tanks are being used by Ukrainian troops inside Russia. The outlet also said that American vehicles are believed to be inside Russian territory.

The Biden administration earlier this year gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use U.S. arms to hit targets inside Russia, a major policy shift aimed at stopping airstrikes launched from Russian soil that had been devastating Ukrainian positions. Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, recently told the “Threat Status Podcast” that the change in U.S. policy has had a real, measurable impact on the ground and has helped blunt Russian momentum in the war.

Pentagon says it needs new climate planning unit

A navy patrol boat anchors on the Mekong river near a hotel where the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (55th AMM) is taking place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. Southeast Asian foreign ministers are gathering in the Cambodian capital for meetings addressing persisting violence in Myanmar and other issues, joined by top diplomats from the United States, China, Russia and other world powers amid tensions over the invasion of Ukraine and concerns over Beijing's growing ambitions in the region. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

From Florida to the Indo-Pacific, U.S. military operations all around the world are directly threatened by rising temperatures, higher sea levels and other downstream effects of climate change. That’s one of the key takeaways from the recent 132-page “Climate Change and Global Security” study, penned by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board.

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz dove deep into the report, including the conclusion inside the Defense Department that a new climate planning cell is needed to better monitor climate threats.

“Climate change acts as a ‘threat multiplier,’ amplifying existing vulnerabilities, enhancing regional instability, and generally fostering conditions conducive to conflict,” the report says.

Here at home, the study singled out Florida as a state with military installations especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The report said that eight Florida bases are ranked among the most vulnerable in the country, including Air Force bases such as Eglin, Hurlburt Field, Homestead, MacDill and Tyndall, Patrick Space Force Base, Naval Air Station Key West, and the Blount Island Marine Corps Support Facility.

Opinion: Iran's 'crisis of humiliation' might determine its next move

Iran's response to Israel's assassination of Ismail Haniyeh illustration by Linas Garsys / The Washington Times

Iranian leaders likely feel humiliated by an apparent Israeli operation inside Tehran last month that killed Hamas political leader Haniyeh. And humiliation may cause the Iranians not to think properly, argues columnist Abraham Wagner, who served on the White House National Security Council staff under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Iranian officials are surely angry and embarrassed that their capital city was penetrated by enemy intelligence services, and are likely asking whether their country’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have been compromised.

“For Iran, a nation that prides itself on its own internal security service, this disaster raises important questions: To what extent has the IRGC been penetrated by Israel, and was this bomb a one-off, or are other bombs planted in Iran?” Mr. Wagner writes in a new piece for The Times.

Events on our radar

• Aug. 14-16 — Space Warfighting Forum, National Defense Industrial Association

• Aug. 21 — AI and the Evolution of Biological National Security Risks, Center for a New American Security

• Aug. 27 — U.S.-Mexico Relations: Addressing Challenges at the Border, Brookings Institution

• Aug. 28 — Weapons in Space: A Book Talk with Dr. Aaron Bateman, Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Sept. 3-6 Billington CyberSecurity Summit

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If you’ve got questions, Guy Taylor and Ben Wolfgang are here to answer them.