Ambassador Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s official representative in Washington, says China’s communist government is stepping up its global campaign to pressure countries not to recognize the legitimacy of the island democracy and to block it from participating in the United Nations and other key international organizations.

Mr. Yui made the assertions in an exclusive video interview as part of the Threat Status Influencers series, saying his government wants to spotlight China’s campaign against Taipei at the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders underway in New York.

“We have all the right to be incorporated into the United Nations. We are a sovereign, independent nation,” said the ambassador. In wide-ranging remarks, he also asserted that the “prospect of military aggression against Taiwan” by mainland China is “real,” and weighed in on the question of whether the U.S. should include Taiwanese forces in joint military exercises.

The military command in charge of cyber warfare lacks the tools to conduct successful offensive attacks and defend against digital strikes by China and other adversaries, according to a recently released report by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board.

The Cyber Command’s Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture, known as JCWA, is a suite of software and other tools used for cyber warfare. It has been in use since 2019 but has failed to produce needed capabilities, the science board concluded in unusually blunt criticism.

“While it has made incremental improvements since its inception, it is not a resilient, agile, future-facing warfighting architecture,” the report said. “Its limited capabilities are insufficient to support U.S. Cybercom-assigned missions.”

The security partnership of Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. is seeking a broader collaboration with Japan, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea to mark the third anniversary of the AUKUS alliance.

“Recognizing these countries’ close bilateral defense partnerships with each member of AUKUS, we are consulting with Canada, New Zealand, and [South Korea] to identify possibilities for collaboration on advanced capabilities under AUKUS Pillar II,” the leaders of the security pact said in a joint statement this week. Pillar II aims to develop technology such as artificial intelligence, cyber and hypersonic capabilities among pact members. Pillar I focused on the U.S. and the U.K. providing nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

The announcement signals an expansion of the AUKUS partnership in the Indo-Pacific region — where China has asserted itself with its growing military operations and expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, and where North Korea has continually engaged in provocations against the South.

The Mexican Mafia, worried about the growing power and recklessness of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, has “greenlighted” killings of TdA members, according to a homeland security expert who tracks cartel behavior.

The Times’ Stephen Dinan reports that Jarrod Sadulski said TdA has sent thousands of members across the border into the U.S. and has been encroaching on what the Mexican Mafia considers its territory. “La Eme,” as the Mexican crime organization is known, has responded with the kill order. “They’ve been greenlighted to murder them,” Mr. Sadulski said. His information comes from a former senior Sinaloa Cartel operative with ties to the Mexican Mafia, a coalition of Hispanic gangs that is primarily involved in drugs in the Southwest.

A parallel development this week saw Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blame the United States in part for a surge in cartel violence terrorizing Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa that has left at least 30 people dead in recent days, saying the recent American arrest of a major cartel leader helped spark a bloody succession battle.

Retired CIA officer and Threat Status contributor Daniel N. Hoffman looks at the case of Linda Sun, who served for a time as the deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and was arrested by the FBI this month. Ms. Sun’s husband, Chris Hu, who owned a seafood company as well as a wine store, was also arrested.

According to the 65-page indictment, Ms. Sun “allegedly influenced New York politicians’ public statements to conform to the talking points of the ruling Chinese Communist Party,” writes Mr. Hoffman. “She blocked Taiwanese government representatives from engaging with the governor’s office. Ms. Sun and her husband also allegedly engaged in money laundering for almost a decade.”

“Ms. Sun’s case, if true, is the very definition of a counterintelligence insider threat, which, unlike fine wine — as my CIA mentors used to say — does not get better with age. Ms. Sun’s consistent opposition to Taiwan should have been just one clue to potentially even more nefarious behavior,” writes Mr. Hoffman. He notes that Ms. Sun and her husband, who have denied the charges, own a $3.5 million home in Long Island, a $2.1 million condo in Honolulu and a 2024 Ferrari, yet their tax returns reportedly reflected little income earned.

• Sept. 24 — U.N. General Assembly (UNGA 79) General Debate, United Nations

• Sept. 24 — Smartphones and Wireless Networks in North Korea 2024, Stimson Center & 38 North

• Sept. 26 — China’s Comprehensive Threat to American Security: A Conversation with Amb. Robert C. O’Brien, American Enterprise Institute

• Sept. 26 — Axis of Aggressors: H.R. McMaster on Defending America’s Interests, Foundation for Defense of Democracies