Latest news with #nationalsecurity
BreakingNews.ie
13 hours ago
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Justin Kelly named as new Garda Commissioner
Justin Kelly will become the new Garda Commissioner on September 1st, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has announced. Mr Kelly will replace Drew Harris, who is to retire after seven years as Commissioner. Advertisement Mr O'Callaghan said: 'I am very pleased that the Government has today accepted my recommendation to appoint Justin Kelly, who is currently serving as deputy commissioner security, strategy and governance, as commissioner of An Garda Síochána following an open competition conducted by publicjobs. 'The role of Garda commissioner is one of the most challenging and impactful leadership positions in Ireland's public service and the appointment process was suitably rigorous.' He added: 'I am satisfied that Justin Kelly is both qualified and particularly well suited to the role of Commissioner given his extensive leadership experience over the last 30 years in some of the most challenging issues facing An Garda Síochána including national security, domestic and sexual violence, and organised crime. 'I know Justin is fully committed to providing a high visibility, highly trusted policing service to the public.' More to follow...
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Trade Deals Come With Defense Strings Attached
We have entered a dark era of trade deals, one where Washington now openly links national security to success. If countries want lower tariffs, they have to meet President Donald Trump's defense demands. It's working. Last week, the White House cut deals with Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, granting them lower rates than Trump's threatened tariffs. In exchange, they have had to sign up to vaguely worded commitments on defense and national security.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Palantir Joins U.S. Corporate Giants as AI Hype Sends Stock Soaring
Palantir Technologies (PLTR, Financials) has officially made it to the big leagues. Shares climbed another 2% on Friday, lifting the company's market value to $375 billion. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with DB. That's a huge leap for a company that was once viewed as a niche government contractor. But 2025 has been a breakout year. Investors can't seem to get enough of Palantir's artificial intelligence pitchespecially as defense spending and national security tech grab headlines. The numbers have helped the story. Palantir's U.S. government revenue jumped 45% last quarter to $373 million, while total revenue climbed 39% to $884 million. Next earnings are due August 4. But while the hype is real, so is the price tag. Palantir trades at a sky-high 273 times forward earnings, making it one of the most expensive stocks in the market. For context, Tesla is around 175x. And despite the valuation, Palantir's total revenue over the past year is just $3.1 billiona fraction of Mastercard's $29 billion, even though Mastercard is only slightly more valuable. Still, the company's trajectory is undeniable. Founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, and others, Palantir has steadily built a name for itself in national security and enterprise data. Now it's playing in the same arena as the world's most influential companies. Whether it can grow into its valuation is a different question. But for now, investors are betting that in a world driven by AI, Palantir's story is just getting started. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Graham, Cornyn call for special counsel in Obama case
A pair of top Senate Republicans called for a special counsel to be appointed Thursday to probe whether former President Obama aided an effort to undermine President Trump's 2016 White House bid. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) pressed for the appointment, saying they want answers about how Obama and his administration 'manipulated' matters in the hopes of a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016 'For the good of the country, Senator @JohnCornyn and I urge Attorney General Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff and administration officials manipulated the U.S. national security apparatus for a political outcome,' Graham posted on the social platform X. The call came a day after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released a new document casting doubts on Russian President Vladimir Putin's desire to aid Trump in the contest, though it backed up the argument that Russia wanted to interfere in the election writ large. The document was part of a House Intelligence Committee report stemming from when Republicans controlled the chamber, and it was classified until Gabbard released it. Although it does not dispute that Moscow interfered in the election, it sheds light on the Obama administration's handling of Russia's activity at the time. It was the second recent disclosure by Gabbard seeking to discredit the Obama administration. Last week, she released a report alleging Obama officials manipulated intelligence related to Russian interference in the 2016 election and accused former officials of engaging in a 'treasonous conspiracy.' A number of intelligence reviews determined the Russians sought to influence the 2016 contest and that Putin wanted Trump to emerge victorious. 'As we have supported in the past, appointing an independent special counsel would do the country a tremendous service in this case,' Cornyn said in a statement. 'With every piece of information that gets released, it becomes more evident that the entire Russia collusion hoax was created by the Obama Administration to subvert the will of the American people.' 'Democrats and the liberal media have been out to get President Trump since 2016,' he continued. 'There must be an immediate investigation of what we believe to be an unprecedented and clear abuse of power by a U.S. presidential administration.' An Obama spokesperson issued a rare rebuke of Trump's claim that the ex-president committed 'treason,' noting the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020 backed that the Russians attempted to sway votes but were not successful. The committee at the time also backed up the work of the intelligence community during that stretch. That panel was chaired by then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who now leads the State Department. 'Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,' said Patrick Rodenbush, an Obama spokesperson. 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.' The Trump administration has released the documents as it tries to pivot away from the Jeffrey Epstein story, while lawmakers issue subpoenas in search of answers on the case. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
A secret foreign army is already here. Bombshell national security reports reveal insidious plan to tear America apart
A secret foreign army is already here. Bombshell national security reports reveal insidious plan to tear America apart Atlanta's main airport grinds to a halt when drones are seen buzzing in the sky. Hours later, Chicago goes dark after a power substation mysteriously catches fire. San Diego officials were already struggling to control an oil spill on the Coronado. Faucets have run dry in Denver due to a contaminated reservoir. Then, a racist TikTok meme inspires a mass shooting in Minnesota, a cyberattack briefly shutters the Nasdaq exchange, and armed immigrants storm the Eagle Pass border post in Texas. No, this isn't the opening sequence to a Hollywood movie — these are the nightmare scenarios in two bombshell reports from America's top national security think tanks. Sandor Fabian, at the Modern War Institute, and RAND Corporation's Ian Mitch, paint a terrifying picture of the growing web of Chinese agents, often passing for students and businesspeople, deployed on US soil. They've been in the US for years, silencing dissidents among the Chinese diaspora. But this 'secret army' can be redirected to acts of sabotage if US-China relations turn nasty, the scholars warn. 'The ways available for China to inflict serious physical and psychological damage on the US homeland and population in case of war are only limited by Beijing's imagination,' says Fabian, a former commando. Another caravan of immigrants heads to the US border, only in this scary scenario, it's armed and directed by a foreign adversary The US federal government faces a 'significant challenge' because our society is already a tinder box of racial and political differences ready to be lit by foreign psy ops, he adds. The reports are a clarion call for tighter security at power plants, airports, data centers and other potential targets, and more intelligence officers to counter the growing menace. China's embassy in Washington DC in a statement told the Daily Mail that the reports were 'groundless and malicious smear attacks', asserting that Beijing is committed to 'peaceful development' and does not interfere in other countries' affairs. Fabian and Mitch do not envisage an all-out war involving nuclear weapons between the US and China. Instead, they imagine a conflict playing out between the two superpowers 6,000 miles away in the Indo-Pacific. In that scenario, China could launch non-conventional attacks from within the US that it could plausibly deny, so as not to escalate into a nuclear war. The reports come amid deepening tensions between the two economic powerhouses, and credible reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his forces to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. The US has defense ties with the self-governing Island, which Beijing views as a wayward province. A Chinese assault or naval blockade of Taiwan could quickly spiral into a conflict between the US and China, experts say. Still, a US-China war is by no means a certainty, and both countries conduct wide-ranging talks on everything from trade disputes to developing norms on artificial intelligence and combating terrorism. Fears about clandestine operations on US soil came to a head in June, when a Chinese researcher in Michigan and her boyfriend were charged with smuggling a biological pathogen that ravages crops into the US. Even small drones flying close to an airport have forced closures that cause millions of dollars of damage Yunqing Jian, 33, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), allegedly smuggled a pathogen into the US The fungus, Fusarium graminearum, is classified in scientific literature as an agroterrorism weapon Chinese-American academic Wang Shuju posed as a pro-democracy activist while feeding information to Beijing China-aligned groups launched coordinated raids on anti-Beijing protesters during President Xi Jinping's 2023 visit to California An oil spill, like this one in southern California, is among the unconventional attacks that could be deployed Yunqing Jian, 33, a University of Michigan postdoctoral fellow and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member, and her partner, were caught at an airport with a dangerous fungus known as Fusarium graminearum. They were charged with smuggling and lying to investigators. FBI Director Kash Patel called it a 'sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions.' Jian's arrest raised troubling questions about the roughly 280,000 Chinese students enrolled at US universities, and spotlights a series of shockers on US soil that can be traced back to Beijing. Chinese-American scholar Shujun Wang was in 2024 convicted of posing as a pro-democracy activist, but in reality gathering information on dissidents and feeding their details to Beijing. He famously burned down an artwork depicting Xi's head as a coronavirus molecule at a sculpture park in the Mojave Desert in July 2021. Chinese operatives have meanwhile been caught running alleged political smear campaigns and monitoring dissidents in the US with spying gear and GPS trackers. New Yorker Chen Jinping faces jail for running a bootleg police station for the Chinese government in Manhattan, to which he pleaded guilty in December 2024. During Xi's visit to San Francisco in 2023, China-aligned groups launched coordinated raids on anti-Beijing protesters, attacking them with flagpoles and chemical sprays, and tossing sand in their eyes. Chen Jinping and and others were arrested for allegedly operating a Chinese 'secret police station' in Manhattan's Chinatown The surreptitious 'police station' in lower Manhattan was used to monitor and harass US-based dissidents US authorities meanwhile have tracked dozens of incidents in which Chinese nationals, sometimes posing as tourists, attempted to access military bases and other sensitive sites — perhaps probing security and laying plans for future attacks. House Republicans took action this week, introducing a bill to end the CCP's grip on American farmland. Chinese entities have in recent years bought up 265,000 acres of American agricultural land, official figures show. Some of it is near sensitive military sites, stoking fears that the purchases could be used to stage military operations in the future. US officials have already quietly busted dozens of espionage rings in recent years. But experts say that's just the tip of the iceberg. Mitch, a former Department of Homeland Security intelligence officer, says China has built up a 'deep bench' of spies, sources, and contacts in the US chiefly aimed at silencing and harassing critics of its government. All the while, he adds, they are 'developing the skills to physically sabotage critical infrastructure during a conflict.' Fabian says the US homeland is far more vulnerable than most people — and policymakers — want to believe. From drone attacks and cyber sabotage to manipulated mass protests and chaos at the border, he says the nightmare scenarios are endless. He outlines a disturbing future: one where Chinese operatives exploit deep divisions in US society, weaponize immigration flows, crash critical infrastructure, and use social media to turn Americans against each other. Overseas Chinese got out their flags to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping during his 2023 visit to California Homeland security agents prepare for drone strikes on LAX and other major airports He points to real-world examples — fishing boats cutting undersea cables, drones grounding commercial planes, and malware shutting down gas pipelines — as proof of how low-tech or deniable attacks can cause massive disruption with minimal effort. Among his most alarming predictions: Cyberattacks on healthcare systems, financial networks, and power grids — causing mass panic and long-term service outages. Drone incursions over military bases and airports, with the potential for sabotage, surveillance, or deadly strikes. Proxies and manipulated protests inflaming racial and political tensions — potentially sparking riots and civil unrest. Weaponized immigration, using mass migration flows to overwhelm federal agencies, spark political outrage, and ignite violence. Social media manipulation, including deepfakes, fake news, and foreign-controlled algorithms aimed at dividing Americans and paralyzing national unity. Both researchers warn that America's intelligence teams are overstretched. The FBI in 2020 revealed that about half of its caseload of 5,000 counterintelligence probes related to China. That has likely increased in the past five years, even as agents have been transferred to the immigration enforcement beat. For Fabian, Washington must not only bolster security at soft targets and expand intelligence operations — but also wake up the American public to the chilling threats their enemies may already be plotting. 'It is time to begin developing a total defense approach to preparing American society, not just the military, for the realities of a future war,' he said. A spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington strongly rejected the claims in the reports. 'The articles are groundless and malicious smear attacks against China. We firmly oppose it,' the spokesperson said in a statement. 'China is committed to the path of peaceful development. We never pose a threat to any country, nor do we interfere in other countries' internal affairs.' Instead, added the spokesperson, China and the US have a 'shared responsibility for safeguarding peace and cooperation, and no reason for conflict and confrontation.'
