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Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief. The highlights this week: Beijing launches a new crackdown on organized crime; a slate of racist, AI-generated videos floods the Chinese internet; and China plans to conduct an asteroid defense test.  Welcome to Foreign Policy’s China Brief. The highlights this week: Beijing launches a new crackdown on organized crime; a slate of racist, AI-generated videos floods the Chinese internet; and China plans to conduct an asteroid defense test.  Beijing Targets Illegal Mining, Sand Industries China has launched a one-year “special campaign” against organized crime, promising a crackdown on enterprises ranging from online scam syndicates to human…

Claim: In July 2026, a chef claimed he knew U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was vaccinated because he attended an event the chef cooked for in early 2022 that required unmasked attendees to provide a negative COVID-19 test. Rating: What’s True The post was real — a chef named Joe Gera posted it on July 30, 2026. However … What’s Undetermined We were not able to verify Gera’s claim. It’s unclear what event the chef was referring to, whether Paul attended and the nature of vaccination proof that was purportedly required. In July 2026, social media users claimed that a…

The administration of President Donald Trump has cancelled the visa for Brazil’s ambassador in the United States, the latest sign of a deepening diplomatic rift between the two countries.An anonymous US State Department official briefed reporters on Tuesday that Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti’s visa had been temporarily revoked.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listBut Ribeiro Viotti was not being expelled from the country, the official added.“The action was that the visa of a senior diplomat here was revoked or cancelled. That is not the same thing as kicking the person out of the country,” the official said.The decision…

Representative Wesley Bell of Missouri, a moderate pro-Israel Democrat, fended off a primary challenge from a former congresswoman and democratic socialist on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, in a loss for the surging socialist movement.Former Representative Cori Bush, Mr. Bell’s predecessor in the St. Louis district, had hoped to add to the high-profile victories that socialists have notched over Democratic incumbents this year in New York City and Denver.But Mr. Bell, a former prosecuting attorney and city councilman, held on.He rose to prominence after the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo., which erupted after a white police officer fatally shot…

It’s officially getting hard to keep track of all the times and ways AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic have been involved in “security incidents,” going outside the confines of their testing and interacting with the wider internet in unintended, often unwelcome ways. Add these to the list: Agents from both AI labs went on recent, previously undisclosed hacking sprees, with one going so far as to leave instructions for future versions of itself.The most alarming behavior disclosed on Tuesday appears to have been tied to testing conducted by the UK’s AI Security Institute, which evaluates frontier models to identify…

Passion for the job is the secret of a successful career. Russ Kirby has been CISO at Ping Identity since the summer of 2023. Before then he was CISO at Creditsafe, and then CISO at ForgeRock. Prior to that he had been global head and director of enterprise services information security directorate at Hewlett Packard. A natural born CISO Asked why he chose cybersecurity as a profession, Kirby answers, “It just feels natural for me.” Asked to expand, he replies, “Turns out I’m Type One on the Enneagram.” The Enneagram is a framework that describes nine core personality patterns. It…

Recent earnings calls from Open USD’s highest-profile backers, however, paint a more nuanced picture. Executives at Coinbase, Visa and Mastercard all said they intend to support multiple stablecoins instead of betting on a single winner, describing Open USD as another network to connect to rather than a replacement for USDC.Multi-coin strategyDuring its second-quarter earnings call last week, Coinbase reassured investors about its close relationship with Circle. Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said the exchange has already met the conditions to renew its commercial agreement with Circle and will continue growing the USDC ecosystem.CEO Brian Armstrong also said Coinbase remains a…

Every month, NASA Earth Observatory features a puzzling satellite image. The August 2026 puzzler appears above.  Your ChallengeIdentify the location shown in this satellite image. Share what clues you see, where you think it is, and what makes this place interesting or unique to you. How to AnswerSubmit your response using this form and select “Puzzler Answer” as the topic. Please include your preferred name or alias. You can keep it simple and just guess the location. Want to impress us? Tell us which satellite and instrument captured the image, which spectral bands were used, or point out a subtle detail about the geology or…

Authorities in California have arrested a man who was seen near a golf course owned by President Donald Trump in the Los Angeles area, just ahead of the president’s visit for a fundraising dinner there. Jeanine John Taele, 38, was found with a pistol and illegal ammunition at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes, investigators say.According to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, he was “observed walking throughout the golf course grounds taking photographs and videos and appearing to monitor security-planning activities”.The arrest took place on Sunday afternoon. Trump is currently visiting California to attend a Republican party…

Pet flea treatments should be banned from general sale, a Lords committee has urged, after an inquiry raised concerns about their impact on their environment.Spot-on treatments to prevent parasite infestations in fur and on skin are currently widely available for pet owners to buy in supermarkets and online.But the House of Lords environment committee said their sale should be restricted, adding widespread use posed a potential threat to natural ecosystems.The government said it was continuing to assess the availability of the treatments in order to ensure “correct usage by owners”.Currently, dog and cat owners are frequently advised to use preventative…