espionage
Canada Election Monitor Detects PRC Cyber-Attacks on Liberal Leadership Candidate Freeland

Sam Cooper
The evolving nature of these operations may signal a broader effort to influence not only Canada’s general elections but also to shape the selection of the country’s next unelected Prime Minister.
Canada’s election security watchdog has uncovered a coordinated disinformation campaign linked to the People’s Republic of China targeting Chrystia Freeland, a leading candidate against Mark Carney for the Liberal Party leadership.
A statement released Friday by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) revealed that the digital attack was launched on WeChat, a dominant Chinese social media platform, and amplified through at least 30 accounts linked to pro-Beijing influence networks. Experts have previously identified these sources as aligned with PRC-backed information operations.
Freeland has faced some pressure within Liberal circles for asserting that Carney is the favored candidate of Trudeau’s elite staff and the Liberal establishment, after making the statements in a CBC interview.
SITE has briefed the Liberal Party’s executive and Freeland’s campaign team on its findings, emphasizing that it will continue monitoring foreign digital threats that seek to manipulate Canada’s democratic process.
“We will continue to monitor the digital information environment for foreign information manipulation and shine a light on hostile foreign state-backed information operations,” SITE said.
The findings recall a similar interference effort detected during the 2021 federal election, as documented in evidence before the Hogue Commission. At the time, analysts determined that an online disinformation campaign had sought to discourage Canadians of Chinese heritage from supporting the Conservative Party and its leader, Erin O’Toole. The campaign particularly targeted Kenny Chiu, the former Conservative candidate for Steveston-Richmond East, falsely portraying him as anti-China in a coordinated messaging effort across WeChat and Chinese-language media.
In both cases—the 2021 campaign against Conservative candidates and the emerging attack on Freeland—SITE observed coordinated messaging patterns originating from WeChat accounts and Chinese-language news sources tied to Beijing.
During the 2021 election, SITE assessed that false narratives about Chiu and the Conservative Party were widely circulated through WeChat, Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese counterpart), and other digital platforms. Three of the first Chinese-language news accounts to spread the false claims were members of a media partnership with China News Service, a PRC state-run agency operating under the United Front Work Department, Beijing’s key overseas influence arm.
SITE’s findings suggest a similar strategy may now be in play, with Freeland’s leadership campaign becoming a new focal point for online manipulation. The disinformation campaign generated significant engagement, with WeChat articles attacking Freeland drawing more than 140,000 interactions between January 29 and February 3, 2025. SITE estimates between two to three million WeChat users globally may have been exposed to the narratives. The false claims appear to have originated from WeChat’s most popular news account, an anonymous blog previously linked by experts at China Digital Times to Beijing’s influence network, according to SITE’s statement.
SITE’s analysis suggests PRC-linked actors may have viewed the 2021 effort as successful, particularly given the defeat of Chiu and other Conservative candidates in ridings with large Chinese-Canadian populations. If Beijing perceived that operation as effective, it could explain why a similar approach is now targeting an internal leadership race within the governing Liberal Party.
The evolving nature of these operations may signal a broader effort to influence not only Canada’s general elections but also its leadership contests—ultimately shaping the selection of the country’s next unelected Prime Minister.
This story is developing. The Bureau will provide further updates as more details emerge.
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conflict
Iran nuclear talks were ‘coordinated deception’ between US and Israel: report

From LifeSiteNews
Reports state that U.S. peace talks were a ruse and that Trump gave Netanyahu a ‘green light’ to hit Iran’s nuclear and military sites, killing top commanders.
A senior Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post that Tel Aviv and Washington worked together to convince Tehran that diplomacy was still possible after Israel was ready to attack Iran. Just hours before Israel’s massive assault began, President Donald Trump maintained he was still committed to talks.
The Israeli outlet reports, “The round of U.S.-Iranian nuclear negotiations scheduled for Sunday was part of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli deception aimed at lowering Iran’s guard ahead of Friday’s attack.”
READ: Israel strikes Iran’s nuclear sites, kills top commanders in massive air assault
In a post on Truth Social shortly before the Israeli strikes began, Trump declared that “We remain committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue! My entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran. They could be a Great Country, but they first must completely give up hopes of obtaining a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
After the Israeli attack was in progress, Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that the U.S. was involved. However, American officials have said the White House was aware Israel was set to begin striking Iran, with Trump telling Fox News he was briefed on the operation.
Barak Ravid of Axios, moreover, later reported that Tel Aviv was given “a clear U.S. green light” to start bombing, citing two unnamed Israeli officials.
Sources speaking with Axios said the perceived split between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was coordinated behind the scenes. “Two Israeli officials claimed to Axios that Trump and his aides were only pretending to oppose an Israeli attack in public – and didn’t express opposition in private,” the report explained. “The goal, they say, was to convince Iran that no attack was imminent and make sure Iranians on Israel’s target list wouldn’t move to new locations.”
The sources said that Trump and Netanyahu discussed the attack during a phone call on Monday. After the call, reports said Trump pressed Netanyahu not to attack Iran, but that was another effort to deceive Iran.
In a second post following the attack, Trump said he gave Iran the opportunity to make a deal, and suggested that Israel used American weapons in the massive air raid. “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done,” the president wrote.
The post continued, “I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.”
The U.S. and Iran began negotiations on establishing a new nuclear agreement in April, with the two sides engaging in five rounds of Omani-mediated talks. At times, a deal appeared possible, with Iranian officials saying the dialogue was leading to progress. A sixth round of talks was scheduled for Sunday, but now appears unlikely.
A second source speaking with the Jerusalem Post said the goal of Israel’s military operations was not the complete destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but rather to hit missile sites and top Iranian leaders to bring down the government.
Israel has conducted several rounds of strikes so far, hitting nuclear facilities, residential buildings in Tehran, and military sites. Iran has confirmed that several military leaders and nuclear scientists were killed in the bombing.
espionage
FBI Director: CCP Behind Wave of Pathogen Smuggling as Third Chinese Student Charged in Michigan Lab Probe

Sam Cooper
“In a follow up interview with FBI and ICE HSI agents, Han admitted to sending the packages and lying about their contents”
In an intensifying pattern of national security investigations targeting unauthorized biological shipments from China into Detroit, U.S. authorities on Monday confirmed the arrest of a third Chinese national allegedly involved in smuggling undeclared bio-materials into the United States—this time for use at a University of Michigan laboratory.
“This case is part of a broader effort from the FBI and our federal partners to heavily crack down on similar pathogen smuggling operations, as the Chinese Communist Party works relentlessly to undermine America’s research institutions,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted to X on Monday evening.
The latest defendant, Chengxuan Han, is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a doctoral student at the College of Life Science and Technology in Wuhan. She has been charged with smuggling goods into the U.S. and making false statements, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
From September 2024 through March 2025, prosecutors allege, Han sent four international shipments containing concealed biological materials to individuals affiliated with a University of Michigan lab. The contents were identified as Caenorhabditis elegans — roundworms commonly used in genetic and biomedical research. The packages were mis-manifested and not declared in accordance with U.S. import regulations.
On June 8, Han arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on a J-1 visa and was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. She allegedly denied having sent any biological materials to the U.S. and made false statements about the nature of the shipments. Agents also discovered that content on her electronic device had been deleted three days before her arrival — a detail included in the federal complaint.
“In a follow up interview with FBI and ICE HSI agents, Han admitted to sending the packages and lying about their contents,” Patel commented.
“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien from a science and technology university in Wuhan, China — to be used at a University of Michigan laboratory — is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. “The American taxpayer should not be underwriting a PRC-based smuggling operation at one of our crucial public institutions.”
The case marks the third time in one week that Chinese nationals connected to the University of Michigan have been charged with allegedly smuggling undeclared biological material from China into the U.S. for laboratory research.
On June 3, federal prosecutors charged Yunqing Jian, 33, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, and her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements, and visa fraud. Jian and Liu are accused of importing Fusarium graminearum — a fungus considered in some scientific literature to be a potential agroterrorism threat — into the country without proper declaration.
Officials allege Liu, who conducts research on the same pathogen at a university in China, initially lied to investigators but later admitted to smuggling the fungus for research in Jian’s Michigan lab.
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