‘A 1939 moment’: Jim Sciutto on Russia, China and the threat of war

At CNN in Washington, Jim Sciutto’s dimly lit office is both man cave and shrine to a foreign correspondent who has reported from more than 50 countries. A typewriter he bought on Portobello Road during a decade in London. Photos he took in Afghanistan and Ukraine. A Vietnamese newspaper account of the time he rode over the South China Sea on a US spy plane. A corked bottle of water from his trip to the North Pole in a US nuclear submarine. A fragment of the Black Hawk helicopter destroyed…

US army intelligence analyst charged with selling secrets to China

A US army intelligence analyst was arrested on Thursday and charged with conspiring to sell sensitive defense information to China. Federal prosecutors charged Korbein Schultz with conspiracy to disclose national defense information, exporting defense articles and technical data without a license, and bribery of a public official, the US justice department said in a press release. Schultz, who was arrested at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell, was paid about $42,000 to provide an individual he believed lived in Hong Kong with information about US plans in the event Taiwan came under military…

Asio cleared of unlawfully luring Daniel Duggan back to Australia, agency chief Mike Burgess says

The spy agency Asio says it has been cleared by the intelligence watchdog of allegations of impropriety raised by the Australian citizen Daniel Duggan as he fights extradition to the US. Duggan, a former US marines pilot accused of training Chinese pilots to land fighter jets on aircraft carriers, had complained to the inspector general of intelligence and security (IGIS) about Asio’s role in securing his return to Australia from China. His legal team had raised concerns an “unlawful lure” – in the form of an Asio clearance for an…

US naval officer sentenced to two years in prison over spying for China

A US navy petty officer who pleaded guilty to providing sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Monday, the US justice department said. Wenheng Zhao, 26, and another US sailor, Jinchao Wei, were arrested in August on suspicion of spying for China. Zhao pleaded guilty in a federal court in California in October to charges of conspiring with a foreign intelligence officer and accepting a bribe. He was sentenced on Monday to 27 months in prison and a $5,500…

Daniel Duggan asks to be released from jail and detained at home as he fights extradition to US

An Australian pilot accused of accepting money to illegally train Chinese military personnel has denied he is a flight risk and described himself as a model prisoner in a formal request to be released into home detention. Daniel Duggan has written to the acting New South Wales corrections commissioner from Lithgow maximum security prison where he is being held in isolated custody while he fights extradition to the US. Duggan, a former US marine who became an Australian citizen, has been charged with four offences in the US including conspiring…

China and US reportedly agree to rare nuclear arms control talks

China and the United States will reportedly discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration. The talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior state department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms control department at China’s foreign ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. On Monday, China’s foreign ministry said the two countries would hold “consultations on arms control and non-proliferation” in the coming days, as well as separate talks on maritime affairs and other issues. It…

The new global arms race will lead to catastrophe. The west can pursue it – or choose peace | Carlo Rovelli

In the autumn of 1914 a frantic race to build weapons and decouple economies was under way among the countries of Europe. As the war cry on both sides intensified, a young Albert Einstein, together with the astronomer Wilhelm Foerster, physiologist Georg Friedrich Nicolai and philosopher Otto Buek, signed a Manifesto to the Europeans, inviting scholars and artists, “those of whom one should expect such convictions”, to speak against the escalation, think in terms of a common culture, transcend nationalist passions and call for a “union of Europeans” to prevent…

Extradition hearing for Australian accused of training Chinese pilots delayed for secret documents bid

An Australian former fighter pilot accused of breaking an arms embargo by training Chinese military pilots wants access to classified government documents to demonstrate that a US request to extradite him is politically motivated, his lawyer has said. Daniel Duggan, who became an Australian citizen in 2012, is accused of breaching US arms trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots while working at a South African flight school in the early 2010s. Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison if he is convicted. A November court date had been set…

Anthony Albanese urged to halt Daniel Duggan’s US extradition during meeting with president

Showing that their home-baked cake had made it safely to school was important in itself, but the Duggan family had little inkling of the happy snap’s broader significance. The photograph of Daniel Duggan with his kids outside their country New South Wales school captured one of his last moments of freedom. “That (cake photo) is the last photo of Dan with us,” his wife, Saffrine, said, ahead of Saturday, the day which marks a year since her husband was arrested. “Every photo that I take or have since, there is…

US navy sailor pleads guilty to accepting $15,000 in bribes from China

A US navy sailor pleaded guilty on Tuesday to accepting nearly $15,000 in bribes from a Chinese intelligence officer in exchange for photographs of unclassified private US military information, according to court papers. Petty Officer Wenheng “Thomas” Zhao, 26, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and receiving a bribe, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court in Los Angeles. Zhao admitted sending his Chinese handler plans for US military exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, operational orders and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system on a US military base…