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The US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is planning a meeting of Saudi-UAE-India NSAs in Saudi Arabia this weekend in what would be the first such initiative involving national security advisers in the volatile region where India has huge stakes.Sullivan said on Thursday he will travel to Saudi Arabia this weekend for talks with Saudi leaders, as the United States seeks to bolster ties with Riyadh.Sullivan, speaking at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he would be traveling to Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks with Saudi leaders. He is expected to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Oil production cuts by Saudi-led OPEC+ and differences between the United States and Saudi Arabia over the 2018 death of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi have adversely impacted ties. The China brokered Saudi-Iran deal took the USA by surprise. Sullivan said the United States was working hard to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Sullivan said that also going to Saudi Arabia will be representatives from India and the United Arab Emirates to discuss "new areas of cooperation between New Delhi and the Gulf as well as the United States and the rest of the region."

"Now, as a sign of my seriousness about how much we're focused on this, and how seriously we are taking this, I am not going to say anything further lest I upset the efforts we are undertaking on this issue," he said.

The development is significant in the backdrop of the thaw in ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran and Saudi efforts to bring back Syria into the Arab League. Saudi-USA ties have been lukewarm over the past few years and both Saudi Arabia and UAE, like India, have taken an independent foreign policy approach to engage Russia politically and commercially.

India ,led by NSA Ajit Doval, has continued to nurture its growing strategic ties with both UAE and Saudi Arabia and has ties with Iran. Therefore, it made sense to involve India in the process, a source quipped. The Indian NSA visited Tehran earlier this week.

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Sullivan to convene US-India-Saudi-UAE NSAs meet in Riyadh over weekend - Economic Times

A set of highly classified documents from the U.S. Pentagon were leaked online in recent weeks, in an apparent security breach that revealed U.S. intelligence gathering on some of its key allies.Those documents again shed light on the extensive spying activities conducted by the U.S. in various parts of the world

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For many years, Washington has been spying on the world through electronic eavesdropping and communication interception, with the targets ranging from what it called "strategic competitors" to its European partners.

In May 2021, Denmark's national broadcaster DR News reported that the Danish Defense Intelligence Service had given the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) open Internet access to spy on senior politicians of countries, including then German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The report said that the NSA purposefully obtained data and thus was able to spy on targeted heads of state, as well as Scandinavian leaders, top politicians, and high-ranking officials in Germany, Sweden, Norway and France.

According to the New York Times, in 2013, documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that a new age of U.S. spying had begun after September 2001.

It was clear that the U.S., driven by fears of foreign terrorism and empowered by technological advances, had created a sophisticated network of global surveillance that was scooping up vast amounts of data from millions of emails and phone calls around the world. A decade later, the Pentagon is in the limelight this time.

The highly classified documents leaked from the department also reportedly include military assessments on the Ukraine crisis and CIA reports on a range of global issues.Some experts said that the reported leaks of classified Pentagon documents reveal double standards of theUnited States.

"In many respects, America has double standards, as it accuses others of what it is doing itself. Double standards are visible in many fields in American politics today," said Hrvoje Klasic, a professor at the University of Zagreb.

Analysts said that the unchecked surveillance is a means by which the United States interferes in other countries and achieves its own political goals.

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Leaked Data Reveal the US is an Unchecked Surveillance Empire - teleSUR English

Photo taken of the White House and stop sign in Washington, D.C., United States, August 4, 2022. /Xinhua

Photo taken of the White House and stop sign in Washington, D.C., United States, August 4, 2022. /Xinhua

Editor's note:CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events. This First Voice article is written by CGTN Special Commentator Danny Haiphong, an independent journalist and researcher in the United States. He is a contributing editor to the Black Agenda Report, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China and founding member of the No Cold War international campaign. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. political leaders and media analysts often hype "threats" from abroad in order to justify an increasingly aggressive foreign policy. China is now considered a top "threat" from significant elements of the U.S. political establishment and is regularly accused of conducting cyber espionage and other forms of snooping. Often, these accusations reflect the actual policies carried out by the U.S. government regardless of which political party holds majority power. On May 4, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (NCVERC) and internet security company 360 offered verifiable proof of this in a joint report detailing the cyber weapons used by the U.S.' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on other countries.

The report builds on earlier findings in 2020 that an unknown cyber organization hacked into China's major petroleum, infrastructure, aviation, and several other industries using methods related to WikiLeaks' "Vault 7" documents. These documents revealed that the CIA was able to infiltrate cyber technology and use it to spy on other countries as well as U.S. citizens.

The latest joint report found many instances where U.S. cyber warfare presented clear and present danger to other nations and the privacy of people. Investigators in the report detailed, for example, the CIA's use of a cyber attack toolkit that infiltrated smart TVs and turned them into spy tools even as the devices appear to be "off." Also, the CIA was found to wield malware programs and other cyber networks that allow the agency to spy on virtually any country at any time.

The CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) have conducted numerous cyber-attacks on China over the past several years as part of the U.S.' Cold War containment strategy. Not only is the CIA connected to the theft of information from Chinese companies but the NSA was also found to have stolen the private information of staff and researchers at the Northwestern Polytechnical University in 2022. It should come as no surprise, then, that China's latest joint report found that the NSA and CIA regularly share information and technology in their cyber war efforts. The CIA alone has more than 5,000 hackers and at least 1,000 hacking systems within its Center for Cyber Intelligence.

Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi Province, China, September 5, 2022. /CFP

Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shaanxi Province, China, September 5, 2022. /CFP

China is certainly not the only case where the U.S. has used cyber warfare to sabotage and spy on other countries. In 2014, famed whistleblower Edward Snowden told the media that NSA infiltration of Syria's internet system caused a nation-wide blackout early in the conflict. In 2019, the U.S. Cyber Command conducted a cyber attack on an Iranian intelligence group in an attempt to shut down Islamic Republic's weapons systems. The U.S. has also admitted to launching cyberattacks on the side of Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

As China's report notes, cyber attacks are just one form of warfare employed by the U.S. against other countries. The U.S. has attempted the overthrow of more than 50 governments since the end of World War II. While much of the world has been aware of the U.S. role in destabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan, the CIA and the U.S. military-intelligence industrial complex have been involved in dozens of regime change operations around the world. CIA and Pentagon assistance to anti-government forces in Libya and Syria in 2011 and Ukraine in 2014 directly led to the death and displacement of millions of people. U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, and dozens of other countries have caused the preventable death and impoverishment of millions more.

Incessant attempts from the U.S. mainstream media and political establishment have been made to paint U.S. foreign policy as "democracy" at work. But, it's clear that U.S. aggression is geared toward securing unchallenged hegemony over other nations at the expense of democracy worldwide. The principles of the UN Charter and international law more generally are disregarded entirely.

In fact, U.S. foreign policy analysts and officials frequently champion the U.S. as the sole arbiter of democracy from which all other countries must follow. Such imperial hubris justified by a Western ideology of exceptionalism which posits that other nations possess inferior or even more oppressive governance systems and must therefore submit to U.S. domination.

China's report sends a signal to the international community that the U.S. must be held accountable for its actions on the international stage. Though a multi-polar world is inevitable, true peace cannot exist within conditions of impunity. The U.S. has, for far too long, been able to get away with the gravest crimes against humanity without consequences. A new multi-polar order led by China, Russia, and the Global South must therefore possess not only the means to secure prosperity and sovereignty for all but also accountability for global wrongdoing.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow@thouse_opinionson Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)

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China's report on U.S. cyber attacks only scratches surface of ... - CGTN

Earlier this year, the Biden White House released its National Cybersecurity Strategy policy paper. Although it has some very positive goals, such as encouraging longer-term investments in cybersecurity, it falls short in several key areas. And compared with what is happening in Europe, once again the U.S. is falling behind and failing to get the job done.

The paper does a great job outlining the state of cybersecurity and its many challenges. It focuses on four different policy areas: protecting critical infrastructure, disrupting and removing various threats, remaking and improving defensive security markets, and suggesting future cyber investments.The strategy recognizes that government must use all tools of national power in a coordinated manner to protect our national security, public safety, and economic prosperity, says the initial press description.

That is a good start, to be sure. But, as Acting National Cyber Director Kemba Walden said during a discussion with journalists at the RSA Conference last week, The devils in the implementation planning process. The word easy doesnt show up in our strategy at all.

One place that is ripe for improvement is with the federal government sprawling procurement system. However, as one law firm suggests, there arent any new regulations proposed in the paper that will specifically drive better cybersecurity practices and norms. This sprawl and the resulting complexity dont instill any confidence if we will continue to require the lowest-cost bidder to solve our cybersecurity problems.

Speaking of government sprawl, you might be forgiven if you cant really keep track of all the cyber-oriented initiatives going on right now. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA which is part of the Department of Homeland Security has a joint cyber defense collaboration between public and private agencies around the world.

This effort has had some early successes, such as sharing threat intel about malware campaigns by Chinese state actors targeting various state and local governments and another effort aimed at improving the security of the 2022 elections. Its just one of numerous other DHS efforts to strengthen our overall cybersecurity posture, including helping fight commercial fraud (with help from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement), prosecute cryptocurrency transactions (with help from the Secret Service), fund various research efforts such as AI and malware analysis (as part of the DHS science branch) and elsewhere.

The National Security Agency has its own cybersecurity collaboration center. Its focused on protecting the nations defenses and working with various private sector companies to help detect and neutralize threats. For example, last month it worked with the FBI and CISA as well as their counterparts in the U.K. to document the tactics of a Russian state-sponsored attack on Cisco Systems Inc. routers.

Yet many security analysts dont quite give them the props they deserve, given that NSA-built malware has been exploited over the years the EternalBlue code that caused the WannaCry ransomware attacks in 2017 being most notable. At the RSA Conference, Adi Shamir (the S in the name refers to his initial efforts with the company) referenced the NSA and other badguys in one of his talks.

Then there is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is part of the Department of Commerce. NIST keeps various cybersecurity standards, such as this framework document, which was first published way back in 2014. Its proposing a major overhaul to come out next year. Duo Securitys blog documents what NIST representatives at the RSA Conference saidis in store, including updates to other efforts to help improve internet of things security, preserve privacy, strengthen identity management and increase software supply chain security.

And there are numerous cyber law enforcement entities within the Department of Justice, including special units of the FBI, and the State Department to arrest cybercriminals, such as this recent reward to help in bring Denis Kulkov.

These various agencies do make it hard to track an overall cybersecurity through line for the federales, and sadly the national strategy paper doesnt really assign to-do tasks to the different agencies or even suggest ways that they could cooperate across the board. Plus, the paper doesnt even put a price on what it would take to fund these various pie-in-the-cyber-sky Great Thoughts.

Another obstacle to better cybersecurity is the crazy-quilt patchwork of privacy regulations that are now being enacted by numerous states. Californias Consumer Privacy Act was the first in 2018, but others have jumped in, including Utah, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Virginia and Connecticut. At least 10 other states are getting close with their own laws.

Thats makes it harder for businesses that have a national footprint to craft any meaningful ways to preserve their customers privacy. Of course, the EU has had its GDPR regulations for many years that cover most of the entire continent.

If we look at other efforts across the pond, we see the U.K. hasa single entity that will review every government departments cyber posture under aframework called GovAssure. That would be nice for the U.S., but its unlikely given how we have parceled out various cybersecurity tasks here.

Andthe EU has its 1.1B Cybersecurity Shield effortthat was announced last month. This will connect and share info across national security response centers and aims to be up and running next year. Yes, this is something that we have done in the past but largely on a one-off basis.

Finally, the world has become increasingly interconnected, as documented by the World Economic Forum here. Cyber criminals are more frequently creating the pathways to other global risks, such as failures in public health or critical infrastructures. The good guys (and I am assuming we can finally include the NSA in that category) have to do a better job of cooperating to stop them.

The goal of the White Houses cyber strategy is to make our digital ecosystem more defensible, effective and resilient. Though we should praise this vision, the reality is still a long way off.

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Where is our national cybersecurity strategy? All over the place - SiliconANGLE News

The Scottish government must do more to protect the sheep sector following further discussion to reintroduce lynx to the countryside, industry leaders have said.

The potential for reintroducing lynx was debated in the Scottish parliament, after a motion by Scottish National Party (SNP) received cross-party support to engage this discussion.

The motion highlighted the case for the species return, and explained how its reintroduction could make Scotlands natural world richer and stronger.

This would be via a managed reintroduction, following appropriate assessments, the SNP said.

But the National Sheep Association (NSA) said protecting the people managing the environment, as well as the species at risk now, should be the priorities for the government.

NSA Scottish region coordinator, Grace Reid said: "NSA members have been at the sharp end of species reintroductions, from poor consultation processes, illegal releases, no management strategies, and no mitigation, exit or recognition of the impacts to farming businesses and livelihoods.

"We are increasingly concerned around the contradictions which could arise in government policy.

As new UK wide farming policies are incentivising habitat creation, the NSA said it was 'short sighted' to be considering the release of a species that could "severely damage the biodiversity of existing habitats".

The body added that the argument that Lynx would only feed on deer was "not acceptable", warning there was "no doubt" sheep would be an easy target for predation.

Evidence has shown that some European sheep flocks continue to suffer disproportionately great losses due to lynx predation.

Ms Reid continued: Those in favour of a reintroduction argue the UK has fallen behind in terms of species diversity.

"But there is a history of greater land use and land use change in Scotland than Europe has seen and therefore comparisons cannot be made between the UK and Europe due to the vast land scale and landscape differences.

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Scottish sheep sector 'concerned' amid lynx reintroduction talks - FarmingUK