Subject: Morning Brief: Microsoft Shutters Russian Online Operation Targeting U.S. Organizations
From: "Foreign Policy" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2018 08:24:27 -0500 (CDT)

Microsoft Shutters Russian Online Operation Targeting U.S. Organizations

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MORNING BRIEF

Today's Global News from Foreign Policy

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08/21/2018

08/21/2018

TOP NEWS

Microsoft Shutters Russian Online Operation Targeting U.S. Organizations

Top News: Microsoft announced that it had discovered a campaign by Russian hackers to create fake websites that impersonated U.S. think tanks and political organizations, the latest indication of the Kremlin’s continuing efforts to meddle in U.S. politics.

The faked websites mimicked those of the conservative think tank the Hudson Institute, which has done extensive work on Russian corruption, and the U.S. Senate site. The faked domains appear to have been an effort to dupe visitors and possibly obtain credentials to online services, such as email.

Microsoft linked the campaign to the Russian hacking group known as APT 28 or Fancy Bear, which American intelligence officials say was behind the penetration of the Democratic National Committee in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Al Qaeda: An American drone strike in Yemen is believed to have killed the notorious al Qaeda bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri. A creative and prolific maker of explosive devices, al-Asiri is thought to have been behind the 2009 plot to explode a bomb hidden in an operative’s underwear and smuggled aboard a Detroit-bound jetliner and a 2010 plot to smuggle explosives in printer cartridges.

AFRICA

•  Russia and the Central African Republic will sign a military cooperation agreement  on Tuesday.

•  Mali’s top court confirmed Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as the winner of the country’s recent presidential election.

•  U.S. First Lady Melania Trump will be making a solo trip to several unspecified African countries in the fall.

AMERICAS

•  Pentagon officials are warning of a sharp reduction in the refugee admission of Iraqis who have worked with U.S. forces to the United States.

•  American prosecutors unveiled charges against two men alleged to have worked as agents for Iran.

•  The United States deported a former Nazi concentration camp guard to Germany.

ASIA

•  Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull survived a challenge to his leadership of the Liberal Party.

•  Taliban forces fired rockets near Kabul’s presidential palace as President Ashraf Ghani was delivering a speech to mark Eid al-Adha celebrations.

•  Dozens of families long separated by the division between North and South Korea were briefly reunited.

EUROPE

•  British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called on the European Union to enact more comprehensive sanctions on Russia.

•  The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Chechnya that reportedly involved children as young as 11.

•  Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his country had completed a “modern-day Odyssey” in ending its reliance on bailout packages.

MIDDLE EAST

•  Iran unveiled a new fourth-generation fighter jet that it claimed is entirely indigenously made.

•  Iraqi officials are planning to ask Washington for exemptions on sanctions against Iran, a crucial trading partner.

•  The Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery died on Monday at the age of 94.

- By Elias Groll

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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