China is home to one of the largest intelligence agencies in the world, and also one of the most unknown.. Among his many counterintelligence duties, he is dedicated to hunting down foreign spies operating on Chinese soil.. This Friday, the MSS published a statement assuring that it had discovered and detained a Chinese citizen suspected of spying for the CIA.

The named person's last name is Zeng and would have been recruited in Italy, where he worked for a military industrial group based in Beijing.. “In Italy he got acquainted with a CIA agent. Through dinners, trips, and opera tickets, the two developed a close relationship, and Zeng became psychologically dependent on the agent,” the statement read.

The moment in which the events occurred has not been disclosed, but the MSS maintains that the CIA agent sought to extract sensitive information about the Chinese army from Zeng..

The Asian giant's agency also points out that Zeng would have signed an espionage agreement with the United States and that he even received CIA training before returning to China, from where he “provided basic intelligence on numerous occasions and pocketed funds for the efforts “.

The spy game played by the two main world powers is quite old. Specifically, since Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China in 1949. The US media has reported on many occasions how Beijing has gone after CIA informants.

In 2010, the New York Times published that many of the sources that the agency had within the Chinese government had begun to disappear.. A couple of years later, always according to US intelligence officials, up to twenty spies collaborating with the CIA would have been executed in the Asian country.

A few weeks ago, the MSS called on social networks for “all members of society” to join its fight against espionage, offering rewards and protection to those who provide information.

China's parliament approved a new, broader version of the country's counter-espionage law last April. This expanded the definition of espionage: from covering state secrets and intelligence, to any “document, data, material or element related to security and national interests”. It did not specify the specific parameters on how these terms are defined, something that has generated a lot of concern among businessmen, diplomats and foreign journalists.

In July, in their WeChat account, the Chinese brother of WhatsApp, from the MSS they stressed that national security agencies should keep complaint channels open, such as hotlines and online platforms, to “handle complaints of suspicions of espionage within the country in a timely manner”.

The authorities of the Asian giant have been offering rewards for years for reporting foreign espionage activities. Last year, the MSS already introduced a new regulation that establishes the criteria for rewards, which can go up to 14,000 euros.

Five Americans detained in Iran have been transferred from prison to house arrest, their families and Washington announced Thursday, the first step in a fragile deal that could free up billions of dollars for Tehran.

Progress towards the release of these detainees – one of whom has been held for almost eight years – comes after discreet and intense negotiations between Washington and Tehran, adversaries for decades.

The next stage of a deal, according to a source close to the negotiations, could be the transfer of $6 billion of Iranian funds frozen in South Korea to a special account in Qatar.. Iran could use it for humanitarian purchases like food and medicine.

However, when asked about it, the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, made it clear on Thursday night that “Iran will not benefit from any sanctions relief.”

“Funds from Iran must be used and transferred to restricted accounts so that they can only be used for humanitarian purposes,” he said.

If all goes according to plan, the prisoners could leave Iran during the month of September, according to a source close to the matter.

“I think this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare and that of their families,” added Blinken, who added that, as far as he knew, there were no other Americans detained in Iran.

“An Encouraging Step”

Four prisoners – Iranian-Americans Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharqi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as another prisoner whose name has not been released – left Tehran's Evin prison on Thursday, infamous for its harsh conditions of detention.

Iran's mission to the UN confirmed his release on Thursday night.

The four were escorted to a hotel where they will remain under surveillance by security forces, according to a lawyer for one of the prisoners.

The case of a fifth prisoner, an American woman, is being negotiated. She had already been placed under house arrest a few weeks ago.

“While this is an encouraging step, these American citizens … should never have been detained,” Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.

“Negotiations for his final release are still ongoing and remain delicate,” he added.

“We are grateful that Siamak and the other Americans in Iran are out of Evin prison and under house arrest,” said Babak Namazi, Siamak's brother.

“While this represents a positive development, we will not let up until Siamak and the others are back home,” he said in a statement.

All Americans detained are of Iranian descent. Iran does not recognize dual nationality and has not maintained diplomatic relations with the United States since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

espionage accusations

According to a source close to him, the negotiations focused on the unfreezing of the 6 billion Iranian dollars in South Korea.. This country had blocked these funds, coming from the sale of hydrocarbons by Iran, as a result of US sanctions.

This deal, fragile as it is, comes at a time when the Joe Biden administration and Tehran are unable to find common ground to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, from which Donald Trump withdrew.

Siamak Namazi, a businessman, was arrested in October 2015, accused of espionage on the basis of evidence that his family described as ridiculous.

Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American who also has British nationality, was arrested in January 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “conspiring with the United States”.

Emad Sharqi, a US-Iranian investor, was sentenced in 2020 to ten years in prison for espionage.

This week it was supposed to house fifty asylum seekers out of an expected total of more than five thousand. But the Bibby Stockholm is empty at her mooring in Dorset, a county in the south of England.. And it is that the first to embark on the floating residence since Monday 7, a total of 39 refugees, were unexpectedly evacuated this Friday due to the risk of contamination of the water system. The Ministry of the Interior confirmed in a press release that “environmental tests” of the pipes of the boat have given a positive result of the bacteriological presence of legionella.

The dangerous bacterium has, at least temporarily, scuttled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's strategy to reduce the economic and political cost of irregular immigration.. No refugee will board the floating prison until new analyzes ratify the purification of the internal water system. “The health and well-being of the individuals on the ship is our top priority,” a ministry spokesman said on Friday.

Meanwhile, the 39 evicted will once again occupy the hotel rooms that the head of the Conservative Government and his Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman, want to eliminate and replace with cabins on port waters, bedrooms in old military barracks and tents near the centers of reception of refugees. Sunak is confident that the hardening of living conditions on British soil will deter foreigners from crossing the English Channel by boat from France and will allow the estimated seven million euros a day that the Administration spends on hotel rooms to be cut.

Record arrival of migrants

But the forecasts don't add up yet. Up to 755 adults and minors arrived in 14 boats, including a group of 17 that nearly capsized at sea. They were rescued by operatives from the National Lifeboat Organization (RNLI) after the British Border Force lost one of its rescue boats to damage.. A maritime surveillance drone crashed that same morning, further complicating the situation.

The British press warns that the mark of 100,000 irregular immigrants on journeys from coastal enclaves of the European Union has been exceeded since the Government began to record the data, in 2018. Statistics for the first six months of the year indicate a reduction of 14% compared to the previous period, but the improvement seems more related to adverse maritime and weather conditions along the route than to government measures and Sunak's promise to ” stop the boats”. In fact, a new peak of arrivals in small boats is anticipated this weekend, as the weather forecasts announce good temperatures and moderate wind.

Human rights organizations and anti-racism collectives yesterday called for a reversal of the policy of confining migrants on boats. “The Bibby Stockholm is a visual illustration of the hostile environment this government deploys against refugees and has quickly become a symbol of the chaotic incompetence that has destroyed the UK asylum system,” said Steve Smith, director of Care4Calais.

This NGO defends a group of refugees who refused to board the sleeping boat, alleging mental and physical health issues, and the bacteriological detection in the water system adds weight to their suspicions. “We have always known that our concerns regarding the health and safety of the ship are justified and this new demonstration of mismanagement confirms our position,” the coordinator concluded.

The Bibby Stockholm is moored at the privately owned Portland pier, and local authorities were barely consulted about the controversial deal with the central government.. For the mayor of the town, Carralyn Parkes, the health incident “is part of a long litany of disasters around the barge”. In turn, the Dorset regional council, which covers this remote enclave of the English 'Jurassic coast', was quick to issue a message of confidence. “No individual has symptoms of Legionella disease and the broader Portland community is not at any health risk,” he said Friday.

The bacterium was detected in analysis of water intakes collected from the pipes of the boat, which was moored at the dock on the Isle of Portland in mid-July.. The tests had been carried out days ago, but the operation to transfer the asylum seekers was launched without waiting for the results. Interior assured that none of the evacuees showed signs of discomfort and described the eviction as a “precautionary measure”..

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, expressed today “extremely concerned” about the conditions in which the ousted Nigerian president, Mohamed Bazoum, and his family are detained, who according to him could be subjected to human rights abuses.

“Credible information that I have received indicates that the conditions of his detention could be considered inhuman and degrading treatment, in violation of international human rights law,” Türk said in a statement, in relation to the captivity of Bazoum, his wife and their son. .

The three have been held in an area of the Niamey Presidential Palace since the coup d'état on July 26 that brought a military junta to power. Türk claimed to have received information according to which the president and his family do not have access to electricity, drinking water or medicines. “Those responsible for the president's detention and the rest of the detainees must guarantee full respect and protection of their human rights,” added the high commissioner.

A former adviser to the ousted president, who requested anonymity, explained to EFE that Bazoum, with his wife and son, live on “dry food” and added that days ago his personal doctor was prevented from accessing the presidential residence.

The same source, who denounced the “inhumane conditions” of the detention of Bazoum and his family, pointed out that the deposed president's entourage was able to alert the international community about his situation.

In the same sense, the religious and traditional leaders close to Bazoum published a statement yesterday, Thursday, in which they denounced that Bazoum and his family have been deprived of all external visits since August 2, warning that the health of the president's son “it began to degrade strongly”, and they demanded the release of all.

“This concentration camp-like criminal treatment is contrary to human morality and the precepts of our religion that considers human life sacred,” the document read. The chiefs lamented the failure of their mediation initiatives with the junta coup military to “humanize the detention conditions” of Bazoum and free his wife and son, as well as blame the coup leader, Brigadier General Abdourahamane Tiani, and “his accomplices” for everything that “could threaten the integrity of Bazoum, his wife and his son”.

For their part, sources close to the military junta – calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP) – denied to EFE that the military intends to “mistreat” the deposed president “or attack his physical integrity.”

They confirmed that the presidential residence where Bazoum and his family are being held is without electricity and they allege the lack of electricity “suffering by the Nigerien people” due to the sanctions decreed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ).

Yesterday Thursday, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, affirmed that his country has “made it clear” to Niger's military leaders that it will attribute responsibility for “the security and well-being” of the deposed president.. Blinken said at a press conference that he himself has had the opportunity to speak with Bazoum half a dozen times, the last one on the 8th, while expressing his government's “deep” concern for Bazoum and his family.

From Geneva, former UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland warned today that the situation in Niger, a country in which the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatens to intervene, could cause serious destabilization in the Sahel region and a consequent crisis of refugees and displaced persons.

“We are deeply concerned about the increase in tension in Niger, a place that was already suffering serious crises (…), and in this volatile context there are many risks of destabilization in the country and throughout the region,” Egeland said in a statement. , as secretary general of the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Egeland recalled that Niger, with one of the youngest populations and the highest poverty rates in the world, already needed humanitarian aid for a sixth of its inhabitants before the July military coup.

The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, announced this Friday the dismissal of all those responsible for the country's regional recruitment offices due to the high number of cases of corruption in these types of centers.

“The system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery in wartime are treasonous,” Zelensky said on his Telegram channel.

The decision was made at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine chaired by Zelensky and must be implemented by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny.

The Ukrainian president explained in his message that corruption proceedings have currently been opened against 112 officers from these recruitment centers, while there are suspicions against 33 of them, according to data from the different security forces and the prosecutor's office.

“Some accepted cash, others cryptocurrency, that's the (only) difference. Cynicism is the same everywhere,” Zelenski denounced in a video message also broadcast through Telegram and promised that all those who have accepted bribes must assume “full responsibility” before justice.

The management of these offices should correspond in the future to “soldiers who have gone through the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, they have lost their limbs, but they have preserved their dignity,” he said.

Before their appointment, the new officials will also be investigated by the Ukrainian security services, the president added.

In recent months, several cases of corruption have emerged in which those responsible for these centers have acquired luxury goods and properties thanks to bribes paid by those who want to get rid of compulsory military service.

Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Pavluk announced on July 26 that the special team that is investigating these institutions – created in June by order of Zelenski – has received more than 2,300 complaints for various types of irregularities.

On August 3, the Ukrainian president already harshly criticized the work of these offices, where according to him, according to preliminary investigations, numerous cases of “disgusting” abuses have been detected.