🔥 Noon Against Putin

Good Morning. Andre Gordon, a suspect in a series of deadly shootings in Pennsylvania, has been arrested in New Jersey.

He is accused of killing three people: his stepmother, sister, and the mother of his children. Gordon was taken into custody following a standoff in a Trenton home.

He faces several charges, including carjacking and illegal possession of an assault weapon.

THE BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT

Russians Storm Streets in ‘Noon vs. Putin’ Protest, Amid Assured Putin Re-election

Social media is awash with images and videos depicting large crowds in Russia at the "Noon Against Putin" protest, coinciding with ongoing presidential elections. As accusations of authoritarian election control are hurled at the Russian leader, Russian citizens are demonstrating en masse against President Putin, carefully navigating the nation's stringent laws.

Presence of the Late Navalny: the rise of mass protests against continued Putin leadership follows the recent death of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison. Navalny has been referred to as a chief political enemy of Putin, and the circumstances of his death were described as “mysterious.”

Scale of Dissent: Analysts with Western media note that the protest turnout could paint a picture of the scale of dissent against Putin and his cabinet within Russian society.

Despite protests, Putin won the election by a landslide vote, extending a rule that has continued for 25 years.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY & DIPLOMACY

Counterterrorism

• Al-Shabaab jihadists conducted an hours-long siege at a hotel close to the presidential palace in Mogadishu, Somalia, resulting in three deaths, according to police statements on Friday.

• Sixteen Nigerian soldiers were killed on March 14 during a mission to quell clashes in Delta state's Bomadi region, army spokesperson Brigadier General Tukur Gusau announced.

• Suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group member Luqman, also known as Mir Adil, a was killed by unidentified attackers in Pakistan's Mamund area on Saturday, March 15.

Military & Defense

• Ukraine initiated a large-scale drone offensive on Sunday, March 17, coinciding with the last day of Russia's presidential election expected to prolong President Vladimir Putin's tenure by six years.

• Airstrikes, which Syria’s military says were fired from the Golan heights, targeted southern Syria and the Qalamoun mountains area early Sunday, March 17, resulted in a soldier wounded and "material losses.”

• Niger has terminated its military agreement with the United States, affecting American security operations in the Sahel region, according to Colonel Amadou Abdramane.

• Pro-Ukrainian Russian partisans, aligned with Kyiv, claimed to have captured a Russian border village and its administrative building in the Belgorod region on Sunday, March 17.

Cybersecurity

• Cybersecurity researchers uncovered a campaign called gitgub, involving GitHub repositories offering cracked software to deploy a malware named RisePro.

• Ransomware group ShadowSyndicate has been detected actively searching for servers susceptible to CVE-2024-23334, which is a directory traversal flaw found in the aiohttp Python library.

• International Monetary Fund (IMF)officials announced that a cyberattack in February compromised 11 of its email accounts. The incident, detected on February 16, led to an investigation and remediation.
  

Counterintelligence & Espionage

• The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against a network involved in illegal technology transfers from U.S. firms to Iranian entities, including Iran's central bank. Sanctions target Informatics Services Corporation (ISC), an Iran central bank service entity.

• Latvia's state security service has initiated criminal proceedings against European Parliament lawmaker Tatjana Ždanoka, a Latvian citizen suspected of collaborating with Russian intelligence.

• Australian Chinese businessman Di Sanh "Sunny" Duong,who was convicted of trying to politically influence former federal minister Alan Tudge through a hospital donation, on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, is reportedly the first person convicted under Australia’s new counter foreign interference laws.

Transnational Organized Crime

• Indian navy fighters liberated the hijacked MV Ruen cargo ship in Somalia's Puntland region, detaining 35 pirates after a 24-hour standoff and shootout. The crew was reported safe by Puntland Ports Minister Ahmed Yasin Salah.

• Mumbai Zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate carried out search operations on March 13 at six Mumbai locations. These actions were part of an investigation into the sale of fake paintings, involving Rajesh Rajpal and others, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

• President Joe Biden's 2025 budget proposal allocates $4.7 billion for an emergency border security fund to bolster the Department of Homeland Security's response to migrant surges. This fund allows for flexible financial access when undocumented migrant crossings exceed a certain threshold, with unused funds redirected to CBP, ICE, and FEMA's general funds.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

SpaceX’s Starship reportedly reached orbit, but was “lost” on reentry during its test flight, marking progress in its development to become the largest space hauler, with its third flight considered a success for achieving more than its predecessors.

• Heavy hauler: The rocket aims to significantly reduce launch costs with its capacity to carry up to 150 tons, potentially revolutionizing satellite deployment and enhancing the Space Force's capabilities, Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute explained.

• Pentagon Goals: Starship’s operational success will advance the Pentagon’s long-game goals of pushing objects into higher orbits.

In other news…

🚀 SpaceX secured a contract, valued at $1.8 billion, from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to construct a vast network of low-orbit spy satellites that can operate in a swarm and track ground targets, as reported by Reuters.

🔉General Gregory Guillot, U.S. NORTHCOM, told Congress that the U.S. should accelerate its hypersonic defenses. He noted that the U.S. could not “pause at all,” in pursuing hypersonic security.

⌨️ Researchers have discovered an acoustic attack that determines keystrokes from different typing patterns. The attack is able to detect patterns even in poor conditions, such as noisy environments.

DEALS & FUNDING

The European Union plans to allocate over half a billion euros to local ammunition firms to increase the bloc's annual shell production to two million by the end of 2025. This funding aims to expand facilities and boost shell supply to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia.

• Stimulation Effort: In this recent round of funding, the EU stimulated ammunition production growth with $560 million.

• The 2025 Target: Bloc members aim to push ammunition production to over two million shells by the end of 2025, aiming to amp up production as support deliveries for Ukraine fell short of the group’s pledge.

In other news…

0️⃣ Codezero, a secure microservices development firm, has raised $3.5 million for DevOPs security in its seed fund round.

🍏Apple has acquired an AI startup called Darwin AI, which specializes in vision-based tech, to scale the efficiency of manufacturing by improving components observation.

⚓️France’s Naval Group has won a $6 billion contract to build four attack submarines that are conventionally powered versions of the French Barracuda submarine for the Dutch.

🔘 Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADIA seeks to back India’s Pocket FM, engaging in talks to support the company in a large new round of funding, two sources “familiar with the matter” told Tech Crunch.