🔥 The Taliban's Third Anniversary

Good Morning. 

The U.S. Navy is preparing to test industry systems for new underwater sensors, automated target recognition capabilities, and other tools to support subsea and seabed warfare through its Technology Operational Experimentation Event 25.2.

This initiative, led by the Office of Naval Research-Global, aims to address growing underwater threats, enhance autonomous undersea navigation, and improve command and control for distributed assets, with the outcomes informing future Navy science-and-technology investments.

— 🐈‍⬛ Acoustic Kitty

THE BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT

The Taliban marked the 3rd anniversary of their return to power with a public holiday and military parade at the former U.S.-run Bagram airbase.

These celebrations occurred amid international criticism over human rights abuses, especially severe restrictions on women's rights and girls' education.

The United Nations has described Afghanistan under Taliban rule as one of the world's "largest and most complex" humanitarian crises.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY & DIPLOMACY

Counterterrorism

• A Congressional report by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee claims that over 250 migrants on the terrorist watchlist were encountered at the U.S. border over 2 years, with at least 99 of them released into the country.

• Ukraine's cross-border operations into Russia's Kursk region have been labeled as "terrorism" by the Kremlin, despite international law supporting Ukraine's right to self-defense.

Military & Defense

• Nearly 200K Russians are being evacuated from the Kursk and Belgorod regions following one of the largest Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory, which targeted three military airfields and involved the destruction of over 100 Ukrainian drones.

• Iran's anticipated retaliation for the killing of a Hamas leader has not yet materialized, leaving Israel and its allies on high alert while exploring various potential attack scenarios and diplomatic efforts to prevent escalation.

• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar and met with military leader Min Aung Hlaing amid growing instability from Myanmar's civil war, emphasizing China's support for stability and opposition to attacks by ethnic militias in northern Shan State.

• U.S.-mediated cease-fire talks between warring Sudanese parties are set to begin in Geneva, amid warnings that Sudan has reached a "catastrophic breaking point" with widespread displacement, famine, and ongoing combat.

• Diplomats from Somalia and Ethiopia failed to reach an agreement during 2 days of indirect talks in Turkey, primarily due to disagreements over Ethiopia's coastline access via Somaliland, with a third round of talks scheduled for September.

Cybersecurity

• Hackers allegedly breached National Public Data, potentially exposing sensitive information including Social Security numbers for 2.7B people across the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

• Texas-based Orion lost $60M in a wire transfer scam involving fraudulently induced transactions to unknown third parties, highlighting the growing threat of sophisticated financial fraud schemes targeting businesses.

• Maksim Silnikau, the alleged leader of an international cybercrime operation, has been extradited from Poland to the United States to face charges related to malware distribution, ransomware attacks, and online fraud schemes.

Counterintelligence & Espionage

• U.S. Army intelligence analyst Korbein Schultz pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell military secrets to China, including sensitive documents and classified information, in exchange for approximately $42K.

• Russian police have detained a U.S. citizen in Moscow for allegedly attacking a police officer after refusing to show identification, with the suspect facing up to 5 years in prison under Russian law.

• A hacking group associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted the personal email accounts of individuals affiliated with both the Trump and Biden campaigns, including current and former U.S. government officials.

• Polish prosecutors have formally indicted Pavel Rubtsov, also known as Pablo González, on espionage charges after he was freed from prison and included in a prisoner swap between Russia and the West.

Transnational Organized Crime

• Germany has reportedly asked Poland to arrest a Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of involvement in the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions, as part of an ongoing investigation into the 2022 incident.

• An Ethiopian humanitarian worker, Yared Melese, was kidnapped and killed by an unidentified criminal group in the Amhara region, marking the 8th aid worker killed in Ethiopia in 2024.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global health emergency due to a fast-spreading mpox outbreak in Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo where a new, more lethal strain has infected about 15,000 people and killed over 500 this year.

The declaration aims to encourage international cooperation on countermeasures, including vaccine procurement, with the WHO developing guidance for affected countries and releasing initial funds from a contingency fund for emergencies.

This announcement follows the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's continent-wide public health emergency declaration, marking the first time the regional body has used this power since receiving it last year.

In other news…

SpaceX plans to launch its sixth commercial crewed mission, Fram2, in late 2024, which will be the first human spaceflight to fly over Earth's polar regions and involve a multinational crew conducting research experiments.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment, limiting their use in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

China has acknowledged a recent rocket explosion that created significant space debris, marking one of the biggest such events in decades and prompting the country to take measures to monitor and mitigate the fallout.

Elon Musk's xAI has launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta on X, featuring improved reasoning and image generation capabilities, while raising concerns about potential misuse for misinformation.

WeRide, a Chinese robotaxi startup, has received permits to test its autonomous vehicles with passengers in California, coinciding with its plans to go public in the U.S. at a nearly $5B valuation.

Texas is suing General Motors for allegedly collecting and selling data about drivers' habits from over 14M vehicles without proper consent, potentially affecting insurance decisions for more than 1.8M Texas drivers.

DEALS & FUNDING

Databricks reportedly acquired Tabular for nearly $2B in June, despite the startup's modest $1M annual recurring revenue.

The acquisition was driven by Tabular's connection to Apache Iceberg, a popular open source table format created by its founders, and became a strategic move in the competitive landscape between Databricks and Snowflake.

This high-stakes acquisition highlights the intense rivalry in the data analytics industry, with Snowflake facing challenges including a significant stock price decline and a recent data breach affecting AT&T customers.

In other news…

The U.S. has approved $20B in arms sales to Israel, including F-15 fighter jets and advanced missiles, amid concerns of a wider Middle East conflict, though deliveries are not expected to begin until at least 2026.

ArborXR, a startup providing remote management solutions for AR and VR devices in enterprise settings, has secured $12M in Series A funding to scale its platform, which is already used by over 3K major companies and 420 educational institutions for managing XR devices and content.

Definity, a startup launching out of stealth, has raised $4.5M in seed funding to develop a tool that observes, fixes, and optimizes data pipelines by monitoring data in motion, focusing on Apache Spark-based applications and addressing issues like data quality problems and pipeline failures.