Hard work should pay. Unlock quality journalism that champions free enterprise. | .png) | Rozina Sabur National Security Editor | It is believed to be one of the most successful campaigns in the history of espionage, but most people have never heard of “Salt Typhoon”.
That’s the name given to the global operation by Chinese state-sponsored hackers to gain access to the phones of millions of people, track specific targets and record their calls.
Now, The Telegraph is revealing senior government officials were targeted in the campaign, with sources saying it went “right into the heart of Downing Street”.
The phones of aides close to successive prime ministers – Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak – were targeted between at least 2021 and 2024.
Most alarming of all, the intelligence community suspects the operation is ongoing, raising the possibility that Sir Keir Starmer and his senior staff were, or still are, compromised.
China has dismissed the claims, saying: “We firmly oppose the practice of politicising cybersecurity issues or accusing other countries without evidence.”
We previously revealed that the Chinese super-embassy, which has been approved by Labour, contains secret bunkers just yards from highly sensitive cables carrying data from the City to Canary Wharf.
The Telegraph is exposing this new security breach just as Sir Keir prepares to head to China, the first Prime Minister to do so since 2018.
The discovery has led critics to accuse the Government of prioritising wooing Beijing for trade and investment deals rather than taking a harder line on British national security.
Sources given intelligence briefings on the scale of Beijing’s cyber-espionage describe it as the stuff of nightmares.
It is unclear what information China’s hostile actors were able to glean from officials in Downing Street, but those with knowledge of the hacking are unnerved by how far up the ranks of power they were able to scale.
Continue reading ➤
Adam Smith: Starmer would be a fool to follow Carney in embracing Beijing ➤ | | Shamima Begum, pictured at al-Roj in 2021, faces an uncertain fate | | Matthew Broomfield
in al-Roj camp | I arrived at the Islamic State (IS) detention centre housing Shamima Begum, the infamous British schoolgirl who ran away to marry a jihadi, days after Islamist forces loyal to the new Syrian government seized control of nearby prisons and camps.
At a litter-strewn market square just inside the entrance of al-Roj detention camp, I find Begum shopping for groceries.
Dressed in a hoodie and a Covid-style mask, she moves between mostly shuttered stalls that are selling food, toys and scooters.
When The Telegraph approaches, she hears the British accent, turns abruptly and disappears into the depths of the tent city hosting thousands of IS members.
The London-born IS bride, stripped of her citizenship but desperate to return to Britain, has learnt to avoid attention. She is also a potential target for more radical inmates, but her chances of escape may be rising. | Kurdish-led fighters handed over nearby al-Hol camp to the Syrian government | A dramatic shift across north-east Syria over the past week has seen government forces wrest control from the Kurdish authorities who run the IS detention camps. A rapid offensive has swallowed roughly 80 per cent of Kurdish-held territory and the camp may be about to fall.
Hekemiya Ibrahim, al-Roj’s Kurdish manager, tells me: “Women who used to be very visible in the camp aren’t seen much any more.”
She added that Begum is among those quietly biding their time and hoping for a change of fortunes.
“She never speaks and she never comes out. If you ask them where they’re going, they might not tell you. But if you look in their tents, you’ll see that their bags are packed.”
Continue reading ➤ | | Zoe Strimpel Apparently young people are turned off by slick, commercial scenes of rumpy-pumpy Continue reading ➤ Andrew Orlowski The AI deathmatch is upon us and the tech bros are fighting dirty Continue reading ➤ Ryan-Mark Parsons Bullies targeted me online after The Apprentice, but I still oppose a social media ban Continue reading ➤ | | Lady Victoria and Sir David Beckham arrived in Paris during Couture Fashion Week | | Suella Braverman, who yesterday became the latest high-profile Tory to switch to Reform, tells Annabel Denham in an exclusive interview why her defection feels like a divorce. She reveals the final straw that made her call it quits, and why Nigel Farage’s party is better off without the Conservatives. Continue reading ➤ | |  | | When I read that a fountain pen had been donated to an American Holocaust museum I wondered – as it turned out, correctly – if it had belonged to Erno Spiegel, whose story is told in a new documentary, writes Anthea Gerrie. On arrival at the Auschwitz death camp, Spiegel was charged with reprieving twins from the gas chamber – for as long as they were useful to Dr Josef Mengele in his hideous experiments.
To complete this task, Spiegel demanded the return of the pen he had been forced to surrender. With a few strokes of ink, he created “twins” from normal siblings, by falsifying boys’ birth dates. The pen became a tool of resistance, securing life for a lucky few who otherwise faced extermination. Continue reading ➤ | | | | | Su Hobson spent decades trapped in repeated cycles of dieting that promised control, but instead delivered exhaustion. She finally escaped by doing less, not more. She lost 6kg, cut her body fat from 28 to 19 per cent and increased her bone density in the process. Here’s how she did it. Continue reading ➤ | | | Europe is realising that if it can’t beat the uncaring superpowers of the US, Russia and China, it has to become bigger and stronger to survive. James Crisp and Joe Barnes reveal the plan to transform the EU into a geopolitical heavyweight for the emerging world order. Continue reading ➤ | | | Piers Morgan was taken to hospital after breaking his hip | | After Piers Morgan, my husband, tripped on a step at a London hotel and broke his hip, he was inundated with messages of support, writes Celia Walden. But spare a thought for yours truly, who has spent the best part of two weeks on hand – round the clock – to fulfil my “in sickness and in health” obligation as an unpaid nurse: the biggest test of The Vows so far. Continue reading ➤ | | | Storm Chandra is upon us and the grim weather is unrelenting as we enter the final stretch of January. Luckily, Hannah Rochell, a fashion writer who lives on the Isle of Wight, with its many muddy paths and wind-lashed beaches, has road-tested some weatherproof outfits that still look fun and stylish. Continue reading ➤ Below are two more helpful articles for you this morning: - Feeling uninspired to cook tonight? Here are some easy hacks to turn basic supermarket meals into something a bit more satisfying.
- Alex Robbins, our motoring expert, has advice on the best cars to buy now, including EVs, hybrids and petrol.
| | A Hard Day’s Night follows the Beatles’ chaotic jaunt to London |  | Robbie Collin Chief Film Critic | Have films become too long? Clare Binns, creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, thinks so.
Just look at the stats: in the 1930s, the average length of a feature was a mere 81 minutes; by 2022, this had risen to 107.
This year’s Oscars nominations are proof of increasing running times, with only one (Train Dreams) significantly under two hours. There is no denying the brilliance of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, but did it really need to be so long?
With this in mind Tim Robey and I, The Telegraph’s film critics, offer 20 fantastic works that are mercifully brief - from the breathless slapstick of Buster Keaton in The General and the hedonistic whoop of A Hard Day’s Night to the pacy brilliance of Toy Story. Continue reading ➤ | | Sir Keir Starmer has been mocked for a “cringeworthy” Burns Night celebration, with accusations of a “patronising cosplay” of Scottishness. How did the Prime Minister mark the celebration of Scotland’s national poet? | In defence of British winters Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal reader correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
So January crawls to its conclusion, leaving us to look forward to... February. Are you feeling the lure of warmer climes? The Telegraph’s Sally Howard recently interviewed several people whose policy is to give the entire British winter a miss, swapping London for Sri Lanka or Gran Canaria. Apparently this trend is on the rise.
I’ll pass, thanks. Perhaps it’s just some form of Stockholm syndrome, but the truth is that I don’t mind this time of year. If anything, I’d like it to be colder: those bright, icy days at the beginning of the year were my idea of fun (apart from when I was trying desperately not to slip over). Maybe I actually need to move to Stockholm.
Anyway, I wondered if it was just me – a lone masochist with a love of heavy jumpers – but it turns out many readers feel the same way.
Paul Rolink declared: “There’s nothing wrong with British winters. In fact our seasonal climate is very kind to us, and it’s much worse elsewhere. You can go out every day, so just enjoy it.”
Jonathan Lingard added: “The robins are busy and the plants are budding at the moment, which you will miss out on if you spend the next couple of months abroad. Not everything about January is gloomy.”
Nigel Tebb wrote: “I’ve never understood the whole ‘escaping winter’ thing. I love the winter here, just as I love spring, summer and autumn, each season making you appreciate the other. I’d hate to live somewhere that was always hot and sunny.”
Hear, hear. For Kimberly Blackwell, meanwhile, the main deterrent was that “I would miss my dogs too much. I live in Texas, though, where we have decent winters.” Are you a winter sun-seeker? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. | | Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including PlusWord, Sorted, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was OUTWARDLY. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. | | Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here. | |
.png){kind=icon}
No comments:
Post a Comment