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July 25, 2025
 

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ESPIONAGE

A guilty ruling by a Chinese court for a Japanese employee at Astellas Pharma on a spying charge will be finalized if he does not file an appeal by the deadline in late July.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 20, 2025
Astellas employee won't appeal spying conviction in China
A Beijing district court that imposed the prison sentence is believed to have found the man guilty of espionage for providing information to an intelligence agency.
A guilty ruling on a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma in China for a spying charge has shocked Japanese firms operating in China.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2025
Japanese firms in China wary after Astellas employee spy conviction
"We don't know what actions (by the Astellas employee) were considered a problem" by Chinese authorities, a senior official of a Japanese manufacturer stationed in Beijing said.
Astellas Pharma's headquarters in Tokyo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025
Chinese court jails Japanese executive after sudden detention for spying
The convicted man, an executive of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma, was detained in March 2023 and charged with espionage in October of that year.
Daniel Martindale, a U.S. citizen who helped Russia from inside Ukraine, after receiving a Russian passport, in Moscow.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 16, 2025
U.S. citizen who helped Russia from inside Ukraine granted Russian passport by Putin
Daniel Martindale grew to love Russia when he lived there in 2018, studying the language and teaching English in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok.
The Astellas Pharma headquarters in Tokyo. A district court in Beijing will hand down a ruling on Wednesday for a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma, who has been charged with espionage in China, according to sources.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Chinese court to issue ruling on Japanese businessman
While the Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma was indicted in August last year, the Chinese side has not disclosed details of his charges.
CCTV footage shows a Security Service of Ukraine officer walking down stairs moments before he was shot in Kyiv on Thursday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Ukrainian spy colonel gunned down in Kyiv as assailant flees
The slain agent was a colonel in the Security Service of Ukraine, an official said.
Surveillance cameras are seen in front of a Chinese flag near a shopping area in Shanghai in 2021. Beijing has stepped up espionage warnings in recent years amid worsening relations with the United States and other Western nations.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 10, 2025
China says it foiled foreign spying plots, including 'honeytrap'
Beijing did not name the countries alleged to be behind the plots.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand shakes hands with Japan's top diplomat, Takeshi Iwaya, at the end of a signing ceremony for an information security agreement, after bilateral talks in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 9, 2025
Japan and Canada ink key intel-sharing deal
The agreement is another important step toward deepening ties with individual members of the Five Eyes intelligence grouping.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday
WORLD
Jul 3, 2025
Swiss say foreign spying threat high, citing Russia and China
The global context has direct implications for Switzerland, a militarily neutral country which hosts multiple international organizations.
Taiwanese Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim speaks during the first exhibition organized by the Czech Center Taipei in the Taiwanese capital in June last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 29, 2025
Taiwan VP says she will not be intimidated after Czechs allege Chinese plot
A Chinese diplomat ran a red light while following her car, while other Chinese operatives had planned to stage a demonstrative car crash.
Taiwan's Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim attends a news conference in Taipei on June 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 28, 2025
Czechs say China followed and planned intimidation of Taiwan vice-president
Prague does not have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but has fostered warm relations with the democratically-governed island.
Foreign minister David Lammy told Parliament the Labour administration would invest £600 million in its intelligence services.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 25, 2025
'Audit' of U.K. and China relations finds Beijing's spying is on the rise
British foreign minister David Lammy said the Labour administration would invest £600 million in its intelligence services as a result of the findings.
A woman near the Kremlin in Moscow on May 19
WORLD / Politics
Jun 9, 2025
Russian intelligence says it collects WeChat data. What does that mean?
The disclosure highlights the rising level of concern about Chinese influence in Russia as the two countries deepen their relationship.
Closed-circuit television cameras in a New Delhi street in on May 21. Global makers of surveillance cameras have clashed with Indian regulators over new rules that require them to submit materials for assessment in government labs, driven in part by alarm about China's capabilities.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 28, 2025
India's alarm over Chinese surveillance prompts crackdown on cameras
Rejecting the request from manufacturers for a delay, India said its policy "addresses a genuine security issue" and must be enforced.
The Chinese Communist Party has significantly expanded its global influence operations by using tactics like election interference, disinformation, elite capture and pressure on the diaspora to sway politics and policies in democracies worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2025
Is Beijing engineering election wins for 'soft on China' politicians?
Beijing legally requires all citizens to support Communist Party policies and views ethnic Chinese everywhere as instruments for advancing its global goals.
British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper arrives for a news conference in London on May 12.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 18, 2025
British police charge three Iranians as part of spying probe
The three men have been charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist Iranian intelligence service between August 14, 2024, and February 16, 2025.
The motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump is parked next to a 12-year old Qatari-owned Boeing 747-8 that Trump was touring in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 15.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2025
Trump’s freebie Qatar jet is the stuff of nightmares in spyworld
"If we had built the plane, knowing it was going to a foreign government, we would probably have bugged it,” said Thad Troy, a former station chief with the CIA.
A Chinese national flag flies as people walk over a pedestrian bridge in Shanghai on April 15.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025
Japanese man gets 12-year prison sentence in China over spying
The Japanese consul-general in Shanghai was allowed to observe the court hearing but has not disclosed details of the ruling.
The activity represents the continuing evolution in the sprawling North Korean efforts to target the cryptocurrency sectors in a bid to raise cash for the North Korean government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2025
North Korean cyber spies created U.S. firms to dupe crypto developers
The activity shows the continuing evolution in North Korea's efforts to target the cryptocurrency sectors to raise cash for the North Korean government.
Michael McMahon, a retired New York City police sergeant working as a private investigator, arrives for the start of his trial at the Brooklyn federal court in New York on May 31, 2023. McMahon was sentenced to 1½ years in prison on Wednesday for acting as an illegal Chinese agent.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 17, 2025
Ex-New York cop sentenced to 1½ years' jail for acting as Chinese agent
A jury found Michael McMahon guilty of interstate stalking and of acting as an agent of China without notifying the U.S. attorney general.
Japan and U.S. both claim win in surprise 11th-hour tariff deal
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan chief tariff negotiator, in Tokyo
Disappointing start to Nagoya tournament turns into fascinating final stretch
Ichiyamamoto (left) defeats Gonoyama to secure a winning record at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, at IG Arena on Monday.
Ignore the election hype, foreign residents are here to stay
Sohei Kamiya, founder of the Sanseito, which campaigned on a “Japanese first” message and tough immigration rhetoric, speaks at a rally in Gunma Prefecture on July 6.
Big unanswered questions follow Japan's big, beautiful deal with the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday in Washington, the day after he agreed to an 11th-hour trade deal with Japan.
Ishiba denies reports he will resign next month, leaving his fate unclear
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba looks on after meeting with the Liberal Democratic Party executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan leans into homegrown AI amid rising competition
McKinsey’s 2025 Technology Trends Outlook, published Wednesday, says that the use of “sovereign AI” is a trend gaining significant global traction, including in Japan.
Induction of Ichiro has Cooperstown fretfully preparing
Ichiro Suzuki will soon become the first Japanese player to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
JT picks: What not to miss at Fuji Rock 2025
Fuji Rock Festival turns the green slopes of Niigata Prefecture’s Naeba Ski Resort into a summer escape that offers soundtracks for every mood.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.

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