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On June 4, 2026, a China-based American journalist, Thomas Pauken II, pleaded guilty in a Virginia court to charges of acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. He had been detained during his most recent return to the United States in February 2026 and was accused of trying to recruit people to pass information to Chinese intelligence services. The FBI, which was monitoring him, said over the course of seven years, the Chinese government paid Pauken a total of $100,000 as well as bearing expenses for his frequent travels from China to the United States for his service. If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison.

Pauken is not an isolated case of Americans being deployed by Chinese intelligence to do their dirty work in the United States. There have been others who have been involved in industrial and political espionage for China. Nevertheless, as insidious as his action was, my attention to him was drawn by another fact — his cover in China was working for Chinese state media outlets like Xinhua, China Radio International, China Central Television and China Global Television Network (CGTN).

Journalists Thomas Pauken (right) and Shamin Zakaria (left)
working for Chinese state media.

Seeking recourse to a pseudonym “Tom McGregor” (on the suggestion of his father Thomas Pauken, a politician from Texas), he has written many articles in English for Chinese state media outlets. While it’s not unusual for journalists to find work in different media outlets in countries other than their own, the difference with “McGregor”/Pauken was that rather than serving as an impartial journalist, he let himself be a tool in the Chinese government’s campaign to reshape its global image. 

► See full Report in Spanish HERE

• The State Department linked several left-wing groups to Cuba’s global influence and warned that Cuba has infiltrated the highest levels of U.S. government.

Washington DC, July 21.– The State Department released a report on July 20 accusing Cuba of supporting left-wing groups in the United States and infiltrating the highest levels of the government.

The report states that the Cuban regime has conducted a “sustained campaign of subversion” against the United States for almost 70 years. The State Department released the report just days after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for world leaders to take the threat of violent far-left groups seriously.

• Richard Gere speaks at a Tibet conference hosted by Latvian MP Juris Viļums, Chair of the Group for the Support of Tibet

Riga, July 5.— Longtime Tibet advocate Richard Gere, Chair of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), was the keynote speaker at a Tibet conference hosted on June 16 by Latvian Member of Parliament (MP) Juris Viļums, Chair of the Group for the Support of Tibet, bringing together politicians, civil society representatives and the international Tibet movement in a show of Baltic solidarity.

Parliamentarians from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania issued a joint statement that calls on the international community to renew and elevate its support for Tibetan freedom. Eighteen parliamentarians from Latvia (9), Lithuania (7) and Estonia (2) are among the initial signatories, and more MPs are expected to sign the statement in the coming weeks.

• “It is a major blow to Iran and Hezbollah,” the Israeli prime minister emphasized. “The United States and Lebanon recognized our right to maintain a security zone as long as a threat exists," he added.

Tel Aviv, Jul. 3.— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described last Saturday the agreement signed with Lebanon under US mediation, which establishes the maintenance of an Israeli security zone as long as terrorist threats exist in the region, as "a major blow to Iran and Hezbollah."

In his first public appearance since the signing of the agreement in Washington , the Israeli prime minister stated that the United States and Lebanon recognized his country's right to maintain a security zone. “The Lebanese government showed courage. The United States and Lebanon recognized our right to maintain a security zone as long as a threat exists,” Netanyahu said.