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🎯Hoping to Avert Nuclear Crisis, U.S. Seeks Informal Agreement With Iran. Iran expects the U.S. to avoid tightening sanctions already choking its economy and not to seek new punitive resolutions at the UN or the IAEA. NY Times
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🔸Morgue manager at Harvard Medical School among 7 charged with stealing, selling human remains. The arrests involved an underground network that robbed corpses — including the bodies of two stillborn infants — at Harvard Medical School’s Anatomical Gifts Program and an Arkansas mortuary and crematorium NY Post
🔸Meet The Attorneys Heading Trump’s Defense Against Biden’s Prosecutors In Florida. Todd Blanche and Chris Kise, two high-powered attorneys from New York and Florida, appeared alongside former President Donald Trump for his arraignment at a federal courthouse in Florida on Tuesday. Daily Wire
🔸IE Insights: Top 7 Ways Iran Boosted Its Nuclear Weapons Program Since the 2015 JCPOA IE Insights
🔸Has Anyone Seen This Man? Biden Special Counsel Robert Hur Appears to Have Vanished. Unlike the apparent leaks and speculation about the Smith investigation or the breathless accounts of Trump grand jury testimony, Hur’s investigation of classified documents allegedly found to be improperly in Biden’s possession appears to have all but disappeared. The Messenger
🔸How is China mitigating the effects of sanctions on Russia? Russia’s access to the yuan has bolstered its wartime economy. However, when it comes to trade and financial support, Beijing has been less accommodating. Atlantic Council
🔸China’s Big Tech firms scramble for advanced chips amid US sanctions and ChatGPT craze. ByteDance and Baidu have reportedly placed large orders for GPUs from Nvidia, which can only sell less advanced chips to clients in China. SCMP
🔸New bipartisan bill in Senate could address TikTok security concerns without a ban. The Protecting Americans’ Data From Foreign Surveillance Act does not identify TikTok by name. Instead, it directs the Commerce Department to maintain lists of countries that are considered trustworthy and untrustworthy for the purposes of receiving US data. CNN
🔸LockBit ransomware extorted $91 million in 1,700 U.S. attacks. According to reports received by the MS-ISAC throughout last year, approximately 16% of ransomware incidents affecting State, Local, Tribal, and Tribunal governments were LockBit attacks. Hacker News
🔸How Tobacco Companies Are Crushing ESG Ratings. S&P Global made headlines this month when it gave Tesla, the world's largest manufacturer of electric cars, a lower environmental, social, and governance score than Philip Morris International, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes. Washington Free Beacon
🔸Temu Sells Products in US Linked to Forced Labor in China’s Uyghur Region. Shipments from China sold directly to consumers can bypass the US ban on Xinjiang products because they fall below an $800 value threshold that triggers reporting requirements to US Customs and Border Protection. Bloomberg
🔸State Department cables: Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted classified research. The cables may represent some of the research that informs a 2021 statement from the State Department that “the WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.” U.S. Right to Know
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