Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Risks of 2026 WATCH RECORDING
What We're Watching

Are Russia and China trying to recruit disgruntled US federal employees?

Kremlin

The Kremlin

China and Russia are reportedly looking to exploit US federal workforce cuts by targeting recently fired or at-risk federal employees in national security roles for recruitment, according to sources familiar with US intelligence. The quarries? Employees with top security clearances and information about America’s critical infrastructure and government operations.

A Naval Criminal Investigative Service document said US intelligence had determined that foreign officers had been instructed to look for possible targets on LinkedIn, TikTok, RedNote, and Reddit, focusing on employees who indicate that they are “open to work.”

Shooting the messenger. Some in the US intelligence community have reportedly raised these concerns internally, but Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the ones flagging the issue are the problem. She said internal discussions at the CIA about this are a “threat” and questioned the loyalty of those involved.

“They’re exposing themselves essentially by making this indirect threat — using their propaganda arm through CNN that they've used over and over and over again — to reveal their hand, that their loyalty is not at all to America. ... not to the American people or the Constitution. It is to themselves,” Gabbard said.

More For You

Protesters demonstrate against poor economic conditions in Tehran, Iran, on Dec. 29, 2025.​

Protesters demonstrate against poor economic conditions in Tehran, Iran, with some shopkeepers closing their stores on in response to ongoing hardships and fluctuations in the national currency, on Dec. 29, 2025.

Fars News Agency via ZUMA Press Wire
Violent Iranian protests stretch into second weekDemonstrations in Iran over the government’s handling of the economy – the largest in three years – continued over the weekend and turned deadly amid clashes with security forces, with a human rights agency reporting that 20 protesters have been killed. Iranian leaders delivered contrasting [...]
A photograph posted by U.S. President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account shows him sitting next to CIA Director John Ratcliffe as they watch the U.S. military operation in Venezuela from Trump's Mar a Lago resort, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 3, 2026.

A photograph posted by U.S. President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account shows him sitting next to CIA Director John Ratcliffe as they watch the U.S. military operation in Venezuela from Trump's Mar a Lago resort, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 3, 2026.

@realDonaldTrump/Handout via REUTERS
The stunning US removal of Nicolás Maduro opens up a number of questions. Here are several to watch in the coming days and weeks. If there are others that you have, let us know here.How will Venezuelans react? Maduro was a deeply unpopular leader in Venezuela. Under his rule, millions fled the once-wealthy country amid twin political and [...]
Protesters demonstrate against poor economic conditions in Tehran, Iran, on December 29, 2025.

Protesters demonstrate against poor economic conditions in Tehran, Iran, on December 29, 2025, with some shopkeepers closing their stores in response to ongoing hardships and fluctuations in the national currency.

ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
With economy in dire straits, Iranians take to the streetsIran saw its largest protest in three years on Monday, as traders and shopkeepers in Tehran shut their stores to show their displeasure at the government’s handling of the economy. The demonstrations are notable amid Iran’s intensified crackdown on dissent, including arrests of opposition [...]
​US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands at the Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, USA, on December 28, 2025.

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during a press conference after their lunch meeting at the Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, USA, on December 28, 2025.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Trump hails progress after Mar-a-Lago meeting with ZelenskyAfter meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Sunday, US President Donald Trump said that Russia and Ukraine are “closer than ever” to a peace deal. Trump had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone prior to the meeting. The [...]