June 3, 2026 – Short News

From the Attack on the Capitol to the Pentagon - Why a Convicted January 6 Offender Is Now Working in Counterterrorism!

A personnel decision inside the Pentagon is causing considerable unrest. The Trump administration has appointed Elias Irizarry to a department involved in highly sensitive military operations. Irizarry, now in his mid twenties, was criminally convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and was later pardoned by Donald Trump. According to several people familiar with the matter, Irizarry now works in unconventional warfare and counterterrorism within the Office of Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. Responsibilities in that office include embassy protection, personnel recovery, and hostage rescue operations. According to sources familiar with the department, these areas require security clearances at the highest levels.

Inside the Department of Defense, criticism is directed not only at the personnel decision itself but at the question of how someone with a conviction connected to the Capitol attack could gain access to such a sensitive field. Several employees reportedly raised internal concerns about whether such a step can be reconciled with the standards required for trust, responsibility, and security related work. The Department of Defense defended the decision. Pentagon spokesman Joel Valdez described Irizarry as a qualified and patriotic young employee and stated that the department was proud of his work.

Court records also show that Irizarry later pleaded guilty, was sentenced to prison, and publicly apologized. At his sentencing, he described January 6 as something terrible and as the greatest attack on American democracy since the Civil War. Prosecutors additionally argued at the time that Irizarry carried particular responsibility because of his military training and his involvement in Civil Air Patrol. Investigators also stated that data from the period around January 6 was missing from his mobile phone.

After his conviction, Irizarry returned to The Citadel, completed his studies, and later ran unsuccessfully for political office in South Carolina. The debate inside the Pentagon therefore extends far beyond a single appointment. It raises the question of which standards will apply in the future when political pardons intersect with security sensitive positions inside the state apparatus.

There Is a Second Paris Beneath Notre Dame - How 1,700 Years of History Suddenly Became Visible Again

Visitors stand in the sun in front of the towers of Notre Dame waiting to enter the cathedral. At the same time, just a few feet beneath them, work is underway on a completely different Paris. Archaeologists are currently excavating four meters below the square and uncovering layer after layer of the city’s history. The work was not triggered by a new discovery but by the redesign of the plaza following the 2019 fire. Paris wants more shade, more trees, and less heat. But before construction can begin, what lies beneath the surface must first be uncovered. The excavation has already produced hundreds of artifacts. Among them is a fourth century coin bearing the image of Emperor Constantine. Medieval ceramics, complete vessels, animal bones, and several fragments with reddish inscriptions on the inside that no one has yet been able to decipher have also been found. The excavation moves through multiple eras at once. Directly beneath today’s square lie cellars from medieval houses. Below those come storage pits from the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. Even deeper begins Roman Paris.

At that time, the city was still called Lutetia. As the Roman Empire collapsed, residents retreated to the Île de la Cité and built new fortifications there. Archaeologists found evidence of that as well, including a Roman doorway stone that was later turned over and reused as street paving. For the team, the deepest layers are the most valuable. There they hope to find traces of the people who lived at this location long before Notre Dame and long before Paris existed. By 2028, the square in front of the cathedral is scheduled to be redesigned. Plans include 160 new trees, cooling water features, and new visitor areas. Yet beneath this new plaza something remains that is barely visible - a second Paris that remained hidden for centuries and is now reappearing piece by piece.

He Said He Had Been Stabbed - Police Put Him in Handcuffs

Henry Nowak was 18 years old, a student in Southampton, and out with friends. Minutes later, he was lying injured in a driveway, repeatedly telling responding officers that he had been stabbed and could barely breathe. The police response now stands at the center of a debate reaching far beyond a single case. Video footage shows officers initially not believing Henry. One officer asks him where he had been injured and shortly afterward tells him he does not believe he was stabbed at all. Instead of medical assistance, handcuffs followed. In the background stood the man who would later be convicted of murder. Twenty three year old Vickrum Digwa had told officers that he himself had been the victim of a racist attack. He claimed Henry had pulled off his turban and attacked him. In court, none of that remained. Judge William Mousley later explicitly stated that he did not believe the allegations of racist remarks and that they did not fit with the established picture of the victim.

Only after Henry had already lost consciousness did officers discover his stab wounds, remove the handcuffs, and begin resuscitation efforts. Too late. The case triggered protests in Southampton. Hundreds gathered outside a police station. At the same time, political actors attempted to use the case for broader debates about identity, policing, and social tensions. Henry’s father, Mark Nowak, publicly rejected that approach. His son, he said, should not be used to create new divisions. This was neither about religion nor about background. It was about making streets safer. The British government also responded. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the images had deeply disturbed him. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood simultaneously warned against rumors and against turning communities against one another.

Police later apologized to the family. At the same time, an independent body is now investigating the conduct of the officers. The central question remains uncomfortably simple: How could a young man repeatedly say that he had been stabbed and still be treated as though he were the offender.

Fake Profiles, Dating Sites, and Malware - How New Hacker Groups Are Changing Digital Warfare

Homepage of one of the fake charity domains used in the DroneLink campaign (frontforce[.]org) Nebo - a Russian language lure page.

The war against Ukraine has long ceased to be fought only with missiles, drones, and sabotage. New findings from the Finnish cybersecurity company WithSecure describe a previously unknown hacker group that since at least August 2025 has allegedly targeted military personnel, government officials, and civilians in Ukraine through an approach combining traditional espionage with new digital tools. The group, called GREYVIBE, used several methods. Emails were sent that appeared convincingly to come from the Kyiv city administration, energy companies, or government institutions. In parallel, fake security websites were created that looked like ordinary verification pages but in reality installed malware. One method stood out in particular. The attackers replicated Ukrainian adult dating sites and distributed surveillance software through them for Android smartphones and Windows computers. According to the investigation, confirmed victims also included Ukrainian soldiers, including personnel from the Kharkiv region.

To establish contact, fake female profiles were created on Telegram and deployed in dating channels. The apparent goal was to build trust and quietly compromise devices. The investigation further describes that several known generative systems were allegedly used during preparation of the attacks, including for images, software components, and malware command structures. At the same time, the group reportedly did not operate like traditional state intelligence structures. Test files were uploaded openly, cryptocurrency mining programs were found on individual systems, and internal file names appeared heavily influenced by internet slang. It can therefore be assumed that GREYVIBE may consist of active or former cybercriminals whose activities overlap with Russian interests. No direct attribution to known groups such as Fancy Bear or Sandworm has been established so far. The development nevertheless shows how quickly digital attacks are changing and how easily trust, everyday life, and private communication can become part of a war.

“Make People Dependent” - What Internal Documents Reveal About Microsoft’s New Assistant

An internal strategy paper at Microsoft is causing debate. In the document covering the planned personal assistant Scout, the first stated objective is not productivity, convenience, or simplification but something else: to bind people so closely to the product that they increasingly rely on it in everyday life. Scout is internally described as a permanently active digital assistant. The system is intended to run on Windows and macOS computers, observe workflows, and perform tasks on behalf of users. These include calendar management, emails, billing, and meeting preparation. Before its public launch, the project operated internally under the name ClawPilot. According to the document, more than one thousand employees are already participating in testing, including company chief Satya Nadella.

Particular attention, however, was drawn to the wording in the development plan. It describes building an environment of functions and tools designed to encourage users to return to the system every day. At the same time, the document notes that this effect already occurs naturally. Reactions inside the company varied. One employee described the wording as troubling and pointed out that dependence on digital assistants is already increasing. Another reacted more soberly and raised the question of whether nearly every major technology platform is not trying to create as much attention and habit formation as possible. At the same time, another incident involving automated assistants surfaced. During a test run, one system reportedly deleted more than 200 emails despite earlier instructions not to take independent actions without approval. The cause was later attributed to an automatic shortening of the working context, which caused important instructions to be lost. The debate therefore extends far beyond a single product. It touches a broader question: Where does digital support end - and at what point does technology begin not only to perform tasks but to permanently shape behavior.

Patriotic Rice - How North Korea’s Entrepreneurs Are Once Again Becoming the State’s Revenue Source

In North Korea, an old practice is returning - though not as a voluntary act of solidarity but, according to reports from inside the country, as pressure directed at those who have managed to accumulate wealth in recent years. According to sources familiar with the regime, wealthy private traders, known as donju, are currently being pressured to hand over money, rice, or other goods to the state as so called patriotic contributions. This is reportedly organized through local committees and authorities that approach business owners directly and demand payments. Officially, Pyongyang ties this practice to a tradition dating back to 1946. At that time, farmers handed over part of their harvest to the state after land reform. Over the decades, this became a political symbol of loyalty to the system.

Today, the practice appears to serve a different purpose. According to reports from inside the country, pressure is directed mainly at entrepreneurs who built their wealth outside the traditional state economy. In Hyesan, one entrepreneur reportedly contributed the equivalent of around 50,000 Chinese yuan in early May. Others paid in rice or corn previously purchased on markets. Those who refuse reportedly risk increased surveillance or economic pressure. Similar reports are coming from Hamhung. There, some wealthy business figures are said to increasingly view the payments as a form of insurance allowing them to continue operating. At the same time, North Korea has reportedly intensified pressure on private economic sectors. Private businesses and restaurants are increasingly being brought under state control. The development reflects a familiar principle of authoritarian systems: Those who become economically successful remain successful only as long as the state decides they may remain so.

Washington Votes Too - Trump Endorses Right Wing Candidate

President Donald Trump intervened in Colombia’s presidential election overnight into Wednesday and strongly endorsed a right wing candidate, not for the first time during his second term in which he has repeatedly attempted to influence foreign elections. On Truth Social, he congratulated Abelardo De La Espriella, who advanced to the runoff election after Sunday’s first round, where he will face a candidate from the party of current left wing President Gustavo Petro. Trump wrote that the outcome was “very important for the future of Colombia and its relationship with the United States,” referred to the candidate by his campaign nickname “El Tigre,” the Tiger, and described rival Iván Cepeda as a “radical left Marxist.”

De La Espriella, a forty seven year old criminal defense attorney with no previous office who spent years in Florida and most recently lived in Florence, presents himself as an outsider in Trump’s image who wants to cut spending like Javier Milei in Argentina and govern with a hard line like Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. He won more than forty three percent on Sunday, several points ahead of Cepeda, a sixty three year old senator who advocates for victims of the armed conflict and, like Petro, belongs to Pacto Histórico. The runoff is scheduled for June 21. Colombian journalists have investigated the origins of his wealth and his connections to controversial clients. The most prominent among them is Alex Saab, a billionaire and intermediary for Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, whom U.S. prosecutors accuse of laundering millions intended for the poor of Venezuela. The candidate received support from Republican lawmakers ranging from Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida to Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, who stated that American authorities had reviewed him and found him “beyond reproach.” De La Espriella thanked Trump for the “decisive support.” Petro responded that when one country interferes in another country’s decisions, freedom dies, and he called on Colombians to vote freely and refuse to become anyone’s colony.