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Putin authorized extensive election influence campaign, intelligence report says.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia authorized election interference operations that aimed to benefit former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia authorized extensive efforts to interfere in the American presidential election to denigrate the candidacy of Joseph R. Biden Jr., including intelligence operations to influence people close to former President Donald J. Trump, according to a declassified intelligence report released Tuesday.

The report did not name those people but seemed to be a reference to the work of Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, who relentlessly pushed allegations of corruption about Mr. Biden and his family involving Ukraine.

“Russian state and proxy actors who all serve the Kremlin’s interests worked to affect U.S. public perceptions in a consistent manner,” the report said.

The declassified report represented the most comprehensive intelligence assessment of foreign efforts to influence the 2020 vote. Besides Russia, Iran and other countries sought to influence the election, the report said. China considered efforts to influence the presidential vote, but ultimately concluded that any such operation would fail and most likely backfire, intelligence officials concluded.

A companion report by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security also rejected false allegations promoted by Mr. Trump’s allies in the weeks after the election that Venezuela or other foreign countries defrauded the election.

The reports, compiled by career officials, amounted to a repudiation of Mr. Trump, his allies and some of his top administration officials. They categorically dismissed allegations of foreign-fed voter fraud, cast doubt on Republican accusations of Chinese intervention on behalf of Democrats and undermined the allegations that Mr. Trump and his allies spread about the Biden family’s work in Ukraine.

The report also found that there were no efforts by Russia or other countries to change ballots themselves, unlike in 2016. Efforts by Russian hackers to probe state and local networks were unrelated to efforts by Moscow to influence the presidential vote.

Some of the information in the intelligence report was released in the months leading up to the election, reflecting an effort by the intelligence community to release more information about foreign operations during the campaign season after its reluctance to do so in 2016 helped misinformation spread.

— Julian E. Barnes

In response to: Biggest sandstorm in decade turns Beijing skies yellow
Updated / Monday, 15 Mar 2021 07:26

Beijing was cloaked in thick yellow smog with pollution levels surging off the charts as the worst sandstorm in a decade descended on China's capital.

City residents used goggles, masks and hairnets to protect themselves from the choking air, with landmarks including the Forbidden City and the distinctive headquarters of state broadcaster CCTV partly obscured behind an apocalyptic-looking haze of dust and sand.

The city government ordered all schools to cancel outside sport and events and advised those with respiratory diseases to stay inside, while some highways were partially closed.

The poor air quality was due to a sandstorm from northern Mongolia, where authorities said it had left several dead and dozens missing, before being carried south by winds and reducing visibility in Beijing to less than 500 metres.

Authorities described it as the worst sandstorm in a decade to hit the city, compounding days of hazardous PM 2.5 pollution in the capital.

Under heavy skies, which draped buildings in an eerie glow, Beijing residents fretted over the health risks.

"I feel every breath will give me lung problems," Beijing resident Zhang Yunya told AFP.

Flight tracker Variflight said more than 350 flights had been cancelled at two airports in the city, with dozens more delayed.

"This sandstorm is very fierce," said Pan Xiaochuan, a Beijing-based environmental health expert.

"I remember the sandstorms ten years ago blew away in less than an hour, but I'm afraid that this one will not have passed through the whole day."

Six people were killed by the sandstorms in neighbouring Mongolia, the country's national emergency management agency said, including a five-year-old boy from a herder family.

Another 81 people were still missing as strong winds and duststorms swept the landlocked country, which borders China.

Pollution in the city was at "hazardous" levels, according to air quality monitoring website Aqicn, as the reading soared off the scale for many apps.

Aqicn said levels of PM 10 large particulate matter were nearly 20 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum exposure.

But the state-run Global Times said PM 10 pollution in the six downtown districts was "over 8,100" this morning - a figure which would be 160 times the recommended limit.

Smaller PM 2.5 particles, which seep deep into human lungs and cause respiratory illnesses, were also at a hazardous level of over 560 - more than 20 times the WHO recommended daily limit.

China cut its national average level of airborne PM 2.5 dramatically between 2015 and 2019 and the government has announced an ambitious target to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

But Li Shuo of Greenpeace China told AFP that "intense" industrial activities have contributed to bad air in Beijing over recent weeks, with the production of steel, cement and aluminium already overtaking pre-pandemic levels.

This was exacerbating the sandstorm conditions, which are "a result of extreme weather conditions and desertification", he said.