.@DHSgov providing intelligence to election officials, plus training & resources - "We're really a critical partner" for state & local election officials, per @SecMayorkas
NEW: US domestic violent extremists -"This is a threat that has increased dramatically" per @SecMayorkas
There's an "increasing level of anti-government sentiment" he warns
Impact of #COVID19 on teenage males, especially, worrisome, per @SecMayorkas, noting expanding expression of #violence
"The level of violence that is depicted in online platforms, that has to be, I think, mitigated" by online services & also gaming companies, he says
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New US National Defense Strategy sticking with "by, with, and through" to take on terrorists/violent extremists...
"In #Africa, [@DeptofDefense] will prioritize disrupting VEO threats against the US homeland & vital US national interests, working “by, with, and through” our African partners" per the NDS
"... continuing our “by, with, and through” approach in #Iraq and #Syria"
#ISIS, #alQaida & affiliates, generally, "have had their capabilities degraded, but some may be able to reconstitute them in short order, which will require monitoring indications & warning against the
VEO threat" per the 2022 Nat'l Defense Strategy
"The most comprehensive & serious challenge to US national security is the PRC’s coercive & increasingly aggressive endeavor to refashion the Indo-Pacific region & the int'l system to suit its interests & authoritarian preferences"
#China "seeks to undermine US alliances &
security partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, and leverage its growing capabilities...to coerce its neighbors & threaten their interests" per US NDS
#China's "increasingly provocative rhetoric & coercive activity towards #Taiwan...part of a broader pattern of destabilizing & coercive PRC behavior that stretches across the #EastChinaSea, the #SouthChina Sea, & along the Line of Actual Control" per US NDS
NEW: Lessened threat from #Russia - "Russia is absolutely deterred from attacking @NATO" per a senior US defense official, briefing reporters on the National Defense Strategy
More: "President Biden has stated unequivocally that we will defend every inch of @NATO territory & it is very clear to us here in the Pentagon that #Russia has received that message" per the senior US defense official
US facing a challenge from the dual threats of a nuclear #China & a nuclear #Russia
"It cannot be a solution where if China has a thousand [nukes] & Russia has a thousand, that we need 2 thousand bcs that is an arms race nobody should want to be in" per sr US defense official
Main message to #China#Russia#DPRK#Iran, others - "The cost of aggression against the #UnitedStates or our allies and partners far outweigh any conceivable gains" per @SecDef
"Putin is failing on the battlefield" he said earlier at NATO HQ
"He is responding w/more indiscriminate attacks on Ukrainian cities, against civilians & against critical infrastructure & w/dangerous nuclear rhetoric"