Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Chinese cyberespionage efforts against U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Pita Limjaroenrat’s failed prime minister bid in Thailand, and a deadly roadside bomb attack in Mexico.

It’s time for U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to change her passwords. U.S. authorities announced on Wednesday that Chinese hackers infiltrated the email accounts of Raimondo and other top State and Commerce department officials in May. The breach, which U.S. officials say did not penetrate any classified email or cloud systems, came just weeks before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to travel to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In total, around 25 entities were targeted, including government agencies—though only a small handful were based in the United States. Rather than conducting a large-scale operation, as China and other countries such as Russia have attempted in the past, the hackers focused their efforts on a few key individuals within each organization. “This appears to have been a very targeted, surgical campaign,” said one senior official with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Wednesday.

Raimondo is believed to be the only cabinet-level official whose emails were accessed. The commerce secretary, who is expected to visit Beijing by the end of the summer, has been one of the Biden administration’s top critics of Xi. Throughout her tenure, Raimondo has tightened export controls on China as well as threatened to cut off China’s supply of U.S.-made semiconductor technology if Beijing continues to trade with Russia. Xi has fought back by barring some chips made by Micron, one of the United States’ biggest semiconductor firms. This is “plain and simple, economic coercion,” Raimondo said in May. “We won’t tolerate it, nor do we think it will be successful.”

According to the State Department, the agency’s cybersecurity team discovered the hack on June 16 and disclosed it to Microsoft, which runs the email accounts, that same day. Top U.S. officials have hinted that the China-based hacking group, known as Storm-0558, is likely affiliated with Beijing’s military or spy services. Storm-0558 forged digital authentication tokens used to verify the person’s identity to access the email accounts in question. “It’s clear that [China] is steadily improving its cyber collection capabilities directed against the U.S. and our allies,” said Sen. Mark Warner, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Not giving up. Thailand still does not have a new prime minister. Parliamentarians in the National Assembly rejected front-runner Pita Limjaroenrat’s bid during Thursday’s first round of voting. The progressive Move Forward Party candidate had won widespread public support for promises to uproot the status quo, much to the horror of the country’s ruling military junta. Yet despite being backed by an eight-party coalition in the House of Representatives, Pita only secured 13 votes of the 249 junta-appointed senators, failing to secure the majority required.

A second vote will be held next week, and Pita can run again. Following Thursday’s vote, Pita vowed not to give up, saying he “will use this time to garner more support.” Yet the liberal candidate’s future is not looking optimistic. On Wednesday, the country’s electoral commission motioned for Pita to be barred from running, saying the fact that he owns shares in a media company violates Thailand’s election laws. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets to call for the nation’s Constitutional Court to uphold Pita’s eligibility.

“An unprecedented act.” Several roadside bombs killed at least four security officials and two civilians in western Mexico on Tuesday. At least 12 others were wounded, including three children. Government officials accused an unnamed drug trafficking group in Jalisco state of deploying the devices as well as setting up the ambush with an anonymous call that lied about a discovered burial site. “This is an unprecedented act that shows what these drug cartels are capable of,” Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro wrote. “This attack also represents an open challenge to the Mexican government on all levels.”

Tuesday’s attack was the first time one of Mexico’s infamous cartels successfully targeted law enforcement with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a worrying sign of just how serious a threat organized crime groups in Mexico are becoming. In the past, using IEDs was a tactic often seen in countries facing civil wars or violent insurgencies, such as Mali and Iraq.

Financial relief. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund approved Islamabad’s long-awaited $3 billion bailout to assist the country’s slow climb out of debilitating debt. Funds will be released over a period of nine months to combat financial damage caused by last year’s devastating floods, growing inflation, and the rise in cost of living.

Although the deal will assist Pakistan in the short term, serious policy changes must be enacted to fight long-term economic instability and political corruption, FP columnist Lynne O’Donnell argued last August. “There will always be someone there to make sure there is no default,” one Western diplomat told her. “And that just further entrenches the denial of the political class that they have to take responsibility.”

Political debate took a turn for the smelly at a campaign event for U.S. presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday, when former gossip columnist Doug Dechert used flatulence to denounce Kennedy’s opinions on climate change. Dechert, who appeared to be drunk during the incident, called the climate crisis a “hoax” before releasing a noxious wave of public commentary. Kennedy, somehow, remained calm throughout the screaming match.