Easter

Easter celebrated on Russia’s Hmeimim base in Syria

Festive church service and procession were held on Easter night on the territory of the military base Hmeimim in Syria for the Russian Aerospace Forces, press service of the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

"The ringing of the Orthodox bell on the territory of the Russian air base, announcing resurrection of the Lord, was performed on the Syrian land for the first time," the press service said.

On Sunday, May 1, Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter - the main religious holiday of the year. The resurrection of Christ according to the Julian calendar is celebrated in about 70 countries around the world with Orthodox churches and communities.

Traditionally, the Easter service is held in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the head of Russian Orthodox Church, leads the service broadcast live by federal television channels.

Community of more than 30,000 Russian Orthodox churches in total celebrate Easter in 68 countries around the world.

Environmental security

This Toxic Pollutant Infecting Water Supplies Is Raising Concerns

Concern over the toxic chemical commonly known as PFOA has spread to communities across the country where locals worry that water polluted with the chemical may be harming their health.

“Known scope of contamination has gone from a regional problem to a national public health crisis that continues to widen, with no apparent end in sight,” leaders of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization, wrote in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this week.

New Hampshire, Alabama, Vermont and New Yorkare among the states where the issue has received attention in recent weeks.

Defense

Fact Check: Has President Obama 'Depleted' The Military?

Condemning a Democratic president for lavishing money on social programs at the expense of national defense is red meat for Republican voters. And compared to the peak of war-time spending at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and the expectations that Pentagon planners once had for how much spending would grow — the defense budget is down, as Trump charged.

So is the American troop presence in both countries, necessitating far less funding than was needed at the peak of the war. Whether Obama has deployed the "correct" American troop presence or pursued the right overall strategy for those ongoing wars and the newer conflict in Syria, are themselves the subject of separate debates.

Post-9/11 Pentagon spending peaked in 2009 at more than $691 billion — a combination of the Defense Department's request for basic funds and the supplemental request it made for wartime spending. Last year, those two accounts amounted to just over $580 billion (though the Stockholm International Peace Institute, or SIPRI, put total U.S. spending on its military in 2015 slightly higher at $596 billion). Meanwhile, every dollar buys less than it used to.

Syrian war

Syria: a military analysis


The frontiers with Turkey, Jordan and Israel became crossing points for between 100,000 and 250,000 Islamist mercenaries (recruited and trained by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States and Turkey) who opened several fronts, thus forcing units of the Syrian Arab Army to disperse in small groups across the country.

The jihadists had construction equipment which had been imported earlier, such as drilling machinery used for the rapid construction of tunnels. In the territories occupied by the islamist rebels, they also forced the Syrian civilians digging a huge network of hundreds of kilometers of galleries, tunnels and bunkers. While the Syrian Arab Army had no means of detecting them. Operations were mounted which surprised Syrian troops, who were incapable of reacting to the massive infiltration of terrorists and many bases and weapon and ammunition stockpiles were captured.

Syrian Arab Army was prepared for a classical war against its neighbors, but not an asymmetrical war. Syrian Arab Army had neither pilotless reconnaissance planes (drones) nor satellite images, unlike the jihadists, who had access to NATO information.

Electoral battles

Opinion: The new Donald Trump can beat Hillary Clinton

The making of a president 2016 has already begun.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump gave a major foreign policy address this week with all the trappings of a commander in chief — American flags in the background, dark suit with the stars-and-stripes lapel pin, white shirt, red tie, and, wonder of wonders, a teleprompter to stay on script.

Trump, who is nothing if not a good performer, mostly pulled it off, prompting MarketWatch Washington bureau chief Steve Goldstein to comment, “Squint and you can almost see Trump speaking from the Oval Office.”The makeover that began with Trump’s uncharacteristically short and concise victory speech after the New York primary is in full swing, with the aim of transforming the rowdy, rambling brawler of the primaries into a distinguished statesman capable of taking on the most powerful political office in the world.

Energy security

The plan: A rooftop solar project that can power 5,000 homes -- and 500 L.A. jobs

A Los Angeles developer announced plans Friday to build the nation's largest rooftop solar array that supplies electricity directly into a city's power grid.

The project by developer PermaCity includes a 16.4-megawatt solar system -- enough to power 5,000 L.A. homes -- that the company will install on 2 million square feet of space on Westmont Drive buildings.

The power from the system, which is expected to be completed by year's end, will feed directly into the Department of Water and Power's grid through what is known as a feed-in tariff, or FiT, program. The project is expected to create 500 local jobs.

Honey trap

Judge slams gay sex stings by Long Beach police, calling them discriminatory

A Los Angeles County judge on Friday strongly criticized the Long Beach Police Department's practice of conducting sting operations against gay men cruising for companionship, saying the department’s tactics were tantamount to discrimination.

Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina made the remarks in Long Beach while invalidating the 2014 arrest of Rory Moroney for lewd conduct and indecent exposure.

Moroney was ensnared by an undercover vice team that had set up a sting operation in a men’s bathroom at Recreation Park in October 2014. After receiving what he believed to be flirtatious signals from an undercover detective, Moroney was arrested for exposing himself, said Bruce Nickerson, his attorney.

The decision in the closely watched case was celebrated by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activists across Los Angeles County. Many said they were troubled by Long Beach’s tactics. West Hollywood Councilman John Duran, an attorney who is openly gay and served as an expert witness in the case, said the police actions “came out of the era when homosexuality was criminal; this is kind of a leftover from the last century.”

Electronic warfare

Austria Helps China Build New Electronic Warfare Plane

China has built a new lightweight electronic intelligence aircraft based off an Austrian-made turbo-prop utility plane, Popular Science revealed in March 2016. The so-called “Scout” Electronic Reconnaissance Aircraft-CSA003 has been built by the China Electronic Technology Corporation’s Avionics division.

It is unknown how many aircraft have already been inducted and into what service. Popular Science points out that given EU arms restrictions, the aircraft may initially be deployed in paramilitary missions like border patrol. A variant of the plane is also deployed as a maritime patrol aircraft.

The CSA003 uses the carbon composite air-frame of the Diamond DA42, a four-seat light twin-engine utility and trainer aircraft produced by Austrian aircraft maker Diamond Aircraft Industries (DAI), the world’s largest manufacturer of full composite aircraft.

Robots

Killer Robots? Lost Jobs?

The recent win of AlphaGo over Lee Sedol—one of the world’s highest ranked Go players—has resurfaced concerns about artificial intelligence. Yes, IBM Deep Blue’s win over chess master Garry Kasparov in 1997 and IBM Watson’s 2011 Jeopardy! victory over the two highest-earning champions had a similar effect, but this time the win comes after a year full of warnings about impending changes to our lives and society, good and bad, that will result from artificial intelligence. We have heard about A.I. stealing jobs, killer robots, algorithms that help diagnose and cure cancer, competent self-driving cars, perfect poker players, and more. It seems that for every mention of A.I. as humanity’s top existential risk, there is a mention of its power to solve humanity’s biggest challenges. Demis Hassabis—founder of Google DeepMind, the company behind AlphaGo—views A.I. as “potentially a meta-solution to any problem,” and Eric Horvitz—director of research at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, lab—claims that “A.I. will be incredibly empowering to humanity.” 

Arctic

Russia’s Northern Sea Route Ambitions

Earlier this month, on April 19, the State Commission on the development of the Arctic Regions convened in Moscow to establish a single company to oversee all the logistics operations in the Russian Far North (Arctic.ru, April 19). The move came amidst news reports showing little success, to date, in developing either the infrastructure or the cargo flows on the famous Northern Sea Route (NSR) along Russia’s Arctic coastline (The Independent Barents Observer, April 16).

For years, the NSR was presented by Moscow as a prospective alternative for shipping goods from East Asia to Europe. Russian officials argued that this wa­ter­way is much shorter than the “southern” route via the Malaccan and Bab-el-Mandeb straits and through the Suez Canal (7,600 versus 11,000 nautical miles). Goods traveling from Yokohama to Hamburg along the NSR could be mo­ved faster (30–35 days, compared to around 45 days if shipped along traditional sea lanes). This may be true, but the competing southern route still has many advantages—year-round access, multiple large ports along the way, easy procedures at the Suez Canal, etc.—while the NRS itself currently looks barely suited for modern shipping.

Immigration security

Marriage fraud poses myriad risks, not only threats to national security

The arrests Thursday of three people in a marriage and immigration fraud case connected to the San Bernardino terror attack reflects a national problem in which marriage is used as a mechanism by foreign nationals to gain U.S. citizenship.

“The use of marriage as a vehicle to enable foreign nationals to gain lawful status is not uncommon,” said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a telephone interview Thursday. “We’ve had a large number of substantial cases here in Southern California involving marriage fraud.”

Kice noted the September indictment of Santa Fe Springs resident Jason Shiao, his daughter, Lynn Leung, and Shannon Mendoza, who stand accused of orchestrating an elaborate scheme to set up sham marriages between U.S. citizens and Chinese nationals seeking permanent residency in the U.S.

Health security

America’s Suicide Epidemic Is a National Security Crisis

The National Center for Health Statistics recently released a major study, examining the national trends in suicide. The results are grim: The age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States increased a staggering 24 percent from 1999 to 2014. Increases were seen in every age group except for those 75 and above and in every racial and gender category except for black men. The national rate rose to 13 deaths per 100,000 people in 2014. Contrast that with homicide, which killed 5.1 Americans per 100,000 in 2013. We instinctively fear the murderer hiding in the bushes, but we are at far greater risk from ourselves.

Electronic surveillance

US Supreme Court extends FBI access to computer searches

The US Supreme Court approved a rule change that would let US judges issue search warrants for access to computers located in any jurisdiction, not just their own.  US Chief Justice John Roberts transmitted the rules to Congress, which will have until December to reject or modify the changes to the federal rules of criminal procedure, Reuters reports. If Congress does not act, the rules would take effect automatically. 

Magistrate judges normally can order searches only within the jurisdiction of their court, which is typically limited to a few counties. The US Justice Department, which has pushed for the rule change since 2013, has described it as a minor modification needed to modernize the criminal code for the digital age, and has said it would not permit searches or seizures that are not already legal. 

Google and civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Access Now contend the change would vastly expand the FBI's ability to conduct mass hacks on computer networks. They say it also could run afoul of the US Constitution's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Arms trade

Analysis: Will India’s S-400 missiles checkmate Pakistan?

The S-400, a Russian integrated air defense system, is the forthcoming state-of-the-art augmentation of the Indian military arsenal. Last December, India’s premier Narendra Modi and Russian president Vladimir Putin finalised the milestone deal. Dialogue on modalities led India to revise its need from 12 battalions or units to five at an undisclosed cost running into billions of dollars. So far, there is no confirmation as to when the deliveries will begin.

The S-400 uses four different missiles along with a multilayered radar tracking umbrella to cover its entire performance envelope. When deployed along the border with Pakistan, the system will provide India with 600kms radar coverage and the option of shooting down a hostile aircraft or missile 400kms to 40kms outside its territory.

Korea

China will 'never allow war or chaos' on Korean peninsula, says Xi Jinping

Beijing showed its impatience over North Korea’s continued illegal missile launches as the United Nations security council threatened more sanctions against Kim Jong-un’s regime, which is believed to be preparing for a further nuclear test.

President Xi Jinping of China underscored Beijing’s commitment to enforcing existing UN sanctions on North Korea and to preventing any instability on its doorstep.

“As a close neighbour we will never allow war or chaos on the [Korean] peninsula,” he told a meeting of regional foreign ministers in Beijing.

The UN security council on Thursday held urgent closed-door consultations after North Korea’s unsuccessful launch earlier in the day of two medium-range missiles. The North has now made three bids in two weeks to test-fly a Musudan missile, which is capable of striking US bases on the Pacific island of Guam.

Chemical security

Israel on Alert Isil at Border 'With Chemical Weapons'

Israel is concerned about Isil terrorists outside its north-eastern border in the occupied Golan Heights.

The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade has 600 to 1,000 fighters within striking range. "We are watching them to make sure there are no surprises," said, an Israeli military spokesman.

One kibbutz is two miles from where the fighters are said to be stationed; Safed, with a population of 27,000, is only 20 miles away. Israeli defence officials are worried the unit may have poisonous gas. If it appears a threat, Israel will act, said officials quoted by Channel 10 television.

Electronic warfare

Harris Corporation : Awarded $88 Million to Supply Airborne Jammers for Navy Electronic Warfare Program

Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS) has received an $88 million order to supply electronic jammers for U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft. The jammers protect the Navy jets from sophisticated electronic threats, including modern integrated air defense systems. The order was received during the third quarter of Harris’ fiscal 2016.

Under the modification to the contract awarded in July 2015, Harris will manufacture and deliver 48 on-board electronic warfare jamming systems for the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) program. Deliveries are expected to be completed by December 2018.

“Naval aviators face a growing range of threats as their missions evolve and hostile actors gain access to increasingly advanced technology,” said Ed Zoiss, president, Harris Electronic Systems. “Harris has helped keep aviators safe from emerging threats for more than 18 years, and we remain firmly committed to supporting their critical missions.”

Energy security

COLUMN: Technology is the Key to a Sustainable Oil, Gas Industry

Oil and gas professionals from around the world will converge on Houston on May 2 for what has long been the industry's biggest event: the annual Offshore Technology Conference. How well attended the show is this year is likely to reflect current sentiment in the sector, so there will be plenty of fingers crossed that attendance is at least as large as the 94,700 people who visited Houston's NRG Park last year. It's been more than 18 months since the price of oil started to slip below $100 per barrel, beginning a steady decline to below $30 early this year. But recent weeks have seen a sustained recovery in the price to more than $45 per barrel, which is leading some to feel upbeat about the sector's prospects later on in the year. Yet people who work in the oil and gas sector should not get their hopes up that oil will return anytime soon to the levels seen before the price collapse. A lot has changed in the downturn’s aftermath. Iran's coming in from the cold – and turning its pumps on;  slowing economic growth in China, as well as  a couple of other BRIC countries as well; and Brexit uncertainty – the worry that the UK will vote to leave the European Union – may all combine to send the oil price back down again soon enough. 

Weapons trafficking

Anti-Air Missile Launcher Captured From Mexican Drug Cartel

A new weapon seized in a series of raids on the Mexican drug cartels in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, shows a concerning addition to the arsenals of the powerful gangs.

Between April 15 and April 19, agents of the Mexican attorney general carried out raids on the cartels, under what they called operation “For The Safety Of Casas Grande.” They seized drugs, a high-caliber sniper rifle, thousands of rounds of ammunition, 19 luxury vehicles, and five tigers.

But the main catch of the operation wasn’t the drugs or the exotic animals. The biggest find was a shoulder-fired anti-air missile launcher.

Mexican authorities released a photo of the Redeye (infrared) man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS). They also released a photo of a cartel enforcer holding the weapon backwards.

Nuclear weapons

Russia’s nuclear strategy: It’s a trap!

During the Cold War, the United States invested heavily in nuclear weapons to compensate for NATO’s conventional inferiority in Europe. Today the tables have turned: America’s conventional strength far outstrips that of Russia, and the Russians have little prospect of changing the status quo.

The United States allocates roughly $600 billion for its defense budget, over 10 times what Russia spends. And no amount of spending or technological development by Russia is going to alter the fact that the NATO alliance represents more than 900 million people and spends more than $1 trillion on its defense annually.

In the nuclear realm Russia also lags behind the United States. Although the size of Russia’s and America’s nuclear forces are roughly the same, the United States plans to spend $350 billion on its nuclear forces over the next decade. During the same period, Russia will spend roughly $50 billion.

Nuclear weapons

Is it Obvious Why India Cares About Nuclear Weapons?

Do states acquire weapons because of security needs or out of a desire for prestige? Analysts have asked this question about a wide range of weapons, including advanced fighter jets, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, battleships, and (perhaps most importantly) nuclear weapons. On the prestige side, nuclear weapons convey modernity, power, and a spot in the “room where it happens”–particularly prestigious because the room only holds a few countries. On the security side, nuclear weapons can provide a last ditch alternative against a superior foe.

The question of weapons and prestige has bedeviled political scientists and the answer seems to be: “Both, but more of one or the other under particular circumstances.” Recent work by Jayita Sarkar (reviewed by Sumit Ganguly) helps contribute to this question, at least in the context of India’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Sarkar argues that recent documentary evidence supports a security-oriented explanation for the Indian nuclear weapons program. Indian nuclear insecurity, and in particular, the detonation of a Chinese hydrogen device in 1967, convinced India that it could not defend against the PLA without the assistance of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear security

Why the country most poisoned by Chernobyl is going nuclear

How Belarusians - many of whom are still suffering cancers and other health problems due to the Chernobyl explosion - feel about their new nuclear power plant is difficult to gauge. Government critics say those who dared to raise questions were harassed or arrested.

One woman born in a village in southern Belarus, close to Chernobyl, tells of how the area round her old home is within an exclusion zone which circles the site. With tears in her eyes she says the area is judged to be so contaminated she's only allowed back once a year, to tend the graves of her ancestors.

By a strange twist of fate, she now finds herself working near the new station - yet she's upbeat.

"At first it felt strange, living so close to a nuclear station again but then I think, 'Accidents can't happen twice' and we need the power."

The nuclear facility in Belarus is near the border with EU member Lithuania - only about 30 miles (50km) from Vilnius, the Baltic state's capital.

Nuclear security

At least 11 nuclear facility workers checked for chemical vapor exposure

Eleven workers at a nuclear facility who reported headaches were sent for medical evaluations Thursday after working near an area where waste from a leaking tank was being transferred, U.S. Energy Department officials said.

The first two workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation to be medically evaluated were wearing oxygen respirators because they were in an area where work was being done that could increase the risk of chemical vapors in the air,The Tri-City Herald reported.

After leaving the area and removing the respirators, both reported suspicious odors and said they had headaches. Both were evaluated and treated at an on-site medical provider.

Two other workers reported odors while walking the transfer line for the waste pumped from the leaking double-shell tank. Seven other employees nearby also reported odors.

Biosecurity

Preventing Bioterrorism, Risk and Legal Instruments

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a bioterrorism attack is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, toxins or other harmful agents used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants. These agents are typically found in nature, but it is possible that they could be mutated or altered to increase their ability to cause disease, make them resistant to current medicines, or to increase their ability to be spread into the environment. In addition to concerns that biological weapons could be developed or used by states, recent technological advances increase the likelihood that these weapons could be acquired or produced by non-state actors, including terrorist organizations. Even small bioterrorist attacks disproportionately spread fear and the threat of such an event is not unfounded as history has shown. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully tried to weaponize botulinum toxin and anthrax in the mid-1990s.  In the days after the September 11 attacks in the United States, a series of anthrax-laced letters sent to several news agencies and two U.S. Senators killed five and sickened 17 others. See also this summary of historical attacks using chemical or biological weapons. In 2014 a laptop allegedly owned by a Tunesian Isis militant contained plans to launch terror attacks harnessing the bubonic plague.

Personal security

Oklahoma legislature will fix sodomy law, lawmaker says

An Oklahoma lawmaker is promising to close what he called a "court-created loophole" in state law that blocked the prosecution of a teenager accused of sexually assaulting a drunken girl two years ago and set off cries of protest around the nation.

"I am horrified by the idea that we would allow these depraved rapists to face a lower charge simply because the victim is unconscious," Rep. Scott Biggs said earlier this week in announcing plans to rush a fix through the legislature.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled March 24 that a lower court judge was right to dismiss a forcible oral sodomy charge against the teenaged suspect because state law doesn't mention intoxication or unconsciousness among the five criteria describing the crime.

Business security

Jupiter: the spy who coached me

They are best known for gathering secret information on foreign governments, but former CIA agents are now coaching fund managers in the art of interrogation.

Jupiter Asset Management, the £36.2bn UK-listed fund house, last month hired ex-employees of the US intelligence agency as consultants to give its portfolio managers an edge over rival asset managers.

Maarten Slendebroek, chief executive of Jupiter, said the aim of the exercise was to teach fund managers interrogation tactics.

“Our fund managers spend a lot of time interviewing management teams of the companies they would like to invest in or are already invested in, and the behaviour assessment techniques such as reading body language for incongruences are specifically designed to help them hone their skills in doing this,” said a spokesperson for Jupiter.

“Ultimately, the aim is to give us a competitive edge in delivering outperformance, over the longer term, to our clients.”

The small group of ex-CIA agents put 40 Jupiter employees through training exercises to help them identify when business associates are lying, or when clients are uncomfortable.

Innovations & technologies

China gets into the genetic breakthrough business

The future of regenerative medicine may be in your toilet, according to cutting-edge research in China.
In a lab at the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, research scientist Pei Duanqing has created stem cells from urine, a breakthrough that could help develop treatments for Parkinson's and other degenerative diseases.
"We were able to purify live cells from human urine and then reprogram them back in time, to the time when fertilization took place," Pei said. "That's the stage when the cell has the potential to regenerate all cells in our body. ... We should be able to generate the cells we need in the future, to build new tissues and organs."
Two decades ago, Dennis Lo, director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, discovered that fetal DNA exists in a mother's bloodstream. He developed a noninvasive prenatal blood test for Down syndrome that is now available in more than 90 countries.

Nuclear security

Your Radiation this Week No 53

Miami, Florida joins Los Angeles, California, St. Louis, Missouri and Billings, Montana as the recent victims of truly spectacular Radiation Counts per Minute (CPM) on EPA Geiger counters and radiation measurement systems. The nation destroying strength of Big Time Rads cannot be denied; but, the Rads can be ignored till it is too late. You can run; but you cannot hide, the Rads always win.

The number of Cities over 1,000 CPM DOUBLED in this edition of YRTW: from 15 Cities to 30 Cities. There is no way to recover from these kinds of exposures. There is no medicine and there is no cure. Millions now possess a shortened life span due to their radiation exposures. What city or country will be next?

Have a wonderful radioactive weekend and remember to Dodge the Rads, it’s dangerous out there.

Copyright by Bob Nichols @ 2016. Reproduce and distribute, give full attribution to Bob Nichols and Veterans Today.

Drones

Homeland Security Seeks Drone-Killing Technology

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to evaluate technology capable of taking out drones flying above cities.

Counter-unmanned aerial systems are among the emerging technologies the department wants in the hands of first responders, according to a recent post by Michael Hoffman, executive editor of the Tandem NSI tech blog:

Technology solutions that are able to detect, identify, track and/or defeat Group 1 unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in domestic urban environments. Group 1 UAS are considered under 20 pounds, have a nominal operating altitude of less than 1200 feet and speeds of less than 100 knots.

DHS is soliciting ideas for those and others as part of a plan to hold an “urban operational experimentation” in October, according to the post.

The department isn’t alone, of course.

The U.S. Army wants a new style of weapon designed to stop an imminent threat of terrorists using drones to fly bombs into military and government facilities, as my colleague Matthew Cox reported earlier this year in a story on Military.com...

Middle East

Saudi Arabia On The Brink

The persistence of low oil prices is wreaking havoc in oil-producing nations, and no country is as vulnerable to the crude crunch as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With almost three quarters of the government’s budget originating from oil revenues, the prolonged plunge in prices is a mortal threat to the Saudi monarchy.

Leaders are scrambling to secure a prosperous and stable future for the country. But are these maneuvers too late?

The blunt reality is that Saudi Arabia has grown accustomed to high oil prices. At their current level, the regime is facing a $100 billion budget deficit. The gap has forced the Kingdom to cut subsidies and secure its first outside loan in over a decade. Popular sentiment is rapidly shifting as citizens who once enjoyed cushy jobs are facing uncertain futures. Given the state employs two-thirds of native workers and youth unemployment is approaching 30 percent, the risk of social unrest is rising.

Intel dogs

The CIA’s top 10 dog-training tips

If you’re a pet lover, this article is for you. The CIA recruits its pups through a program that pairs handlers with puppies. After a lengthy basic training program, the pups go through a rigorous 10-week course with a CIA handler. If the dog and handler form a strong bond, the officer takes the pup home with him/her to live. The CIA will actually come out to your house and build a facility to safely house the new dog. Plus you get a badass unmarked SUV to transport the newest member of your family back and forth to work.

K-9 officers are an important part of the Security Protective Service (SPS), which ensures the CIA and its employees are kept safe. The trainers, all SPS officers themselves, work with a select group of dogs and handlers to teach them the ins and outs of explosives detection. Dogs have a remarkable ability to sniff out over 19,000 explosive scents, making them ideal for this job. Here are 10 training tips provided by the CIA’s K-9 unit that you can apply to working with your favorite pet.

Cybersecurity

Traffic to Wikipedia Terrorism Entries Plunged After Snowden Revelations

Internet traffic to Wikipedia pages summarizing knowledge about terror groups and their tools plunged nearly 30 percent after revelations of widespread Web monitoring by the U.S. National Security Agency, suggesting that concerns about government snooping are hurting the ordinary pursuit of information.

A forthcoming paper in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal analyzes the fall in traffic, arguing that it provides the most direct evidence to date of a so-called "chilling effect," or negative impact on legal conduct, from the intelligence practices disclosed by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Author Jonathon Penney, a fellow at the University of Toronto's interdisciplinary Citizen Lab, examined monthly views of Wikipedia articles on 48 topics identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as subjects that they track on social media, including Al Qaeda, dirty bombs and jihad.

Tax avoidance

Forget Panama: Why Corporations And The Rich Love US Tax Havens

The Panama Papers, a massive leak of secret financial data relating to the use of overseas tax havens, cast an uncomfortable spotlight on many political figures and world governments.

However, the 11.5 million documents contain few American names or corporations, leading some to speculate that the documents had been censored before release.

While Mossack Fonseca, the secretive “boutique” law firm that created the hundreds of offshore shell corporations revealed in the leak, may have simply served a primarily European clientele, there’s another reason that few American corporations have been found in the files: When a U.S. company wants to hide its earnings, it’s easier to create a tax shelter at home than to take its business abroad.

Several states, including Nevada, Delaware, and Wyoming, have corporate tax laws so lenient, they are effectively domestic tax havens. In these states, “it’s possible to create these shell corporations with virtually no questions asked,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington-based nonprofit, in a recent interview with The New York Times’ Patricia Cohen.

While shell corporations may have legal uses, they are most often used for “cloaking wrongdoing” from public and governmental scrutiny. Gardner described to Cohen that, “Aside from avoiding taxes, shell companies are routinely used by terrorist organizations to hide assets, by political donors to sidestep campaign finance laws and by criminals to launder money.”