Corruption

Majority of Senate That Impeached Rousseff Under Investigation

According to news reports and official sources, 49 of Brazil's 81 senators face crimes ranging from money laundering to illicit enrichment and electoral fraud.

By a margin of 61 to 20, the Senate voted Wednesday to remove the twice-elected Rousseff from office for doctoring the federal budget to influence voters in her successful 2014 election campaign. The contentious impeachment hearings had to be postponed following several altercations between senators, who each have accused each other of corruption and even drug use.

Rousseff is not accused of corruption or embezzlement. Instead, she was forced to step down over allegations that she cooked the federal budget books in the runup to her 2014 reelection to hide a government shortfall and woo voters. However, a June Senate report proved the allegations were false.

Corruption

‘Coup against democracy’: Bolivia, Venezuela & Ecuador recall ambassadors over Rousseff impeachment

Following Brazilian senators’ vote to strip Dilma Rousseff of her presidency, Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador announced that they are recalling their ambassadors in protest against what they said was a “coup against democracy.”

On Wednesday senators voted to impeach Rousseff, who had been temporarily suspended in May on corruption allegations and illegal manipulations of the national budget. Following the vote and Conservative Vice-President Michel Temer’s being sworn in as the new Brazilian leader, several countries across Latin America vowed to remove their ambassadors from Brazil.

Electoral battles

Donald Trump still has a path to victory, but it's a tough one, USC/L.A. Times poll shows

Athough he trails in nearly all national surveys and polls of most battleground states, Donald Trump still has a potential route to victory, albeit a difficult one that would require him to coax many people who sat out the last election to vote this time around, the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Daybreak tracking poll finds.

The existence of a bloc of disaffected voters large enough to potentially swing the election Trump’s way is the main finding from an analysis of the first eight weeks of the daily tracking poll.

Chemical security

Removing Chemical Weapons From Libya – Is It Possible?

Sources in Israel evaluate that some of the chemical weapons held by the Kadhafi regime in Libya are already at the hands of the terrorist organizations who govern the country. They said the ability to remove chemical weapons from the country has been doubtful.

According to Defenseworld.net, the Danish parliament has approved the governmental proposal for the country to participate in a UN-backed international maritime operation to remove chemical weapons from Libya. Denmark had been offered to lead the work on the chemical weapons withdrawal under the aegis of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The operation is aimed at preventing dangerous chemical substances from falling into the hands of extremist groups.

Weapons

Russian Nuclear Glider Sets Nervousness Among Military Powerhouses

The lethal hypersonic nuclear glider that looks to revolutionize the whole defense aviation  industry can cover the distance from Moscow to London within 13 minutes and penetrate NATOs missile defense system.

After launching initial tests on Russia’s first futuristic glider last year as part of Russia’s 4202 Project, the aircraft, according to the British “Daily Star” is ready for intense use.

According to Sputnik.com, the glider can travel at a speed of 12,3560kmh and will reportedly be fit with RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles. Other Details about the glider’s specifications remain top secret.

Both the US and China are now hurrying to develop comparable hypersonic gliders equipped with nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles increasing the defense gap between the military superpowers and the rest of the world.

Airport security

Advanced Scanners Developed for Airport Passenger Screening

The Procurement Office of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior signed a framework agreement with Rohde & Schwarz for 300 R&S QPS200 security scanners. These new devices can now be used everywhere that the German Federal Police Force performs security checks.
The German Federal Police will use the instruments for passenger screening at airports throughout Germany. The scanners can also be used for security access control in other places, such as in ministries, for example.
According to gsnmagazine.com, Rohde & Schwarz has successfully entered a new business field with the R&S QPS. The millimeter-wave technology is based on the company’s many years of expertise in developing globally leading T&M equipment. The security scanner automatically detects potentially dangerous metallic and non-metallic objects under clothing or on the body. A detected object is identified on a symbolic graphic of the human body, preserving the privacy of the individual being scanned. There is no health hazard associated with the R&S QPS transmit power, which is hundreds or even thousands of times lower than that of a mobile phone. Scanning comfort is also improved since the individual being scanned simply stands in front of the scanner with their arms held slightly away from the body.

Poll results

POLL: The Tories are STILL crushing Labour

ICM's latest voter intention survey shows that public opinion does not look like it is shifting anytime soon when it comes to the Tory government and Labour opposition. The poll puts the Conservatives a whopping 14-points ahead of Labour — the third consecutive ICM/Guardian poll to put Jeremy Corbyn's Labour below the 30% mark.

The survey, which collected responses from 2,040 adults, is just the latest in a series of opinion polls to give the Tories commanding leads over Labour. This is what it means for Business Insider's voter intention polls tracker. As the annotations illustrate, a gulf has separated the two parties since mid-July.

Whistleblowing

Russian spy novels and secret meetings: How Oliver Stone made the “Snowden” film

Acclaimed director Oliver Stone, the man behind Oscar-winning films like Born on the Fourth of July and Wall Street, is readying to release the first—and perhaps the definitive—biopic on American whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden, which is slated for US release on Sept. 16, tells the tale of how Snowden came to unearth and subsequently leak details about the US National Security Agency’s surveillance on the American public.

As it turns out, the story of how the movie was financed and filmed is almost as amazing as Snowden’s, revealed an article by Irina Aleksander published in the New York Times Magazine Aug. 30.

• The film is “based on” a Russian spy novel that Stone paid $1 million to option in order to get access to the whistleblower himself, according to Stone’s reported account... 

Laser

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE F-35B? LASERS

The F-35B is the most expensive model from America’s most expensive fighter program in history. Stealthy, full of sensors, and designed so that the Marines flying it can take off and land vertically or in very short distances, each plane is a $134 million bundle of metal and code. What more could the Marine Corps want with its new jet fighter?

Lasers. Freakin’ lasers.

Jacqueline Klimas at the Washington Examiner reports:

Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, the commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, said Tuesday that he could "absolutely" see putting a laser on the service's F-35B variant in the future.... "Because of the size and weight requirements for a laser, we'd probably start off with a KC-130," Walsh said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington. "As soon as we could miniaturize it, we'd put them on F-35s, Cobras [attack helicopters], any of those attack aircraft."

Immigration security

May Spells Out Immigration Limits as the First Brexit Red Line

Theresa May set out the first of her red lines for Brexit negotiations, saying she wants to end the free movement of people coming to the U.K. from the European Union and suggesting she’s willing to leave the bloc’s single market to do so.

Ministers meeting on Wednesday at May’s country residence agreed Britain should seek a bespoke deal with the EU on its own terms, rather than copying those for Norway or Canada, the premier’s office said. The cabinet also decided there’s no need for a parliamentary vote before triggering two years of formal exit talks.

International security

Clinton Promises Military Force Against Hackers in Most Hawkish Speech Yet

From the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, where the 98th National American Legion convention is underway, Clinton focused on “American exceptionalism.” 

Explaining her view of the role the US plays in the world, Clinton stated that America is  “the indispensable nation.” She explained that US importance in the world is a serious responsibility, and that the actions Washington does and does not take have a great impact on the lives of people around the globe. “When Vladimir Putin, of all people, criticized American exceptionalism — my opponent agreed with him — saying, and I quote, ‘if you’re in Russia, you don’t want to hear that America is exceptional,’” Clinton remarked. “Well maybe you don’t want to hear it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true,” she said.

War on terror

Russian airstrike killed senior ISIS leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani – Moscow

The killing of a top figure in the terrorist group Islamic State, Abu Muhammed al-Adnani, was the result of an airstrike conducted by a Russian Su-34 bomber, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The death of al-Adnani, Islamic State’s spokesman and its leader in Syria, in a bombing in the Syrian province of Aleppo was earlier confirmed by the terrorist organization itself.

In an airstrike conducted in the area of Maaratat Umm Hawsh on Tuesday, the Su-34 targeted a group of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters numbering about 40 people, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Al-Adnani’s death was confirmed by several intelligence channels.

The militant was described as the second most senior IS leader after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The group’s news outlet, Amaq, reported Al-Adnani’s death on Tuesday, without specifying who was responsible. According to Amaq, al-Adnani was killed “while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo.” 

Immigration security

Full text: Donald Trump immigration speech in Arizona

The fundamental problem with the immigration system in our country is that it serves the needs of wealthy donors, political activists and powerful politicians. Let me tell you who it doesn’t serve: it doesn’t serve you, the American people.

When politicians talk about immigration reform, they usually mean the following: amnesty, open borders, and lower wages.

Immigration reform should mean something else entirely: it should mean improvements to our laws and policies to make life better for American citizens.

But if we are going to make our immigration system work, then we have to be prepared to talk honestly and without fear about these important and sensitive issues.

Airport security

Kalashnikov opens store at Moscow Airport. Can you just imagine the Outrage if they opened at a western Airport?

The Sheremetyevo International Airport is Moscow’s and Russia’s largest airport, with about 31 million passengers yearly. Here the famous Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov just opened a brand and accessories shop.

The Kalashnikov Concern shop will sells non-military souvenirs like clothing as T-shirts with “I love AK”, flash cards, pens and bags.

For sale are also non-lethal models of the Kalashnikov rifles and later this year their hunting clothing line and equipment will be released under the “Baikal” label. I guess more people than I will think “what about airport security?”

According to an airport official, offering novelties including pens, umbrellas, bags, hats, camouflage gear and various morale T-shirts poses no problems.

“Model guns, for instance semi-automatic pistols and assault rifles are clearly imitations.”

International security

Finland: America's Next Top Ally?

“Finlandization” is the term for a small nation, located next to a much bigger nation, that maintains a foreign policy of careful neutrality. In return, its bigger neighbor doesn't crush it.

Can you guess which country Finlandization is named after? Good guess! Having your country become a synonym for neutrality isn't exactly a compliment, but if national survival is a worthy achievement, then Finlandization has worked for Finland for almost a century. Despite being on Russia's northern border and losing two wars with the Soviet Union in 1939–40 and 1941–44, Finland has remained independent and democratic.

No, Finland could not join NATO (nor did it even join the European Union until 1995, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.) Yet even if its choices were constrained by the Muscovite behemoth to the south, at least Finland had a freedom of choice that the Poles, Czechs and Hungarians could only envy during the Cold War.

Drug smuggling

Bikini selfies in Bermuda, coconuts in Tahiti and quad biking in Peru: The lavish lives of Canadian women accused of smuggling $30 MILLION worth of cocaine into Sydney on the Sea Princess cruise ship

Two Canadian women accused of smuggling over $30 million (US $23 million) worth of cocaine into Sydney on a cruise ship documented their lavish holiday on social media before their arrest at the weekend.

Melina Roberge, 23, and Isabelle Lagacé, 28, were on the Sea Princess cruise, which started in Britain and visited Canada, USA, Colombia, Peru and Auckland all before arriving in Australia on Sunday.

The pair, along with co-accused Andre Tamine, 63, fronted a Sydney court on Monday after they were caught allegedly attempting to import 95kg (200lb) of cocaine into the country.

The trio, who are all from Quebec, are now facing life in prison after being charged with one count each of 'import commercial quantity of border controlled drug.'

Organ smuggling

FIA arrests culprit involved in smuggling children's body organs to India

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested former section officer Umar Shahab who was involved in smuggling body organs of children to India. FIA has initiated investigation regarding the case after obtaining the remand of the culprit, reported Dunya News.

FIA sources stated that the culprit was being investigated about the whereabouts of other members of the gang involved in smuggling body organs whereas he was also being interrogated about the possible link between the gang and recent hike in cases of child abduction.

Shahab used to smuggle vital body organs of children, including their kidneys and liver, to India. He has also served in Pakistani embassy in Kuwait.

FIA presented Shahab in the court and obtained his physical remand.

Statecraft

Exclusive — Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn: Obama, Hillary Ignored Intelligence They Did Not Like About Middle East, Only Wanted ‘Happy Talk’

Specifically, during an exclusive interview about his book The Field of Fight, Flynn said that Obama and Clinton were not interested in hearing intelligence that did not fit their “happy talk” narrative about the Middle East. In fact, he alleged the administration actively scrubbed training manuals and purged from the military ranks any thinking about the concept of radical Islamism. Flynn argued that this effort by Obama, Clinton and others to reduce the intelligence community to gathering only facts that the senior administration officials wanted to hear—rather than what they needed to hear—helped the enemy fester and grow, while weakening the United States on the world stage.

Intel sharing

Officials: E.U. and U.S. Need to Do Better Job Sharing Terrorism Intelligence

The U.S. and the European Union need to do a better job of sharing information immediately and in a secure way to best deter terrorist attacks, two senior international security officials said Monday.

But even after years of effort, the E.U. and the United States are not yet there.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think-tank, Francis Taylor, undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, said, “the world of terrorist-inspired attacks has changed.” While still including al Qaeda and its affiliates and the Islamic State, the threat is morphing to add “self-radicalized” men and women who are “often difficult to detect” as terrorists. Their attacks, such as that in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, can “occur with little or no warning.”

Intel impovement

Reforming Intelligence: A Proposal for Reorganizing the Intelligence Community and Improving Analysis

Despite the deep reforms of the U.S. intelligence community (IC) carried out after 9/11, including the creation of the Director for National Intelligence (DNI) and the National Combatting Terrorism Center (NCTC), there is widespread agreement that more remains to be done. This is not a new thought. Before the ink was dry on the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA), there were warnings from insiders as well as outside experts that the law had not fully dealt with the challenges facing the IC. The critics pointed to the anomalous position of the DNI, a neglect of strategic analysis, accusations of the politicization of intelligence, and the difficulties that the IC has with failure, learning, and adaptation, as signs that all was not well within the IC.

Arms race

Pentagon Scientists Worry the US Is Losing the Artificial Intelligence Arms Race

Pentagon scientists worry that the U.S. could be on the losing side of a AI arms race.

The Defense Science Board’s much-anticipated “Autonomy”study sees promise and peril in the years ahead. The good news: autonomy, artificial intelligence, and machine learning could revolutionize the way the military spies on enemies, defends its troops, or speeds its  supplies to the front lines. The bad news: AIin commercial and academic settings is moving faster than the military can keep up. Among the most startling recommendations in the study: the United States should take “immediate action” to figure out how to defeat new AI-enabled operations.

In issuing this warning, the study harks back to military missteps in cyber and electronic warfare. While the Pentagon was busy developing offensive weapons, techniques, plans, and tricks to use against enemies, it ignored U.S. equipment’s own vulnerabilities.

Middle East

Inside 'the Glasshouse': Iran 'is running covert war in Syria costing BILLIONS from top secret spymaster HQ near Damascus airport'

Iran is shoring up the Syrian regime from a secret HQ in Damascus nicknamed ‘the Glasshouse’ - and commanding a huge covert army in support of Assad, according to leaked intelligence passed by activists to MailOnline.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claims that the theocratic state's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has spent billions in hardware for its ally Bashar al-Assad in the last five years  - and runs operations on the ground from a five-floor monolith near Damascus airport.

The Iranian HQ, which plays a pivotal role in supporting Assad's regime alongside Russia, contains intelligence and counterintelligence operations, and has vaults packed with millions of dollars in cash flown in from Tehran, claims the NCRI.

The allegations are contained in a dossier of reports apparently leaked by senior sources inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and collated by the dissident activists who oppose the Iranian regime.

Seismic security

Yellowstone May Be About to Erupt, Releasing Chaos and Fire Predicted for End of Days

Experts are concerned that recent signs of  increased seismic activity in Yellowstone National Park could be the prelude to a massive eruption that, even by conservative estimates, would have global implications, including nationwide food shortages. A Jerusalem Kabbalist explains how this was prophesied in the Bible to be a painful but necessary part of the Messianic process.

One of Yellowstone Park’s more impressive sights, a 40-mile-wide caldera crater, is a grim reminder of the potential for massive destruction that lies beneath the scenic beauty in the heartland of America. Super-volcanos are so explosive that, rather than leave a normal volcanic cone, they create a massive hole. Yellowstone is a 3,500 square mile crater created 630,000 years ago when 240 cubic miles of debris were blasted into the air, fueled by a pressurized reservoir of magma under the park.

Privacy security

Now BBC iPlayer police 'may spy on your net use' to punish people who watch on-demand programmes without a TV licence 

The BBC could spy on home internet use to enforce new rules designed to punish those who watch on-demand programmes online without a TV licence, experts have warned.

The overhaul of the ‘iPlayer loophole’ means that from tomorrow viewers will need to pay the £145.50 licence fee to catch up on programmes using their mobile devices and laptops.

But fears have been raised that the secretive techniques used by the BBC to police the new system could be a breach of privacy.

Cybersecurity

Hacker Shows Us How to Unlock a Laptop Using an NSA Tool

Around Christmas in 2013, a German newsmagazine published a large cache of leaked NSA files, detailing several spy tools used by the NSA.The leaked documents were dubbed ANT (Advanced Network Techniques) Catalog, and showed that the US spy agency had a wide array of tools to spy on people’s computers and, as they put it, get the “ungettable.” The tools ranged from a set of fake cellular base stations that hijack phone calls, a USB plug to steal data as soon as it’s connected to a computer, and “radio frequency reflectors,” devices that beam radio signals to other devices, forcing them to beam data back.

Nuclear security

Nuclear arms control beyond the U.S. and Russia

In the nearly six decades since the advent of nuclear arms control, virtually all negotiated agreements to limit stockpiles of nuclear weapons have been concluded by the United States and the Soviet Union or Russia. That is logical, given that even today the U.S. and Russian arsenals are many times larger than those of other nuclear weapons states.

The United States continues to focus on bilateral nuclear reductions with Russia. However, in recent years, Russia has signaled its desire to include other nuclear weapons states—such as Britain, France, and China. Though it is unlikely that other states will agree to reduce or even cap their nuclear stockpiles without further reductions by the United States and Russia, it is useful to identify prospective entrants to the global arms control regime, as well as possible concrete means of pursing arms control on a multilateral basis.

Innovations & technologies

Haifa team sires Intel’s ‘fastest-ever’ processor

The seventh-generation new Intel Core enhanced 14-nanometer-plus processor, called Kaby Lake, is its “strongest and fastest ever,” Intel said in a statement, and aims to meet the demands of increased connectedness and internet use, and growing consumption of high-quality video, ultra-high-definition (UHD) premium and user-generated content, 360-degree video formats, Virtual Reality and digital sports content. It will power ultra-thin notebooks and two-in-one laptop-tablet hybrids.

Built on the foundation of the Skylake processors, which Intel launched last year and were also led from Israel, the Kaby Lake processors are more than 70 percent faster than a 5-year-old PC and 3.5 times better in 3D graphics performance, the company said in a statement.

The new processors will have a longer-lasting battery — 9.5 hours of 4K video playback — and better security, and will enable more natural and intuitive interactions of users with their PCs, Intel said.

Middle East

Israeli ex-spy chief says Palestinian state crucial to peace

The former head of Israel's Mossad spy agency on Tuesday said the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is crucial to region-wide peace in the Middle East, joining the ranks of retired security men to urge the government to seek a two-state solution.

The comments by Tamir Pardo were his first foray into political issues since stepping down as Mossad chief early this year.

With peace efforts with the Palestinians stalled for more than two years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instead sought to cultivate alliances across the Arab world. In addition to the decades-old peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, Netanyahu frequently boasts of what he calls strong behind-the-scenes contacts with moderate Sunni countries, presumably Saudi Arabia and smaller Gulf states.

Election security

Watergate: CIA withheld data on double agent

An internal history of the Watergate scandal prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency – intended to help the Agency make a clean breast of its own wrongdoing and kept in classified vaults for more than four decades – reveals how the spy service used a double agent to keep tabs on the burglars whose arrests ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, and withheld information about the agent from federal prosecutors.

Entitled “Working Draft – CIA Watergate History,” the 155-page study was largely written by John C. Richards, a CIA officer who died in December 1974, and was brought nearly to completion by unnamed Agency colleagues who built on Richards’ typed draft and handwritten annotations. 

Politics

'Powerful Russian Weapons'? Washington Post Fears Putin’s 'October Surprise'

On Monday, Dana Milbank published an op-ed with the Washington Post, entitled "A Putin-sponsored October surprise?" The piece suggests that the Kremlin could release doctored intelligence in an effort to smear Clinton, ahead of the presidential election in November. "Perhaps they’ll show that the Clinton Foundation has been funding the Islamic State, or they’ll have Hillary Clinton admitting that she didn’t care about those Americans who died in Benghazi after all," the op-ed reads.

"Maybe they’ll show that she really did lose most of her brain function in that fall several years ago and is now relying on Anthony Weiner to make all of her decisions." The article provides no evidence to back its accusations, and appears to rest solely on a Foreign Policy article that claims hackers leaked altered documents in an effort to besmirch George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. This article, too, provides zero evidence that the Russian government was behind the hack.

Middle East

Turkish Military Clashes With Syrian Opposition Groups

The United States has directly spoken to Turkish officials urging them to avoid military engagement with US-allied Kurdish forces in Syria, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said in a press conference on Monday. "We have called upon Turkey to… stay focused on the fight against ISIL [Daesh] and not to engage Syrian Defense Forces," Carter stated. US officials have called on both sides "not to engage one another," following the joint US-Turkish recapture of the Syrian border town of Jarabulus, Carter added.

Corruption

3 men in line for Brazilian presidency accused of corruption

Impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff have put a spotlight on corruption in the ranks of Brazil’s lawmakers. Watchdog groups say about 60 percent of the 594 legislators in both chambers of Congress are being investigated for wrongdoing or are facing corruption charges, including the three men in line to replace Rousseff if she is removed from office.

FIRST IN LINE: Vice President Michel Temer.

In a plea bargain, a former senator who had been a director of state-run oil company Transpetro made a direct link between Temer and the massive corruption probe centered on the main government oil company, Petrobras...

Navy

Another LCS breaks down, this time in mid-Pacific

In yet another incident in what is turning out to be a bad year for the US Navy’s littoral combat ship program, the LCS Coronado is reported to have suffered a propulsion problem in mid-Pacific and has turned back to return to Hawaii. The latest issue, this time with an Independence-class LCS variant, follows a series of problems striking ships of the Freedom class. 

Sources said the Coronado is about 800 nautical miles west of Hawaii, proceeding at about ten knots. The Military Sealift Command oiler Henry J. Kaiser is accompanying the ship. About 70 sailors are aboard the LCS. 

The Coronado left Pearl Harbor Friday for the Western Pacific, where she’s to operate for at least sixteen months based from Singapore. The ship recently completed several weeks of operations with the Rim of the Pacific exercises, operating from Pearl Harbor.

Environmental security

Lester Jackson: Say 'No' to seismic airgun blasting off Georgia's coast

Last week, I joined 69 state legislators in Georgia and the Carolinas to strongly encourage President Obama to oppose seismic airgun blasting off the Southeast coast. Unfortunately, despite the Obama administration’s recent decision to remove the Atlantic from federal offshore drilling plans in the near future, they are still preparing to issue permits for the oil and gas industry to conduct seismic airgun blasting in an area twice the size of California, spanning from Delaware to Florida.

Seismic airgun blasting is the first step to offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic. This extremely disruptive and harmful process is used to map potential oil and gas deposits under the seafloor. Ships drag an array of airguns back and forth across the water; the airguns fire extremely loud blasts through the ocean and into the seafloor about every 10 seconds, for weeks to months on end. And yes, my friends, that area will include our precious Georgia coast.

Election security

How Electronic Voting Could Undermine the Election

It's 2016: What possible reason is there to vote on paper? When we use touchscreens to communicate, work, and shop, why can't we use similar technology to vote?

A handful of states, and many precincts in other states, have already made the switch to voting systems that are fully digital, leaving no paper trail at all. But this is despite the fact that computer-security experts think electronic voting is a very, very bad idea.

For years, security researchers and academics have urged election officials to hold off on adopting electronic voting systems, worrying that they’re not nearly secure enough to reliably carry out their vital role in American democracy. Their claims have been backed up by repeated demonstrations of the systems’ fragility: When the District of Columbia tested an electronic voting system in 2010, a professor from the University of Michigan and his graduate students took it over from more than 500 miles away to show its weaknesses; with actual physical access to a voting machine, the same professor—Alex Halderman—swapped out its internals, turning it into a Pac Man console.

Traffic security

Traffic Deaths Climb By Largest Increase In Decades

Newly released government data paint a sobering picture of safety on the nation's roads and highways.

In 2015, the number of people who died in auto accidents reached 35,092, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a 7.2 percent increase over 2014. The last time there was such a large single-year increase was back in 1966 when Lyndon Johnson was president.

"Despite decades of safety improvements, far too many people are killed on our nation's roads every year," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a press release announcing the new data. "Solving this problem will take teamwork, so we're issuing a call to action and asking researchers, safety experts, data scientists, and the public to analyze the fatality data and help find ways to prevent these tragedies."

Military

The Hidden Costs of America’s Addiction to Mercenaries


Private military contractors perform tasks once thought to be inherently governmental, such as raising foreign armies, conducting intelligence analysis and trigger-pulling. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they constituted about 15 percent of all contractors. But don’t let the numbers fool you. Their failures have an outsized impact on U.S. strategy. When a squad of Blackwater contractors killed 17 civilians at a Bagdad traffic circle in 2007, it provoked a firestorm in Iraq and at home, marking one of the nadirs of that war.

Contractors also encourage mission creep, because contractors don’t count as “boots on the ground.” Congress does not consider them to be troops, and therefore contractors do not count again troop-level caps in places like Iraq. The U.S. government does not track contractor numbers in war zones. As a result, the government can put more people on the ground than it reports to the American people, encouraging mission creep and rendering contractors virtually invisible.

Policing

Mexico Top Cop Out for Executions

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto decided to remove the chief of federal police, Enrique Galindo, less than two weeks after the country's human rights commission released a report a report alleging that the police had "executed arbitrarily" at least 22 suspected drug cartel members. "In light of the recent events and on instructions of the president, Police Commissioner Enrique Galindo has been removed from his position," Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said. "That is with the objective of facilitating that the corresponding authorities carry out an agile and transparent investigation in full view of citizens."

Border security

Imagine There’s No Border

Borders are to distinct countries what fences are to neighbors: means of demarcating that something on one side is different from what lies on the other side, a reflection of the singularity of one entity in comparison with another. Borders amplify the innate human desire to own and protect property and physical space, which is impossible to do unless it is seen—and can be so understood—as distinct and separate. Clearly delineated borders and their enforcement, either by walls and fences or by security patrols, won’t go away because they go to the heart of the human condition—what jurists from Rome to the Scottish Enlightenment called meum et tuum, mine and yours. Between friends, unfenced borders enhance friendship; among the unfriendly, when fortified, they help keep the peace.