Economic security

The Revolution After The Crisis

We are on the cusp of a massive economic contraction and a total reset of the global economy. The Coronavirus pandemic has metastasized into a global crisis that experts predict will very likely kill millions and unleash a worldwide economic depression. As economist Nouriel Roubani writes, the sudden shock to the global economy from the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating a massive collapse that will be more severe than either the 2008 global financial crisis or the Great Depression.

A propellant for both a liquidity crisis and a solvency crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic is currently engulfing a wide breadth of industries and capital investments at a pace we have not seen before. Even as central banks leverage quantitative easing (QE) to stimulate the global economy, the impact of the pandemic on employment and therefore consumption will ensure a collapse that is both broad and deep.

Navigation security

China’s version of GPS is almost complete. Here’s what that means.

On March 9, China moved into the end run of a decades-long project to build its own global navigation satellite system, a project that will make it independent of foreign rivals when it comes to a network that undergirds modern tech, business, and the military. It’s called BeiDou.

The latest satellite in the navigation system, a third-gen craft (known as BeiDou-3) now in a geostationary orbit, lifted off earlier this month from the Xichang Center in southwestern China. The system’s final satellite, scheduled for launch in May, will give it full global capability. At that point, China’s completed system will rival America’s GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, and Europe’s Galileo.

BeiDou is representative of China’s push to build and offer commercial alternatives to Western tech platforms, from servers and 5G equipment from Huawei, for example, to satellites. The system is meant to provide highly-accurate global positioning services, as well as a means to transfer limited amounts of data, for commercial and military users.

Personal security

6 Bad Habits That Are Ruining Your Credibility And Your Career

When you have big dreams, and a grand vision for your career, it’s the little actions, and the small details you prioritize that will set you apart. Sure, you can work on adding habits and incorporating new skill sets into your daily life. Nonetheless, it’s key to stop and ask yourself: what do you need to eliminate or change today?

It is easier to add a new habit than it is to break an old one because habits are comfortable and we are hardwired to want that safety. What if that one conversational habit you had was blocking you from the success you want to create in your networking efforts, or  what if the nervous tick to repeat “umm’” over and over was what didn’t get you that big break? 

The first step is recognizing that you have a habit that needs to be broken in the first place. Here are six of the most common habits I have seen ruin someone’s credibility without them even realizing it.

Electronic surveillance

Dictatorships often start in the face of a threat’: UN privacy chief warns against long-lasting theft of freedoms amid coronavirus surveillance

Strict surveillance measures adopted to monitor citizens during coronavirus lockdowns could result in the long-lasting theft of personal freedoms, the United Nations’ privacy chief has warned.

“Dictatorships and authoritarian societies often start in the face of a threat,” Joseph Cannataci, the UN special rapporteur on the right to privacy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“That is why it is important to be vigilant today and not give away all our freedoms”.

The coronavirus pandemic has led governments to declare themselves essentially on a war footing – with many politicians referencing an “invisible” enemy or attacker.

At the advice of health experts, even countries regarded as the world’s most liberal democracies have enforced quarantine measures thought unthinkable mere weeks ago.

Opinion

Covid-19 Brings Out All the Usual Zombies

Let me summarize the Trump administration/right-wing media view on the coronavirus: It’s a hoax, or anyway no big deal. Besides, trying to do anything about it would destroy the economy. And it’s China’s fault, which is why we should call it the “Chinese virus.”
Oh, and epidemiologists who have been modeling the virus’s future spread have come under sustained attack, accused of being part of a “deep state” plot against Donald Trump, or maybe free markets.
Does all this give you a sense of déjà vu? It should. After all, it’s very similar to the Trump/right-wing line on climate change. Here’s what Trump tweeted back in 2012: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive.” It’s all there: it’s a hoax, doing anything about it will destroy the economy, and let’s blame China.

Spy work

Before this pandemic ends, intel agencies should prepare for a world of threats

Few people regard the novel coronavirus pandemic as an intelligence failure. And, judging by conventional standards, it is not one. The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) was created to collect and analyze secret information about our adversaries’ capabilities and intentions that pose strategic threats to American national security. Despite allegations by some foreign propagandists and domestic conspiracy-mongers, COVID-19 was not dreamed up in some biological weapons laboratory and unleashed diabolically on the world. Its origins in Chinese “wet markets” were far more prosaic. Today’s rapidly emerging global dangers could not have been uncovered by intercepting secret Chinese communications or capturing their plans for biological warfare.  

In such situations, traditional approaches to gathering and analyzing intelligence can only make limited contributions. They can help to determine what secretive governments, such as those in China and Iran, actually know about the spread of COVID-19 and its lethality, and to what degree they may be hiding the truth. And some spinmeisters, evidently intent on both polishing the IC’s image and tarnishing that of President Trump, already have been portraying classified briefings in January and February as an intelligence success because they did just that. 

Drug smuggling

DEA discovers 2,000ft smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego and 4,000 pounds of drugs worth $29million

A 2,000-foot underground tunnel connecting Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, and a massive haul of drugs worth $29.6million was discovered, the Drug Enforcement Agency revealed on Tuesday. 

The DEA said agents on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force made the tunnel discovery March 19 before reaching out to Mexican authorities for additional support.

The tunnel was built by a transnational cartel and extended from Tijuana, Mexico, to the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. 

Federal investigators said the underground passageway is at least 31 feet underground and almost three feet wide throughout its trajectory.

The DEA confiscated almost 3,000 pounds of marijuana, 1,300 pounds of cocaine, 86 pounds of methamphetamine, 17 pounds of heroin and two pounds of fentanyl.  

It is the first time in San Diego's history that five different types of narcotics were found inside a tunnel.

Private data security

Zoom Scrutinized As Security Woes Mount

The New York Attorney General has inquired about Zoom’s data security strategy, as the conferencing platform comes under heavy scrutiny for its privacy policies.

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, is demanding more information about how Zoom secures user data. The inquiry comes amidst mounting public scrutiny of the web conferencing platform’s data privacy and security policies.

In a Monday letter, James questioned whether Zoom’s security protections can keep up with the spike in users, with more employees working from home over the past few weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. Almost 600,000 people downloaded the Zoom app on March 15, after social distancing orders were put in place, for instance.

“While Zoom has remediated specific reported security vulnerabilities, we would like to understand whether Zoom has undertaken a broader review of its security practices,” according to the letter obtained by the New York Times.

Biosecurity

CDC considering recommending general public wear face coverings in public

Should we all be wearing masks? That simple question is under review by officials in the U.S. government and has sparked a grass-roots pro-mask movement. But there’s still no consensus on whether widespread use of facial coverings would make a significant difference, and some infectious disease experts worry that masks could lull people into a false sense of security and make them less disciplined about social distancing.

In recent days, more people have taken to covering their faces, although it remains a scattershot strategy driven by personal choice. The government does not recommend it.

That may change. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are considering altering the official guidance to encourage people to take measures to cover their faces amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it is an ongoing matter of internal discussion and nothing has been finalized.

Health security

New blood test can detect 50 types of cancer

A new blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer has been revealed by researchers in the latest study to offer hope for early detection.

The test is based on DNA that is shed by tumours and found circulating in the blood. More specifically, it focuses on chemical changes to this DNA, known as methylation patterns.

Researchers say the test can not only tell whether someone has cancer, but can also shed light on the type of cancer they have.

Dr Geoffrey Oxnard of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, part of Harvard Medical School, said the test was now being explored in clinical trials. “You need to use a test like this in an independent group at risk of cancer to actually show that you can find the cancers, and figure out what to do about it when you find them,” he said.

Biosecurity

Russia's Top Coronavirus Doctor Who Met Putin Tests Positive

The head of Moscow's main coronavirus hospital who met with President Vladimir Putin a week ago has tested positive, he said Tuesday, as the Kremlin announced the Russian leader's health was fine.

Last Tuesday Denis Protsenko met with the Russian leader who inspected the Kommunarka hospital while wearing a bright yellow hazmat suit. But the 67-year-old Putin was also seen talking to Protsenko without any protective gear.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov swiftly told Russian news agencies that Putin took regular tests and there was no reason to worry about his health.

"Everything is fine," Peskov said.

Protsenko said he tested positive but "felt quite well."

Posting a picture of himself wearing a mask and green scrubs on Facebook, he said he self-isolated in his office and would continue to work.

Protsenko has become a high-profile figure on the frontlines of Russia's fight against COVID-19, posting daily on Facebook to inform Russians about his hospital's work and patients.

Over the past 24 hours Russian authorities have reported 500 new cases — the biggest daily increase so far — bringing the total tally to 2,337 cases and 17 fatalities.

Navy

US Navy’s Zumwalt Stealth Destroyer Will Soon Have Working Weapons

The USS Zumwalt stealth destroyer joined the Navy in 2016, but due to budget shifts, it’s never had a working weapons system. However, the final touches on the ship’s conversion into a standard guided missile destroyer will soon be completed.

The world’s largest destroyer will soon have a working weapons system - four years after being commissioned into the US Navy. A source inside the Zumwalt program told Defense News on Saturday that the final piece of the ship’s new combat system is due to be installed before the month is out.

The massive USS Zumwalt was conceived as a replacement for the shore-shelling capabilities of the US battleship fleet. When the four Iowa-class battleships were deactivated for good after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Navy went looking for a replacement warship capable of ship-to-shore bombardment in support of a Marine landing. 

The SC-21 research and development program eventually yielded the Zumwalt, built around the powerful Advanced Gun System, a 155-millimeter cannon capable of firing 10 rounds a minute at targets up to 83 nautical miles away. Each Zumwalt-class ship was to have two such cannons, giving them the effective firepower of two 155-millimeter howitzer batteries, or roughly 16 land-based guns.

Biosecurity

8 strains of the coronavirus are circling the globe. Here's what clues they're giving scientists.

At least eight strains of the coronavirusare making their way around the globe, creating a trail of death and disease that scientists are tracking by their genetic footprints.

While much is unknown, hidden in the virus's unique microscopic fragments are clues to the origins of its original strain, how it behaves as it mutates and which strains are turning into conflagrations while others are dying out thanks to quarantine measures.  

Huddled in once bustling and now almost empty labs, researchers who oversaw dozens of projects are instead focused on one goal: tracking the current strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that cause the illness COVID-19.

Labs around the world are turning their sequencing machines, most about the size of a desktop printer, to the task of rapidly sequencing the genomes of virus samples taken from people sick with COVID-19. The information is uploaded to a website called NextStrain.org that shows how the virus is migrating and splitting into similar but new subtypes.

Spy work

US spies having trouble assessing coronavirus spread in China, Russia: report

With nearly 800,000 coronavirus cases worldwide, intelligence agencies in the U.S. are having difficulties determining the outbreak situation in countries such as China, Russia, and North Korea, government sources told Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo previously suggested there might be a lack of accurate information on Russia and Iran. He also accused China of a disinformation campaign amid an absence of new cases, which Beijing denies.

An understanding of the COVID-19 outbreak in those countries could help the U.S. and international efforts to limit the impact of COVID-19.

Energy security

Saudi oil industry face huge risks as American, European refiners refusing Riyadh's crude

Oil prices collapsed to their lowest levels in decades in March amid coronavirus concerns and OPEC+’s failure to reach a deal on production cuts, which prompted Riyadh and its allies to open the taps.

Refineries in the United States and Europe are rejecting to accept any more Saudi oil, even at discounted prices, owing to a crude glut and lack of storage space, the Wall Street journal has reported, citing Saudi officials and oil traders.

Gulf Agency Company Ltd, a Dubai-based maritime logistics company, says buyers in India have also cut back on Saudi crude as that country has gone into lockdown to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. According to the company’s sources, at least 52 Indian ports have invoked a force majeure amid the outbreak, allowing them to cancel orders without incurring penalties.

Traders also told the WSJ that Russia – the oil exporter whose market share Saudi Arabia has been most keen to capture, has been able to compensate some of the decline in exports to Europe by redirecting them to China, a country where demand has been enjoying a slow recovery amid that country’s efforts to fight the pandemic.

Statecraft

MI5: Ken McCallum appointed new boss

Ken McCallum has been appointed the new director general of MI5, the security service has said.

Mr McCallum led counter terrorism investigations during the London 2012 Olympic Games and MI5's response to the attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018.

Currently deputy director general, he has worked there for nearly 25 years, a statement said.

He succeeds Sir Andrew Parker, who retires in April after seven years.

Originally from Glasgow, Mr McCallum spent his first years at MI5 focusing on Northern Ireland-related terrorism, and later specialised in countering Islamist extremist terrorism.

He led its strategic response to the series of terror attacks that took place in 2017 and has also worked on cyber-security.

Biosecurity

Experts now say we SHOULD be wearing medical masks to stop the spread of coronavirus - just weeks after the Surgeon General told people not to buy them due to a massive shortage

Medical professionals in Asia are now saying that N95 face masks can help curb the spread of coronavirus - despite advice from the US Surgeon General that they shouldn't be bought by the public amid mass shortages for doctors.

'This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role — you've got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth,' George Gao, who works with the Chinese Center for Disease and Prevention, told Science Magazine. 

'Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others,' Gao said. 

In Asia, masks have become commonplace during the outbreak, but Americans were advised to only don them if they were already sick.

Military

Who Makes the World's Finest Tank Ammo Anyway?

Tank ammunition is not easy to manufacture. Modern tanks require ammo that is made to withstand immense pressure while also maintaining very high accuracy. This presents challenges for all types of rounds, although modern Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) ammunition is the hardest to manufacture due to the very hard materials necessary to craft them.

This piece was originally featured in November 2018 and is being republished due to reader's interest.

Which countries have mastered making these advanced rounds? Here are five countries that could be considered the best at making tank ammunition, in no particular order.

1. United States of America

Since the US proclaimed itself to be the “arsenal of democracy” during WWII, the US has been at the forefront of the development of advanced tank guns and ammunition. Fierce competition with the Soviet Union to develop more and more powerful cannons resulted in the US developing a powerful line of 105mm APFSDS ammunition for the British L7 (adopted as M68) cannons...

Energy security

Is the U.S. Also to Blame in the Oil Price War?

The Saudi-initiated oil price war has sparked a virulent reaction from some U.S. lawmakers, who accused Riyadh of waging “economic warfare” on the United States and threatened a host of potential reprisals, from economic sanctions to a halt to U.S. assistance for Saudi Arabia.

The problem is that the United States is probably as responsible as anyone for the plunge in oil prices. No country has added more oil to the global glut in recent years than the United States—and despite the recent plunge in crude prices, U.S. producers are still increasing output. That gives Moscow and Riyadh zero reason to swallow a financial hit on their own by lowering their own production levels, which in the meantime just increases the pain for all.

Nonetheless a half-dozen leading Republican senators wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week, lamenting that America’s energy sector “is now under direct threat from a country that professes to be our ally.”

Cybersecurity

Google Confirms 40,000 Nation-State Cyber Attack Warnings Issued

Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) is tasked with protecting the company, and those who use its services, against nation-state hacking attacks. One way it does this is by warning Google account holders if TAG has detected targeted activity from such threat actors. Across 2019, Google issued 40,000 of these warnings according to a new report from TAG security engineering manager, Toni Gidwani. And that, dear reader, is actually better news than you might think. The figures for 2018 were 25% higher, and Gidwani puts the drop down to Google protections disrupting the hacking activity. "Attackers' efforts have been slowed down, and they’re more deliberate in their attempts," Gidwani said, "meaning attempts are happening less frequently as attackers adapt."

Wildlife security

China and Vietnam finally ban wildlife trade due to coronavirus

If there can be a bright side to the coronavirus pandemic, which started in a “wet market” in Wuhan that sold live animals in deplorable conditions, it has finally spurred China and Vietnam to ban consumption of wild animals.

The two countries have been behind the skyrocketing death rates for endangered animals like the rhinoceros, elephant and the heavily trafficked pangolin, which have been killed for food and homeopathic “medicinal” cures in the countries. But this trade and the wet markets have been behind not just the recent outbreak, but the SARS explosion in 2002 (which is believed to have emanated from a small mammal called a civet), the swine flu and others.

In January, China imposed a ban on all farming and consumption of “terrestrial wildlife of important ecological, scientific and social value,” which is expected to be signed into law later this year.

Health security

China promotes bear bile as coronavirus cure

China has been promoting bear bile as a coronavirus treatment, upsetting wildlife activists.

In a list published earlier this month, China’s National Health Commission recommended a number of treatments for the symptoms of the virus, including both traditional Chinese and Western remedies.

The treatment is an injection called Tan Re Qing (TRQ), which is a traditional Chinese medicine formula. In addition to bear bile powder, the injection uses goat horn and dried fruit.

The injection can help to alleviate respiratory distress, particularly in cases of pneumonia and bronchitis. One of the major symptoms of the coronavirus is a dry cough and difficulty breathing.

Biosecurity

The End of Humanity? Bats Dropping Dead in Israel, Signalling 'Biblical Prophecy'

Some studies earlier suggested that the new coronavirus had been caused by bats, and although this theory has not been confirmed, Israeli media has suggested that that the recent mysterious deaths of the nocturnal creatures could have come as a punishment for the onset of global disease or as a sign of something even more dreadful.

Swarms of dead bats with no physical signs of trauma were spotted across Israel, raising questions and fears about the end-of-days omen.

The photos of the dead creatures lying in Gan Leumi Park in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan were first shared by Adi Moskowitz on Facebook, who asked for an explanation to the mysterious phenomenon. Similar photos and videos were published by some other users in neighbouring cities, according to Breaking Israel News, which was suspicious of the death plague among bats and even linked it to a biblical prophecy about the end of humanity as it is.

Food security

Coronavirus measures could cause global food shortage, UN warns

Protectionist measures by national governments during the coronavirus crisis could provoke food shortages around the world, the UN’s food body has warned.

Harvests have been good and the outlook for staple crops is promising, but a shortage of field workers brought on by the virus crisis and a move towards protectionism – tariffs and export bans – mean problems could quickly appear in the coming weeks, Maximo Torero, chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, told the Guardian.

“The worst that can happen is that governments restrict the flow of food,” he said. “All measures against free trade will be counterproductive. Now is not the time for restrictions or putting in place trade barriers. Now is the time to protect the flow of food around the world.”

Defense

COVID-19 Drives Command Teams Charged With Homeland Defense Into Cheyenne Mountain Bunker

U.S. Northern Command has dispersed essential command and control teams to multiple hardened locations, including the famous Cheyenne Mountain bunker complex in Colorado, as well as another unspecified site, and is keeping them in isolation. The command took these steps to help ensure these personnel can continue to watch around the clock for potential threats to the U.S. homeland as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand across the country and around the world, including within the U.S. military.

U.S. Air Force General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, head of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), who also serves as the commanding officer of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), detailed the changes during a virtual town hall on Facebook on Mar. 24, 2020. Under normal circumstances, the watch teams, which support both NORTHCOM and NORAD missions, would take shifts staffing a central command center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. 

Terror threat

Terrorist Threats Feared over Backdrop of Coronavirus Spread

Terrorist organizations do not stop their activities while the world is confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent extremists could seek to take advantage of the pandemic by carrying out attacks against the U.S, warns a memo sent by the Department of Homeland Security to law enforcement officials around the country.

“Violent extremists probably are seeking to exploit public fears associated with the spread of COVID-19 to incite violence, intimidate targets and promote their ideologies, and we assess these efforts will intensify in the coming months,” according to the intelligence bulletin, compiled by the agency’s Counterterrorism Mission Center and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office.

At this time, DHS said it has “no information indicating any active plotting is underway,” but that it has observed certain extremist groups, both foreign and domestic, looking to spread misinformation about the coronavirus.

At least one incident with this regard was already reported. An alert from the FBI’s New York field office showed intelligence gathered on racist extremist groups, including neo-Nazis, that were encouraging followers who contract COVID-19 to spread the disease to Jewish people and police officers, according to abcnews.go.com.

Innovations & technologies

Robust Parts for Battlefield Conditions Produced by Unique Technology

Replacement parts for military systems are usually ordered from warehouses thousands of miles away from the troops, only to wait weeks for them to arrive. 3D printing technology, also known as additive-manufacturing, has become an efficient way to produce the missing spare parts. However, the parts should not only be cost-effective and rapid to produce but also accurate geometrically and have mechanical properties that are sufficiently robust to survive conditions in battle.

U.S. Army scientists have developed a new 3D printing technology to help soldiers quickly swap out broken plastic components with durable replacement parts. 

The team from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory (ARL) developed 3D printing method for dual-polymer parts, allowing soldiers to swap out broken pieces and head back to the fight within hours.

For the first time, this cutting-edge filament is capable of being used in off-the-shelf, low-cost 3D printers to produce mechanically strong, battlefield-ready parts.

Dr. Eric Wetzel, ARL’s research area leader for soldier materials said: “We’re crossing a threshold where low-cost, easy-to-operate and maintain printers will be proliferated on the battlefield — and able to produce engineering parts of very good quality with short turn-around times.”

Background investigations

FINANCIAL COST OF CORONAVIRUS LEADS TOP COUNTERINTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL TO RELAX TOP-SECRET CLEARANCE RULES

The government's top counterintelligence official is telling security officers across the Executive Branch to relax rules for vetting workers with Top Secret clearances, citing financial hardships that may hit as a result of the coronavirus. William R. Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said Monday that workers with financial problems needed to be reconsidered in a new context, not as security risks or disqualified to hold a clearance.

The new directive is needed because a little known program called "continuous evaluation" now constantly scrutinizes the activities of some 1.7 million security clearance holders—military servicemembers, civil service employees and even private industry workers—matching crime reports, court records, property transactions, and credit scores to workers and flagging activities that indicate possible wrongdoing or deception. This Big Brother automated system is used to verify and uncover facts about individuals as well as look for anomalous activity that might reveal spying for a foreign government but also provides early warning of "insider threats": the next Edward Snowden-type individual who uses their access to government secrets to make public revelations.

The program, instituted government-wide in 2018, is described by its operators as a good government measure and a money-saving blessing, an improvement over old shoe-leather methods of doing background investigations. Part of the what the federal government is calling Trusted Workforce 2.0, continuous evaluation is said to be less intrusive, cheaper and more accurate.

The same grabbers

A sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden has ignited a firestorm of controversy

Last year, several women came forward publicly to say Joe Biden had kissed or touched them in ways that made them uncomfortable.

One of them was Tara Reade, who said Biden used to “put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck” when she worked in his Senate office in 1993.

Reade now says there was more to her experience with Biden. In an interview with podcast host Katie Halper, which aired Wednesday, Reade says Biden sexually assaulted her, pushing her against a wall and penetrating her with his fingers. When she pulled away, she says, he said he thought she “liked” him.

“It was like an earthquake,” Reade told Vox. “I was so excited about this job,” she said. “I thought this was my future, and so when that happened I felt, it’s like someone pulling the rug out.”

Biden’s campaign on Friday denied Reade’s allegation. “Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims,” deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement. “We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false.”