Korea

Launching strike on N. Korea possible, but outcome would be uncertain – Putin

A global strike to disarm North Korea would be possible, yet its outcome uncertain, as it is a “closed state,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated.

“Let us speak to the point, after all – can someone launch a global disarming strike? Indeed. Will it reach its targets? It's unclear because no one knows for sure what is where,” Putin said while addressing the 2017 International Forum on Energy Efficiency on Wednesday.

He added there is no “100 percent knowledge” about North Korea's objects as it is “a closed country.”

Meanwhile, Putin said, coercive rhetoric against Pyongyang and attempts “to speak from a position of strength” only give more power to the North Korean leadership.

The Russian leader urged all sides to cool down their rhetoric and engage in dialogue.

“All sides must ease rhetoric and find ways for face-to-face dialogue between the United States and North Korea, as well as between North Korea and countries in the region,” he said.

Extremism

‘Danger to national security’: Belgium strips ‘radicalized’ imam of residency

The Belgian immigration minister is set to revoke the residence permit of an imam for preaching hatred at Brussels’ Grand Mosque. The Salafist preacher is very radicalized and a danger to Belgian society and security, the official added.

“There is a problem with the Grand Mosque... I have taken the decision to withdraw the residence permit of the imam of that mosque,” the secretary of state for asylum and migration, Theo Francken, said Tuesday in an interview with BelRTL.

Public security

With Las Vegas Shooting Victims, Trump Assumes Role of Consoler in Chief

President Trump comforted the victims of Sunday’s deadly mass shooting and paid tribute to those who tended to them, taking up on Wednesday a harrowing duty of the modern presidency that has nevertheless become numbing in its regularity.

After touring the wreckage of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico a day earlier, a somber Mr. Trump headed to Las Vegas, where 58 people were slain by an assailant raining bullets into a crowded country music festival from the blown-out window of his hotel room high above them.

“What I saw today is just an incredible tribute to professionalism, and what they have done is incredible. And you never want to see it again,” Mr. Trump said, after spending about an hour talking to patients in the trauma center of a Las Vegas hospital that received 100 people in the hours after the shooting.

Public security

Another Solution Against Ramming Attacks

Police departments throughout Europe keep trying to find solutions to counter terrorist ramming attacks in public places. Now, the London Metropolitan Police (MET) is trying a new anti-terror measure that could stop attackers ploughing vehicles into large crowds.

The specially designed net vehicle stopping system referred to by officers as ‘Talon’, takes the form of a road spread net that incorporates tungsten steel spikes. If a vehicle fails to stop and drives over the net, the spikes will puncture the tyres of the vehicle and the net becomes tangled around the front wheels bringing the vehicle to a stop.

The MET used the new hostile vehicle mitigation equipment for the first time at the recent Naval Association Parade on Whitehall.

Weapons

Changing the Bullet’s Sound Signature

The US Pentagon wants to develop a quieter rifle bullet that will prevent the enemy from determining the location of the U.S. soldier who fired it. The defense administration seeks a technology that would reduce or change the sound signature, in terms of magnitude, frequency and/or duration, of a small caliber projectile through the use of active noise reduction methods, according to sbir.defensebusiness.org.

The Department of Defense research project, titled “Active Noise Control for Small Caliber Ammunition,” aims to apply advances in noise cancellation to the battlefield.

The Pentagon notes the possibility of dual-use applications for noise-canceling bullets, “including state/local governments, and commercial.” In addition, “Potential opportunities may exist to produce technologies which will reduce hearing loss in high-intensity sound environments.”

War on terror

Russia’s Aerospace Forces eliminate 12 Jabhat al-Nusra commanders in Syria

The Russian Aerospace Forces have wiped out the command of the Jabhat al-Nusra terror group, its leader is in critical condition, while 12 commanders have been killed, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday.

"On October 3, the Russian military intelligence found out the time and venue of the Jabhat al-Nusra leaders’ meeting led by the group’s leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani. The Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-35 planes from Russia’s aircraft alert force in Syria were assigned to hit the target," he said.

Konashenkov noted that the decision to carry out an airstrike was made after confirmation of terrorists’ arrival and the beginning of their meeting was received through several channels.

Criminal investigation

Police say Las Vegas gunman planned ‘extensively,’ used cameras to monitor officers as they approached

People close to the investigation also said that in the weeks before the attack, Paddock transferred a large amount of money — close to $100,000 — to someone in the Philippines, possibly his girlfriend. The significance of that development was not immediately clear, though investigators said they were interested in probing Paddock’s finances and his avid interest in high-stakes gambling.

The girlfriend, Marilou Danley, returned to the United States from the Philippines Tuesday night and was met at Los Angeles International Airport by FBI agents, according to wire reports. Investigators considered her a “person of interest,” Lombardo said. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said that police are eager to talk to her, as Paddock “doesn’t meet any profiles” and the “best lead is through this girlfriend.”

“They don’t know a lot about who the girlfriend is and why she left the country a week prior to the shooting,” said Heller, who has been briefed by authorities. “She is someone they need to have this discussion with to better understand the shooting and what his thought process was.”

Nuclear security

North Korean nuclear test shows steady advance: interview with Siegfried Hecker

...BAS: To the general public, there has been so much nuclear news out of North Korea lately that this one might sound like “just another test.” So please put it in context for us: What was different about North Korea’s September 3rd nuclear test? How did it differ in magnitude from previous tests, and what does that tell us?

SH: The destructive power of North Korea’s previous five nuclear tests had progressed to about 25 kilotons, roughly the same as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. This test was greater than 100 kilotons; that’s a big deal. It indicates they have progressed considerably beyond primitive fission-bomb technologies.

BAS: Was this one really a hydrogen bomb, and how would we know?

SH: The size of the blast was consistent with a hydrogen bomb—that is, a fusion-based bomb. However, it could also have been a large “boosted” fission bomb, in which the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium were used to enhance the fission yield. If any telltale radioactive debris leaked from the underground test site, that could help us differentiate, but so far none has been found. So we can’t be certain...

Threat assessment

FBI and DHS Assessment Outlined Threat of Lone Offenders Targeting Las Vegas

More than nine months before Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, killing at least 59 people, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a “Joint Special Event Threat Assessment” warning of the potential threat of lone offenders targeting mass gatherings, like music venues in Las Vegas.

A main concern, according to the unclassified, for-official-use-only document obtained by Foreign Policy, was that unaffiliated lone offenders could take advantage of New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Las Vegas Strip to stage an attack that would be hard to prevent.

Terror threat

Pakistan’s key intelligence ‘connected to terrorists' – US top general

The Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff has accused Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, of having ties with terrorists.

Joseph Dunford made the announcement while facing the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside with the US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday.

“I think it’s clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups,” Dunford told the Committee.

Mattis echoed Dunford’s stance on ISI, stating that the agency is pursuing its own agenda while Pakistan itself struggles to fight terrorism.

“They have lost probably more troops than any other single country in the fight against terrorism – at the same time we’ve seen havens left to the terrorists’ own devices. We’ve seen the government of Pakistan come down on terrorists, when the ISI appears to run its own policy,” Mattis said.

Yet, he noted that Trump’s administration will try to work with Pakistan in Afghanistan “one more time” before exploring options to curb the alleged support for terrorism from certain elements in the Pakistani government.

Public security

Las Vegas shooting could change security protocols – former FBI agent

After the US experienced the worst mass shooting in its modern history, experts have told RT that security protocols may be changed to prevent future attacks. However, they say these measures might not be enough to stop lone wolf attacks.

TrendsMandalay Bay Shooting

Some experts say that security protocols will change after 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on more than 22,000 concert-goers at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, killing 59 and sending hundreds to the hospital. Many have speculated as to whether more could have been done to prevent the attack.

Former FBI agent James Conway told RT that the attack may cause the US to create security protocols similar to those in other countries.

“We may see some protocol changes here down the road in Las Vegas,” Conway told RT. “We may see more security and a screening of bags as I have seen in Europe and in the Middle East and in Africa.”

Radar

US military reveals 'super radar' that can give pilots perfect vision through clouds and smoke

DARPA has developed a new sensor that can see through clouds, operating just as effectively as current systems do in clear weather.

The Extremely High Frequency (EHF) targeting sensor successfully demonstrated its ability to capture real-time video through clouds, marking the completion of its flight tests.

Ultimately, the Pentagon is hoping to create a system that can be mounted on different types of aircraft to capture high-resolution video of targets on the ground, regardless of the weather conditions. 

Cybersecurity

“Netwar”: The unwelcome militarization of the Internet has arrived

The architecture and offerings of the Internet developed without much steering by governments, much less operations by militaries. That made talk of “cyberwar” exaggerated, except in very limited instances. Today that is no longer true: States and their militaries see the value not only of controlling networks for surveillance or to deny access to adversaries, but also of subtle propaganda campaigns launched through a small number of wildly popular worldwide platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This form of hybrid conflict – launched by states without state insignia, on privately built and publicly used services – offers a genuine challenge to those who steward the network and the private companies whose platforms are targeted. While interventions by one state may be tempered by defense by another state, there remain novel problems to solve when what users see and learn online is framed as organic and user-generated but in fact it is not.

Nuclear security

Mini-nukes: The attempted resurrection of a terrible idea

Like vampires and cats, low-yield nuclear weapons are hard to kill. At any rate, the idea that mini-nukes provide a capability the US military needs is an extraordinarily resilient one. During the 1950s, the United States deployed a variety of smaller nuclear weapons—from nuclear bazookas and artillery shells to demolition charges often called “backpack nukes”—in Europe to deter invasion by Soviet troops. Most of the tactical weapons were withdrawn after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Iron Curtain fell in the early 1990s. Now, however, The Trump administration is considering plans to produce modern mini-nukes, a move that, as Politico reports, “would give military commanders more options but could also make the use of atomic arms more likely.”

Biosecurity

Biological Weapons and Virtual Terrorism

Biological weapons are very attractive to terrorists because they can be difficult to detect, are cost effective, and can be easy to use. Aerosols of biological agents are invisible, silent, odorless, tasteless, relatively easily dispersed, and they are 600 to 2000 times cheaper than other weapons of mass destruction. It has been estimated that the cost of a biological weapon is about 0.05 percent the cost of a conventional weapon to produce similar numbers of mass casualties per square kilometer. Production is comparatively easy, using common technology available for the production of some antibiotics, vaccines, foods, and beverages, and delivery systems such as spray devices from an airplane, boat, or car are commonly available.

Public security

How well prepared is London for terrorism?

March and June brought the inevitable to London: in the space of three months, first on Westminster Bridge, then downriver, on London Bridge and Borough Market beyond, two deadly terror attacks ended London’s uneasy status as Europe’s most prominent capital unafflicted by Islamist terrorism in the age of Isis. Since Isis first exhorted its followers to attack the west in mid-2014, Europe — the focus of the jihadis’ attention — has been struck by about 50 Islamist terror attacks. More than 300 citizens have been killed, according to Europol, the EU law enforcement agency. UK counter-terrorism sources say London is home to hundreds of known Islamist extremists (compared with a Muslim population of more than 1m, or 12.4 per cent in the capital at the time of the last census in 2011). Scores of Londoners have joined to fight under jihadist black banners in the Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and beyond. Even before the rise of Isis, of course, London was a prime target for jihadist violence. Fusilier Lee Rigby was the city’s last victim of Islamist terrorism, murdered outside Woolwich barracks in 2013. 

Radiation safety

Scientists find new source of radioactivity from Fukushima disaster

Scientists have found a previously unsuspected place where radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster has accumulated—in sands and brackish groundwater beneath beaches up to 60 miles away. The sands took up and retained radioactive cesium originating from the disaster in 2011 and have been slowly releasing it back to the ocean.

"No one is either exposed to, or drinks, these waters, and thus public health is not of primary concern here," the scientists said in a study published October 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But "this new and unanticipated pathway for the storage and release of radionuclides to the ocean should be taken into account in the management of coastal areas where nuclear power plants are situated."

Gun control

Leading doctors group calls for automatic weapons ban after Las Vegas shooting

The American College of Physicians issued a statement Monday labeling mass shootings a “serious public health issue” and calling for a ban on automatic and semiautomatic weapons in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

“We must acknowledge that lack of a U.S. policy to address gun violence is the reason we have much higher rates of injuries and deaths from firearms violence than other countries,” the group said in a statement. Specifically, we call for a ban on the sale and ownership of automatic and semiautomatic weapons. 

The organization said mass shootings in American “have become frequent and even commonplace,” adding “something needs to change.”

“In light of the rising number of mass shootings, this is a serious public health issue that needs to be addressed immediately by Congress,” the group said.

Criminal investigation

Gunman’s Vantage Point and Preparations Opened the Way for Mass Slaughter

From his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Stephen Paddock would have looked down upon a crowd of more than 20,000 people, surging to the final sets of a country music festival.

He opened fire late Sunday, killing at least 59 people and injuring 527 others in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, the authorities said.

But what may have seemed like a difficult feat, firing across an urban area and into a crowd from about 500 yards away — the equivalent of several football fields — appears to have been offset by Mr. Paddock’s preparations, which made it possible for him to inflict mass carnage.

Follow the money

CIA Backed Color Revolutions

Many readers likely never heard the name of the remarkable Serbia-born political operator named Srđa Popović. Yet he and his organization, CANVAS, have played a lead role in most every CIA-backed Color Revolution since he led the toppling of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, at least fifty according to last count. Now he has turned his sights on Hungary and Hungary’s popular and defiant Prime Minister Victor Orban.

On September 8, the professional regime-change specialist Srđa Popović came to Budapest and joined with the anti-Orban opposition groups in front of the Hungarian Parliament. It‘s clear that Popović was not in town to promote his Hungarian book on nonviolent regime change but rather to give aid to the anti-Orban parties before Hungarian elections in spring of 2018. Many in Hungary smell the oily hand of Hungarian-born regime-change financier George Soros behind the Popović appearance now in Budapest.

Navy

Pictured: Trident submarine captain with access to nuclear trigger stripped of his command over claims he had an affair with a female junior officer

The captain of a Trident nuclear submarine has been stripped of his command over claims that he had an affair with a female junior officer.

Senior commanders were sent to the vessel in international waters after allegations emerged of an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with the woman, it was reported.

Stuart Armstrong, commanding officer of the Vanguard-class submarine HMS Vigilant, has been relieved of duties while he is under investigation.

A senior Ministry of Defence source said the allegations were a ‘duty of care’ issue.

But an MoD spokesman would not confirm the alleged relationship between the captain and a female officer, adding: ‘An investigation is under way. It would be inappropriate to say anything further.’

All Royal Navy vessels have a ‘no-touching rule’ banning intimate relationships.

However, the Navy is particularly strict about relationships that could affect the chain of command.

Crime

FBI Releases 2016 Crime Statistics

The estimated number of violent crimes in the nation increased for the second straight year, rising 4.1 percent in 2016 when compared with 2015 data, according to FBI figures released today. Property crimes dropped 1.3 percent, marking the 14th consecutive year the collective estimates for these offenses declined.

The 2016 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 386.3 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, and the estimated rate of property crime was 2,450.7 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The violent crime rate rose 3.4 percent compared with the 2015 rate, and the property crime rate declined 2.0 percent.

These and additional data are presented in the 2016 edition of the FBI’s annual report Crime in the United States. This publication is a statistical compilation of offense, arrest, and police employee data reported by law enforcement agencies voluntarily participating in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The UCR Program streamlined the 2016 edition by reducing the number of tables from 81 to 29, but still presented the major topics, such as offenses known, clearances, and persons arrested. Limited federal crime, human trafficking, and cargo theft data are also included.

Declassification

The Archive's Peter Kornbluh Receives O'Higgins Prize

The National Security Archive's senior analyst, Peter Kornbluh, has been inducted into "the order of Bernardo O'Higgins." Chile's Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes presented the award, which the Chilean government gives to foreigners who have made a special contribution to Chilean society, during a Sunday ceremony at the Chilean Embassy.

In presenting the award, Ambassador Valdes recognized Kornbluh's leadership role in decades of efforts to obtain the declassification of secret documents on the coup and the Pinochet regime. In his acceptance speech Kornbluh noted that the documents were invaluable to "speaking truth to power" because there "was no better way to reveal the truth than to reveal the words those in power spoke and wrote."

Kornbluh directs the Archives's Chile Documentation Project, and is author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.  An Archive associate, John Dinges, author of the Condor Years, also received the O'Higgins award, as did Aviva Kempner a longtime activist and benefactor of the Chile solidarity movement.

Gold smuggling

Sri Lankan arrested with nearly 1kg of gold in his rectum

Sri Lankan authorities have arrested a man for allegedly trying to smuggle gold and jewellery weighing up to 1kg (2.2lb) hidden in his rectum.

Customs officials found 904 grams of gold, worth about 4.5m Sri Lankan rupees ($29,370, £21,700) inside the suspect's rectal cavity.

The 45-year-old Sri Lankan man was bound for India but was stopped at Colombo's international airport.

There have been several similar cases in past years.

Typically smugglers in the region buy gold in places like Dubai and Singapore, where it is relatively cheap, and then take it to India to sell there at a profit.

Cybersecurity

Cyber Weapon Market to Reach US$521.87 Billion by the end of 2021

According to TMR, the global cyber weapon market stood at US$390 bn in 2014. Rising at a CAGR of 4.4% CAGR, the market is expected to reach US$521.87 bn by the end of 2021. With a share of 73.8%, the defensive cyber weapon segment dominated the market by type in 2014. Regionally, North America accounted for the leading share of 36% in the global market in 2014.

“Besides exploring strategic collaborations and partnerships, the leading companies in the market are investing in the research and development of advanced solutions,” said a lead TMR analyst. Many of these companies are planning to expand their geographical footprint by expanding their existing product portfolio.

Financial safety

$21 Trillion Missing – U.S. Government a Criminal Enterprise – Catherine Austin Fitts

Investment advisor and former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts says you can add $21 trillion of missing federal money on top of the $20 trillion U.S. deficit. It’s all in a new explosive report on Solari.com.  Fitts explains, “This is $65,000 for every man, woman and child resident in America.  In addition, it is now more than the outstanding official debt on the U.S. balance sheet. . . . We know that the U.S. government has been run like a criminal enterprise from a financial standpoint.”

The new report was put together by Dr. Mark Skidmore at Michigan State University, and it is a detailed year-by-year study of DOD and HUD budgets between 1998 and 2015. The missing money is called “undocumentable adjustments,” but that may just be a polite name for theft, fraud and crime against “We the People.”  Fitts contends, “Here’s the critical issue because technology is leading us through tremendous change, and the people who get their hands on this technology and are able to subsidize the cost of capital are the ones that are going to win.  They have done that by basically hijacking the federal credit and using it to help centralize power under them.  So, we have to reverse that, and the Constitution is the tool to hold them accountable.  All their arguments just fall down when you realize they have just stolen an enormous amount of money from the federal government outside the law. . . . The U.S. Federal government doesn’t have information sovereignty, and it doesn’t have financial sovereignty.  So, we have to return it to that, and we have to keep that mechanism open long enough to get this money back.”

Law enforcement

Military equipment distributed to law enforcement agencies

For decades, local law enforcement agencies have requested surplus miliary equipment from the U.S. government to use in their efforts to fight crime and protect the public.

The federal program made headlines three years ago when police in Ferguson, Mo. deployed armored vehicles and high-caliber weapons to quell protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer.

Responding to the outcry, President Barack Obama in 2015 restricted some items, including re-purposed grenade launchers and other heavy-duty equipment, stressing that such items "can alienate and intimidate local residents and send the wrong message."

The Trump Administration rescinded those limitations in late August, saying they went too far.

Amid the national dabate over police use of military equipment, many law enforcement agencies in San Diego County returned hardware — including a mine-resistant vehicle acquired by the San Diego Unified School District — but the requests for military surplus equipment have continued, some as recently as May.

Weapon smuggling

A North Korean ship was seized off Egypt with a huge cache of weapons destined for a surprising buyer

Last August, a secret message was passed from Washington to Cairo warning about a mysterious vessel steaming toward the Suez Canal. The bulk freighter named Jie Shun was flying Cambodian colors but had sailed from North Korea, the warning said, with a North Korean crew and an unknown cargo shrouded by heavy tarps.

Armed with this tip, customs agents were waiting when the ship entered Egyptian waters. They swarmed the vessel and discovered, concealed under bins of iron ore, a cache of more than 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades. It was, as a United Nations report later concluded, the “largest seizure of ammunition in the history of sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

But who were the rockets for? The Jie Shun’s final secret would take months to resolve and would yield perhaps the biggest surprise of all: The buyers were the Egyptians themselves.

Privacy security

How to stop your devices from listening to (and saving) everything you say

But while virtual assistants are handy, they’re always listening. As more manufacturers and developers jump onto the audio tracking bandwagon, you may wonder how much your devices are recording. And what happens to the audio files they gather?

Worst of all are the apps that use ultrasonic data to profile you. You don’t hear the tones, but your device does. (More about that later.) Some regular apps are designed to spy and report back recordings. Click here for five spy apps that could be watching and listening on your phone right now.

Creeped out? Lots of consumers don’t trust their virtual assistants and wonder how to switch them off. If you're worried about the privacy risks of your smartphone's always-on microphone, here are tips for turning it off.

Extremism

Las Vegas: Mass shooting in Mandalay Bay shooting

At least two people have been killed and 24 others wounded in a mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert.

A gunman opened fire at an open-air country music festival at the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the city's strip.

Hundreds of people fled the scene and the sound of what appeared to be prolonged automatic gunfire could be heard on videos posted on social media.

Police said a suspect "was down". There are reports of at least one other incident on the Las Vegas strip.

Electronic surveillance

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LOBBYING HARD FOR SWEEPING SURVEILLANCE LAW

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION is pushing hard for the reauthorization of a key 2008 surveillance law — section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA — three months before it sunsets in December.

To persuade senators to reauthorize the law in full, the Trump administration is holding classified, members-only briefings for the entire House and Senate next Wednesday, with heavy hitters in attendance: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, NSA Director Mike Rogers, and FBI Director Christopher Wray will give the briefings, according to an internal announcement of the meetings provided to The Intercept and confirmed by multiple sources on Capitol Hill.

Section 702 serves as the legal basis for two of the NSA’s largest mass surveillance programs, both revealed by Edward Snowden. One program, PRISM, allows the government to collect messaging data sent to and from foreign targets, from major internet companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. The other, UPSTREAM, scans internet backbone sites in the U.S. and copies communications to and from foreign targets.

Whistleblowing

Israel ‘reviewing’ nuclear spy Vanunu’s travel restrictions

The Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it’s reviewing the travel ban imposed on Israeli nuclear secret-spiller Mordechai Vanunu after Norway granted him permission to immigrate so he can be united with his wife.

“Israel will continue to review updates of the situation in order to determine appropriate restrictions in accordance with security dangers posed by Vanunu,” a statement said.

A ministry spokesperson said the restrictions on Vanunu’s freedom of movement were “due to the danger that he posed” to the Jewish state.

He declined to say if Vanunu had made an official request to travel to Norway.

Vanunu’s wife, Kristin Joachimsen, told Norway’s TV2 channel Friday the couple requested family reunification after they wed in May 2015. Norway’s Directorate of Immigration confirmed permission had been granted.

Spy story

Even in Death, the Spy Kim Philby Serves the Kremlin’s Purposes

Bereft of friends in Western capitals since its 2014 annexation of Crimea, Russia is celebrating the memory of the British K.G.B. spy Kim Philby, a stalwart supporter who stood by it through thick and thin – and spent the last 25 years of his life in Moscow, often drunk and miserable but still loyal.

Mr. Philby, a notorious double-agent who defected to Moscow in 1963 and died there in 1988, was recently honored with a portrait in a Russian state art gallery and is celebrated in a soon-to-be broadcast film on state television.

The adulation has now reached a new level with the opening of an exhibition in Moscow on the life and work of the best-known of the so-called Cambridge Five Soviet spies in Britain. It portrays Mr. Philby as an unwavering Russian patriot, and it includes the first public display of some of the more than 900 secret British documents he passed on to the K.G.B., the Soviet-era spy agency.

Cybersecurity

Inside the SEC's Statement on Cybersecurity

I strongly urge everyone to read SEC Chair Jay Clayton‘s recent Statement on Cybersecurity. One part of the statement is receiving a lot of attention. Last month, the Commission learned that an incident previously detected in 2016 may have provided the basis for illicit gain through trading. While the Commission believes the intrusion (the exploitation of a software vulnerability in the test filing component of the EDGAR system) did not result in unauthorized access to personally identifiable information, jeopardize its operations, or result in systemic risk, it openly admits that it did result in access to nonpublic information of issuers.  The statement did not say whether any of the issuers’ nonpublic information that was exposed was material, and there’s no way it could possibly determine that. The Commission’s investigation of this matter is ongoing.

Public security

Austrian ban on full-face veil in public places comes into force

Legislation banning full-face Muslim veils in public spaces has gone into effect in Austria.

The government says the law, which says faces must be visible from the hairline to the chin, is about protecting Austrian values.

It comes ahead of a general election later this month which could see gains by the far-right Freedom Party.

Muslim groups have condemned the law, saying just a tiny minority of Austrian Muslims wear full-face veils.

The law bans Muslim veils such as the burka or niqab, but also places restrictions on the use of medical face masks and clown makeup.

An estimated 150 women wear the full burka in Austria but tourism officials have expressed fears that the measures will also deter visitors from the Gulf.

Public security

Catalan referendum: 'Hundreds injured' in clashes

Catalan officials say at least 337 people have been injured in clashes as police try to prevent voting in Catalonia's independence referendum.

The Spanish government has pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court.

Police officers are preventing people from voting, and seizing ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.

In the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests.

The latest injury toll was confirmed by a spokesman for the Catalan regional government, as well as the region's health department.

Separately, the Spanish interior ministry said 11 police officers had been hurt.