Nuclear security

Hiroshima and the Iran agreement

Seventy years ago this week, the United States dropped the first of two nuclear weapons over Japan, the only times nuclear weapons have been deployed in war. The carnage at Hiroshima was immediate, horrific, and extensive. Between 60,000 and 80,000 people died instantly, about half the number of those who ultimately died over time as a result of the explosion.

Tragic as it is, the Hiroshima anniversary—coming during the heated debate over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between the international community and Iran to curtail Iran’s nuclear program—is also timely. The anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned (or not learned) from nuclear war and seven decades of trying to prevent its recurrence, and to apply that knowledge to the current situation in the Middle East.

Today, critics of the Iran agreement rightly point out that it will not solve all the region’s security problems; that it cannot be verified with total confidence; and that it may not change Iran’s intent to acquire nuclear weapons in the future. But such all-encompassing results were never realistic expectations for any plan to limit Iran’s nuclear program. Arms control agreements are not, and have never been, magic bullets. 

Airport security

TSA might remove security checkpoints from regional airports

IF YOU FLY out of a small regional airport in the not-too-distant future, you might notice a routine part of the flying experience has gone missing. According to a reportfrom CNN, internal TSA documents show that the agency has considered removing security screenings from 150 US airports serving planes with 60 or fewer seats. The documents were originally compiled in 2011 and have resurfaced as of late, with CNN’s coverage bringing the issue to the public’s attention.

According to the reports, smaller aircrafts don’t provide as “attractive” of a “payoff” for terrorist attacks. The agency also predicts it would save a good deal of money — around $115 million per year — by removing checkpoints from the smallest federally-regulated airports. But don’t expect to breeze right onto the plane immediately — not everyone is on board with the plan. Under the condition of anonymity, two senior TSA officials expressed serious national security concerns about the proposal to reporters at CNN, but admitted that the concept is gaining steam at the agency.

Information security

Defense Department bans geolocation features on tech devices due to security risk

The Department of Defense is prohibiting personnel from using geolocation features on their devices while serving in certain locations after concerns that the information transmitted from such devices was jeopardizing the security of American forces around the world, including those deployed in classified or sensitive areas.

The new policy, which is effective immediately, follows reports from earlier this year that some wearable electronic devices, like the popular Fitbit, can convey users' GPS coordinates in the form of publicly available online maps that display the most frequently trafficked routes of users who allowed their location to be shared.

"The rapidly evolving market of devices, applications, and services with geolocation capabilities presents a significant risk to the Department of Defense personnel on and off duty, and to our military operations globally," the department said in a statement on Monday. "These geolocation capabilities can expose personal information, locations, routines, and numbers of Department personnel, and potentially create unintended security consequences and increased risk to the joint force and mission."

Health security

Britain’s looming opioid crisis? Fentanyl deaths rise by almost a third in one year

Deaths from the opioid fentanyl rose by nearly 30% in 2017, official government statistics show. The numbers raises fears that the UK is experiencing an opioid crisis similar to that of the US.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), fatalities involving fentanyl were up by 29%, with 75 deaths in 2017, compared to 58 in the previous year.

The drug, which can be 100 times stronger than heroin, is used officially to treat terminally ill patients. It is also taken recreationally both on it's own, in its various forms, and alongside heroin.

Carfentanyl, a type of fentanyl, is increasingly being cited as a cause on death certificates. The drug, a unit of which can be up to 10,000 stronger than morphine, accounted for 27 deaths in 2017.

A BBC investigation uncovered that 2017 saw a dramatic rise in opioids being prescribed by the NHS, with 10 million more prescriptions being undertaken than in 2007, while the prescribing rate of opioid painkillers is four times higher in the north of the country than in London.

International cooperation

“Seven Capital Vices” of China in Africa: How Capital Are They Really?

The recent tenth BRICS Summit in Johannesburg and the forthcoming China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing bring the Chinese-African relations to the center of political and academic discussions.  The Chinese advance in Africa since the turn of the century have been spectacular: from a relatively low key player, Beijing has grown into the largest trading partner and into one of the main sources of FDI for African countries, by far surpassing highly volatile US investments.  This trend is hardly surprising – the booming Chinese economy needs more and more energy and raw materials, it is aggressively cultivating foreign markets to sustain its export-led industries. With significant excess capacities, Chinese financial institutions are relentlessly exploring new opportunities to park their huge currency reserves. So, why not Africa? However, the Chinese role in the continent – like any Chinese step beyond its borders – is subject to a scrutiny by foreign politicians and experts, who are not always unbiased and fair to Beijing. Let us go through a standard list of “seven capital vices” or “seven deadly sins”, which they in the West routinely attribute to the Chinese posture in Africa.

Mass media security

Death, Diamonds and Russia’s Africa Project

The murder of three Russian journalists last week in a remote area of the Central African Republic, the world’s poorest country according to the World Bank, has turned a spotlight on what looks like a big Kremlin play for influence and resources in Africa. Where China has spent decades and billions of dollars trying to entrench itself there, Russia is offering its brute force and strong appetite for risk. It’s already making headway.

The three journalists, Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko, were in the Central African Republic working on an investigative film about the Wagner private military company. That's a secretive Russian contractor linked by news reports to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg catering entrepreneur close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Navy

With size and anti-sub capabilities in mind, Italy’s Navy rethinks ship designs

The Italian Navy is considering changing the design of some of its planned PPA multifunctional ships to make them smaller, and to possibly give them an anti-submarine capability, an Italian source has told Defense News.

The seven vessels were ordered as part of a €5.4 billion (U.S. $6.3 billion) package to replace a range of aging vessels in the Navy’s fleet. Three are already under construction by Italian shipyard Fincantieri, with preparations to build the fourth underway.

But planners may go back to the drawing board for the last three vessels, as mission priorities change, said the source, who has knowledge of the program’s developments.

Plans for the vessels were first drawn up when the Navy was run by Adm. Giuseppe de Giorgi, who opted to bring a sizable amount of design work in house, where service planners decided to build the PPA vessels large, reasoning that they would cover more missions.

Science

A Mysterious, Powerful Force Is Flinging Radio Waves at Us from Deep Space

Our universe is teeming with invisible light. Beyond the visible spectrum, space is a colorful mess of radio signals and microwaves fired off by flaring "suns," collapsing stars, crackling magnetic fields, roiling dust clouds and seething black holes.

Then, there's the light nobody understands — mysterious, ultrastrong sparks of energy zipping billions of light-years across the universe from unknown origins, for unknown reasons.

Puzzling pulses like these are sometimes called fast radio bursts (FRBs), because they may last just a few milliseconds. On the morning of July 25, one such burst of mysterious energy whizzed past a new array of radio telescopes nestled in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, registering one of the rarest radio frequencies ever detected. [7 Everyday Things That Happen Strangely in Space]

According to a statement released in The Astronomer's Telegram (a bulletin board of astronomical observations posted by accredited scientists), the mystery signal — named FRB 180725A after the year, month and day it was detected — transmitted in frequencies as low as 580 megahertz, nearly 200 MHz lower than any other FRBs ever detected.

Climate security

Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes

In Northern Europe, this summer feels like a modern-day version of the biblical plagues. Cows are dying of thirst in Switzerland, fires are gobbling up timber in Sweden, the majestic Dachstein glacier is melting in Austria.

In London, stores are running out of fans and air-conditioners. In Greenland, an iceberg may break off a piece so large that it could trigger a tsunami that destroys settlements on shore. Last week, Sweden’s highest peak, Kebnekaise mountain, no longer was in first place after its glacier tip melted.

Southern Europe is even hotter. Temperatures in Spain and Portugal are expected to reach 105-110 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend. On Saturday, several places in Portugal experienced record highs, and over the past week, two people have died in Spain from the high temperatures, and a third in Portugal.

Outerspace

In Just One Week, NASA Will Launch a Spacecraft to 'Touch the Sun'

NASA is just a week away from launching its next science mission, a spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe that will eventually "touch the sun." 

If all goes according to plan, the probe will take off aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in the early morning of Aug. 11 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The 45-minute launch window opens at 3:45 a.m. EDT (0748 GMT). You can watch the launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

To successfully reach the sun, the Parker Solar Probe needs to leave Earth incredibly quickly — hence the massive rocket, which is second in launch power only to SpaceX's brand new Falcon Heavy rocket. [NASA Mission to 'Touch the Sun' Due to Launch in Early August]

Innovations & technologies

Shark-Based Military Tech Developed

Shark skin offers a near-perfect design for gliding effortlessly through water. Researchers are working to translate that evolutionary advantage onto metal surfaces. Eventually, the research will give metal the same unique properties, allowing it to be used for defense and industrial purposes.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln research team led by Dennis Alexander claims that their structures are highly important to the military, Boeing and NASA. “We’re emphasizing these structures using these surfaces in harsh environments, but there isn’t any metal surface we can’t functionalize,” said Alexander.

His team uses extremely short-burst laser pulses to alter just the very fringe of a metal surface. Altering the laser angle and other parameters creates surfaces that mimic nature, according to phys.org.

By copying the microscopic structure of shark skin onto metal, the research team creates a super-hydrophilic, or water-wicking, material. This property reduces drag and could be used to create submersible craft that travel farther underwater using less power.

Transportation security

Israeli Startup Offers Revolutionary Cyber Solution for GPS Jamming

$100B worth of damages is created by cargo theft every year, of which a major part involves using GPS jammers bought online for $20. As they are cheap and available online, GPS jammers are massively used to disrupt vehicle navigation and kill GPS data, e.g. in order to steel cargo. The assailants follow the truck, neutralize its GPS navigation and take control of the vehicle without leaving trace. In Mexico in 2017, a truck has been attacked every three and a half hours, and the direct and indirect damage to this country’s economy has reached $30 billion.

GPS is also critical for the emerging autonomous vehicle industry. Drones have also become targe to constant jamming and spoofing efforts.

An innovative Israeli startup offers a revolutionary and comprehensive cyber solution to these threats. InfiniDome, a graduate of the third cycle of iHLS Security Accelerator, has recently won the fifth prize at the iHLS Startup Competition for Security and HLS.

InfiniDome’s groundbreaking solution supplies defense from GPS jamming and spoofing. The system identifies the attack and continues to supply a proper GPS service during the attack. InfiniDome’s technology integrates the application of an analog RF algorithm on real-time with advanced DSP-based solutions. 

Cybersecurity

GM to hire hackers to find bugs in car computers

Highly computerized cars could mean consumers' data is vulnerable or driver safety might be endangered if car companies aren't prepared to cut off any data breach or threat to cybersecurity at the pass.

General Motors is taking no chances. It's bringing in those exact people who might do the infiltration to help thwart it.

In the upcoming weeks, GM will bring researchers, some of whom are professional computer hackers, to Detroit to offer them a bounty or cash payment for each "bug" they uncover in any of GM vehicles' computer systems.

"We'll show them the products, programs and systems for which we plan to establish these bug bounties. Then we'll put them in a comfortable environment, ply them with pizza and Red Bull or whatever they might need ... and turn them loose," GM's President Dan Ammann said in a speech at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit at Cobo Center in Detroit on Friday.

Electronic surveillance

TSA admits ‘Quiet Skies’ surveillance snared zero threats

Federal air marshals have closely monitored about 5,000 US citizens on domestic flights in recent months under the controversial “Quiet Skies” program, but none were deemed so suspicious that they required further scrutiny, according to three people with direct knowledge of a congressional briefing held Thursday with the Transportation Security Administration.

TSA officials were summoned to Capitol Hill Wednesday and Thursday afternoon following Globe reports on the secret program, which sparked sharp criticism because it includes extensive surveillance of domestic fliers who are not suspected of a crime or listed on any terrorist watch list.

“Quiet Skies is the very definition of Big Brother,” Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee, said broadly about the program. “American travelers deserve to have their privacy and civil rights protected even 30,000 feet in the air.”

Weapons

Clock Ticking for U.S. Military to Defend Against Hypersonics

Faced with adversaries developing hypersonic missiles that could potentially overwhelm U.S. defenses, the Pentagon is in a race against time to acquire technologies to counter the emerging threat.

In recent months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been touting his nation’s hypersonics arsenal, claiming that no foreign power has the means to defeat it. Meanwhile, China has been aggressively testing its own offensive weapons, according to U.S. officials.

Beijing is “close to fielding hypersonic delivery systems for conventional prompt strike that can reach out thousands of kilometers from the Chinese shore and hold our carrier battle groups or our forward-deployed forces on land … at risk,” Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities at a recent hearing.

Asteroid security

Air Force remains silent after huge meteor hits near US military base

A meteor hit the earth and exploded with 2.1 kilotons of force last month, but the US Air Force has made no mention of the event.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed an object of unspecified size travelling at 24.4 kilometres per second struck earth in Greenland, just 43 kilometres north of an early missile warning Thule Air Base on the 25th of July, 2018.

Director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists, Hans Kristensen, tweeted about the impact, but America’s Air Force has not reported the event.

Intel recruitment

Spies in the suburbs: Inside the CIA's secret defector unit

Years after defecting from Russia and resettling in the US, former KGB officer Alexander Zaporozhsky was lured back to the country he had once betrayed. The CIA warned him not to go.

Several senior intelligence officials tried unsuccessfully to dissuade Zaporozhsky, who had given the US valuable information that ultimately led to the capture of FBI agent and Russian spy Robert Hanssen, former officials familiar with the case told CNN.

But the Russian intelligence officer turned US asset insisted on returning to Moscow in 2001. He was arrested and imprisoned in Siberia for his connections to the West.

Zaporozhsky was ultimately released in 2010 and sent back to the US as part of a spy swap with Russia that also included Sergei Skripal, a former KGB colonel convicted of spying for Britain after admitting to the crime. The US released 10 individuals accused of operating a Russian spy ring in the US as part of the exchange.

Criminal investigation

Las Vegas Police Release Final Report on Massacre, With Still No Idea of Motive

The man who committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history when he opened fire from his Las Vegas high-rise hotel room had no clear motive, Las Vegas police said as they announced Friday that they had concluded their 10-month investigation.

A 187-page report examining the Oct. 1 attack on a country music festival determined that the gunman, Stephen Paddock, acted alone. At a news conference, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of Clark County said his team had extensive information about the perpetrator’s actions in the days before the shooting.

But, he said, “we have not been able to definitively answer the ‘why.’”

Fifty-eight people died in the attack, and the report said that 887 people sustained documented injuries. Mr. Paddock, 64, a high-stakes gambler, spent days carrying an arsenal of guns into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino across the street from the festival, before randomly shooting concertgoers below. He then killed himself.

Capital punishment

What does Pope's death penalty shift mean for Catholic politicians?

Pope Francis earned a standing ovation when he told Congress in 2015 that he supports protecting human life "at every stage of its development." When he added that "this conviction" includes working to end the death penalty, the response was far more subdued.

"You didn't see people jumping up and clapping," said John Carr, who was in the room, and is director of Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

For decades, Catholic politicians who support capital punishment, including the senators and representatives in the chamber that day, had an "out" when it comes to church teaching: The Catholic Catechism, the church's book of moral and religious teachings, had allowed the use of capital punishment in certain cases. Any other opinions, even the Pope's, were just that, opinions, and not necessarily binding on Catholic consciences.

Corruption

Ex-Argentine president asked to testify in corruption case

A judge in Argentina on Wednesday asked former President Cristina Fernandez to testify in an investigation into alleged corruption involving public works contracts.

Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio also ordered the arrest of at least 10 people, including some former officials who served in Fernandez's 2007-2015 administration. The suspects are accused of receiving bribes from companies.

Fernandez was called to testify on Aug. 13. She is currently a senator, a post that grants her immunity from prosecution.

The case is based on an investigation by La Nacion newspaper. Its report said the driver of one of the accused kept eight notebooks in which he wrote down detailed information on the payment of the bribes from 2005-2015. Fernandez's private address and the presidential residence are allegedly mentioned.

Military

How A Human Resources System Could Revolutionize the Army

One of the hardest parts of starting a new government program is finding the right talent to see it through. The Army knows this all too well. But a couple of program managers think they have at least part of the solution.

Col. Gregory Johnson, chief of the Army’s Functional Management Division, faced this challenge two years ago when he joined the leadership team for the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, or IPPS-A, a program to integrate the Army’s 200 pay systems and revolutionize the way it manages its human resources.

Johnson needed a team of strong coders, designers and customer experience professionals but had no ready means of identifying those people within the Army’s ranks. So, he reached out to colleagues whom he had a rapport with, asking for names. He sifted through all those responses looking for certain skills and attributes and eventually pulled together a core team capable of meeting the mission: make sure no one ever had to go through that broken process again.

Terror threat

PERSPECTIVE: Hostile Events Attack Cycle from Target Selection Through Rehearsal Stage

This is the second part of an ongoing series focused on the Hostile Events Attack Cycle. Previously the discussion centered on initial surveillance in potential targets. Specifically, as part of the research into the potential targets, the attacker will typically conduct open-source searches and/or initial physical surveillance. The next phases of the Hostile Events Attack Cycle focus on target selection, intense surveillance, and planning and rehearsals, effectively finalizing the target. Depending upon the intentions of the attack (individual or group), targets are often selected for symbolic value, or to create the biggest media event to gain publicity for their cause. For example, a terrorist organization may choose a target that could cause the most harm to the most people possible, while an ideologue might choose a target that may not result in death and destruction but rather focus on something that runs contrary to their beliefs. No matter the reason, these next steps will determine the success of the attack.

Weapons

'Doomsday weapon': How could the West respond to Russia's nuclear underwater drone?

US and British navies could counter Russia’s nuclear-powered autonomous torpedo, Poseidon, by using undersea sensors and anti-submarine aircraft, writes Covert Shores website. But is this really a viable tactic?

The development of the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), originally known as ‘Status-6’, was first mentioned in November 2015. Western media later dubbed the submarine drone a doomsday weapon. 

On March 1, 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially confirmed the weapon’s existence in his annual address to the Federal Assembly.

“We have developed unmanned submersible vehicles that can move at great depths – I would say extreme depths – intercontinentally, at a speed multiple times higher than the speed of submarines, cutting-edge torpedoes and all kinds of surface vessels,” said Putin.

It is reported that the main goal of the torpedo is to deliver a thermonuclear warhead to enemy shores in order to destroy important coastal infrastructure and industrial objects, as well as ensure massive damage to the enemy’s territory by subjecting vast areas to radioactive tsunamis and other devastating consequences of a nuclear explosion.

War on terror

Israeli Merkava 4 Barak Tank – Also for Urban Warfare

The Israeli Armored Corps has exposed the new model of the Merkava 4 – the Barak, a “dual-use” tank for use in guerrilla warfare conditions as well as fulfilling the role of IDF future tank. This new model reflects an understanding that the theatres of conflict are changing.

Brigadier General Guy Hasson, Head of the army’s Armored Corps, said the tank will be unique in “many aspects due to its advanced armor capabilities, as well as the smart AI-based computer that will collect data, fuse it and – together with other sensors – will create new targets on real time”.

According to walla.co.il, additional improvements in the new model include increased fire ranges’ as well as an independent training capability thanks to a 3D simulator inside the tank. “The sights have been dramatically improved, new combat systems were installed, as well as driver alerting systems to avoid obstacles on the way just as in advanced automotives. Improvements will enable independent driving, high survivability, as well as urban warfare capability, and changes in the way information is transmitted. Touch screens will offer simple operation”, he added.

Fire safety

Unusual Method to Extinguish Forest Fires

An unusually dry summer has touched off dozens of forest fires across Sweden, including in a number of hard to reach and potentially dangerous areas. The fire around a military training range has been burning for two weeks already, threatening nearby communities and forcing evacuations.

To try and halt the spread of one blaze in and around the military shooting range in the municipality of Älvdalen, Swedish emergency management authorities used an original method – air bombing the fire.

A JAS 39C Gripen fighter jet from the Swedish Air Force’s F 17 wing dropped a single 500-pound class GBU-49/B Paveway precision-guided bomb on a part of the burning forest, in attempt to remove the oxygen from the fire. The fire response authorities said their view was that the unique fire necessitated the use of unconventional extinguishing methods.

The most immediate problem is that the range is potentially littered with unexploded ordnance, posing a hazard to firefighters on the ground. The danger is not just that individuals fighting the blaze might stumble across something and get injured, but that the intense heat from the fire might just set off any leftover shells or bombs. Swedish authorities halted the firefighting for a period, based on these concerns.

As water bombing aircraft and helicopters had little impact on the conflagration, another solution was required.

The GBU-49/B, a dual-mode weapon with laser- and GPS-assisted Inertial Navigation System (INS) guidance systems, would have allowed the Swedish Air Force to focus their attention on a very specific point.

Energy security

US military bases in Europe depend on Russian energy

Defense Logistics Agency data show that close to 40 percent of oil used at military sites in Germany comes from Russia. In southwestern Germany, for example, the Ramstein Air Base serves as the headquarters for US Air Forces in Europe and is also a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) installation.

US bases need backup power supply to ensure reliable electricity and other energy supplies should a power outage occur, or should the energy supply be compromised, Constance Douris, Vice President of the Lexington Institute, writes.

The backup supply could come from microgrids capable of operating off the main grid, bulk energy storage, and even electric vehicles (EVs) whose batteries can be used to power homes, Douris argues.

Backup solutions for US military bases are imperative in the face of the constantly growing Russian energy supply to Europe, she says.

Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, for example, has been raising its exports to Europe and its gas sales in the first half of this year exceeded 100 bcm for the first time—at 101.2 bcm, they were 5.8 percent higher than the exports in the first half of 2017, the company says.

Defense spending

Senate sends $717B defense bill to Trump

The Senate on Wednesday easily cleared and sent to President Donald Trump a compromise $717 billion defense policy bill aimed at building up the military and blunting Chinese foreign investment and telecommunications technology.

The final vote on the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act was 87-10. The president is expected to sign it.

Next, the Senate turns to legislation to fund the Defense Department, which will likely be packaged with an annual Labor-HHS-Education spending bill to attract bipartisan support.

The final defense policy bill is the product of brisk talks between leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, who are finishing their work in historic fashion. If the NDAA is signed soon, as expected, it would be the first time in more than two decades a defense policy bill has become law before the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year.

Intel gathering

From Hooking Up To Honey Trapping: What It’s Really Like To Date As A CIA Operative

Emily Brandwin was a theater major living in her childhood bedroom in St. Louis, Missouri, when her life sharply veered toward the extraordinary. At the urging of her "spy nut" of a mother, Brandwin applied for a mysterious posting at the CIA — and got it. After a brief stint in the disguise department of the CIA (where her theater major came in handy), Brandwin became an operations officer, the official term for the job more commonly known as “spy."

Like Justin Theroux's character in The Spy Who Dumped Me, out Friday, August 3, Brandwin and her fellow operation officers hid their identities from their loved ones outside of the agency. But unlike Theroux, they wouldn't involve their significant others in European shootouts. “That would never happen,” Brandwin said, laughing. “If that happened, the American spy would get thrown into prison and sent back to the U.S., where they’d lose their job — or work in the basement of the CIA on the Canada branch.”

Espionage

Russian space industry scientist allegedly shared top-secret data with NATO — lawyer

A Russian scientist from the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building, Viktor Kudryavtsev, who was detained last month in Russia on high treason charges, was allegedly involved in sharing top-secret data with a NATO member state, his lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov told TASS citing investigation case materials.

Last Wednesday, investigators pressed high treason charges against Kudryavtsev, a scientist with the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash, the parent research institute of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos).

"According to the investigation case materials that we have, Kudryavtsev had been allegedly handing over classified information to one of the NATO member-states," his lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov told TASS.

Smirnov said, however, that the case materials at the issue mentioned "neither the country, where Kudryavtsev had been allegedly surrendering the [classified] data, nor the type of this information."

Energy security

Will Lockheed Martin Change The World With Its New Fusion Reactor?

Lockheed Martin’s secretive Skunk Works® laboratory registered a patent in March for a revolutionary technology that could solve the world’s energy problems for good – but don’t pop the champagne yet. The design is for a compact fusion reactor (CFR) which theoretically produces cheap, clean, near limitless energy – all from a device that could fit on the back of a semi. If it sounds far-fetched, that’s because it is. The sustained generation of a fusion reaction has evaded scientists since the idea was first conceived over 70 years ago.

Lockheed Martin thinks they can change that.

A controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction is the holy grail of energy technology. When two hydrogen atoms join together to form a single, heavier atom, a vast amount of energy is released. This process is the same that gives the sun its power. Think of a star as one massive fusion reactor.

Gun control

Homemade Guns Are a Much Bigger Threat Than 3D-Printed Firearms

The long-simmering debate over 3D-printed guns boiled over again this week, but it’s been clear for a while that something was going to happen. In June, 3D-gun-printing pioneer Cody Wilson and his organization Defense Distributed settled a yearslong legal case with the State Department about whether sharing the plans for 3D printing a gun violated export control laws. With that case out of the way, Wilson was free to go back to what he was doing in 2013, when his organization published the plans for the “Liberator,” the first 3D-printed handgun in the world. When those plans were first published, they were reportedly downloaded more than 100,000 times in just two days, at which time the feds ordered Wilson to take them down. But after Wilson followed directions, the plans quickly popped up elsewhere online. The government’s desire to keep the gun-printing plans off the internet backfired.