Terror threat

'Resurgent' al Qaeda looking to target planes in Europe, UK security minister warns

Terror group al Qaeda is "resurgent" and looking to carry out attacks on passenger planes in Europe, UK Security Minister Ben Wallace has warned.

In an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times, Wallace said al Qaeda -- the group behind the infamous World Trade Center attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in the US on September 11, 2001 -- "still aspire for aviation attacks" and is developing technology to bring down planes.

"The aviation threat is real," Wallace said in the interview on Saturday night. "(Al Qaeda) have reorganized. They are pushing more and more plots towards Europe and have become familiar with the new methods."

The rise of ISIS has overshadowed the al Qaeda threat in recent years -- particularly after its most prominent leader, Osama Bin Laden, was killed by US forces in Pakistan in 2011.

But Wallace said the danger had never truly diminished.

"Al Qaeda sat quietly in the corner and tried to work out what the 21st century looked like while ISIS became the latest terrorist boy band," he said. "But they have not gone away."

Defense

Trump's acting secretary of defense will step into role with no foreign policy, military experience

With Defense Secretary James Mattis on his way out two months earlier than planned, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will take the reins of the government's largest and most complex agency with no military and foreign policy experience.

Shanahan will lead the Pentagon on an interim basis until President Donald Trump names a nominee to be his new defense secretary. Shanahan will be charged with carrying out the President's orders of withdrawing US troops from Syria, and possibly Afghanistan. A defense official confirmed to CNN Monday that Shanahan has canceled his holiday travel and is heading back to Washington.

A former corporate executive, Shanahan's portfolio at the Department of Defense has been narrow with no experience in international affairs or with counterterrorism.

Past Pentagon chiefs have served in the role without prior military service, with Ashton Carter -- President Barack Obama's last secretary of defense -- as the most recent example.

For the 17 months, Shanahan was Mattis' No. 2 in the Pentagon. Shanahan almost exclusively handled internal reform, budget issues and the Space Force, the new military branch proposed by Trump.

A senior administration official told reporters on Sunday that Shanahan had been essentially "running the building" while Mattis focused on policy and outreach to military and allies.

Climate security

'Climate grief': The growing emotional toll of climate change

...The increasing visibility of climate change, combined with bleak scientific reports and rising carbon dioxide emissions, is taking a toll on mental health, especially among young people, who are increasingly losing hope for their future. Experts call it “climate grief,” depression, anxiety and mourning over climate change.

Last year, the American Psychological Association issued a report on climate change’s effect on mental health. The report primarily dealt with trauma from extreme weather but also recognized that “gradual, long-term changes in climate can also surface a number of different emotions, including fear, anger, feelings of powerlessness, or exhaustion.”

In the last few months, a string of reports have delivered dire warnings. The U.N. report said the worst effects — such as the flooding of coastal areas caused by rising sea levels, drought, food shortages and more frequent and severe natural disasters — could arrive as soon as 2040. In November, the Trump administration released a report with similarly alarming findings. Both reports said cutting greenhouse gas emissions could still avert many of these effects, but a study earlier this month found that after holding steady from 2014 to 2016, emissions rose in 2017 and are on course to hit an all-time high in 2018.

National security threats


US intelligence community says quantum computing and AI pose an ’emerging threat’ to national security

It’s not often you can put nuclear weapons, terrorism and climate change on the same list as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, but the U.S. government believes all pose an “emerging threat” to its national security.

Several key agencies in the U.S. intelligence community were asked what they saw as long-term threats faced by the country in the next decade and beyond, and the future of “dual-use technologies” took center stage.

Agnostic technologies like encryption, autonomous and unmanned systems, AI and quantum computing rank at the top of the agencies’ “worry list” for fears that they could be used to cause harm, rather than advance society. While all can be used for good — to secure data, to survey a dangerous area or simply to save time and effort — the government says that all can have disastrous effects if used by an adversary.

Law & order

Democrats vow new scrub of post-9/11 war powers

Key House Democrats plan to use their newfound power to force a debate about the war-making authority that Congress approved after 9/11 — after years of being stifled by the chamber's Republican leaders.

Democrats will still face a tough fight to impose greater oversight on the U.S. military deployments that have mushroomed during the past 17 years. But prospects will be much brighter for the lawmakers who have spent years pushing Congress to weigh in on the use of American forces in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia and, most recently, Yemen.

If they succeed, the result could be legislation restricting President Donald Trump’s ability to send combat troops to new countries, or at least setting a time limit for the executive branch to seek new authorization. That would at least guarantee more frequent public debate about where American troops are engaged and why.

Trump has begun moving unilaterally to scale back some of those engagements, ordering a withdrawal of troops from Syria and pushing to downsize the U.S. military commitment in Afghanistan.

Weapons

Russia Has Tested Its Tsirkon Hypersonic Missile "Over Ten Test Launches"

Tsirkon is being manufactured in compliance with Russia’s Universal Vertical Launching System (UKSK), a seaborne missile launcher platform that notably includes the Russian “Caliber” and Russian-Indian “BrahMos” missiles. In fact, Tsirkon shares so much design and performance DNA with the latter that it could be considered as a fully Russian-made modernization of BrahMos.

Tsirkon’s top speed was previously reported to be around Mach 6 or 7,400 km per hour, but CNBC’s sources state that the recently tested Tsirkon missiles reached a top speed of Mach 8 or 9,800 kilometers per hour. It is unclear whether this discrepancy comes from technical improvements, different Tsirkon models being simultaneously developed and tested, or misstatements about Tsirkon’s performance.

These latest tests were conducted from a coastal platform. Trials from military vessels are scheduled for 2019: “We plan to start state trials of Zircon missiles from ships and submarines...trials will be held at marine training ranges of the Pacific Fleet," a source stated to Russian news.

Middle East

Israel’s Government Collapses Amid Corruption Charges and Trump’s Mideast Chaos

In the most expected surprise declaration of 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the dissolution of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and elections to be held in early April.

The move comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump roiled the region with the startling announcement he was immediately withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria, and as his long-anticipated plan to renew peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians appears to be have shriveled.

A 2019 electoral campaign was inevitable, in fact. Netanyahu’s four-year mandate runs out in November 2019, but Monday’s unforeseen move became inescapable when Netanyahu was unable to muster the necessary votes to pass a popular law levying heavier fines against orthodox Jewish seminary students who dodge Israel’s otherwise universal draft of 18-years-olds on religious grounds.

Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox coalition members opposed the law, and two opposition parties that had initially hinted at support withdrew it due to fears Netanyahu and his religious political partners had cut a secret deal providing financial compensation to counterbalance fines imposed on draft dodgers.

Seismic security

Yellowstone Supervolcano would cause volcanic WINTER bringing DEEP FREEZE

One of the world’s foremost volcanologists, Professor Stephen Sparks, revealed the astonishing impact that volcanoes like Yellowstone could have if they erupt to their full potential. He told Express Online: “If there was one it would have an enormous global impact. It would have dire consequences for food security, for trade and for a short time, a few years, there would be a deep freeze.

“There would be enormous climate effects.

“A very big eruption puts a lot of pollution into the atmosphere that reflects the sun’s radiation away from the Earth.

“The bigger the eruption, the more pollution there is and the pollution lasts for a longer time.

“So with these very big eruptions the volcanic winter is really severe.

“The models suggest that the temperature drops by maybe ten, fifteen degrees centigrade across the Earth.”

Professor Sparks added: “Remember, there’s one of these things every 20000 years.

“So it’s a very, very rare event.”

The last major eruption at Yellowstone was 640,000 years ago.

But earlier this year, Yellowstone National Park’s geyser erupted three times in six weeks, sparking fears a huge volcanic eruption was brewing.

Steamboat Geyser, which spewed water 91 metres high, erupted on March 15, April 19 and 25.

Innovations & technologies

Cool Edge: DARPA Seeks Tech to Keep Hypersonic Vehicles From Overheating

The US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking for engineers to develop new, innovative materials to construct hypersonic vehicles that don’t heat up while traveling more than five times the speed of sound.

In a press release earlier this month, DARPA noted that hypersonic vehicles traveling through the atmosphere at "incredibly high speeds" create "intense friction with the surrounding air," which produces heat, particularly at the leading edges or forward parts of the vehicles. 

"Developing structures that can withstand furnace-like temperatures at such high speeds is a technical challenge, especially for leading edges that bear the brunt of the heat," the release notes.

Sabotage

Russian investigators probe mysterious hole in International Space Station capsule

A Russian cosmonaut who got a close-up view of a mysterious hole in a Soyuz capsule docked to the International Space Station said Monday that the opening was drilled from inside the spacecraft and Russian law enforcement agencies are investigating what caused it.
  
Sergei Prokopyev said investigators were looking at samples he and crewmate Oleg Kononenko collected during a Dec. 12 spacewalk. Prokopyev and two other crew members returned to Earth last week after more than six months in orbit aboard the station.

Flight controllers in Houston and Moscow first noted a small drop in the station's internal air pressure on Aug. 29. The next day, the lab's crew traced the leak to the upper compartment in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft that carried three crew members to the complex in June. 

The crew plugged the hole with epoxy and gauze. Photographs clearly showed multiple scars caused by a drill bit and one small hole that was plugged by the crew.

Economic security

Stocks Hit 20-Month Low as D.C. Turmoil Weighs: Markets Wrap

U.S. stocks fell to the lowest since April 2017 as the turmoil in Washington rattled financial markets anew, pushing the S&P 500 to the brink of a bear market. Crude sank below $45 a barrel and the dollar tumbled.

The S&P 500 notched a fourth straight drop of at least 1.5 percent, a run of futility not seen since August 2015. It’s now down more than 19.8 percent from its September record and on pace for the worst monthly drop since 2008. Trading was 41 percent above the 30-day average in a session that’s normally subdued ahead of the Christmas holiday. The stock market closed at 1 p.m.

Investors looking to Washington for signs of stability that might bolster confidence instead got further rattled. President Donald Trump blasted the Federal Reserve, blaming the central bank for the three-month equity rout days after Bloomberg reported he inquired about firing the chairman.

Airport security

TSA moving to all floppy-ear airport dog force because pointy-ear dogs ‘scare children’

The Transportation Security Administration is in the process of swapping out pointy ear dogs for floppy ear ones in an effort to put more of the public at ease when interacting with its canines.

"We’ve made a conscious effort in TSA ... to use floppy ear dogs," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said during a recent tour of operations at Washington Dulles International Airport northern Virginia.

"We find the passenger acceptance of floppy ear dogs is just better. It presents just a little bit less of a concern," Pekoske said. "Doesn’t scare children."

Around 80 percent of the 1,200 canines TSA uses nationwide are ones with droopy ears versus the 20 percent that have cone-shaped ones.

TSA employs the second-highest number of dogs of any federal agency. Dogs retired daily from the agency this year due to the force's aging population, but TSA is using it as an opportunity to grow its floppy ear population, which are technically classified as sporting or hunting breeds.

Over the past 12 months, 80 percent of the dogs TSA purchased from vendors were sporting breeds. Christopher Shelton, branch manager of the TSA canine training center in San Antonio, Texas, said part of the reason TSA has purchased more "sporting" dogs is because breeders are increasingly raising these types of dogs.

Health security

Deaths from alcohol overuse continue to climb

Alcohol misuse accounted for 35,823 deaths in 2017, an increase of nearly 46 percent over almost two decades, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of mortality data.

The data, which come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that alcohol-related deaths have climbed steadily from the 19,469 deaths recorded in 1999. Deaths from misusing alcohol did not decline at any time since that period, and they included not only alcohol poisonings but also alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis. They do not include deaths from accidents people have while they are drinking, because in these instances, the cause of death would be drowning, a car accident, or a fall.

Deaths from such heavy drinking patterns are contributing to the lower life expectancy trendthat has been observed in the U.S. in recent years, an issue compounded by opioid overdose deaths and suicides. These alcohol deaths are still lower than those caused by opioids such as heroin, which were responsible for 47,600 deaths in 2017, and suicides, which accounted for 47,173 deaths. When combined with deaths from accidents where people have been drinking, however, they climb to 88,000 deaths a year, federal reports show.

Electronic surveillance

India: Opponents say Modi creating surveillance state

Several Indian government agencies have been armed with sweeping powers to intercept, monitor and decrypt information from any computer in the country, a move that critics say aims to make Indiathe next "Big Brother state".

After India's Home Ministry issued a notification on Thursday authorising 10 agencies with the power to tap, intercept and decrypt all personal data on computers and networks in India, opposition parties said the government is attempting to create a "surveillance state".

Among the agencies that are now enabled to exercise these snooping powers are the Research and Analysis Wing, the main foreign-intelligence gathering body, and the Intelligence Bureau report directly to the Prime Minister's Office.

Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi said this move showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "an insecure dictator".

Spy story

Moscow names square after British double agent Kim Philby

Moscow has named a square after Kim Philby, the British double agent who defected to the Soviet Union in 1963, near the headquarters of Russia’s foreign intelligence service.

The move comes as relations between the UK and Russia are at lows not seen since the cold war over the poisoning of the former double agent Sergei Skripal, allegedly by Russian spies.

Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, ordered that an intersection in a south-west district be renamed Kim Philby Square, according to a decree posted on a local government website.

A city hall spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment on the decision, while local residents expressed surprise on social networks, saying Philby had nothing to do with the neighbourhood.

Health security

James Bond has 'chronic alcohol problem' study finds

Over the decades, James Bond has survived countless near-death experiences as he rid the world of its most unsavoury characters for Queen and Country.

He managed all that thanks to his licence to kill, unlikely gadgets, a trusty Aston Martin, endless supplies of swag and his, by now iconic, dry martini (shaken, not stirred).

But the most famous of British secret agent has one deadly foe he can't seem to shake: alcohol.

A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia found that 007 has "a severe chronic alcohol problem."

"He should consider seeking professional help and find other strategies for managing on-the-job stress," it concluded.

The study's authors watched 24 James Bond movies released between 1962 and 2015 and found that the world's most famous spy drank 109 times or an average of 4.5 times per movie.

One of his biggest binges was in "Quantum of Solace" when he consumed at least six Vespers in quick succession.

As the cocktail is made up of gin, vodka and Lillet (a dry vermouth), Bond is believed to have drunk 24 units of alcohol "leading to an estimated blood alcohol level of 0.36 g/DL, well into the range that can be fatal," according to the study.

Border security

Israeli military begins sealing off cross-border tunnels from Lebanon

The Israeli military on Thursday began to seal off four tunnels that it said had been dug by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah under the border from Lebanon.

The work was being carried out on the Israeli side of the frontier demarcation, known as the “Blue Line”, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

Israel says Hezbollah dug the tunnels with the aim of launching cross-border attacks with backing from its regional sponsor Iran. Hezbollah has yet to comment.

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon have said they had so far confirmed the existence of four tunnels which the Israeli army discovered in recent weeks in the vicinity of the border.

Conricus said the military would “neutralize and destroy” the tunnels. Some were built with concrete components while others were dug directly into rock,” he said.

Middle East

Turkey bolsters military on Syrian border as U.S. readies pull-out

Turkey began reinforcing its positions on both sides of its border with Syria on Sunday, a Reuters witness said, as Ankara and Washington agreed to coordinate a U.S. withdrawal from Syria.
The heightened military activity comes two days after President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would postpone a planned military operation on Kurdish YPG militia east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria following the U.S. decision to pull out.

He also said Turkey would take over the fight against Islamic State militants.

The Turkish presidency said Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Sunday agreed to establish military and diplomatic coordination to prevent an authority vacuum from developing as the United States withdraws.

...A Reuters witness saw hundreds of vehicles head to the southern border province of Kilis after leaving Hatay, another border province, around 0030 GMT on Sunday, as citizens sounded their horns to celebrate. The convoy included tanks, howitzers, machine guns and buses carrying commandos, the witness said.

Nuclear security

Saudi Arabia ‘on its way to become a nuclear power’

 Saudi Arabia’s population has grown from 4 million in 1960 to over 31 million in 2016. It is the main electricity consumer and producer in the Gulf region, with 345 trillion watts of gross production in 2016, of which 41 percent was produced from oil and 59 percent from gas. The electricity consumption in the country continues to grow substantially — by 8 to 10 percent annually, compared with less than 1 percent in Europe.

Faced with surging energy demand for economic growth, Saudi Arabia is turning to nuclear power to diversify its electricity-generating mix and therefore reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. The Kingdom plans to build two large nuclear power reactors as part of a program of delivering as many as 16 nuclear power plants over the next 20 to 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion. It has projected 17 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2032 to provide 15 percent of the power then, along with more than 40 GW of solar capacity. Plans for small reactors for desalination are also well advanced.

Hamid Al-Saqqaf, director of independent production projects at Saudi Electricity Company, points out: “Introducing nuclear power into the national energy mix is a sovereign decision in every country, according to its needs. In Saudi Arabia, this decision was already made in advance. The Kingdom has a continuously elevating demand on electricity.

Statecraft

Egypt appoints new military intelligence chief - security sources

Egypt has appointed Major General Khaled Megawer to serve as the head of the country’s military intelligence service, replacing Mohamed al-Shahat, two security sources told Reuters on Sunday.

Egypt’s military and intelligence services play a leading role in top level decision making, taking a more public role since current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt’s first freely-elected president, Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The sources did not give a reason for al-Shahat’s dismissal, but Sisi has replaced several high-ranking security officials in the military, interior ministry and the general intelligence service over the last couple of years.

Sisi appointed close ally Major General Abbas Kamel to serve as chief of the country’s General Intelligence Service in June, two weeks after replacing the defence and interior ministers.

Economic security

Top Trump official calls bankers, will convene 'Plunge Protection Team'

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary called top U.S. bankers on Sunday amid an ongoing rout on Wall Street and made plans to convene a group of officials known as the “Plunge Protection Team.”

U.S. stocks have fallen sharply in recent weeks on concerns over slowing economic growth, with the S&P 500 index .SPX on pace for its biggest percentage decline in December since the Great Depression.

“Today I convened individual calls with the CEOs of the nation’s six largest banks,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Twitter shortly before financial markets were due to open in Asia.

U.S. equity index futures dropped late on Sunday as electronic trading resumed to kick off a holiday-shortened week. In early trading, the benchmark S&P 500’s e-mini futures contract ESv1 was off by about a quarter of a percent.

Military

Wake up. America’s military isn’t invincible.

The most uncovered story in Washington these days is the loss of U.S. military power — a lesson particularly important in light of recent events: the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis; President Trump’s rash decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria; North Korea’s announcement that it will keep nuclear weapons after all; and alleged massive computer hacking by Chinese nationals.

After the Cold War, Americans assumed that no other country could match the United States in its military might and technological leadership. The reality, long known in the military, is that defense-modernization programs in Russia and China, as well as advances in Iran and North Korea, threaten to leapfrog U.S. capabilities.

The military plays two essential roles in defending U.S. international goals. The first is to deter aggression that would jeopardize American interests, because potential adversaries believe their chances of prevailing are slim to none. The second is to fight — and to win — wars to protect those same interests. In both cases, the United States’ military is on a downward trajectory.

Statecraft

Who is Patrick Shanahan? A look at Trump’s new acting secretary of defense

President Trump on Sunday said deputy defense secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over as acting secretary of the department on Jan. 1 to cover the accelerated departure of Jim Mattis — after a string of disagreements between Trump and Mattis.

“I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019,” Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday morning. ”Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!”

...Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, a spokesman for Shanahan, said the former Boeing Co. executive will accept the appointment as acting secretary.

“Deputy Secretary will continue to serve as directed by the president, and the Department of Defense will remain focused on the defense of the nation,” Buccino said on Sunday.

It is unusual for the Pentagon to have an acting secretary of defense. Historically when a secretary has resigned, he has stayed on until a successor is confirmed. For example, when Obama-era Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced his resignation in November 2014, he stayed in office until Ash Carter was confirmed the following February.