Environmental security

ExxonMobil CEO mocks renewable energy in shareholder speech

The CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies downplayed the effects of climate change at his company’s annual meeting Wednesday, telling shareholders his firm hadn’t invested in renewable energy because “We choose not to lose money on purpose.”

“Mankind has this enormous capacity to deal with adversity,” ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told the meeting, pointing to technologies that can combat inclement weather “that may or may not be induced by climate change.”

Corruption & sport & politics 

FIFA scandal may affect the Palestinian motion to suspend Israel

The corruption allegations rocking the annual congress of soccer’s governing authority not only affect the odds of Sepp Blatter being re-elected FIFA president for a fifth term. They also may enhance the chances that Israel, affiliated with FIFA since the pre-state times of 1929, will suffer the ignominy of suspension by the world body.

Asia-Pacific

US surveillance shows Chinese artillery on artificial islands, officials say

U.S. surveillance images show China has positioned weaponry on at least one of the artificial islands it is developing in the South China Sea, officials say, apparently confirming suspicions that Beijing has been building up the area for military use. A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News on Friday that China has put artillery pieces on its man-made islands. 

Middle East

‘Obama at War’ Shows How Syria Was Lost

Leon Panetta, the former defense secretary and CIA chief, famously gibed in his 2014 memoir that President Obama “avoids the battle, complains, and misses opportunities.” Alas, Panetta’s withering judgment is more than borne out in an unsettling new PBS documentary that reveals how the White House dithered as Syria burned, creating a vacuum for the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), the deaths of 220,000 Syrians, the desperate flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring Jordan and Turkey, and eventually the collapse of the Iraqi army.

Food security

Avian Flu Threatening U.S. Poultry, Eggs Supply

Suppliers of U.S.-bred poultry are in crisis mode as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues to receive reports of avian influenza outbreaks, primarily from farms in the Midwest. As of May 27, the USDA has reported a total of 187 outbreaks adding up to nearly 42.2 million birds affected by the avian flu.

Cybersecurity

THE DIGITAL FRONT: RUSSIA AND CYBERWARFARE

Cyber attacks by relatively amateur groups such as Anonymous and Lizard Squad have cast a deceptive light on the cyber threat. These groups, who often make the news by attacking high-profile targets with low-complexity attacks such as Cross Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection (SQLi), or Denial of Service (DoS/DDoS), make the news far more often than more legitimate, widespread security threats such as Shellshock, BadUSB, or the infamousHeartbleed bug.

Defense

Psychology and War Powers

The common denominator of nettlesome war powers questions is who should make the difficult and freighted decisions about whether the nation goes to war, how it fights a war, and when it ends a war. Surprisingly, however, scholars and commentators rarely (if ever) discuss how psychological research on decisionmaking impacts the constitutional design  and doctrine around war powers issues. In the last four decades, psychologists have demonstrated systematic biases in individual and group decisionmaking processes.

Terror threat

How the Islamic State could win

Let’s think the unthinkable: Could the Islamic State win? I say “unthinkable” because, discouraged as everyone has become, most commentary stops short of imagining what an Islamic State victory in the Middle East would look like. The common conviction is that the group is so evil it simply must be defeated — it will just take time.

Cybersecurity

North Korean hackers 'could kill', warns key defector

North Korean hackers are capable of attacks that could destroy critical infrastructure and even kill people, a high-profile defector has warned. Speaking exclusively to BBC Click, Prof Kim Heung-Kwang said the country had around 6,000 trained military hackers. The warning follows last year's Sony Pictures hack - an attack attributed to North Korea.

Immigration

British tourists say their Greek holidays are being ruined by Syrian refugees

The world is in the middle of a full-blown migration crisis, with conflicts and poverty leading people to take terrifying risks in the slim hope of a new and better life on other shores. You see it in places like Lebanon, where around aquarter of the population is now Syrian refugees, or in Southeast Asia, where Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants attempt perilous and grueling journeysover sea.

Corruption & sport & politics

Putin casts FIFA scandal as U.S. plot to wreck Russia's 2018 World Cup

Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted Thursday with trademark indifference to the bribery scandal plaguing the world soccer federation FIFA, denying any wrongdoing by Russia and accusing the United States of trying to wreck his country's hosting of the 2018 World Cup.

Economic security

UPDATE 2-Russia's Gazprom says Ukraine's total gas debt is $29.5 bln

 Russian natural gas producer Gazprom put Ukraine's total gas debt at almost $29.5 billion on Thursday, ratcheting up pressure in a gas pricing dispute with the country, which is fighting a pro-Moscow rebellion on its eastern outskirts. Ukraine's Naftogaz and Gazprom are squaring off in an arbitration court in Stockholm, where Naftogaz is seeking more than $16 billion from the Kremlin-controlled company.

Drones

US Special Forces Are Experimenting With Bug Drones

If you hear this tiny flying bug drone buzzing around your head, an Army Special Forces team might not be far behind. The 18-gram PD-100 Black Hornet from Norway’s Prox Dynamics can bear regular and thermal cameras about a kilometer and stay aloft more than 25 minutes.

Ukrainian crisis

Putin denies Russian troops are in Ukraine, decrees certain deaths secret

If there was one weak spot in Russian support for the Kremlin’s aims in Ukraine this year, it was the population’s strong aversion to sending in Russian troops — something Russia denies doing, despite mounting international evidence to the contrary. Now, Russia can ignore that evidence — as well as any questions citizens might raise — since President Vladimir Putin signed a decree classifying certain peacetime deaths of soldiers as state secrets.

War on terror?

Congress avoids war debate as ISIL advances

House leaders have tangled in recent days over whether Congress needs to give President Barack Obama explicit authorization to combat the Islamic State: House Speaker John Boehner called the president’s request for such authority “irresponsible” and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Boehner has “refused” to even debate the issue.

Drones

Naval Research Lab develops micro UAV

The Naval Research Lab has exhibited a "micro air vehicle" developed to glide to programmed GPS coordinates after being dropped into a mission's vicinity, according to an Agence France-Presse report.
Known as the "Cicada," short for Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft, the palm-sized, motorless UAV can travel silently at speeds near 50 miles per hour.

Defense

UK firms unveil anti-UAV defense system

Three British companies have unveiled an anti-UAV system.
The Anti-UAV Defense System (AUDS) was developed by Blighter Surveillance Systems, Chess Dynamics and Enterprise Control Systems.
AUDS includes the Blighter A400 Series Ku-band electronic scanning air security radar, Chess Dynamics' stabilized electro-optic director, infrared and daylight cameras and target tracking software, and a directional radio frequency (RF) inhibitor/jammer system from Enterprise Control Systems.

Middle East

To fight the Islamic State, Obama joins hands with Iran's proxies

For weeks, the Obama administration insisted it was winning the war against the Islamic State, telling reporters that its pinpoint airstrikes and military advice were rolling back the terrorist group’s stunning territorial gains in Iraq.

But now, Obama’s foreign policy team finds itself relying on Iran-backed Shiite militias in a high-stakes bid to retake Ramadi, a provincial capital where dozens of American soldiers once died battling hordes of Sunni insurgents.

Nuclear security

How Can We Keep Iran Honest on Nukes? Follow The Money

Last month’s news that negotiators had reached a preliminary framework agreement about Iran’s nuclear program struck many by surprise. It was a refreshing sign of optimism for many who thought the negotiations were on the verge of failure. Although the parties involved—the United States, United Kingdom, China, Russia, France and Germany (known as the P5+1) and Iran—are still working out the details of a final agreement, the most significant parameters of the preliminary framework are fairly clear.

Terror threat

Pentagon Report Predicted West's Support for Islamist Rebels Would Create ISIS

A declassified secret US government document obtained by the conservative public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad. The document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, and that these "supporting powers" desired the emergence of a "Salafist Principality" in Syria to "isolate the Syrian regime."