Electronic warfare

Russia to Create New Electronic Warfare Systems After US Missiles Study - KRET

New Russian electronic warfare systems will be developed in three years on the basis of data obtained during the study of US Tomahawk cruise missiles that had been brought to Russia from Syria, Vladimir Mikheev, an adviser to the first deputy general director of Russia's KRET, said in an interview with Sputnik.

The Syrian military found two unexploded Tomahawk missiles after a massive missile attack on Syria by the United States, Great Britain and France on April 14 and handed them over to Russia.

"On the basis of this experience [the missile strike by the Western coalition in Syria], technical tasks for new work are being prepared now. They will take into consideration all the information obtained to help us build prototypes of new electronic warfare systems," Mikheev said.

Art security

Man attacks 'Ivan the Terrible' painting with a pole in Moscow

Drunk on vodka, a man attacked one of Russia's most famous paintings with a pole, badly damaging the artwork.
The painting, "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581," was created by Ilya Repin, one of Russia's most famous 19th century artists, and housed at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Painted in 1885, the piece depicts Ivan the Terrible -- czar of Russia from 1547 to 1584 -- consoling his son after having dealt him a mortal blow in a fit of rage.
The 37-year-old man -- one of the last visitors to the museum -- entered just before the museum closed, according to a statement by the Tretyakov Gallery. Armed with a pole from one of the painting's barriers, the man struck the glass case protecting the piece several times.
"The picture is badly damaged. The canvas was broken in three places in the central part of the image on the figure of the prince. The artist's original frame was badly damaged by falling glass," the museum said in a statement.

Aerospace

Su-57s destroy mock targets at Aviadarts army contest (VIDEO)

A pair of cutting-edge Russian Su-57 fighter jets have taken part in the Aviadarts-2018 army competition, launching a mock attack on ground targets and destroying them.The modern jets are currently undergoing extensive testing.

The pair of Su-57 jets provided air cover to frontline bombers, which attacked a dummy military industrial installation of the mock adversary. The two planes then performed an extremely low flyover, making a sharp turn and engaging the ground targets.

The Su-57 is expected to replace the iconic, yet aging Sukhoi Su-27 multipurpose fighters in frontline tactical aviation. The prototype of the new plane made its maiden flight back in 2010. An estimated price tag of one plane is about $50 million. The first batch of the new fighter jets has already been produced and is undergoing flight testing. The jet was known as the PAK FA and T-50 during development.

Economic security

JUST PUT IT ON OUR TAB: WAR FINANCING AND THE DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY

War taxes, like conscription, used to be synonymous with war. In addition to generating revenue, taxes also created an accountability linkage between leaders and their conduct of war. As Charles Tilly put it in his observations on fiscal sociology, taxation “constitutes the largest intervention of governments in their subjects’ private life.” Centuries earlier, Adam Smith recognized this when he worried that leaders might sidestep war taxes — which he favored as an equitable and financially sound way to finance wars — out of concern for “offending the people, who, by so great and so sudden an increase of taxes, would soon be disgusted with the war.” It was exactly that possibility of disgust, however, that provided accountability. If leaders of democratic political systems had to introduce taxes to pay for wars, they would think twice about the wars they started and keep them shorter and less costly.

Until the Vietnam War, American presidents regularly introduced war taxes, seemingly less worried about offending the people than about financing the war. In some cases, the government had to work to elicit fiscal sacrifice, for example, with a pro-tax Disney cartoon in 1943 that touted “Taxes to Beat the Axis” during World War II. In most cases, the taxes did not actually offend the people. 

Information security

Nothing admirable about leaking classified information

In May 2017, as FBI director, Comey gave classified information to his friend on the faculty of Columbia Law School, Daniel Richman. Clapper, in January 2017, also during his official post, leaked highly sensitive information about the infamous Steele dossier to CNN.

These seemingly little actions have big effects.

The effectiveness of the executive branch depends to a great degree on secrecy. As The Federalist explains: in foreign policy, where “there frequently are occasions when days, nay, even when hours, are precious,” which “may turn the most favorable tide into a course opposite to our wishes,” secret action is required. Such situations cannot be taken to the public but must sometimes be settled immediately. A barrier from public judgment, secrecy must be protected.

Secrecy is required for prosecuting crimes domestically as well. When the executive’s capacity for secrecy is undermined, we witness the recent spectacle of Oakland, California’s mayor revealing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan for an imminent raid on illegal aliens. Humiliated law enforcement cannot be respected.

Maritime security

The Navy's Biggest Fear: 2 Ways That Guarantee You Will Sink an Aircraft Carrier

Two deadly collisions involving U.S. Navy destroyers in June and August 2017 may have cost the lives of up to sixteen sailors, leading the Navy to declare a day-long operational pause to reflect upon its safety culture. That such similar accidents took place in such close proximity reflects stresses and failings common to the maritime fighting branch.

Indeed, the recent spate of collisions echoes a succession of even more catastrophic accidents aboard U.S. aircraft carriers between 1966 and 1968 that between them claimed the lives of more than two hundred sailors. These incidents were the result of a Navy taxed by the enormous demands of the Vietnam War. In their wake came major reforms addressing the inherent dangers of operating ships packed full of explosive munitions, fuel and jet planes. This three-part series will examine why each of the accidents occurred, how the crew responded and the lessons that were drawn from the tragedies.

Radiation safety

The 60-Year Downfall of Nuclear Power in the U.S. Has Left a Huge Mess

The demand for atomic energy is in decline. But before the country can abandon its plants, there's six decades of waste to deal with.

It was just another day in the life of the defunct Hanford nuclear site, a remote part of Washington State that made most of the plutonium in America’s Cold War arsenal. On the morning of May 9, 2017, alarms sounded. Around 2,000 site workers were told to take cover indoors, and aircraft were banned from flying over the site for several hours. The roof of a tunnel had collapsed, exposing railcars that had been loaded with radioactive waste from plutonium production and then shunted underground and sealed in decades before.

There was other stuff down there too. Nobody quite knew what. Record keeping was poor, but the contents of the tunnels certainly included carcasses from animal radiation experiments, including a reported 18 alligators. The emergency lasted only a few hours. The integrity of the waste was restored. But it was a chilling reminder of the site’s perilous radioactive legacy.

Weapons

Russian hi-tech firm to showcase new noiseless sniper rifle

A new Russian 12.7mm quiet sniper rifle derived from the MTs-116M gun will be demonstrated for the first time at the Army-2018 arms exhibition in Kubinka outside Moscow in late August, a representative of the Shipunov Instrument-Making Design Bureau (the rifle’s developer) told TASS on Monday.

The company will showcase a whole range of MTs-116M rifle modifications at the Army-2018 arms show, including 7.62x51mm (.308 Winchester), 7.62x67mm (.300 Winchester Magnum) and 8.6x70mm (.338 Lapua Magnum) guns, the representative said.

More powerful cartridges (with the greater powder charge due to the cartridge’s larger size) provide for better trajectory flatness and more accurate shooting, the representative said.

"Considering the high-quality production of barrels, the bullet’s deviation is just 13mm per 100m," the representative of the design bureau said.

Military

Defense Secretary James Mattis is a voracious reader. Here's how he draws leadership lessons from books

Defense Secretary James Mattis, a revered Marine with a military career spanning four decades, credits his leadership success to his voracious reading habits.

"Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for
how any problem has been addressed before. It doesn't give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead," Mattis wrote in a 2003 email to military historian Jill Russell.

Mattis, hailed for his battlefield prowess and kinship with rank-and-file soldiers, explained that the best way to hone war-fighting skills is to leverage lessons learned from history.

"A real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun," Mattis wrote. "We have been fighting on this planet for 5000 years and we should take advantage of their experience. Winging it and filling body bags as we sort out what works reminds us of the
moral dictates and the cost of incompetence in our profession."

Nuclear security

‘Nuclear Showdown’ author: We should be talking about dismantlement with North Korea

The author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World” said on Monday that the U.S. should use a summit with Kim Jong Un to work toward the dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.

“At some point in the past, we’ve heard the North Koreans say denuclearization of the Korean peninsula means the U.S. gives up its nuclear arsenal,” Gordon Chang told CNN's "New Day."

“What we should be talking about should be dismantlement. We want the North Koreans to dismantle their arsenal, give up their ballistic missiles.”

What is North Korea willing to give up on June 12?

"Probably very little," says @GordonGChang. "The North Koreans will give up what they have to give up ... What we should be talking about should be dismantlement" https://t.co/wLLAKUIXYvpic.twitter.com/D4hdrINqJD

— New Day (@NewDay) May 28, 2018

Chemical security

Russian spy poisoning: How the Skripals were saved

Hospital staff who saved the lives of poisoned Russians Sergei and Yulia Skripal have revealed the concerns they had when it emerged they were dealing with victims of a nerve agent attack.

The Skripals had been found slumped on a bench on 4 March - but staff treating them at Salisbury District Hospital did not initially know the reason why.

Nursing director Lorna Wilkinson said a key moment came when policeman Nick Bailey was admitted with similar symptoms. "There was a real concern as to how big this could get," she said.

She told BBC Two's Newsnight: "Have we just gone from having two index patients having something that actually could become all-consuming and involve many casualties? Because we really didn't know at that point."

Economic security

Trade Wars and How They Affect You

A trade war is when a nation imposes tariffs on imports and foreign countries retaliate with similar forms of trade protectionism. As it escalates, a trade war reduces international trade.

A trade war starts when a nation attempts to protect a domestic industry and create jobs. In the short run, it may work. But in the long run, a trade war will cost jobs and economic growth for all countries involved.

Trump's Trade War

On March 8, 2018, President Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum. America is the world's largest steel importer. Trump believes the tariffs would protect the 147,000 workers in the U.S. steel and aluminum industries. But they could hurt the 6.5 million workers in industries that need steel. It will also raise costs for steel users, like automakers. They'll pass those costs onto consumers.

The tariff is in effect against China, Russia, and Japan. Trump said Canada and Mexico would be exempt until the NAFTA renegotiations were finalized. Canada is the largest source of U.S. steel imports. Mexico is the fourth largest. Argentina, Australia, and Brazil were also exempted.

Cybersecurity

FBI Is Asking Everyone to Reboot Their Routers to Stop Russian Malware Infection

The FBI made a bombshell announcement on Friday that is only starting to gain a bit of traction over the weekend. Russian hackers have developed a sophisticated malware system that has already infected hundreds of thousands of routers. The good news is that the recommendation on how to combat the infection is easy enough—turn it off and then turn it back on again. Anyone who has a home or small office router should go ahead and do that just to be safe.

“Foreign cyber actors have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide,” the FBI said in its Friday public service announcement. “The malware is able to perform multiple functions, including possible information collection, device exploitation, and blocking network traffic.”

On Wednesday, the FBI received a court order allowing it to seize a website that was allegedly going to be used to direct the hacked routers. While that move “cut off malicious communications, it still left the routers infected, and Friday’s warning was aimed at cleaning up those machines,” explains Reuters. To obtain the court order, the Justice Department said the hackers were part of a group called Sofacy, which also goes by the name A.P.T. 28 and Fancy Bear and is believed to be directed by Russia’s military intelligence agency. It is the same group that hacked the Democratic National Committee shortly before the 2016 presidential election, notes the New York Times.

Opinion

The Coming Collapse

The Trump administration did not rise, prima facie, like Venus on a half shell from the sea. Donald Trump is the result of a long process of political, cultural and social decay. He is a product of our failed democracy. The longer we perpetuate the fiction that we live in a functioning democracy, that Trump and the political mutations around him are somehow an aberrant deviation that can be vanquished in the next election, the more we will hurtle toward tyranny. The problem is not Trump. It is a political system, dominated by corporate power and the mandarins of the two major political parties, in which we don’t count. We will wrest back political control by dismantling the corporate state, and this means massive and sustained civil disobedience, like that demonstrated by teachers around the country this year. If we do not stand up we will enter a new dark age.

Communication security

As computers get harder to crack, thieves are pillaging mailboxes

It was around noon on April 12.

Josefina Gomez Pando, 83, dropped a check for $112 into a blue mailbox on a corner on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Then she proceeded to her doctor's appointment.

Her check would never make it to the mailman.

That's because someone else, most likely using a sticky rat trap attached to the end of a string, fished her check right back out of that mailbox.

And then they wrote a new one for $3,500.

"I pay all my bills by mail  —  around 30 checks a month," said Pando, who owns three buildings in New York City. "This never happened to me."

Mailboxes increasingly are a target for criminals

"Mail fishing" is when people use tools to retrieve envelopes out of the blue mailboxes lining the streets, and it's on the rise, according to law enforcement officials.

Border security

Israel Constructing Unique Underwater Barricade on Gaza Border - Reports

The barrier is said to be one of a kind, as it is made up of three layers, including one below sea level, a layer of armored stone and a third layer in the form of a mound.

According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, an underwater barrier which will stretch from the southern Israeli community of Zikim into the Mediterranean Sea, will serve as a blockade to ward off Hamas.

Construction is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

"This is the only obstacle of its kind in the world, which will effectively block the possibility of infiltrating into Israel via the sea, and this will further thwart Hamas' loss of strategic capabilities,” Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman was reported by the Jerusalem Post as saying.

Policing

Literally shocking: Russian security forces unveil ‘Taser shield’ (VIDEO)

Russian police plan to employ ‘Taser shields’ in raids against crime. The ‘shocking’ new device was unveiled during the Advanced Technologies in Law Enforcement Expo near Moscow.

“Its whole surface holds an electrical charge. So, if someone charges at me, I can electrocute him,” an officer at the booth told a reporter from Lenta.ru, adding that the shield might also help to deter possible offenders and discourage them from dangerous behavior.

Different types of ‘Taser shields,’ also known as ‘stun shields,’ are already in use in some US police and sheriffs’ departments, as well as in correctional facilities.

Border security

Russian border guards found 1,400+ terrorist-linked suspects in 2017

Russian border guards discovered over 1,400 suspects linked to terrorism in 2017, a high-ranking federal security general told RIA. The Russian Border Service is marking its 100th anniversary on Monday.

"Militants pressured out of conflict zones are trying to use international transport channels to get into Russia... the Border Service and the local security services have worked out, and are constantly perfecting, the practice of cooperating to expose such people among the flow of passengers," said General Vladimir Kulishov, the head of the Russian Border Service. The Border Service is a subset of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which is also responsible for counter-terrorism in Russia.

Immigration security

The U.S. lost track of 1,475 immigrant children last year. Here’s why people are outraged now.

Reports of federal authorities losing track of nearly 1,500 immigrant children in their custody. Scathing criticism over children being taken from their migrant parents at the border. Proposed rallies. In the past week, outrage about treatment of children taken into U.S. custody at the Southwest border has reached a fever pitch, exploding in a barrage of tweets and calls to action with the hashtags #WhereAreTheChildren and #MissingChildren.

How accurate are certain claims circulating online? What do those children have to do with the Trump administration’s new immigration enforcement policies? How many families are being separated? And why is there so much outrage about it now? We take a look at how the story has snowballed.

UFO

US aircraft carrier was stalked for days by a UFO travelling at 'ballistic missile speed' which could hover above the sea for six days, leaked Pentagon report reveals

A leaked Pentagon report has revealed new details about the UFO encounter that shocked Navy fighter pilots above the Pacific.

The 2009 report does not bear any date or agency logo, but four officials confirmed that it was written as part of a Pentagon program with input from multiple agencies, KLAS reported. 

The Las Vegas news station obtained the unclassified report while visiting Washington, DC for a debriefing arranged by former Senator Harry Reid.

The report reveals stunning new first-hand accounts of the November 14, 2004 encounter, which was documented in video that emerged in December of last year.

The incident unfolded as the Nimitz carrier group was conducting training exercises off the coast of southern California and Mexico ahead of a deployment to the Arabian Sea.