ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Death, chaos, destruction. They’re not as bad for companies as you might think- ISLAMIC STATE may be a geopolitical threat, but it has not yet posed much of a danger to business. A day’s drive from the fighting, in Kurdish-run Iraq, three Western oil firms, Genel Energy, DNO and Gulf Keystone, continue to pump out crude that is piped or sent by road to Turkey. Their combined market value plunged after IS seized the city of Mosul in June, but has recovered to $8.3 billion, down 29% from the start of the year—a hefty fall, but not so bad for firms on the front line of fanaticism. “We’ve gone from a place that was a bit tricky in terms of security to a full-on war,” says the chief of one firm. But he is confident that the Kurdish region’s well-armed militia will protect his business. So far investors have tweaked their financial models, not run for the door. Analysts now assume a cost of capital of 15%, up from 12.5% before IS struck, he says. That mix of instability and business-as-usual

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.(Reuters / John Stillwell/) RT WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange equated Google with the National Security Agency and GCHQ, saying the tech giant has become “a privatized version of the NSA,” as it collects, stores, and indexes people’s data. He made his remarks to BBC and Sky News. “Google’s business model is the spy. It makes more than 80 percent of its money by collecting information about people, pooling it together, storing it, indexing it, building profiles of people to predict their interests and behavior, and then selling those profiles principally to advertisers, but also others,”Assange told BBC. “So the result is that Google, in terms of how it works, its actual practice, is almost identical to the National Security Agency or GCHQ,” the whistleblower argued. ‘Google deeply involved in US foreign policy’ Google has been working with the NSA “in terms of contracts since at least 2002,” Assange told Sky News. “They are formally listed as part of

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers . Security Camera Video Building 7 Collapse Video A stunning new report by the Foreign Intelligence Service ( SVR ) circulating in the Kremlin today states that the Obama regime was behind the horrific 12 September attack that utilized the much feared “Jericho Weapon” on The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria ( SCOAN ) that left over 40 Christian men, women and children dead . According to this report, Nigerian authorities have become “greatly alarmed” over the unprecedented rise of the Ebola virus in West African and have “strongly advised” all Christian churches to stop their communion rites over fears this practice will spread the disease. The SCOAN, however, not only refused to stop their communion rites, this report continues, but also began operations to help the victims of Ebola in other neighboring countries, which the joint US-Nigerian Army Special Operations Command ( NASOC ) deeme

With 26 out of 32 Scottish council areas having finished voting in the independence referendum, 45.7 percent of Scots are in favor of separating from the United Kingdom, while 54.3 percent are against© REUTERS/ Dylan Martinez RIA – With 26 out of 32 Scottish council areas having finished voting in the independence referendum, 45.7 percent of Scots are in favor of separating from the United Kingdom, while 54.3 percent are against. "Following a great No victory it is now up to all UK politicians to deliver Constitutional change for whole UK. Now we need to work for full fiscal responsibility for Holyrood and a federal UK with devolution within England," Labour peer, Lord George Foulkes, told reporters Friday. Meanwhile, the Deputy First Minister and a leader of the pro-Scottish independence Nicola Sturgeon said "This is a deep personal and political disappointment, but the country has been changed forever". The turnout of well over 80 percent of the eligible elect

 Murad Gazdiev witnessed the deployment of new hardware at Kotelny Island. Screenshot from RT video Download video (23.37 MB) Kotelny Island is a nondescript piece of frigid wasteland of no particular note. Except hosting a military base-in-the-making, the first of many from which Russia plans to project its military might to and across the Arctic. RT visited with the Navy. The island is the largest in the Novosibirsk Archipelago, located in the Laptev Sea off the eastern Siberian coast. Back in the soviet days the military deployed an observation post and a radar station on the Kotelny Island, but with the fall of the country all the troops were withdrawn, leaving behind only a civilian meteorological station. But now, after decades of desolation, the former military base is being rebuilt. Last year sailors and engineers of the Russian Northern Fleet began construction works, cleaning up rusty barrels and broken vehicles abandoned on the island and constructing a landing strip so t

AFP Photo / Kevork Djansezian RT Technology giant Google has developed a new version of its Android operating system, featuring data encryption that is said to automatically foil investigation by law enforcement. Google announced on Thursday that its next-generation installment of Android – the world’s most popular mobile operating system, with roughly 1 billion users – will encrypt all user data on smartphones, preventing law enforcement from accessing personal data. Niki Christoff, Google’s spokeswoman, said the company has offered encryption on Android devices for over three years, but few users knew how to use the feature. “As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won’t even have to think about turning it on,” said Christoff, as reported by the Washington Post. The new Android system will ensure that only somebody who enters a device’s password will be able to see the pictures, videos and emails stored on the smartphone.