ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

AFP 2018 / Thomas WATKINS A US Department of Defense research program to protect crops by changing the genes of insects could possibly violate the international Biological Weapons Convention, according to five European researchers who warned in a research paper published in the journal Science on October 4 th ,  as reported by Sputnik . “If successful, the technique could be used by malicious actors to help spread diseases to almost any crop species and devastate harvests,” said the paper, which was authored by the French and German researchers including geneticist Robert Guy Reeves of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany and evolutionary biologist Christophe Boete of the Institute of Research for Development in France. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the project, called “Insect Allies,” in Arlington, Virginia in 2016, with the goal of using insects such as aphids to infect crops with tailor-made viruses that can delive

Meng Hongwei. IMAGE: AP French police have opened an investigation into the disappearance of the president of international police cooperation agency Interpol, after his wife reported he had gone missing after visiting his family in China last week. According to reports, Meng Hongwei’s wife contacted police in Lyon, the French city where Interpol HQ is located, after not hearing from her husband since he travelled to China on September 29. Meng was elected president of Interpol in November 2016 and his term was set to end in 2020. Previously, he held several senior positions in China including vice minister of public security, vice chairman of the national narcotics control commission and the director of the National Counter-Terrorism Office for China.

FILE PHOTO: Dmitriy Vinogradov / Sputnik Originally appeared on  iz.ru ; Translated by  AlexD  exclusively for  SouthFront Three years ago, on September 30, 2015, the Russian operation in Syrian began. On this day, the Federation Council unanimously approved the use of Russian Armed Forces in the Syrian Arab Republic. And the next day, October 1, the Aerospace Forces carried out strikes on militants’ positions. These events were preceded by careful preparation: the Russian military created in Syria the Khmeimim base with all the necessary infrastructure, deployed security posts and transferred the aviation group. The main task of the Russian group in Syria was to fight against international terrorism, in particular, the al-Nusra and Islamic State groups (banned in Russia). The goal was the destruction of extremists on the “far abroad”. In December 2017, President Vladimir Putin said that all the tasks set for the Russian Armed Forces had been fulfilled. By the third anniversa

Alleged photos of Boshirov from various documents. Source: bellingcat.com Bellingcat and The Insider continue releasing new speculations and allegations on identities and activities of Skripal poisoning suspects, Russian citizens Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. [ previous part ] In a report released on September 26 , Bellingcat and The Insider claim that they “have established conclusively the identity” of Ruslan Boshirov. They claim that he’s in fact GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, who also has with the highest Russian state award – Hero of the Russian Federation. “Following Bellingcat’s own identification, multiple sources familiar with the person and/or the investigation have confirmed the suspect’s identity. This finding eliminates any remaining doubt that the two suspects in the Novichok poisonings were in fact Russian officers operating on a clandestine government mission,” Bellingcat’s article claims. The article says futher: “Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepig

Sergei Bobylev/TASS The upgdraded Syrian air defense system will be centralized and controlled by one controller,  according to Viktor Bondarev , the chairman of the Russian parliament’s upper house Defense and Security Committee. Bondarev added that the united Syrian air defense system will be established after the S-300 system will be delivered to the country’s military. This, according to Bondarev, will allow to boost security of Russian troops in the war-torn country and to prevent  IL-20-like incidents . On September 30, the Russian Defense Ministry’s TV channel Zvezda reported that Sparta 3 heavy-lift cargo ship had reached the Russian naval facility in Syria’s Tartus. Sparta 3 is one of the biggest ships employed by Russia to provide the Syrian military with military supplies. It’s interesting to note that Sparta 3 arrived Tartus after the decision to supply S-300 systems to Syria.

Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Adam K. Thomas/U.S. Navy China is developing a satellite with a powerful laser for anti-submarine warfare, according to Song Xiaoquan, a researcher involved in the project, cited by South China Morning Post (SCMP). According to the outlet, China’s new satellite might become the “Death Star” for submarines. Researchers reportedly hope that the device will be able to pinpoint a target up to 500 meters below the water surface. Aside from targeting submarines – most operate at a depth of less than 500 meters – it could also be used to collect data on the world’s oceans. Project Guanlan, meaning “watching the big waves”, was officially launched in May at the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology in Qingdao, Shandong. It aims to strengthen China’s surveillance activities in the world’s oceans, according to the laboratory’s website. Scientists are working on the design in the laboratory, however its key compon

The worst sort of deception is that perpetrated by those who pose as defending the most vulnerable when in reality, are leveraging their circumstances, exploiting their suffering, and in many cases, playing a direct role in perpetuating both. This is an apt description of Washington, London, and Brussels' global-spanning human rights racket - used repeatedly as a pretext for political meddling and even war. An especially cynical example of this is playing out in Southeast Asia's nation of Myanmar. With ties between Myanmar and China growing, the US and its European partners are working to pressure, co-opt, or even overthrow Myanmar's current political order which includes not only a powerful, independent military, but also a civilian government the US and UK played a direct role in placing into power. The  decades of US-UK support for Aung San Suu Kyi  - Myanmar's current State Counsellor - now hang around her and her National League for Democracy (NLD) political par