Come on, would defense contractor really orchestrate death between testimonies of whistleblower when individuals there could face financial & criminal consequences for things they testify about?
Suggesting it is ludicrous. Boeing would never have any part in killing a whistleblower. Literally last thing they’d do. No movies even about that sort of thing, total crazy fantasy.
Reminder for those interested that we have a list of people working on security and defence policy topics (mastondon and twitter handles) #defence#security#follows#ukraine#natsec
A real fascinating story of how an 81-year-old former Air Force chap had come forward to announce he saw pulsars well before they were discovered but could not talk about it for half a century until the military instruments he observed them with were decommissioned and de-classified.
In a nutshell, he was using radar for a Ballistic Missile early warning system and noticed a pulsating signal showing up in his data, which was rising 4 mins earlier each day. He asked astronomers after writing down the location, and it was the Crab Pulsar!
The woman who discovered pulsars, Dame Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell - agreed with his discoveries.
Sent this to our team's slack channel overnight, and my supervisor told me he and another one of our team's astronomers were the folks that the Air Force chap got in touch with!
In polls, #Biden and Trump are in a tie 43-43%. Hard to process given Trump’s dystopic record. And Trump II will be way worse than 2016-2020.
Big question over here: Is Europe preparing for what it would mean to be sandwiched between #Putin and #Trump? Unfortunately the starting point for this scenario would be much increased self-reliant #defence spending and inner-European defence cooperation… https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/us/politics/biden-trump-poll.html
I made a joke the other day about how we would soon get to the stage in the #UK government #reshuffle of the appointment of a Minister for Paperclips (a long running Private Eye joke). Looks like we are there now, with the appointment of the Earl of #Minto as Minister of State at the Ministry of #Defence. He was previously head of stationery company Paperchase, who went into administration in January
H/t @yaldi
Switzerland wants to participate in the European Sky Shield air defence umbrella, the government said on Tuesday, a move which critics say is incompatible with the country's long-standing tradition of neutrality.
I see #GrantShapps (currently #defence secretary) has said the era of the 'peace dividend' is over & we need to spend more on defence given the current international climate.
I'm not goitre to get into whether this is the right or wrong analysis & approach... what I want to question is: 'peace dividend'?
After a decade & half of #Tory#austerity, an engineered crisis in the public sector & #NHS, with the #costofliving crisis & stagnated economic development.... what peace dividend, was that?
“Sweden joined NATO in Washington on Thursday, two years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced it to rethink its national security policy and to decide that support for the alliance was the Scandinavian nation's best guarantee of safety.”
The good news for Barrow is that the Govt. is about to confirm (again?) a £200mn contribution to the town's 'transformation fund' to help address various poverty, health & housing issues in the town.
However, this is part of the support being offered to Barrow's BAE Systems plant intended to support/push the further development of the UK's nuclear capability - the Barrow plant is where nuclear subs are built.
Good for Barrow, less good for realistic UK defence strategy?
A former Australian Defence Force chief says the federal government either doesn't understand or is hiding from the public the risk of #climate change to national #security.
Neutral Switzerland wants to take part in Sky Shield defence project (www.reuters.com)
Switzerland wants to participate in the European Sky Shield air defence umbrella, the government said on Tuesday, a move which critics say is incompatible with the country's long-standing tradition of neutrality.