Iran will hold a run-off election to choose a new president on Friday 5th July after the two leading candidates failed to secure a majority. Hardliner Saeed Jalili and rival Masoud Pezeshkian, who is seen as reformist, are both hopeful of becoming the second most powerful leading in the Islamic republic. Candidates need to win 50 per cent of the vote but the pair both hovered around the 40 per cent mark – with Mr Pezeshkian finishing narrowly ahead. Two security force members were killed after unidentified gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying election boxes in Sistan-Baluchestan province, according to state…

Prof. Venter said Ramaphosa’s structuring of the Cabinet, with DA deputy ministers in ANC-led ministries and vice versa, introduces a system of internal checks and balances.

It’s inspiring being a student of Latin America during the 80s and 90s that people stood up so clearly and so unanimously denouncing this coup. I think that’s very positive. We need to recognise that. This is not the 1970s in which militaries can intervene with impunity.

Offshore wind farms located in the North Sea are becoming increasing vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to a new report. Wind farms located in remote areas rely heavily on digital connections to communicate with land-based systems. But many are equipped with out-dated technology and lack proper security measures, according to a report from the Alan Turing Institute Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (CETaS). Anna Knack, lead researcher for CETaS and report author, said: “As offshore wind becomes a larger part of the UK’s energy supply, it is essential that more is done to protect it from disruption and cyberattacks.”…

Bolivian authorities have arrested General Juan José Zúñiga after armoured vehicles rammed the doors of the government palace in La Paz. The rebellion, led by Zúñiga, aimed to overthrow President Luis Arce’s government under the guise of “restoring democracy.” However, the insurrection quickly unravelled, with Zúñiga’s forces pulling back after just three hours. President Arce condemned the move as an “irregular mobilisation,” and the country’s former President Evo Morales called it a “coup.” The BBC characterised the attempt as “a short-lived and ill-judged military uprising rather than any wider unravelling of power.” Despite its failure, the coup has raised concerns…

Iran and Niger cemented a secret ‘yellow cake’ uranium deal in late April for the delivery of 300 tons of uranium in exchange for drones-and-surface to air missiles.  

Ukraine has launched an internet-based tool to expose propaganda and help counter Russian disinformation, according to Volodymyr Borodiansky, media executive and former Ukrainian Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports. War of Words uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse over 100,000 hours of video content across Russian political talk shows and news content.    The tool, which is updated daily, tracks everything that has been said on Russian TV, Telegram channels, and RuTube, since 2012. This gives users easy access to a vast archive which can be searched by keyword, and filtered by date, media type, source, program, speaker, and more.…

Sir Iain Duncan Smith is a long serving Tory MP and a vocal critic of the Chinese state. He has been sanctioned by China for describing the treatment of the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang as a “genocide”. In this article, which first appeared on his personal website, Sir Iain discusses the threat currently posed by China and asks whether World War Three has already begun.The threat posed by the axis of totalitarian states is the dog that hasn’t barked during the general election. There are fewer than three weeks to go…

It doesn’t have to be exact numbers, but it’s got to reflect the fact that the DA is a 22% party and not a 2% party. And the fact that the ANC is a 40% party and not a 70% party.

A NATO-style form of collective defence is the best protection against cyber security attacks by hostile states and organised crime gangs, experts have warned. Governments and corporations of all sizes risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in cyber attacks by hackers weaponising artificial intelligence (AI) to penetrate even the most secure computer systems. Cyber security experts are now urging governments and corporations to work together creating a form of collective self-defence where information on hacks are shared to help protect against future attacks. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have all been accused of mounting complex cyberattacks against the…

Lagos has a vulnerable population, an attack on a church, mosque, market, or bus stop could result in mass casualties.

China could deploy fully autonomous military weapons onto the battlefield within two years, according to a leading weapons expert. Defence analyst Francis Tusa said China was not hindered by the ethical concerns surrounding so-called killer robots and was developing autonomous weapons systems much faster than any other country. He said that the communist country’s huge investment in military technology meant that the People’s Liberation Army was developing AI-based autonomous weapons four to five times faster than potential adversaries. In an interview with National Security News (NSN), Tusa said: “We’re at the start of a race in truly autonomous systems. “I…

There are voices in both the ANC and the DA, according to an analyst who is not far from each other in the negotiations process. 

Israel must win the battle of ideas if it is to defeat Hamas and bring an end to the fighting in Gaza, a former head of the Israeli Intelligence Service has said. Ami Ayalon, who led the Israeli security agency Shin Bet in 1996 said that it was not enough for Israel to destroy Hamas in battle, it must give the Palestinians the opportunity to embrace a two-state solution. The former intelligence chief dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of completely destroying Hamas. Instead, Ayalon argued: “We must win the battle of ideas if we are to defeat Hamas. “We…

The former US defense secretary, James Mattis, has warned that America will need to strengthen its military forces to counter the  joint threat from Russia and China. Mattis, a former US Marine Corps general, spoke of the growing nexus between the two autocratic regimes, which is now supported by Iran and North Korea, in a speech focussing on “America’s place in a dangerous world”. The 73-year-old general, who also served as the defence secretary in the Trump administration, spoke out at the same time as Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to sign…

Negotiators who hunkered down to reach an agreement on the Cabinet and roles in Ramaphosa’s government appear to have hit a deadlock.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a blind spot. It fails to recognise disinformation it creates. This means that it has limitations in the fight against disinformation. Experts have found that AI tools can be tricked when attempting to label machine versus human generated content. Paulius Pakutinskas, university professor and board member of Artificial Intelligence Association of Lithuania, said: “Not everything that is created by AI is recognised by AI.” Experts demonstrated the vulnerability of AI content detectors. Two techniques were presented by Aldan Creo, Technology Research Specialist at Accenture, at The European Dialogue on Internet Governance: Pakutinskas also described his experience…

Israel is on the brink of an all-out war with the terrorist group Hezbollah, a former Israeli Intelligence officer has warned. Avi Melamed, a former member of the Israeli Defence Forces, said that any conflict with the Lebanese-based groups would have geo-political consequences.Mr Melamed, who is now a Fellow of Intelligence and Middle East Affairs for the Eisenhower Institute in Washington, said he believed Hezbollah is running out of Israeli targets to strike without triggering a significant counterattack from Jerusalem.In an interview with National Security News, the former officer said: “The ramifications would be huge, it will inevitably result in the…

US and British intelligence chiefs are recruiting disaffected members of Russia’s high command humiliated by the Kremlin’s failure to win the war in Ukraine. Senior intelligence officials within the CIA and MI6 believe that a growing number of senior officers within the Russian military now view the war as a major miscalculation by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to intelligence sources. Morale amongst the Russian military elite is also believed to be low after several senior officers have died in mysterious circumstances – such as falling out of windows – while others have been arrested and charged with corruption…

There is desperation in Zuma’s speech. Beneficiaries of the July 2021 looting in South. Africa or those facing prison sentences place their hope in Zuma.

China is recruiting talented citizens through local “hacking competitions” and weaponising their talents to attack Western governments, according to a report by ETH Zurich University’s Centre for Security Studies. The revelation, coupled with recent admissions by Dutch officials about the wide scope of Chinese hacking efforts, has amplified fears about China’s growing “hack-for-hire” programme. The report titled “From Vegas to Chengdu”, uncovers a two part hacker system: Eugenio Benincasa, report author and senior researcher, documents how Chinese security researchers began dominating international hacking competitions after 2014. At the Pwn2Own competition, Chinese teams’ winnings increased from 13% in 2014 to 79%…

China is on course to develop an arsenal of up to 1,000 nuclear weapons within six years, the head of Nato has warned. Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, said the communist state was investing heavily in modern weaponry, including nuclear missiles, which would grow to 1,000 warheads by 2030. He added that the dual threats of nuclear armed adversaries – China and Russia – was a new threat to the west and Nato which could no longer be ignored. Mr Stoltenberg said: “And that means that in a not very distant future Nato may face something that it has never…

There is a new sense of optimism among South African citizens living with power blackouts, deteriorating services and an ailing economy that the backward slide that began under Jacob Zuma’s reign, could be reversed.

Kwazulu-Natal is the biggest threat to stability in South Africa.