The drop in oil prices has given the lie to the "Hubbert peak" theory. There will probably not be a penury of energy in the coming century. The price decrease is also probably the first step in dismantling the "human origin of global warming" theory. It has deprived the alternative sources of energy of any validity, as well as investments in hydrocarbons from shale and deep-water drilling. It has thoroughly shaken the geopolitical scene, and is likely to be responsible for calling the US military back from the Near East and forcing the Pentagon to definitively abandon the theory of "constructive chaos".

Over the last two years, the world market for energy sources has been overturned. First of all, the offer and the demand have changed considerably, followed by the transformation of the commercial flow, and finally the prices, which have collapsed. These radical changes challenge all the geopolitical principles of the oil market.

The myth of penury

The economic slowdown of the Western countries, and also that of certain developing countries, has resulted in a fall in demand, while continued growth in Asia has, on the contrary, led to its rise. Ultimately, global demand continues to develop at a slow rate. From the supply side, not only have none of the oil-producing states seen their capacities collapse, but some of them have been able to expand, like China, which is now accumulating important strategic reserves. As a result, the world market is heavily over-supplied.

This first observation contradicts what used to be the common belief of the scientific and professional milieux during the first decade of the 21st century - world production was approaching its peak, and the world was going to experience a period of penury during which certain states were going to collapse, and wars for resources were going to break out. As soon as he returned to the White House in January 2001, Vice-President Dick Cheney formed a work group to plan the development of a national energy policy (National Energy Policy Development — NEPD), which was qualified as a "secret society" by the Washington Post [1]. In an ultra-protected atmosphere, the President's advisors auditioned the heads of the main businesses in the sector, a number of celebrated scientists, and the heads of the Intelligence apparatus. They arrived at the conclusion that the clock was ticking, and that there was no time to waste - consequently the Pentagon would have to guarantee the survival of the US economy by grabbing the resources of the "wider Middle East". It is not known for certain who participated in this work group, what data they were working with, or what were the stages of their deliberations. All the internal documents were destroyed so that no-one could discover the statistics to which they had access.

Libya's national investment fund is attempting to claw back $1.2 billion from nine trades it carried out with Goldman Sachs in 2008, which supposedly came about after the bank used prostitutes, private jets, and five star hotels to secure contracts.

Libya's national investment fund is attempting to claw back $1.2 billion from nine trades it carried out with Goldman Sachs in 2008, which supposedly came about after the bank used prostitutes, private jets, and five star hotels to secure contracts.

The same year Goldman Sachs raised more money for Barack Obama than any other company, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) says CEO Lloyd Blankfein's team used 'undue influence', taking advantage of LIA's financial naivety by first gaining its trust, and then encouraging it to participate in risky complex trades which the fund did not understand.

"The disputed trades were inherently unsuitable for a nascent sovereign wealth fund such as the LIA and Goldman Sachs knew (or at the very least suspected) the LIA did not properly understand the trades, which were highly structured, complex and risky," Libya's Investment Authority said in a document submitted to the court.

The European Central Bank would publicly pledge to backstop financial markets in tandem with the Bank of England should Britain vote to leave the European Union, officials with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The preparations illustrate the heightened state of alert ahead of the June 23 referendum, which will help determine Britain's future in trade and world affairs and also shape the EU. The pound and euro have lost value on fears a Brexit could tip the 28-member bloc into recession.

Such an announcement from the ECB would come on June 24 if an early-morning result showed that British voters had chosen to leave the EU, according to the sources. The aim is to underpin investor confidence across Europe and contain further market jitters.

"There will be a statement to do whatever it takes to maintain adequate market liquidity," said one senior central bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

French special forces have been tasked with training the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and building a military base near Kobani ahead of a major offensive on the Daesh-held city of Manbij, political analyst Idris Nessan, who served as deputy foreign minister of the Kobani Canton, told Sputnik.

The French on the ground are not expected to take part in combat, at least for now.

"French soldiers arrived in Kobani along with US troops to take part in liberating Manbij. They are primarily tasked with coordinating airstrikes of the [US-led] coalition, consulting and providing training to Manbij's Military council and the Syrian Democratic Forces," he said.

Nessan could not disclose how many French soldiers were present in Kobani, but added that additional troops could arrive if required.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Tuesday decrees pardoning for humanitarian reasons two Ukrainian nationals sentenced by a Russian court to lengthy prison terms, the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

Gennady Afanasiev was sentenced by the Moscow City Court in December 2014 to seven years in high-security colony on terrorism charges, while Yury Soloshenko was sentenced in October 2015 to six years in high-security colony on espionage charges.

According to the statement, both pardon decrees come into force on the day of signing.

The Kremlin confirmed Tuesday it had received a letter of congratulations from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan's letter of congratulations to Putin on occasion of Russia Day emerged, in which the Turkish leader expressed hope that the Moscow-Ankara relations would rise to the deserved level.

"Dear Mr. President. On behalf of the Turkish people, I congratulate all Russians on Russia Day, and hope that the relations between Russia and Turkey reach the level they deserve [to be at]," the note read.

"The letter came through the foreign ministry channels," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Israel is concealing vital records to prevent darkest periods in its history from coming to light, academics say

Israel is locking away millions of official documents to prevent the darkest episodes in its history from coming to light, civil rights activists and academics have warned as the country's state archives move online.

They claim government officials are concealing vital records needed for historical research, often in violation of Israeli law, in an effort to avoid damaging Israel's image.

The Israeli army has long claimed to be the "most moral" in the world.

Accusations of increased secrecy come as Israel marks this week the 49th anniversary of the 1967 war, when it seized and occupied Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights.

Many of the records to which access is being denied refer to that war and the first years of Israel's military rule over Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

Menachem Klein, a politics professor at Bar Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, said researchers needed such documents to gain a clearer picture of events half a century ago, the goals of policymakers, and human rights abuses. "We have gradually been able to expose some of what happened in 1948 [the war that established Israel], but there is still very little available to help us understand the 1967 war," he told Al-Jazeera.

As part of its commemorations this week, the state archives published testimony by military commanders from 1967. However, local media noted that whole pages had been censored on "security grounds".

The NSA is seeking new ways to satisfy its hunger for raw data by exploiting the so-called internet of things, an emerging network connecting objects such as vehicles, home appliances and biomedical devices. "We're looking at it sort of theoretically from a research point of view right now," the spy agency's Deputy Director Richard Ledgett told a conference on military technology at Washington's Newseum on Friday. The official said biomedical data for the NSA "maybe a niche kind of thing ... a tool in the toolbox," according to the Intercept. Replying to a question, Ledgett said the internet of things would be both "a security nightmare or a signals intelligence bonanza" from the agency's standpoint.


"As my job is to penetrate other people's networks, complexity is my friend," he said. "The first time you update the software, you introduce vulnerabilities, or variables rather. It's a good place to be in a penetration point of view."

The potential of internet of things for global surveillance was pointed out earlier by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper during a February hearing at the Senate. He said interconnected devices could be useful "for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking, and targeting for recruitment, or to gain access to networks or user credentials." Ledgett elaborated on the potential for malign hackers to take control of wirelessly connected biomedical devices, a scenario discussed by law enforcement and explored by the cybersecurity community. The popular TV series Homeland uses a hacker attack on a senior US official through his pacemaker as a plot device.


The NSA is not in a position to mandate security standards for private companies, Ledgett said, but it also cannot ignore the threat as well. Once the agency has an employee with an internet-connected biomedical device, the issue would be of great concern, he added.

It's no secret now that the US has been actively carrying out massive offensive operations in cyberspace for over a decade now. It's been reported that by 2013, the US military and intelligence agencies have launched more than 200 cyberspace operations and ever since their number has been increasing exponentially. According to various media publication, by 2013 America's cyberspace warriors have successfully "infected" more than a million computers and networks around the globe and this is only the beginning, since once the NSA Center in Utah will be operational, US intelligence agencies will only enhance their cyberspace capabilities.

Therefore, one can safely assume that cyberspace world war has already started and battle are now being waged all across the globe as it has been confirmed by the revelations made by certain CIA agents and even US Congress members.

Thus, the prominent journalist of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons organized a public event last February, where US Congressman Will Hurd has publicly admitted that the US has been carrying out offensive cyberspace operations against Russia. Since Hurd has spent a decade of his life working for the CIA, once can safely assume that he knows what he's talking about. The Huffington Post would note that to date Western media sources wouldn't cover the aggressive US operations in cyberspace, while intentionally choosing to blame Russian hackers in alleged attacks on the US government sites, in order to present Russia as an aggressor.

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will participate in a session of NATO's Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) in Brussels, Belgium, which will focus on adjusting the alliance's nuclear posture, US Department of Defense said in a Twitter message on Tuesday.

The United States has accused Russia of violating the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which prohibits the development, testing, or fielding of ground-based cruise missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.

Russia has rejected the accusations, and claimed that Washington's Europe-based missile defense system violates the INF treaty.

"The NPG will focus on adjustments to NATO's nuclear deterrence posture in light of Russia's nuclear strategy," the Defense Department stated.