Chemical weaponsPreventing chemical weapons as sciences advance and converge

Revolutionary advances in science and technology are threatening the ability of the Chemical Weapons Convention to prevent the development, possession and potential use of chemical weapons. Scientists warn of this increased chemical weapons risk, which is the result of rapid scientific change. Alarming examples of the dangers from chemical weapons have been seen recently in the use of industrial chemicals and the nerve agent sarin against civilians in Syria, and in the targeted assassination operations using VX nerve agent in Malaysia and novichok nerve agent in the U.K.

• Read more

Climate risks mitigationNatural solutions can reduce global warming

Restoring the United States’ lands and coastal wetlands could have a much bigger role in reducing global warming than previously thought, according to the most comprehensive national assessment to date of how greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced and stored in forests, farmland, grasslands and wetlands.

• Read more

U.S. militaryWith military edge eroding, U.S. may lose military conflict with Russia or China

A commission investigating Donald Trump’s defense strategy has said the United States could lose a military conflict with China or Russia. It argued that the U.S. ability to defend itself and its allies was in doubt. The report suggested that if the U.S. went to war with countries such as China and Russia, it may not win. “The U.S. military could suffer unacceptably high casualties and loss of major capital assets in its next conflict. It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia,” the commission said. “The United States is particularly at risk of being overwhelmed should its military be forced to fight on two or more fronts simultaneously.”

• Read more

HateRussian Duma approves bill softening punishment for first-time hate-crime offenders

Russia’s lower house of parliament has approved the first reading of a bill softening the punishment in some cases for inciting hatred, amid concerns over prison terms handed down to people for “liking” or reposting memes on the Internet. The draft bill discussed on 15 November would remove the possibility of a prison sentence for first-time offenders found to have incited ethnic, religious, and other forms of hatred and discord in public, including in the media or on the Internet.

• Read more

Truth decayThe counties where the anti-vaccine movement thrives in the U.S.

By Peter J Hotez

As a pediatrician-scientist who develops new vaccines for neglected diseases, I followed the emergence of doubt over vaccine safety in the general public. Ultimately, in scientific circles, any debate ended when an overwhelming body of scientific evidence demonstrated there was no association between vaccines and autism. In Texas, however, the anti-vaccine movement is aggressive, well-organized and politically engaged. There are now at least 57,000 Texas schoolchildren being exempted from their vaccines for nonmedical reasons, about a 20-fold rise since 2003. I say “at least” because there is no data on the more than 300,000 homeschooled kids.

• Read more

DronesBetter drone detection through machine learning, cameras

Visual detection of drones has never been considered as effective as its thermal, radio or acoustic counterparts. The trouble is always discriminating between different moving objects in view. Typically, a bird or even a plastic bag caught in the wind might be mistaken for a drone, which is why most discrimination methods have primarily focused on heat and acoustic signatures in the past (though acoustic signatures also tend to become less useful in urban areas with higher levels of background noise). Combined with machine learning, however, a camera can tell a different story.

• Read more

Coastal perilMethods for protecting England’s coastal communities “not fit for purpose”

In October 2018, a stark report suggested that current methods being used to protect England’s coastal communities are “not fit for purpose.” The Committee on Climate Change’s Managing the coast in a changing climate report showed that between 2005 and 2014, over 15,000 new buildings were built in coastal areas at significant risk of coastal flooding and/or erosion. Experts say that evidence suggests there should be far stricter controls on coastal developments.

• Read more

The Russia watchBattling the bots; a Kremlin spy mystery in Vienna; start thinking about election security in 2020, and more

·  Thousands of Americans were following suspected Russian pages on eve of midterms

·  Battling the bots

·  Nigel Farage’s name keeps coming up in the Mueller probe

·  ‘Putin’s chef’ reports spark grisly death threats against Russian journalists

·  A bridge too far for Russia’s propagandists

·  Key EU lawmaker seeks to ratchet up battle against Russian propaganda

·  Russian hackers largely skipped the midterms, and no one really knows why

·  A Kremlin spy mystery in Vienna shakes the world capital of espionage

·  How Trump’s move to put a loyalist over Mueller is already backfiring

·  It’s time to start thinking about election security in 2020

• Read more

HateWomen’s March award rescinded by German NGO due to anti-Semitism

A German think tank rescinded a human rights award it had planned to present to the Women’s March movement on grounds that the latter group holds anti-Semitic views. In a letter, a working group of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is associated with Germany’s Social Democratic Party, announced that it would not present the award to Women’s March USA on grounds that the group failed to meet its criteria.

• Read more

The Russia connectionRussia’s intelligence agencies threaten the U.K.

A new report makes explosive claims about the scale of Russian espionage in the United Kingdom. The report is based on confidential interviews with high-level dissident, defector, and intelligence sources and sets out both banal and brazen examples of what it says is Vladimir Putin’s ongoing menacing of U.K. streets.

• Read more