• IMMIGRATIONTweaking U.S. Trade Policy Could Hold the Key to Reducing Migration from Central America

    By Raymond Robertson and Kaleb Girma Abreha

    Small changes to U.S. trade policy could significantly reduce the number of migrants arriving at the southern border. The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR. was aimed at encouraging trade and investment ties. But restrictive provisions, particularly its rules of origin, have hindered the region’s ability to benefit fully from the agreement. Loosening the rules to allow for new fabrics would not only attract investment and create more jobs for Central Americans, it could also reduce immigration from the region by as much as 67%, according to our estimates.

  • GUNSFive Arrested for Trafficking Military Grade Firearms to Mexican Drug Cartel

    Five individuals were arrested in Laredo, Hebbronville, and Falls City, Texas, last week for trafficking military grade firearms to a drug cartel in Mexico. The arms traffickers used straw purchasers to procure the firearms from a variety of sources in the Western, Southern, and Northern Districts of Texas.

  • LAW-ENFORCEMENT TECHNOLOGYCops Running DNA-Manufactured Faces Through Face Recognition Is a Tornado of Bad Ideas

    By Paige Collings and Matthew Guariglia

    In keeping with law enforcement’s grand tradition of taking antiquated, invasive, and oppressive technologies, making them digital, and then calling it innovation, police in the U.S. recently combined two existing dystopian technologies in a brand new way to violate civil liberties.

  • FOOD SUPPLY SECURITYSafeguarding U.S. Agriculture and Food Supply

    By Dimitri Kusnezov

    DHS S&T conducts research aiming to ensure that U.S. domestic agriculture systems are resilient against disturbances that could cause food shortages, sickness or injuries, and economic crises.

  • COASTAL CHALLENGESArtificial Reef Could Protect Marine life, Reduce Storm Damage

    By Jennifer Chu

    MIT engineers designed a sustainable and cost-saving structure which aims to dissipate more than 95 percent of incoming wave energy using a small fraction of the material normally needed.

  • OUR PICKS: BALTIMORE BRIDGEBridges Can be Protected from Ship Collisions | Port of Baltimore Bridge Collapse Rattles Supply Chains | Bridge Collapse to Trigger One of the Biggest Insurance Losses in History, and more

    ·  Baltimore Bridge Collapse to Trigger One of the Biggest Insurance Losses in History
    Lloyd’s of London warns of multibillion-pound hit after container ship crash

    ·  Failure of Francis Scott Key Bridge Provides Future Engineers a Chance to Learn How to Better Protect the Public
    Once engineers understand the forces that a structure will be subjected to, they can design a structure to withstand them

    ·  Port of Baltimore Bridge Collapse Rattles Supply Chains Already Rocked by Troubles in Panama and the Red Sea
    In 2023 alone, the port moved around 50 million tons of goods between the U.S. and other countries

    ·  Bridges Can be Protected from Ship Collisions – an Expert on Structures in Disasters Explains How
    Theoretically, you could build a structure that would never fail, but you’d have to put infinite money into it. For a critical bridge of this type, we would consider an acceptable chance for failure to be 1 in 10,000 years

    ·  After the Baltimore Bridge Collapse, We Need Clear-Eyed Assessments of the Risks to Key Infrastructure
    With many bridges being over 50 years old, a bridge’s condition may have been compromised by deterioration and increased traffic loads, and older bridges were designed to standards that have been superseded by new knowledge and technology

    ·  Baltimore Bridge Collapse Leaves Military Ships on Standby for War Trapped
    Rapid reaction vessels intended to supply fighting units around the world are stranded until the wreckage is cleared

  • OUR PICKSElection Theft 101: Foster Skepticism | The White House Puts New Guardrails on Government Use of AI | • John Eastman Should Lose Law License, Judge Finds, and more

    ·  Election Theft 101: Foster Skepticism
    Two legal scholars, stunned by Jan. 6 insurrection, game out half-dozen possible schemes that exploit, spotlight flaws in system

    ·  Trump’s Social Media Company Opens New Avenue for Conflicts of Interest
    Ethics experts say Trump Media, now a publicly traded company, would present a new way for foreign actors or others to influence Donald J. Trump, if he is elected president

    ·  John Eastman Should Lose Law License, Judge Finds
    The decision was only the latest effort by bar officials to seek accountability against a group of lawyers who sought to help President Donald J. Trump stay in office despite his election loss

    ·  The White House Puts New Guardrails on Government Use of AI
    Vice President Kamala Harris says new rules for government AI deployments, including a requirement that algorithms are checked for bias, will “put the public interest first”

  • WORLD ROUNDUPThe EU’s Digital Markets Act is a Gift to China | Why Russia’s Vast Security Services Fell Short on Deadly Attack | U.S. Support for Israel’s War Has Become Indefensible, and more

    ·  Why Russia’s Vast Security Services Fell Short on Deadly Attack
    The factors behind the failure to prevent a terrorist attack include a distrust of foreign intelligence, a focus on Ukraine and a distracting political crackdown at home.

    ·  ‘We Knew Radicalization Was Going to Happen After October 7 – the Government Was Behind the Curve’
    Dame Sara Khan, the UK’s adviser for social cohesion, explains how the extremism she witnessed as a child has gone mainstream.

    ·  World’s Best Fighter Jet Gets an Upgrade for War Against China
    Blistering performance in every way except one

    ·  U.S. Support for Israel’s War Has Become Indefensible
    A good pretext for war is not enough to make a war just

    ·  A Family Feud in the Philippines Has Beijing and Washington on Edge
    Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are battling over the country’s future

    ·  The EU’s Digital Markets Act is a Gift to China
    China has made it no secret that it wants to overtake the United States and its allies as the global leader in the innovation and development of next-generation technologies

  • BALTIMORE BRIDGE ACCIDENTI’ve Captained Ships into Tight Ports Like Baltimore, and This Is How Captains Like Me Work with Harbor Pilots to Avoid Deadly Collisions

    By Allan Post

    The accident which caused the collapse of the bridge in Baltimore is the third such accident in as many months, with big ships hitting, and causing the collapse, of bridges in China and Argentina. These incidents have highlighted what engineering experts say is the urgent need to improve or protect old bridges to accommodate larger modern vessels – and what maritime experts say is the growing difficulty ship pilots face when helping navigate big ships through tight places.

  • BRIDGE SAFETYMajor Bridge Accidents Caused by Ships and Barges

    Experts say there is much to be done in improving bridges which were built for smaller vessels in a different era, even with modern regulations and design codes in place. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed in 2021, which includes $110 billion for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects, was a step in the right direction, but that it is far from the $4.5 trillion that studies have suggested are needed to upgrade American infrastructure to the target level of safety and efficiency.

  • TERRORISMMoscow Attack Shows Troubling, Lethal Reach of ISIS

    By Bruce Hoffman

    The mass casualty theater attack in Moscow was a reminder that affiliates of the Islamic State have reorganized and infiltrated even powerful states. ISIS has staged over half-a-dozen attacks in Russia since 2016. The movement has long deemed Russia as much of an enemy of the Muslim people as the United States.

  • CHINA WATCHChinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians

    An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.

  • INTELLIGENCE SHARINGMoscow Attack: Why Intelligence Agencies Share Information

    By David Ehl

    Intelligence agencies are secretive, gathering information to bolster national security or help their governments make political decisions. But at times they share information with the intelligence services of an adversary, and when it comes to fighting terrorism, intelligence agencies are surprisingly generous about sharing information. The U.S. said it warned Russia of a potential attack like the one that took place in Moscow on March 22.

  • MINERALSU.S. to Tap Domestic Lithium Supply Without Chinese Products

    By John Xie

    Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a record conditional loan of $2.26 billion to tap the largest known lithium reserves in North America. The loan is an important step in an effort by the U.S. government to reduce reliance on China for the metal used to make batteries.

  • NUCLEAR POWERSmall Nuclear Reactors May Be Coming to Texas, Boosted by Interest from Gov. Abbott

    By Emily Foxhall

    A nuclear power plant hasn’t been built in Texas in decades because of cost and public fears of a major accident. Now the governor wants to find out if smaller reactors could meet the state’s growing need for on-demand power.

  • OUR PICKSGigantic Ships Are a Danger—and a Lifeline | Online Conspiracies About the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Are Out of Control | The Case Against TikTok Is Thin at Best, and more

    ·  Online Conspiracies About the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Are Out of Control
    Conspiracy theorists are calling the Baltimore bridge collapse a “black swan event” and are blaming everything from Israel to DEI to Covid vaccines.

    ·  The Case Against TikTok Is Thin at Best
    There are real issues—but they go far beyond one app.

    ·  Gigantic Ships Are a Danger—and a Lifeline
    The vessel that hit Baltimore’s Key Bridge is more than three times as large as its biggest counterparts 50 years ago.

    ·  Appeals Court Keeps Texas’ Migrant Arrest Law on Hold
    The order prevents Texas from arresting and deporting migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. while the case challenging the law is under consideration.

    ·  The Supreme Court Is Shaming Itself
    No good legal reason exists to delay Donald Trump’s January 6 trial any further.

  • WORLD ROUNDUPBenjamin Netanyahu Is Israel’s Worst Prime Minister Ever | Orban Takes His Soros Smear Campaign on the Road | America’s African Balancing Act, and more

    ·  Orban Takes His Soros Smear Campaign on the Road
    Europe had better be prepared.

    ·  America’s African Balancing Act
    Washington must find a way to remain competitive and engaged in the continent without contributing to political unrest and dependence.

    ·  Can Biden Save Israel from Itself?
    Moderate Israelis must understand that the U.S. cannot force Israel to accept a two-state solution.

    ·  Benjamin Netanyahu Is Israel’s Worst Prime Minister Ever
    One man’s ambition has undermined Israel’s security and consumed its politics.

    ·  Israel Deploys Expansive Facial Recognition Program in Gaza
    The experimental effort, which has not been disclosed, is being used to conduct mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza, according to military officials and others.

  • CHINA WATCHUS Bolstering Philippines Amid Increasing Assertiveness by China

    By John Xie

    The U.S. and Philippines will for the first time venture outside Manila’s territorial waters when they begin joint annual combat drills in April. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, all of which border the sea. An international tribunal at The Hague has rejected China’s claim.

  • FOR WHOM THE TOK TIKSLawmakers: Ban TikTok to Stop Election Misinformation! Same Lawmakers: Restrict How Government Addresses Election Misinformation!

    By David Greene and Karen Gullo

    Forty-five Washington lawmakers have argued before the Supreme Court that government communications with social media sites about possible election interference misinformation are illegal. The lawmakers insisted that government agencies can’t even pass on information about websites that state election officials have identified as disinformation, even if the agencies don’t request that any action be taken. Yet just last week the vast majority of those same lawmakers said the government’s interest in removing election interference misinformation from social media justifies banning a site used by 150 million Americans.

  • FOR WHOM THE TOK TIKSU.S. Election: Turning Off TikTok Is a Big Risk for the Democrats

    By Thomas Gift

    Popular social media platform TikTok stands accused of holding US data in China, fostering censorship, and spreading disinformation. Its popularity poses a dilemma for US politicians, but especially Democrats who have heavily relied on the app to reach its core base of young voters.

  • MIGRATIONWhat Headlines Don’t Tell You About Global Migration, and What Researchers Can

    By Anwyn Hurxthal

    More people than ever live outside the country of their birth—281,000,000 migrants. To put it in perspective, if migrants formed their own country, it would be the fourth most populous country in the world, after China, India, and the United States. But why did they leave their home? Where are they going? Do they plan to return? Can they? Where would they be most likely to thrive? Researchers are filling critical migration data gaps and studying how people are on the move in new and different ways.

  • CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTUREChinese, Iranian Cyberattacks Target U.S. Water Systems

    Nation-states are increasingly targeting the U.S. water systems with cyberattacks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Security Council (NSC). The EPA and the NSC are urging states to significantly bolster their IT security measures to guard against attacks on critical infrastructure.