• EXTREMISMHizb Ut Tahrir U.S. Conference Features Antisemitism, Calls for Violent Destruction of Israel

    The U.S. wing of Hizb Ut Tahrir, an international Islamist organization that seeks to establish an Islamic theocracy, held their annual conference in Villa Park, Illinois. The group, which is banned in the United Kingdom, Germany and several other countries, featured speakers who called for an army to invade and destroy Israel, justified the October 7 Hamas terror attack, suggested men should travel to Gaza to fight Israel, implored followers to “resist“ the “LGBT genderism…agenda driven by the UN,” and, in several cases, espoused overt antisemitic rhetoric.

  • TERRORISMProtecting Australians from Convicted Terrorists

    By Justin Bassi, John Coyne and Henry Campbell

    From 9/11 and the Bali bombings, to the rise of ISIL and the threat of issue-motivated violence from the likes of white supremacists, a comprehensive approach is needed, including education, prevention, punishment and rehabilitation.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHBolsonaro Mulled a Coup: Brazil Military Leaders

    Jair Bolsonaro discussed with the Brazilian military a plan to remain in power after he lost the 2022 presidential election, according to the testimonies of two military officers recorded in federal police documents.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHBolsonaro, Trump Election Cases Share Similarities, but Not Rulings

    By Liz Mineo

    Donald Trump and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro both posed a serious threat to their countries’ democracies: they both worked hard to diminish voters’ confidence in democracy by routinely denigrating and discrediting their countries’ electoral processes even before a single vote had been cast; each succeeded in persuading many of their supporters to believe in the Big Lie – referring to a fictitious, imaginary “rigged” election as the reason for their loss; and then each tried to stay in power even though both had lost the election. Last June, Brazil’s electoral court blocked Bolsonaro from running for elections for eight years for publicly denying the legitimacy of the 2022 presidential election. The U.S. Supreme Court, sidestepping the question of whether or not Trump engaged in or provided aid and comfort to an insurrection, recently ruled that states cannot bar Trump from running for another term, and that it was a decision for Congress to make. 

  • GUNSCongress Renews Ban on Undetectable Firearms

    By Brian Freskos and Alain Stephens

    Congress has reauthorized the Undetectable Firearms Act, a decades-old law aimed at preventing people from sneaking guns through security checkpoints at schools, airports, concerts, and other public spaces. Lawmakers had been racing to extend the prohibition before it expired on March 8.

  • GUNSMass Gun Violence Down 48% So Far This Year, Top Criminologist Says

    By David Mastio

    I call it Newton’s Law of Crime Statistics: What goes up, must come down. Just like the homicide rate more generally, spikes in mass shootings tend to be followed by corrective declines,” says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University.

  • SPACE DEBRISFalling Space Debris: How High Is the Risk I'll Get Hit?

    By Zulfikar Abbany, Julia Vergin, and Katja Sterzik

    An International Space Station battery fell back to Earth and, luckily, splashed down harmlessly in the Atlantic. Should we have worried? Space debris reenters our atmosphere every week.

  • OUR PICKSNew Far-Right Conspiracy Claims Boeing’s Accidents Are Intentional | Cyber Threats are Here to Stay | A requiem for Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and more

    ·  New Far-Right Conspiracy Claims Boeing’s Accidents Are Intentional
    Following a series of incidents involving the company’s planes, some conspiracists are baselessly alleging that Boeing is failing on purpose as part of a global plot to bring down Western civilization.

    ·  Ankle Monitors and Curfews: Inside Biden’s New Tracking System for Migrant Families
    The goal of the program is to keep people from skipping out on their asylum hearings, joining the millions of undocumented people who stay in the country indefinitely.

    ·  Batteries, Green Energy Sources Combine for Major Climate Solution
    Batteries allow renewables to replace fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, while keeping a steady flow of power when sources like wind and solar are not producing.

    ·  AI on the Ballot: Shaping the Future of Democracy and Governance
    This fusion of technology and human ingenuityis now venturing into the realm of elections.

    ·  Cyber Threats are Here to Stay: 3 Tips for Defending U.S. Critical Infrastructure Under Siege
    In the last handful of years, widespread digitization has expanded the critical infrastructure attack surface.

    ·  Supreme Betrayal
    A requiem for Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment

    ·  Insurance Rates Are Soaring for US Homeowners in Climate Danger Zones
    Research shows the soaring costs hint at widespread, unpriced risk as the global climate warms, with states like California, Florida and Louisiana hit hardest.

  • WORLD ROUNDUPHow Do You Solve a Problem Like North Korea? | The War on Terror Is Back | Number of Chinese Workers in Africa Drops Substantially, and more

    ·  A Watershed Moment for the Politics of Israel, Courtesy of Chuck Schumer
    Republicans have long sought to make Israel a partisan issue, framing their party as the only one truly supportive of the Jewish state. The Senate majority leader’s blistering speech may have helped.

    ·  How Do You Solve a Problem Like North Korea?
    Since the end of the Cold War, it seems that every formula, from threatening war to promising peace, has been tried.

    ·  China Gives Warnings on Vietnam-Australia Strategic Relationship
    A new, closer diplomatic relationship between Australia and Vietnam is drawing warnings from China against forming “exclusive circles” in the Indo-Pacific region.

    ·  Number of Chinese Workers in Africa Drops Substantially
    From a record high of 263,696 workers on the continent in 2015, only 88,371 were recorded in 2022, the most recent year on record.

    ·Which Terrorist Organization Suffers More Casualties in Its Attacks? Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, or Iran-backed Militia Groups?
    Despite being a top priority on government agendas for the past few decades, it appears that no counterterrorism policies have been successful in combatting terrorist groups.

    ·  The Earthquake That Could Shatter Netanyahu’s Coalition
    Israel’s ultra-Orthodox don’t serve in its armed forces. That’s getting harder than ever to justify.

    ·  The War on Terror Is Back
    The conflict once called the “War on Terror” has well and truly returned.

  • RANSOMWARERansomware Attacks: Death Threats, Endangered Patients and Millions of Dollars in Damages

    By Dino Jahic

    A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and deals with 1 in 3 patient records in the United States, is continuing to cause massive disruptions nearly three weeks later. The incident, which started on February 21, has been called the “most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system” by the American Hospital Association. It is just the latest example of an increasing trend.

  • BORDER SECURITYWith Haiti in Turmoil, Florida Braces for Violent Criminals Attempting Illegal Entry

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    With Haiti in political turmoil and in light of current federal border policies, Florida, which has historically borne the brunt of illegal entry by sea from Cuba and Haiti, is bracing for impact. Chaos in Haiti erupted as a federal judge in Texas ruled that a parole program created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas could continue. Mayorka’s policy includes releasing an additional 30,000 Haitians into the U.S. a month who would otherwise not be allowed admittance.

  • EXTREMISMGermany's RAF Terrorism — Many Unanswered Questions

    By Christoph Strack

    Even today, talk of the Red Army Faction (RAF) often provokes a heated debate in Germany. More than a quarter of a century has passed since the terrorist organization announced its dissolution. Nonetheless, there are those who are still grieving, victims who are still injured, RAF members who are still on the run — and many unanswered questions.

  • TERRORISMWest African Juntas Set Up Joint Anti-Terrorism Force

    Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali are planning on a joint force to “overcome the security challenges” facing the Sahel countries. The three West African neighbors are located in the Sahel region and have all seen coups unseat their civilian governments. They have also been mired in a decade-long conflict involving Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the so-called “Islamic State.”

  • CHINA WATCHDeveloping Effective Deterrence—from the War Fighters’ Perspective

    By Nishank Motwani

    The state of deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific is constantly adapting to the evolving threat Beijing poses to the United States and its allies on multiple fronts. But  a growing number of US military service members warn that deterrence is unravelling. Perspectives from individuals actively engaged in deterrence operations can help shape effective policy.

  • PULIC HEALTHLeprosy Cases Are Rising in the U.S. – What Is the Ancient Disease and Why Is It Spreading Now?

    By Robert A. Schwartz

    The word “leprosy” conjures images of biblical plagues, but the disease is still with us today. In the United States, leprosy has been entrenched for more than a century in parts of the South where people came into contact with armadillos, the principle proven linkage from animal to humans. However, the more recent outbreaks in the Southeast, especially Florida, have not been associated with animal exposure.

  • AIRPORT SECURITYPrototype Self-Service Screening System Unveiled

    TSA and DHS S&T unveiled a prototype checkpoint technology, the self-service screening system, at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV. The aim is to provide a near self-sufficient passenger screening process while enabling passengers to directly receive on-person alarm information and allow for the passenger self-resolution of those alarms.

  • AUTONOMOUS VEHICLESAutonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks

    Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.

  • OUR PICKSTikTok’s Security Threats Go Beyond the Scope of House Legislation | The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency | Terrorist Threat to US Has Reached ‘Whole Other Level,’ FBI’s Wray Warns, and more

    ·  Terrorist Threat to US Has Reached ‘Whole Other Level,’ FBI’s Wray Warns
    “This is a time not for panic, but for heightened vigilance given the risk,” Wray said.

    ·  A New Surge in Power Use Is Threatening U.S. Climate Goals
    A boom in data centers and factories is straining electric grids and propping up fossil fuels.

    ·  TikTok’s Security Threats Go Beyond the Scope of House Legislation
    The risks have less to do with who owns the app than who writes the code and algorithms that make TikTok tick.

    ·  The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency
    Every US president has the ability to invoke “emergency powers” that could give an authoritarian leader the ability to censor the internet, restrict travel, and more.

    ·  US Lawmaker Cited NYC Protests in a Defense of Warrantless Spying
    A closed-door presentation for House lawmakers late last year portrayed American anti-war protesters as having possible ties to Hamas in an effort to kill privacy reforms to a major US spy program.

  • WORLD ROUNDUPWhy Everything Changed in Haiti: The Gangs United | Violence Has Failed Palestinians | U.K. Government Strengthens Approach to Counter Extremism, and more

    ·  Schumer Urges New Leadership in Israel, Calling Netanyahu an Obstacle to Peace
    The top Senate Democrat, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, spoke from the Senate floor to condemn Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and call for elections to replace him.

    ·  Why Everything Changed in Haiti: The Gangs United
    “The situation totally changed now, because the gangs are now working together,” a Haitian consultant said. Their unity forced the prime minister to resign.

    ·  U.K. Government Strengthens Approach to Counter Extremism
    Definition of extremism updated to respond to increased extremist threat since October 7 terror attacks in Israel

    ·  US Imposes Sanctions on Israeli Settlers, Two West Bank Outposts
    Washington has repeatedly asked Israel to hold violent settlers accountable and complained that its actions allowing settlement expansion diminish hopes for a two-state solution.

    ·  Germany’s Far-Right AfD Seeking to Overturn Extremist Designation in Court
    The AfD brought the case after the BfV, one of Germany’s security agencies, made the classification in 2021, meaning it could deploy intelligence tools such as phone taps and informants against the party.

    ·  Violence Has Failed Palestinians
    A pragmatic, peaceful approach is the only way to a real state.

  • THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONRussia Steps Up Spy War on West

    By Henry Ridgwell

    Russia has successfully relaunched its spy operations against the West after hundreds of its operatives were ejected following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to analysts. They warn that the Kremlin is using a network of proxies to infiltrate European nations and carry out a range of intelligence operations.

  • THREATS TO INFRASTRUCTUREHouthi Attacks in Red Sea Threaten Internet Infrastructure

    By Nik Martin

    The recent attack on the cargo ship Rubymar by the Iran-backed Houthis caused the crew to drop anchor, which damaged undersea internet cables, the US has said. Could the vital infrastructure now become a regular target?

  • EXTREMISMGermany's Domestic Intelligence Service Battles Far-Right AfD

    By Marcel Fürstenau

    Germany’s domestic intelligence service is again facing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in court this week. Its job is to safeguard the democratic principles set out in the Basic Law.