Undermining U.S. biodefense strategy; antibiotics may soon become useless; ISIS resurgent, and more

After Who What Why reported on the vulnerabilities early Sunday, Kemp’s office pivoted and launched a hacking investigation against Georgia Democrats. “While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cybercrimes,” said Kemp press secretary Candice Broce on Sunday. “We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure.” Kemp is facing off against Democrat Stacey Abrams on Nov. 6.

Voting machine errors already roil Texas and Georgia races (Christian Vasquez and Matthew Choi, Politico)
The errors would appear to work to the advantage of Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.

Watchdog warns of Islamic State resurgence (Lara Seligman, Foreign Policy)
The Pentagon’s inspector general sounds the alarm amid new violence in Syria.

As trial looms, survey shows citizenship question could harm 2020 census (Chase Gunter, FCW)
Days before a lawsuit opposing the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census goes to trial, a national opinion study commissioned by the bureau warned the question could be a “major barrier” to operations.
An effort by the Trump administration to delay court proceedings was rejected by the Supreme Court on Nov. 2. The lawsuit, in which several states and municipalities are objecting to a census question asking U.S. residents to report on their citizenship, will open on Nov.5 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Troop deployment to the border will cost $220 million, and the Pentagon seems to think it’s a waste (Matthew Zeitlin, Slate)
The troops deployed to the southern U.S. border to support existing border authorities once a band of Honduran migrants completes its journey from southern Mexico will cost $220 million, CNBC reported, citing two anonymous sources.
There are about 4,000 troops near the border since this weekend and, ultimately a total of 15,000 could be deployed if Trump gets his way. According to documents detailed by Newsweek and the Washington Post, the military itself expects only “a small percentage of the migrants will likely reach the border.” A risk assessment by the Defense Department “found that the caravan did not pose a threat to the United States,” and that “the caravan would take about a month and a half to get to the U.S. border,” according to CNBC.

Antibiotics may soon become useless. now what? (Maryn McKenna, Wired)
Accepting that antibiotics are infrastructure would change our relationship to the drugs, forcing us to recognize that medicine requires long-term planning. It might allow users to guide drug development in ways that a free market won’t allow. And it makes explicit a thing that has always been true, but never really articulated: The continued availability of antibiotics is as fundamental to the health of society as intact roads and reliable electric generation and robust sewage processing.