Our picksCommon sense border solutions; Russia’s 5G conspiracy theories; TSA employees as border guards, and more

Common sense solutions to the border crisis (Blas Nunez-Neto, RAND)
After years of declines, apprehensions of undocumented immigrants at the U.S.–Mexico border are set for their largest year-on-year increase in history.
If the Department of Homeland Security’s internal forecasts are correct, Border Patrol agents may make 1 million apprehensions this year—almost triple the number that they made in 2016 and 2017.
There is, in fact, a humanitarian crisis on the U.S. border with Mexico. How did this come about? More importantly, what can be done to address this crisis?

Is sea rise wrecking coastal home values? The answer: Maybe (Philip Marcelo, AP)
For sale: waterfront property with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean. Waves erode beach regularly. Flooding gets worse every year. Saltwater damage to lawn.
Asking price: anyone’s guess.

Kenya’s controversial biometric project is shrouded in secrecy (Keren Weitzberg, Coda Story)
A $60 million government initiative to collect the data of millions in an effort to enhance services has been marked by criticism about its inefficiency and allegations of misconduct

NYT: Conspiracy theories that 5G phones cause cancer originate from Russia (Chris Smith, GBR)
After so many years of talking about the miracle that 5G will be for everything tech-related, it finally happened: 5G is here. “Here” is Korea, the US, and Switzerland, for the time being, although more and more countries will be getting 5G coverage in the coming months.
What that means is that you’ll need new, more expensive phones to get on 5G, and pay a little extra on your monthly cellular bill. But it doesn’t mean that 5G will give you or your children cancer, or hurt anyone’s health in any other way. If you’ve heard any of that lately, it’s all a conspiracy theory originating from Russia in an attempt to reduce the gap when it comes to 5G deployment.
A detailed New York Times report shows that one of Russia’s main propaganda tools, RT America, has increased the number of reports that warn against 5G-related health issues.

Moscow to weave AI face recognition into its urban surveillance net (Samuel Bendett, Defense One)
City authorities say the planned system will have access to all 160,000 existing cameras.

The NSA knows its weapons may one day be used by its targets (Shannon Vavra, Cyberscoop)
U.S. military commanders say that when U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency use a capability against targets abroad, they understand it might eventually be used by an adversary.

Human rights groups to ask Israeli court to revoke NSO Group’s export license (Sean Lyngaas, Cyberscoop)
Human rights advocates, including Amnesty International, plan to file a petition Tuesday in Israeli court to revoke mobile spyware vendor NSO Group’s export license, citing alleged abuses stemming from the vendor’s technology.
The legal action is an escalation in the confrontation between civil society groups and NSO Group, and comes after the company’s Pegasus surveillance software was reportedly used to target an Amnesty International researcher. Pegasus is so potent in its ability to compromise a mobile phone that it requires a license from the Israeli defense ministry to export.

The TSA is sending hundreds of employees, including air marshals, to the border (Adam K. Raymond, New York Magazine)
As many as 400 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees will soon arrive at the southwest border to work alongside Customs and Border Protection to address an increasingly problematic border situation, CNN reported Wednesday. The move was subsequently acknowledged by a TSA spokesman. “TSA, like all DHS components, is supporting the DHS effort to address the humanitarian and security crisis at the southwest border. TSA is in the process of soliciting volunteers to support this effort while minimizing operational impact,” spokesman James Gregory said.

Venezuelan democracy was strangled by Cuba (Jorge C. Carrasco, Foreign Policy)
Decades of infiltration helped ruin a once-prosperous nation.