Our picksThwarting Mass Shootings | Cities Unprepared for Disasters | Cybersecurity as a Team Sport, and more

Published 21 August 2019

·  Which U.S. Cities Are Least Prepared for Climate Disaster?

·  For U.S. Government, Cybersecurity Is Becoming a Team Sport

·  China’s South China Sea Militarization Has Peaked

·  Pumping Water from under Sea of Galilee May Have Caused Quakes

·  Only the Right Can Defeat White Nationalism

·  Police Thwarted Six Mass Shootings and White Supremacist Attacks Since El Paso

Which U.S. Cities Are Least Prepared for Climate Disaster? (Brentin Mock, Defense One)
New studies find cities most vulnerable to climate change disasters—heat waves, flooding, rising seas, drought—are the least prepared.

For U.S. Government, Cybersecurity Is Becoming a Team Sport (Derek B. Johnson, FCW)
When it comes to implementing new cybersecurity standards, the U.S. government has adopted a strategy of persuasion. Policymakers are building momentum behind a series of policy pushes among private companies as well as foreign allies in the cybersecurity realm, from baseline standards for connected devices and 5G to supply chain security, information sharing and incident response.

China’s South China Sea Militarization Has Peaked (Steven Stashwick, Foreign Policy)
Artificial islands are becoming more trouble than they’re worth.

Pumping Water from under Sea of Galilee May Have Caused Quakes (Rhys Blakely, The Times)

A mysterious cluster of earthquakes beneath the Sea of Galilee — the lake upon which Jesus is said to have walked — has raised questions over the sustainability of one of Israel’s key water supplies.

A study suggests that human activity could be responsible for the unusual earthquake swarms. Scientists suspect that pumping too much freshwater from underground aquifers in the region has “unclamped” the Dead Sea Fault, a seismic rift that runs under the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, dividing the vast Arabian and African tectonic plates.

The earthquakes, described by one seismologist as “a wake-up call”, date back to September 2013 when a small quake strong enough to rattle teacups hit northeastern Israel. Four similar tremors followed over the next four days.

Only the Right Can Defeat White Nationalism(Adam Serwer, The Atlantic)
Law-enforcement agencies can arrest terrorists, but they cannot settle existential arguments about the nature of American democracy.

Police Thwarted Six Mass Shootings and White Supremacist Attacks Since El Paso (Sam Levin, Guardian)
In the two weeks since a gunman killed 22 people in El Paso, law enforcement officials say they have thwarted at least six separate mass shootings or white supremacist attacks across the US. At least four of the alleged foiled plots also appeared to involve men espousing far-right viewpoints and racist ideologies, with echoes of the Texas massacre.