Our picksISIS Resurgent | Disclosing Risky Disease Experiments | Purpose of Russian Disinformation, and more

Experts: nCoV Spread in China’s Cities Could Trigger Global Epidemic (Lisa Schnirring, CIDRAP)
Experts from Hong Kong today said sustained novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) transmission is under way in China’s largest cities, putting the world on the verge of a global epidemic, as China’s official outbreak total climbed to nearly 3,000.

U.S. Officials Revisit Rules for Disclosing Risky Disease Experiments (Nidhi Subbaraman, Nature)
An expert panel is considering how much to reveal about a largely secret review process of ‘gain-of-function’ research.

The Main Purpose of Russian Disinformation Is to Make Sure Nobody Trusts and Understands Anything (Ukrinform)
Ukrainian experience in fight against Russia in ongoing information warfare is relevant for other countries.

ISIS Takes Advantage of U.S. Hiatus to Stage Comeback, Experts Warn (David Rose, The Times)
Islamic State fighters have staged a series of guerilla attacks in Iraq and Syria during a pause in American and British operations, experts have said.

These Are the Cities Most People Will Move to From Sea-Level Rise (Trevor Nace, Forbes)
Sea-level is rising, causing susceptible coastal cities to experience more extreme floods. These are the cities where people are likely to migrate to from increasingly flooded coastal cities.

New Study Finds Direct Link Between Melting Arctic Ice and Extreme Weather in California (Jay Barmann, San Francisco Gate)
For the first time, climate scientists have illustrated a direct cause-and-effect relationship between melting sea ice in the Arctic and the uptick in extreme weather events and “atmospheric rivers” on the Pacific Coast of the U.S.

The Race to Decipher How Climate Change Influenced Australia’s Record Fires (Nicky Phillips and Bianca Nogrady, Nature)
Researchers have started an attribution study to determine how much global warming is to blame for the blazes that have ravaged the continent.