• The Train Derailment in Ohio Was a Disaster Waiting to Happen

    The derailment of a freight train filled with volatile chemicals in rural Ohio earlier this month captured the headlines, but researchers and chemical spill experts say it’s a situation that plays out far too often across the country. Trains carry hazardous chemicals everyday. They’re also dangerously unregulated.

  • Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology

    Forget the “Malacca dilemma,” that is, how China protects the narrow strait linking the Indian and Pacific oceans, which is the conduit for around 60% of China’s oil imports. These days, Chris Miller writes in his new book, China’s leaders are more concerned about a blockade “measured in bytes rather than barrels.”

  • How One of the World's Most Popular Open-Source Security Monitoring Platforms Was Developed

    A tool from the internet’s early days keeps Microsoft’s users secure while supporting the open-source paradigm.

  • 2023 Border Security & Intelligence Summit

    Defense Strategies Institute announced its 11th Annual Border Security & Intelligence Summit. This forum will bring together DHS, IC, Federal Agencies, and Industry to discuss the protection of U.S borders through enhanced technology and intelligence solutions.

  • One Year After: How Putin Got Germany Wrong

    Vladimir Putin has made many strategic mistakes, but one misjudgment stands out: Germany. Putin considered Germany too dependent on Russian energy, too weak militarily, and too business-minded to mount any significant resistance to his war. He was wrong. Germany, once dangerously dependent on Russian energy, has defied Russian expectations in its reaction to war in Ukraine.

  • Americans’ Trust in News Continues to Decline – but Local News Are Much More Trusted Than National News

    A new study explores the disconnect between newsrooms’ efforts to rebuild the public’s trust and the continued decline of confidence in that effort. The study distinguishes between the practical and emotional dimensions of trust, and finds that that more than twice as many Americans have higher emotional trust in local news than in national news.

  • Homes in Flood Zones Are Overvalued by Billions: Study

    Flooding is a costly and deadly natural hazard across the United States, and climate change will only make floods more frequent and more destructive. Failure to account for climate change means low-income homeowners could see their home values plunge.

  • Is China’s Huawei a Threat to U.S. National Security?

    The Chinese telecommunications company, a world leader in 5G technology and smartphones, faces accusations that the Chinese intelligence services can use – and have used — its 5G infrastructure for espionage. The U.S. and other Western countries have effectively banned Huawei from building their 5G networks, but it remains popular in low-income countries. The outcome of the struggle could shape the world’s tech landscape for years to come.

  • Looking for Critical Minerals in Mine Waste

    Mine waste is the material left over after mining. It consists of tailings, the material that remains after mined ore is milled and concentrated, as well as the topsoil, waste rock and other materials that were removed to get to the ore. Some critical-mineral commodities, like rare earth elements, are known to occur alongside more commonly mined minerals like iron or nickel. Because of this, mine-waste sites are now being revisited.

  • China-Owned Parent Company of TikTok Among Top Spenders on Internet Lobbying

    ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of social media platform TikTok, has dramatically upped its U.S. lobbying effort since 2020 as U.S.-China relations continue to sour and is now the fourth-largest Internet company in spending on federal lobbying as of last year, according to newly released data.

  • Securing Supply Chains with Quantum Computing

    The Russo-Ukrainian conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic have shown how vulnerable global supply chains can be. International events can disrupt manufacturing, delay shipping, induce panic buying and send energy costs soaring. Programming technique could help solve massive optimization problems.

  • How Dangerous Is TikTok?

    The rapid ascent of the Chinese video-streaming app TikTok has alarmed lawmakers and privacy watchdogs around the world. What are they worried about? Why is TikTok in the crosshairs of so many authorities and monitoring bodies.

  • Deepfakes Could Create Audience Trust Issues

    Deepfakes could ‘shatter’ moviegoers’ trust and lead to big job cuts in the film industry. That’s the verdict from deepfake expert after it was revealed the latest development in the technology is set to be used in “Here,” an upcoming film starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis.

  • U.S. Nonfuel Mineral Production Jumps $3.6 Billion in 2022

    U.S. mines produced approximately $98.2 billion in nonfuel mineral commodities in 2022—an estimated $3.6 billion increase over the 2021 revised total of $94.6 billion.

  • U.S. Debt Default Could Trigger Dollar’s Collapse – and Severely Erode America’s Political and Economic Might

    Brinkmanship over the debt ceiling has become a regular ritual. As an economist, I know that defaulting on the national debt would have real-life consequences. Even the threat of pushing the U.S. into default has an economic impact. In August 2021, the mere prospect of a potential default led to an unprecedented downgrade of the nation’s credit rating, hurting America’s financial prestige as well as countless individuals, including retirees. And that was caused by the mere specter of default. An actual default would be far more damaging.