• IRAN’S NUKESCodifying Support for Nuclear Inspections in Iran

    By David Albright

    The main obstacle for a new nuclear deal with Iran is Iran’s disregard of its safeguards commitments and defiance of standard International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) procedures are more problematic for a nuclear deal. Resolving those outstanding inspection issues offers a far more promising pathway to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons in the long run.

  • CHINA WATCHHow a Fellow of Germany’s Humboldt Foundation Joined China's Military Commission

    By Sandra Petersmann, Esther Felden, Naomi Conrad

    Germany’s Humboldt Research Fellowships are very popular with visiting Chinese scientists. Back in China, some of them go on to do research for the Chinese military. According to the Max Planck Society, “around one-third” of all scientific management positions in China today are held by people who were trained in Germany.

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  • HATE CRIMESDOJ Steps Up Hate Crime Prosecutions

    By Masood Farivar

    DOJ says that with hate crimes on the rise, U.S. federal prosecutors have charged more than 40 people with bias-motivated crimes since January 2021, obtaining over 35 convictions.

  • MASS SHOOTINGThe Buffalo Shooting Suspect Once Threatened a Mass Shooting. Why Wasn’t He Disarmed?

    By Jennifer Mascia

    The Buffalo mass shooter was taken into custody by police last June after he threatened to carry out a shooting at his Western New York high school. He was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and released a couple of days later. None of that prevented him from buying a gun, or keeping the ones he already owned. New York has a red flag law, but it wasn’t invoked.

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  • MASS SHOOTINGAccused Buffalo Mass Shooter Had Threatened a Shooting While in High School. Could More Have Been Done to Avert the Tragedy?

    By James Densley and Jillian Peterson

    There is a $3 billion industry in U.S. school safety focused almost entirely on hardening schools with active shooter drills, metal detectors and armed security. In recent years, however, behavioral threat assessment teams – teams in schools that get troubled people help before they turn to violence – have been touted as key to bridging the gap between hard security and soft prevention.

  • CYBERSECURITYNew Method Kills Cyberattacks in Less Than a Second

    Researchers, using artificial intelligence, new method that could automatically detect and kill cyberattacks on our laptops, computers and smart devices in under a second.

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  • OUR PICKSSummer of Rolling Blackouts | Terrorist Manifestoes | Swiss Spying, and more

    ·  Summer Forecast: Extreme Heat with a Chance of Rolling Blackouts

    ·  Buffalo Gunman’s Video Is Surfacing on Facebook, Sometimes with Ads Beside It.

    ·  Terrorist and Extremist Chants Used to Woo Recruits – Focus of Latest Europol Referral Action Day

    ·  Interagency Officials Prepare for ‘Another Tough Hurricane Season’

    ·  There Aren’t Answers in Terrorist Manifestoes. There’s Only Self-Mythologizing.

    ·  The Terrorist Threat Posed By Lone Actors Is ‘Difficult to Detect,’ Says Federal Report

    ·  Swiss Plan to Let Spy Agency Snoop on Security Risk Financial Flows

    ·  Just Before Buffalo Shooting, 15 Users Signed into Suspect’s Chatroom, Says Person Familiar with Review

    ·  Climate-Fueled Heat Waves Will Hamper Western Hydropower

  • PUBLIC HEALTHU.S. Tracks Monkeypox Case Tied to Recent Canadian Travel

    By Stephanie Soucheray

    US officials have confirmed a case of monkeypox in a Massachusetts resident who had recently traveled to Canada. This is the first monkeypox case detected this year in the United States. In 2021, both Maryland and Texas reported single cases in residents who had recently traveled to Nigeria, where the virus is endemic.

  • CHINA WATCHEuropean Academics Helping China's Military

    By Naomi Conrad, Esther Felden, and Sandra Petersmann

    European researchers have cooperated with China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). The NUDT’s purpose is to “Strengthen the Armed Forces and the Nation.” An investigation by 10 European news outlets has found nearly 3,000 scientific publications by researchers affiliated with European universities and their counterparts at military-linked institutions in China — most notably the NUDT.

  • MASS SHOOTERSA Quest for Significance Gone Horribly Wrong – How Mass Shooters Pervert a Universal Desire to Make a Difference in the World

    By Arie Kruglanski

    There is a mental and psychological dimension to the problem of mass shooting, to be sure, but it is not illness or pathology. It is the universal human quest for significance and respect – the mother, I believe, of all social motives.

  • AIRPOR SECURITYComputer Code to Speed Up Airport Security

    Imagine moving through airport security without having to take off your shoes or belt or getting pulled aside. Researchers are working on the Open Threat Assessment Platform, which allows the Transportation Security Administration to respond more quickly and easily to threats to air travel safety.

  • CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIESStrengthen Advanced Manufacturing for Critical and Emerging Technologies

    NIST has awarded a total of $2.08 million to seven organizations in six states to develop manufacturing technology roadmaps to strengthen U.S. innovation and productivity. Each award will fund projects for up to 18 months to address national priorities such as manufacturing of critical infrastructure, communication, and transformative approaches and technologies in construction.

  • CRITICAL MINERALSThe "Rock-to-Metal Ratio" of Critical Minerals

    A new metric to quantify the amount of waste rock generated by mining for minerals essential to 21st century society has been created by the U.S. Geological Survey and Apple.

  • DAMSFEMA Funding Opportunities for Dam Safety

    There are 90,000 dams in the United States, many of them old and poorly maintained. FEMA will commit $33 million for two funding opportunities to enhance dam safety efforts across the United States.

  • OUR PICKSAbortion Ruling & Violence | Giving Old Dams New Life | Curbing Domestic Terrorism, and more

    ·  U.S. Warns Abortion Ruling Could Increase Extremist Violence

    ·  The Hunt: Connection Between Buffalo Shooting and Christchurch, New Zealand, Terror Attack

    ·  House Passes Legislation Aimed at Curbing Domestic Terrorism in Wake of Buffalo Mass Shooting

    ·  Islamic State in Afghanistan Building Capability to Strike on US Soil, Pentagon IG Says

    ·  Giving Old Dams New Life Could Spark an Energy Boom

    ·  Tech Firms Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Block Texas Social Media law

    ·  State to Gain More Ability to Monitor DOD Cyber Ops Under White House Agreement

  • SWAT TEAMSSWAT Team Members as Amateur Inventors Who Make a Difference

    SWAT teams routinely enter dangerous situations where they need to make difficult, potentially life-and-death decisions. Such challenging circumstances present opportunities for innovation, and these first responders are often amateur inventors as well.

  • CHINA WATCHCalifornia Church Shooting Exposes Little-Known Tension Between Two Groups of Taiwanese

    By Ralph Jennings

    Americans of Taiwanese descent belong to two distinct groups: Members of the first group come from families which had lived in Taiwan for hundreds of years. Members of the second group descend from families who were part of a wave of people from China who were exiled to Taiwan in the 1940s under the Chinese Nationalist government as the Communists took over mainland China. Members of the first group vehemently oppose China, while members of the second group are more conciliatory toward China and its regional ambitions. The two groups’ historical differences and ongoing tensions became evident on Sunday in a shootout at a Taiwanese Presbyterian church gathering in Southern California.

  • TERRORISMUkraine War: Will the Islamic State Benefit?

    By Cathrin Schaer

    The terrorist group has said it will take advantage of the fact that the West is distracted by war in Ukraine. But any advantage it will get from the war likely has less to do with terrorism, and more with economics.

  • BIORISKSGain-of-Function Studies Need Stricter Guidance: Researchers

    Researchers and biosecurity specialists are calling on the U.S. government to issue clearer guidance about experiments the government might fund which would make pathogens more transmissible or deadly.

  • BIORISKSAs Science Evolves, Policy Framework Needs to as Well

    In late February, the NIH and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy asked the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity NSABB to make swift progress on its long-overdue review. The panel plans to draft a report outlining its recommendations by the end of the year.

  • PANDEMICSClimate Change Could Spark the Next Pandemic

    As the Earth’s climate continues to warm, researchers predict wild animals will be forced to relocate their habitats — likely to regions with large human populations — dramatically increasing the risk of a viral jump to humans that could lead to the next pandemic.

  • DROUGHTDroughts Self-Propagate, Just Like Wildfires

    Unlike other weather extremes such as hurricanes or winter storms, droughts affect humans in most climatic zones around the world; from the arid steppes of the Sahel to the humid rainforests of Amazonia. Moreover, droughts are expected to intensify in many regions following global warming.