• BORDERSU.S. DHS Chief Warns Borders Being Rendered Meaningless

    By Jeff Seldin

    America’s borders – and borders in general – are no longer sufficient to help protect the United States from a variety of evolving threats, including foreign wars, according to a grim assessment by DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

  • IMMIGRATIONU.S. Immigration Has Become an Elaborate Bait and Switch

    By Edward Alden

    The United States is relying on its engineering and science talent to stay ahead of China in what has become an existential struggle to lead in the industries of the future. At U.S. universities, international students make up 74 percent of graduate electrical engineering students, 72 percent of computer and information science students, and half or more students in pharmaceutical sciences, mathematics, and statistics. Yet, the U.S. Congress has not revised immigration quotas since 1965, when the U.S. population was almost 140 million people smaller. Nor has Congress revisited the rules for highly educated immigrants since 1990—which was before the U.S. information technology sector created millions of new jobs in technical fields that have attracted so many immigrant scientists and engineers.

  • NORTH KOREANorth Korea’s Nuclear Program Is Funded by Stolen Cryptocurrency. Could It Collapse Now That FTX Has?

    By James Jin Kang

    Kim Jong-un’s military operation hackers have been stealing cryptocurrency to support North Korea’s nuclear and missile program for several years. But with the general downturn in the crypto market, coupled with the recent FTX collapse and myriad other pitfalls, analysts estimate North Korea has probably lost most of its crypto haul. Can we expect its nuclear weapons development to come to a halt, or slow down? It seems unlikely.

  • EXTREMISMStanford’s David A. Sklansky on Oath Keepers’ Seditious Conspiracy Convictions

    “Seditious conspiracy is a very serious crime. It means, basically, plotting to use force against the government of the United States, says Professor David A. Sklansky, criminal justice expert at Stanford Law School. These convictions “represented the jury’s unanimous conclusion, beyond a reasonable doubt, that what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, wasn’t an innocent protest, but a criminal attack on the authority of the United States government.”

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  • RARE EARTH ELEMENTS (REEs)Australia and Its Partners Must Do more to Avoid Dependence on China for Rare Earths

    By John Coyne and Justin Bassi

    Low labor costs, indifference to the environmental impacts of mineral processing, and the rest of the world dropping the ball while focusing on other issues allowed Beijing to achieve global dominance of critical-minerals markets, with almost 80% control of rare earths and up to 94% of other critical minerals like magnesium. The global markets for rare-earth elements and critical minerals are shaping to be the next economic hot zone for the Chinese Communist Party—and for the security of the world’s advanced economies.

  • ENERGY SECURITYRenewable Power’s Growth Is Being Turbocharged as Countries Seek Energy Security

    The global energy crisis has triggered unprecedented momentum behind renewables, with the world set to add as much renewable power in the next 5 years as it did in the past 20

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  • OUR PICKSExtremists Target the U.S. Power Grid | Higher Immigration of Higher Interest Rates | Solar Geoengineering, and more

    ··Attacks on U.S. Power Grid Have Been Subject of Extremist Chatter for Years. DHS Bulletin Warns Oof Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Amid Other Targets
    Attacks on the U.S. power grid have been the subject of extremist chatter for some time

    ··Higher Immigration or Higher Interest Rates for America?
    More immigrants means a dynamic economy with lower interest rates

    ··The Military Fielded Over 200 Domestic Extremism Reports Last Year
    The U.S. military is opening more investigations into cases of domestic extremism

    ··TamTam Deletes Channels Promoting Neo-Nazi Accelerationism and Terror
    TamTam trying to curb a wave of extremists’ channels

    ··Los Angeles Bans New Oil Wells, Plans to Close Existing Ones
    Move is part of an oil phaseout trend in California

    ··Solar Geoengineering: The Case for Research Part II
    Interest is growing in geoengineering as a potential way to mitigate climate impacts

    ··Court Implodes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Defense (and the Errant Judge Who Bought It)
    The timeline makes clear how careful and even deferential prosecutors were

    ··How the Supreme Court Could Reshape Social Media
    When can tech giants be held civilly liable for content posted to their platforms?

  • WORLD ROUNDUPWar Over Taiwan? | Why Germany Won’t Go Nuclear | The Cuban Embargo Was a Failure from the Beginning, and more

    ··War Over Taiwan?
    Strengthening U.S. longstanding policy of “double deterrence”

    ··Only Russia’s Decisive Loss on the Battlefield Will End the Ukraine War
    The invasion is about much more than one country attacking another

    ··Preparing for a Russian Cyber Offensive Against Ukraine This Winter
    The world should be prepared for several lines of potential Russian attack in the digital domain

    ··Why Germany Won’t Go Nuclear
    Germany is unlikely to opt for developing nuclear weapons

    ··The Cuban Embargo Was a Failure from the Beginning
    The Cuban embargo continues because of contemporary American political dynamics

    ··Biden Can’t Denounce Russia’s Annexations and Ignore Israel’s
    U.S. has always opposed forcible land grabs – and the Golan Heights should not be an exception

    ··The Khmer Rouge Tribunal is Closing its Doors: Here’s What to Know About its Final Case
    The tribunal is winding down after 16 years of operation and three defendants sentenced

    ··Fighting and Winning in the Electromagnetic Spectrum
    The electromagnetic spectrum is a critical aspect of American and Western airpower

  • IRAN’S NUKESIran Building Nuclear Weapons

    By David Albright

    Rather than a traditional nuclear weapons program, Iran threatens the world with a program ready to produce nuclear weapons “on-demand.” Its readiness program poses a difficult challenge to the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Understanding the pace of Iran building nuclear weapons matters, in particular, for designing strategies against Iran moving to construct them.

  • CYBERSECURITYNew ‘Faraday Cage’ Research Facility to Help Combat Digital Crime

    University of Huddersfield installing a new facility named the ‘Faraday Cage’ which will help speed-up the development and testing of new digital forensic processes to help law enforcement meet the huge growth rate in digital crime.

  • COASTAL CHALLENGESMajority of California's Coastal Airports Are Vulnerable to Increased Flooding Caused by Climate Change

    Most of California’s population and its largest airports are located along the Pacific coastline, which is increasingly impacted by storm surges, sea level rise, and erosion due to climate change. In the next 30 years, sea level along the coast is expected to rise as much as 8 inches.

  • CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES&T Makes Headway on Infrastructure Investment

    By Brannan Villee

    Critical infrastructure is the backbone of life as we know it here in the U.S.—there are, of course, the roads and highways we travel, but also the electric grids that power our lives and livelihoods, the public transit systems that facilitate connection, the cyber networks that enable commerce and communication, and much, much more.

  • LANDSLIDESLandslide Risk Remains Long After an Earthquake

    Satellite observations have revealed that weak seismic ground shaking can trigger powerful landslide acceleration – even several years after a significant earthquake.

  • FLOODSGlobal Warming Doubled the Risk for Copenhagen’s historic 2011 Cloudburst

    On 2 July 2011, the Danish capital Copenhagen suffered a cloudburst of historic proportions, causing damage and destruction costing billions of kroner. Researchers have used detailed weather models to clearly tie increased temperatures to that historic cloudburst.

  • OUR PICKSNormalizing Hate | Weapons Deliveries to the Cyber Domain | Did al-Qaeda Die with Ayman al-Zawahiri?, and more

    ··‘Targeted’ N.C. Substation Gun Attack Comes Amid Escalating Critical Infrastructure Threats

    Attacks resulted in multiple equipment failures

    ··Antisemitic Celebrities Stoke Fears of Normalizing Hate
    A surge of anti-Jewish vitriolis stoking fears that public figures are normalizing hate

    ··Hate Speech’s Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find
    Conversations on Twitter have changed since Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the company

    ··TamTam Deletes Channels Promoting Neo-Nazi Accelerationism and Terror
    Russia-based messenger platform trying to clean up its act

    ··Cyber and Physical Threats Illuminate Need for Security Convergence in Energy Sector
    Energy providers deal in the dynamic world of dispersed generation, distribution, and transmission operations

    ··The Benefits and Risks of Extending Weapons Deliveries to the Cyber Domain
    Cyber weapons supplies could already be occurring in secret

    ··Did al-Qaeda Die with Ayman al-Zawahiri?
    They failure of ai-Qaeda to chooses a successor to Ayman al-Zawahiri  suggests that the organizations is weak

  • OUR PICKSISIS Made Africa Its Second Home | How to Stop the Next World War | Mexico’s Dying Democracy, and more

    ··‘We Need to Wake Up’: How ISIS Made Africa Its Second Home
    ISIS increasing its activities in Africa

    ··How to Stop the Next World War
    A strategy to restore America’s military deterrence

    ··Russia’s Assault on Ukraine Exposes US, Allied Gaps in Preparing for Great-Power War
    The extraordinary Russian offensive served as a necessary wakeup call for the United States and the West to prepare for the ugly necessities of this new era of great-power competition

    ··Turkey’s Future Drone Carriers
    Ankara is now pursuing the development of fully-fledged drone carriers

    ··A Plan to Push Back Against China’s Practices
    China’s illegal fishing fleet has made large, capable vessels readily available to its maritime militia

    ··Mexico’s Dying Democracy
    AMLO and the Toll of Authoritarian Populism

    ··Militant Democracy Stages a Comeback in Brazil
    Brazil’s judiciary has successfully employed the latest tools in a long tradition of militant democracies

  • INDUSTRIAL POLICYIs Industrial Policy Making a Comeback?

    By Anshu Siripurapu and Noah Berman

    Industrial policy refers to government efforts to support particular industries that are considered strategically important, such as manufacturing. It has been employed in many countries, including the United States, though it fell out of favor in the 1980s. The Biden administration has pushed to support advanced manufacturing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tumult in global supply chains, and the rise of China., in the process renewing the debate about the U.S. government’s role in shaping the economy.

  • THREAT SPECTRUMMajor Global Security Challenges

    By Joshua Dunne, Jasmine Latimore, Yvonne Lau, Hsi-Ting Pai, Stephan Robin and Ben Stevens

    What are the major threats the world is facing? Researchers highlight five such threats: The growing role of disinformation; attacks on the idea of democracy; environmental challenges; economic instability; and terrorism – both domestic and foreign.

  • EXTREMISMOath Keepers Members Found Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy

    Two leaders of the Oath Keepers were found guilty by a jury Tuesday, 29 November, of seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

  • EXTREMISMWhat Is Seditious Conspiracy?

    By Masood Farivar

    The conviction on Tuesday of militia leader Stewart Rhodes in connection with the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol marks the first time in more than two decades that the Justice Department has successfully used a criminal charge known as “seditious conspiracy.”

  • EXTREMISMOath Keepers Convictions Shed Light on the Limits of Free Speech – and the Threat Posed by Militias

    By Amy Cooter

    The conviction of two leaders of the Oath Keepers militia for seditious conspiracy – a rarely used, Civil War-era charge typically reserved in recent decades for terror plots – are the most significant yet relating to the violent storming of the Capitol, and have meaning that extends beyond those who were on trial. The Oath Keepers convictions illuminate two crucial issues facing the country: the limits of the American right to free speech and the future of the militia movement.

  • WIND RESISTANCEGone with the Wind? Huskers Investigate Mystery of Last Standing Grain Bin

    By Scott Schrage

    More than 750,000 steel silos and bins are estimated to pepper rural America, often standing empty before filling up on the annual harvest. Most cannot withstanding winds of 100-plus miles per hour – but some can.