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WILDFIRESDecayed Power Pole Sparked the Largest Wildfire in State History, Texas House Committee Confirms
A decayed utility pole that broke, causing power wires to fall on dry grass in the Texas Panhandle, sparked the state’s largest wildfire in history. A lack of air support and ineffective coordination hurt efforts to contain this year’s Panhandle fires, the committee said.
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NUCLEAR WEAPONSTrump-proofing NATO: Why Europe’s Current Nuclear Deterrents May Not Be Enough to Face Biggest Threats Since WWII
NATO’s concerns about Trump’s re-election were heightened by his flippant comment in February that he would encourage Russia to do whatever it wanted, if certain countries didn’t pay up, defying NATO’s principle that an attack on one constituted an attack on all. Trump’s comments represent a seismic departure for US foreign policy. No US president has made these types of threats before about its commitment to NATO, and this has forced Europe to prepare to deal with Russian aggression without US support.
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NUCLEAR DETERRENCEIs Nuclear Deterrence Ethical and Legal?
To state the obvious the nuclear situation will become more manageable and tolerable when great power relations are relaxed. When and if current tensions ease it would be wise to look for ways to reduce even more the risks of a nuclear calamity. If the weapons cannot be completely eliminated, however, then neither can the risks of the worst imaginable outcomes. Little can be gained by pretending otherwise.
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BORDER SECURITYAs Texas' Border Security Efforts Succeed, California is ‘New Epicenter' of Crisis
With the success of Texas’ border security mission Operation Lone Star pushing human trafficking efforts by Mexican cartels further west, southern California is “the new epicenter” of illegal immigration, officials say. California has greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entering U.S.
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IRAN’S THREATU.S. Sanctions on Iranian Hackers Highlight Growing Concern About the Islamic Republic’s Cyberwarriors
A feature of the simmering tensions between the US, Israel and Iran has been not just the tit-for-tat missile and drone strikes and assassinations, but accusations of cyberwarfare waged by Iran.
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CHIP WARWhat Is the CHIPS Act?
Extraordinary U.S. government incentives are proving popular with many large chipmakers, but it is too early to tell how much of the semiconductor industry can be lured back to the United States.
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CHIP WARWhy Japan Is Investing in Semiconductors Once More
Japan was once the world’s leading chip manufacturer. Now, concerns over supply chains and geopolitical tensions have prompted the government to provide funding for foreign firms and domestic manufacturers.
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TERRORISMOn the Horizon: The Future of the Jihadi Movement
Factors of continuity, such as anti-regime grievances, the appeal of religious ideology, and the ability to hurt, are likely to maintain jihadism as a viable resistance ideology. Jihadism is still a powerful force and is making inroads in various regions, and a more modest jihadi strategy with a regional focus is offering jihadis a new path forward, but also suggests that a sustainable jihadi success would require moderation that is simply antithetical to the nature of the ideology.
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ENERGY SECURITYHow Artificial Intelligence Can Transform U.S. Energy Infrastructure
Groundbreaking report provides ambitious framework for accelerating clean energy deployment while minimizing risks and costs in the face of climate change.
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OUR PICKSThe Menace of Nuclear Annihilation | America’s Infectious-Disease Barometer Is Off | The Push to Ban TikTok Spurred a New Washington Influence Machine, and more
· Voters, Please Think About the Menace of Nuclear Annihilation
The speed at which nuclear war will unfold, and then escalate, all but guarantees that it will end in civilizational collapse· How the Push to Ban TikTok Spurred a New Washington Influence Machine
The tech moguls and defense contractors behind the Hill and Valley Forum aim to expand their impact, prepping an executive order that would dismantle the Biden administration’s rules on artificial intelligence· America’s Infectious-Disease Barometer Is Off
Somehow, the U.S. is both over- and under-reacting to bird flu and other pressing infectious threats· Donald Trump Vows to Prosecute Biden ‘for All His Crimes’
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee pledges to appoint ‘real special prosecutor’ to investigate president, who he says is at center of a ‘crime family’· Bill Would Alert Immigration When Non-citizen Tries to Buy Guns
Nearly 15 million people living in or entering the country illegally are on an FBI list prohibiting purchase of firearms· Without Indonesia’s Nickel, EVs Have No Future in America
The IRA and Senate opposition to a free trade deal with Jakarta are undermining the United States’ green transition· New York Woman Gets 18 Years for Funding Terrorism with Cryptocurrency
Prosecutors said Victoria Jacobs sent funds to Bitcoin wallets controlled by a terrorist training group that operated in Syria -
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WORLD ROUNDUPWhy China Is So Bad at Disinformation | How Globalization Rose and Fell with Nord Stream | Most Americans See TikTok as a Chinese Influence Tool, and more
· China’s Electric Cars Keep Improving, a Worry for Rivals Elsewhere
More capable autonomous driving is just one way Chinese automakers are threatening to pull ahead — their E.V.s are also becoming bigger and roomier· Elon Musk Can’t Solve Tesla’s China Crisis with His Desperate Asia Visit
Tesla’s deal with Baidu isn’t new, the mapping data Tesla will collect likely can’t leave China, and Full Self-Driving can’t compete with the more advanced Chinese alternatives· Why China Is So Bad at Disinformation
China’s state-sponsored disinformation campaign has been running at a massive scale for seven years—but no one is looking at it· How Globalization Rose and Fell with Nord Stream
The pipeline bringing Russian gas to Europe was once seen as a triumph for borderless business—but Putin’s invasion of Ukraine put an end to that fantasy· As South Korea Comes Knocking — Will AUKUS Become the Asian NATO?
Several Pacific nations are interested in joining Britain, America and Australia’s security pact to work on weapons and tech. Is it worth China’s wrath?· Global Elections in the Shadow of Neoliberalism
The neoliberal orthodoxy – government downsizing, tax cuts, deregulation – that took hold some 40 years ago in the West was supposed to strengthen democracy, not weaken it. What went wrong?· Reuters/Ipsos Poll: Most Americans See TikTok as a Chinese Influence Tool
Americans believe that the Chinese government uses TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, to “influence American public opinion”·Rwanda Gen Zs Combat Lingering Hate Speech
Over 100 days in 1994, Hutu extremists massacred some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus· Negative Views of China Persist in US, Report Finds
81% of Americans have an unfavorable view of China, including 43% who hold a very unfavorable view of the country -
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DISINFORMATIONX's Crowdsourced Tool to Counter COVID Untruths mainly accurate, credible: Researchers
Community Notes, a crowdsourced COVID-19 vaccine misinformation countermeasure on X (formerly Twitter), generally corrected false posts accurately and pointed readers to more credible sources, according to researchers who evaluated the posts.
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CYBERSECURITYComputer Scientists Unveil Novel Attacks on Cybersecurity
Researchers have found two novel types of attacks that target the conditional branch predictor found in high-end Intel processors, which could be exploited to compromise billions of processors currently in use. Intel and AMD issued security alerts based on the findings.
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GRID SECURITYNew Cybersecurity Center to Protect Grids Integrated with Renewables, Microgrids
Bringing renewable energy to the power grid raises all kinds of “internet-of-things” issues because “everything is connected,” says an expert. Solar inverters are connected to the internet. Wind farm controllers are connected to the internet. And with each internet connection, energy resources distributed across the countryside are potentially vulnerable to cyberattacks.
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GRID SECURITYFirst Regional Cybersecurity Center to Protect the Nation’s Electricity Grid
U.S. Department of Energy awards $10 million grant to develop innovative solutions to mitigating cyber threats across the U.S. A new center will bring together experts from the private sector, academia and government to share information and generate innovative real-world solutions to protect the nation’s power grid and other key sectors.
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WATER SECURITYFor the Colorado River and Beyond, a New Market Could Save the Day
The Colorado River, “the lifeblood of the West,” is in trouble. Decades of overuse and drought have sharply reduced its water supply, threatening an ecosystem that supports 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland. Stanford economist Paul Milgrom won a Nobel Prize in part for his role in enabling today’s mobile world. Now he’s tackling a different 21st century challenge: water scarcity.
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ENERGY SECURITYRivers Are the West’s Largest Source of Clean Energy. What Happens When Drought Strikes?
With rivers across the West running low, utilities must get creative if they are to meet demand without increasing emissions.
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OUR PICKSTrump Refuses to Rule Out Post-Election Violence | Airports Insider Threat | Why is Mexico Helping to Solve Biden’s Border Problem, and more
· Trump Again Vows Mass Deportations and Won’t Rule Out Political Violence
Trump refused to rule out violence if he were to lose the November election: “It always depends on the fairness of an election,” he said, declining to call on his supporters not to resort to violence again· The White House Has a New Master Plan to Stop Worst-Case Scenarios
President Joe Biden has updated the directives to protect US critical infrastructure against major threats, from cyberattacks to terrorism to climate change· Airports, Insider Threat, and the Challenges of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)
One of the most difficult threats to mitigate is an insider threat· Countering the Threat: Lone Wolves, Homemade Explosives, and the Path to a Safer Future
Defending against lone wolves and homemade explosives· Why is Mexico Helping to Solve Biden’s Border Problem?
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has picked his side in the November U.S. election· The Threat of “AI Safety” to American AI Leadership
Instead of harnessing the positive potential of AI, a new regime of rules and regulations mandated in the name of “AI Safety” actively threatens the technology’s promise· The Dangerous Rise of GPS Attacks
Thousands of planes and ships are facing GPS jamming and spoofing. Experts warn these attacks could potentially impact critical infrastructure, communication networks, and more -
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WORLD ROUNDUPHow Will AI Change Cyber Operations? | Appeasement Is Underrated | The Militarization of Latin American Security, and more
· UN Court Rules German Military Aid to Israel Can Continue
The UN top court has opted not to implement emergency measures limiting German assistance for Israel. Nicaragua had filed charges that German arms supplies to Israel were enabling acts of “genocide”· The Militarization of Latin American Security, Then and Now
Countries are turning to their armed forces to tackle domestic instability. That might have worked a century ago, but the circumstances have changed· Why No “Plain Statement Rule” Bars a President’s Prosecution for Murder
It’s simple: the supposed “plain statement rule” doesn’t exist· How Will AI Change Cyber Operations?
The U.S. government somehow seems to be both optimistic and pessimistic about the impact of AI on cyber operations· Xi Believes China Can Win a Scientific Revolution
Beijing’s techno-nationalist policies are more geopolitical than economic· Appeasement Is Underrated
Rejecting diplomacy by citing Neville Chamberlain’s deal with the Nazis is a willfully ignorant use of history -
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GAZA PROTESTSLawmakers Call for Accountability Over Pro-Hamas Campus Violence
Pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses have become increasingly intense, and even violent in recent days, pushing lawmakers to call for a change. Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) has, along with Tim Scott (R-S.C.), introduced the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act, which would end federal funding for colleges and universities “that support, authorize, or facilitate events that promote antisemitism.”
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RUSSIAN DISINFORMATIONRussia Accuses Ukrainian Energy Company Linked to Hunter Biden of Financing Terror
Russia’s top investigative body said it had opened a probe into a Ukrainian company that formerly had ties to the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, in what likely is an effort to spread disinformation in the midst of the heated U.S. presidential election campaign.
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ARGUMENT: RUSSIAN DISINFORMATIONDon’t Buy Moscow’s Shameless Campaign Tying Biden to Its Terrorist Attack
Russia has offered many different explanations to the ISIS-K’s 22 March 2024 terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, but the most recent explanation offered by Russia is the most audacious yet: Russia now charges that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma financed the attack. Burisma is at the center of an effort by a congressional committee to impeach President Biden, but the case has all but collapsed. Hunter Stoll writes that Russia’s disinformation and propaganda apparatus appears to be searching for ways to keep Burisma in the news ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
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The long view
DEMOCRACY WATCHPreventing Another 'Jan. 6' Starts by Changing How Elections Are Certified, Experts Say
By Sara Savat
The 2024 presidential election may be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, but preventing a repeat of Jan. 6, 2021 — when false claims of a stolen election promoted by Donald Trump and his allies led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol —will be top of mind this election year. Research finds broad support among public for nonpartisan certification commissions.
ELECTION SECURITYStates Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
By Zachary Roth
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.
RANSOMWARERansomware Attacks: Death Threats, Endangered Patients and Millions of Dollars in Damages
By Dino Jahic
A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and deals with 1 in 3 patient records in the United States, is continuing to cause massive disruptions nearly three weeks later. The incident, which started on February 21, has been called the “most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system” by the American Hospital Association. It is just the latest example of an increasing trend.
CHINA WATCHChinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLESAutonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks
Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.
CYBERDETERRENCETantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
By Trina West
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
AIRPORT SECURITYPrototype Self-Service Screening System Unveiled
TSA and DHS S&T unveiled a prototype checkpoint technology, the self-service screening system, at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV. The aim is to provide a near self-sufficient passenger screening process while enabling passengers to directly receive on-person alarm information and allow for the passenger self-resolution of those alarms.
SPACE DEBRISFalling Space Debris: How High Is the Risk I'll Get Hit?
By Zulfikar Abbany, Julia Vergin, and Katja Sterzik
An International Space Station battery fell back to Earth and, luckily, splashed down harmlessly in the Atlantic. Should we have worried? Space debris reenters our atmosphere every week.
WILDFIRESUsing Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires
Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.
DRONESTesting Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
IMMIGRATIONSocial Acceptance of Immigrants Working as Politicians or Judges Is Low
Often, the dominant society develops negative attitudes towards immigrants and their descendants because their integration is too successful – and not because they are unwilling to integrate. A possible explanation for negative attitudes towards successful immigrants could be the dominant society’s fear of immigrants occupying influential and value-based occupations. This applies, for example, for immigrants working in local politics or law.
ENERGY SECURITYStrengthening the Grid’s ‘Backbone’ with Hydropower
By Michael Matz
Argonne-led studies investigate how hydropower could help add more clean energy to the grid, how it generates value as grids add more renewable energy, and how liner technology can improve hydropower efficiency.
ARMS TRADEEuropean Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
ENERGY SECURITYLNG Exports Have Had No Impact on Domestic Energy Costs: Analysis
U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports have not had any sustained and significant direct impact on U.S. natural gas prices and have, in fact, spurred production and productivity gains, which contribute to downward pressure on domestic prices.
CLIMATE CHANGE & NATIONAL SECURITYHow Climate Change Will Affect Conflict and U.S. Military Operations
By Doug Irving
“People talk about climate change as a threat multiplier,” said Karen Sudkamp, an associate director of the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program within the RAND Homeland Security Research Division. “But at what point do we need to start talking about the threat multiplier actually becoming a significant threat all its own?”
TECH APOCALYPSEThe Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies
By Matthew Guariglia
From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.