• WILDFIRESDecayed Power Pole Sparked the Largest Wildfire in State History, Texas House Committee Confirms

    By Jayme Lozano Carver

    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.

  • NUCLEAR WEAPONSTrump-proofing NATO: Why Europe’s Current Nuclear Deterrents May Not Be Enough to Face Biggest Threats Since WWII

    By Natasha Lindstaedt

    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.

  • NUCLEAR DETERRENCEIs Nuclear Deterrence Ethical and Legal?

    By Larence Freedman

    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.

  • BORDER SECURITYAs Texas' Border Security Efforts Succeed, California is ‘New Epicenter' of Crisis

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    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.

  • IRAN’S THREATU.S. Sanctions on Iranian Hackers Highlight Growing Concern About the Islamic Republic’s Cyberwarriors

    By Vasileios Karagiannopoulos and Iain Reid

    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.

  • CHIP WARWhat Is the CHIPS Act?

    By Michelle Kurilla

    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. 

  • CHIP WARWhy Japan Is Investing in Semiconductors Once More

    By Julian Ryall

    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.

  • TERRORISMOn the Horizon: The Future of the Jihadi Movement

    By Barak Mendelsohn

    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.

  • ENERGY SECURITYHow Artificial Intelligence Can Transform U.S. Energy Infrastructure

    By Michael Kooi

    Groundbreaking report provides ambitious framework for accelerating clean energy deployment while minimizing risks and costs in the face of climate change.

  • 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

  • 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

  • DISINFORMATIONX's Crowdsourced Tool to Counter COVID Untruths mainly accurate, credible: Researchers

    By Mary Van Beusekom

    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.

  • CYBERSECURITYComputer Scientists Unveil Novel Attacks on Cybersecurity

    By Katie Ismael

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • WATER SECURITYFor the Colorado River and Beyond, a New Market Could Save the Day

    By Krysten Crawford

    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.

  • ENERGY SECURITYRivers Are the West’s Largest Source of Clean Energy. What Happens When Drought Strikes?

    By Syris Valentine

    With rivers across the West running low, utilities must get creative if they are to meet demand without increasing emissions.

  • 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

  • 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

  • GAZA PROTESTSLawmakers Call for Accountability Over Pro-Hamas Campus Violence

    By Casey Harper, The Center Square

    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.”

  • 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.

  • 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.