Can a Kansas Lab Stop the Next Epidemic? | 2020 DHS Memo on Pandemic & Violence | The Search for Covid-19 “Patient Zero”

The specifics of what that will entail remain unclear. The budget bill is likely months away from becoming law, and the provision could be dropped during negotiations with Senate appropriators on the funding measures.

Taliban’s Rapid Advance Across Afghanistan Puts Key Cities at Risk of Being Overtaken  (Susannah George, Washington Post)
The Taliban’s mounting pressure campaign on key cities across Afghanistan continued Wednesday as fighters battled government forces in the capital of Badghis province, the latest advance in a string of attacks on government-controlled districts since foreign forces began to withdraw in May. Clashes reached the city center Wednesday, but Afghan government officials said the city remains in government control. Videos circulated by Taliban spokesmen showed cheering civilians on the outskirts of Qala-e Nau as dozens of militants sped by on motorcycles. In a video released by the Afghan government, the province’s governor — holding a rifle and wearing an ammunition vest — pledged to defend the city. “The Taliban suffered casualties and were defeated,” Hasamuddin Shams, the provincial governor, said in the video as explosions rumbled in the background. Hours later, Ajmal Omar Shinwari, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s security forces, said the city’s perimeter had been secured. The assault on Badghis comes as the Taliban has besieged the capitals of several provinces across the country by overrunning surrounding districts, according to interviews with local officials.

Nigeria: Boko Haram Killed over 40,000 Nigerians in 20 Years, Says Report  (This Day)
The International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) in collaboration with the International Organisation for Peace Building and Social Justice (PSJ) has published a report on genocide, religious persecution, among other crimes in Nigeria. The report titled ‘Nigeria’s Silent Slaughter: Genocide in Nigeria and the Implications for the International Community,’ revealed how the Boko Haram terrorist group killed more than 40,000 Nigerians. It also exposed the ongoing attack by militants, who according to the report, killed many Nigerians, primarily Christian farmers. Based on the data collected between January 2000 and January 2020, deaths resulting from militant attacks are recorded to be 19,101 across the country. Similarly, 52, 861 is recorded to have been killed by the Boko Haram terrorists’ group, while 44,303 were documented killed by other actors. The report presents researched and documented data and analysis that highlights the critical need for intervention by the United States (coordinated by an empowered presidential envoy) to address this situation in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.

2020 DHS Memo Revealed Strain from Pandemic Would Possibly “Increase Some to Turn to Violence”  (Tom Abrahams, ABC13 News)
In Houston and across much of the country, crime is up. This includes petty crime, violent crime and seemingly random crime.
All of it spiked since the start of the pandemic, and the Department of Homeland Security saw it coming.
It warned about the danger of social isolation which could “increase the vulnerability of some citizens to mobilize to violence” and “could accelerate mobilization to violence with extended periods of social distancing.” The isolation is a “known risk factor” in inciting violent extremism, according to DHS.

DHS Eyes Automation for Secure Communications System  (Kate Macri, Government CIO Media)
The Homeland Security Information Network supports responses to big events like the Super Bowl and emergencies like COVID-19.

From Wuhan to Paris to Milan, the Search for “Patient Zero”  (Eva Dou, Lyric Li, Chico Harlan, Rick Noack, Washington Post)
He did not frequent Wuhan’s Huanan seafood market, he would later tell World Health Organization experts investigating the coronavirus’s origin. He preferred the RT-Mart near his home on the eastern bank of the Yangtze River — a sleek, multistory supermarket where magnetized escalator ramps sweep customers and their shopping carts from floor to floor.
He hadn’t traveled outside of Wuhan in the days before his illness. If someone caught the novel coronavirus by crawling in a bat cave, it wasn’t him.
In the search for the pandemic’s origin, the trail officially ends with Patient S01, China’s first confirmed covid-19 case, whose sparse details were outlined in the joint WHO-China report released in March. He was not a seafood vendor, bat hunter or lab scientist. He was an accountant surnamed Chen who shopped at a very large supermarket.