Pentagon’s New UFO Office | Practicing Asteroid Deflection | Saving Colorado River Water, and more

Emergency Watershed Protection (GAO)
Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters can damage watersheds, creating threats to life and property. According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, extreme weather events in the United States are becoming more frequent and intense, in part due to climate change, which GAO has reported poses a significant fiscal risk to the federal government. USDA’s EWP program provides technical and financial assistance to help project sponsors relieve imminent threats to life and property created by natural disasters. Congress appropriated over $1.3 billion to the EWP program from fiscal years 2015 through 2020

NASA Is Practicing Asteroid Deflection. You Know, Just in Case.  (Marina Koren, The Atlantic)
A spacecraft is on its way to nudge a distant asteroid.

Why Do Governments Reveal Cyber Intrusions?  (Gil Baram, Lawfare)
On Sept. 26, Germany held federal elections to select the new members of the Bundestag, the country’s national parliament. Neither of the leading parties securedenough seats to govern alone, and it’s been estimated that it might be weeks before the public knows the political future of Europe’s largest economy. And while the three parties likely to constitute Germany’s next governing coalition announcedon Nov. 16 that they are close to sealing a deal, concerns of election meddling and cyber intrusions against political institutions before and during the elections have made the political situation even more complex.

France Doubles Down on Countering Foreign Interference Ahead of Key Elections  (Arthur P.B. Laudrain, Lawfare)
Influence operations receive a lot of attention when they target the United States, but less so when they’re focused on other parts of the world. Russia Today (RT), for example, a Kremlin-aligned media outlet, has spent nearly $150 million on influence operations and propaganda targeting the United States since 2016. The campaign, irrespective of its efficacy, has garnered significant media attention. But foreign disinformation is also active against European audiences. A recent report by Cardiff University showed that pro-Russian trolls have been busy targeting 32 European media outlets, such as Le Figaro(France), Die Welt(Germany) and La Stampa(Spain).
France has experienced this wave firsthand. In 2017, hackers affiliated with Russia’s military intelligence (GRU) exfiltrated internal emails and documents from Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team. The “Macron Leaks,” as it was then named, saw a mix of genuine and fabricated campaign materials spread through social networks—starting with WikiLeaks—and amplified by the U.S. far right. In 2020, after the murder of high school teacher Samuel Paty, Turkish-affiliated trolls launched a wide-ranging anti-French campaign, criticizing its principles of laïcité and freedom of expression, amid a moment of deteriorating bilateral relations that led Paris to recall its ambassador from Turkey. Although this foreign information operation did not have the same impact on public opinion as the Macron Leaks, the government perceived it as another wake-up call.

In response to these politically destabilizing operations, the French government has begun structuring a permanent monitoring and response capability.

Inflation Tarnation! Inside the Supply-Chain Snafu That Could Wreck Your Holiday Plans  (Jeff Wise, Vanity Fair)
How the wild details of the most memed shipping crisis perfectly illustrate our global trade dilemma.