Trump Refuses to Rule Out Post-Election Violence | Airports Insider Threat | Why is Mexico Helping to Solve Biden’s Border Problem, and more

Airports, Insider Threat, and the Challenges of Unmanned Aerial Systems(UAS)  (John Halinski, HSToday)
Airports and the aviation system face a variety of threats globally. Ranging from terrorism, and insider threats, to criminal activities such as smuggling and theft. These threats are constantly evolving based on the capability of groups, advances in technology, and the vulnerability of infrastructure. One of the most difficult threats to mitigate is an Insider Threat. 
The Insider Threat is difficult to mitigate due to its origins within a group of trusted employees who are vetted, constantly screened, and most importantly, have access to the security processes within the overall system. Airports and the aviation system have established formal security processes from the International Civil Aviation Organization, and their National Aviation Security Programs. These processes are standardized and include physical security measures such as fences, cameras, etc. Additionally, they also impose security processes such as vetting, badging, and credentials, screening with advanced hardware and software, and facial recognition systems that are constantly monitoring activities. As complete as the airport and aviation security systems are, there will always be vulnerabilities in the system and the insiders know how to exploit them.
Most, if not all the security systems currently deployed at commercial airports use a one-dimensional or ground zone security system. Meaning the security system is linear and is there to mitigate ground-level threats. On the other hand, military airports account for airborne threat vectors which range from incoming enemy aircraft to UASs and missiles. With the advent of a growing UAS threat we have seen in places like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Ukraine, and Russia, commercial airports face this new threat/challenge by UAS or “drones.” 

Countering the Threat: Lone Wolves, Homemade Explosives, and the Path to a Safer Future  (Kelly Hoggan, HSToday)
Certainly, no one in the know would say that the United States today is as ill-prepared to confront the array of potential terrorist threats to the homeland as we were on September 10, 2001. Both the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, as well as coordinated efforts at the state and local levels, are a testament to our determination to never be caught out unaware and unprepared again.
All well and good, so far, correct?

Why is Mexico Helping to Solve Biden’s Border Problem?  (George R. Tyler, National Interest)
Extorted by Trump, Congressional Republicans in February rejected their own border security legislation—abandoning months of bipartisan negotiations—just to bedevil Biden. They scored a bull’s-eye. Biden’s slew of border initiatives has failed to diminish the lure posed by the U.S. catch-and-release protocol for the millions seeking better lives. It is the Republican’s top campaign issue. House Speaker Mike Johnson termed the border an “open sewer.” And Trump describes unauthorized migrants as “animals,” their border crossings an “invasion” orchestrated by Biden. The border has become the top issue in many swing states, with forty-two percent holding Biden fully responsible and 19 percent partially responsible.
A hamstrung Biden’s best option now to slow border crossings is for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to clamp down on migrants within his own borders. He has been successfully courting Lopez Obrador, catching Republicans by surprise. Since December, the Mexican President has responded with policies that reduced border crossings in January compared to December. And for the first time in seven years, crossings dropped further in March, indicating that Lopez Obrador has picked sides in the November election. Outsourcing border security to Lopez Obrador (and possibly his hand-picked successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, after the September elections) gives them considerable leverage over Biden. However, it also affirms that Trump is his own worst enemy.
Biden is a traditional diplomatic interlocutor somewhat sympathetic to the immigrant experience, who can be expected to accommodate some Mexican policy hopes if reelected. In contrast, Trump is utterly untrustworthy from the Mexican perspective. Lopez Obrador came quickly to recognize his odious character during Trump’s first term. Since at least 2017, the former has been offended by Trump’s racism—routinely dehumanizing Mexican and other migrants as “prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, mental patients and terrorists, the worst they have.”
Lopez Obrador’s relationship during Trump’s first term was subservient and entirely one-way. His single White House visit was as a 2020 campaign prop. Moreover, rewarding Trump now by engineering a cross-border surge would gain nothing. If elected, Trump is certain to browbeat Sheinbaum regardless, demanding draconian internal Mexican barriers to keep migrants away from the border. New tariffs and even renewed talk of U.S. troop incursions will be threatened in a replay of the bullying that characterized Trump’s first term.

The Threat of “AI Safety” to American AI Leadership  (Keegan McBride, National Interest)
The story of America is full of success in scientific and technological development. American innovation has improved the quality of life for billions worldwide, fostering a new era of economic prosperity. On the backs of American ambition, humanity has left the Earth’s atmosphere, walked on the Moon, and will soon travel to Mars. Today’s digital world relies on the Internet, which is itself a product of American innovation and leadership. If you see progress, American technology is sure to be close by.
American innovation has once again delivered a “new” technology—Artificial Intelligence (AI)—that has captured the world’s attention. Cutting-edge AI-based systems, dependent on American intellectual property, capital, infrastructure, and science, have demonstrated to the world the positive transformative potential of AI. What was once a fringe area of academic inquiry has now been transformed into a major topic in the global conversation.
Unfortunately, instead of harnessing AI’s positive potential, a new regime of rules and regulations developed in response to positions advocated for by a small, influential, and well-financed lobbying effort in the name of “AI Safety” is actively preventing these benefits from manifesting.
This is not hyperbole. Leading outlets have investigated how “elite schools like Stanford became fixated on the AI apocalypse,” covered how a “billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington,” and discussed how the United Kingdom’s AI ambitions were being shaped by “Silicon Valley doomers.” Despite reporting that clearly outlines the outsized influence this group is having on AI policy, decision-makers are still embracing this ideology.
The results of this influence campaign are now bearing fruit. Heavily influenced by a shared fear of AI, new regulatory initiatives developed by the “AI Safety” lobby are now coming into effect. Such proposals include the creation of new AI Safety Institutes in the United States and the United Kingdom. They also include the newly released Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, which was influenced by an “AI Safety”-aligned think tank. These and other linked regulatory efforts intend to centralize and control the development and availability of AI-based systems, believing that this will provide higher levels of safety. This is a mistake.

The Dangerous Rise of GPS Attacks  (Matt Burgess, Wired)
The disruption to GPS services started getting worse on Christmas Day. Planes and ships moving around southern Sweden and Poland lost connectivity as their radio signals were interfered with. Since then, the region around the Baltic Sea—including neighboring Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—has faced persistent attacks against GPS systems.
Tens of thousands of planes flying in the region have reported problems with their navigation systems in recent months amid widespread jamming attacks, which can make GPS inoperable. As the attacks have grown, Russia has increasingly been blamed, with open source researchers tracking the source to Russian regions such as Kaliningrad. In one instance, signals were disrupted for 47 hours continuously. On Monday, marking one of the most serious incidents yet, airline Finnair canceled its flights to Tartu, Estonia, for a month, after GPS interference forced two of its planes to abort landings at the airport and turn around.
The jamming in the Baltic region, which was first spotted in early 2022, is just the tip of the iceberg. In recent years, there has been a rapid uptick in attacks against GPS signals and wider satellite navigation systems, known as GNSS, including those of Europe, China, and Russia. The attacks can jam signals, essentially forcing them offline, or spoof the signals, making aircraft and ships appear at false locations on maps. Beyond the Baltics, war zone areas around Ukraine and the Middle East have also seen sharp rises in GPS disruptions, including signal blocking meant to disrupt airborne attacks.