OUR PICKSHow the War on Terror Primed America for Autocracy | Biosecurity Barriers in High-Risk Biological Research | Will Foreign Surveillance Go Dark?, and more
· How the War on Terror Primed America for Autocracy
· Judge Bars Creation of Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund
· FBI Searches Offices of Ohio Voter Registration Group, Seizing Computers
· A Key Spying Power Is Expiring. Will Foreign Surveillance Go Dark?
· They Bought a Famous Puzzle in Cryptography. Now They’re Opening It Up.
· Addressing Biosecurity Barriers in High-Risk Biological Research
How the War on Terror Primed America for Autocracy (Rosa Brooks, Economist)
The road from 9/11 leads directly to January 6th.
Judge Bars Creation of Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund (Alan Feuer, New York Times)
A federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration until further notice from setting up a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people claiming to have been unfairly prosecuted by the government, saying that her order was needed because of mixed messages about the scheme from President Trump.
The ruling by the judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, was the strongest effort to date by anyone in government to hold the administration to its word that the proposal to create the fund had actually been set aside.
FBI Searches Offices of Ohio Voter Registration Group, Seizing Computers (Perry Stein, Washington Post)
The raid continues the Trump administration’s pattern of looking for voter fraud, which many experts say is minimal in the U.S.
A Key Spying Power Is Expiring. Will Foreign Surveillance Go Dark? (Dustin Volz, New York Times)
Top officials and some lawmakers say letting a powerful spying authority expire on Saturday will leave the United States dangerously blind. But surveillance can still continue.
They Bought a Famous Puzzle in Cryptography. Now They’re Opening It Up. (John Schwartz, New York Times)
A San Francisco company paid nearly $1 million for the solution to an unsolved code in Kryptos, a sculpture on the C.I.A. grounds. Soon it will become an online challenge.
Addressing Biosecurity Barriers in High-Risk Biological Research (David R. Gillum at al., Health Security)
Biological research, including dual-use research of concern and pathogens with enhanced pandemic potential, faces mounting regulatory scrutiny that may impact pandemic preparedness and scientific progress. At a 2024 deliberative workshop in Reno, Nevada, biosafety professionals, biosecurity experts, and life sciences researchers discussed potential barriers to effective governance, including ambiguous regulatory definitions, resource disparities between regulated institutions, and fragmented oversight frameworks that impose burdens without improving safety or security. By incorporating biosafety professionals’ expertise into policymaking, fostering a collaborative dialogue over punitive and inconsistent enforcement, and securing ongoing funding for biosecurity programs, we call for actionable strategies to reduce risk while advancing safe, secure, and transformative biotechnological breakthroughs in the life sciences and strengthening national security.
