-
Azruddin Mohamed Arrested in Guyana
Azruddin Mohamed’s case is significant: it illustrates how business, political ambition, resource-exports, and cross-border law-enforcement intersect in a small, oil-and-gold-rich country like Guyana, and it demonstrates the global reach of U.S. legal and sanctions regimes.
-
-
Reaction Isn’t Enough. Nexperia Case Shows We Must Pre-empt China’s Tech Grabs
The Dutch government’s decision on 30 September to impose a last-resort restraint order on China-owned Netherlands-based chipmaker Nexperia is more than a trade dispute. It’s the consequence of a belated realization that technology competition with China is real. Economic security in open and liberal democracies demands foresight, not last-minute intervention.
-
-
How Secure Is Video Conferences—Really?
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams have become essential for work, education, and social connections. While these platforms offer controls such as disabling cameras and muting microphones to safeguard user privacy, a new study suggests that video conferencing may not be as secure as many assume.
-
-
“Battleship”-Style Math Can Improve Sustainable Design, Groundwater Management, Nuclear Waste Storage and More
Scientists can now accurately determine where randomly distributed components appear in concrete, soil, and other common materials using a statistical model. The findings could enable the design of better, stronger, cheaper materials.
-
-
Electric Cars May Be the “Green” Choice, but They're Driving a Scramble for Critical Minerals
Our cars are responsible for about 20 per cent of global carbon emissions. The move to electric vehicles (EVs) is central to the effort to decarbonize the world’s transport. But the clean-energy transition is also creating a new extractive frontier: the minerals that power electric car batteries. And the same forces that shaped the geopolitics of oil are re-emerging in the race to power the electric revolution.
-
-
Drought Is Quietly Pushing American Cities Toward a Fiscal Cliff
Municipal bond defaults of any kind are extraordinarily rare, let alone those linked to a changing climate. But drought is set to pose a greater risk to the $4 trillion municipal bond market than floods, hurricanes, and wildfires combined.
-
-
Framework Reveals a Smarter and Faster Way to Retire U.S. Coal Plants
Even as coal power continues its steady decline in the United States, more than a hundred plants still have no retirement plans—a gap large enough to derail national climate goals. A new study tackles a critical question: if market forces have already driven many coal plants to close, why are so many still running?
-
-
Texas’ Congressional Delegation Wants Trump to Punish Mexico for Missing Key Water Deadline
The state’s citrus industry is at risk, farmers say, after Mexico failed to deliver water it owes Texas as part of a 1944 treaty.
-
-
Can the U.S. Navy Stay Ahead of Russia and China? This Expert Has a Plan
To put this 5-part plan in action, Northeastern University’s Stephen Flynn is advocating not for a national, top-down process but for a “federated approach” that emphasizes regional strengths.
-
-
California’s “Last Resort” Property Insurer Seeks Rate Hike, Ringing National Alarm Bells
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Californians have purchased home insurance from a state-managed “last resort” insurance pool that has grown rapidly as private insurance companies have fled the market. Now, this last-resort insurance plan is seeking an average 36% rate hike.
-
-
China, the United States, and a Critical Chokepoint on Minerals
Critical minerals today are “America’s most dangerous dependence,” in the words of CFR’s Heidi Crebo-Rediker. With near total control of the world’s critical minerals production, China maintains significant economic leverage over access to inputs that are necessary for everything from everyday products like smartphones to advanced weapons systems like the F-35.
-
-
A New Generation of Industries Emerges in Texas as Feds Push to Mine More Rare Minerals
The U.S. doesn’t produce the minerals and metals needed for renewable energy, microchips or military technology. Major oil companies are drilling in East Texas again, but not for oil. This time, they’re after lithium for batteries and other rare elements.
-
-
Europe’s Banks Quietly Mobilize for Economic Warfare
For years, banks treated defense as a reputational issue, as well as an environmental, social and governance risk, often lumping it with tobacco or fossil fuels as something to be managed at arm’s length. That era is ending. Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s coercive trade tactics and the United States’ pressure on Europe to shoulder more of its defense burden have exposed the limits of moralistic restraint. Financial mobilization is the new norm.
-
-
Trump’s New $100K Visa Fee Could Worsen State Doctor Shortages, Experts Say
Many immigrant physicians help fill gaps in rural communities’ health care systems thanks in part to the H-1B visa, which allows skilled foreign workers to come work in the U.S.
-
-
Trump’s H-1B Visa Change: What to Know
The H-1B visa program has helped fill gaps in critical sectors like health care and technology, though it has faced criticism that it adversely affects American workers. The Trump administration’s move to sharply increase the fee for new H-1B petitions has raised concerns about its potential effects on the U.S. economy.
-
The long view
Europe’s Banks Quietly Mobilize for Economic Warfare
For years, banks treated defense as a reputational issue, as well as an environmental, social and governance risk, often lumping it with tobacco or fossil fuels as something to be managed at arm’s length. That era is ending. Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s coercive trade tactics and the United States’ pressure on Europe to shoulder more of its defense burden have exposed the limits of moralistic restraint. Financial mobilization is the new norm.
A New Generation of Industries Emerges in Texas as Feds Push to Mine More Rare Minerals
The U.S. doesn’t produce the minerals and metals needed for renewable energy, microchips or military technology. Major oil companies are drilling in East Texas again, but not for oil. This time, they’re after lithium for batteries and other rare elements.
U.S. and Australia Deepen Critical-Minerals Engagement to Counter China
Engagement between Australia and the United States on critical minerals has matured from technical cooperation into a strategic partnership, aligning resource security with clean energy and defense priorities.
Bookshelf: Critical Mineral Dilemmas
Whoever controls the production and processing of lithium, copper and other critical minerals could dominate the 21st century economy, much as producers of fossil fuels defined the 20th century, writes Ernest Scheyder in a new book.