• “Do Your Job.” How the Railroad Industry Intimidates Employees Into Putting Speed Before Safety

    Railroad companies have penalized workers for taking the time to make needed repairs and created a culture in which supervisors threaten and fire the very people hired to keep trains running safely. Regulators say they can’t stop this intimidation.

  • Is the Fear of Cyberwar Worse Than Cyberwar Itself?

    Unrealistic cyberwar expectations could hold the insurance industry back, and that’s the real economic security problem. The “hyperbolic characterization of cyberwar is likely a bigger problem than the threat of cyberwar itself. The problem is one of economic security,” Tom Johansmeyer writes.

  • Money Helps States Identify Critical Mineral Potential in Mine Waste

    Funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will allow 14 states to study the potential for critical mineral resources in mine waste. This funding will allow the USGS and these states to better map locations of mine waste and measure the potential for critical minerals that might exist there.

  • First 10 Months of 2023 See Record 25 Billion-Dollar Disasters

    NOAA confirmed another billion-dollar disaster in October, bringing the total to a record 25 disasters in the first 10 months — the largest number of disasters for any year since NOAA has kept track of these types of events. The Mississippi River’s water level dropped to historic lows along parts of the river.

  • Tracking China’s Control of Overseas Ports

    China has become the world’s largest trading country and second-largest economy, and conducts about 95 percent of its international trade through sea-lanes. As of September 2023, China has signed seventy bilateral and regional shipping agreements with sixty-six countries and regions. Today, China’s shipping routes and service networks cover major countries and regions worldwide.

  • Hunt for Answers Continues Over Chinese Ship's Suspected Role In Damaging Baltic Pipeline

    A Chinese ship suspected of damaging an underwater gas pipeline and two telecom cables in the Baltic Sea is returning to China through the Russian Arctic as Finnish investigators continue to search for answers about the vessel’s role in the incident.

  • Resiliency and Vulnerability of Global Supply Chains During the Covid-19 Pandemic

    It’s no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains across the globe. In the United States, it often seemed like stores couldn’t keep certain items in stock. New research is diving more closely into the resiliency and vulnerability of global supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic.

  • As Philadelphia Struggles to Hire Cops, More Businesses Are Turning to Private Armed Guards

    In Philadelphia, armed guards are summoned to stand sentinel in places where they’ve rarely — if ever — been before. Concern about homicides is also contributing to the rise of private security. But there are questions about limited training and regulation.

  • Arrest Made in Central California Bio-Lab Investigation

    Jia Bei Zhu, a citizen of China, was arrested earlier this week in California on a criminal complaint for manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices. Zhu and others manufactured, imported, sold, and distributed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits, in addition to test kits for HIV, pregnancy, clinical urinalysis, and other conditions in the United States and China.

  • Working with Banks Around the World to Prevent Weapons Proliferation

    Most banks have no interest in facilitating a risky weapons sale or contributing to instability in the global landscape. But most are either unaware of the issue or do not know how to address it. Through live and virtual events, the financial sector is learning how to avoid inadvertently facilitating illicit weapons trade.

  • Adtech Surveillance and Government Surveillance are Often the Same Surveillance

    In the absence of comprehensive federal privacy legislation in the United States, the targeted advertising industry, fueled by personal information harvested from our cell phone applications, has run roughshod over our privacy.

  • Israel-Hamas War a Reality Check for India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

    The ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas has underlined the challenges facing an ambitious initiative to build a new trade route from India through the Middle East to Europe, according to analysts.

  • Training Future Supply Chain Leaders

    The field of supply chain management (SCM) deals with managing the complex, global webs of product design, manufacturing, inventory, warehousing, inbound and outbound logistics, and returns activities that underpin everything we use or consume.

  • Arizona Is Evicting a Saudi Alfalfa Farm, but the Thirsty Crop Isn’t Going Anywhere

    As Arizona struggles to adapt to a water shortage that has dried out farms and scuttled development plans, one company has emerged as a central villain. The agricultural company Fondomonte, which is owned by a Saudi Arabian conglomerate, has attracted criticism over the past several years for sucking up the state’s groundwater to grow alfalfa and then exporting that alfalfa to feed cows overseas. Now Arizona has cancelled one of the company’s leases and says it will not renew the others, but the decision will do little to solve a water shortage largely driven by irrigated agriculture.

  • China, U.S. Escalate Trade-Restrictions War

    The Chinese government announced Friday that it would tighten export controls on graphite, a material essential to the construction of batteries used in electric cars and other green energy systems and of which China is the world’s preeminent supplier. The move came days after the Biden administration announced that the United States would widen the list of semiconductors that it prevents from being exported to China.