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The Historic Claims That Put a Few California Farming Families First in Line for Colorado River Water
Twenty families in the Imperial Valley received a whopping 386.5 billion gallons of the river’s water last year — more than three Western states. Century-old water rights guarantee that supply.
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Conspiracy Theories, Some with Antisemitic Roots, Crop Up in 2023 Shareholder Proposals
The 2023 shareholder season heralded a new element of shareholder proposals: conspiracy theories. Some of the proposals demand a “congruency report” on relationships between companies and “globalist organizations” — a demand that could be interpreted as an antisemitic dog whistle. The second primary conspiracy theory focuses on transhumanism. In its more conspiratorial form, proponents believe a “Satanist” or elite cabal of humans, on a mission to replace humans with machines/governments, are modifying bodies and DNA via secretly inserted chips.
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United Federation LEOS-PBA to Represent Court Security Officers in Washington, DC
The Washington, DC Court Security Officers (CSOs) and Special Security Officers (SSOs), who were represented by SPFPA and its Local 439, voted in August on a new representation.The United Federation LEOS-PBA was successful in organizing several SPFPA groups from around the country.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The long view
Even Out of China’s Hands, Mines Still Rely on Its Equipment
The landmark critical minerals agreement between Australia and the United States is vital to both nations’ security and sovereignty. But the agreement signed carries an inherent vulnerability. The very partnership designed to reduce China’s coercive leverage is increasingly relying on Chinese technology to give effect to its objectives.
Building Trust into Tech: A Framework for Sovereign Resilience
Governments are facing a critical question: who can be trusted to build and manage their countries’ most sensitive systems? Vendor choices, for everything from cloud infrastructure to identity platforms, are no longer just commercial; they are strategic.
Data Centers’ Insatiable Demand for Electricity Will Change the Entire Energy Sector
When the first large language models were unleashed, it triggered a headache for authorities around the world as they tried to figure out how to satisfy data centers’ endless demand for electricity.