• China’s Dominance of Electric Vehicle Supply Chains Jeopardize U.S. Energy Transition

    While Russia holds significant leverage in influencing oil and gas prices, it pales in comparison to China’s position in several strategic industries critical to the energy transition. A case study shows China’s ‘soft power’ in move to cleaner alternatives.

  • Can Africa Satisfy Europe's Energy Demand?

    As the war in Ukraine rages on, the European Union is desperately searching for alternative energy sources. Africa has abundant reserves, but experts say the continent’s energy sector needs urgent reforms and help.

  • Cloud Server Leasing Can Leave Sensitive Data Up for Grabs

    Renting space and IP addresses on a public server has become standard business practice, but according to computer scientists, current industry practices can lead to “cloud squatting,” which can create a security risk, endangering sensitive customer and organization data intended to remain private. New research provides solutions for companies, cloud-service providers to help minimize security risks.

  • New Algorithm to Simplify Decisions for Ship Channel Dredging

    Millions of dollars are at stake every time a major ship channel is cleaned up. Delays in dredging can cost even more by triggering increased risks, repeated maintenance and lost revenue. A new decision-support tool could become a game changer in the dredging of ship channels.

  • Marine Highways Bolster Supply Chain Efficiency, Resilience

    The increased use of the nation’s navigable waterways relieves landside congestion, provides new and efficient transportation options, increases the productivity of the surface transportation system, and strengthens the U.S. supply chains.

  • China’s Growing Influence in Latin America

    Over the past two decades, China has developed close economic and security ties with many Latin American countries, including Brazil and Venezuela. But Beijing’s growing sway in the region has raised concerns in Washington and beyond.

  • Chinese Rare Earth Consolidation a Cause for Concern

    The world needs more readily available rare earth metals. Over the coming decades, demand for rare earths is forecasted to increase by two to eight times over current supply. Through effective long-term investment across the rare earth supply chain, China has earned some 50–60 per cent of the mining market share and around 90 per cent in the intermediate processing stage.

  • The EU's Risky Dependency on Critical Chinese Metals

    The EU needs critical metals and rare earths to succeed in its energy transition and digitization drive. But even as the EU tries hard to cut its energy supplies from Russia, the bloc is also heavily dependent on China when it comes to the industrial metals and rare earths.

  • DHS S&T Awards $259M to Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Threats

    Germantown, Maryland-based Amentum has been awarded a five-year contract with a maximum value of $260 million by DHS S&T to develop and deploy emerging capabilities and prototypes for countering unmanned systems threats (C-UST).

  • The Information Age Is Starting to Transform Fishing Worldwide

    The post-industrial area – with its robots, sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning — has transformed manufacturing and farming. Commercial fishing, one of the oldest industries in the world, is a stark exception, with industrial fishing, factory ships, and deep-sea trawlers still the dominant hunting mode in much of the world. This approach has led to overfishing, stock depletions, habitat destruction, the senseless killing of unwanted by-catch and wastage of as much as 30% to 40% of landed fish. But these patterns are starting to change.

  • Russia’s War in Ukraine: China’s Lessons

    China is learning from Russia’s troubled war in Ukraine to improve its battle strategies and prepare for economic sanctions if Beijing ever attacks self-ruled Taiwan. Experts say that China may also be looking harder at peaceful solutions for Taiwan, they say.

  • Germany: €3 Billion for Floating LNG Terminals

    Berlin plans to lease four liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to wean itself off Russian gas. The decision comes as the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline now sits unused at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

  • Global Natural Gas Demand Set to Decline in 2022 as Russia’s War Disrupts Markets, Economies

    The world’s demand for natural gas is set to decline slightly in 2022 as a result of higher prices and market disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The downward revision to the IEA’s earlier forecast amounts to 50 billion cubic meters, the equivalent of about half of last year’s US liquefied natural gas exports.

  • Google Fights Dragnet Warrant for Users’ Search Histories Overseas, but It Is Continuing to Give Data to Police in the U.S.

    Google is fighting back against a Brazilian court order to turn over data on all users who searched for specific terms, including the name of a well-known elected official and a busy downtown thoroughfare. Google should be applauded for challenging this digital dragnet search in Brazil, but the company must also stand up for the rights of its users against similar searches in the U.S. and elsewhere.

  • A Headache for Germany: Russian Nickel, Palladium, Chromium Exports

    Russian gas and oil are by far the most significant exports Moscow sells to Germany. Yet other important raw materials are also under the spotlight because of the war in Ukraine.