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European Academics Helping China's Military
European researchers have cooperated with China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). The NUDT’s purpose is to “Strengthen the Armed Forces and the Nation.” An investigation by 10 European news outlets has found nearly 3,000 scientific publications by researchers affiliated with European universities and their counterparts at military-linked institutions in China — most notably the NUDT.
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A Quest for Significance Gone Horribly Wrong – How Mass Shooters Pervert a Universal Desire to Make a Difference in the World
There is a mental and psychological dimension to the problem of mass shooting, to be sure, but it is not illness or pathology. It is the universal human quest for significance and respect – the mother, I believe, of all social motives.
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Computer Code to Speed Up Airport Security
Imagine moving through airport security without having to take off your shoes or belt or getting pulled aside. Researchers are working on the Open Threat Assessment Platform, which allows the Transportation Security Administration to respond more quickly and easily to threats to air travel safety.
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SWAT Team Members as Amateur Inventors Who Make a Difference
SWAT teams routinely enter dangerous situations where they need to make difficult, potentially life-and-death decisions. Such challenging circumstances present opportunities for innovation, and these first responders are often amateur inventors as well.
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California Church Shooting Exposes Little-Known Tension Between Two Groups of Taiwanese
Americans of Taiwanese descent belong to two distinct groups: Members of the first group come from families which had lived in Taiwan for hundreds of years. Members of the second group descend from families who were part of a wave of people from China who were exiled to Taiwan in the 1940s under the Chinese Nationalist government as the Communists took over mainland China. Members of the first group vehemently oppose China, while members of the second group are more conciliatory toward China and its regional ambitions. The two groups’ historical differences and ongoing tensions became evident on Sunday in a shootout at a Taiwanese Presbyterian church gathering in Southern California.
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More Mass Shootings Are Happening at Grocery Stores – 13% of Shooters Are Motivated by Racial Hatred, Criminologists Find
Mass public shootings in which four or more people are killed have become more frequent, and deadly, in the last decade. And the tragedy in Buffalo is the latest in a recent trend of mass public shootings taking place in retail establishments.
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AI and Policing: What a Queensland Case Study Tells Us
Law enforcement agencies consider artificial intelligence a force multiplier because it can rapidly process more data than human brains and yield insights to help solve complex analytical problems. Our limited understanding of how AI algorithms make decisions and produce their insights, however, presents a significant challenge to ethically and safely implementing AI policing solutions.
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What Went Wrong with Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine – and Why?
Why has the Russian campaign in Ukraine, at least so far, not gone Putin’s way? Experts who have examined Russia’s failures in Ukraine found that of the flaws in planning and execution identified by experts, several categories of failure stand out: a) Underestimating the Ukrainian leaders’, military’s and public’s will and ability to resist; b) underestimating the collective West’s will and capability to aid Ukraine; c) poor planning of the military campaign, calling for simultaneous achievement of multiple objectives along several axes, unachievable with resources committed to attaining these objectives; and d) failure to establish a single chain of command for the operation, to ensure that advancing units have adequate and timely protection and supplies and to achieve air superiority.
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U.S. Gun Homicides Spiked 35% From 2019 to 2020: CDC Report
The U.S. firearm homicide rate spiked 35 percent in 2020, the first full year of the coronavirus pandemic, rising to the highest level in almost three decades of record-keeping. The CDC reported 19,350 firearm homicides in the U.S. in 2020, and 24,245 cases of suicide by gun during the same period.
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Wildfires Are Still Catching Us Off-Guard. Congress’ Plan to Fix That Isn’t Going Anywhere.
Last year, during a Congressional hearing on the state of wildfire research, researchers and fire managers said that coordination among federal agencies to improve wildfire research would be tremendously helpful to prepare for future fires. But the proposal to connect federal research agencies and improve wildfire research crashed and burned.
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Spain Sacks Intelligence Chief in Wake of Pegasus Scandal
Paz Esteban was replaced after a controversy over the use of the Pegasus spyware to hack top Spanish officials’ cellphones, as well as spying on Catalan separatists.
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California's 2020 Wildfire Season
2020 was a record-breaking fire year for California. Nearly 9,900 wildfires burned 4.3 million acres in California 2020, twice the previous record. 2020 was the first year acres burned came close to burn rates before Euro-American settlement. A new study calls for management shift to reduce fire severity, not acres burned.
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The Movement to Ban Government Use of Face Recognition
Our faces are unique identifiers that can’t be left at home, or replaced like a stolen ID or compromised password. Facial recognition technology facilitates covert mass surveillance of the places we frequent, people we associate with, and, purportedly, our emotional state. Communities across the country are fighting back.
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Strengthening First Responder Communications
A critical element of protecting the U.S. is securing the ability of first responders to communicate. A DHS-run exercise aimed to help responders prepare to mitigate potential jamming incidents.
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Guidance for Holistic Home and Community Wildfire Protection
Once they have a foothold, severe wildfires can quickly overwhelm a community, particularly one that is densely packed. To shield houses against such a fierce threat, a thorough defense is key.
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More headlines
The long view
Western Leaders Should Take Escalation over Ukraine Seriously
The United States and members states of the EU and NATO have taken significant action to assist Ukraine and pressure Russia, but there is increasing pressure to “do more.” Michael Lopate and Bear Braumoeller write that as we provide Ukraine with more sophisticated weapons, and as calls grow for allowing Ukraine to push Russian forces back over the border without requiring any concessions on the part of Ukraine, “we should be clear-eyed about the risks of escalation as we seek that victory.” They write that their research shows that “War escalation is extremely unpredictable, and most people don’t appreciate just how easily and quickly wars can escalate to shocking levels of lethality.”
Preparing National Security Officials for the Challenges of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of several rapidly emerging technologies that promise to disrupt not only multiple sectors of the U.S. economy but also the manner in which the U.S. government carries out its foundational responsibility to protect national security consistent with the rule of law and constitutional values. Steve Bunnell writes that “The United States’ national security apparatus is not known for nimbleness, nor is the law that governs it. When it comes to AI, the risk is not just that our generals will fight tomorrow’s war with yesterday’s strategy but also that the United States will lack the legal and policy guardrails that are essential to a lawful, accountable, and ethical protection of the nation’s security.”
Next-Generation Search & Rescue: Body Cameras, Live Streaming
Typically, search and rescue teams in the wilderness use radio, in-person briefings, text messaging, drones and paper forms to communicate and coordinate their efforts. New digital tools have the potential to revolutionize wilderness search and rescue efforts.