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15 Things You Don’t Know About Israel’s Air Defense Systems
Israel has sustained attacks from enemies throughout its history and has invested heavily in high tech defense technologies that are the envy of the world’s military.
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Campus Antisemitism Surges Amid Encampments and Related Protests at Columbia and Other U.S. Colleges
College campuses have been the site of many tense anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attack. Anti-Zionist student groups on over a dozen U.S. college and university campuses have established “encampments” in recent days to ostensibly protest Israel’s actions in Gaza and their academic institutions’ alleged “complicity” in those actions.
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Iran's Nuclear Activities 'Raises Eyebrows' at IAEA
Iran’s enrichment of uranium and a lack of access to international monitors is fueling suspicions about its nuclear activities. The International Atomic Energy Agency said its committed to promoting dialogue with Tehran.
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Iran versus Israel: Who Has the Military Edge?
In the event of a direct conflict with Iran, Israel would have the military superiority, both offensively and defensively, experts say. But they say the threat posed by Iran’s arsenal of drones and missiles should not be dismissed. Even so, Israel maintains military supremacy.
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Tennessee Is Ramping Up Penalties for Student Threats. Research Shows That’s Not the Best Way to Keep Schools Safe.
After a former student killed six people last year at the private Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, state leaders have been looking for ways to make schools safer. Their focus so far has been to ramp up penalties against current students who make mass threats against schools. Months after the killings, legislators passed a law requiring students who make such threats to be expelled for a year. But a large body of research shows these zero-tolerance measures are not the most effective way to prevent violence in schools.
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Key Weapons Component Development Milestone
Sandia and the Kansas City National Security Campus completed a crucial weapons component development milestone, prior to full rate production. The Mark 21 Replacement Fuze interfaces with the W87-0 warhead for deployment onto the Minuteman III and, eventually, the Sentinel ICBM.
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Australia’s Leadership Imperatives in Critical Minerals
Australia, like Canada, is well placed to be a global leader in the critical minerals sector. The country has the natural endowment, technical expertise and experience, global mining footprint, and mining capital base to back a claim to worldwide leadership.
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Crime Rates, Not the Number of Crimes, Are a Better Way to Judge Immigrant Criminality
Focusing on crime rates rather than the number of crimes is essential to compare criminality between populations such as immigrants and native‐born Americans. Otherwise, there is no basis for arguing that one or the other is more criminally inclined, which really matters when discussing public safety.
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Far-Right Extremism in Europe: From Margins to Mainstream
The influx of migrants over the decades has festered resentment within the local European population, who fear the undermining of ethno-national identities and access to adequate social and economic opportunities.
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'Nightmare Scenario': The Risks of Escalation as Israel Mulls Iran Response
In the wake of Iran’s attack, Israel has been weighing up its options, which analysts say could range from a diplomatic offensive to isolate Iran to directing military strikes on the Islamic republic. With the risk of escalation higher than ever, the worst-case scenario of an all-out war between Iran and Israel is a distinct possibility, analysts say.
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Under Biden, U.S. Reimagines Asian Alliances as 'Lattice' Fence
For decades, U.S. policy in Asia has relied on what was informally known as the “hub and spokes” system of bilateral alliances. But lately, U.S. officials have used another analogy to describe their vision for the region: a lattice fence. It may sound like only a metaphorical tweak, but say it could have big implications, as they try to create a durable plan to respond to China’s growing power.
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A Return to U.S. Casualty Aversion
The 9/11 Wars as aberrations: After the extended, tragically costly, and fundamentally absurd aberrations caused by the overreaction to 9/11, a more limited American military approach appears to be back—and perhaps is even more embraced than in the post‐Vietnam decades.
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Gaza War: Israel Using AI to Identify Human Targets Raising Fears That Innocents Are Being Caught in the Net
A new report finds that AI targeting systems have played a key role in identifying – and potentially misidentifying – tens of thousands of targets in Gaza. This suggests that autonomous warfare is no longer a future scenario. It is already here and the consequences are horrifying.
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FBI Fears 'Coordinated Attack' on U.S. Homeland
A surge of confidence by supporters of the Islamic State terror group — reflected in a series of online threats against Europe combined with its deadly attack on a concert hall in Russia — is giving security officials in the United States cause for concern.
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A New Way to Detect Radiation Involving Cheap Ceramics
The radiation detectors used today for applications like inspecting cargo ships for smuggled nuclear materials are expensive and cannot operate in harsh environments, among other disadvantages. Work by MIT engineers could lead to plethora of new applications, including better detectors for nuclear materials at ports.
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More headlines
The long view
Modern-Day Outlaws, “Sovereign Citizens” Threaten the Rule of Law
The FBI considers sovereign citizens a domestic terrorism threat. My research into sovereign citizens has found they have long been active in the U.S. and other countries. At the core of their beliefs is the denial of the government’s legitimacy. They commonly do not register their vehicles, acquire driver’s licenses or car insurance, or pay taxes. And they pose a significant threat to the public.
A Uniquely Perilous Moment in U.S. Politics
Assassins believe that they can change the course of history. Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware write that the attempt om Donald Trump’s life is but the latest violent incident targeting an elected official or candidate in the United States in recent years. “The biggest question is whether this is, in fact, the beginning of what could be the most violent presidential race in the history of the country.”
Global Annual Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2023: $91.4 Billion
In 2023, the nine nuclear-armed states spent a combined total of $91,393,404,739 on their arsenals – equivalent to $2,898 a second. A new report shows that $10.7 billion more was spent on nuclear weapons in 2023 than in 2022.
‘Risks of Nuclear Terrorism Are High and Growing.’ New Tools, Alliances, Renewed Focus Needed, experts recommend
For roughly 80 years, the United States has managed the threat of nuclear terrorism through nonproliferation treaties, agency programs, intelligence activities, international monitoring support and more, withstanding the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and 9/11. A National Academies committee wants to ensure the U.S. remains prepared.
Evaluating U.S. Readiness to Prevent, Counter, and Respond to WMD
Two new reports review the adequacy of U.S. strategies to prevent, counter, and respond to the threat of nuclear and chemical terrorism and highlight the strengths and limitations of U.S. efforts to prevent and counter threats from weapons of mass destruction (WMD), particularly in a changing terrorism threat landscape.
'Hybrid’ Disaster Response Shows How Localization Saves Lives
The earthquake that struck southwest Haiti in August 2021 killed thousands of people and left more than half a million seeking help. New research by a University of Notre Dame expert finds that the assessment of this disaster can serve as a model for evaluating future disasters and making life-saving improvements.