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What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
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Train Law Enforcement in Genocide Prevention
Rutgers Miller Center and UVA Center for Public Safety and Justice launch global initiative to train law enforcement in ethical leadership, community protection, and genocide prevention.
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AI-Controlled Fighter Jets May Be Closer Than We Think — and Would Change the Face of Warfare
Could we be on the verge of an era where fighter jets take flight without pilots – and are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI)? US R Adm Michael Donnelly recently said that an upcoming combat jet could be the navy’s last one with a pilot in the cockpit.
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MIT Lincoln Laboratory Is a Workhorse for National Security
The US Air Force and MIT renew contract for operating the federally funded R&D center, a long-standing asset for defense innovation and prototyping.
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Showdown in the Middle East
In 2018, President Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, claiming that Obama’s deal wasn’t good enough and that he would get a better one by imposing “maximum pressure.” As was predicted in 2018, the Iranian response to the U.S. campaign of maximum pressure was not to offer the Americans more, but instead to press ahead with enriching Uranium to the point where they are now close to having enough to build some nuclear weapons should they choose to do so. Can a new round of negotiations, or military action, stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon?
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Where the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Talks Are Headed
The Iranian position remains that the talks should focus on the nuclear issue and sanctions relief, with Iran repeatedly stating that its nuclear program is only intended for peaceful purposes. Trump has said that he only wants assurances that Iran does not produce nuclear weapons. Thus, issues such as Iran’s support for regional proxies and its missile program could be off the table.
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Latest Reasoning Models from OpenAI to Be Used for Energy and National Security Applications on Los Alamos’s Venado Supercomputer
Los Alamos National Laboratory has entered a partnership with OpenAI to install its latest o-series models — capable of expert reasoning for a broad span of complex scientific problems — on the Lab’s Venado supercomputer.
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How and Where Is Nuclear waste stored in the U.S.?
Around the U.S., about 90,000 tons of nuclear waste is stored at over 100 sites in 39 states, in a range of different structures and containers. For decades, the nation has been trying to send it all to one secure location. Perhaps there will be a temporary site whose location passes muster with the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, the waste will stay where it is.
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Declassified JFK Files Provide “Enhanced Clarity on CIA Actions, Historian Says
Fredrik Logevall, Pulitzer winner writing three-volume Kennedy biography, shares takeaways from declassified docs.
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The Growing Challenge of Urban Wildfires
The wildfires that burned in the Los Angeles area in January surged through highly populated areas, causing catastrophic damage. The two largest fires, the Palisades and Eaton fires, together destroyed over 16,000 homes and other buildings, killed 29 people, and displaced thousands.
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The Trump Administration Says Tren de Aragua Is a Terrorist Group – but It’s Really a Transnational Criminal Organization. Here’s Why the Label Matters.
The U.S. declared the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, as well as some Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations. But classifying Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization has sparked debate among observers: Tren de Aragua is primarily a profit-driven group, not an ideological one –placing the organization more firmly in the transnational organized crime category rather than a political terrorist group.
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U.K. Counter Terrorism Officers Call on Parents to Be Aware
Counter Terrorism officers from the Met Police are urging parents across London to be aware of the signs that might indicate that their child could be vulnerable to radicalization or being drawn into dangerous forms of violent extremism.
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Former SPFPA’s Official Pleads Guilty to Illegal Labor Payments
A Florida couple pled guilty earlier this week to conspiracy to provide and receive prohibited labor payments. The husband, Ricky Dallas O’Quinn, served as both an officer and employee of International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA), a labor organization which represents protective security officers at federal workplaces.
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Risk Analysis of Mass Shootings Committed by Immigrants and Native-Born Americans
Foreign-born people are not disproportionately responsible for deaths or injuries caused by mass shootings. The chance of being murdered in a mass shooting committed by a native-born American was about 1 in 10.5 million per year, about 6.5 times higher than the chance of being killed by a foreign-born mass shooter, which was about 1 in 68.4 million per year.
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A Flexible Robot Can Help Emergency Responders Search Through Rubble
SPROUT, developed by Lincoln Laboratory and University of Notre Dame researchers, is a vine robot capable of navigating under collapsed structuresSPROUT, developed by Lincoln Laboratory and University of Notre Dame researchers, is a vine robot capable of navigating under collapsed structures.
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The long view
AI-Controlled Fighter Jets May Be Closer Than We Think — and Would Change the Face of Warfare
Could we be on the verge of an era where fighter jets take flight without pilots – and are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI)? US R Adm Michael Donnelly recently said that an upcoming combat jet could be the navy’s last one with a pilot in the cockpit.
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Need for National Information Clearinghouse for Cybercrime Data, Categorization of Cybercrimes: Report
There is an acute need for the U.S. to address its lack of overall governance and coordination of cybercrime statistics. A new report recommends that relevant federal agencies create or designate a national information clearinghouse to draw information from multiple sources of cybercrime data and establish connections to assist in criminal investigations.
Autonomous Weapon Systems: No Human-in-the-Loop Required, and Other Myths Dispelled
“The United States has a strong policy on autonomy in weapon systems that simultaneously enables their development and deployment and ensures they could be used in an effective manner, meaning the systems work as intended, with the same minimal risk of accidents or errors that all weapon systems have,” Michael Horowitz writes.
Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles
To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”