• Identifying “Double-Hazard” Zones for Wildfire in the West

    Rapidly growing communities in the American West’s forests and shrublands are nestled in zones where local soil and plant traits amplify the effect of climate change on wildfire hazards and lead to bigger burns.

  • U.S. Mired in “Heightened Threat Environment”: DHS

    DHS, in its updated National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin released Monday, says that the prevalence of conspiracy theories and bad or misleading information, online and in social media forums, is keeping the United States in a state of heightened alert when it comes to possible terror attacks. DHS warns that while many of the top threat streams have changed little over the past year, almost all of them are being amplified by the information environment.

  • Battling Disinformation

    Counterspeech is a strategy to oppose hate speech and falsehoods online. It works by flooding a post that is hateful or misleading with comments that are positive or that reinforce the facts. Citizens are the drivers of counterspeech and can even form special groups to coordinate their efforts.

  • NSA Releases 2021 Cybersecurity Year in Review

    The NSA last week released its 2021 NSA Cybersecurity Year in Review which highlights how the agency continues to address threats to the U.S. most critical systems.

  • Send Surveillance Robot Dogs to the Pound, Not the Border

    Last week, DHS said that robotic are “one step closer” to deployment on the U.S.-Mexico border. Covered with sensors and cameras that can relay information and footage in real time to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), these machines are less cute-video or selfie fodder and more of a civil liberties-invading hellhound.

  • Broad, and Likely Unauthorized, Use of Pegasus Spyware by Israel's Police Shocks Israel

    Since 2015, Israel’s police has employed the intrusive Pegasus spyware to spy on businesspeople, journalists and editors, senior managers of government ministries and agencies, leaders of protest movements, and more – and it appears that in many, if not most, of these cases, the spying was done without judicial approval or after judges were misled by the police about the nature of the monitoring technology. The Pegasus software has been used by authoritarian governments around the world to spy on political opponents, human rights activist, journalists – and in at least one case, to spy on U.S. diplomats. The U.S. has blacklisted the Israeli company NSO, Pegasus maker, and American companies are not allowed to sell their technology to NSO or do business with it

  • How Radio Programming Can Fight Violent Extremism in West Africa

    A new study shows the potential of storytelling and narratives to address violent extremism. Radio dramas can increase intentions to collaborate with the police, increase prioritization of violent extremism as an important issue to be addressed by the government, and reduce justification of violent extremism, new experimental research shows.

  • Energy Weapon Only 'Plausible' Explanation for Some Cases of Havana Syndrome

    U.S. intelligence agencies may have ruled out the idea that a rash of mysterious illnesses plaguing American diplomats and other officials is part of a sustained campaign by one of Washington’s adversaries, but they now say that in a small number of cases the only likely explanation is the use of some sort of weapon.

  • Experts Suggest U.S. Embassies Were Hit with High-Power Microwaves – Here’s How the Weapons Work

    The technology behind the suspected weapons is well understood and dates back to the Cold War arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. High-power microwave weapons are generally designed to disable electronic equipment. But as the Havana syndrome reports show, these pulses of energy can harm people, as well.

  • Did the West Promise Moscow NATO Would Not Expand? It's Complicated.

    Did the United States, thirty years ago, promise Russia that if Russia agreed to Germany’s unification, NATO “would not expand one inch eastward”? The belief that the United States made that promise, and then betrayed it, continues to form a central grievance in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s narrative about Moscow’s ties with the West.

  • Islamic State Leader Killed in U.S. Raid – Where Does This Leave the Terrorist Group?

    The operation against Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi arrives at a precarious time for the Islamic State group. The organization’s transition from an Iraq-centric movement to a global insurgency with affiliates dotted across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia is still relatively fresh. Leadership decapitation – or the targeted killing of militant groups’ top leaders – is a key component of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. It is widely used by many nations, including the United States.

    But terrorism experts don’t agree on how effective killing top leaders is.

  • DHS Launches Cyber Safety Review Board

    On Thursday, 3 February 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the establishment of the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB). DHS says that the CSRB is an unprecedented public-private initiative that will bring together government and industry leaders to elevate our nation’s cybersecurity.

  • Are Russia and China Teaming Up Against America in a Global Information War? Yes and No.

    Are Russia and China coordinating information campaigns, or is their symbiotic relationship merely reflective of messaging opportunism and interest alignment? The Kremlin is the unquestioned leader in the dissemination of global propaganda and disinformation, both on traditional and social media channels. Much of Moscow’s approach has been adopted by Beijing, China is authoring its own authoritarian influence playbook backed by financial and technological resources that Russia simply cannot match.

  • European Union Supports Lithuania in Trade Fight with China

    In a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Lithuania alleges that that China has violated the trade body’s rules by carrying out against Lithuania coercive actions that also interfered with the EU’s all-member-inclusive single market and supply chain.

  • Biden Is Restarting the Trump-Era “Remain in Mexico” Program. Why?

    Tens of thousands of migrants were sent back to Mexico under the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program. President Biden calls it inhumane but has been legally forced to resume it.