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U.S. responds to China’s cyberattacks with anti-theft trade strategy
The Obama administration yesterday (Wednesday) unveiled the details of a broad strategy to counter the systemic theft by Chinese government agencies of U.S. trade and technology and trade secrets. The administration’s plan calls for new diplomatic push to discourage intellectual property theft abroad and better coordination at home to help U.S. companies protect themselves.
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Chinese set to buy yet another U.S. taxpayer-backed hi-tech firm
Lawmakers yesterday expressed their concerns about the likelihood that U.S. taxpayer dollars could end up bolstering the Chinese economy. The lawmakers reacted to reports that a Chinese firm, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is leading the list of companies bidding for a majority stake in government-backed Fisker Automotive, and that the only serious rival of that Chinese company is a Chinese auto maker. Fisker’s main battery supplier — U.S. government-backed A123 Systems – has already been acquired by a separate Chinese firm.
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U.S. weighing retaliatory measures against China for hacking campaign
As incontrovertible evidence emerged for the role of Chinese government in initiating and orchestrating the massive, sustained Chinese hacking campaign against U.S. private companies, government agencies, and critical infrastructure assets, the administration has intensified discussions of retaliatory measures the United States may take against China.
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Keeping an eye on the world’s dangerous chemicals
In the chemistry labs of the developing world, it is not uncommon to find containers, forgotten on shelves, with only vague clues to their origins. The label, if there is one, is rubbed away. Left alone for years, some chemicals can quietly break down into explosive elixirs, and what was once an innocent experiment by a well-meaning scientist becomes a very real, unsecured threat. Should such chemicals fall into malicious hands, the consequences could be widespread and deadly.
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Harvard president issues a clarion call for science
Harvard President Drew Faust, addressingthe annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), called for members of the scientific community to “raise our voices” in an effort to prevent the U.S. Congress from becoming “an American Association for the Retreat of Science.” Urging widespread efforts to prevent U.S. cuts in funds for sustained research, Faust said: “We must secure the federal research support critical to the future of our nation and of the world.”
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Chinese government orchestrates cyberattacks on U.S.: experts
For more than a decade now, China has engaged in a sustained, systemic, and comprehensive campaign of cyber attacks against the United States. The Chinese government has enlisted China’s sprawling military and civilian intelligence services, with their armies of cyber-specialists, in a cyber-campaign aiming to achieve three goals: steal Western industrial secrets and give them to Chinese companies, so these companies could compete and weaken their Western rivals; hasten China’s march toward regional, then global, economic hegemony; achieve deep penetration of U.S. critical infrastructure in order to gain the ability to disrupt and manipulate American critical infrastructure – and paralyze it during times of crisis and conflict. A detailed 60-page study, to be released today , offers, for the first time, proof that the most sophisticated Chinese hacker groups, groups conducting the most threatening attacks on the United States, are affiliated with the headquarters of China’s military intelligence lead unit — PLA Unit 61398.
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DHS reasserts right for search and seizure without probable cause
Thousands of times a year people are stopped as they cross into the United States, and their cell phones, tablets, and laptops are taken from them. Their e-mails and photos and other important documents are searched thoroughly without probable cause.
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DHS to buy 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition
DHS is looking to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in the next four or five years — this comes to about five bullets for every person in the United States. The news was met in some conspiratorial quarters as an indication that the government is in an “arms race against the American people,” but the truth is more mundane: the rounds will be used for basic and advanced law enforcement training for federal law enforcement agencies supervised by DHS. The training will be conducted Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia and other facilities, which also offer firearms training to tens of thousands of federal law enforcement officers.
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Ohio country authorized to use drones to look for missing persons
The Medina County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Office has recently been authorized to fly drones on police missions. Tom Miller, the county’s new sheriff, said the drones will be used specifically for looking for missing people or suspect who may be hiding in the woods.
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Infrastructure renewal in regional Australia
New research in Australia calls for the establishment of a new national organization to tackle the shortfall in infrastructure investment and boost the regions’ capacity to contribute to national economic growth. Expert say the new organization, to be called Local Infrastructure Australia, would be the most effective way of overcoming the backlog in local government infrastructure investment now estimated at between $12 and $15.5 billion.
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Iran installs faster centrifuges at Natanz
Iranian officials said Wednesday that Iran has begun installing more sophisticated enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Speeding up the enrichment process would shorten Iran’s “break out” period: if Iran were to inform the IAEA that it was withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty (NPT), a step which would allow it to build nuclear bombs without violating the treaty – the time between withdrawal from the treaty and to first nuclear weapons being build will be that much shorter. This will make it that much more difficult for outside powers to intervene to stop the build-up.
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Senate Judiciary Committee launches immigration hearings
Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featured testimony from DHS secretary Janet Napolitano and Jose Antonio Vargas, a former journalist who started the group Define American, which campaigns for immigration reform. The hearing focused largely on border security and enforcement, with an entire panel devoted to just one witness — Napolitano. Napolitano said that border security was often used as an excuse to prevent meaningful changes.
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Alabama consolidates state law enforcement, IT agencies
A Republican-led effort to consolidate government operations in Alabama was met with a bi-partisan approval as both Democrats and Republicans voted to merge law enforcement and information technology operations. A study done by Auburn University at Montgomery estimates state agencies spend $317 million a year on IT operations, and that with the new measures, the state could save between $32 million and $64 million.
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Maryland drills first responders in response to “large-scale” incident
More than 100 police, fire, first responders, military and civilian personnel took part in a homeland security exercise earlier this month at Battelle in Aberdeen, Maryland. The exercise included intelligence and information sharing, mass casualty care, on-site security and protection, operational coordination, and public information and communication.
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Obama to issue cybersecurity executive order today
President Barack Obama is expected to issue an executive order tomorrow to dealing protecting U.S. critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. The order will be issues one day after the president’s State of the Union address. The order will establish a critical infrastructure council which will be run by DHS and will include members of the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Commerce as well as the National Intelligence Office. The council will be tasked with formulating new regulations for federal agencies, or broadening regulations already in place. The regulations will most likely include the sharing of data between private corporations and the federal government.
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More headlines
The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
A Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
“The Federal Government Is Gone”: Under Trump, the Fight Against Extremist Violence Is Left Up to the States
As President Donald Trump guts the main federal office dedicated to preventing terrorism, states say they’re left to take the lead in spotlighting threats. Some state efforts are robust, others are fledgling, and yet other states are still formalizing strategies for addressing extremism. With the federal government largely retreating from focusing on extremist dangers, prevention advocates say the threat of violent extremism is likely to increase.
The “Invasion” Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy
The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.
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.”
How DHS Laid the Groundwork for More Intelligence Abuse
I&A, the lead intelligence unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) —long plagued by politicized targeting, permissive rules, and a toxic culture —has undergone a transformation over the last two years. Spencer Reynolds writes that this effort falls short. “Ultimately, Congress must rein in I&A,” he adds.