Water securityNew Tool Could Guide Floodwater Management and Combat Ongoing Drought Published 22 April 2021 Using a new computer framework, scientists are able to project future floodwaters under a changing climate. The approach could help California water managers plan for and redirect floodwaters toward groundwater aquifers, alleviating both flood and drought risks. Floodwaters are not what

Electrical grid securityU.S. Trying to Insulate Electrical Grid from Cyberattacks By Steve Herman Published 21 April 2021 With America’s electrical infrastructure getting zapped daily by an unprecedented number of cyberattacks, the federal government is taking action to prevent a potentially crippling hack of the grid. A 100-day plan was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Energy

Pandemic responseLessons from Past Emergencies Could Improve the Pandemic Response Published 21 April 2021 The lack of accountability, poor communication and insufficient planning plaguing the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — especially in its early months — have roots in how the nation responded to 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the H1N1 swine flu, a

Threat assessmentDomestic Violent Extremists’ Threat Has Increased Since 2015: Intelligence Chiefs Published 21 April 2021 Last week, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines released to Congress an unclassified annual report – the IC’s 2021 Annual Threat Assessment. DNI Avril Haines, CIA director Bill Burns, and FBI director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate and House

Nuclear threatsU.S. Should Make Monitoring and Detecting Nuclear Threats a Higher National Priority Published 21 April 2021 To address current and evolving nuclear threats, the U.S. needs a higher prioritized and more integrated program for monitoring, detecting, and verifying nuclear test explosions, nuclear weapon stockpiles, and the production of fissile material, says a new report

Public healthNew Tech Makes Detecting Airborne Ebola Virus Possible Published 21 April 2021 Natural outbreaks of the Ebola virus, while severe, are typically isolated and usually affect no more than a few hundred people at a time. However, from 2014-2016, infections from this deadly virus caused more than 11,000 deaths in West Africa. During this

Public healthReport: HHS Put Repatriated U.S. Citizens at Risk for COVID-19 By Mary Van Beusekom Published 21 April 2021 In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that coordination and safety problems among Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) staff during repatriation efforts early in the COVID-19 pandemic put themselves, the recalled

Water securityRoad Salts Are Threatening World’s Freshwater Supplies Published 21 April 2021 When winter storms threaten to make travel dangerous, people often turn to salt, spreading it liberally over highways, streets and sidewalks to melt snow and ice. A new study warns that introducing salt into the environment — whether it’s for de-icing roads, fertilizing

Deepfake geographyA Growing Problem of “Deepfake Geography”: How AI Falsifies Satellite Images Published 21 April 2021 There is a growing problem with “location spoofing” – the manipulation of satellite images so that fake images look like genuine images of real places. With the more sophisticated AI technologies available today, researchers warn that such “deepfake geography”

China watchChina: Crimes Against Humanity in Xinjiang Published 20 April 2021 The Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday. The Chinese leadership is responsible for widespread and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, and