International Policy
The executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) voted to condemn the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Arab Republic in 2017.
The vote followed an investigation by the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), which concluded that there are... Read More »
A bill designed to identify and combat efforts by the Chinese government to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Preventing China from Exploiting COVID-19 Act calls upon the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to investigate how the Chinese... Read More »
House members of the Northern Border Caucus are pushing for a phased reopening of that United States-Canadian border, which has been shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In all, 29 Congress members, led by caucus co-chairs Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY), called for... Read More »
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators called on the leaders of Central Asian nations to release detainees imprisoned for peaceful activism who are at high risk of contracting COVID-19.
The Senators sent letters to the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Tajikistan Emomali... Read More »
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence and Acuminor are developing new technology to help banks identify transactional behavior linked to human trafficking.
They are working on a trial with a major Nordic bank for their new solution to test the effectiveness of its financial crime detection systems.... Read More »
A bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers is urging European Union (EU) member states to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
The lawmakers state that Hezbollah is using Europe as a launching pad for its criminal and terrorist activities, including money laundering, drug... Read More »
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Ministry of Health declared this week that an Ebola outbreak which has ravaged the eastern portion of the country since 2018 has finally reached its end.
The news was hailed by global and U.S. health officials, still themselves battling the worldwide... Read More »
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and Israel Ministry of Public Security (MOPS) officials are touting the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation collaboration.
The BIRD Foundation is soliciting collaborative project proposals... Read More »
The U.S. government has reached agreements with both Canada and Mexico to limit all non-essential travel across borders to limit the further spread of coronavirus.
The Department of Homeland Security is a crucial part of this North American approach to stop the spread of the virus, as will the... Read More »
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is endorsing Rep. Bryan Steil’s bill, the Stop Evasion of Iran Sanctions Act.
The RSC’s backing of the measure is in accordance with the group’s National Security Strategy: Strengthening America and Countering Global Threats.
“The United States... Read More »
More than 30 countries and international partners/institutions have rallied behind the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), a new initiative from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Costa Rica designed to make scientific tools to fight COVID-19 universally available.
The show of unity... Read More »
U.S. Coast Guard, Navy, and Royal Canadian navy personnel maintain a recently signed five-year strategic plan will establish the foundation for future coordination and joint operations.
“Whether it’s combating criminal activity by international drug cartels in the eastern pacific, or... Read More »
The Council of Europe Committee on Counter-Terrorism (CDCT) issued a statement on the importance of a coordinated response to bioterrorism.
The committee said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of modern societies to viral infections. The intentional use of a pathogen or... Read More »
The leaders of Costa Rica and Chile, working with the World Health Organization (WHO), are spearheading an effort to create a technology platform that aims to lift access barriers to effective vaccines, medicines, and other health products against COVID-19.
“Our proposal relies on... Read More »
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued a warning to organizations conducting research on the COVID-19 pandemic.
These agencies are warning that healthcare researchers are prime targets from fraudsters from the... Read More »
Security agencies from the United States and the United Kingdom are warning healthcare policymakers and researchers to be on the lookout for cybersecurity threat campaigns amid the COVID-19 response.
Officials representing the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the... Read More »
Global health, industry, and nonprofit leaders joined this week in pledging support to defeat COVID-19, uniting them in a virtual event that recommitted to the accelerated development and delivery of vaccines, tests, and treatments.
“We will only halt COVID-19 through solidarity,” Dr. Tedros... Read More »
President Donald Trump’s pledge to halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) while the White House reviews its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak has drawn immediate criticism from the health community.
“We must all be allies against this threat; this is not the time to stand... Read More »
A group of Congressional lawmakers are calling on leaders of the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the World Organization for Animal Health to ban live wildlife markets and international trade of live wildlife.
Live wildlife markets, also known as “wet” markets, create a... Read More »
A new report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) attributes three instances of chemical weapons use in 2017 to the Assad regime in Syria.
The report from the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) concluded that there are grounds to believe that the... Read More »
The world is at war, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the G20 Leaders Summit this week, and every country needs to unite to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You have come together to confront the defining health crisis of our time: We are at war... Read More »
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, making it the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.
Though WHO had already determined the novel coronavirus a matter of the highest risk globally, the new declaration ended weeks of questioning and... Read More »
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) welcomed this week a £20 million ($26.2 million) investment from the U.K. government while highlighting the need for upwards of $2 billion to develop a vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19.
CEPI, a global partnership dedicated to the... Read More »
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) is part of a new initiative to help fill gaps in pandemic preparedness that have emerged with the rapidly evolving COVID-19 coronavirus crisis.
NTI, along with other global health security organizations, is helping to launch a fund called the Global Health... Read More »
While raising the global risk surrounding the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, to very high, the World Health Organization (WHO) this week released $15 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) as a means of shoring up defenses in more vulnerable nations.
“We do not yet see evidence... Read More »
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) received notifications of nearly 190 incidents of nuclear and other radioactive materials not under regulatory control in 2019, according to the agency’s annual fact sheet.
The fact sheet was published during a recent IAEA conference on... Read More »
With cases of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) now rooted in 25 countries and afflicting more than 24,000 people, the international community is attempting to fight back with a $675 million Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP).
While many nations have responded swiftly to the novel... Read More »
Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) CEO and Co-Chairman Ernest J. Moniz called on public and private sector leaders at last week’s 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) to work to reduce the biological risks associated with advances in technology.
Safety and security measures have not kept pace with... Read More »
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed a second U.S. case of the Wuhan coronavirus on Friday, pointing to a patient in Chicago while revealing that 63 other possible cases are being tracked across 22 states.
Though Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center... Read More »
Pandemic preparedness collaboration among private businesses with the public sector is critically important at this time, say experts at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the World Economic Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“The next severe pandemic will not only... Read More »
U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation awarded $2.3 million to three groups to develop advanced technologies for homeland security.
The BIRD Foundation is an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) commended the Trump Administration for imposing sanctions on eight senior Iranian officials and key sectors of Iran’s economy, including steel and iron manufacturers.
“Today’s announcement of sanctions against senior Iranian officials and Iran’s... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) recently sent correspondence to U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, pressing for information regarding the legal basis used for the military operation that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
“During your confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services... Read More »
Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE) recently introduced legislation designed to strengthen the U.S.-Israel strategic alliance.
The United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020 authorizes $3.3 billion in annual security assistance consistent with the Memorandum... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Rand Paul (R-KY) are urging their Senate colleagues to support their bill that would prevent going to war with Iran.
The Prevention of Unconstitutional War with Iran Act of 2019 (S.1039) affirms the constitutional role of Congress as the sole branch of government... Read More »
