Health security

White House Declares New War on Drugs to Stop Escalating Opioid Crisis

The White House this week announced a plan to stem drug supply and demand fueling the opioid crisis, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions telling law enforcement officers that “this administration will not stand back as addiction shatters our families and devastates our communities.”

Sessions cited the sobering statistics of America’s opioid crisis during his Thursday speech in Tallahassee: 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016, “the highest drug death toll and the fastest increase in that death toll in American history.”

“That’s the equivalent of the entire city of Daytona Beach dying from drug overdoses in a single year,” he said. “Preliminary data show another — but what appears to be a smaller — increase for 2017. Amazingly, for Americans under the age of 50, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death.”

Of those 2016 overdose deaths, 42,000 were attributed to opioids.

“We are experiencing death rates the likes of which we have never seen before. By the time I have finished speaking, another American will have died of an opioid overdose,” Sessions said. “…By the time this speech is over, another baby will be born in the United States who is physically dependent on opioids.”

Biosecurity

We all have a role to play in biosecurity protection

AgResearch senior scientist biocontrol and biosecurity John Kean told the recent Future Farmers conference in Palmerston North that insects, nematodes, bacteria and pest plants were causing "hundreds, if not thousands, of millions of dollars every year in costs and lost production."

A slide he displayed showed that seven pest invertebrates alone (in descending order of destructiveness - grass grub, black beetle, nematodes, porina, slugs, clover root weevil, Argentine stem weevil) were costing the dairy and sheep and beef industries a combined total of at least $4.4 billion a year.

The costs of Mycoplasma bovis are at $90 million and climbing. And we still don't know exactly how it arrived in New Zealand.

This is a wake-up call to some farmers to step up their own measures to protect their herds and livelihoods, cleaning down machinery and the boots of visitors that come on farm, instituting a buffer zone on perimeter fences, and so on.

Drug smuggling

Drug-smuggling mobsters used retired police dogs to help secure cargo, court hears

Drug-smuggling mobsters have enlisted retired police dogs to safeguard multi-million dollar cargoes, a GTA trial heard.

On the witness stand, former York Region mobster Carmine Guido, 47, said on Monday that the elderly police dogs are trained in drug detection and can alert traffickers if their products aren’t securely wrapped.

“They’re good at sniffing,” Guido said under questioning from Crown Attorney Jeremy Streeter.

“When the dogs get old, they (police) retire them,” Guido told court, noting that some drug smugglers are happy to put them back to work on the other side of the law.

Guido’s comments came in the case against Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino, 64, of Bradford and Cosmin (Chris) Dracea, 41, of Toronto.

The case is historic because it’s the first prosecution in which the ’Ndrangheta has been targeted since the offense of criminal organization was created in 1997 in Canada, senior federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos said in an interview.

Climate security

Thanks to Climate Change, the Sahara is Inching South

While the face of climate change often looks like dramatic natural disasters—hurricanes, massive fires, floods, or heat waves—the African continent is facing a much more subtle catastrophe: the spread of the Sahara.

The desert, which is roughly the size of the United States, has grown by about 10% in the last century, in large part thanks to climate change. Researchers worry that this slowly unraveling disaster hasn’t gotten the attention it warrants to prepare affected populations for the consequences.

Here’s Darryl Fears, writing for The Washington Post:

“If you have a hurricane come suddenly, it gets all the attention from the government and communities galvanize,” said Sumant Nigam, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic science at the University of Maryland and the senior author of the study. “The desert advance over a long period might capture many countries unawares. It’s not announced like a hurricane. It’s sort of creeping up on you.”

In fact, the governments of Sudan and Chad have barely noticed, despite the fact that their rainy season has traded itself in for a dry spell that has allowed the desert to creep south.

But what might not be clear in the day-to-day stood out in the data. Researchers studied 93 years of climate data beginning in 1920 and found that climate change is likely helping drive the southward spread, for two reasons...

Immigration security

Immigration: how much is too much?

Maybe it was intrusive use of big data. A mistrust of Eurocracy and foreign judges.

Maybe it depended on undeliverable promises and the big red bus. Perhaps it was the complacency of the remainers, and of intransigence in Brussels.

But there's little doubt that none of these factors would have made much difference to the Brexit vote without the big issue that people on all sides tend to speak about nervously - immigration.

So when the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) speaks, it needs close attention. Amid all the claims, counter-claims, petty prejudices about Johnny Foreigner and justifiable concerns about jobs and wages, this is the outfit that feeds real hard evidence into government thinking - or so you would hope.

It was commissioned last July by the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, to take an in-depth and wide-ranging look at the UK's continuing economic and demographic requirement to attract a continued flow of European Union immigrants after Brexiting.

Cybersecurity

FBI Admits It Used National Security Hacking Tools for Ordinary Criminal Cases

A special report for the US Department of Justice has confirmed the existence of the FBI’s Remote Operations Unit – a super-secret team of hackers who used classified exploits reserved for intelligence operations in ordinary criminal cases.

The existence of the Remote Operations Unit (ROU) has been a favorite of conspiracy theorists since 2013, when American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) principal technologist Chris Soghoian uncovered the group's existence by piecing together LinkedIn profiles and sections of documents released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The ROU is a team of professional hackers with hacking tools and tricks so cool and classified they are usually reserved for matters of national security; i.e., intelligence and counterintelligence.

An Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report issued in March for the US Department of Justice, however, officially acknowledged the group's existence for the first time. The reports also says the ROU used their super-cool hacking techniques in ordinary criminal cases — twice.

According to the report, the ROU manager "sees a line in the sand" regarding using intelligence tools in a criminal investigation, but this line can be crossed with approval from the Deputy Attorney General.

International security

Dangerous for US to Treat Russia as Opponent Due to Nuclear Arms – Ex-Ambassador

It is dangerous for the United States to treat Russia as an opponent due to comparable nuclear capabilities of the two states, the former Russian ambassador to the United States said Friday.

"The perception of Russia as an opponent [by the United States] is very dangerous. Russia is the only country which has a comparable nuclear arsenal [to the one of the United States]," Sergey Kislyak, who is also the first deputy chief of the Russian Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee, said at a plenary session at the Stolypin Forum in Moscow.

The diplomat added that the United States treat Russia as an opponent because Moscow had been implementing policy aimed at revision of the existing global political order.

Communication security

Russian ships may be using underwater cables to spy

 Russian ships are skulking around underwater communications cables, causing the US and its allies to worry the Kremlin might be taking information warfare to new depths.

Is Moscow interested in cutting or tapping the cables? Does it want the West to worry it might? Is there a more innocent explanation? Unsurprisingly, Russia isn’t saying.

But whatever Moscow’s intentions, US and Western officials are increasingly troubled by their rival’s interest in the 400 fiber-optic cables that carry most of the world’s calls, emails and texts, as well as $10 trillion worth of daily financial transactions.

“We’ve seen activity in the Russian navy, and particularly undersea in their submarine activity, that we haven’t seen since the ’80s,” Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the US European Command, told Congress this month.

Without undersea cables, a bank in Asian countries couldn’t send money to Saudi Arabia to pay for oil. US military leaders would struggle to communicate with troops fighting extremists in Afghanistan and the Middle East. A student in Europe wouldn’t be able to Skype his parents in the United States.

Mass surveillance

China Aims For Near-Total Surveillance, Including in People's Homes

By 2020, China will have completed its nationwide facial recognition and surveillance network, achieving near-total surveillance of urban residents, including in their homes via smart TVs and smartphones.

According to the official Legal Daily newspaper, the 13th Five Year Plan requires 100 percent surveillance and facial recognition coverage and total unification of its existing databases across the country.

Authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan reported in December that they had completed the installation of more than 40,000 surveillance cameras across more than 14,000 villages as part of the "Sharp Eyes" nationwide surveillance network, the paper said.

Guangdong-based Bell New Vision Co. is developing the nationwide "Sharp Eyes" platform that can link up public surveillance cameras and those installed in smart devices in the home, to a nationwide network for viewing in real time by anyone who is given access.

"Sharp Eyes" comes from a ruling Chinese Communist Party slogan, "the people have sharp eyes," which traditionally relied on the eyes and ears of local neighborhood committees to keep tabs on what its people were up to.

Soon, police and other officials will be able to monitor people's activities in their own homes, wherever there is an internet-connected camera.

Electronic surveillance

How U.S. Foreign Intervention Created Our Domestic Surveillance State

The origins of the present-day surveillance state can be traced back to the U.S. government’s military occupation of the Philippines in the late 1890s. Under the leadership of Ralph Van Deman, who would earn the informal honorific of “father of U.S. military intelligence,” the U.S. occupiers established a state-of-the-art surveillance apparatus to squash dissent by those who resisted U.S. efforts.

After his time abroad, Van Deman returned home and, drawing upon his experiences abroad, worked tirelessly to establish similar surveillance infrastructure at home. In May 1917, the Military Intelligence Sec­tion (MIS) was formed, with Van Deman at the helm.

Over the following decades, the U.S. surveillance state continued to expand and reorganize, resulting in the founding of the National Security Agency (NSA) in 1952. This coincided with an unprecedented expansion in the scope of government surveillance of the daily lives and activities of American persons. The prevalence of unconstrained government surveil­lance is evident in the four main concurrent operations undertaken at that time: Project SHAMROCK and Project MINARET, both operated by the NSA; COINTELPRO, implemented by the Federal Bureau of Investiga­tion; and Operation CHAOS, which fell under the purview of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Nuclear security

'Satan 2' nuclear missile again test-launched by Russia, as Putin brags of 'invulnerable' arsenal

A new intercontinental ballistic missile hailed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as being able to fly over the North or South Poles and strike any target in the world reportedly was test-launched for the second time Friday.

Russia’s defense ministry released a video purportedly showing the Sarmat ICBM blasting off in spectacular fashion from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in its northern Arkhangelsk province, the move coming just hours after the Kremlin announced it would expel 60 American diplomats and close the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg in retaliation for U.S. measures taken in response to the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.

The video shows the missile – dubbed “Satan 2” by NATO -- rising out of the ground and seemingly floating in the air for a brief moment before more flames erupt, kicking up massive clouds of smoke and snow.

Chemical security

REVEALED: Pentagon’s $70 Million Chemical & Biological Program at Porton Down in UK

The Pentagon has spent at least $70 million on military experiments involving tests with deadly viruses and chemical agents at Porton Down – the UK military laboratory near the city of Salisbury. The secretive biological and chemical research facility is located just 13 km from where on 4^th March former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench following an alleged Novichok nerve agent poisoning.

Information obtained from the US federal contracts registry reveals that the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has funded a number of military projects performed at the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), or Porton Down, over the last decade. Among them: experimental respiratory infection of non-human primates (marmosets) with Anthrax, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, Western equine encephalitis virus, and Eastern equine encephalitis virus. The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has also funded experiments on animals which were exposed to chemical agents such as Sulfur Mustard and Phosgene gas. Phosgene gas was used as a chemical weapon during World War I where it was responsible for about 85 % of the 100,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons.

Financial safety

De-Dollarization: How Russia and China May Soon Dethrone the Petrodollar

Beijing's launch of yuan-denominated oil futures may facilitate the internationalization of the Chinese currency and deal a heavy blow to the longstanding dominance of the US petrodollar.

On March 26, China kicked off its first-ever yuan-denominated oil futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange. Sputnik contributor Igor Naumov writes that Russia is ready to support the Chinese contracts, citing a source close to the top management of Stock Exchange Saint-Petersburg (SPBEX).

"Currently, the US dollar is used as the contract currency in the global hydrocarbon trading system, as well as for other commodities," the journalist explained. "This is what largely provides the dollar with its status of the world's leading reserve currency. [However], the yuan is seeking to dislodge the American [petrodollar] from one of the fastest growing oil markets in the world."

According to Evgeny Itzakov, associate professor at the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), the launch of yuan-denominated crude futures could become a trigger for traders to sell dollars and raise their long positions on the Chinese currency.

International security

Rachel Marsden: US war machine ramping up despite absence of threat

Western Europe wasn't the only time zone that jumped ahead over the past weekend. Apparently the Doomsday Clock is also participating in daylight saving time this year, leaping ahead following the replacement of non-interventionists with warmongers in critical U.S. national-security positions.

Is there any voice of reason left in this White House that would not encourage shooting first and asking questions later? As commander in chief, President Donald Trump was entrusted with that role by the American people, and the composition of his entourage -- a delicate balance of hawkish ideologues and pragmatic realists -- initially suggested that building bridges through long-term cooperation with non-traditional allies might actually be possible.

The idea of finding common ground with historical foes is such a bizarre concept for Washington to wrap its head around that Trump has been accused by both establishment leftists and neoconservatives of colluding with the enemy for wanting to avoid more war. Does a president have to bomb a country to prove non-collusion and get some peace and quiet in the Oval Office? That might, in fact, be the case.

Personal security

Intelligence officials fear China's global 'kidnapping' program has reached America

Some U.S. intelligence officials fear that the Chinese government is conducting sophisticated "kidnapping" programs in the United States in order to spirit their nationals back to the mainland, where they face arrest and imprisonment on political and corruption charges. Beijing has openly admitted to repatriating more than 3,000 people "who had escaped overseas" since late 2012, Xinhua reports, although the U.S. intelligence community believes China's strategies in Western nations often involves pushing the definitions of coercion and kidnapping.

In one example cited in the report by Foreign Policy, a Chinese-Canadian billionaire was snatched from his hotel in Hong Kong in 2017 and was loaded — likely sedated — into a wheelchair and rolled out through the lobby with a sheet covering his head. Similar stories have also come out of Australia, a U.S. intelligence partner, including one about a man who was allegedly drugged by Chinese security forces and transported back to the mainland on a state-owned shipping vessel.

Cybersecurity

New York City is launching public cybersecurity tools to keep residents from getting hacked

In a week of harrowing city-level cyber attacks, New York is taking some precautions.

While the timing is coincidental, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio just announced that the city will introduce the first tools in its suite of cybersecurity offerings to protect residents against malicious online activity, particularly on mobile devices.

When it launches this summer, New York residents will be able to download a free app called NYC Secure. The app will alert smartphone users to potential threats on their devices and offer tips for how to stay secure, “such as disconnecting from a malicious Wi-Fi network, navigating away from a compromised website, or uninstalling a malicious app.”

Because the app will take no active steps on its own, it’ll be up to users to heed the advice presented to them. NYC Secure will not collect or transmit any personal identifying information or private data.

Climate security

Biggest Threat to Humanity? Climate Change, U.N. Chief Says

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Thursday called climate change “the most systemic threat to humankind” and urged world leaders to curb their countries’ greenhouse gas emissions.

He didn’t say much, though, about the one world leader who had pulled out of the landmark United Nations climate change agreement: President Trump.

Instead, Mr. Guterres suggested that Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris accord nearly a year ago didn’t matter much. The American people, he said, were doing plenty.

“Independently of the position of the administration, the U.S. might be able to meet the commitments made in Paris as a country,” the secretary general said. “And, as you know, all around the world, the role of governments is less and less relevant.”

Electronic surveillance

Dutch vote to reject 'Big Brother’ legislation expanding surveillance powers of security agencies

The Dutch population does not want security agencies to receive more surveillance powers, official results of the referendum showed. Although only advisory, the vote sends a strong signal to the government pushing for the law.

The Electoral Council said 49.4 percent of the voters spoke out against the Intelligence and Security Law during the March 21 referendum. The legislation was supported by 46.5 percent, with four percent of those participating casting blank ballots, it added. 
The addition of the law on the ballot boosted voter turnout to almost 52 percent, far exceeding the minimum turnout of 30 percent required for a plebiscite to be declared valid.

The new legislation, which the opponents dubbed the 'Big Data Law,' or data mining law, provides additional powers to the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) and the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD).

AML

MPs to probe Russian money laundering through UK property

MPs are to probe the scale of money laundering in the UK, including property bought with suspected Russian "dirty money".

It follows claims that £4.4bn of UK property may have been bought with suspicious wealth, with more than a fifth, or £880m, purchased by Russians.

UK and Russia relations are at a low point after a nerve agent attack on British soil.

The Treasury Select Committee inquiry will also look at terrorist financing.

Treasury committee chair Nicky Morgan said: "It has been claimed that the UK, particularly the London property market, is becoming a destination of choice to launder the proceeds of overseas crime and corruption - so-called 'dirty money'.

"Given the threats that face the UK, the effectiveness of the regimes that we use to protect our financial system from misuse have never been more important."

A report by anti-corruption group Transparency International in March alleged that London "has routinely been the choice destination for Russians with suspicious wealth to move and they have had little trouble doing so, taking advantage of lax regulation and offshore secrecy".

People smuggling

Rise in criminal smuggling gangs challenges EU policy

Europe's aim of smashing the smugglers' business model when it comes to migration appears to be struggling to produce the desired results in the Western Balkan region.
Fabrice Leggeri, the head of the EU's border agency Frontex, earlier this week noted "more and more smuggling activities".
Speaking to MEPs in the civil liberties committee, he also said there are now "more flexible organised criminal groups" and "criminal coalitions dealing with trafficking in human beings."
The admission appears to counter EU and national claims on curbing the smuggling trade in general.
Leggeri himself did not elaborate on reasons why.
But he was speaking in the wider context of the new Italian-led Frontex operation (known as Themis), while making the case for a more "integrated coastguard approach."

Tortures

Opposition Grows to CIA Nominee Haspel Ahead of Confirmation Battle

President Trump's nominees for Secretary of State and CIA Director will soon face the Senate Foreign Relations and Senate Intelligence Committees, respectively. Michael Pompeo, a conservative former congressman and the current CIA Director, is likely to be confirmed, despite a filibuster by Kentucky's Republican Senator Rand Paul. But there's a fight over Gina Haspel, the current deputy director of the CIA. She oversaw the Agency's torture program during the Bush Administration. And those chickens may be coming home to roost.

Foreign affairs

Spy poisoning: Russia expels 60 US diplomats in tit-for-tat measure

Russia has expelled 60 US diplomats and closed the St Petersburg consulate in a tit-for-tat response to US action over a spy poisoning case in the UK.

Russia's foreign minister said other countries that expelled Russians could expect a "symmetrical" response.

It comes amid a row over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in southern England.

The White House said Russia's move to expel its diplomats had been "not unanticipated".

It marked "a further deterioration in the United States-Russia relationship", it said in a statement.

Privacy security

Never mind Facebook, Google is the all-seeing ‘big brother’ you should know about

The Cambridge Analytica scandal put Facebook through the wringer in recent weeks, losing the company $100 billion in stock value and prompting a global debate on internet privacy.

The social media giant was forced to apologize and overhaul its privacy and data sharing practices, but it still remains in the media spotlight and in the crosshairs of the Federal Trade Commission, which says it may be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fines.

But amid all the furor, one monolithic entity has continued to harvest data from billions of people worldwide. The data gathered includes a precise log of your every move and every internet search you’ve ever made, every email you’ve ever sent, your workout routine, your favourite food, and every photo you’ve ever taken. And you have allowed it to happen to yourself, for the sake of better service and more relevant advertising.

Google is a ‘Big Brother’ with capabilities beyond George Orwell’s wildest nightmares. These capabilities are all the more chilling after Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., cut its famous “don’t be evil” line from its code of conduct in 2015.

Everything you’ve ever searched for on any of your devices is recorded and stored by Google. It’s done to better predict your future searches and speed up and streamline your browsing. You can clear your search history, but it only works for that particular device. Google still keeps a record of everything. Click here to see everything you’ve ever searched on a Google device.

Law & order

Sessions: Federal prosecutor evaluating alleged FBI, DOJ wrongdoing, no second special counsel for now

Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed Thursday a federal prosecutor was evaluating certain issues involving the FBI, the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One, but said he would not appoint a second special counsel at this point. 

In a letter directed to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, Sessions revealed that he asked U.S. Attorney John Huber to lead the evaluation into issues raised by the committees in recent months. 

“I write in response to recent letters requesting the appointment of a Special Counsel to review certain prosecutorial and investigative determinations made by the Department of Justice in 2016 and 2017. I take the concerns you raise seriously,” Sessions wrote, noting how important it was that the American people and Congress had “confidence” in the Justice Department.

Foreign affairs

Official CIA representatives in Russia have diplomatic status, former FSB chief says

Official representatives of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Russia are working for the Embassy and have a diplomatic status, Russian MP and former head of the Federal Security Service Nikolai Kovalev told TASS.

Earlier, a number of countries claimed that some of the Russian diplomats being expelled were secret service officers. The chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, confirmed that to a number of mass media, adding that the officers in question worked abroad quite officially.

"Certainly [official CIA representatives have a diplomatic status]," said Kovalev, who is a member of the State Duma (lower house) committee for security and countering corruption.

"They are working as diplomats, they introduce themselves officially, this is common practice of both sides," he noted.

Earlier, US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman said in an interview with TASS that 60 Russian diplomats were expelled from the US due to the need to protect Americans from espionage. A large number of Russian intelligence officers were working in the US and Canada, he said.

Joint operations 

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and the CIA have many times carried out joint operations coordinated by their official representatives, Kovalev has pointed out. 

A number of countries said earlier that there were intelligence officers among expelled Russian diplomats. SVR head Sergei Naryshkin confirmed the fact to the media, pointing out that the officers had official status.

Election security

Documents suggest possible coordination between CIA, FBI, Obama WH and Dem officials early in Trump-Russia probe: investigators

Newly uncovered text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page suggest a possible coordination between high-ranking officials at the Obama White House, CIA, FBI, Justice Department and former Senate Democratic leadership in the early stages of the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to GOP congressional investigators on Wednesday.
The investigators say the information provided to Fox News “strongly” suggests coordination between former President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, and CIA Director John Brennan — which they say would “contradict” the Obama administration’s public stance about its hand in the process.
Page texted Strzok on Aug. 2, 2016, saying: “Make sure you can lawfully protect what you sign. Just thinking about congress, foia, etc. You probably know better than me.”
A text message from Strzok to Page on Aug. 3 described former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as being concerned with “information control” related to the initial investigation into the Trump campaign. According to a report from the New York Times, Brennan was sent to Capitol Hill around the same time to brief members of Congress on the possibility of election interference.

Climate security

WHY CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTICS ARE BACKING GEOENGINEERING

In the emerging field of geoengineering, which envisions large-scale efforts to fight climate change by directly manipulating the natural environment, Field’s privately funded Ice911 project is a small player. Under the Trump administration, these eclectic, messianic and mostly untested projects have been gaining unprecedented momentum.

For decades, scientists have warned that unchecked climate change will lead to catastrophes and have urged policymakers to curb greenhouse gases at their source. But politicians have dragged their heels, and under President Donald Trump, progress has slowed. The Trump administration has challenged the scientific consensus on climate, moved to repeal curbs on power plant emissions, proposed sweeping cutbacks to renewable energy research and pledged to withdraw from global climate talks.

Amid these developments, some close allies of Trump have taken a seemingly paradoxical stance: While denying climate change is a human-caused problem and rejecting proposals to cut greenhouse gases, they’re promoting what many experts worry is the risky default solution of geoengineering.

Immigration security

A year of fear: Immigration policy under Trump

Make no mistake about it. Our immigration system has been challenged going back long before the current presidential administration.

The 1996 immigration reform act signed by President Bill Clinton (Illegal Immigration Reform And Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 [IIRAIRA]) effectively eviscerated the rights of millions of immigrants. After the horrific events of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush changed how immigration laws would be enforced. The Obama administration oversaw record-breaking deportations, to the tune of 2.5 million immigrants removed and a vast expansion of family detention. President Trump’s anti-immigrant actions and rhetoric during his first year in office are set apart from previous immigration crackdowns in that it has been marked by a host of efforts to frighten both legal and undocumented immigrants.

Starting with the failed travel bans, President Trump has shown that while he mentions plans with “heart” and “love,” he has done anything but show compassion to foreign nationals.

Here are a few of his first year’s “greatest hits”: Rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for many countries, and the abandonment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the use of prosecutorial discretion, indiscriminately arresting and detaining those with no criminal history in an apparent effort to push deportation numbers ever higher.