Russia Vax Hacks | Worldwide Surveillance for a Good Cause | A Different Type of Pandemic Looms
July 17, 2020
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America has a problem with its military spending. Our nation is plagued by a variety of domestic problems, from poverty to a pandemic, but we still spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the military every year. Read Daily Pnut contributor Erik Edstrom’s essay to learn more about America’s spending problem and how we should redefine “national security.”
The Good News
- Finally, Some Good News (Carved From 90 Pounds of Butter) (NYT, $)
- Newport Wetlands: Rare bitterns breeds for first time in over 200 years (BBC)
- ‘So happy I have this on bodycam’: Bemused US police catch kangaroo on the run (Guardian)
“Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.” – Dwight Eisenhower
Russian Vax Hackers
(The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The cyberdefense arms of the American, British and Canadian governments said Thursday that intelligence groups reported Russian spies were attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research. The agencies said the hackers, known both as APT29 and Cozy Bear and associated with Russian intelligence, had exploited software flaws to get access to vulnerable computer systems, and used malware called WellMess and WellMail to upload and download files from infected machines. The hackers also used spear-phishing emails to trick individuals into handing over login credentials.
Advisories were published to help health care organizations bolster their computer network defense. Government officials warned that organizations must immediately download fixes for vulnerabilities as soon as software companies make them public, or risk further Russian intrusions. Once Cozy Bear has used the malware to gain access, the hackers can create legitimate credentials to maintain access to a system even after it is patched.
A spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin defended the Kremlin. “We do not have any information about who might break into pharmaceutical companies and research centers in Great Britain. We can say only that Russia has nothing to do with these attempts.” However, the UK’s cyber security center said it was more than 95 percent certain the spy group is part of Russian intelligence services.
When asked how much vaccine information the Russian group had stolen, or what damage may have been done to research efforts, American officials declined to comment on the precise intent of the Cozy Bear hack. One cybersecurity expert said he doubted there was much immediate damage to global public health. “The potential harm here is limited to commercial harm, to companies that are devoting a lot of their own resources into developing a vaccine in hopes it will be financially rewarding down the road,” he noted.
All Gas, Lots of Power Breaks
(Drew Angerer via Getty Images)
- Iraq has a bizarre energy paradox: it has some of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves, yet it has chronic power shortages and frequent blackouts. During Iraq’s long, hot summers, it has to import gas, which it buys primarily from Iran.
- Much of the problem is that Iraq continues the wasteful and harmful practice of flaring — burning off the natural gas that spews into the atmosphere from oil wells. Flaring produces chemicals that pollute the air, land, and water, and also speeds climate change. Additionally, chemicals from flaring can make people very sick — worsening asthma and hypertension and even causing cancer.
- Besides the health impacts of flaring, the gas that’s wasted is enough to power three million homes. Villagers in Nahran Omar and other oil towns across southern Iraq are victimized the most. “Imagine that in the town you come from every family has someone who has cancer,” said a local tribal leader. “This is the situation in Nahran Omar.”
- Many countries have reduced the practice of flaring, partly because it wastes a precious resource. But Iraq still burns over half the natural gas coming from its oil wells, more than any other country except Russia. (NYT)
The Emission Mission
- In 2019 a group of nonprofits, including US-based WattTime and UK-based Carbon Tracker, applied for and won a $1.7 million grant from Google.org (Google’s philanthropic arm) to track global power plant emissions in real time using satellite data and AI algorithms.
- A story on the effort and its implications drew a lot of attention from other research organizations, which began offering up data helpful to tracking additional sources of greenhouse gases. One organization, OceanMind, had been using their own sensors — the Automatic Identification System, a global network of onboard transponders — to detect illegal fishing. Repurposing OceanMind allowed researchers to track every ship in the world in real time, enabling monitoring of maritime greenhouse gas emissions.
- Former vice president and climate activist Al Gore called in offering aid to the nonprofits as well. Gore and WattTime founder and executive director Gavin McCormick began collaborating and reaching out to more groups. In just a year these data sources and trackers have come together as Climate TRACE. The coalition is adding other partners and covering more and more emissions.
- The eventual result will be comprehensive, reliable, publicly accessible global emissions data accompanied by periodic reports. Gore and others hope to “solve the climate crisis by tracing pollution back to its source.” (Vox)
Additional World News
- U.S. targets all Chinese Communist Party members for possible travel ban(Reuters)
- Poland’s Presidential Election Results Challenged by Opposition (NYT, $)
- Europe’s Top Court Strikes Down Key Rules Of U.S.-EU Data Transfer (NPR)
- Brazil’s beef and soy exports to the EU linked to illegal deforestation, study finds (CNN)
- Ethiopia’s River Nile dam: How it will be filled (BBC)
- Ethical labels not fit for purpose, report warns consumers (Guardian)
- Vatican Tells Bishops to Report Sex Abuse to Police, but Doesn’t Require It (NYT, $)
- Iranian Spies Accidentally Leaked Videos of Themselves Hacking (Wired, $)
COVID-19
- In Coronavirus Vaccine Race, China Strays From the Official Paths (NYT)
- Coronavirus vaccine: Oxford team aim to start lab-controlled human trial soon (Guardian)
- Second Coronavirus Strain May Be More Infectious–but Some Scientists Are Skeptical (Scientific American)
- No One Knows What Thailand Is Doing Right, but So Far, It’s Working (NYT)
- UN makes record $10.3bn appeal for pandemic fight (BBC)
- Extending Cruise Ban, C.D.C. Says Ships Helped Spread Coronavirus (NYT)
- From hunger to abuse: how Covid-19 has affected women worldwide (Guardian)
- Coronavirus: Spain orders culling of almost 100,000 mink (BBC)
- Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Sues Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Over Face Mask Order (NPR)
A Congressional Call to Arms
- The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets policy for the US Defense Department, reliably passes Congress and is signed into law every year. It’s considered “must pass” legislation, but this year could be different. Lawmakers are bracing for the possibility that President Trump will veto the $740 billion NDAA proposal over objections to renaming US military facilities named after generals who led the pro-slavery Confederacy.
- Both the House and Senate versions of the proposed bill include language that would rename the military bases; the proposition has support from Democrats, many Republicans, and US military leaders. However, Trump has vowed to veto any bill that includes such language. Some Democrats also want the 2021 NDAA to end a program that gives military equipment to police forces, and to bar the deployment of troops against civilian protesters.
- Trump has been criticizing protesters and downplaying police violence against African-Americans since the George Floyd protests began in May. Another bone of contention between Trump and lawmakers is the president’s plan to withdraw some 10,000 of the 34,500 US troops from Germany, a major center for American forces since WWII. Legislators from both the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate want the NDAA to include a measure barring the president from lowering troop levels until 180 days after Pentagon leaders certify to Congress that doing so would not harm the interests of the US or its allies.
- Whatever the outcome, this year’s NDAA could be the end of the constant expansion of the military budget, which has been soaring since 9/11. If Trump loses to his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the November election, or if Republicans lose control of the Senate, Democrats would likely lean more toward boosting funding for education, healthcare and other programs. Debate on the NDAA bill begins next week. (Reuters)
- America’s establishment-view of “national security” is a national security risk (Daily Pnut)
Beyond a Vaccine
- Just as the United States has proven woefully unprepared for an airborne respiratory virus, it appears we are similarly unrehearsed for the mental health aftershock that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic. To give the best context for what lies ahead, it’s worthwhile to revisit the 2003 SARS outbreak in Hong Kong.
- Months after the virus tore through the Chinese special administrative region, 40% of affected Hongkongers reported psychiatric illness. If we see numbers like that in the next year, the US needs to start addressing its national blind spot when it comes to treating mental illness.
- In pre-pandemic America, less than half a million of citizens with mental illness received adequate treatment. Fast-forwarding to the present day, it appears that already-strained health systems are flying blind into a tumultuous post-COVID mental health storm.
- The unseen effects of the lockdown can already be detected in recent mental health statistics. One third of Americans are reporting feelings of severe anxiety, a quarter are citing signs of depression, and messages sent to one federal emergency mental-health line have increased 10-fold.
- Those who may compartmentalize these startling statistics as logical responses to natural disasters should consider the nuance between immediate calamities like wildfires and long-term struggles like a pandemic. While the former can inspire national resilience, the latter presents a more pervasive sense of communal uneasiness. And while it may not be the news you want to hear right now, expect this health crisis to stay with us long after the vaccine. (The Atlantic)
- Americans Increase LSD Use–and a Bleak Outlook for the World May Be to Blame (Scientific American)
Additional USA News
- White House press secretary: ‘The science should not stand in the way of’ schools fully reopening (NBC)
- Barr condemns Disney and Hollywood for ‘kowtowing’ to China (Guardian)
- Federal Employees Can Express Support for Black Lives Matter, Watchdog Says (NYT, $)
- ‘The balloon might pop’: Fed’s corporate intervention spurs anxiety (Politico)
- Consumers Came Back in June, but for How Long? (NYT, $)
- Pompeo claims private property and religious freedom are ‘foremost’ human rights (Guardian)
- How the Twitter Hack Revealed a Risky 2020 Election System (NYT, $). Recent cyberattacks targeting groups including Twitter, COVID-19 researchers, and people working from home have shown us that our cybersecurity systems are not nearly secure enough to allow online voting anytime soon. Even smaller elements of the voting process such as online voter registration and social media, which both affect elections greatly, need stronger security measures in place.
- Democratic Officials Tell Members of Congress to Skip the Convention (NYT, $)
- Trump Defied The 2013 GOP Autopsy. So Was It A ‘Failure’? (NPR)
- President Trump and Ivanka criticised over Goya support (BBC)
- How Trump Is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic (New Yorker, $)
- Trump’s campaign team tries to steady operation after messy shakeup (Politico)
- Book by Donald Trump’s niece sells nearly 1m copies on its first day (Guardian)
- The Promising Results of a Citywide Basic-Income Experiment (New Yorker, $)
Llamas to the Rescue
- It’s often the most unlikely heroes who can leave the greatest impact. In humankind’s collective fight against COVID-19, that overlooked protagonist may be llamas. Thanks to a peculiar genetic mutation, the South American pack animals contain a dynamic set of antibodies — also known as nanobodies — which could help human immune systems eradicate the novel coronavirus.
- The nanobody is significantly smaller than traditional antibodies, which are proteins that can prevent specific viruses from infecting cells. While larger human antibodies can sometimes allow COVID-19’s spike proteins to latch onto cell membranes in the lung, the smaller llama antibodies are more effective at shielding healthy cells.
- Oxford molecular biology professor Ray Owens helped discover these influential llama mutations. He acknowledges that nanobodies, “can block—do block quite potently—the interaction between the virus and the human cell. They basically neutralize the virus.”
- Despite this revelation, converting llama molecules into a human cure is no easy task. Nanobody-based cancer treatments have traditionally taken months to formulate, as it involves injecting llamas with pathogens and waiting for a significant immune response. However, scientists are scrambling to retrofit pre-existing llama nanobodies to match with current COVID-19 molecules.
- In doing so, two previously isolated llama antibodies have been identified as makeshift COVID-19 shields. These nanobody treatments are expected to be deployed as an emergency measure while the human body works to produce its own immune response. Time will tell if newly isolated llama proteins will serve as more holistic treatments, but one thing is for sure: llamas have provided humankind with an unsuspected assist in our fight against a novel disease. (Wired)
Weekend Reads
- There’s a saying that no two people are alike. Science can explain why: How Human Brains Are Different: It Has a Lot to Do with the Connections (Scientific American)
- Tech Firms Hire ‘Red Teams.’ Scientists Should, Too (Wired, $). In today’s world of partisanship and misinformation, integrity in science publishing is necessary to keep people from forming opinions based on questionable studies.
- A Robotic Mini Armada Will Probe the Secrets of Hurricanes (Scientific American)
- Bacteria that eats metal accidentally discovered by scientists (CNN)
- This pitch-black fish of the deep has a disappearing act scientists just solved (CNN)
- You are what you eat, and you feel how you eat: Could your diet be affecting your mental wellbeing? (BBC)
- Should You Say Yes to That Favor? Well … (NYT, $)
- Hermann Hesse and the double-edged sword of dwelling on one’s self (Aeon)
- What to Do When Most Days Feel Like Wednesdays: Seek diversion from what’s happening in your head and in our world, if just for a moment of recharge and reflection. It works. (NYT, $)
- Is click-and-collect the future of shopping? (BBC)
- 25 years of Amazon.com: An Internet star is criticized (Heise)
- Tech Sector Job Interviews Assess Anxiety, Not Software Skills (NCSU News)
- Ten years from graduating, I’m still not sure university was a good decision (Guardian)
- Lexicon for a Pandemic (New Yorker)