After COVID, are billions in biodefense funds needed to deter US adversaries?

Defense News  April 9, 2021 According to a new report from the Council on Strategic Risks, the U.S. Defense Department should dramatically increase funding for biological defense initiatives to at least $2 billion in the next year followed by increasing it to a range of $6.5 billion to $7 billion annually in the coming years. It will deter other nations from seeking to exploit America’s perceived vulnerability to a medical crisis. Key investment areas should include nucleic-acid based therapeutics, field-and-clinic deployable early-detection technology that can identify any pathogen by reading its genetic material and expanding international cooperation on biodefense issues […]

China’s Next Five-Year Energy Plan Will Shape the Global Energy Future

Next Big Future  January 23, 2020 The 14th Five-Year Plan will cover 2021-25. The full plan will be released around March 2021, but partial drafts and releases will be published in 2020. China is projected to reduce the proportion of coal in its energy mix to below 58% by 2020. There are proposals to set a target of coal usage at 55% of China’s energy mix by 2030 for the 14th five-year plan covering 2021-2025. Greenhouse gas emissions to peak around 2025-2030. In March the China Electricity Council suggested that coal-power capacity should grow to 1,300 GW by 2030. Hydropower […]