THREAT REPORTS
A MID 2018 review of GLOBAL CONFLICTS
Coverage of armed conflicts globally tends to be restricted to the major conflicts or those visibly impact the interests of a nation’s media. For Western audiences, over the previous few years, coverage has been focused on the Syrian Civil War and the conflict against the Islamic State in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq; secondarily, coverage has been focused on the Afghan conflict which has been ongoing for more than a decade and a half. A recent list, however, has counted that there are around 65 armed conflicts currently occurring in the world – four of which (The War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, The Mexican Drug War, and The Syrian Civil War) have resulted in a minimum of 10,000 violent deaths in the previous year.
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SECURITY BOTS ON PATROL
Amongst the public, there are both fears and hopes for the use of robots in society. Some, probably best termed of as robotic pessimists, concentrate their commentary on the belief that automation will displace significant numbers of workers and, subsequently, cause social discontent. Others, the optimists, are focused more on the advances in productivity, safety – by removing people from dangerous or injury prone work – and with the capability of allowing surplus labor to concentrate on more value-added processes and activities. Regardless of where one is on this continuum, robots are in use, and their use is continuing to penetrate additional areas of life. For example, only a few years ago, a robotic vacuum was created to help free people up from a relatively labor-intensive task. Public security is another area where robots are both currently present and likely to increase greatly in the future.
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SAFETY OF 2018 SUMMER / HOLIDAY TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
Globalization has both decreased the costs of travel and increased the scale of operations for terrorist groups. Individuals can now easily and relatively affordably (at least individuals in developed countries) travel to various areas of the world for short holidays; however, the same ease of travel – along with the growth of open societies – has allowed extremist groups to target travelers in either less secure countries or in more open ones. This has created, for some, caution when traveling abroad as individuals are reticent to leave the known security infrastructure of their home country for the unknown infrastructure in another country. Nevertheless, people do and will continue to travel abroad extensively and, therefore, individuals must be cognizant of the relative risk present in their destinations. Some regions have no known or publicly disclosed terror threat; others are known to receive threats constantly.
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