Gregory Koblentz

The Pandora Report Where Science Meets Security

Pandora Report 8.1.2025

pandorareport.org

A possible turning point for research governance in the
life sciences by David Gillum in mSphere

journals.asm.org/doi/epdf/10....

"Grok 4 is essentially frontier-level technical capability with safety features roughly on the level of gas station fireworks."

xAI's Grok 4 has no meaningful safety guardrails — LessWrong This article includes descriptions of content that some users may find distressing. …

xAI's Grok 4 has no meaningful safety guardrails

www.lesswrong.com/posts/dqd54w...

OPCW Executive Council to hold special meeting on July 22 to discuss Israeli strike on the MOD HQ this week and how that will affect their ability to comply with CWC and identify, secure and destroy any CW remaining in the country from the former regime
www.opcw.org/sites/defaul...

The Pandora Report Where Science Meets Security

Pandora Report 7.18.2025

This week's Pandora Report includes more updates on avian influenza, discussion of recent cuts and layoffs in the US federal government, implications of Israeli airstrikes on Damascus for efforts to destroy Syria's CW stockpile, and more.

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As of 1960, decisions to use CW and BW were reserved for the President: history.state.gov/historicaldo...

Israel's attacks on Damascus hinder chemical weapons search, Syrian official says Israeli airstrikes on Damascus are hampering Syria's efforts to find and destroy chemical weapons stockpiled during the rule of toppled ruler Bashar al-Assad, a government adviser said on Thursday.

Israel's attacks on Damascus hinder chemical weapons search, Syrian official says
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/business/fin...

Syria Acts To Adhere to Chemical Weapons Convention, While Russia Doubles Down on Non-Compliance Syria has taken key steps to eliminate its chemical weapons assets — but Russia has actually used its own stockpiles against Ukraine. That was the conclusion of the Organization for the Prohibition of...

Syria Acts To Adhere to Chemical Weapons Convention, While Russia Doubles Down on Non-Compliance

www.fdd.org/analysis/202...

Finally, an article that addresses the existential threat of our time: excessive movie watching options.

The Pandora Report Where Science Meets Security

Pandora Report 7.11.2025

This week's Pandora Report incudes discussion of H5N1, a lawsuit filed by professional organizations against HHS and RFK Jr. over COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, rising measles cases in the US, and more.

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Exclusive: NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns Trump executive order leads to pauses on U.S.-funded research into TB, influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases, dismaying some scientists

#NIH cracks down on studies it perceives as "gain of function" research, suspending grants to dozens of projects. Some of the axed work doesn't seem to actually qualify as actual GOF work, though, @cohenjon.bsky.social & @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social report. www.science.org/content/arti...

Just look at the zombie genre. Original Night of the Living Dead (1978) caused by radiation from a satellite. All recent zombie movies are biological in origin: either natural or human-made viruses or biotech gone wrong.

After the Cold War, viruses replaced nukes as Hollywood's new favorite apocalypse engine.

The Australia Group is key to stopping #CBW proliferation, but faces growing challenges. This @eunpdc.bsky.social report by @koljabrockmann.bsky.social offers recommendations to strengthen the regime amid rapid changes and geopolitical shifts. Full paper🔗 bit.ly/3I3KT7D

#NonProliferation

President Trump’s Dangerous Executive Order On “Dangerous Gain-Of-Function Research” | Health Affairs Forefront President Trump’s executive order suspending federal funding for gain-of-function research not only contains questionable assertions, but it also frames the targeted research so broadly that it is lik...

President Trump’s Dangerous Executive Order On “Dangerous Gain-Of-Function Research”

www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...

The Pandora Report Where Science Meets Security

Pandora Report 7.4.2025

This week's Pandora Report includes alumni news, H5N1 updates, discussion of the new BIOTech Caucus, new publications, and more. Wishing all Pandora Report readers a happy 4th of July!

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Modernizing Confidence-Building Measures for the Biological Weapons Convention | Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention in December 2011 provides an opportunity to modernize the treaty to better address the challenges of the 21st century. The key to this modernization is to redesign the treaty's Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs), the only formal mechanism for increasing transparency and demonstrating compliance with the treaty, to address changes in the global scientific, health, and security environments since the end of the Cold War. The scope of the CBMs should be expanded beyond state-run biological warfare programs to encompass a broader array of threats to global security, such as biological terrorism, laboratory accidents, dual-use research, and disease pandemics. Modernizing the CBM mechanism to take into account these new risks would extend the transparency-enhancing benefits of CBMs to a range of new and important topics, such as biosafety, laboratory biosecurity, and dual-use research oversight; make the CBMs and the treaty itself more relevant to the concerns and priorities of more states; and build on progress made during the recent series of intersessional meetings. To accomplish this, the CBMs need to be revised to shift their focus from hardware, the dual-use capabilities relevant to the treaty, to software, the political and legal institutions that govern the development and use of these capabilities. A more modern CBM mechanism should encourage greater participation in the confidence-building process, improve international cooperation against the full spectrum of biological risks, and promote the goal of universal membership in the treaty.

This is a promising approach and is line with recommendations made by Marie Chevrier and myself to modernize BWC CBMs to focus more on transparency of software (governance mechanisms) than hardware (BSL-4 labs and vaccine producers) liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

New OPCW report confirms Russia continuing to use RCAs as a method of warfare, which is banned by the CWC. On Feb. 28, 2025, Ukraine recovered a crashed drone carrying 2 CS grenades. This is the 5th confirmed instance of CS use against Ukrainian frontline troops.
www.opcw.org/sites/defaul...

Spying on Climate: Inside the Intelligence Community’s Environmental Legacy Washington, D.C., June 30, 2025 – For decades, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) has viewed climate change as a serious national security threat that will create “new and compounded stresses on peo...

Spying on Climate: Inside the Intelligence Community’s Environmental Legacy

nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The Pandora Report Where Science Meets Security

Pandora Report 6.27.2025

This edition of the Pandora Report provides update on this week's meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Secretary Kennedy's announcement that the US will withdraw its funding to Gavi, and more.

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US to stop financial support of global vaccine alliance Gavi, health secretary says Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said on Wednesday that the U.S. government will no longer contribute to Gavi, accusing the group that helps buy vaccines for the world's poorest children of ignoring safety, without providing evidence.

US to stop financial support of global vaccine alliance Gavi, health secretary says

www.reuters.com/business/hea...

NIH froze funding for clinical trials at a major university. By fall, they’ll run out of funding | CNN Northwestern University hasn’t received any funding from the NIH since the end of March. Not only could patients potentially stop receiving treatments that trials provided, the research itself could b...

"It’s hard to understand why the administration is pausing funding for medical research and clinical trials if its goal is to counter antisemitism." @megtirrell.bsky.social looks at how Northwestern's trials for heart disease and other diseases are collapsing. www.cnn.com/2025/06/23/h...

BREAKING: Iran has launched missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar and possibly facilities in Iraq.

First unconfirmed videos from Qatar show multiple interceptors airborne.

Latest update from @iaeaorg.bsky.social about damage at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.

IAEA Director General's Introductory Statement to the Board of Governors

www.iaea.org/newscenter/s...

The Pandora Report Where Science Meets Security

Pandora Report 6.20.2025

This week's Pandora Report discusses updates from the Schar School, the Geneva Protocol's 100th anniversary, federal rulings against HHS to terminate employees and funding, and more.

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Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine - Comment of the MFA on the 100th Anniversary of the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare On June 17, 2025, the world marks the 100th anniversary of the sigOn June 17, 2025, the world marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of one of the most significant instruments in the field of international humanitarian law — the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (the Geneva Protocol)

And a reminder from Ukraine that Russia has violated the Geneva Protocol (and Chemical Weapons Convention) 9,388 times since 2023 by using riot control agents and other chemicals as a means of warfare on the battlefield

www.kmu.gov.ua/en/news/kome...

Happy 100th anniversary to the Geneva Protocol.

High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu’s video message on the 100th anniversary of the Geneva Protocol

front.un-arm.org/wp-content/u...

Counterterrorism at Crossroads: Schar School Summit Explores Evolving Threats The Schar School hosted a daylong symposium that brought counterterrorism experts to the stage, including a few from George Mason University. See who was involved and what was said.

Counterterrorism at Crossroads: Schar School Summit Explores Evolving Threats
@scharschool.bsky.social
schar.gmu.edu/news/2025-06...

Bassam al-Hassan, a senior leader in Syria CW program, sanctioned by US, and wanted by France for chemical war crimes, was interviewed by the FBI and CIA in April in Beirut in presence of Lebanese government officials. Why was he not detained by Lebanese and extradited to France? #NoImpunity