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The Beat<\/strong><\/p>\n Guns and trust in the Solomon Islands<\/em><\/p>\n Limited rearmament<\/a> is the name of the game in the Solomon Islands this week. On Tuesday, some 125 officers from the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force gained access to firearms<\/a>, in anticipation of the withdrawal of RAMSI personnel in June. Local police were disarmed in 2003, after police weapons were used to perpetrate ethnic violence during the Tensions. The political leadership<\/a> supports the program of limited rearmament, but there\u2019ll be a lot of work to earn community trust<\/a>. The officers, part of the close personal protection and police response teams, will be counting on extensive use-of-force training, a modern armory, and the nature of their firearms (non-assault weaponry) to gain and sustain public faith and support. In the meantime, if you\u2019re looking for some more context, ASPI\u2019s Graeme Dobell has a rundown of RAMSI\u2019s legacy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n AFP looking strong <\/em><\/p>\n The AFP emerges from the 2017 Federal Budget looking good<\/a>\u2014there\u2019s provision for an extra $321 million to help expand the force<\/a>. The money will bolster<\/a> specialist response capabilities (e.g. police negotiators and bomb technicians), covert surveillance capabilities and forensic and intelligence capabilities (e.g. biometric experts and forensic intelligence analysts). But it\u2019s hard to separate the politics from the police funding and the Opposition claims<\/a> that, even with the one-off boost, there\u2019s still some worry about the level of funding.<\/p>\n If you just want to be amazed, check out the AFP Commander and strongman Grant Edwards pulling a 14 tonne RBT truck<\/a>\u2014he\u2019s working up to a Guinness World Record attempt to raise awareness of PTSD<\/a>.<\/p>\n CT Scan<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018Extreme Vetting\u2019 and Social Media<\/em><\/p>\n Approximately 65,000 visa applications will be affected each year by a new proposal from the US State Department to begin\u00a0incorporating checks of social media accounts<\/a>\u00a0into visa decisions. The additional screening was announced on 4 May and will be used for applications which \u2018have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny’.\u00a0The US Department of Homeland Security has already been collecting similar information, though up until now such data has been\u00a0provided voluntarily<\/a>. While visa applicants can still opt-out, they must provide a \u2018credible reason\u2019 for doing so. Supporters of the initiative argue that although open-source social media checks won\u2019t catch every potential threat, they \u2018might spot obvious concerns early in the visa approval process\u2019. But sceptics worry that\u00a0potential\u00a0budget and personnel cuts<\/a>\u00a0in the State Department could make the proposed changes problematic.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s continued commitment to counter Islamic State (IS)<\/em><\/p>\n Minister for Defence, Senator Marise Payne, attended a\u00a0meeting of defence ministers<\/a> on 9 May\u00a0as part of the\u00a0Global Coalition against Daesh<\/a>\u00a0(IS). The meeting was held in Copenhagen and delegates examined how the coalition could ‘further progress’ their campaign against the extremist group, while continuing to support Iraq and its security forces.\u00a0Perhaps delegates should address some of the issues brought up in a\u00a0recent paper from the RAND Corporation<\/a>, which argues that defeating IS requires a broader strategy that would \u2018address the conditions that allowed the group to emerge and thrive\u2019.\u00a0RAND argues that a long-term commitment is required to \u2018establish legitimate governance in Iraq and Syria and reconcile the\u00a0disenfranchised Sunni Arab populations<\/a>\u00a0with their governments\u2019.<\/p>\n Checkpoint<\/strong><\/p>\n Oz biosecurity tough on rare plants<\/em><\/p>\n What do Johnny Depp\u2019s dogs and pressed plant specimens from the mid-1800s have in common? The answer is that they\u2019ve both come up against Australia\u2019s tough biosecurity laws. While Pistol and Boo avoided a grim fate, the plant matter couldn\u2019t escape incineration after failing to comply<\/a> with import paperwork. Back in March, the Museum of Natural History in Paris sent a collection of rare, flowering plants\u2014\u2018the first type specimens collected of a species\u2019<\/a>\u2014to Queensland\u2019s herbarium in Brisbane. This is the second such incident in a few weeks, after lichen species<\/a> from New Zealand\u2019s Allan herbarium bound for the Australian National Herbarium in Canberra were also destroyed by biosecurity authorities<\/a>, resulting in the NZ institution placing a ban on exchanging material with Australia. As a result, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources has undertaken a review<\/a> of its quarantine processes.<\/p>\n Another week, another border wall<\/em><\/p>\n Turkey has announced<\/a> that it\u2019ll construct a wall along its border with Iran. Like the wall<\/a> Turkey has been building along its Syrian border aimed at preventing terrorist incursions, the new one will mainly target Kurdistan Worker\u2019s Party (PKK) militants that have camps<\/a> just inside the Iranian border. According to a Turkish official<\/a>, PKK militants \u2018enter Turkey, carry out attacks and leave\u2019. The 70km wall will also be accompanied by towers, iron fences, lights and additional surveillance cameras. Turkey hasn\u2019t said that it will make Iran pay for it.<\/p>\n First Responder <\/strong><\/p>\n All weather is local <\/em><\/p>\n In western Niger, unpredictable weather and erratic floods and droughts make it difficult to rely on inherited knowledge of past climate patterns to predict where and when to find water, plant crops or sell livestock. But a CARE International project is transforming lives<\/a> by producing locally-specific, real-time weather forecasts with the involvement of the region\u2019s semi-nomadic people. It combines local knowledge and detailed weather forecasts and makes sure that information reaches remote villages, and is understood. The project also provides solar-powered mobile phones and radios to facilitate information sharing.<\/p>\n Beach lost and found<\/em><\/p>\n Residents of Dooagh on Ireland\u2019s west coast have suddenly found themselves living by the beach\u2014again. 33 years ago,<\/a> Dooagh beach was turned into a rocky expanse after a storm \u2018took every last grain of sand\u2019<\/a>. But thanks to a few windy days in April, thousands of tons of sand have been redeposited to create a 300m-long sandy beach. The town has received a significant boost from a sudden influx of tourists keen to check out the beach\u2014while it lasts.<\/p>\n Twin cyclones<\/em><\/p>\n Check out this incredible photo<\/a> captured by NASA, of Fiji \u2018bookended\u2019 by Cat-5 Cyclone Donna (which caused trouble in the Pacific<\/a> over the last few days) and newly-developed Cyclone Ella.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Beat Guns and trust in the Solomon Islands Limited rearmament is the name of the game in the Solomon Islands this week. On Tuesday, some 125 officers from the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":31793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[805,898,1178,747],"class_list":["post-31791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-afp","tag-biosecurity","tag-natural-disaster","tag-turkey"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n