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When the US last week added several units of BGI Group, a Chinese genetic sequencing firm, to its entity list restricting technology transfer, the primary justification was that the company had been “contributing to monitoring and surveillance”, including of ethnic minorities. Yet the human rights implications of China’s domestic surveillance state aren’t Washington’s only concern. The new regulations also state that BGI’s programmes of “collection and analysis of genetic data [present] a significant risk of diversion to China’s military”. 

Biotechnology has quietly become America’s newest national security concern. From Congress to the intelligence agencies, Washington’s leaders have concluded that control over biotechnologies will be critical not only to the country’s health, but to national security as well.

Biotech tools have made rapid advances of late, enabling new therapies, vaccines, manufacturing techniques — and biosecurity risks. It’s long been recognised that DNA is just a complex type of code, telling cells how to operate. Gene-editing technologies have become more precise and vastly cheaper, making it easier than ever to “reprogramme” organisms. In addition, more powerful computing capabilities have provided new clarity into the meaning of DNA’s “code”.

One use of these capabilities is for manufacturing. For centuries, humans have relied on micro-organisms to produce beer and yoghurt, but with the right reprogramming, bacteria can be made to produce many new types of chemicals. In 2010, Darpa, the Pentagon’s long-range R&D arm, launched a programme called Living Foundries, aiming to synthetically manufacture 1,000 molecules….

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This author of Chip War keeping us on our toes re new competition coming down the track. There’s a new US national security obsession — biotech via @FT
https://t.co/tZrtlkHK9r

— George Magnus (@georgemagnus1) March 7, 2023

Christine Osburn Jackson sits at her dining room table and reflects on her life’s work.

At 94, her memory is beginning to fade. The Charleston area civil rights leader looks at the awards that decorate her living room and asks her granddaughter, “Who put all of these plaques on the wall?”

Then, in the same breath, Jackson indicates that she really hasn’t forgotten much at all.

“You know I was the director of the YWCA for 30 years?”

Jackson, the longtime leader of an organization committed to empowering women and eliminating racism, is still inspiring generations through the ongoing racial justice work at the YWCA Greater Charleston.

She is among the last of a generation of women active in the civil rights movement who, though often overlooked by society, helped pushed Charleston closer to its professed ideals of equality, freedom and justice.

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At 94 years old, Christine Jackson is still inspiring generations of women. And yet, some fear the progress made possible by leaders like Jackson is being threatened amid current efforts to limit teaching of African American history.https://t.co/9Rz6xM5fuJ

— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) March 5, 2023

When we first thought about convening a focus group of Jewish Americans, antisemitism was very much at the center of the national conversation. Kanye West’s incendiary comments about Jews had caused a media firestorm, and Donald Trump’s dinner with Ye and a prominent antisemite, Nick Fuentes, did not exactly tamp it down. We wanted to understand how antisemitism was affecting American Jews whose daily lives did not necessarily intersect with these high-profile incidents. How did they experience antisemitism in their lives, if at all? And what did it mean to them to be Jewish in America today?

We spoke with 13 Jewish Americans of different ages and political affiliations from across the country to learn how they connect to being Jewish, what they are scared of, what they are optimistic about and what they hope generations of American Jews will carry forward.

Many of the people we spoke to expressed fear about rising antisemitism, going so far as to hide their Jewish identities in certain circumstances. Several blamed Mr. Trump for the increase, though most pointed to the climate he created rather than animosity toward Jews on his part. The 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh loomed large, with some participants saying it caused them to behave differently in synagogue ever since, checking the doors for intruders. Others, though, felt that America was more accepting of Jews than ever and that their ancestors would be amazed. “I think they would be completely shocked by how successful we are,” said Joel, a 59-year-old in the group.

We held this focus group last month, before the most recent uptick of violence in Israel and the occupied territories and before the protests against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government swelled to include hundreds of thousands of Israelis across the country. When we asked the group about Israel, few had specific thoughts on Israeli politics or policy. Almost all of the participants, however, expressed great pride in the country. Many expressed a similar feeling of pride in and connection to being Jewish, even if they didn’t practice the religious traditions, using words like “light,” “love” and “belonging” to explain what being Jewish means to them.

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The "New York Times" did a focus group of American Jews, and there's a lot to parse here: https://t.co/9zeN7pmnB8

— Joel S. (@jh_swanson) March 7, 2023

O God, the King of Saints, who didst strengthen thy servants Perpetua, Felicity, and their companions to make a good confession and encourage one another in the time of trial: Grant that we who cherish their blessed memory may share their pure and steadfast faith and win with them the palm of victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today the Church of England celebrates Perpetua, Felicity and their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 https://t.co/8GPtnxK96N

Image: Martyrdom of Perpetua, Felicitas, Revocatus, Saturninus & Secundulus, from the Menologion of Basil II, c. 1000 AD. Public domain, via Wikimedia pic.twitter.com/eTAOE48pWI

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) March 7, 2023

O Blessed Saviour, who art full of mercy and compassion, and wilt not cast out any that come to thee: Help us, we beseech thee, who are grievously vexed with the burden of our sins; and so increase in us the power of thy Holy Spirit that we may prevail against the enemy of our souls; for thy name’s sake.

After the two days he departed to Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Caper’na-um there was an official whose son was ill. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live”; and he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

–John 4:43-54