Chief of Staff Miles Taylor. Coats released the DNI's "Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community" on January 29, 2019, listing the major threats to the United States. The reports states that the "international system is coming under increasing strain amid continuing cyber and WMD proliferation threats, competition in space, and regional conflicts. Among the disturbing trends are hostile states and actors' intensifying online efforts to influence and interfere with elections here and abroad and their use of chemical weapons. Terrorism too will continue to be a top threat to US and partner interests worldwide, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The development and application of new technologies will introduce both risks and opportunities, and the US economy will be challenged by slower global economic growth and growing threats to U.S. economic competitiveness." In the report, Coats also highlighted the potential negative impacts to US national security as a result of climate change, with this statement: "The United States will probably have to manage the impact of global human security challenges, such as threats to public health, historic levels of human displacement, assaults on religious freedom, and the negative effects of environmental degradation and climate change." Reporting to Congress in January 2019, the subject advised that Russia acting in concert with their allies will use novel strategies that build on their previous experience in election meddling. In July 2019, Coats appointed an election security "czar," Shelby Pierson, to oversee efforts across intelligence agencies. She is the first to have that role. Coats also directed other intelligence agencies to appoint executives to coordinate election security. During his tenure Coats sometimes took public positions that conflicted with Trump's statements or actions. Areas of disagreement included Russia, and particularly Russia's interference in the 2016 election, as well as North Korea and Iran. On July 28, 2019, following multiple anonymous reports that he was about to be let go, Trump announced on Twitter that Coats would depart on August 15 and that he would nominate U.S. Representative John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace him as Director of National Intelligence. There has been speculation that Coats's firing as DNI was connected to the intelligence community's response to the Trump telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 25, 2019. Coats's dismissal was three days later. This sequence of events was not understood at the time, because details of