• DEEPFAKESBeyond Watermarks: Content Integrity Through Tiered Defense

    By Kevin Klyman and Renée DiResta

    Watermarking is often discussed as a solution to the problems posed by AI-generated content. However, watermarking is inadequate without other methods of detecting and sorting out AI-generated content.

  • GAZA WARIsrael’s Invasion of Rafah Will Not Eliminate Hamas or End the War. So, What Is Benjamin Netanyahu’s Plan?

    By Ian Parmeter

    The longer the war has dragged on, the more it has highlighted that Israel, which has been under Netanyahu’s almost continuous rule since 2009, has no long-term strategy for living side-by-side with its Palestinian neighbors. Even if a ceasefire could be agreed to, Netanyahu’s government hasn’t articulated a plan for the “day after”. Already, this lack of a plan is creating a dangerous power vacuum in northern Gaza that has been filled by gangs, clans and criminals.

  • GEOENGINEERINGSolar Geoengineering to Cool the Planet: Is It Worth the Risks?

    By Renée Cho

    There is no international, national or state framework that currently governs geoengineering. As a result, one worrisome future scenario is that climate impacts in a particularly vulnerable country will be so severe that it resorts to deploying stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI, also called solar radiation management or SRM) on its own before the world is ready for it. This could cause political instability or provoke retribution from other countries that suffer its effects.

  • EXTREMISMBipartisan Members of Congress, Jewish Professors Oppose Antisemitism Bill

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    A coalition of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, nearly 700 Jewish professors, and others oppose an antisemitism bill sent to the U.S. Senate arguing it’s unconstitutional and doesn’t adequately address antisemitism. Opponents argue it would criminalize Christian beliefs about Jesus.

  • CHINA WATCHU.S.-China Trade War: Why Joe Biden Has Raised the Stakes

    By Uwe Hessler

    In a move to safeguard domestic industries and address unfair trade practices, the US president has quadrupled tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and raised levies on other green tech.

  • CHINA WATCHChinese Nationalist Groups Are Launching Cyber-Attacks – Often Against the Wishes of the Government

    By Lewis Eves

    China is often presented as a monolithic entity, entirely at the whim of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, the reality is more complex. Many Chinese cyber-attacks and other kinds of digital interference are conducted by Chinese nationalist groups.

  • GUNSEven When a Cop Is Killed with an Illegally Purchased Weapon, the Gun Store’s Name Is Kept Secret

    By Vernal Coleman

    A 2003 law pushed by the gun industry limits the information shared by federal agents and shields gun shops from public scrutiny, but ProPublica was able to identify the store that sold the gun used in the shooting of a Chicago police officer.

  • MANAGED RETREATTexas Flooding Brings New Urgency to Houston Home Buyout Program

    By Jake Bittle

    The San Jacinto River is a national hotspot for ‘managed retreat,’ but recent floods show how far local officials still have to go.

  • WATER SECURITYAddressing the Colorado River Crisis

    Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the Southwest was top of mind for participants and attendees at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference.

  • OUR PICKSMexico Is Pushing Migrants Back South | The United States Has a Keen Demographic Edge | The Real ID Deadline Will Never Arrive, and more

    ·  Biden Will Raise Tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles, Chips and Other Goods
    The president is set to announce increased taxes on Chinese imports in strategic industries, building on former President Donald J. Trump’s tariff

    ·  How Biden’s Trade War with China Differs From Trump’s
    The president is trying a targeted approach, with allies, to beat Beijing in the race to own the clean energy future. Those weren’t his predecessor’s goals

    ·  The Other Busing Program: Mexico Is Pushing Migrants Back South
    In response to pressure from the Biden administration to curb migration flows, Mexico has quietly bused thousands of migrants away from the U.S. border to sites deep in the country’s south

    ·  Americans Must Prepare for Another Round of Election Denial
    We know it’s coming. Here’s how to rebut it

    ·  The Real ID Deadline Will Never Arrive
    The enhanced-license requirement survives despite—or maybe because of—its lack of urgency

    ·  The United States Has a Keen Demographic Edge
    Competitors of the United States face plunging birthrates and social gloom

    ·  Internal Emails Reveal How a Controversial Gun-Detection AI System Found Its Way to NYC
    NYC mayor Eric Adams wants to test Evolv’s gun-detection tech in subway stations—despite the company saying it’s not designed for that environment. Emails obtained by WIRED show how the company still found an in

  • WORLD ROUNDUPThe Day After Iran Gets the Bomb | Putin is Plotting “Physical Attacks” on the West | Could Ghana Be Jihadists’ Next Target?, and more

    ·  The Day After Iran Gets the Bomb
    Scholars and policymakers are still trying to understand what would happen after Tehran acquires a nuclear weapon

    ·  U.S. Threats Led to Rupture of Vital Military Ties, Nigerien Leader Says
    In an exclusive interview, Prime Minister Zeine blamed the U.S. for the breakdown in bilateral relations, culminating with the planned ouster of American troop

    ·  Putin is Plotting “Physical Attacks” on the West, Says GCHQ Chief

    British intelligence ‘increasingly concerned’ over growing links between Russia and cyber hacks

    ·  Secret Papers Reveal Hamas Plan to Set Up Base in Turkey
    Israel claims that a document proposing to ‘establish a security branch abroad’ was discovered at the home of the chief of staff to Hamas’s leader in Gaza

    ·  Could Ghana Be Jihadists’ Next Target?
    Long seen as an island of stability, the country shares many of the same vulnerabilities that militants have exploited across the Sahel region

  • GAZA WARUN Halves Its Estimate of Women and Children Killed in Gaza

    By Elliott Abrams

    Between May 6 and May 8, the UN cut in half its estimates of the number of women and children killed in Gaza. The estimates were based on Hamas numbers and are a reminder that all fatality estimates coming from that source are unreliable.

  • CYBERSECURITYThe Future of Cybersecurity

    By Stanford Engineering Staff

    An expert in cybersecurity surveys a rapidly evolving world where technology is racing ahead of our ability to manage it, posing risks to our national security. With TikTok in the hands of 170 million Americans, cybersecurity expert Amy Zegart says it’s time to talk about consequences. Foreign access to all that data on so many Americans is a national security threat, she asserts.

  • TRUTH DECAYCan Wikipedia-like Citations on YouTube Curb Misinformation?

    By Stefan Milne

    Videos can be dense with information: text, audio, and image after image. Yet each of these layers presents a potential source of error or deceit. And when people search for videos directly on a site like YouTube, sussing out which videos are credible sources can be tricky.

  • TRUTH DECAYUsers Seek Out Echo Chambers on Social Media

    Users are inclined to favor popular opinion; lack of exposure to dissent contributes to polarization.

  • BATTERIESMaking Batteries Takes Lots of Lithium: Almost Half of It Could Come from Pennsylvania Wastewater

    By Brandie Jefferson

    Most batteries used in technology like smartwatches and electric cars are made with lithium that travels across the world before even getting to manufacturers. But what if nearly half of the lithium used in the U.S. could come from Pennsylvania wastewater?

  • WATER SECURITYTexas Delegation Urges Congress to Withhold Aid to Mexico Over Water Treaty Dispute

    By Matthew Choi

    A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers are demanding appropriators withhold funds for the country until Mexico lives up to its end of a 1944 water treaty that requires it to send 1.75 million acre-feet to the U.S. every five years.

  • OUR PICKSWelcome to the Laser Wars | British-Built “Unhackable” Navigational System | Asteroids Could Fuel the Clean-Energy Transition, and more

    ·  Trump Calls Hannibal Lecter “A Wonderful Man” in Rant Against “Insane” Migrants
    Former president tells 100,000 supporters people from mental institutions are being let into U.S.

    ·  U.S. Vows to Stay Ahead of China, Using AI for Fighter Jets, Navigation
    Two Air Force fighter jets recently squared off in a dogfight in California. One was flown by a pilot. The other wasn’t

    ·  British-Built “Unhackable” Navigational System Flown in World First
    Breakthrough comes as countries race to protect themselves from GPS vulnerabilities

    ·  Putin’s Choice of New Defense Minister Shows He’s Preparing for Confrontation with the West
    Andrei Belousov is more at home with columns of data than of tanks, but he could be key to Moscow’s war effort and a conflict with NATO

    ·  Asteroids Could Fuel the Clean-Energy Transition
    If companies can figure out how to mine them

    ·  Welcome to the Laser Wars
    Amid a rising tide of adversary drones and missile attacks, laser weapons are finally poised to enter the battlefield

    ·  ‘TunnelVision’ Attack Leaves Nearly All VPNs Vulnerable to Spying
    TunnelVision is an attack developed by researchers that can expose VPN traffic to snooping or tampering

    ·  Addressing The Multifaceted Challenges Posed by Increased Migrant Encounters
    As the frontline defenders of our borders, agents often face physical and emotional challenges in managing encounters with migrants

  • WORLD ROUNDUPChina and the U.S. Are Numb to the Real Risk of War | Russia Recruiting Far-Right Extremists to Launch Attacks in the West | The Awfulness of War Can’t Be Avoided, and more

    ·  Russia Recruiting Far-Right Extremists to Launch Attacks in the West
    Kremlin intelligence service finds agents to target infrastructure facilities, it is claimed

    ·  British Spies and the IRA
    Blair, Clinton, Ahern et al were credited with putting together the Northern Ireland peace deal, but 800 British agents also played their part

    ·  Elon Musk Wins Court Battle to Show Sydney Church Stabbing on X
    The government had won an injunction to stop footage of the attack in a Sydney church being shared on social media platforms but a judge has overturned the decision

    ·  The Awfulness of War Can’t Be Avoided
    Western leaders do themselves no good when they avoid confronting hard necessities

    ·  Islamic State’s Global Financial Networks
    Cryptocurrency and European bank transfers fund detained IS women and fighters in Syria, furthering militant objectives

    ·  North Korea Might Ignore Donald Trump If He Takes Back the White House
    Having been burned once or twice by Trump, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is not eager to try again. In truth, he has already gotten what he most wanted from Trump: international legitimacy

    ·  Europe’s Youth Are Fueling the Far Right
    The continent’s radicals are increasingly attractive far beyond their traditional pool of voters

    ·  China and the U.S. Are Numb to the Real Risk of War
    The pair are dangerously close to the edge of nuclear war over Taiwan—again

  • BORDER SECURITYTerrorist Watch List Apprehensions at Northern Border Continue to Break Records

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    The number of known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) apprehended at the northern border in the first six months of fiscal 2024 continue to outpace those apprehended at the southwest border.

  • IMMIGRATIONChina Resumes Cooperating with U.S. on Illegal Migration

    By Wenhao Ma, Adrianna Zhang, and Mo Yu

    China has quietly resumed cooperation with the United States on the repatriation of Chinese migrants illegally stranded in the U.S. The U.S.-China repatriation cooperation resumes amid the influx of Chinese migrants across the southern border of the United States.

  • THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONInvestigation: How Russia's Warplanes Get Their 'Brain Power' From the West, Despite Sanctions

    By Kyrylo Ovsyaniy

    The sanctions Western countries have imposed on Russia have many vulnerabilities –a recurring complaint for Kyiv as, handicapped by a deficit of weapons and ammunition, it watches Russian forces advance, hammering soldiers, civilians, and vital infrastructure.