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The “Useful Idiots”: How These British Academics Helped Russia Deny War Crimes at the UN (Chris York, Huffington Post)
Lecturers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Leicester and Bristol have accused rescue workers the White Helmets of mass murder in Syria – to condemnation from Amnesty International and others.

Leaked Report Shows United Nations Suffered Hack (AP)
One UN official told the AP that the hack, which was first detected over the summer, appeared ‘sophisticated’ and that the extent of the damage remains unclear, especially in terms of personal, secret or compromising information that may have been stolen

We Don’t Need a Separate Cybersecurity Agency (Sasha Cohen O’Connell, Politico)
Let’s copy our success in fighting terrorism instead.

People Are Sharing Dangerous and Wild Conspiracy Theories about the Coronavirus. Please Stop. (IFLScience)
It’s one of the laws of humanity that any major event must have its own conspiracy theories, and the coronavirus is no exception. It’s been made worse in recent years by how quickly misinformation can spread on social media. The moment you’ve caught one piece of misinformation, 10 new ones pop up elsewhere. People will do anything for a retweet or a view on their alarmist YouTube channel.

DNC Heads to Iowa to Help Protect Caucuses from Digital Attacks and Disinformation (Joseph Marks, Washington Post)
The Democratic National Committee’s top cybersecurity and disinformation experts will head to Iowa to help protect the caucuses against digital attacks from Russia and other U.S. adversaries. The team will run a rapid response operation out of the Iowa Democratic Party’s main operations center in Des Moines on caucus night, the DNC’s chief technology officer Nellwyn Thomas said in an interview.

U.S. Army Sleuths Seek Social-Media Search Services (Brandi Vincent, Defense One)
The Criminal Investigation Command is looking to tap into social media sites for digital evidence.

Will Climate Change Unleash More Animal Viruses on Humans? (Bryan Nelson, Daily Beast)
Climate change makes the risk of novel diseases much more explosive.

An Unanswered Question at the Heart of the U.S.’s Nuclear Arsenal (Stephen Young, Scientific American)
Nobody knows how long the plutonium “pits” in the cores of bombs last, and the answer could cost—or save—billions

Islamophobia in the U.S. Did Not Start with Trump, but His Tweets Perpetuate a Long History of Equating Muslims with Terrorism (Evelyn Alsultany, The Conversation)
President Donald Trump has been criticized for using his tweets to promoted Islamophobia — with rhetoric like “Islam hates us” — and for being a social media troll who spreads false information.
Trump may have brought Islamophobia into the highest office in the land, but American Islamophobia did not originate with Trump. As a scholar of the history of representations of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media, I argue that Trump’s tweet plays into a long history of equating Arabs, Muslims and Iranians with terrorism and anti-Americanism.