• RANSOMWAREU.S. Dismantles Ransomware Network Responsible for More Than $100 Million in Extortion

    An international ransomware network that extorted more than $100 million from hundreds of victims around the world has been brought down following a monthslong infiltration by the FBI. The group known as Hive targeted more than 1,500 victims, including hospitals, school districts and financial firms in more than 80 countries.

  • MASS SHOOTINGSU.S. Secret Service Report Examines Five Years of Mass Violence Data

    The U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) the other day released a comprehensive report examining 173 incidents of targeted violence and highlighting the observable commonalities among the attackers.

  • GUNSWhat Is Microstamping, and Can It Help Solve Shootings?

    By Chip Brownlee

    Laws to expand the technology’s use have passed in three states and the District of Columbia. But some are questioning its effectiveness.

  • SPACE WARAces-High Frontier: Space War in 2053

    By Jeffrey Becker

    There are good reasons why the best science and speculative fiction ranks high on the reading lists of many military scholars and leaders. Done well, speculative military fiction projects thoughtfully beyond the here and now, and renders real operational and strategic concepts in terms of plausible future technologies.

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  • MISINFORMATIONLots of People Believe in Bigfoot and Other Pseudoscience Claims – This Course Examines Why

    By Craig A. Foster

    In an effort to combat misinformation, a new course looks at some of the common scientific reasoning failures which pseudoscience exploits. These include hand-picking anecdotes to support a belief, developing a set of beliefs which explain every possible outcome, promoting irrelevant research, ignoring contradictory information, and believing in unsubstantiated conspiracies. The course particularly highlights motivated reasoning, that is, the tendency for people to process information in  a way that helps them confirm what they already want to believe.

  • MISINFORMATIONWhy Did So Many Buy COVID Misinformation? It Works Like Magic.

    By Christina Pazzanese

    Misinformation and disinformation about COVID and government-led health measures to combat the pandemic hampered efforts to form a unified national response to the disease. Public health officials, who struggled to convince doubters and skeptics, are still working through how and why it happened. Harvard Law panelists say both misinformation and magic exploit how brains process information.

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  • ARGUMENT: BATTERIES WARBatteries Are the Battlefield

    The United States is one of many countries pursuing the clean energy revolution, and which have ramped up investment in electric vehicles manufacturing and renewable energy sources to power the shift away from fossil fuels. Christina Lu and Liam Scott write that this is an industry that has already been staked out by another power: China.

  • OUR PICKS50 Years of Mass Shootings | 2023 Will Be a Huge Year for the War on Big Tech | Protecting Undocumented Whistleblowers, and more

    ··  We Profiled the ‘Signs of Crisis’ in 50 Years of Mass Shootings. This Is What We Found.
    Mass shootings are increasingly symptom of a deep societal problem: the rise of “deaths of despair”

    ··  Southwest Border Migration Rises as DHS Hopes Expanded Parole Measures Will Turn Tide
    The number of Venezuelans encountered continued its downward trend

    ··  Chinese Engineer Gets 8 Years in US for Spying
    Chinese engineer provided Beijing with information on possible recruitment targets

    ··  2023 Will Be a Huge Year for the War on Big Tech
    2023 could be a watershed year for public policy regarding Big Tech

    ··  New DHS Policy Protects Undocumented Whistleblowers
    New policy grants temporary legal status to workers who cooperate with investigators

  • WORLD ROUNDUPWho May Challenge Putin for Power | U.K. as a Cyber Target | Turkey’s Coming Election, and more

    ··  The Man Who May Challenge Putin for Power
    Putin knows that the war in Ukraine created a dangerous competitor to his power

    ··  As Tough Elections Loom in Turkey, Erdogan Is Spending for Victory
    The coming vote that could reshape his country

    ··  Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
    Sweden has severed ties with Kurdish militants, but not the U.S. and other Western countries

    ··  What Makes Germany’s Leopard 2 Tank the Best Fit for Ukraine?
    It is easier to run than America’s Abrams—and in plentiful supply in Europe

    ··  UK Cyber Experts Warn of Targeted Phishing Attacks from Actors Based in Russia and Iran
    Advisory highlights techniques used by attackers in spear-phishing campaigns

  • DOOMSDAYDoomsday Clock Set at 90 Seconds to Midnight

    The Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight, due largely but not exclusively to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation. The new Clock time was also influenced by continuing threats posed by the climate crisis and the breakdown of global norms and institutions needed to mitigate risks associated with advancing technologies and biological threats.

  • DOOMSDAYThe Last of Us: Fungal Infections Really Can Kill – and They’re Getting More Dangerous

    By Rebecca A. Drummond

    Millions have been tuning in every week to watch the highly anticipated TV adaptation of “The Last of Us.” The show depicts a post-apocalyptic world where society has collapsed due to the outbreak of a dangerous, brain-controlling fungal infection that turns humans into hostile, cannibalistic “zombies.” Fortunately for us, a fast-spreading fungal pandemic is pretty unlikely – but this doesn’t mean fungi aren’t still a concern.

  • CHINA WATCH8 Lessons for Taiwan from Russia’s War in Ukraine

    By Tzu-yun Su

    While the fighting in Ukraine is on land, and thus very different from the maritime battlefield that would surround Taiwan, there are still many things Taiwan can learn from Ukraine’s defensive operations.

  • GUNSGun Control Measures Associated with Reduced Police Use of Force

    As police departments and activists look for strategies to reduce excessive use of force by police, new research shows limited data, lack of transparency and irregular implementation of reforms make it difficult to determine which approaches are effective.

  • CONSPIRACY THEORIESCOVID-19 Conspiracy Theories That Spread Fastest Focused on Evil, Secrecy

    In the early pandemic, conspiracy theories that were shared the most on Twitter highlighted malicious purposes and secretive actions of supposed bad actors behind the crisis, according to an analysis of nearly 400,000 posts.

  • COASTAL CHALLENGESHalf of U.S. Coastal Communities Underestimate Sea Level Risks

    Many communities in the United States underestimate how much sea level will rise in their area, according to a new study. In many cases, especially in Southern states, local policymakers rely on one average estimate of sea level rise for their area rather than accounting for more extreme scenarios.

  • COASTAL CHALLENGESSea Change for Hull

    By Louise Walsh

    With a changing climate and rising sea levels putting cities at risk of flooding, it’s crucial for planners to increase their cities’ resilience. A new tool has been developed to help them – and it started with the throwing of a thousand virtual hexagons over Hull.

  • OUR PICKSA Smarter Way to Reduce Gun Deaths | States Trying to Generate a Whole New Water Supply | Expanding Paroles at the Border, and more

    ··  The U.S. Has Had at Least 39 Mass Shootings in Just 24 Days So Far This Year, Data Shows
    Number of mass shootings nationwide so far this year already outpacing the number of calendar days

    ··  Typical Mass Shooters Are in Their 20s and 30s – Suspects in California’s Latest Killings Are Far from That Average
    Regardless of age, all mass shooters intends their mass shooting to be their final act

    ··  A Smarter Way to Reduce Gun Deaths
    In 2021 a record 48,000 Americans were killed by firearms, including suicides, homicides and accidents

    ··  How Arizona, California and Other States Are Trying to Generate a Whole New Water Supply
    Underground storage may be a key for Western states navigating water shortages and extreme weather

    ··  Former Senior FBI Official Accused of Working for Russian He Investigated
    Accusation shocked the cloistered world of his fellow high-ranking intelligence officials

    ··  Southwest Border Migration Rises as DHS Hopes Expanded Parole Measures Will Turn Tide 
    Expanded parole reduces number of encounters at the order

    ··  Earth’s Inner Core May Be Reversing Its Rotation, Study Finds
    The change may shave the length of the day by a fraction of a millisecond over the course of a year

  • WORLD ROUNDUPWill South Korea Go Nuclear? | Can Lula Remake Brazil? | Interpol Is Doing Russia’s Dirty Work, and more

    ··  Will South Korea Go Nuclear?
    As Pyongyang grows its nuclear arsenal, Seoul considers its atomic options

    ··  Cold War Nuclear Bunker Lures Tourists Worried About New Threats
    Nuclear past as prologue

    ··  Climate Change May Usher in a New Era of Trade Wars
    Efforts to mitigate climate change are bringing governments into conflict

    ··  Has a Quran-Burning Protest Ended Sweden’s NATO Dream?
    A Scandinavian far-right party has given Erdogan the opportunity to show he is standing up for Islamic values

    ··  Sweden’s Right-Wing Government Struggles to Tackle Gang Violence
    There’s a new government in Sweden, but many of the same problems remain, particularly when it comes to gang violence

    ··  The Chinese Communist Party Is Trying to Rewrite History. It Will Fail
    An old communist joke goes: Under communism, the future is certain; it is the past that is unpredictable

    ··  After Bolsonaro, Can Lula Remake Brazil?
    Governing after four years of divisive rule will be a profound challenge

    ··  Interpol Is Doing Russia’s Dirty Work
    While trying to remain neutral, the global law enforcement organization is helping Putin

  • CHINA WATCHProtecting U.S. Overseas Air Bases

    In January 2022, U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall warned that the U.S. Air and Space Forces must move quickly to offset actions—mostly by China, but also by Russia—which have eroded the U.S. military advantage: “We cannot go forward with a presumption of superiority that our military dominance demonstrated in the first Gulf War… . A lot of things can change in 30 years and they have.”

  • BOOK REVIEW: CHINA IN DECLINEChina Is a Threat Not Because It is Ascendant, but Because It Is on a Downward Trajectory

    By Robert Wihtol

    The prevailing consensus for the past few years has been that an ascendant China is threatening to overtake a slumping America. Because research suggests that a geopolitical power transition is most likely to take place when a surging challenger overtakes an exhausted hegemon, many believe that a turbo-charged China has increased the likelihood of conflict with America. In their book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, Hal Brands and Michael Beckley challenge this notion and offer a more nuanced view.

  • ARGUMENT: MISUSING HISTORYThe Triumphs and Tribulations of Peter the Great: What Putin’s View of 18th-Century Warfare Can Tell Us About Ukraine

    As is the case with most heads of state, Putin is fairly upbeat when discussing his country’s heroes in public. In his speeches, Putin primarily focuses on two eras: the portion of the reign of Peter the Great that lasted from 1700 to 1721 and Catherine the Great’s reign between 1768 and 1783. “In the long arc of 18th-century Russian history, this would be a bit like talking about the American Revolutionary War by mentioning Lexington and Concord and then skipping to Yorktown,” Alexander Burns writes. “The progression may be correct, but a lot of the nuances and complexities are lost.”

  • ELECTIONS INTEGRITYBrazil, U.S. Show That Secure Elections Require Agreement – Not Just Cybersecurity and Clear Ballot Records

    By Herbert Lin

    The source of the violent disputes which followed the 2020 U.S. election and the 2022 election in Brazil were not the result of procedural or technical flaws in the voting systems, but rather a failure of certain individuals living in democratic society to uphold the fundamental principles of democracy. True democracies require candidates who agree on election rules and processes in advance and agree to abide by the outcome of elections, even when they wish the results were otherwise. The alternative is continuing instability and doubt in the electorate – an outcome that serves no citizen’s interests.