ELECTION INTEGRITYProtecting Voters and Election Workers from Armed Intimidation

By Allison Anderman

Although the United States is no stranger to political violence, our elections in the 21st century have been safe and secure. Rare events of violence closely covered by the media, but in reality, voter suppression by intimidation is much more likely to occur. While guns have rarely been used in elections to commit violent acts, they are increasingly being wielded as tools of intimidation.

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TRUTH DECAYSocial Media Manipulation in the Era of AI

By Doug Irving

China is not the only U.S. adversary exploring the potential propaganda gold mine that AI has opened. But China provides a useful case study, in part because its disinformation efforts seem to be getting bolder.

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GUNSThe Country’s Biggest Ghost Gun Manufacturer Has Shuttered

By Alain Stephens

As its products increasingly turned up at crime scenes, Polymer80 drew scrutiny from law enforcement and policymakers.

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OUR PICKSRussia Secretly Worms Its Way into America’s Conservative Media | The Information Wars Are About to Get Worse | These Are the Asteroids That Scare Scientists. Are We Prepared for Them?, and more

·  Russia Secretly Worms Its Way into America’s Conservative Media
Federal prosecutors say Russia paid an American media company to push pro-Kremlin messages from social media influencers including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin

·  If a Threat Is Not a Crime, Can the Police Prevent a School Shooting?
Officers are limited in their response to a possible threat of violence, but they are being trained to identify and monitor worrisome behavior earlier

·  How Telegram Became a Playground for Criminals, Extremists and Terrorists
Drug dealers, scammers and white nationalists openly conduct business and spread toxic speech on the platform, according to a Times analysis of more than 3.2 million Telegram messages

·  These Are the Asteroids That Scare Scientists. Are We Prepared for Them?
Global cooperation is, unsurprisingly for a threat that comes from the stars, essential

·  The Information Wars Are About to Get Worse, Yuval Noah Harari Argues
The author of “Sapiens” is back with a timely new book about AI, fact and fiction

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TERRORISMMunich Shooting at Israeli Consulate, Police Suspect Terror

Investigators in Munich believe the incident was likely an attempted terrorist attack. Police shot and killed a man who had fired on them with a rifle near the Israeli Consulate and a Nazi-era museum in the city.

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PANDEMICSPreparing for a Pandemic That Never Came Ended Up Setting Off Another − How an Accidental Virus Release Triggered 1977’s ‘Russian Flu’

By Donald S. Burke

Overreaction. Unintended consequences. Making matters worse. Self-fulfilling prophecy. There is a rich variety of terms to describe how the best intentions can go awry. Still reeling from COVID-19, the world now faces new threats from cross-species jumps of avian flu viruses, mpox viruses and others. It’s critical that we be quick to respond to these emerging threats to prevent yet another global disease conflagration. Quick, but not too quick, history suggests.

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WILDFIRESAI Technology and Self-Coordinating Drones to Detect and Investigate Wildfires

Engineers have developed a swarm of self-coordinating drones for firefighting, as part of an effort to develop cost-effective early mitigation strategies for wildfires.

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OUR PICKSWhy Super Typhoons Are More Common Than You’d Think | Russia Aimed Propaganda at Gamers, Minorities to Swing 2024 Election | How to Slow the Spread of Lethal AI, and more

·  AI-Fakes Detection Is Failing Voters in the Global South
With generative AI affecting politics worldwide, researchers face a “detection gap,” as the biases built into systems mean tools for identifying fake content often work poorly or not at all in the Global South

·  Why Super Typhoons Like Yagi Are More Common Than You’d Think
Unlike in the Atlantic, there is little to stop high-intensity storms forming in Southeast Asia, and climate change is making conditions even more perilous

·  DOJ: Russia Aimed Propaganda at Gamers, Minorities to Swing 2024 Election
Newly unsealed court documents reveal in unprecedented detail a campaign called the Good Old USA Project, which Russian authorities believed could impact the US election

·  How to Slow the Spread of Lethal AI
Today, it is far too easy for reckless and malicious actors to get their hands on the most advanced and potentially lethal machine-learning algorithms

·  From Istanbul to El Paso: How Smugglers Enable Illegal Migrant Crossings
How Turkish migrants are managing to enter the U.S. illegally

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ELECTION INTEGRITYUS Seeks to Reassure Voters That Presidential Election Will Be Safe

By Jeff Seldin

Top U.S. election security officials are asking American voters to tune out the noise and reject what they describe as unfounded claims that the coming presidential election will be rigged. The effort to reassure voters follows the U.S. intelligence community’s warning that U.S. adversaries, led by Russia, Iran and China, are seeking to meddle with the November election. These adversaries have been conducting influence operations or disinformation campaigns designed to sow doubt about the U.S. election process.

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CHINA WATCHAide to Cuomo, Hochul Was a Chinese Agent

In a 65-page federal indictment unsealed last week, prosecutor described how Linda Sun, 40, of Manhasset, Long Island, who worked for the NY State government for 14 years, serving as an aide to New York’s former governor Andrew Cuomo and current governor Kathy Hochul, received money and other benefits in exchange for providing help to the Peoples’s Republic of China and its Communist Party.

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