OUR PICKSVictims of U.S. Nuclear Testing Deserve More Than This | Emerging Threats to the U.S. Financial System | Inside the Reluctant Fight to Ban Deepfake Ads, and more
· The Victims of U.S. Nuclear Testing Deserve More Than This
More than 100 nuclear devices were exploded in aboveground tests in New Mexico and Nevada from 1945 to 1962
· Long Before Key Bridge Collapse, Baltimore Mariners Warned of ‘Ship Strikes’
Members of a Baltimore harbor safety committee repeatedly raised the possibility that an out-of-control vessel could imperil the bridge, records show
· Biden Takes Another Step to Fast-Track Asylum Process for Border Crossers
A new expedited docket for people who have recently crossed the border, which could allow officials to more quickly reject and deport some people
· Emerging Threats to the U.S. Financial System
Experts warn that the greatest danger to U.S. financial system is not a single, sudden attack, a financial 9/11. It’s the constant assault on reality—the deepfake videos and manipulated AI
· The U.S. Has Spent $5bn on Electronic Warfare in 2024 Alone
China, Russia and India are projected to eat into the US’ outsized share of global electronic warfare spending in the coming years
· Teslas Can Still Be Stolen with a Cheap Radio Hack—Despite New Keyless Tech
Ultra-wideband radio has been heralded as the solution for “relay attacks” that are used to steal cars in seconds. But researchers found Teslas equipped with it are as vulnerable as ever
· Inside the Reluctant Fight to Ban Deepfake Ads
Without new rules, campaigns could hoodwink voters with AI-generated ads. And no one really seems to be taking the threat seriously
The Victims of U.S. Nuclear Testing Deserve More Than This (W. J. Hennigan, New York Times)
The men and women came to Capitol Hill last week bearing surgical scars, long medical histories and fading photographs of loved ones long dead. They came from across the country to walk the halls of Congress and show lawmakers the human cost of the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
They call themselves downwinders — a global community of people who lived near nuclear testing sites. In America, more than 100 nuclear devices were exploded in aboveground tests in New Mexico and Nevada from 1945 to 1962. For decades, members of the communities near those sites, as well as others involved in weapons production, have endured rare cancers, autoimmune disorders and other illnesses. But only some have been compensated by the federal government for what they’ve gone through.
The downwinders who visited Washington last week are not currently eligible for federal assistance because they don’t live in the designated areas in Utah, Nevada and Arizona covered under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, known as RECA. The 1990 legislation has provided billions of dollars to people exposed to harmful radiation during U.S. nuclear tests or while mining uranium. But many affected communities, including those in southern New Mexico where J. Robert Oppenheimer’s team conducted the first atomic blast in 1945, were left off the list.
They have been fighting to be included under the law.
Long Before Key Bridge Collapse, Baltimore Mariners Warned of ‘Ship Strikes’ (Steve Thompson and Ian Duncan, Washington Post)
The warnings came, sometimes in eerily specific terms, years before a giant cargo ship struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge: A ship could lose power “in close vicinity to a bridge,” an out-of-control vessel could cause “a bridge collapse,” and the Key Bridge was “not designed to withstand collisions from large vessels.”
After the strike caused the bridge’s collapse in March, horrified officials described the catastrophe as one that couldn’t have been anticipated. But a maritime safety committee, including experts from key government agencies, repeatedly raised the possibility of such a disaster over the past two decades, according to previously unreported records obtained by The Washington Post. (Cont.)
