OUR PICKSThe Cost of Illegal Immigration | Trump’s New Big Lie | No Manhattan Project for AI, but Maybe a Los Alamos, and more

Secret Service Probe Details Failures Before Trump Rally Shooting  (Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post)
An internal investigation has confirmed security breakdowns that paved the way for an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and revealed new failures.

Poliovirus That Infected a Chinese Child in 2014 May Have Leaked from a Lab  (Kai Kupferschmidt, Science)
Samples destined for destruction at a Paris institute trigger a virological “detective story”

The Pivotal Decision That Led to a Resurgence of Polio  (Apoorva Mandavilli, New York Times)
In 2016, the global health authorities removed a type of poliovirus from the oral vaccine. The virus caused a growing number of outbreaks and has now arrived in Gaza.

No Manhattan Project for AI, but Maybe a Los Alamos  (David Ignatius, Washington Post)
As with nuclear weapons, general artificial intelligence offers first-mover advantages that could alter the course of history.

How Mexico Is Helping Biden and Harris at the U.S. Border  (Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post)
A major reason for the drop in apprehensions at the border this year: Mexico is stopping migrants well before they reach the border.

Trump’s New Big Lie  (David A. Graham, The Atlantic)
The goal is not to earnestly correct the record on crime but to spread an atmosphere of fear and paranoia.

An ER Doctor’s Cure for America’s Gun Epidemic  (Cedric Dark, Wired)
Cedric Dark is a gun-owning emergency physician, a father, and the cousin of a man who was shot to death. This is what he—and the science—say needs to change.

Are New U.S. Export Controls Rules on Chips and Other Critical Tech Good Enough?  (Ian J. Stewart, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
There is so much political focus and urgency in addressing contemporary issues that finding the time and energy to rework international export control governance will be a challenge. But  given current global security challenges, now is the time for action.

Apathy and Hyperbole Cloud the Real Risks of AI Bioweapons (Filippa Lentzos, Jez Littlewood, Hailey Wingo, Alberto Muti, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
Greater awareness of the risks and challenges AI poses in the biosafety and biosecurity realms should serve as a basis for developing national, regional and multilateral responses to those risks by states and civil society actors.

The Cost of Illegal Immigration  (Steven A. Camarota, National Affairs)
The chaos at the border in recent years has cast into stark relief one of the central issues surrounding illegal immigration: its fiscal costs. Unfortunately, most discussions on the subject tend to be filled with misconceptions, half-truths, and even outright falsehoods. The evidence indicates that illegal immigrants are almost certainly a net drain on our public fisc — but not for the reasons many activists put forth.