OUR PICKSU.S. AI Leadership Needs Smarter Controls | Are We Ready for the Next One? | As the US Cuts Scientific Talent, Europe Launches an Initiative to Attract It, and more

As the US Cuts Scientific Talent, Europe Launches an Initiative to Attract It  (Fernanda González, Wired)
The Choose Europe for Science program will invest more than half a billion dollars between 2025 and 2027 to recruit researchers and scientists—especially from the United States.

Are We Ready for the Next One?  (Emily Gaines Buchler, Johns Hopkins Magazine)
What COVID, five years later, can teach us in an age of pandemics.

U.S. AI Leadership Needs Smarter Controls  (Nury Turkel, Foreign Policy)
A refined approach can keep democracy in the lead.

US Customs and Border Protection Quietly Revokes Protections for Pregnant Women and Infants  (Dhruv Mehrotra, Wired)
CBP’s acting commissioner has rescinded four Biden-era policies that aimed to protect vulnerable people in the agency’s custody, including mothers, infants, and the elderly.

Signal Clone Used by Mike Waltz Pauses Service After Reports It Got Hacked  (Lily Hay Newman, Wired)
The communications app TeleMessage, which was spotted on former US national security adviser Mike Waltz’s phone, has suspended “all services” as it investigates reports of at least one breach.

Customs and Border Protection Confirms Its Use of Hacked Signal Clone TeleMessage  (Lily Hay Newman, Wired)
CBP says it has “disabled” its use of TeleMessage following reports that the app, which has not cleared the US government’s risk assessment program, was hacked.

The Actual Math Behind DOGE’s Cuts  (Jessica Riedl, The Atlantic)
If you thought Elon Musk was really trying to cut costs, you weren’t in on the joke.
This is to say that DOGE has failed. Musk might not have followed through on his unfocused and evolving promises to eliminate payment errors, balance the entire budget, and implement regulatory reform. But he has successfully given the White House cover to purge and intimidate the civil service, helped Congress justify exorbitant tax cuts, rewarded MAGA voters with revenge against their perceived enemies, and granted himself the ability to access sensitive government data and possibly ensure his companies’ continued government contracts. Sure, annual budget deficits remain on track to double over the next decade. But if you thought DOGE was really about cutting costs, you were never in on the joke.