Deepfakes and the Erosion of Trust in Homeland Security | Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance Demands Broader Data Protections | Everything Is a “False Flag” Now | In the 1950s, America Built the Greatest Doomsday Weapon Ever, and more

Deepfakes and the Erosion of Trust in Homeland Security  (Claire Moravec, HSToday)
The speed at which deepfake technology is advancing is alarming and should be deeply unsettling to anyone charged with protecting public safety, ensuring continuity of government, or leading during a crisis. What was once the stuff of science fiction is now an operational reality: AI-generated audio and video so convincing that it can derail emergency response, incite panic, and corrode institutional trust in seconds.
We must stop treating deepfakes as a future threat. They’re here and already being used to manipulate, deceive, and destabilize. This goes beyond cybersecurity or digital ethics; it seriously threatens crisis leadership and homeland security. A fake video of a mayor announcing an evacuation, a phony emergency alert about military activity, or a synthetic voice impersonating a trusted official isn’t science fiction. These are real tactics we have to be ready for. These aren’t far-off hypotheticals—they’re real risks we’re already beginning to face. These are plausible attack vectors in the modern information battlespace.

America Throws Big Money at a Small Rare-Earths Mine  (Economist)
Challenging China’s dominance will be a tall order.

Rethinking the Global AI Race  (Lt. Gen. (ret.) John (Jack) N.T. Shanahan and Kevin Frazier, Just Security)
The global competition over artificial intelligence is increasingly framed in stark and dramatic terms, often compared to the Manhattan Project, a new arms race, or a moonshot project requiring incredible resources to attain a difficult, if not, impossible goal. These analogies all suffer from a common flaw: they point us toward the wrong goal. AI is not a discrete project with a clear endpoint, like building a nuclear weapon or landing on the moon. It is a long-term, society-wide effort to develop powerful tools and ensure their benefits reach classrooms, battlefields, factories, and start-ups alike.

In the 1950s, America Built the Greatest Doomsday Weapon Ever  (Brandon J. Weichert, National Interest)
In spite of its cancellation, SLAM left an imprint in the minds of America’s defense planners and military scientists—and pushed the boundaries of nuclear propulsion technology.

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US Alters Tech Policy, Puts Chips on the Table  (Jennifer Lee and Fritz Lodge, The Strategist)
A shift is underway in the Trump administration’s approach to tech policy. Nvidia said on 14 July that the US government would soon grant it licenses to resume exports of its H20 chips to China. AMD is expecting the same for its MI308 chips. This may appear surprising after multiple statements from Trump administration officials that controls on the export to China of higher-end AI chips, such as the H20, were off the table.
This move doesn’t change the broader bipartisan consensus behind restricting China’s access to strategic tech, but rather fits into a pattern of recent decisions showing that tech export controls—previously viewed as a non-negotiable issue of US national security—can now be used as bargaining chips in trade talks with China. The next talks are scheduled for 28 and 29 July in Stockholm between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterparts. This shift exacerbates uncertainty for domestic and international tech firms and will encourage Beijing to push for further loosening of controls in future negotiations.

“Under the Microscope”: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show  (Mark Olalde, ProPublica)
Law enforcement agencies have collaborated with private security to surveil largely peaceful protesters opposed to a Nevada mining project called Thacker Pass.An FBI-led joint terrorism task force has at times focused on the protests, according to internal law enforcement communications.Indigenous people protesting the mine say they have been unfairly singled out by authorities for trying to protect their lands.

How the Supreme Court’s ‘Rule for the Ages’ Could Impact Trump’s Obama Witch Hunt  (Asha Rangappa, MSNBC)
“A rule for the ages.” This is what Justice Neil Gorsuch claimed the Supreme Court was deciding when it heard oral arguments on President Donald Trump’s claim of “absolute immunity” in April 2024. Two months later, the court did indeed hand down such a rule, endorsing Trump’s view that a former president cannot be criminally indicted for “official acts” carried out during the course of his presidency.
The rationale for granting immunity was ostensibly to protect former presidents; without it, the court argued, prosecutions by current administrations of their predecessors “would quickly become routine.”
So much for that. President Trump’s latest baseless accusations that former President Barack Obama committed “treason” in investigating Russia’s election interference in 2016 — accusations made by his own director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and for which his attorney general has created an investigative “strike force” — shows that, far from deterring such prosecutions, the court’s “rule for the ages” has made them easier.

Republicans Pushed the Laken Riley Act to Prioritize Deporting Criminals —but DHS Isn’t Doing That  (David J. Bier, CATO)
Going after a small number of criminal fugitives will not allow the president’s team to hit its sky-high deportation targets.

Underground with America’s Nuclear-Missile Crews  (Economist)
The cost of replacing ageing ICBMs is soaring as a new arms race looms.

Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance Demands Broader Data Protections  (Justin Sherman, Lawfare)
As adversary surveillance capabilities expand, the U.S. national security community faces grave threats. Broader data protections can help.

The Technological Transformation of Emergency Management: Part I  (Austin Seivold, HSToday)
In an era marked by a surge in devastating disasters and an often-shifting landscape of federal emergency management priorities, we must examine how best to position emergency managers, reviewing their core responsibilities to ensure we’re maximizing their impact . Emergency managers often spend significant time working with outdated, fragmented technology systems – the result of years of underinvestment – that undermine their ability to deliver timely, effective, and compassionate support to survivors. These legacy systems have meant agencies reliant on manual processes and inconsistent data across all phases of emergency management. As an example, a 2019 Office of Inspector General study found that FEMA’s longstanding IT deficiencies hindered their 2017 response and recovery operations, specifically noting that FEMA’s fragmented data infrastructure led to delayed response times, miscommunication, and greater survivor frustration. 
While emergency management agencies, such as FEMA have made significant changes to disaster assistance programs aimed at improving the survivor experience, challenges persist. Emergency management agencies continue to feel the impacts of these long standing issues, from internal barriers to efficiency, to the erosion of public trust in emergency management institutions. 

“You Could Throw Out the Results of All These Papers”  (Tom Bartlett, The Atlantic)
RFK Jr.’s vaccine-safety investigator has previously used government vaccine data to publish research with glaring flaws.

How Trump Killed Cancer Research  (Elisa Muyl and Anthony Lydgate, Wired)
Attempting to eliminate funding for certain kinds of “woke” studies, the Trump administration erased hundreds of millions of dollars being used for cancer research.

RFK Jr. Wants to Change a Program That Stopped Vaccine Makers From Leaving the U.S. Market. They Could Flee Again.  (Patricia Callahan, ProPublica)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is targeting a little-known program that underpins childhood immunizations in the U.S. by paying people who suffer rare side effects from shots.Dramatic changes to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program risk driving drugmakers from the market, threatening access to shots, experts say.The program underscores the fragility of America’s childhood immunization program at a time when Kennedy is renewing debunked claims about the dangers of vaccines.

E.P.A. Says It Will Eliminate Its Scientific Research Arm  (Lisa Friedman and Maxine Joselow, New York Times)
The decision comes after a Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to slash the federal work force and dismantle agencies.

Every Day Is a Good Day to Repeal the Jones Act (Paige Lambermont and Ryan Young, National Interest)
Outdated restrictions on internal shipping no longer bolster national security and, in fact, hinder national economic development.