OUR PICKSAmerica’s New Counter-Terrorism Strategy Is a Partisan Polemic | Making Big Bucks from Immigration Crackdowns | UFO Files Reveal a Hidden Truth About a Growing Religion, and more

MIT President Blames Federal Policy Shifts for Big Drop in Research on Campus  (Susan Svrluga, Washington Post)
Funding cuts and restrictive immigration policies are throttling scientific work as other nations are investing heavily, education experts say.

America’s New Counter-Terrorism Strategy Is a Partisan Polemic  (Economist)
It does not seem designed to make the country safer.

Companies Are Making Big Bucks from Immigration Crackdowns  (Economist)
And startups are piling in with whizzy new technologies.

A Conspiracy Theory About QR Codes Has Led to Chaos Ahead of Georgia’s Midterms  (David Gilbert, Wired)
The state of Georgia banned the use of QR codes for elections, based in part on the assertions of a man who’s boosted false claims about Israel and 9/11. Now no one knows how ballots will be counted.

The Election Deniers Are Winning  (Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Shane Harris, and Sarah Fitzpatrick, The Atlantic)
The universe of people pressing debunked theories is so broad that it’s a feature of the system.

2020 Election Denier Tina Peters Granted Clemency by Democratic Governor  (Patrick Marley, Karin Brulliard and Maegan Vazquez, Washington Post)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis had been under pressure from Trump to pardon Peters, a former county clerk who helped secretly copy voting machine hard drives.

Hantavirus Conspiracy Theories Are Already Spreading Online  (David Gilbert, Wired)
From claims of an Israeli false flag to efforts to sell ivermectin, influencers and grifters are using lessons learned from Covid-19 to push their baseless conspiracy theories.

The UFO Files Reveal a Hidden Truth About a Growing Religion  (Diana Walsh Pasulka, Washington Post)
Belief in alien life is on the rise — fueled by declining trust in institutions.