• Fool’s Gold: Overhyped Tech Startups Distract from Military Innovation

    Technology startups almost never live up to all the hype they generate. Much of this innovation is fool’s gold. Often, these solutions are not developed beyond an initial concept. It’s a missed opportunity for the U.S. military. Startup companies often present the Pentagon with more cost-effective, swift, and adaptable solutions compared to the weapons systems typically provided by the handful of major contractors the Pentagon usually turns to.

  • States Beg Insurers Not to Drop Climate-Threatened Homes

    In the coming years, climate change could force Americans from their homes, not just by raising sea levels, worsening wildfires and causing floods — but also by putting insurance coverage out of reach.

  • How Secure Is Gene Synthesizing Research?

    Critics warn that the benefits of gene synthesizing research are undermined by security measures which are not sufficiently tight to prevent such research form being used by bad actors to do harm. One expert writes: “The problem is that governments don’t mandate security across the industry — and even though it’s a crime to ship DNA sufficient to generate the entire infectious 1918 influenza, there’s no law against shipping pieces of it.” The International Gene Synthesis Consortium disagrees.

  • China’s Control and Coercion in Critical Minerals

    Markets for critical minerals are no longer shaping up to be the next components of the global economy to be dominated by China. They already are. While Western nations were sleeping, China built vertically integrated supply chains for several critical minerals vital to the energy transition and high technology applications, including defense equipment.

  • Removing Cuba from List of Countries ‘Not Fully Cooperating’ Over Terrorism May Presage Wider Rapprochement – If Politics Allows

    The U.S. State Department removed Cuba from its list of countries “not fully cooperating” with anti-terrorism efforts in mid-May 2024, but you would be forgiven for not noticing. Despite the low-key nature of the announcement, taking Cuba off the list is a big deal. The move is a potential step toward a rapprochement between Washington and Havana.

  • Why Did the U.S. Open Up Banking to Cuba's Private Sector?

    As Cuba faces a social and economic crisis, the United States has enabled more financial support for private businesses in the country in a boost to Internet-based services and financial services.

  • Video Games Might Matter for Terrorist Financing

    Every day, billions of dollars flow across international borders among millions of people on a public online market, with functionally no government oversight or regulation. The market? Virtual currency and digital assets in video games. Moshe Klein writes that “as terrorists seek new methods of conducting financial activity, governments must remain one step ahead and consider how they can proactively investigate and close extant avenues for terrorist financing.”

  • ARPA-H Announces Program to Enhance and Automate Cybersecurity for Health Care Facilities

    The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced the launch of the Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous DEfense (UPGRADE) program, a cybersecurity effort that will invest more than $50 million to create tools for information technology (IT) teams to better defend the hospital environments they are tasked with securing.

  • U.S. Announces Measures to Help Over 11,000 Cuban Small Businesses

    The administration unveiled regulatory changes to increase support for the Cuban people and independent private sector entrepreneurs. The changes will enable more U.S. financial support for small private businesses in Cuba, enhance internet-based services on the island and broaden access to financial services.

  • O-RAN Is Overhyped as Avoiding Chinese 5G Influence

    In recent years, countries have faced a stark choice between Chinese and Western suppliers to develop their 5G cellular network infrastructure. While Chinese suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE are not trusted because of their ties and legal obligations to China’s party-state, Western suppliers have struggled to compete on cost. The emergence of Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) technology has some promised, but the idea that O-RAN is a viable alternative to Chinese suppliers seems hollow.

  • Major Gaps in Cybersecurity at Auto Workshops

    Many auto workshops do not know enough about how to keep our cars safe from cyberattacks, a new study reveals. “A large proportion of the vehicle fleet could practically be entirely open to attacks or already breached,” says a cybersecurity expert.

  • Revolutionizing Energy Grid Maintenance: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming the Future

    Scientists are leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to transform energy grid asset maintenance, helping U.S. power companies identify and address problems before they even occur, helping to ensure the security and reliability of America’s energy infrastructure.

  • Emerging Threats to the U.S. Financial System

    In early 2021, a freewheeling, freethinking group of investors on Reddit plowed their money into GameStop, a video game retailer that several big hedge funds had bet against. The stock price shot up, some people made millions—and, to the delight of those on Reddit, the hedge funds had some very bad days. Researchers saw the GameStop story as a cautionary tale. If investors on Reddit could work together to move the markets like that, what could an adversary like China do?

  • Venezuela Travel Advisory

    With the security situation in Venezuela continuing to deteriorate, the U.S. Department of State has issued a travel advisory which urges would be travelers to note Venezuela’s “to crime, civil unrest, kidnapping, and the arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” The advisory further urges people to “Reconsider travel due to wrongful detentions, terrorism, and poor health infrastructure” in Venezuela.

  • Why Biden Wants to Block the Nippon-U.S. Steel Deal

    A proposed Japanese takeover of U.S. Steel, a century-old icon of American industry, is facing domestic political pushback that could challenge the Biden administration’s foreign policy aims. Biden’s opposition to the deal risks undercutting his administration’s efforts to strengthen U.S. alliances and supply chains, experts say.