• Vietnam Isn’t North Korea—and 50 Years of Australian Aid Has Helped

    By Melissa Conley Tyler

    How have Australia and Vietnam, two countries with extremely different political systems, built such a successful partnership? It was done through long-term investment across all the tools of statecraft—including diplomacy, trade and defense—with development cooperation as a key element. This enabled a progression from battlefield enemy to major economic and development partner in a surprisingly short period.

  • Congress Bans Pentagon from Using Chinese Port Logistics Platform

    By Jessica Stone

    The U.S. Congress has passed legislation that would ban the Pentagon from using any seaport in the world that relies on a Chinese logistics platform known as LOGINK. LOGINK, by tracking cargo and ship movements, lets Beijing monitor America’s military supply chain, which relies on commercial ports.

  • How Verified Accounts on X Thrive While Spreading Misinformation About the Israel-Hamas Conflict

    By Jeff Kao and Priyanjana Bengani

    With the gutting of content moderation initiatives at X, accounts with blue checks, once a sign of authenticity, are disseminating debunked claims and gaining more followers. Community Notes, X’s fact-checking system, hasn’t scaled sufficiently. “The blue check is flipped now. Instead of a sign of authenticity, it’s a sign of suspicion, at least for those of us who study this enough,” said one expert.

  • Tainted Applesauce Pouches May Have Been Intentionally Contaminated: FDA

    Cinnamon applesauce pouches available at Weis, WanaBanana, and Schnucks have been pulled from shelves after they were found to be contaminated with lead. The FDA says it currently believes the adulteration is “economically motivated.”

  • Red Sea Attacks: Why Arab Nations Won't Join Naval Coalition

    By Cathrin Schaer

    The U.S. has announced a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks, but only one Middle Eastern country has joined. Why have others — like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt — not done so? Each of these states has its own reasons, but analysts say that the one thing the three powers have in common is the fact that they don’t want to be seen as working in defense of Israel.

  • Red Sea Houthi Attacks: Implications for Global Trade

    By Nik Martin

    After a rise in attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis, the world’s largest shipping firms are staying away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Will we see another supply chain crisis?

  • U.S.-Led Taskforce Deploys in Red Sea as Middle East Crisis Threatens to Escalate Beyond Gaza

    By Basil Germond

    The world economy is strongly dependent on the global maritime supply chain. About 80% of international trade by volume is transported by sea. It does not take much to disrupt the global maritime supply chain. Intentional disruptions of the maritime supply chain by pirates or terrorists pose a challenge that goes beyond simple logistics. Attacks on civilian shipping directly affect insurance premiums and deter operators from transiting through certain areas for financial and security reasons.

  • Hidden Fortunes and Surprising Overestimations in Cybercrime Revenue

    To what extent methodological limitations and incomplete data impact the revenue estimations of cybercriminal groups using the Bitcoin blockchain was largely unknown. A new study challenges existing figures regarding cybercriminals’ Bitcoin earnings to date, revealing the full scale of the financial impact of cybercriminal activity.

  • Taking Illinois’ Center for Digital Agriculture into the Future

    By Lauren Quinn

    The Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a new executive director, John Reid, who plans to support CDA’s growth across all dimensions of use-inspired research, translation of research into practice, and education and workforce development.

  • Biden’s Trade Policy U-Turn Bodes Ill for Indo-Pacific Security

    By David Uren

    America’s economic isolationism is increasingly entrenched, with President Joe Biden’s administration no longer supporting the trade policies advocated by US multinational corporations, retreating instead to a nativist protectionism. The Biden administration’s U-turn last month on digital trade policy was a shock both to the US business community and to the nations that had been negotiating digital trade agreements with the US on the basis of its long-established position of lowering the barriers to digital commerce.

  • Cryptocurrency Tech Firm Blocks Terrorists’ Access to Cash

    By Brian Blum

    Could Israel eradicate Hamas and other terrorist networks without a single person killed and without any boots on the ground or planes in the sky? For one technology firm, fighting terror doesn’t involve killing people, only killing the transfer of funds.

  • Costs of the Climate Crisis: An Insurance Umbrella for Nations at Risk

    International study in the run-up to COP28: Public-private partnerships may help protect developing countries from the financial consequences of climate change.

  • Security Officers: Occupational Employment and Wages

    There are more than 1.1 million security officers in the United States, and they form an essential part of the U.S. economy, playing an important role in maintaining safety and security across various sectors. The wages of security officers in the United States vary depending on several factors such as location, experience, and the specific industry they are employed in.

  • How Cryptocurrency Fueled Hamas' Terror Attack on Israel

    By Kristie Pladson

    A crackdown on cryptocurrency accounts linked to Hamas has reignited scrutiny of digital assets after the terrorist group attacked Israel. Criminal and terrorist organizations use crypto to bypass laws and sanctions.

  • Terrorist Use of Cryptocurrencies

    Are terrorist groups currently using cryptocurrencies to support their activities? If not, why? What properties of new and potential future cryptocurrencies would make them more viable for terrorist use?