• Quick Detection of Uranium Isotopes Helps Safeguard Nuclear Materials

    Researchers have developed a rapid way to measure isotopic ratios of uranium and plutonium collected on environmental swipes, which could help International Atomic Energy Agency analysts detect the presence of undeclared nuclear activities or material.

  • Is There Such a Thing as a Safe Algorithm? Talk of Regulation Gathers Momentum

    There is now wide agreement among experts and politicians that regulatory changes are needed to protect users, particularly young children and girls, who are vulnerable to mental health problems and body image issues that are tied to the social media platform’s algorithms.

  • U.S. Intelligence Community Pivots to Better Confront Beijing

    CIA director William Burns Thursday announced the creation of a new China Mission Center to make sure the agency’s resources and existing efforts are working together to face the growing threat.

  • COVID-19 Could Nudge Minds and Societies Towards Authoritarianism

    Humans have not one but two immune systems. The first, the biophysical immune system. The second is the behavioral immune system, which adapts our behavior to preemptively avoid potentially infectious people, places and things. An examination of the impact of the behavioral immune system on our attitudes towards obedience and authority shows that high rates of infectious diseases – and the disease-avoidance they promote – may fundamentally shape political opinions and social institutions.

  • Rush to Stop “Havana Syndrome”

    In 2016, dozens of diplomatic staff at the U.S. and Canadian embassies in Havana began experiencing a sudden onset of health troubles with no apparent cause. It was suspected they had been exposed to a high-intensity burst of energy or sound waves. Known as Havana syndrome, today there are at least 200 CIA, State Department, and Pentagon personnel stationed overseas who have been affected. But cause, suspects unclear as scores of U.S. spies, diplomats, security staff hit by mysterious neurological injuries overseas.

  • The Sound and the Fury: Inside the Mystery of the Havana Embassy

    More than a year after American diplomats began to suffer strange, concussion-like symptoms in Cuba, a U.S. investigation is no closer to determining how they were hurt or by whom, and the FBI and CIA are at odds over the case. A ProPublica investigation reveals the many layers to the mystery — and the political maneuvering that is reshaping U.S.-Cuba relations.

  • U.S. Has a Stockpile of 3,750 Nuclear Warheads

    The United States has disclosed the number of nuclear weapons in its arsenal for the first time since former President Donald Trump decided to keep the figures a secret. At the height of the cold war, in 1967, the U.S. nuclear stockpile reached its peak; 31,255 warheads.

  • U.S. Unveils New Cybersecurity Requirements for Rail, Air

    DHS has unveiled new measures to make sure the U.S. air and surface transportation sectors will not be crippled by ransomware or cyberattacks. The new measures will apply to “higher risk” rail companies, “critical” airport operators, and air passenger and air cargo companies.

  • Face-to-Face Propaganda Is Most Effective to Influence Public Sympathy to ISIS

    Face-to-face connections are far more likely to gain new followers for the ISIS Islamic terrorist organization than messaging in traditional or online media, according to a new study.

  • Project to Look Below the Surface to Make NYC More Resilient

    Hurricanes Ida and Henri caused flooding in New York City, demonstrating the need for comprehensive, quickly accessible data about the spatial relationships between utility conduits, water and waste systems, fuel transit pipelines, transportation tunnels, and other infrastructure beneath our feet.

  • Vaccine Passports Are Coming. But Are They Ethical?

    It is the foundational ethical principle of any liberal society that the state should only restrict liberty if people represent a threat of harm to others. Ethics is about weighing different values. Decisions about vaccination should be fundamentally ethical, not political or purely medical.

  • In U.S. v Wilson, the Ninth Circuit Reaffirms Fourth Amendment Protection for Electronic Communications

    The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a new ruling which is a victory for digital privacy rights, has confirmed that the police need to get a warrant before they open your email attachments—even if a third party’s automated system has flagged those attachments as potentially illegal.

  • Private Data/Public Regulation

    Police, increasingly relying on the collection of digital data,  seek fewer search warrants and more requests to harvest metadata. They buy data from brokers, they track location and other aspects of our lives. Sometimes police collect the data themselves. More often they gather it from third parties. Barry Friedman writes that “The benefits of this approach are uncertain, but placing this much personal data in the hands of the government has its costs.”

  • A Short Introduction: The Involuntary Celibate Sub-Culture

    On 12 August 2021, Jake Davison embarked on a killing spree that resulted in the deaths of five people before taking his own life. Davison’s digital footprint on social media platforms contains numerous examples of misogynistic and anti-feminist attitudes, as well as references to the incel subculture. What are incels? And should we consider their ideology an extremist one related to the far-right?

  • More Violent Pro-ISIS, Extreme Right Content on Facebook & Instagram

    The Counter Extremism Project (CEP), which monitors the methods used by extremists to exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers and incite violence, reports that violent Islamist and extreme right content continues to be available on social media platforms.