Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Home > OODA Analysis and Briefs
Microsoft has announced the development of Majorana 1, what they call the world’s first quantum processor powered by topological qubits, utilizing a novel class of materials called topoconductors. What do the latest systems from OpenAI and Grok say about it.
Any macroeconomic consideration of the impacts of artificial intelligence must also include the future of data writ large: in this era of exponential disruption and acceleration, the flow of data across borders has become the backbone of global trade and economic activity. Currently, regulatory interventions, driven by concerns over privacy, security, and national interest, are…
The race for critical minerals and rare earth metals is intensifying, shaping global supply chains, geopolitical strategies, and technological advancements.
The European Patent Office (EPO) is mapping Europe’s deep tech ecosystem through the Deep Tech Finder. This tool provides insights into key players in disruptive innovation, patent trends, and investment activity, helping stakeholders track the evolution of deep technology.
A confluence of geopolitical tensions, economic fragility, and climate instability is shaping an increasingly volatile global landscape in 2025.
As AI-generated content proliferates, the U.S. Copyright Office and legal frameworks grapple with how to assign rights and responsibilities in this rapidly evolving space.
A Chinese cybersecurity company recently published an annual report in which it disclosed that it had recorded more than 1,300 advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks against 14 critical sectors in China in 2024.
Taiwan faces mounting geopolitical and military challenges as China accelerates its military modernization and strategic ambitions. This post examines Taiwan’s evolving defense landscape, the role of autonomous weapons, and the broader implications for regional security.
The Trump administration has revived Schedule F, a policy implemented in the first Trump administration. This signals a restructuring of the federal workforce to prioritize executive control over policymaking roles.
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence in cloud environments is reshaping industries, but security vulnerabilities are mounting just as fast. The “State of AI in the Cloud 2025” report by Wiz Research highlights the rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into cloud environments, emphasizing both opportunities and challenges.
We’ve often invoked that Toffler’s concept of Future Shock was occurring a few decades late, but the era of Future Shock is fully upon us. The velocity of change has reached a point where decision-makers no longer have the luxury of incremental adaptation. We are living through a recursive cycle of whiplash—technological, geopolitical, economic, and…
NYC Deep Tech Week is set for March 31 to April 4.
I’ve been using OpenAI’s “Deep Research” capability for the last several days, trying to evaluate how it can be used to improve the research and reporting we do for our network. Deep Research is an AI agent. It uses reasoning to synthesize large amounts of online information and conduct complex multi-step research tasks. The goal…
The ideological battle currently gripping the U.S. government is a direct result of competing frameworks that are fueling the ongoing government operations crisis.
Since 2017, The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) has produced an annual study of the macro-level trends and impacts of Artificial Intelligence.
United Natural Foods has taken some systems offline after detecting unauthorized activity. In a filing with the SEC on Monday, the company disclosed that it had detected unauthorized activity on certain IT systems on June 5. In response, some systems were taken offline, temporarily affecting their ability to process and distribute customer orders. The food…
Texas officials reported a data breach affecting 300,000 crash reports. On May 12, the Texas Department of Transportation detected unauthorized access to its Crash Records Information System, potentially exposing personal details from crash reports. The crash reports may include personal information such as names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, car insurance policy numbers, and other information.…
Security researchers have uncovered critical flaws in Salesforce’s industry-specific CRM solutions. Salesforce research discovered five zero-day vulnerabilities and 15 severe misconfigurations, causing widespread risk. The problems come from the mismatch between the potential security knowledge of the box checker and the complexity of the finished Salesforce CRM solution. More than 25% of its Salesforce customers…
External control of a file name or path allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code over a network. Microsoft released patches for at least 66 security defects across the Windows ecosystem and called urgent attention to a WebDAV remote code execution bug. The bug allows browser-based drive-by downloads if a target clicks on a rigged…
Russia is delivering sophisticated weaponry to sub-Saharan conflict zones. Based on satellite imagery, Russia is transporting tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, and other high-value military equipment via ship convoys to West Africa. The two-year-old Africa Corps, which has links to a covert branch of Russia’s army, is rising at a time when U.S. and European troops…
In a major leap toward the future of computing, researchers have shown that even small-scale quantum processors can outperform classical algorithms in machine learning tasks. The finding offers a glimpse into a faster, greener era within the relatively new research field of Quantum Machine Learning, a space gaining momentum across both academia and industry. The…
Pakistan announced its federal budget for fiscal year 2025-26 on Tuesday, shrinking overall spending by 7% to 17.57 trillion rupees ($62 billion) but raising defence expenditure by a steep 20% following a deadly conflict with old enemy India last month. The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presented a budget that allocated 2.55 trillion rupees…
A military fighter jet crashed and burned Tuesday in an area that has seen intense fighting during Myanmar’s civil war, with a rebel group claiming to have shot it down while state-run media reported it suffered a mechanical failure. The aircraft went down midday in the Sagaing region, about 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of…
Apple’s iPhone may not be getting a significant AI upgrade, but it is getting a fresh coat of paint. As are Apple’s other operating systems. At WWDC 2025, the company announced a refreshed user interface called Liquid Glass, which features shiny, reflective, and transparent visual interface elements that give the software a more “glassy” look…
Taipei prosecutors indicted four people on Tuesday suspected of spying for China in a case that reached Taiwan’s presidential office, seeking jail terms of more than 18 years. Democratically-governed Taiwan says it has faced heightened military and political pressure over the past five years or so from Beijing, which views the island as sovereign Chinese…
Iran executed nine people it said were members of the Islamic State, state media reported on Tuesday, after their arrest in early 2018 during clashes in which three members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed. The nine detainees, whose nationalities were not given, were accused of “moharebeh” — an Islamic term meaning waging war against…
The risk of famine in Sudan has extended close to the capital Khartoum, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned as the country’s brutal civil war grinds on into its third year. The agency has discovered “severe” levels of hunger in the town of Jabal Awliya, some 40km (25 miles) south of Khartoum, the…
Japan said it observed two Chinese aircraft carriers and supporting warships operating simultaneously near remote Japanese islands in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, a new demonstration of Beijing’s advancing naval capabilities. The aircraft carrier Shandong was seen sailing into the Pacific at the weekend and identified on Monday conducting fighter jet and helicopter…
OpenAI plans to add Alphabet’s Google cloud service to meet its growing needs for computing capacity, three sources told Reuters, marking a surprising collaboration between two prominent competitors in the artificial intelligence sector. The deal, which has been under discussion for a few months, was finalized in May, one of the sources added. It underscores…
Huawei Technologies’ chips are one generation behind those of U.S. peers but the firm is finding ways to improve performance through methods such as cluster computing, Chinese state media quoted CEO Ren Zhengfei as saying on Tuesday. The chipmaker invests 180 billion yuan ($25.07 billion) in research annually and sees promise in compound chips –…
Some of the world’s biggest carmakers are squaring off for a titanic battle over small cars in Europe, as native stalwarts like Volkswagen and Renault fight to maintain their hold on the market against an influx of cheap electric vehicles (EVs) from BYD and its Chinese peers. Last month, BYD, which surpassed Tesla last year…
A team of roboticists at the University of Canberra’s Collaborative Robotics Lab, working with a sociologist colleague from The Australian National University, has found humans interacting with an LLM-enabled humanoid robot had mixed reactions. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes what they saw as they watched interactions between an…
French AI lab Mistral is getting into the reasoning AI model game. On Tuesday morning, Mistral announced Magistral, its first family of reasoning models. Like other reasoning models — e.g. OpenAI’s o3 and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro — Magistral works through problems step-by-step for improved consistency and reliability across topics such as math and physics.…
Generative AI enterprise search startup Glean announced on Tuesday that it raised $150 million in a Series F financing, pushing up its valuation from investors by billions of dollars in less than a year, to $7.2 billion. The company’s last fundraising in September 2024 valued Glean at $4.6 billion. On Tuesday, Glean was also named…
Mark Zuckerberg, frustrated with Meta Platforms Inc.’s shortfalls in AI, is assembling a team of experts to achieve artificial general intelligence, recruiting from a brain trust of AI researchers and engineers who’ve met with him in recent weeks at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto. Zuckerberg has prioritized recruiting for the secretive new…
Cambodia has not withdrawn troops from contested land, but both sides seek a peaceful resolution. Following an armed confrontation the previous week, Cambodia’s Defense Ministry states that the country’s troops have not withdrawn from a disputed patch of land. However, both Cambodia and Thailand’s Defense Ministers state their forces have been withdrawn to where they…
Nairobi police tear-gassed activists during a protest against the death of a blogger in police custody. Albert Ojwang was found dead while in custody at the Central Police Station, with police attributing his death to hitting his head against the cell wall. Ojwang’s death comes almost a year after several figures were killed and abducted…
Ukrainian Air Force says Russia launched almost 500 drones overnight, the largest bombardment of the war. Ukraine’s air force said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles, claiming only 10 drones or missiles hit their targets. In addition to the 479 drones, the air force says 20 missiles of various types…
Tensions have escalated between Iraq’s government and the Kurdish region over the sharing of oil revenues. The central government has accused the Kurdish regional authorities of making illegal deals and facilitating oil smuggling. The Iraqi Ministry of Finance announced a decision last month to halt funding for salaries of public sector employees in the Kurdish…
The Justice Department seeks to seize $7.74M in North Korean-linked digital assets. The funds, representing cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other digital assets, were frozen in connection with fake IT worker schemes. Using false identities, North Korean nationals would obtain employment at tech companies in the US and abroad, routing received payments to the country through a…
Multiple React Native Aria packages for GlueStack were backdoored as part of a supply chain attack. Attackers hid the malicious code in modified versions of various packages using whitespace-based obfuscation, pushing malicious code off-screen. The supply chain attack followed the same pattern as the rand-user-agent incident last month, in which a threat actor used an…
Anomalous iPhone crashes can potentially be associated with sophisticated zero-click attacks. Suspicious activity observed in late 2024 and early 2025 supposedly targeted six devices belonging to high-value individuals affiliated with political campaigns, governments, media organizations, and tech companies in the EU and the US. The exploited bug resides in ‘imagent’, the process handling iMessage traffic…
A cybersecurity startup has secured $56 million in a new round of financing. Guardz, founded in 2022, sells an AI-native detection-and-response platform built for service providers that look after small and mid-sized businesses. The funds raised for its new Series B were led by ClearSky and included equity stakes for new backer Phoenix Financial. The…
An explosion at a storage site for unexploded ordnance at a U.S. military base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa injured four Japanese soldiers, though the injuries are not life-threatening, officials said Monday. The four soldiers sustained finger injuries while working at a facility that belongs to Okinawa prefecture and temporarily stores unexploded ordnance, mostly…
An explosion and subsequent fire were reported onboard a Singapore-flagged container ship off the coast of Kerala in southern India on Monday, a spokesperson for the Indian Coast Guard said. Of the 22 crew members onboard the MV Wan Hai 503, 18 abandoned the vessel with assistance from the Indian Navy and Coast Guard while…
Rwanda has said it would withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), underscoring diplomatic tensions in the region over an offensive this year by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Congo. Kigali had expected to assume the chairmanship of the 11-member bloc at a meeting on Saturday in Equatorial Guinea. Instead, the bloc…
Fifteen people, mostly university students, were killed in a predawn crash on Monday between a car and a university bus along Malaysia’s notoriously dangerous East-West Highway. In the deadliest road accident to strike the country in several years, 13 people were killed at the scene, while two others died in hospital, according to Malaysia’s Civil…
Myanmar authorities have arrested 16 people including a six-year-old girl over the assassination of a retired general shot dead in Yangon last month, state media said. Cho Tun Aung, a former ambassador to Cambodia, was gunned down outside his home on May 22 in an attack claimed by an anti-junta group calling itself the “Golden…
For the past three decades, Vipan Kumar has been importing Himalayan pink salt from Pakistan to sell in India. However, New Delhi banned the import of all Pakistani goods, including those routed through third countries, after the killing of 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. Kumar, the 50-year-old trader…
China’s strict controls on the export of heat-resistant magnets made with rare earth minerals have exposed a major vulnerability in the U.S. military supply chain. Without these magnets, the United States and its allies in Europe will struggle to refill recently depleted inventories of military hardware. For more than a decade, the United States has…
Meta Platforms Inc. is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter. The financing could exceed $10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. The terms of the deal…
Qualcomm Inc. has agreed to buy London-listed semiconductor company Alphawave IP Group Plc for about $2.4 billion in cash to expand its technology for artificial intelligence. The offer equates to about 183 pence per share for Alphawave, Qualcomm said in a statement on Monday. Alphawave shareholders can also opt to exchange their stock for 0.01662…
As police struggled with another day of unrest in downtown L.A., several Waymo autonomous taxis were set on fire, sending thick plumes of black smoke billowing high into the air. The dramatic images were captured during an afternoon of clashes between large groups who were protesting immigration raids by the Trump administration and L.A. police…
The leader of Tesla Inc.’s Optimus program is leaving the company, according to a person familiar with the matter, injecting uncertainty into the humanoid robot effort that Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sees as a significant part of its future business. Milan Kovac, the head of engineering for Optimus, informed colleagues on Friday that he…
US quantum computing company IonQ has agreed to buy a UK technology start-up spun out of Oxford university in a $1.1bn all-stock deal as breakthroughs in the sector spark early signs of dealmaking activity. Maryland-based IonQ, which had a market value of nearly $10bn at Friday’s close, is among the companies at the forefront of…
China has taken a major leap forward in its technological landscape with the introduction of Intewell, a unified operating system for robots. Developed by Beijing-based Kyland Technology, this groundbreaking software marks a significant step towards technological self-reliance. The launch of Intewell is strategically timed, coinciding with a notable acceleration in China’s robotics industry, where commercial…
During Ocado’s most recent earnings call, chief executive Tim Steiner said the group’s advances in artificial intelligence and robotics had allowed it to fulfil online grocery shops at an ever faster pace. In 2012, it took 25 minutes of human labour to pick a 50-item order. That is now down to 10. But Ocado’s technological…
Ha ha ha. But What’s the fuss about? Apple has a new paper; it’s pretty devastating to LLMs, a powerful followup to one from many of the same authors last year. There’s actually an interesting weakness in the new argument—which I will get to below—but the overall force of the argument is undeniably powerful. So…
The Mali authorities have released a leading political activist after a month in captivity. Alassane Abba, the former secretary-general of the Codem party, was seized on May 9 after speaking out about the country’s civic rights and the ruling junta’s failure to hold an election since its coup in 2021. His arrest came amid pro-democracy…
Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay was critically wounded in a shooting. He underwent neurosurgery and a procedure on his left thigh, and he remains in intensive care with a critical condition. The incident occurred at a political rally where he sustained two gunshot wounds, two others were injured, and a 15-year-old was detained at the…
Russian officials await Ukrainian confirmation on an agreement to exchange deceased fighters. Russian officials stated that they delivered 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to a border exchange site.Ukraine confirmed that repatriation efforts will begin next week, following agreements made in Istanbul.Russian officials allege that Kyiv has postponed the full exchange of 6,000 deceased fighters, while…
Iran claims to have seized Israeli nuclear files. The Intelligence Minister of Iran claimed on Sunday that government officials obtained thousands of pages of documents related to Israel’s nuclear program, though he provided no evidence. The announcement comes amid Iran’s anticipated review by the International Atomic Energy Agency over its noncompliance with nuclear regulations. Iran…
The United States’ cybersecurity directives boost national security measures. The Trump administration issued an upgraded executive order with nearly a dozen directives to modernize federal digital infrastructure. Key measures include AI integration by November 2025, secure software development, updated post-quantum cryptography standards, and mandatory IoT product labeling. Additional provisions tackle machine identity security and improved…
Russia-linked hackers deploy destructive malware against Ukrainian infrastructure. A Cisco Talos report states that a critical infrastructure organization in Ukraine was targeted using PathWiper, a malware designed to erase system data. PathWiper is deployed through a legitimate administrative tool to disrupt essential files by corrupting storage structures. The attack resembles earlier wiper incidents from January…
Interlock group claims cyberattack on Kettering Health. Interlock claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack on Kettering Health, alleging that it exfiltrated nearly 1TB of data from the healthcare network of more than 120 facilities serving 1.5 million patients in Ohio. On its blog, the group released samples, including financial reports, insurance documents, and personal identification…
“HelloTDS” malware campaign leverages advanced targeting tactics. Gen Threat Labs uncovered “HelloTDS,” a sophisticated Traffic Direction System (TDS) orchestrating global malware campaigns like FakeCaptcha. HelloTDS assesses victims via geolocation, IP addresses, and browser data before redirecting them to landing pages that serve benign content to non-targets while deploying info stealers or remote access trojans. Experts…
Shield AI Australia has announced the successful completion of Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) trails with the Australian Army. The ViDAR sensory pod, mounted on aircraft, is understood to be used for passive wide area search operations using day and night multi-electro optic and infrared cameras. In addition, the pod is expected to allow further…
The Philippine military is ramping up efforts to enhance its drone offensive capabilities and countermeasures amid growing concerns over China potentially using waves of such unmanned aircraft to assert its claims in contested waters. As part of this push, Philippine and US forces recently tested high-powered microwave weapons during the Balikatan 2025 exercises, designed to…
The International Committee of the Red Cross announced the closure of its offices in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff, four months after the ruling junta ordered the organization to leave the country. The ICRC confirmed the closure and departure in a statement on Thursday. “We reiterate our willingness to maintain constructive dialogue…
Guatemalan authorities have ordered the evacuation of hundreds of people, after Central America’s most active volcano spewed gas and ash thousands of metres into the sky. At least 700 residents – including those from five communities in the Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepequez areas near the volcano – were told to move to shelters, the country’s…
The number of newborns in Japan is decreasing faster than projected, with the number of annual births falling to another record low last year, according to government data released Wednesday. The health ministry said 686,061 babies were born in Japan in 2024, a drop of 5.7% on the previous year and the first time the…
The Russian private military company Wagner announced Friday that it has completed its mission supporting Mali’s military junta in its fight against Islamist insurgents. “PMC Wagner completed its main mission in Mali,” the group said in a statement on its official Telegram channel. “PMC Wagner is returning home.” Mali, a landlocked country in the Sahel…
OpenAI said today it’s banned ChatGPT accounts that appear to be tied to the ongoing North Korean IT worker schemes that are plaguing nearly every Fortune 500 company. The new findings suggest that North Korea is advancing its use of AI tools in its yearslong pervasive scheme designed to help fund the regime’s missile program.…
On June 5, 2025, China North Industries Group’s (Norinco) new Type 625E mobile air defense system was revealed in action, targeting a swarm of drones during a live-fire exercise conducted by a PLA air defense unit. This demonstration underlines a growing trend: the PLA’s focus on preparing its ground forces for future aerial threats, especially…
Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China, people familiar with the transaction said, seeking to rebuild its military prowess as it discusses the future of its nuclear program with the U.S. Shipments of ammonium perchlorate are expected to reach Iran in coming months and could fuel hundreds of ballistic missiles, the…
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Copyright © 2025 — All Rights Reserved.
Notifications
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence