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Recently, President Donald Trump nominated Sean Cairncross to be his National Cyber Director, a move that has raised more than a few eyebrows in the cybersecurity space. Established by Congress in 2021, the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is a component of the Executive Office and serves as a principal advisor to the president on cybersecurity policy and…
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.
Explosive drone kills three soldiers, injures eight in the Catatumbo region. ELN rebels used a drone attached to explosives to ambush a Colombian army patrol near El Carmen in the Catatumbo region, killing three soldiers and wounding eight. Colombia’s Defense Ministry recorded 115 such assaults last year in clashes among armed groups vying for control…
Russia’s major drone-missile assault kills two in Kyiv. Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Kyiv in months, deploying 426 Shahed and decoy drones alongside 24 missiles to kill two people and wound 15. A drone struck the entrance of a Shevchenkivskyi district subway station and Darnytskyi, damaging a kindergarten, supermarket, and warehouses.…
Bangladesh Air Force jet crash kills 27 at school. A Bangladesh Air Force F-7 BGI training jet malfunctioned after takeoff and crashed into Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Uttara district on July 21, killing the pilot and 26 others, mostly students, and injuring about 171 people. Rescue crews of navy vessels, helicopters, local fishermen,…
Syria evacuates 1,500 Bedouins after Sweida sectarian clashes. Syria began evacuating hundreds of Bedouin families from Sweida under a U.S.-brokered truce that halted weeklong sectarian fighting and displaced over 128,000 people. Convoys escorted by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent moved evacuees to Daraa despite recent Israeli airstrikes on government positions. Talks in Jordan continue toward…
MuddyWater deploys DCHSpy Android spyware amid conflict. MuddyWater unleashed four new spyware variants one week into the Israel-Iran conflict, hiding them as VPN apps: EarthVPN, Comodo VPN, Hide VPN, and Hazrat Eshq. The organization also promoted them via Telegram channels to English and Farsi speakers. The modular malware harvests accounts, contacts, SMS, call logs, WhatsApp…
Cierant and Zumpano Patricios breaches expose over 200K individuals. Cierant Corporation and Zumpano Patricios each disclosed breaches impacting 232,000 and 280,000 people, respectively. Cl0p ransomware exploited a Cleo file-transfer flaw at Cierant, exposing names, birthdates, medical record numbers, and insurance data. Zumpano Patricios detected a May 2025 intrusion that compromised patient PII and payment details,…
Quad and Europe boost seabed security amid sabotage threats. Europe and Quad countries are deploying advanced drones, surveillance systems, and underwater robots to protect critical undersea pipelines, cables, and terminals from sabotage by hostile actors. Mapped in relatively shallow waters, these cables are prime targets. 150 to 200 cables are damaged annually, and fishing gear…
Replit AI assistant wipes database, fabricates 4,000 fake users. Replit’s AI coding assistant went rogue, deleting a production database and inventing 4,000 fictional user records without permission. Tech entrepreneur Jason M. Lemkin said the tool ignored explicit code-freeze directives, lied about unit tests, and admitted it fabricated data on purpose. The incident exposed that Replit…
In an exciting development for both the energy and nuclear industries, Radiant Industries Inc., a California-based startup, is preparing to test its groundbreaking 1-megawatt Kaleidos microreactor in 2026, according toInteresting Engineering. The reactor is poised to play a major role in revolutionizing how we think about power generation in remote, off-grid locations. This major step…
For the first time since the end of the war with Israel—during which the Israeli Air Force targeted Iran’s missile infrastructure—Iran has announced a missile test involving its Qased satellite launch vehicle. The rocket, a three-stage system developed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, first flew in 2020. Semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported Monday…
The Syrian government is evacuating hundreds of Bedouin families trapped inside the southern city of Suwayda, where a fragile ceasefire is holding after Druze and Bedouin fighters fought for a week. The first Bedouin families left on Monday on buses and trucks accompanied by Syrian Arab Red Crescent vehicles and ambulances. They were taken to…
Congo and Rwanda-backed rebels on Saturday signed a declaration of principles in Qatar to end decadeslong fighting and commit to a comprehensive peace agreement that would include the restoration of state authorities in key eastern cities controlled by the insurgents. Congo and the M23 rebels committed to “building trust” through various measures, including an exchange…
Divers searched beneath the waves for missing passengers and crew after a sightseeing ship capsized in a squall in Halong Bay, a popular tourist destination in Vietnam, on Saturday. At least 36 of those on board have been confirmed dead, state media reported on Monday. As of Monday local time, search and rescue efforts remained…
Typhoon Wipha made landfall in Taishan in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on Sunday evening, according to Guangdong’s meteorological service, after battering Hong Kong and Macau with rain and strong winds. The storm reach the coast at 5:50 local time, the meteorological service said, with maximum wind force equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane.…
Three people have died and more than 500 others have been rescued after a ferry caught fire off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, emergency officials said. Passengers jumped overboard the KM Barcelona 5, as it sailed from Melonguane port in Talaud Islands district towards the city of Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, after…
A Bangladesh Air Force training aircraft crashed into a school campus in the capital, Dhaka, shortly after takeoff on Monday, killing at least 19 people including the pilot and injuring more than 100, officials said. According to the military and a fire official, the Chinese-made F-7 BGI aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School…
Some of the most sensitive data the United States has to offer is currently being maintained by engineers from China, often considered, especially in the tech field, its biggest adversary. A report from ProPublica has claimed Microsoft is using these engineers to maintain the Department of Defense’s computer systems, with ‘minimal supervision by US personnel’.…
Microsoft will likely sign the European Union’s code of practice to help companies comply with the bloc’s landmark artificial intelligence rules, its president told Reuters on Friday, while Meta Platforms rebuffed the guidelines. Drawn up by 13 independent experts, the voluntary code of practice aims to provide legal certainty to signatories. They will have to…
A browser-based AI-powered software creation platform called Replit appears to have gone rogue and deleted a live company database with thousands of entries. What may be even worse is that the Replit AI agent apparently tried to cover up its misdemeanors, and even ‘lied’ about its failures. The Replit CEO has responded, and there appears…
The startup behind the viral AI coding app Cursor is snapping up top talent from AI enterprise startups in a bid to bolster its competition with Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot and win over businesses looking to supercharge their employees with AI coding tools. In one recent case, Cursor maker Anysphere struck a deal to acquire the…
The use of subatomic particles to process data could represent a breakthrough that’s unmatched in modern human history, according to analysts at Bank of America, who compared it to the discovery of fire. “A technology that can perform endless complex calculations in zero-time, warp-speeding human knowledge and development.” In a recent note on quantum computing,…
There are many weird and wonderful humanoid robots out there, but one of the most eye-catching machines launched this year can change its own battery pack — making it capable of running autonomously for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Walker S2 robot, made by the Chinese company UBTECH, is 5 foot…
The German Bild am Sonntag reported on the plans to impose a 100 per cent EV quota for rental car providers and company fleets for new acquisitions from 2030. According to the report, the EU Commission wants to present the proposal in late summer, kicking off the parliamentary process. The topic itself is not entirely…
As rounds of layoffs continue within a historically strong stock market and resilient economy, it is still uncommon for companies to link job cuts directly to AI replacement technology. IBM was an outlier when its CEO told the Wall Street Journal in May that 200 HR employees were let go and replaced with AI chatbots,…
Escalating Kordofan and Darfur fighting deepens Sudan’s dire humanitarian crisis The UN reported 450 civilians killed around Bara and West Kordofan between July 10 and 14, leaving communities trapped amid shifting front lines and drone attacks. Mercy Corps suspended operations in three of four localities as 379,000 people fled to Tawila and 46,000 were displaced…
Ferry fire off North Sulawesi rescues 560, leaves three dead. Over 560 people were rescued, and three died, after the KM Barcelona 5 ferry caught fire en route from Melonguane to Manado on Sunday, with navy vessels, rescue boats, and local fishermen aiding in evacuations. The blaze in the ferry’s stern was extinguished within an…
Ecuador extradites ‘Fito’ to U.S. to face trafficking charges. In July 2025, Ecuador extradited José Adolfo Macías Villamar to the United States to face cocaine trafficking and firearms smuggling charges after his recapture following a 2024 prison escape. He is set to appear in Brooklyn federal court to plead not guilty under U.S. guarantees of…
Weeklong Druze–Bedouin clashes end as aid convoys enter Sweida city. Armed Bedouin clans withdrew from Druze-majority Sweida following weeklong clashes and a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that killed hundreds and spurred sectarian reprisals. The Syrian Red Crescent dispatched 32 trucks loaded with food, medicine, water and fuel into the battered city, though power cuts, road closures, and…
Google sues Badbox 2.0 operators to dismantle botnet. Google filed suit in New York federal court to dismantle Badbox 2.0, an Android botnet infecting over 10 million uncertified devices. The complaint alleges operators preinstalled malware and tricked users into installing infected apps for ad fraud and proxy services. Google invoked the CFAA and RICO Act…
Exploits are currently attacking vulnerable SharePoint Servers. On July 20, Microsoft warned that CVE-2025-53770 (nicknamed “ToolShell”) is being actively exploited on on-premises SharePoint Server instances worldwide and currently has no available patch. Attackers have used the flaw to install webshells, steal MachineKey cryptographic secrets, and execute unauthenticated remote code on compromised servers, with major exploit…
FortiWeb SQLi exploited post-PoC, urgent patch needed. On July 11, threat actors began exploiting a critical SQL injection flaw in Fortinet FortiWeb immediately after proof-of-concept code was published, leading to webshells on dozens of devices. The vulnerability in Fabric Connector endpoints lets unauthenticated attackers inject SQL via crafted Authorization headers, write malicious Python files, and…
Radiology Associates breach exposes 1.4M patients’ data. Radiology Associates of Richmond disclosed that hackers accessed its systems from April 2nd through the 6th of 2024, exposing files with personal and protected health information belonging to 1,419,091 individuals. A breach notice published July 1, 2025, revealed that compromised data may include names, dates of birth, medical…
Firestorm Labs Inc. said today it has validated its mobile “factory-in-a-box” technique for manufacturing autonomous drones after closing on a $47 million Series A round of funding. The company aims to apply additive manufacturing processes, including three-dimensional printing to enable mobile drone production in any location. It said the funds will be used to construct…
A violent clash in Bangladesh on Wednesday between a student-led political movement and supporters of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has exposed deep political fault lines, with analysts warning of further unrest. At least four people were killed and dozens injured when members of the National Citizen Party (NCP) – formed by student activists –…
Relentless floods have claimed the lives of more than 170 people in eastern Pakistan, about half of them children, in the latest catastrophe that underscores the country’s vulnerability to the escalating climate crisis. At least 54 of the deaths came in the past 24 hours, according to the National Disaster Management Authority, after torrential rains…
More than 5,000 people in South Korea have been forced into shelters as heavy rain pounded parts of the country for a third day, with the deluge killing at least four people and destroying property and infrastructure, the safety ministry said on Friday. Torrential rain warnings remain in effect for most of the country’s western…
Gunmen killed at least six people and abducted more than 100 others, including women and children, in an attack on Kairu community in Nigeria’s northwest Zamfara state, a local lawmaker and residents said on Friday. Zamfara is the epicentre of attacks by gangs of heavily armed men, known locally as bandits, that have wreaked havoc…
Residents practiced fleeing their apartment buildings and flocking to underground parking garages on Thursday afternoon, as air raid sirens blared across Taiwan’s capital region, home to 7 million people. In the city’s main stadium — which usually hosts pop concerts and basketball games — army reservists in red bibs simulated distributing rice, cooking oil and…
China’s Education Ministry issued a safety warning for Chinese students in the Philippines after what it said were a series of criminal incidents targeting them. The brief warning Friday did not identify any specific incidents but told students to increase their safety awareness should they choose to study in the Philippines. The number of Chinese…
Chinese-linked hackers have intensified cyber-espionage efforts against Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and financial analysts, conducting coordinated attacks between March and June 2025, with some operations still ongoing. Reuters reports that cybersecurity firm Proofpoint has attributed the activity to at least three previously undocumented China-aligned groups—UNK_FistBump, UNK_DropPitch, and UNK_SparkyCarp—while a fourth group, UNK_ColtCentury (also tracked as TAG-100…
President Donald Trump is expected to announce policy guidelines for artificial intelligence that will call for easing regulation and expanding energy sources for data centers, while urging Congress to consider federal legislation to preempt state oversight of the emerging technology. The administration’s so-called AI Action Plan is set to be published in the coming days,…
OpenAI should continue to be controlled by a nonprofit because the artificial intelligence technology it is developing is “too consequential” to be governed by a corporation alone. That is the message from an advisory board convened by OpenAI to give it recommendations about its nonprofit structure — delivered in a report released Thursday, along with…
I’ve been following Thinking Machines Lab since we first heard that former high-ranking OpenAI executive Mira Murati left the ChatGPT developer to start her own AI venture, wondering what sort of AI product Murati and her growing team of AI researchers would deliver. Less than a year since Murati left OpenAI, we now have news…
Meta Platforms Inc. hired a pair of key artificial intelligence researchers who worked at Apple Inc., shortly after poaching their former boss from the iPhone maker. The social networking giant hired Mark Lee and Tom Gunter for its Superintelligence Labs team, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Lee has started at Meta after…
Germany-based Q.ANT, a pioneer in photonic processing, has secured a €62 million Series A financing round to accelerate the commercialisation of its energy-efficient photonic processors for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). As AI infrastructure scales globally, traditional chip technology (CMOS) reaches its physical limits, performance stagnates, and electricity demand is reaching untenable levels.…
After years of treating robotics policy as a novelty or niche concern, Washington is finally beginning to wake up to reality: we cannot win the race for artificial intelligence leadership if we ignore the robotics race. Artificial intelligence is software. Robotics is hardware. The two are inextricably linked. A national AI strategy that doesn’t include…
Meta Platforms declined to sign the European Union’s artificial intelligence code of practice because it is an overreach that will “stunt” companies, according to global affairs chief Joel Kaplan. “Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI,” Kaplan wrote in a post on LinkedIn Friday. “This code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for…
Hong Kong has imposed new rules restricting access to prisons. Hong Kong has adopted new rules which restrict access to prisons. The rules allow authorities to prevent inmates from seeing religious advisors or lawyers if authorities deem it a national security risk. Critics have said the law will further compromise the rights of democracy advocates…
Brazil’s Congress has passed an environmental policy overhaul. Brazil’s Congress has passed a controversial bill to overhaul environmental regulations. The bill would reduce permitting requirements and allow for the construction of my roads in the Amazon. The environment minister has said that the President will likely veto the bill. Read more: https://apnews.com/article/brazil-environment-protection-bill-climate-fb3fb4207bd6c6ae4e0e6c85399c4c39
The UK will lower its voting age to 16. The UK has announced that it will begin the process of lowering its voting age to 16. The government has said that the legislation to do so will also increase campaign finance regulations, establish automatic voter registration, and loosen voter ID laws. The government hopes that…
President Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister. President Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister. The new prime minister is the nation’s former economy minister and she was heavily involved in negotiating deals with Ukraine’s western allies. The outgoing prime minister will continue serving in the government as the minister of defense. Read more:…
For long-time followers of fusion energy, Tokamak Hall is the high-water mark after decades of ups and downs. From an observation deck on the side, the surgically-clean, hospital-white room feels both like a cathedral and yet somehow too tiny for its lofty purpose. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the company building it, says the room will soon…
Myanmar ‘s military has recaptured a strategic gateway town from rebel forces after nearly a year, state-media reported Thursday, marking a rare turnaround in the country’s northeast, where an alliance of ethnic militias seized a large swath of territory in an offensive that began in late 2023. Nawnghkio, which sits on a major highway trading…
Two days of heavy downpours in South Korea have killed at least four people and forced more than 1,300 others to evacuate, officials said Thursday. One person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain…
A drone attack targeted an oilfield operated by Norwegian oil and gas firm DNO in Tawke, in the Zakho Administration area of northern Iraq, on Thursday, the Kurdistan region’s counter-terrorism service said.The attack is the second on the DNO-operated field since a wave of drone attacks began early this week. DNO, which operates the Tawke…
Heavy rains have been linked to 54 deaths in the past 24 hours in Pakistan, taking the toll to about 180 since the arrival of the monsoon in late June, the government’s disaster agency said on Thursday. Torrential rain has poured almost without pause across parts of Punjab province since Wednesday morning, causing urban flooding…
Satellite imagery indicates that a new maritime pier has been completed at North Korea’s key rocket station, where the latest spy satellite launches and other rocket tests have been conducted, satellite operator ICEYE said. The pier at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station seen via the imagery “enables transport of larger rocket components than previously possible…
At least 61 people have been killed and several more are missing in a huge fire at a hypermarket in Kut city in eastern Iraq, according to officials. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Thursday that 14 charred bodies had been found in the mall fire in the Wasit governorate and that civil defence teams…
Wells Fargo has suspended all travel to China after a banker was blocked from leaving the country, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The U.S. banking giant’s Chenyue Mao was subjected to an exit ban after she entered China in recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with…
In the verdant hills of Washington state’s Palouse region, Andrew Nelson’s tractor hums through the wheat fields on his 7,500-acre farm. Inside the cab, he’s not gripping the steering wheel—he’s on a Zoom call or checking messages. A software engineer and fifth-generation farmer, Nelson, 41, is at the vanguard of a transformation that is changing…
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