Private armiesHaiti Assassination Revives Concerns over “Private Armies” By Christina Pazzanese Published 31 July 2021 Most of the 20-plus suspects arrested in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse as part of an attempted coup appear to be from outside the country, with no known connection to the nation’s politics or military. The assassination of

Nuclear powerInvestigating Materials for Safe, Secure Nuclear Power By Steve Nadis Published 31 July 2021 A longstanding interest in radiation’s effects on metals has drawn Michael Short into new areas such as nuclear security and microreactors. Michael Short came to MIT in the fall of 2001 as an 18-year-old first-year who grew up in Boston’s North

China syndromeChina Used Vaccines, Trade to Get Ukraine to Drop Support for Xinjiang Scrutiny By Yevhen Solonyna and Reid Standish Published 29 July 2021 On 22 June, Ukraine signed a UN-sponsored document, along with more than 40 other countries, calling for China to allow independent observers immediate access to Xinjiang, where Beijing is operating a

Pegasus affairIsrael Tries to Limit Fallout from the Pegasus Spyware Scandal Published 29 July 2021 Israel has been trying to limit the damage the Pegasus spyware scandal is threatening to do to France-Israel relations. The Moroccan intelligence service used the software, made by an Israeli company with close ties to Israel’s defense and intelligence establishments,

CybersecurityHoneypot Security Technique Can Also Stop Attacks in Natural Language Processing Published 29 July 2021 Borrowing a technique commonly used in cybersecurity to defend against these universal trigger-based attacks, researchers at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology have developed a machine learning framework that can proactively defend against the same types of

ARGUMENT: Cyber retaliationU.S. Leads Coalition Accusing China of Hacking Published 29 July 2021 On 19 July, the United States joined other countries in condemning the hacking by Chinee government hackers of Microsoft Exchange email server software. Despite the condemnations, there have not been any sanctions against China for its role in the breach, leading critics

PrivacyMaximum Privacy for Sharing Files Online Published 29 July 2021 People who share documents or pictures online, or organizations which share confidential documents with employees and others, have little to no control over who views the information which is being sent and where it is being viewed. An FAU researcher has received a patent from

EarthquakesPreventing Human-Induced Earthquakes By Jennifer Chu Published 29 July 2021 When humans pump large volumes of fluid into the ground, they can set off potentially damaging earthquakes, depending on the underlying geology. This has been the case in certain oil- and gas-producing regions. have developed a method to manage such human-induced seismicity, and have demonstrated

BOOKSHELF: Health misinformationNew Book Helps Readers Spot Online Health Scams Published 29 July 2021 UBC’s Dr. Bernie Garrett, the author of a new book on health scams, misinformation, and disinformation, says that “Scam marketers are well-versed in modern advertising techniques and the psychology of persuasion. They know all the triggers that can help sell a

Climate challengesClimate Tipping Points Are Now Imminent: Scientists Published 29 July 2021 Around 13,000 researchers have called for urgent action to slow down the climate emergency as extreme weather patterns shock the world. They listed three core measures. Thousands of scientists reiterated calls for immediate action over the climate crisis in an article published Wednesday in the journal BioScience.