Activists in Japan earlier this year accused one of the country’s largest robotics manufacturers of profiting off the war in Gaza, accusing it of violating its own company policies in aiding the Israeli defense industry. At a protest outside the headquarters of FANUC Corporation earlier this summer, the Boycott, Divestment, …
Read More »Russians Love YouTube. That’s a Problem for the Kremlin
In December 2020, Vladimir Putin held his end-of-the-year press conference as normal. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic still raging in Russia and worldwide, the president insisted that things would be OK. He had set aside 350 billion rubles ($4.8 billion) “to give social benefits to people, families, both children, doctors, and …
Read More »Inside Ukraine’s Killer-Drone Startup Industry
On the top floor of a building somewhere in Ukraine is a drone workshop. Inside is a chaotic workbench covered in logic boards, antennas, batteries, augmented reality headsets, and rotor blades. On one end of the room is a makeshift photo studio—a jet-black quadcopter drone sits on a long white …
Read More »Europe’s Biggest Salt Mine Is Now in 'Minecraft,' and It’s Helping Ukraine Rebuild
On February 24, 2022, Stepan Bandrivskyi woke up before dawn and got ready for a special day: his birthday. It wouldn’t be a particularly happy one. Hours earlier, a couple dozen miles away, Russian tanks had rolled across the borders of his native Ukraine. The full-scale invasion had begun. Like …
Read More »The Danger Lurking Just Below Ukraine's Surface
Oleksandr Kryvtsov had enough. The owner of an agricultural company in Hrakove, near Kharkiv, Kryvtsov found his land littered with land mines. That region of Ukraine, occupied by Russian forces for nearly eight months, had been pockmarked with explosive ordinances. The threat meant that farmers like Kryvtsov had to let …
Read More »Taylor Swift Conspiracy Theorists Get Psyops All Wrong
When the Kansas City Chiefs romp to a Super Bowl victory on February 11, tight end Travis Kelce will bring his superstar girlfriend onto the field, drop to one knee, and propose. Their engagement will unleash a media maelstrom and create the conditions for Taylor Swift’s hugely significant endorsement of …
Read More »To Beat Russia, Ukraine Needs a Major Tech Breakthrough
“Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” Ukrainian general Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted late last year. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.” That blunt assessment from the Ukrainian commander in chief, made in a …
Read More »Ukraine Is Crowdfunding Its Reconstruction
While Ukraine remains locked in a brutal war with Russia, Ukraine’s government in Kyiv is already looking forward to a day when the country rebuilds itself from the ground up. It will be no small task. The World Bank estimates that, as of early this year, Ukraine’s rebuilding costs surpassed …
Read More »The Dangerous Mystery of Hamas’ Missing ‘Suicide Drones’
When Hamas launched its attacks against Israel on October 7, it unleashed a flood of rockets as cover, while militants streamed through holes in the fence surrounding the Gaza strip. One particular clip released by Hamas, played on news stations the world over, provoked a particular bit of paranoia: video …
Read More »The UN Risks Normalizing Internet Censorship
The United Nations’ main internet governance body will host its next international forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2025, the UN may take its discussions on the future of an open internet to Russia. Holding the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), back to back, in authoritarian countries notorious for their surveillance …
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