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2.5 million: An internet watchdog has uncovered an unsecured online database that reveals how a Chinese surveillance company tracks the movements of large numbers of people living in Xinjiang province, home to most of China's Uighur Muslim population. Authorities have used CCTV cameras and handheld devices equipped with cameras or ID scanners at 6.7 million location points—including mosques, hotels, police stations and internet cafes—to meticulously map the movement of at least 2.5 million people.

60: Speaking of tracking devices, NATO researchers announced this week they had used open source data—mainly via social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—to identify 150 NATO soldiers in the field, locate multiple battalions, track troop movements, and even persuade some service members to leave their posts. The research team accomplished all this with $60 and an Internet connection.


68: British tourists traveling to continental Europe may have to pay £52 ($68) for a visa following Brexit. Why? Like everything else to do with Brexit, it's maddeningly complicated. The short version: A visa exemption for Britons is held up by a dispute within EU institutions over Spain's bid to classify Gibraltar as a "colony." Masochists may read the details here.

60: At a time of deadly protests against the government of President Jovenel Moise, 60 percent of Haiti's nearly 11 million people still live on less than $2 per day. In 2019.

More For You

​Participants hold placards during a protest to condemn the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and commemorate students killed in a strike on a girls' primary school in Minab in southern Iran on February 28, in front of the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, March 12, 2026.

Participants hold placards during a protest to condemn the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and commemorate students killed in a strike on a girls' primary school in Minab in southern Iran on February 28, in front of the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, March 12, 2026.

REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon
175: The number of people killed at an Iranian girls’ school in a strike on Feb. 28. Initial intelligence reports suggest that the US was to blame for the strike, per the New York Times, after the military used a now-defunct set of coordinates to deploy the hit. The White House hasn’t claimed responsibility and said the investigation is ongoing. [...]
A foreign tanker carrying Iraqi fuel oil damaged following unidentified attacks that targeted two foreign tankers, according to Iraqi port officials, near Basra, Iraq, on March 12, 2026.​

A foreign tanker carrying Iraqi fuel oil damaged after catching fire in Iraq's territorial waters, following unidentified attacks that targeted two foreign tankers, according to Iraqi port officials, near Basra, Iraq, on March 12, 2026.

REUTERS/Mohammed Aty
Iran’s focus: closing the StraitThe Islamic Republic will continue its efforts to block the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement this morning attributed to new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The statement highlights Tehran’s strategy: identify easier targets (the Strait is narrow) that have maximum impact. Speaking of which, Iraq suspended [...]
​President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the White House AI Summit at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 23, 2025.

President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the White House AI Summit at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 23, 2025.

Joyce N. Boghosian/White House/ZUMA Press Wire
The 2024 US presidential campaign season may have been the first time voters had to contend with AI during an election, confronting deepfakes of Taylor Swift vowing support for Donald Trump and AI robo-calls of Joe Biden telling voters not to cast their ballots. But the 2026 midterms are shaping up to be the first time the technology itself [...]
How Trump’s Iran gamble backfired
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump launched a war of choice to topple Iran's regime expecting a quick, clean win. What he's gotten is a regime that's proving far more capable of enduring and fighting back than he anticipated. Seven American troops are dead, 140 wounded. The Strait of Hormuz has been shut for almost ten days, creating the [...]