Geopolitics
National security, export controls and state actors.
The High-Stakes Bet: Rick Smith’s AI-Driven Blueprint for Axon’s Future
How Axon CEO Rick Smith is leveraging artificial intelligence to transform police administrative processes and securing his own future through aggressive, performance-based compensation goals.
Reclaiming the Sovereign Mind: Why Friction and Mental Effort Are Essential to Human Flourishing Under AI
An analysis of hybrid sovereignty and cognitive dependency, detailing the threat to personal agency as artificial assets shape individual decision-making, and outlining strategies to rebuild critical thinking.
When Government Works, Americans Act on Climate
Belief in governmental capacity to solve climate change is a stronger predictor of public engagement than political ideology, with visible policy wins driving cross-partisan action.
The $200M Counter-Drone: How 9 Mothers Rewrote the Rules of Defense Tech
How a tiny Austin startup built the first affordable, autonomous counter-drone system—and became the most valuable YC Spring 2026 company overnight.
Beyond the Ban: Asian Labs Build Mythos-Class AI as U.S. Export Controls Tighten
With the Trump administration blocking global access to Anthropic's Mythos and Fable 5, startups in Tokyo and Beijing are launching frontier models that aim to match U.S. capabilities — raising questions about whether this is a temporary hedge or the start of a permanent AI decoupling.
From Shoes to Servers: Nadia Carlsten's Gamble on Sovereign AI
Nadia Carlsten left AWS and DCAI to run Smartbird — the AI infrastructure company that used to sell shoes. Here's what she's actually building, and why it might matter more than the neocloud hype cycle.
France's Sovereign Messenger Tchap Compromised After Account Takeover
DINUM confirmed that France's government-built Tchap messaging platform was breached on June 7, 2026 after ANSSI detected a threat actor hijacking a legitimate user account via social engineering. The attacker, calling itself 'Misère,' claims to have scraped 650,000 messages and 13.5GB of files across 73,000 accounts on the Matrix-based platform that serves over 300,000 monthly users in the French public sector.
Mach Industries Just Broke Defense. Here’s How.
How a 22-year-old founder turned a $300M funding round into a six-vehicle defense revolution — and why legacy primes can't catch up.
Taiwan Boosts Drone Defense with AeroVironment Partnership
Learn how Taiwan’s Ubiqconn Technology and AeroVironment are partnering to build a unified software-driven controller ecosystem for Taiwan’s indigenous drone fleet. Explore more on AI & National Security.
TechCrunch Mobility: New Robotaxi Scorecard Reveals China's Competitive Edge
Analysis of Autnmy AI's 'Road to Autonomy Index' and its findings on global robotaxi leadership. Learn more about the Robotics Category and the General Domain for further insights on leading Chinese firms like Baidu Apollo Go, Pony.ai, and WeRide.
SprySOCKS Goes Cross-Platform: How a China-Linked Backdoor Learned to Live on Windows
ESET uncovered Windows variants of the SprySOCKS Linux backdoor being used by Earth Lusca against government targets in Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, and Honduras — complete with kernel rootkit stealth, TCP traffic diversion, and a UEFI bootkit hint that keeps security teams up at night.
China-Nexus Actor UNC6508 Spied on US Researchers Undetected for Over a Year
Google discovered and disrupted the sprawling campaign, which stole RedCAP credentials to breach numerous US academic, medical, and military research institutions. The China-aligned threat actor UNC6508 covertly spied for over a year before being detected by Google Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant.