June 2024
A timeline of Julian Assange’s legal saga
A deal has brought an abrupt end to an extraordinary legal saga that has raised novel issues of national security, press freedoms, politics and diplomacy.
August 2023
AI and crypto king Sam Altman wants your eyeballs (literally)
His company wants to scan the irises of the world’s 8 billion people, but its plan has raised privacy concerns and it has been accused of unethical practices.
April 2023
Military secrets leak marks a new step for social media
The latest devastating leak of US intelligence, in a chat room of irreverent young misfits, highlights the challenge in guarding documents the US shares with the roughly 3 million people with security clearances nationwide, writes Drew Harwell in Washington.
Biden faces awkward talks abroad about intelligence leaks
US allies are disconcerted by the biggest breach of US intelligence since former federal contractor Edward Snowden handed out thousands of pages of classified documents to journalists a decade ago.
February 2023
Balloon incident reveals more than spying
Beyond the made-for-cable-news spectacle, the entire incident also speaks volumes about how little Washington and Beijing communicate.
September 2022
Putin grants Russian citizenship to US whistleblower Snowden
Edward Snowden’s name appeared without Kremlin comment in a Putin decree conferring citizenship on 72 foreign-born individuals.
August 2020
Internet's geopolitical firewalls are a backward step
Fragmentation of the internet is a reversal of globalisation and the principles of free and open trade, the features of which allowed the US, China and other market economies around the Asia-Pacific to grow into economic powerhouses.
March 2020
Why we click 'Accept' without reading the terms
For many of us, it's a binary choice: accept the terms for accessing an app or a website or go away. But the real losers in this asymmetric relationship aren't who you'd expect.