Tech over human intelligence? Why fatalities among security forces are on the rise in Jammu region

Pradip R. Sagar

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The repeated fatalities suffered by security personnel in terror attacks in the Jammu region have raised questions about the way counterterrorism operations arebeing carried out in the forested and hilly terrains. Lack of credible human intelligence and perceived deviance from the standard operating procedures (SOPs) of anti-terror operations are believed to be some of the reasons behind the heavy casualties among security personnel in the area.

Of the 119 security personnel who lost their lives in Jammu and Kashmir since 2021, 51 deaths occurred in the Jammu division. For the past two decades, the Jammu region, being relatively free of terror incidents, was thinly militarised compared to the Kashmir Valley. In fact, one of the army's counterinsurgency units was shifted to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following the border tensions with China since the summer of 2020.

A security officer, who has served in the area, claimed to INDIA TODAY that there is now immense focus on TECHINT (technical intelligence) instead of the time-tested human intelligence (HUMINT). The boots on the ground appear to be missing in the recent counterinsurgency operations, with security forces failing to gather intelligence or information about the movement and activities of terrorists hiding in the area. Intelligence agencies also realise that terror groups have advanced technologically, allowing them to evade the surveillance apparatus of security forces.

Vietnam, Not India, is in a Geopolitical and Geoeconomic Sweet Spot

Chietigj Bajpaee

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Vietnam has demonstrated a dexterity in its foreign policy that few other countries can claim, having hosted U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and most recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin within a span of nine months. This is even more impressive considering that it comes at a time of growing geopolitical polarization and renewed rivalry between major powers in the international system.

Contrast this with India: While New Delhi claims to practice a foreign policy of multi or omni-alignment, India’s relations with China, Russia and even the United States are all strained to varying degrees.

This has been most obvious in the case of the India-China relationship, which has settled into a new normal since the border clashes in 2020. This put a halt to limited efforts to stabilize the bilateral relationship, which had occurred with a string of informal summits between Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 and 2019. Modi’s recent X, formerly Twitter, exchange with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te and meeting with a U.S. Congressional delegation after it met the Dalai Lama, also gives pause to claims that Sino-Indian relations would improve under a third term Modi government.

Indian Foreign Policy Under Narendra Modi: A Decade of Transformation

Siddharthya Roy

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On June 8, 2024, Narendra Modi etched his name in the annals of Indian history, surpassing all previous non-Congress prime ministers to become the longest-serving leader in this category. This feat stands as a testament to his grip on the Indian political landscape and his commanding influence over the nation’s domestic affairs.

However, as Modi assumes the role of India’s figurehead for the next five years, the future trajectory of India’s foreign policy demands a thorough and multifaceted examination that goes beyond the veneer of his political longevity.

Modi’s victory also demands a careful analysis of how his domestic politics, rhetoric, and success have affected – and will affect – his foreign policy and India’s standing on the world stage.

Provincial to Premier

For one, Modi’s accomplishment of winning a third term – and, immediately after that, being invited to the G-7 summit as an observer – is a testament to his journey from a once-dismissed “provincial leader” and “regional satrap” to a statesman with a commanding presence on the international stage.

Has Bangladesh Lost Its Footing in the China-India Balancing Act?

Syful Islam

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Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week concluded an official visit to China, a few weeks after visiting the closest neighbor, India, from June 21-22. Hasina and her ruling Awami League have been getting all-out political support from New Delhi for over 15 years, and her trips to China and India were closely watched by diplomats in the other country.

Hasina went to China with a jumbo delegation of 196 members, including her Cabinet colleagues, top government officials, and business leaders, among others.

Bangladesh’s topline expectation from this visit was securing a $5 billion loan as budget support, mainly to replenish the country’s dwindling foreign currency reserve.

Bangladesh and China have an annual bilateral trade turnover of $23 billion. Of that, less than $1 billion is accounted for by Bangladeshi exports to China; the vast majority is Bangladesh’s imports. The trade deficit with China has been putting pressure on Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves, which are already struggling to stay afloat amid the inflation sparked by the Russia-Ukraine war. The government was forced to cut down monthly imports to below $5 billion from a usual over $8 billion a month in the past to cope with the pressure on the forex reserve.

When Modi Met Moscow – Analysis

Sumit Ganguly

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In a striking departure from the practice of first visiting India’s South Asian neighbours after assuming the premiership, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after being elected for a third term, chose Moscow for his inaugural foreign visit. What explains his decision to visit Russia and bear hug Russian President Vladimir Putin even at the cost of irking the United States?

One of India’s principal concerns in Moscow’s growing closeness (and dependence) on Beijing since the onset of the Russia–Ukraine war. New Delhi has watched this development with an increasing sense of foreboding because of its enduring rivalry with Beijing, which has worsened in the recent past.

Consequently, it is reasonable to surmise that Modi decided to travel to Moscow to reaffirm India’s long-standing friendship with Russia, especially at a time when Russia is feeling the effects of diplomatic and economic isolation owing to Western sanctions. Whether this gesture on Modi’s part will lead to any attenuation of Moscow’s dependence on Beijing remains an open question.

Can Russia Help Cash-Strapped Pakistan?

Syed Basim Raza and Saleem Abbas

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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s recent summit in Astana on July 3-4, 2024. On the sidelines of the summit which gathered the SCO’s leaders, Sharif met multiple world leaders including China’s President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Sharif expressed his pleasure at meeting with Putin, congratulating him on his re-election as president for the fifth time. While recalling the 2022 Samarkand SCO summit, Shehbaz underscored the importance of bilateral trade and recalled the existence of a barter trade system between the two states from the 1950s to 1970s, when trade between Pakistan and Russia was at its height, spanning across multiple sectors such as leather, machinery, and more. During the meeting, Putin suggested an increase in crude oil supplies and cooperation in the agro-industrial sectors. Russia has actively supported Pakistan by supplying grains in the food sector, and other logistics to increase trade between the two countries. While keeping an eye on Pakistan’s struggling economy, Shehbaz reiterated the need for cooperation in the banking and financial sectors to revitalize trade via the barter system, thus supporting Pakistan’s crippling economy.

Pakistan has been facing a depreciation in economic growth for the last half a decade. Pakistan’s gross domestic product growth rate has undergone a rollercoaster in recent years: It was 2.50 percent in 2019, a decline of 3.65 from 2018; GDP contracted 1.27 percent in 2020, a decline of 3.77 from 2019; the GDP growth rate was 6.51 percent in 2021, an increase of 7.79 percent from 2020; and the GDP growth rate of Pakistan was 4.71 percent in 2022, a decline of 1.81 percent from 2021.

Pakistani Government Seeking Ban on Imran Khan’s Party

Umair Jamal

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The Pakistani government has announced that it plans to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and to file sedition charges against him and former President Arif Alvi, who is seen to be close to Khan.

The controversial decision, which has invited criticism and raised concerns about its implications for the country’s political stability, seems to have been prompted by the PTI’s continuing confrontation with the state institutions, particularly the powerful military establishment. The PTI’s anti-military rhetoric has seen it targeting even the top military leadership directly through social media platforms. Such attacks have intensified since the February 2024 general elections.

PTI appears to be increasingly frustrated as it accuses state institutions of interfering with their mandate during the elections. The leadership of PTI claims that they secured a two-thirds majority in the February elections, but it was later allegedly snatched from them.

Support from the judiciary has arguably emboldened the PTI. The courts have offered Khan and his party relief in numerous cases filed by the previous and the current government. The judiciary has even gone so far as to give the impression of “rewriting the constitution” to benefit the PTI. In a recent court filing, the Sunni Ithad Council, a PTI ally, sought reserved seats for women and minorities in national and provincial assemblies, which was previously denied by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the reserved seats.

There's no quota, but why is Bangladesh seeing anti-quota revolt

Yudhajit Shankar Das

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Protests by students against a 30% jobs quota have spread to almost the whole of Bangladesh. Security personnel have swarmed campuses and six protesters have been killed. Protesters have taken over university campuses. Such is the intensity of the protests that the government has been forced to shut down schools and colleges. What is the quota against which the students, who have no political allegiance, are revolting?

Experts say the violence and deaths are unfortunate because the government is on the same page as the protesting students. They want this to be explained to the students immediately.

Bangladesh watchers also believe that the protests aren't just about quotas, and the students are venting out their overall frustration. These protests, like most political issues in Bangladesh, have a 1971 link.

The Liberation Movement of 1971 was the watershed moment in Bangladesh's history. Millions of people fought and Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan.

In 1972, under then Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh introduced a quota system, reserving 30% of the seats for children of freedom fighters. The quota system reserved jobs for others too, while 44% of the jobs remained merit-based.

How China and US are racing to win the game of drones, from the sky to the sea

Hayley Wong and Seong Hyeon Choi

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The rise of military drones has transformed modern warfare in conflict zones like Ukraine and Gaza, a development that has not gone unnoticed by the US – the world’s most powerful military – and its second-placed rival China.

Both countries have been eyeing the technology, its most effective strategic uses, and the implications of artificial intelligence, to determine what it could mean for any confrontation in the Indo-Pacific region.

Over the past two years, China has been heavily and comprehensively investing in drones, making faster, smarter and more adaptable devices for its navy, army and air force at a rate that has caught the attention of military observers.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other forms of drone technology are increasingly complementing crewed assets in People’s Liberation Army operations, making the PLA the only military to be competing tactically on a similar level with US forces.

In May, the Paris-based Naval News reported that a “mystery ship” spotted in satellite imagery of a dockyard near Shanghai appeared to be designed specifically to host fixed-wing UAVs. If correct, this could be the world’s first drone-dedicated naval carrier.

US' rivalry with China primary driver for 'Resolve Tibet Act': Former NSA Shivshankar Menon

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The primary driver for the US recently passing the 'Resolve Tibet Act' is its "rivalry with China", not any concern for Tibet, claimed former national security adviser (NSA) Shivshankar Menon. Speaking at the launch of former diplomat Dilip Sinha's book "Imperial Games in Tibet: The Struggle for Statehood and Sovereignty" on Tuesday, Menon argued that there are "clear limits" to America's commitment to Tibet and they are waving the flag of Tibet today in its own interest.

"I would be very careful to say 'Oh! the world is changed, they (the US) have passed an act'. I think you need to look at the basic correlation of forces and the balance of forces, and the actual strength of the people and what is the interest of the great powers and how they see it at this time.

"Today, the Americans see it as in their interest to at least wave the flag of Tibet but this doesn't extend to recognising Tibet... It is driven not by the concern for Tibet, the primary driver here is the rivalry with China," said Menon, who has also served as the foreign secretary from 2006-09.

US President Joe Biden has recently signed into law a bill that enhances American support for Tibet and promotes dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama towards a peaceful resolution of the dispute over the status and governance of the remote Himalayan region.

Held back-channel talks with China earlier this month, says Tibetan leader

Rezaul H Laskar

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The Tibetan government-in-exile is continuing its back-channel communications with China to find a resolution to the issue of Tibet, with the latest contact made at the beginning of this month, the head of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) said on Wednesday.

Penpa Tsering, Sikyong or political leader of the government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, contended that developments such as the Indian government’s clearance for a US Congressional delegation to meet the Dalai Lama, India’s support for the Philippines in the South China Sea, and the Indian prime minister’s decision to skip the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit were all a response to “China’s behaviour”.

Tsering also told a small group of reporters the Resolve Tibet Act, signed by US President Joe Biden on July 12, offers clarity about Washington’s position by stating that the China-Tibet dispute must be resolved in line with international law through a dialogue without preconditions, and by recognising that the Tibetan people have the right to self-determination.

“If you ask me, do we have back channels? Yes, we do. It’s going on,” Tsering said while responding to a question on China ruling out talks with the CTA after he revealed the back-channel communications in April.

Is China all set to overtake US in advanced technologies?- Opinion

Air Marshal Anil Chopra

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Many recent studies indicate that China leads US in global competition for some key emerging technologies. There are others who put it that “No. China’s is not surpassing America in technology, but it is America that is getting left behind.” Since 1979 China has not fought a war. The US is "the most warlike nation in the history of the world". As the self-appointed global policeman, US has been busy at wars for many decades and spending trillions of dollars. China has been utilising the time and money in developing technologies and military power. Where do the two stand?

World Intellectual Property Indicators 2023

The report on World Intellectual Property (IP) Indicators 2023, indicates that innovators around the world submitted a record high of nearly 3.5 million patent applications in 2022. IP applications worldwide were 3,457,400 and China had 1,619,268 which was 46.8 per cent of the global figures. The US at 594,340 had 17.2 per cent, and Japan with 289,530 had 8.4 per cent. China’s patent office granted 14.7 per cent more patents in 2022 than in 2021, marking a third consecutive year of double-digit growth. Also as in 2022, China had the highest number of patents in force, accounting for approximately a quarter of the world total. The stock of pending applications at China’s patent office nearly doubled, growing from around 1.3 million in 2021 to approximately 2.6 million in 2022. China led in all categories including utility models, trademarks applications, and industrial designs applications.

China’s Economy Is in Trouble. Xi Jinping Has Other Priorities.

Jason Douglas and Rebecca Feng

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants to fashion China into a manufacturing colossus that leads the world in technological innovation. His pursuit of that vision is increasingly weighing on China’s economy.

Growth is slowing and becoming more unbalanced, propped up by exports and a gusher of investment into factories, while much of the rest of the economy languishes. Consumers are reining in spending, the housing market is depressed, local governments are swimming in debt and foreign investors are pulling their cash—all at a time when China’s population is rapidly aging.

Yet expectations are low for Xi to make a significant course correction at a Communist Party conclave this week, as he continues to put measures to enhance China’s economic security above other priorities.

China Puts Power of State Behind AI—and Risks Strangling It

Liza Lin

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As American tech giants pull ahead in the artificial-intelligence race, China is turning to an old playbook to compete: putting the vast resources of the state behind Chinese companies.

But the heavy hand of China’s government is also threatening to hobble its AI ambitions, as Beijing puts its companies through a rigorous regulatory regime to ensure they adhere to the country’s tight restrictions on political speech.

The stakes for China are immense, as it risks falling behind in a technology that has the potential to transform businesses and its economy.

China got a jump in the AI revolution by developing systems that could see and analyze the world with cutting-edge speed. The area of AI known as computer vision, which enables tracking and surveillance, aligns with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s emphasis on political control.

Despite that early success, the country was caught flat-footed by the public debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 and the generative AI craze it unleashed. Generative AI’s large language models, which are used to produce content at speed, can be difficult to predict and are much more likely to undermine that control.

US says ISIL trying ‘to reconstitute’ amid uptick in Syria, Iraq attacks

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The United States military says ISIL (ISIS) is trying “to reconstitute” as the number of its attacks in Syria and Iraq is on track to double that of the previous year.

The armed group has already claimed 153 attacks in both countries in the first six months of 2024, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday.

“The increase in attacks indicates [ISIL] is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability,” it said.

It has been more than a decade since ISIL, then led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, advanced through swaths of Iraq and Syria with the goal of creating a self-declared “caliphate”. At its peak in 2014, its fighters controlled one-third of Iraq and Syria.

While the group lost its grip on the territory after campaigns by US-backed forces, some fighters remain in hiding, mainly in remote areas, from where they continue to carry out attacks. In 2019, US special forces killed al-Baghdadi in a raid in Idlib, northwestern Syria.

Why Iran’s New President Won’t Change His Country

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar

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On July 5, the parliamentarian Masoud Pezeshkian prevailed in Iran’s snap presidential election. It was a surprising win. Pezeshkian is a relative moderate who pledged to engage with the West, end Internet filtering, and cease the morality police’s harassment of women—a program not endorsed by the country’s clerical elite. Instead, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wanted a president in the mold of Pezeshkian’s hard-line predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter accident. As a result, most experts believed that Khamenei would maneuver to ensure the election of another proven conservative. As I wrote in Foreign Affairs shortly after the helicopter crash, “Iran’s next president will almost certainly be just like its last.”

But although Pezeshkian may hold different views from Raisi, in practice, his government may operate much like his predecessor’s. Iran’s new president, like its last, is devoted to the Islamic Republic’s structure and identity. During his campaign, he did not promise sweeping shifts: long gone are the days when Iranian presidential candidates proposed lofty visions for promoting democracy, civil society, human rights, and rapprochement with the United States. Instead, Pezeshkian worked to prove that he was the candidate most capable of executing policies set by Khamenei. He pledged fealty, again and again, to the supreme leader. He rejected the reformist-conservative dichotomy, stating that he did not belong to any political camp. Perhaps that is why, although the election featured candidates with supposedly different views, voter turnout was historically low. Only 40 percent of people participated in the first round, and just 49 percent turned out for the second. In the 1997 election, by contrast, the reformist won 70 percent of the ballots in an election where 80 percent of eligible Iranians voted.

West preparing for arms race with Russia, its backers

Jeff Seldin

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While much of the focus at this week's NATO summit in Washington has been on providing additional support for Ukraine, some Western officials are equally intent on confronting another challenge unleashed by Russia's invasion: a nascent arms race with global implications.

The officials argue it is no longer enough to try to ensure Ukraine has the weapons and systems it needs to keep pace with Russia's unrelenting attacks. They say NATO must simultaneously prepare to outspend, outpace and outproduce the fledgling alliance that has kept the Russian military on the move.

"There is no time to lose," a NATO official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the growing defense cooperation among Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

"This must be a key priority for all our allies, because it is not just about spending more," the official said. "It is also on getting those capabilities."

Officials have repeatedly accused China of playing a critical role in sustaining Russia's military by sending Moscow raw materials and so-called dual-use components needed to produce advanced weapons and weapons systems.

Russian Military Wartime Personnel Recruiting and Retention 2022–2023

Dara Massicot

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Introduction

Prior to the Russian government’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military spent nearly 20 years trying to recruit, train, and retain a more proficient and professional military. The government allocated billions of rubles to improve military service conditions and to raise the prestige of military service through programs that included overhauling training programs; improving service conditions; modernizing the force with new or improved equipment; instituting measures to reduce corruption, hazing, and criminality; and offering more-attractive incentives, such as competitive wages, housing, and other social benefits, to officers and professional enlisted personnel.

Russian civilian and military leaders believed that these efforts increased military proficiency and improved the prestige of military service. On the basis of some metrics, this belief was not groundless. In the years prior the 2022 invasion, the Russian military was able—for the first time in its history—to count more professional enlisted personnel in its ranks than sources.3 Of those casualties, an estimated 47,000 to 60,000 Russian personnel have been killed in action; official information from Moscow almost certainly undercounts those deaths (around 6,000). Russian casualties from 18 months of war now exceed the number of casualties from a decade of war in Afghanistan or two campaigns in Chechnya in the 1990s.4 Already by September 2022, personnel losses were so severe that the Kremlin was forced to order a partial mobilization of 300,000 people.

Feds break into suspected Trump shooter’s phone

Joe Warminsky

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The FBI says it has cracked into the phone belonging to the suspected shooter in the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

“FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices,” the bureau said in a statement posted Monday afternoon.

The bureau did not specify the brand of the phone, how it was locked or how they broke into it. Officials had told reporters Sunday that Crooks’ phone had been shipped to the bureau’s lab in Quantico, Virginia.

As tech news site 404 Media noted Monday, U.S. law enforcement agencies have access to technology that can break into password-protected iPhones. Those capabilities became more widespread after Apple refused to help unlock the phone of the gunman in the 2015 San Bernardino, California, mass shooting.

Crooks, a 20-year-old resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was shot and killed by Secret Service agents on a rooftop hundreds of feet away from Trump as the former president spoke Saturday at a campaign rally in nearby Butler County.

CIA director says Hamas leader is facing growing pressure from his own commanders to end Gaza war

Alex Marquardt

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The CIA has assessed that the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is coming under increased pressure from his own military commanders to accept a ceasefire deal and end the war with Israel, CIA Director Bill Burns told a closed-door conference on Saturday, according to a source who attended.

Sinwar, the key architect of the October 7 massacre in Israel, is not “concerned with his mortality” but is facing pressure about being blamed for the enormity of the suffering in Gaza, Burns said at the conference, the source said.

US intelligence officials believe Sinwar is hiding in the tunnels beneath his birthplace, Khan Younis in Gaza, and is the key decision maker for Hamas on whether to accept a deal.

Burns – who for months has conducted feverish negotiations as the Biden administration’s point person – said it was incumbent on both the Israeli government and Hamas to take advantage of this moment, more than nine months since the war started, to reach a ceasefire.

Rest of World Watches U.S. Turmoil With Growing Alarm

David Luhnow, Bertrand Benoit and Ian Lovett

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The attempted assassination of Donald Trump, coming so soon after President Biden’s stumbles during the recent presidential debate, is reinforcing an impression outside the U.S. that the world’s pre-eminent superpower is entering an unusually turbulent and unpredictable period, prompting allies to question its reliability and foes to gloat.

The images of a bloodied Trump being rushed from the stage captured global attention, and for many painted a picture of an America increasingly at odds with itself—a country that has a strong economy but a dysfunctional and dangerously divided political landscape.

In foreign capitals around the globe, the attempted killing of Trump and Biden’s repeated gaffes have changed the political and diplomatic calculus, sending many governments scrambling to prepare for a second Trump presidency as the most likely scenario, due to growing voter concerns about Biden’s mental fitness and a likely groundswell of sympathy for Trump following the failed attempt.

To Target a Top Militant, Israel Rained Down Eight Tons of Bombs

Dov Lieber, Fatima AbdulKarim and Lara Seligman

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Israel had tried—and failed—to kill Hamas’s top military leader, Mohammed Deif, several times. So when intelligence emerged he was hiding in a compound in southern Gaza, Israel struck with overwhelming force, hitting it with eight 2,000-pound bombs, people familiar with the operation said.

The force of the blast from the precision-guided munitions reduced the target to a smoldering crater. Scores of Palestinians in the area around the compound—which was home to a market, a water source and a soup kitchen serving displaced civilians—were killed and hundreds wounded, Palestinian authorities said.

The bombs hit around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Israeli military officials said. Mahmoud Abu Amer, who said he was standing about 100 yards away at the time, described the scene as being “like a fiery belt” and said, “I saw people falling in front of me.” Others described a rain of shrapnel.

Israel’s military said it attacked a fenced compound, used by Hamas and manned by militants, and took precautions to limit civilian casualties. It acknowledged the area was surrounded by civilians, but said responsibility for civilian casualties lay with Deif and his fighters for seeking to hide among them.

Why Is the Oil Industry Booming?

Rebecca F. Elliott

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For all of the focus on an energy transition, the American oil industry is booming, extracting more crude than ever from the shale rock that runs beneath the ground in West Texas.

After years of losing money on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the companies that have helped the United States become the leading global oil producer have turned a financial corner and are generating robust profits. The stocks of some oil and gas companies, such as Exxon Mobil and Diamondback Energy, are at or near record levels.

The industry’s revival after bruising losses during the Covid-19 pandemic is due largely to market forces, though Russia’s war in Ukraine has helped. U.S. oil prices have averaged around $80 a barrel since early 2021, compared with roughly $53 in the four years before that.

That the price and demand for oil have been so strong suggests that the shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles will take longer and be more bumpy than some climate activists and world leaders once hoped.

For the Rest of the World, the U.S. President Has Always Been Above the Law

Oona A. Hathaway

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on former President Donald Trump’s claims of criminal immunity has provoked grave warnings about a new expansion of presidential power. On July 1, the Court ruled 6–3 along partisan lines that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” but found that they may still be prosecuted for unofficial acts. “The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent. “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

Many commentators have echoed her critique. The ruling “jettisons the long-settled principle that presidents, like all others, are subject to the operation of law,” observed the legal scholar Kate Shaw. “If the president is a king, then we are subjects, whose lives and livelihoods are only safe insofar as we don’t incur the wrath of the executive,” warned the New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. “If Trump, as commander in chief, ordered his troops to assassinate somebody or stage a coup, that would seem to fall within the absolute immunity provision of the court’s decision,” explained the legal scholar Cheryl Bader. Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision on July 15 to dismiss the charges against Trump for mishandling classified documents, while likely to be appealed and overturned, has added to the chorus of concerned voices.

Rethinking Priorities in Quantum Computing

Nicolas M. Robles

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The emergence of quantum computing suggests limitless possibilities in chemistry, material science, simulations to predict outcomes, and other areas, but, first, research on quantum algorithms must be prioritized to understand the feasibility, generality, and advantages of quantum computing over classical computing. Even if sufficiently good quantum hardware is built, are there algorithms that can leverage the laws of quantum mechanics to solve difficult problems?

Classical computers use on (1) / off (0) bits as the basic units of information to arrive at the best solution to a problem. Quantum computers employ quantum bits, known as qubits, which can represent information in both 0 and 1 states simultaneously. Known as superposition, this can allow all the solutions to a problem to exist at the same time. Qubits can be correlated with each other in such a way that the state of one qubit depends on the state of another, even when the qubits are physically separated. This is the principle of entanglement, a foundational element of quantum computing.

In a radical departure from classical physics, within quantum physics there are no certain outcomes; one must deal with probabilities of obtaining certain results from a series of measurements. This requires researchers to single out desirable outcomes of a measurement by increasing the probabilities of desirable outcomes (the solution to the given problem) and decreasing the probabilities of unwanted outcomes via a process known as interference. For instance, in solving a tough combinatorial problem in logistics such as route planning or resource allocation where all the possibilities (e.g. routes, and allocations) related to this problem exist in the superposition, interference can help zero-in on the desired solution amongst these possibilities.