Spy agencies brief people in power. We brief you. Each week we’ll bring you one story that matters, plus a few that don’t!
Your Brief for October 17, 2024: Secret sonnets, Veil of Beads, Human Cell Atlas, million-dollar wine fraud and more!
News
AI's Demand For Power
Several major tech companies are looking to power their AI-driven futures sustainably. Amazon has announced a $500 million investment in nuclear power to meet rising energy demands from its expanding data centers and AI technologies. The announcement follows similar moves by other tech giants—Google recently disclosed plans to purchase nuclear power, and Microsoft announced it would reopen the infamous Three Mile Island plant to fuel its AI projects. In the U.S., nuclear power currently generates about 19% of electricity. Though costly and carrying significant risk, atomic energy is a clean alternative - seen as vital in tackling greenhouse gas emissions. Amazon and Google are focusing on small modular reactors (SMRs)—a cheaper, more flexible alternative to traditional nuclear plants.
True Spies
Veil Of Beads
There are times in the life of an undercover agent when danger is a necessity to be endured. How far would you go to make an investigation work - would you risk your health, life, or sanity?
Everywhere on Earth has unique flavors of greed, corruption, and lies. And everywhere produces champions - beacons of light in the murk. In Sub-Saharan Africa, that champion is Anas Aremeyaw Anas - investigative reporter extraordinaireire! Not afraid to follow through, Anas is a different breed of journalist - sometimes tagged as controversial. His missions lead him beyond his home in Ghana, working undercover across West Africa and the world, gathering hardcore evidence, testifying in court, and locking criminals behind bars.
But how can a world-famous journalist protect his identity in this age of instantaneous information? Hiding his face behind a veil of beads, Anas lays his life on the line to expose the rot at society’s heart. It’s true that for a spy, risk exposure is the name of the game. But Anas is no spy, at least not in the classic sense of the word. Though as a masked vigilante, he’s intimately familiar with the dangers facing young journalists in volatile contexts - like when he found himself strapped to a gurney on a dangerous undercover mission to take down a drugs ring operating out of a Ghanaian mental hospital.
How did Anas infiltrate this psych ward with a reputation for malpractice? Find out in this week’s podcast selection, ‘Veil of Beads’.
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Technology
Autonomous Cars and Robots
Might future generations no longer have driver’s licenses?
Tesla recently unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi—a driverless, $30,000 vehicle called the Cybercab, set to go into production by 2027 - featuring no pedals or steering wheel. As competition from Chinese manufacturers ramps up, traditional electric vehicle sales might become a smaller portion of Tesla's business. Tesla’s Cybercabs will allow owners to rent out their vehicles when idle - providing both car-sharing and earning opportunities - but Tesla faces fierce competition in the space, with Google’s Waymo already providing rides across Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix.
Elon Musk also introduced a 20-person Robovan and Tesla's new Optimus robots—humanoid assistants that look like they stepped out of a science fiction movie. The robots are designed to perform everyday tasks and push the boundaries of automation.
Image Credit: Tesla
History
Hidden Beneath The Soil
Might this newly found tomb reveal truths about Petra?
Dr. Richard Bates, a geophysicist at the Univeristy of St Andrews, and a team of researchers recently made an astonishing discovery inside Petra's famed Treasury monument, locally known as Al Khazneh. Using powerful, ground-penetrating radar, they identified an untouched tomb beneath the structure - unearthing 12 human skeletons and a rich collection of grave offerings! Petra, constructed as the Nabatean capital in the fourth century B.C., remains an enigma despite its iconic ruins. The kingdom left behind remarkable yet mysterious architectural feats and researchers have long been eager to explore the depths of the Treasury in hopes of discovering insight into the lives and traditions of the Nabatean people - piecing together more about the mystery of Al Khazneh.
Image Credit: Shutterstock/Richard Juilliart
Poetry
Secret Sonnets
While American spies secretly spread Cold War propaganda through art, music, and movies like Animal Farm, East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, weaponized a more unconventional cultural tool: poetry.
Once a month, East German border guards and soldiers would gather as 'Writing Chekists' to ponder the nuances of verse and learn how to analyze poetry for potentially subversive messaging. Meetings were held at the secretive Adlershof House of Culture, inside the Stasi’s paramilitary wing, under the watchful portraits of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and East German leader Erich Honecker. Here the rough-and-tumble soldiers and guards - who, by day, suppressed free thought - embraced Petrarchan sonnets and free verse.
Some soldiers in their late teens leaned more toward love poetry than politics, Philip Oltermann writes in his wonderfully outlandish book The Stasi Poetry Circle. One member of the secret police fantasized about being kissed by a young maiden who was unaware of his low rank, thus elevating him to a ‘lance corporal of love’. Patiently Ɪ wait / for my next promotion / at least / to general. Other poems were less doting; a 32-year-old second lieutenant in the Stasi’s Central Information Service read aloud a poem called Dialectics: Then / at the shooting range / I take aim with calm / and precision.
Poetry offered the Stasi an opportunity to sniff out non-conformists and rebels. Writer Annegret Gollin, aged 23, was interrogated over the meaning of Concretia, a poem about the sharp increase in concrete high-rises. She was imprisoned for 20 months, and separated from her young son on the premise of a single poem never published. Oltermann likened her treatment to a person convicted of building homemade explosives. Learn more about how East German Stasi spies weaponized verse in this SPYSCAPE article.
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The demand for rare bottles of wine seems to attract both genuine connoisseurs and opportunistic fraudsters. French and Italian police recently dismantled an international fraud ring passing off poor-quality wine as premium vintages worth up to €15,000 (£12,500) per bottle! Authorities arrested six individuals, including the alleged ringleader - a Russian national - during coordinated operations in Paris, Turin, and Milan. Also among the prosecuted is a French national who faces organized fraud and money laundering charges. The group is accused of forging fake labels from prestigious French vineyards. Their counterfeit bottles were sold through global wine traders for a large profit - according to French prosecutors, the elaborate scheme earned the fraudsters €2 million!
Science
Human Cell Atlas
How does our body create skin?
Researchers have learned that immune cells play a crucial role in developing blood vessels in the skin. A study Coordinated at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, published in Nature, revealed how the human body forms skin from stem cells, with researchers succeeding in growing small amounts of skin in a lab!
The researchers identified which genes are active when, and where, and successfully grew artificial skin by replicating these genetic instructions using chemicals to switch certain genes on or off at the right moments! The discovery is part of the Human Cell Atlas project, a global initiative aiming to map every cell type in the human body and understand how each organ is created. Over eight years, the project analyzed 100 million cells, producing a draft atlas for the brain and lung, with kidney, liver, and heart, on the way.
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