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Hello everyone!
What do you know about data centers? If you’re like me, then storing something “in the cloud” is as far as you know. On the latest episode [ [link removed] ] of “Things That Go Boom,” host Laicie Heeley talked to Dr. Anne Pasek from Trent University, Todd Murren from Bluebird Network Data Centers, activist Kelly Gallaher, and Mike Gitter, the director of a water utility plant in Wisconsin to learn about data centers’ impact on the environment. Listen and subscribe now on Apple Podcasts [ [link removed] ], Stitcher [ [link removed] ], Spotify [ [link removed] ], Pocket Casts [ [link removed] ], or wherever you get your podcasts to receive a new episode every two weeks.
Steven Ward from R Street Institute’s Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team explained [ [link removed] ] that privacy is a fundamental right. Yet, when privacy laws are passed only after an influential person experiences an intrusion, it feels as if the American people are an afterthought, and that’s not cool. In fact, this approach fails to solve the whole problem and cements the notion that privacy is a special privilege reserved for elites.
In moments of political turmoil, access to unmanipulated information is crucial to all stakeholders. In the short term, disinformation cripples decision-making, and in the long term, it can perpetuate poor governance and create a legacy of false information, which is what happened during Niger’s coup. Our columnist from Nigeria, Olatunji Olaigbe, reported [ [link removed] ] on the role of disinformation in Niger. 
There’s more, so check out the rest of the pieces below.
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This week on Inkstick Media:
“Will the Internet Suck Us Dry? [ [link removed] ]” by Things That Go Boom (Sept. 18)
When we say that we’re going to store something “in the cloud,” it sounds like an ethereal place somewhere in the atmosphere. However, the online cloud is generated by computer servers in data centers all over the world. Thousands of them. And AI is likely to ramp up demand. These data centers don’t employ a lot of people, and each one can hoover up the resources of a small town. So what happens when our need for more, better, faster cyber capability collides with our need for land, water, and power?
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“Privacy Should Be a Fundamental Right for All, Not Just for Elites [ [link removed] ]” by Steven Ward (Sept. 18)
Congress needs to pass a comprehensive federal privacy law that protects all Americans. The current regulatory piecemeal approach to privacy and security laws should end, and a comprehensive federal privacy law that protects all Americans should be enacted. 
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“Food Has Become The Weapon of Choice in International Conflict [ [link removed] ]” by Feryaz Ocakli (Sept. 19)
The optimism of the post-Cold War era led many states to entrust their food security to global markets. The idea that markets lead to efficient allocation of resources, and therefore to more competition and lower prices for agricultural commodities, was a risky substitute for intentional food security policies.
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“Legitimizing Gender Apartheid is One of the Costs of Recognizing the Taliban [ [link removed] ]” by Annie Pforzheimer and Shabnam Nasimi (Sept. 19)
Annie Pforzheimer, the former deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Kabul, and Shabnam Nasimi, a former senior policy advisor to the United Kingdom Minister for Refugees and Minister for Afghan Resettlement, argue against recognizing the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government. They write: “Any international recognition of the Taliban regime would afford a platform to legitimize its misogynistic policies further, making the lives of Afghan women all the more unbearable.”
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“How the Watchdog SIGAR Sustains US Empire in Afghanistan [ [link removed] ]” Nafay Choudhury (Sept. 20)
US troops may have left Afghanistan, but the Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is still monitoring the US mission in Afghanistan. Nafay Choudhury from Oxford University argued that SIGAR provides a language and discourse that feeds the ways in which US failures are understood. This discourse bends, distorts, and filters criticism on the US mission in Afghanistan so that the final product is itself regulated by the dictates of US Empire.
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“Something Coherent: Part II [ [link removed] ]” by Kelsey D. Atherton (Sept. 21)
While the warming climate may threaten all life as we know it, for those already well-off, criminalization of climate protestors and climate migrants protects the wealthy from having to even consider adjusting their existing fossil fuel-dependent lifestyles.
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“Democracy’s Moment at the UN [ [link removed] ]” by Ayla Francis and Noah Ponton (Sept. 21)
This month’s installment of “We Didn’t Start the Fire [ [link removed] ],” our column with Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen network, focused on the UN General Assembly meetings this week. The authors argued that the unique features of the multilateral system — including the fact that different forms of democracy are represented — allow for the United States to publicly indicate that it wants to work in partnership to support global democracy, not simply export its version to other countries.
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“Disinformation Around Niger’s Coup Falls in the Crosswinds of Geopolitics [ [link removed] ]” by Olatunji Olaigbe (Sept. 22)
The disinformation around the coup in Niger is noteworthy as a nexus of international geopolitics. Disinformation narratives have involved actors from across West Africa and the world, and viewers targeted are sometimes local Nigeriens but often people around the region. That the country has had blackouts leading to a dearth of verifiably accurate information and has a complicated media industry with little to no editorial independence has only added to the storm of uncertainty.
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