U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Saturday that the U.S. used cyberattacks or other technical capabilities to cut power off in Caracas during strikes on the Venezuelan capital that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. If true, it would mark one of the most public uses of U.S. cyber power against another nation in recent memory. These operations are typically highly classified, and the U.S. is considered one of the most advanced nations in cyberspace operations globally. “It was dark, the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have, it was dark, and it was deadly,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago detailing the operation. Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the same press conference that U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Space Command and combatant commands “began layering different effects” to “create a pathway” for U.S. forces flying into the country early Saturday. Caine did not elaborate on what those “effects” entailed. Spokespeople for the White House, Cyber Command and Space Command did not respond to requests for comment on the cyber operations in Venezuela. Internet tracking group NetBlocks reported a loss of internet connectivity in Caracas during power cuts early Saturday morning. Alp Toker, founder of NetBlocks, said in an email Saturday that if cyberattacks contributed to these outages, “it will have been targeted, not impacting the broader network space.” Saturday’s offensive marked the latest cyberattack targeting Venezuelan infrastructure in recent weeks. Venezuelan national oil and gas company PDVSA, or Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., last month accused the U.S. government of carrying out a cyberattack that led to delays in operations across the country. The Trump administration has not publicly commented on whether the U.S. was involved in the December attack. PDVSA said its facilities were not damaged in the strikes on Saturday.

A tech-savvy Italian schoolboy who died in 2006 is to become the first saint from the millennial generation in the Catholic Church on Sunday. Carlo Acutis has been dubbed “God’s influencer” and the “saint in sneakers.” The curly-haired Italian youngster died from leukemia aged 15 but is still celebrated by Catholics for how he put his web skills to use to promote his faith. Having begun coding at the age of eight, Acutis used his programming skills to build websites for the Church, including a site listing all reported miracles. As the Church struggles to connect with young people, Acutis represents a relatable role model, an example of how to evangelize in the digital age. The Church is increasingly recognizing the power of influencers who speak the language of Gen Z on video-sharing platforms like TikTok, and who can counter the Church’s perception of being outdated. Last month the Vatican hosted an event for 1,000 digital missionaries and Catholic influencers as part of its Holy Year celebrations. Catholics influencers have also been credited with a recent surge in young adult and teenage baptisms in countries including France. Initially scheduled for April 27, Acutis’ canonization at the Vatican was postponed when Pope Francis died. Pope Leo XIV is set to lead the mass and canonization in St. Peter’s Square, along with that of another young person, Pier Giorgio Frassati.  Critics have claimed that Acutis’ popularity, which has generated a multitude of books and documentaries about his life, is the result of a marketing campaign from the Church made possible by his family’s wealth and connections. But the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints said Acutis is part of a group of younger people that have been or are to be recognised by the church as evangelists. “Acutis’ canonization, strongly desired by Pope Francis, is not intended to acclaim him as a theologian. … It is intended to demonstrate that even today young Christians can live the Gospel faith in a consistent and all-encompassing way and have a relationship with Christ,” the dicastery wrote. Acutis’ death preceded the rise of social media like Facebook, Instagram and others. But, unlike most other saints, his followers can still watch videos of him talking about his faith. Acutis was moved to the city of Assisi in Umbria in 2017, where his tomb lies. Fittingly, he can be seen through its glass-sided casket on a web camera 24 hours a day, his body dressed in jeans, Nike sneakers and a sweatshirt. More pilgrims come to Assisi to visit Acutis’ tomb than that of St. Francis, buried in the same city, according to the local church. The Church’s newest saint “was well aware that the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism,” Pope Francis wrote in a 2019 apostolic exhortation, a document on papal teaching. “Yet he knew how to use new technology to transmit the Gospel.”

Blockages in the technology innovation pipeline and digital skills shortages were just some of the topics discussed by industry stakeholders during a DSEI-hosted roundtable held in July. Chaired by the UK minister for defense procurement, Maria Eagle, attendees included the likes of KX, Forcys, Dell and Amazon Web Services, all of which are attending DSEI UK 2025. The theme of the roundtable was ‘developing defense technology at pace to meet modern battlefield requirements’, a key theme at this year’s DSEI UK. Under the banner of this overarching theme, four sub-themes were discussed by the group as company representatives directed questions and suggestions toward the minister. The minister opened the proceedings by outlining the priorities of the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), calling the current moment a “pivotal” one for UK defense as the country looks to return to warfighting readiness. Technology will be central to this move and the UK is set on becoming a leading “tech-enabled defense superpower by 2035,” she said, with priorities based on the lessons learned in Ukraine. Changes like these will require some changes in the government’s approach to technology, though. “We’ve got to innovate at the speed of technology … there’s no point taking six years to get to contract on a drone — you’d just be contracting to put it in the museum,” she added. > We’ve got to innovate at the speed of technology … there’s no point taking six > years to get to contract on a drone — you’d just be contracting to put it in > the museum. Changing the way the UK government acquires and utilizes innovative defense technology at speed and scale will require stronger collaboration between government and industry, however, and there is still some way to go to ensure this relationship works, according to industry stakeholders at the roundtable. Bolstering the innovation pipeline A major hurdle for defense firms is navigating the ‘valley of death’ — the time between developing an initial concept and the point at which the company starts to see returns on its investment. Businesses need considerable support to stay liquid and avoid bankruptcy in this period. “I think part of the challenge that we’ve identified is taking an operational concept demonstrator, which we’ve been involved with in defense, and bringing that into core [military programs],” a representative from KX, a software company based in Northern Ireland, said. “[It’s] the valley of death or the cup of opportunity, as I call it — and nobody seems to be drinking from that cup,” the representative said. “A lot of attention goes to the SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] and the concept demonstration, and the primes get a huge amount of attention at the other end of the scale, but dragging those concept demonstrators into a core program, that seems to be a key challenge, and it would be great to understand how that can be accelerated so that concepts don’t just wither on the vine.” Eagle recognized that concept demonstrators are sometimes shelved with “no follow up,” noting that the “valley of death has been a big problem.” To address this, the UK is “establishing UK innovation,” with the goal of getting “new ideas and concepts, and new ways of doing things to the warfighter.” Company representatives and moderator gathered at DSEI UK roundtable.  Is there enough support for SMEs? Another portion of the roundtable focused on how SMEs position in the defense ecosystem can be further supported, particularly by other key stakeholders such as the UK MoD and DSEI UK. Eagle noted the UK government’s plans to establish an SME hub in the “not too [distant] future” to provide smaller defense tech companies with assistance for working in the sector and with the MoD. A representative from Forcys welcomed plans to establish an SME hub but did push back against the minister, arguing that many of these initiatives designed to fund innovation do not come with “sufficient money.” “The average DASA [Defence and Security Accelerator] award is £50,000 to £100,000 — its buttons to what’s actually required to develop something at pace and really develop it properly, rather than just playing into it,” the representative argued. The representative also rallied against the problems faced by Forcys due to its size, given it is defined neither as an SME nor a prime. This means it doesn’t get the support infrastructure afforded to smaller firms or the advantages that come with having the scale of a prime.   The future of dual use and next-gen skills issues Looking ahead, stakeholders at the roundtable also discussed what the future might look like for the defense industry, given the changing nature of dual-use technology and the concerning digital skills gaps in the sector. > Stakeholders at the roundtable also discussed what the future might look like > for the defense industry, given the changing nature of dual-use technology and > the concerning digital skills gaps. Understanding the defense supply chain is crucial on the dual-use front, according to a representative from PQShield. They pointed to the untapped potential in dual-use, explaining that many companies don’t know how to sell to the defense industry. “We’re struggling to pitch it to defense right now because we don’t know the best place to go,” the representative said, speaking about PQShield’s cryptography products and solutions. Discussion also turned to the difficulties the defense industry faces in acquiring workers with the right skills or having access to graduates and those early in their careers. “We’re being outgunned by gaming, by fintech, by the finance industry — we’re not getting the best people. We say we do, we don’t because we just simply can’t pay for them,” said Rob Taylor, founder of training technology firm 4GD. Adding to this point, the representative from KX said that they would like to see schools doing more to incentivize students to seek out technology jobs. A good approach would be to start from year seven or even younger, they said. Eagle agreed that the skills issue is “tremendously important,” adding that the UK’s skills system has not worked as well as it could for some time and that many industries are suffering the same skills shortages. “As we’ve had the last few years, where you’ve got a war on our doorstep and things like that going on, there’s been a shift back towards understanding the value of defense. But there’s some ways still to go, so we’ve got more work to do on that,” Eagle said.

Children’s math and reading skills have “significantly worsened” across most European Union countries, posing a huge risk to how well the bloc’s future workforce can power its economy, according to a European Commission employment report. Rates of underachievement – when students don’t reach minimum proficiency – have been increasing over the past 12 years with a dramatic decline in basic skills in 2022, possibly as a result of pandemic school closures. The EU is currently far off its target to reduce underachievement to 15 percent by 2030, the report said. Nearly one in three 15-year-olds didn’t have basic skills in math and one in four couldn’t reach minimum levels in reading and science. The report rated these poor results as a threat to labor productivity and competitiveness in the medium term. It cited employer surveys as saying it’s crucial to have skilled workers and pointed to labor shortages as holding back companies’ ability to scale up production. “Well-functioning and effective education and training systems are thus crucial for equipping young people and adults with labour market-relevant skills for quality jobs, also in view of the big transformations that the EU is facing,” it said. Roxana Mînzatu, the Commission’s executive vice president for skills, said the figures show the danger that the green and digital transition could “risk leaving our citizens behind.”  Underachievement rates for math are worst in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania. Poorer students across the EU do far worse with nearly half underperforming in math in 2022, “a significant increase from 38.2% in 2018,” the report said. But the decline also hit richer children with the report flagging a lack of qualified teachers, “aggravated in the last few years by, among others, the COVID-19 pandemic.” Several governments are taking action with Finland introducing more mandatory lessons and the Dutch planning to give €500 per student to schools willing to improve basic skills. Mînzatu is due to present a skills plan at the beginning of March. She said this “will focus on investment in skills, adult and lifelong learning, vocational education and training, skills retention and skills recognition.” The Commission also intends to review a digital education plan and draw up a roadmap on the future of digital education and training. Giovanna Coi contributed to this story.

The rapid rise of AI presents an opportunity to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, productivity and innovation. To achieve these benefits and realize European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s vision of a competitive and inclusive economy where everyone can thrive, the EU will need to ensure its workers have the critical AI skills that will power organizations.   Challenges do exist. Mario Draghi’s report, The future of European competitiveness, highlights that 42 percent of Europeans lack even basic digital skills. But if EU leaders act now to embrace a skills-first labor market and invest in the AI skills of its workforce, the EU can unlock its workforce’s full potential.  Critical AI Skills Are Growing But Still Nascent  The EU must foster at least two critical sets of AI skills to power its competitiveness — technical and literacy skills. AI technical skills (such as machine learning and model training) are necessary to develop AI productivity tools and services while AI literacy skills (such as Copilot for Microsoft 365, GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT) are required for workers to utilize these AI productivity tools effectively.   AI technical skills in the EU workforce are nascent but growing. LinkedIn’s new AI in the EU report shows 71 percent growth in these skills among LinkedIn’s EU members in the last year alone.  Even so, only a tiny percentage of these workers,  just 0.41 percent, have acquired the critical technical skills necessary to develop AI productivity tools and services.   > To foster Europe’s competitiveness, EU leaders must act now to embrace a > skills-first labor market and invest in the AI skills of its workforce Moreover, there is currently a significant gender gap among the EU workers that have acquired these crucial AI technical skills. Across the EU, this figure stands at just 26.3 percent for women despite the fact that women make up 46.4 percent of workers. At the current pace, it would take the region 162 years to achieve gender parity.  EU workers are more rapidly adopting AI literacy skills. As new AI tools and technologies emerged throughout 2023, EU workers seized the opportunity to experiment heavily and integrate them into their daily workflows. LinkedIn data shows that the share of members adding AI literacy skills was 80 times greater in 2023 than 2022.  The EU is Leading on Responsible and Green AI Skill Development In a world where nations are racing to develop the AI skills of their workforces, LinkedIn’s data shows that the EU is out in front in two key areas.   First, AI professionals in the EU lead in green skills — performing jobs in a more environmentally sustainable way — compared with their peers in the US and UK. Today, 8.1 percent of AI talent in the EU have at least one green skill, compared with 5.8 percent in the US and 7.4 percent in the UK. Given that many green solutions are based on technological innovations such as AI, these twin skill sets can help power a productive green future for Europe.  The EU is also leading on responsible AI, the approach to developing, assessing and deploying AI systems in a safe, trustworthy and ethical way. Among EU AI talent, responsible AI ranked eighth on the list of AI talent’s fastest-growing skills — ahead of global AI talent, where it ranked 14th.  Developing Skills Can Unlock Europe’s Potential The United States and China are advancing rapidly, driven by investments in AI and expanding digital talent. In comparison, the EU’s ability to compete may be held back by a skills shortage and slower adoption of new technologies.  To foster Europe’s competitiveness, EU leaders must act now to embrace a skills-first labor market and invest in the AI skills of its workforce. By increasing access to AI technical and literacy skills training, the EU can unlock its workforce’s full potential. Fostering sector-specific AI upskilling initiatives will help workers and businesses — especially SMEs — adapt to the rapid pace of change.  Additionally, making the most of available data and granular skills intelligence is key to this effort. To this end, partnering with platforms, including LinkedIn, which track the evolving impact of AI on jobs, skills and industries, can help workers, businesses and governments to navigate change more effectively. By leveraging these insights, the EU can drive targeted AI upskilling and ensure that digital skills development aligns with real-world needs, unlocking Europe’s potential in the age of AI.  The EU can seize this opportunity by putting people and skills at the heart of European growth plans. When focusing on skills, we can create a resilient, modern workforce that will power innovation, drive investment and help position the EU as a leader in the AI economy. 

General Nick Carter is the former UK chief of defense staff 2018–2021 and a board member of Apolitical. Robyn Scott is CEO and co-founder of Apolitical. It is often claimed that the birth of the printing press heralded the start of the modern era, allowing ideas from the scientific revolution to spread. But does that give us the whole picture? For writer Yuval Noah Harari, for example, the evolution is far more complicated, as he argues that the printing press unleashed two centuries of conspiracy theories and fake news as well, leading to grotesque behavior like witch trials. And when the revolution in scientific and philosophical thought did eventually take place some 200 years later, it was only after our institutions were able to earn the trust of populations. Simply put, we aren’t good at rapid adaptation in times of peace — which is a lesson our leaders and institutions should keep in mind today. The technology-driven disruption of information we’re currently experiencing in the form of artificial intelligence also has the power to undermine our democracies before it can be harnessed to bolster them. And with a host of powerful new technologies on the horizon, we’re only at the start of the disruption to come. Emerging technologies will alter the global power balance, and they will do so faster than we realize. This technological tsunami comes at a time when the world is already remarkably unstable. The bipolar stability of the Cold War is a thing of the past; history has not, in fact, ended. Rather, the world has become multipolar, characterized by stiff competition between great powers and an openly hostile group of authoritarian countries set on undermining the liberal international order. We’re also increasingly seeing newly assertive countries — such as India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia — which have the political and economic clout to be multi-aligned, choosing whichever camp might best suit their national interests. And as the recent BRICS summit in Kazan demonstrated, China — with Russia’s support — wants more say in how the world is organized. All of this is then overlaid with a complex array of non-state actors, wielding significant influence via their technological or financial heft. For example, a decade ago, who would have thought an individual like Elon Musk could play such a significant role in geopolitics? His influence — a testament to his wealth as well as his development and control of critical technologies — is indicative of the immense disruption these technologies threaten. The growing pace of technological change is making the challenge more dynamic every day. Meanwhile, generative AI has begun elevating technology to an “agent” that can be wielded without a human in the loop. Yet, the foundations of generative AI’s jaw-dropping capabilities remain shaky — it is, after all, trained on our colossal global stash of information, which is characterized by some reliable facts sitting atop a huge, unreliable core of bits and bytes. For some new technologies, the “emerging” tag already seems dated, as it’s possible to simply order some of this sci-fi future on Amazon. For just $129, one can now buy a CRISPR gene editing kit that could, in the wrong hands, be exploited to meddle with eugenics. Bioterrorism is the obvious civilization-threatening risk here, but it’s just one of many. Of course, as with almost all powerful emerging technologies, the benefits of synthetic biology are compelling too: Bacteria that gobble carbon dioxide, crops that thrive in deserts, lab-grown meats that can feed a hungry world . . . The benefits of these technologies make them irresistible both to the market and to our desire for healthier, wealthier societies. Their attraction has turned them into a juggernaut that’s almost impossible to control. They’ve also become crucial to the global competition between the free world and our malign authoritarian rivals. And it is the victors of this competition who will be able to determine our future. Lab-grown meats can feed a hungry world. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A pressing example of this — perhaps less than a decade away — is quantum computing, which will enable us to solve impossible mathematical problems. However, it will also bestow decisive advantage to those seeking to undermine the values of the free world. In a post-encryption world, much of what was secret will no longer be so. Similarly, controversy and security risks surround the field of geo-engineering, which includes solar radiation management — where the sun’s rays are deflected from the earth. While the concept sounds radical, it’s a technology that may offer a critical contingency plan as the climate crisis intensifies. Yet, it also comes with many dangers, not least the potential for unilateral action by a desperate state in the grips of climate change’s most extreme effects. Finally, while artificial wombs have already successfully grown sheep, estimates vary on when we’ll be able to grow humans — though some say it may only be a decade from now. This will undoubtedly be transformative for would-be parents who currently have to rely on surrogates. But what about a nation in demographic collapse? What sort of moral landscape would govern states that want to grow children? Or dictators who want to grow cannon fodder for their armies? Moreover, we may not even be growing humans as we know them. Mind-machine integration has already begun in earnest, and brain-computer interfaces are no longer confined to science fiction. Most prominently, Neuralink Corp — one of Musk’s ventures — is actively developing and testing implantable devices that could allow humans to directly control computers or prosthetics with their brains. If successful, this means major brain damage could be curable — but we could also be looking at remotely monitored and controlled humans. If our future on this planet seems like a sci-fi film though, space is even more so. The burgeoning space industry is currently worth over $500 billion annually and is projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035. But while the 2020 Artemis Accords seek to regulate life and business in space, they have yet to be signed by China (the world’s second-largest spacefaring nation), Russia or India. And how does Musk’s ambitions for SpaceX to build a sustainable colony on Mars — with its own governance — fit into all this? Governments need to start preparing and reforming. Keeping up with the evolution of all this technological change, let alone channeling it, is enormously challenging, particularly when very few public sector leaders are even really aware of these critical emerging technologies. Currently, such discussions in government are typically confined to a few niche teams and backroom wonks. Thus, part of the solution is talent and capability. Apolitical’s research shows that globally, only 65 percent of public servants have received any guidance on AI, and 85 percent haven’t received any training. This AI knowledge gap has to be filled. Governments also need to stand back and examine the bigger picture. The public sector and its institutions need up-skilling not only in AI but in all critical future technologies. And, crucially, our institutions need reform as well. This requires real leadership, but it is possible: We’re in a time of crisis, and it is in times of crisis that real change can be achieved. Collectively, emerging technologies are creating an unstable world, where we don’t clearly understand what national security looks like. Reform will require imagination and energy, as well as unpopular decisions. But the first duty of any government is to protect its population. And when our leaders confront these emerging technologies — which they must — it will be clear that they lie at the heart of national security, for better or worse.