Last week, a number of outlets reported that Bruce Willis sold his face to a deepfake company called Deepcake, allowing a "digital twin" of himself to be created for use on screen. The only problem is that it's apparently not true. According to the BBC, the actor's agent said that he had "no partnership or agreement" with the company and a representative of Deepcake said only Willis had the rights to his face From the report: On 27 September, the Daily Mail reported that a deal had been struck between Willis and Deepcake. "Two-time Emmy winner Bruce Willis can still appear in movies after selling his image rights to Deepcake," the story reads. The story was picked up by the Telegraph and a series of other media outlets. "Bruce Willis has become the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a 'digital twin' of himself to be created for use on screen." said the Telegraph. But that doesn't appear to be the case.

What is true is that a deepfake of Bruce Willis was used to create an advert for Megafon, a Russian telecoms company, last year. The tech used in the advert was created by Deepcake, which describes itself as an AI company specializing in deepfakes. Deepcake told the BBC it had worked closely with Willis' team on the advert. "What he definitely did is that he gave us his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin," they said. The company says it has a unique library of high-resolution celebrities, influencers and historical figures. On its website, Deepcake promotes its work with an apparent quote from Mr Willis: "I liked the precision of my character. It's a great opportunity for me to go back in time. "The neural network was trained on content of Die Hard and Fifth Element, so my character is similar to the images of that time." A representative from Deepcake said in a statement: "The wording about rights is wrong... Bruce couldn't sell anyone any rights, they are his by default."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In a London court this week, coroner Andrew Walker had the difficult task of assessing a question that child safety advocates have been asking for years: How responsible is social media for the content algorithms feed to minors? The case before Walker involved a 14-year-old named Molly Russell, who took her life in 2017 after she viewed thousands of posts on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest promoting self-harm. At one point during the inquest, Walker described the content that Russell liked or saved in the days ahead of her death as so disturbing, the coroner said in court, that he found it "almost impossible to watch." Today, Walker concluded that Russell's death couldn't be ruled a suicide, Bloomberg reports. Instead, he described her cause of death as "an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content."

Bloomberg reported that Walker came to this decision based on Russell's "prolific" use of Instagram -- liking, sharing, or saving 16,300 posts in six months before her death -- and Pinterest -- 5,793 pins over the same amount of time -- combined with how the platforms catered content to contribute to Russell's depressive state. "The platforms operated in such a way using algorithms as to result, in some circumstances, of binge periods of images, video clips and text," which "romanticized acts of self-harm" and "sought to isolate and discourage discussion with those who may have been able to help," Walker said.

Following Walker's ruling, Russell's family issued a statement provided to Ars, calling it a landmark decision and saying that the court didn't even review the most disturbing content that Molly encountered. "This past fortnight has been particularly painful for our family," the Russell family's statement reads. "We're missing Molly more agonizingly than usual, but we hope that the scrutiny this case has received will help prevent similar deaths encouraged by the disturbing content that is still to this day available on social media platforms including those run by Meta." Bloomberg reports that the family's lawyer, Oliver Sanders, has requested that Walker "send instructions on how to prevent this happening again to Pinterest, Meta, the UK government, and the communications regulator." In their statement, the family pushed UK regulators to quickly pass and enforce the UK Online Safety Bill, which The New York Times reported could institute "new safeguards for younger users worldwide." Meta and Pinterest took different approaches to defend their policies. "Pinterest apologized, saying it didn't have the technology it currently has to more effectively moderate content that Molly was exposed to," reports Ars. "But Meta's head of health and well-being, Elizabeth Lagone, frustrated the family by telling the court that the content Molly viewed was considered 'safe' by Meta's standards."

"We have heard a senior Meta executive describe this deadly stream of content the platform's algorithms pushed to Molly, as 'SAFE' and not contravening the platform's policies," the Russell family wrote in their statement. "If this demented trail of life-sucking content was safe, my daughter Molly would probably still be alive." Russells' statement continued: "For the first time today, tech platforms have been formally held responsible for the death of a child. In the future, we as a family hope that any other social media companies called upon to assist an inquest follow the example of Pinterest, who have taken steps to learn lessons and have engaged sincerely and respectfully with the inquest process."

Pinterest told Ars that it is "committed to making ongoing improvements to help ensure that the platform is safe for everyone" and internally "the Coroner's report will be considered with care." Since Molly's death, Pinterest said it has taken steps to improve content moderation, including blocking more than 25,000 self-harm related search terms and, since 2019, has combined "human moderation with automated machine learning technologies to reduce policy-violating content on the platform."

Bruce Willis has become the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a "digital twin" of himself to be created for use on screen. From a report: Using deepfake technology, the actor appeared in a phone advert without ever being on set, after his face was digitally transplanted onto another performer. Willis allowed US firm Deepcake, which makes "digital twins," to use his face. In a statement on its website, Willis said: "I liked the precision with which my character turned out. It's a mini-movie in my usual action-comedy genre. For me, it is a great opportunity to go back in time. With the advent of modern technology, even when I was on another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in the filming. It's a very new and interesting experience, and I thank our entire team." UPDATE 10/3/2022: Bruce Willis Denies Selling Rights To His Face

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The UK has "no chance in hell" of becoming technologically sovereign, Hermann Hauser, the co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and Acorn Computers, said at Bloomberg's Technology Summit in London. Hauser emphasized the need for Europe and the UK to have access to critical technologies so it is not dependent on countries like the US. He mentioned former US President Donald Trump, who he said used semiconductor design software as "a weapon to force other countries including Britain to do what he wants."

"These dependencies are as severe now as military occupation was in the past," Hauser said. "And we just have to find our own independent access to critical technologies." One question countries have to ask themselves if whether they have all the critical technologies needed to run a country and its economy. "The answer for Britain" is "absolutely no, there is no chance in hell that Britain could ever become technologically sovereign," he said. Hauser added that Europe is clearly in a recession that could last a year or two. "It's difficult to know for how long with so many imponderables." "The UK in particular is in this very stormy period of having a financially undereducated chancellor, who goes by neoliberal ideology rather than rational decision making so that doesn't help," he added. "The UK has struggled to keep its tech firms owned by local investors," notes Bloomberg. "Arm, one of the most significant global tech companies, is currently being prepped to be floated in the US by its Japanese owner SoftBank."

"French firm Schneider Electric SE has recently agreed to buy out minority shareholders in Aveva Group Plc, currently the UK's largest listed tech firm, in a deal that values the industrial software company at $10.8 billion."

The head of WhatsApp has warned UK ministers that moves to undermine encryption in a relaunched online safety bill would threaten the security of the government's own communications and embolden authoritarian regimes. From a report: In an interview with the Financial Times, Will Cathcart, who runs the Meta-owned messaging app, insisted that alternative techniques were available to protect children using WhatsApp, without having to abandon the underlying security technology that safeguards its more than 2bn users. The UK's bill, which the government argues will make the internet safer, has become a focus of global debate over whether companies such as Google, Meta and Twitter should be forced to proactively scan and remove harmful content on their networks.

Tech companies claim it is not technically possible for encrypted messaging apps to scan for material such as child pornography without undermining the security of the entire network, which prevents anyone -- including platform operators -- from reading users' messages. Cathcart said the UK's ultimate position on the issue would have a global impact. "If the UK decides that it is OK for a government to get rid of encryption, there are governments all around the world that will do exactly the same thing, where liberal democracy is not as strong, where there are different concerns that really implicate deep-seated human rights," he said, citing Hong Kong as a potential example.

Apple has removed the iOS apps belonging to VK, the technology conglomerate behind Russia's version of Facebook called VKontakte, from its App Store globally. From a report: In a translated statement on its website, VK said that its apps "are blocked by Apple" but that it will "continue to develop and support iOS applications." In response to an inquiry by The Verge, Apple spokesperson Adam Dema confirmed that VK's apps have been removed and its developer accounts shut down.

"These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government," Dema said in a statement. "In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location. Users who have already downloaded these apps may continue to use them."

AmiMoJo shares a report from the BBC: Apple chief executive Tim Cook says there are still "not enough women at the table" at the world's tech firms -- including his own. He said there were "no good excuses" for the lack of women in the sector. Apple has just launched its founders' development program for female founders and app creators in the UK. "I think the the essence of technology and its effect on humanity depends upon women being at the table," Mr Cook says. "Technology's a great thing that will accomplish many things, but unless you have diverse views at the table that are working on it, you don't wind up with great solutions."

Apple had 35% female staff in the US in 2021, according to its own diversity figures. It launched its original Apple Health Kit in 2014 without a period tracker -- which led to accusations that this was an oversight due to male bias among its developers. One challenge facing the sector is the lack of girls choosing to pursue science, tech, engineering and maths subjects at school. "Businesses can't cop out and say 'there's not enough women taking computer science -- therefore I can't hire enough,'" says Mr Cook. "We have to fundamentally change the number of people that are taking computer science and programming." His view is that everybody should be required to take some sort of coding course by the time they finish school, in order to have a "working knowledge" of how coding works and how apps are created. According to Deloitte Global, large global tech firms will reach nearly 33% overall female representation in their workforces in 2022 on average -- with 25% occupying technical roles.

In the interview with the BBC, Cook also commented on the future of augmented reality, saying: "in the future, people will wonder how we lived without AR." He added: "we're investing a ton in that space." Earlier this year, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple could announced its long-rumored mixed-reality headset as soon as January 2023.

The British pound on Monday briefly hit a record low against the dollar, extending losses after Britain's new government on Friday announced a sweeping economic overhaul centered around tax cuts and deregulation. Citibank called the move a "huge, unfunded gamble for the U.K. economy." From a report: The pound slumped as low at $1.035 on Monday, breaking the 1985 record, and although it bounced up from those depths it remains down about 19 percent this year. The pound has also fallen against the euro, although not by as much. In other markets, yields on British government bonds hit multiyear highs, meaning that borrowing costs are rising steeply as the government prepares to issue more debt to pay for subsidies on energy bills and other policies.

What does the weaker pound mean for the British economy? The drop in the pound poses concerns, since a weaker currency makes imports more expensive. It also makes it more expensive for Britons to travel abroad, since their money doesn't go as far as it did before. British companies, many of which rely on materials imported from other countries, may raise prices to compensate for their higher costs -- putting pressure on inflation, which is already running near 40-year highs. [...] People and companies abroad buying goods and services from Britain could benefit from cheaper prices. And businesses in Britain that generate revenue elsewhere will earn more when that money is converted back into pounds. For Americans and others spending dollars or euros while traveling to Britain, their trips will be more affordable than they would have been even a few months ago. Further reading: Fed official warns UK tax cuts increase risk of global recession.

Police in the UK have arrested a 17-year-old suspected hacker. Reports suggest the arrest is connected to the Rockstar Games hack that led to a major Grand Theft Auto VI leak. The individual may have been involved with an intrusion on Uber as well. From a report: According to journalist Matthew Keys' sources, the arrest is the result of an investigation involving the City of London Police, the UK's National Cyber Crime Unit and the FBI. Keys noted that the police and/or the FBI will reveal more details about the arrest later today. The City of London Police told Engadget it had "no further information to share at this stage."

The GTA VI leak is unquestionably one of the biggest in video game history. Last weekend, the hacker shared a trove of footage from a test build of the game, which is one of the most hotly anticipated titles around. Rockstar, which tends to keep a tight lid on its development process, confirmed on Monday that the leak was legitimate. It said the incident won't impact work on the game and that it will "properly introduce" fans to the next title in the blockbuster series once it's ready.

More than 70 companies in Britain are undergoing a six-month experiment in which their employees get a paid day off each week. So far, most companies say it's going well. SpzToid shares a report: Most of the companies participating in a four-day workweek pilot program in Britain said they had seen no loss of productivity during the experiment, and in some cases had seen a significant improvement, according to a survey of participants published on Wednesday. Nearly halfway into the six-month trial, in which employees at 73 companies get a paid day off weekly, 35 of the 41 companies that responded to a survey said they were "likely" or "extremely likely" to consider continuing the four-day workweek beyond the end of the trial in late November. All but two of the 41 companies said productivity was either the same or had improved. Remarkably, six companies said productivity had significantly improved. Talk of a four-day workweek has been around for decades.

In 1956, then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon said he foresaw it in the "not too distant future," though it has not materialized on any large scale. But changes in the workplace over the coronavirus pandemic around remote and hybrid work have given momentum to questions about other aspects of work. Are we working five days a week just because we have done it that way for more than a century, or is it really the best way? Some leaders of companies in the trial said the four-day week had given employees more time to exercise, cook, spend time with their families and take up hobbies, boosting their well-being and making them more energized and productive when they were on the clock. Critics, however, worried about added costs and reduced competitiveness, especially when many European companies are already lagging rivals in other regions. More than 3,300 workers in banks, marketing, health care, financial services, retail, hospitality and other industries in Britain are taking part in the pilot, which is one of the largest studies to date, according to Jack Kellam, a researcher at Autonomy, a think tank that is one of the organizers of the trial.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said he's confident the company can gain regulatory approval for its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard even in the face of an in-depth regulatory probe in the UK. From a report: "Of course, any acquisition of this size will go through scrutiny, but we feel very, very confident that we'll come out," he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Nadella's prediction puts him at odds with investors' skepticism about the deal. While Activision rose Thursday, outperforming a slump in tech stocks, Wednesday's close of $75.32 still left the company more than 20% below the offer price -- a signal of massive doubt that Microsoft will ever be able to consummate the transaction. Microsoft is either the No. 4 or No. 5 competitor in the video game industry, depending on how you count, Nadella said. And the No. 1 player, Sony Group, has made several recent acquisitions. "So if this is about competition, let us have competition," he said.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority said earlier this month that it decided to kick-start a longer review, a move that was expected after the CMA flagged concerns that the deal could lessen competition in the markets for consoles, subscriptions and cloud gaming. The combination with Activision -- which owns franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero -- will make Microsoft the world's third-largest gaming company. Nadella also expressed optimism that Microsoft can cope with a weaker economy and rising inflation -- and help its customers endure as well. "The constraints are real -- inflation is definitely all around us," he said. "I always go back to the point that in an uncertain time, in an inflationary time, software is the deflationary force."

Children under 12 may be losing the equivalent of one night's sleep every week due to excessive social media use, a new study suggests. Insider reports: Almost 70% of the 60 children under 12 surveyed by De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, said they used social media for four hours a day or more. Two thirds said they used social media apps in the two hours before going to bed. The study also found that 12.5% of the children surveyed were waking up in the night to check their notifications.

Psychology lecturer John Shaw, who headed up the study, said children were supposed to sleep for between nine to 11 hours a night, per NHS guidelines, but those surveyed reported sleeping an average of 8.7 hours nightly. He said: "The fear of missing out, which is driven by social media, is directly affecting their sleep. They want to know what their friends are doing, and if you're not online when something is happening, it means you're not taking part in it. "And it can be a feedback loop. If you are anxious you are more likely to be on social media, you are more anxious as a result of that. And you're looking at something, that's stimulating and delaying sleep." "TikTok had the most engagement from the children, with 90% of those surveyed saying they used the app," notes Insider. "Snapchat was used by 84%, while just over half those surveyed said they used Instagram."

A Maryland judge has overturned the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, in the latest twist to the case at the center of the hit podcast series Serial. From a report: Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated the 41-year-old's conviction and granted him a new trial on Monday, ordering his release after more than 23 years behind bars. The move came after prosecutors made a request for his release on Wednesday saying that "the state no longer has confidence in the integrity of the conviction." Prosecutors said that an almost year-long investigation had cast doubts about the validity of cellphone tower data and uncovered new information about the possible involvement of two alternate unnamed suspects.

Syed was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and imprisonment of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Lee, 18, vanished after leaving her high school on 13 January 1999. Her strangled body was found in a shallow grave in a Baltimore park around a month later. Syed has always maintained his innocence. In a tweet shortly after the ruling was made, Serial tweeted: "Sarah was at the courthouse when Adnan was released, a new episode is coming tomorrow morning."

Long-time Slashdot reader n3hat writes: The BBC reports that a thief has been emptying gym patrons' accounts by stealing their bank card and mobile phone, registering the account to the thief's own mobile, and emptying the victims' bank accounts. The thief works around 2-factor authentication by taking advantage of the victim's phone having been configured to show notifications on the lock screen, so the thief can view the 2FA credential even though they don't have the unlock code.

The article gives instructions on how to disable notifications on the lock screen, for both iPhone and Android.

Have you been encountering way too many unskippable ads on YouTube? You're not alone. PCMag: Oftentimes, YouTube only shows two ads before a video starts. But in recent weeks, some users on social media have reported seeing as many as five to eight or even 10 unskippable ads in a row. One user who encountered eight unskippable ads during a viewing said each ad was about five to 10 seconds in length. The high ad load is inevitably causing concerns YouTube will display more unskippable ads for all users in an effort to rake in more revenue. But the Google-owned platform told PCMag the sharp increase in the unskippable ads was merely a test.

"At YouTube, we're focused on helping brands connect with audiences around the world, and we're always testing new ways to surface ads that enhance the viewer experience," a YouTube spokesperson says in a statement. "We ran a small experiment globally that served multiple ads in an ad pod when viewers watched longer videos on connected TVs. The goal is to build a better experience for viewers by reducing ad breaks." In other words, the test was about showing the viewer more ads in the beginning of the YouTube video, rather than spacing them out. YouTube's spokesperson adds: "We have concluded this small experiment." But whether the platform will ramp up the unskippable ad rate in the future remains unclear.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: FishPig, a UK-based maker of e-commerce software used by as many as 200,000 websites, is urging customers to reinstall or update all existing program extensions after discovering a security breach of its distribution server that allowed criminals to surreptitiously backdoor customer systems. The unknown threat actors used their control of FishPig's systems to carry out a supply chain attack that infected customer systems using FishPig's fee-based Magento 2 modules with Rekoobe, a sophisticated backdoor discovered in June. Rekoobe masquerades as a benign SMTP server and can be activated by covert commands related to handling the startTLS command from an attacker over the Internet. Once activated, Rekoobe provides a reverse shell that allows the threat actor to remotely issue commands to the infected server.

"We are still investigating how the attacker accessed our systems and are not currently sure whether it was via a server exploit or an application exploit," Ben Tideswell, the lead developer at FishPig, wrote in an email. "As for the attack itself, we are quite used to seeing automated exploits of applications and perhaps that is how the attackers initially gained access to our system. Once inside though, they must have taken a manual approach to select where and how to place their exploit."

FishPig is a seller of Magento-WordPress integrations. Magento is an open source e-commerce platform used for developing online marketplaces. The supply-chain attack only affects paid Magento 2 modules. Tideswell said the last software commit made to its servers that didn't include the malicious code was made on August 6, making that the earliest possible date the breach likely occurred. Sansec, the security firm that discovered the breach and first reported it, said the intrusion began on or before August 19. Tideswell said FishPig has already "sent emails to everyone who has downloaded anything from FishPig.co.uk in the last 12 weeks alerting them to what's happened." Tideswell declined to say how many active installations of its paid software there are. This post indicates that the software has received more than 200,000 downloads, but the number of paid customers is smaller. In a disclosure published after the Sansec advisory, FishPig describes how the intruders pulled off the intrusion and remained hidden for so long.

Google is facing two legal cases which could result in the tech giant paying out damages of up to ~$25 billion (19.5 billion pounds) over its digital advertising practices. The BBC reports: The company is accused of anti-competitive conduct, and of abusing its dominant place in the ad tech market. Separate legal cases, in the UK and in the Netherlands, are being filed in the coming weeks on behalf of publishers seeking "compensation" from Google. [...] The European Commission and its UK equivalent are investigating whether Google's dominance in the ad tech business gives it an unfair advantage over rivals and advertisers. The French competition watchdog imposed a 220 million euro fine on the company last year. Johnny Ryan, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, told the BBC: "Google is under pressure on two big issues - one is anti-trust and the other is data protection." Mr Ryan said more cases were coming to light as competition enforcers around the world "increasingly put demands on Google." But he added "the fines we have seen so far from competition authorities have had absolutely no consequence whatsoever."

Damien Geradin, of the Belgian law firm Geradin Partners -- which is involved in the Dutch case -- said, "Publishers, including local and national news media, who play a vital role in our society, have long been harmed by Google's anti-competitive conduct. It is time that Google owns up to its responsibilities and pays back the damages it has caused to this important industry. That is why today we are announcing these actions across two jurisdictions to obtain compensation for EU and UK publishers."

The British claim, at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, will seek to recover compensation for all owners of websites carrying banner advertising. If successful, this would mean a wide and diverse group could get compensation - from major media sites down to small and medium-sized businesses who produce their own online content. Businesses which do not which to be included in the legal action can opt out. [...] The UK competition watchdog is also investigating Google's power in the digital advertising technology market. The Dutch case is open to European publishers affected by Google's actions. Geradin Partners has teamed up with Dutch law firm Stek to bring the collective claim.

The world's chances of avoiding the worst ravages of climate breakdown are diminishing rapidly, as we enter "uncharted territory of destruction" through our failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions and take the actions needed to stave off catastrophe, leading scientists have said. From a report: Despite intensifying warnings in recent years, governments and businesses have not been changing fast enough, according to the United in Science report published on Tuesday. The consequences are already being seen in increasingly extreme weather around the world, and we are in danger of provoking "tipping points" in the climate system that will mean more rapid and in some cases irreversible shifts.

Recent flooding in Pakistan, which the country's climate minister claimed had covered a third of the country in water, is the latest example of extreme weather that is devastating swathes of the globe. The heatwave across Europe including the UK this summer, prolonged drought in China, a megadrought in the US and near-famine conditions in parts of Africa also reflect increasingly prevalent extremes of weather. The secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said: "There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction. This year's United in Science report shows climate impacts heading into uncharted territory of destruction."

SWIFT, the messaging system used by financial institutions globally to convey instructions on tens of millions of transactions each day, is testing out blockchain. From a report: The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT for short, is piloting a project with fintech company Symbiont, according to a post seen by Bloomberg. The collaboration, which includes Citigroup, Vanguard and Northern Trust, is aimed at driving "efficiencies in communicating significant corporate events," like dividend payments and mergers, SWIFT said in its post. As a global financial artery, SWIFT delivers secure messages among 11,000 companies in over 200 countries and territories, directing trillions of dollars in transactions. The operation gained much attention earlier this year as war broke out in Ukraine following Russia's invasion. The US and Europe cut a number of Russian banks from SWIFT, hurting their efforts to move money and operate globally.

schwit1 writes: Imperial College will shut down two major research centres sponsored by Chinese aerospace and defence companies amid a crackdown on academic collaborations with China, the Guardian has learned.

The Avic Centre for Structural Design and Manufacturing is a long-running partnership with China's leading civilian and military aviation supplier, which has provided more than $6m to research cutting-edge aerospace materials. The second centre is run jointly with Biam, a subsidiary of another state-owned aerospace and defence company, which has contributed $4.5m for projects on high-performance batteries, jet engine components and impact-resistant aircraft windshields. The centres' stated goals are to advance civilian aerospace technologies, but critics have repeatedly warned that the research could also advance China's military ambitions.

Now Imperial has confirmed the two centres will be shut by the end of the year after the rejection of two licence applications to the government's Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), which oversees the sharing of sensitive research with international partners. The closures follow a warning in July by the heads of MI5 and the FBI of the espionage threat posed by China to UK universities, and highlight the government's hardening attitude on the issue.

"You can say with a high degree of confidence that this decision has been taken because the government is of the view that continuing licensing would enable the military development in China, which is viewed as a threat to security," said Sam Armstrong, director of communications at the Henry Jackson Society thinktank. "The government has made it clear to universities that there is an overall shift in the weather such that these collaborations are no longer possible."