In a room filled with journalists from across the Pacific, Andrew Drummond, the editor-in-chief of the Australian Associated Press, delivered a message that was both sobering and deeply personal. Speaking on the opening day of the 2026 Pacific Islands News Association Summit in Savusavu, Fiji, Drummond shared a finding from the United Nations Global Risk Report 2024 that should have stopped every person in the room in their tracks: misinformation and disinformation now rank as the third-highest risk among the top ten risks facing the world in the digital era. That means the deliberate or accidental spread of false information…

Just after one o’clock on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday afternoon, the calm of Chesterfield County, Virginia, was interrupted by a sound no one ever wants to hear on a military installation: an alarm, sudden and insistent, cutting through the daily rhythm of the Defense Supply Center Richmond. The facility, a sprawling federal installation situated along Richmond Highway, is a place where thousands of people report to work each day to keep the nation’s military supplies moving. But in an instant, that routine vanished. A large police presence, including the visible and unmistakable silhouettes of SWAT officers, raced toward the base.…