The notion that nuclear-generated electricity could light the path toward a global transition away from fossil fuel dependency is increasingly in the spotlight.

More than 30 leaders and delegations from around the world gathered at a summit Thursday in Brussels to discuss whether nuclear power can help achieve the goal of a climate-neutral planet while giving more countries an added sense of economic and security independence.

“We have to do everything possible to facilitate the contribution of nuclear energy,” said Rafael Grossi, the head of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency. The Associated Press reports the one-day meeting is being held next to the 1958 Atomium, a 335-foot-tall construction of the nine iron atoms, which sought to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy in the wake of the nuclear bomb explosions at the end of World War II.

The annual ODNI threat assessment made public last week repeated earlier U.S. intelligence conclusions that no foreign powers were behind the “anomalous health incidents” first experienced by U.S. personnel in Cuba in 2016 and later China and other countries.

While it notes that spy agencies have varying levels of confidence in that conclusion due to “gaps” in the intelligence, the assessment was followed by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that concluded there is “no significant evidence of MRI-detectable brain injury” in those who experienced Havana Syndrome.

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz cites a nongovernment analyst close to the issue who says the NIH finding appeared to be part of an attempted cover-up. He also writes about a countervailing argument made by Stanford medicine professor David Relman, who contends that directed, pulsed radio frequency energy could have caused the numerous health problems reported by victims. Hundreds of federal employees and U.S. military members have been affected, and most believe they were targeted with some class of new weapons that do in fact cause brain injury and damage.

A raft of new artificial intelligence tools are fueling new threats to U.S. elections, and American spy agencies are reaching out to more private-sector cyber partners to thwart foreign interference. U.S. intelligence agencies are turning to cybersecurity companies like never before for help protecting vulnerable infrastructure systems.

In 2020, the intelligence community and law enforcement officials huddled with social media technology platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. But the relationships have been damaged by the platforms’ politically fraught censorship decisions and by ongoing litigation contending that the Biden administration is trying to pressure the platforms to police political speech online.

National Security Tech Reporter Ryan Lovelace has taken a deep dive look at the phenomenon, reporting that while private talks with the social media giants have gone dark, the intelligence community’s interactions with cybersecurity companies have expanded.

On a visit to Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration is “pressing for an immediate cease-fire” in Gaza tied to “the release of hostages” held by Hamas. “We actually have a resolution that we put forward right now that’s before the United Nations Security Council that does call for an immediate cease-fire,” Mr. Blinken told the Saudi Arabia-based news outlet Al Hadath in an interview in Jeddah.

His remarks come ahead a trip to Washington by a high-level Israeli delegation. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said the delegation will “hear U.S. concerns” about the Israeli military’s impending attack on Rafah. The meeting will be the first since a hot mic caught President Biden saying he and the Israeli prime minister need to have a “come-to-Jesus meeting” on the campaign in Gaza.

The administration will reportedly present the Israelis with alternative plans for how to continue pursuing Hamas without launching a major ground operation in Rafah. U.S. officials told The Times of Israel that the plans focus on securing the Egypt-Gaza border.

Longtime diplomat and former U.S. intelligence official Joseph R. DeTrani examines the history of China’s role in helping the U.S. end the Cold War with the Soviet Union — a history that stands in contrast to Beijing’s currently growing alignment with Russia.

“China’s distrust of the Soviet Union and its partnership with the U.S. to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan — a prelude to the demise of the Soviet empire and end of the Cold War — is in sharp relief to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s embrace of a revanchist Russian Federation and its dictator, Vladimir Putin,” writes Mr. DeTrani.

The “no limits” Russia partnership that Mr. Xi spoke of in 2022, he writes, “must be of concern to many in China who continue to view Russia with suspicion and are concerned that China’s aligning with a revanchist Russia will affect China’s international credibility, not only with the U.S. and the European Union, but also with the Global South and others who view Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a blatant war of aggression.”