Democratic governments and institutions typically have a hierarchical structure. For example, policies in the U.S., Canada, and many European democracies emerge from complex interactions among the federal and state governments, as well as county boards, city councils and mayors. Such interactions are characterized by inherent asymmetries across different levels of the hierarchy. On the one hand, the specifics of policy formulation and enforcement (e.g., training and deployment of personnel and updating of infrastructure) are generally in the hands of administrative bodies at lower levels of the hierarchy -- often the lowest level -- for practical reasons; actions these entities take are the ones that truly matter in the sense that they directly impact costs and benefits realized at all levels. On the other hand, entities at higher levels may have the power to impose constraints in some form or another on the policy-makers within their immediate jurisdiction (e.g., the U.S. federal government can constrain state policies); violations of these constraints, in turn, entail a noncompliance cost to the violator, such as legal costs, penalties, or reputation loss. Examples of such hierarchical policy structure arise in the spheres of education (e.g., topics to be included in primary education), healthcare (e.g., vaccination) and immigration. A preeminent recent example of such hierarchical policy-making is the response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in countries with decentralized administration. Policies concerning social distancing, masking and vaccination have involved recommendations at the federal level, guidelines and restrictions at the state/province/district level, and measures adopted by specific counties, cities or even individual businesses and schools. In general, policies are contentious.

The New York Times was accused of stealth-editing its report on the U.S. drone strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, scrubbing his ties to a Taliban leader the paper previously gave a platform to. The Biden Administration announced Monday it successfully targeted al-Zawahri, one of the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks. The Times published a report outlining details surrounding the drone strike, including where exactly he was located in Kabul, Afghanistan. "According to one American analyst, the house that was struck was owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban government whom American officials say is close to senior Qaeda figures," the Times wrote. Recently slain Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahri speaks on the 11th Anniversary of Usama bin Laden's death.

During his long career as a polemicist and a strategist of terror, Ayman al-Zawahiri often taunted the United States. He hewed to the familiar theme that America was an apostate power at war with Islam. But he also described it as a spent force. In a video released this spring, he said that "U.S. weakness" was responsible for the war triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and he mocked the country's standing "after its defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, after the economic disasters caused by the 9/11 invasions, after the coronavirus pandemic, and after it left its ally Ukraine as prey for the Russians." The U.S. drone strike in Kabul last Saturday that killed Zawahiri, who was seventy-one, added a punctuation mark to the long search for justice for the victims of 9/11 and of other deadly attacks that Zawahiri directly approved, such as the bombing of two U.S. Embassies in Africa in 1998, which killed twelve Americans and more than two hundred Africans.

At first glance, the July 31 killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri by a US drone attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, appears to be the most significant setback the group has experienced since the death of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in 2011. However, throughout the decade he administered al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri worked to ensure the organisation has all the necessary tools in place to survive his death. As such, while the operation that eliminated one of the organisers of the 9/11 attacks is undoubtedly a major win for the current US administration, it is unlikely to debilitate the group. Indeed, the fallout from this targeted assassination will be minimal for al-Qaeda. Al-Zawahiri, seen by many as nothing other than a "grey bureaucrat", can easily be replaced by someone with a similar managerial mindset.

NASA's Artemis 1 test flight dummy will have company on its flight to the Moon. On Tuesday, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Shaun the Sheep will join the unmanned mission when it hopefully takes off later this year. With the announcement, Aardman's beloved character will technically become the first ESA astronaut to participate in the Artemis program. "This is an exciting time for Shaun and for us at ESA," ESA Director for Human and Robotic Exploration David Parker said. "We're woolly very happy that he's been selected for the mission and we understand that, although it might be a small step for a human, it's a giant leap for lambkind."

Civica's Tracey Cotterill explores how machine learning can provide the data intelligence we need to deliver better healthcare for everyone. Liz O'Driscoll shares the 7 key trends that will inspire more innovative public services and shape our world in 2022 and beyond.

A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University believe they have developed the first AI pilot that enables autonomous aircraft to navigate a crowded airspace. The artificial intelligence can safely avoid collisions, predict the intent of other aircraft, track aircraft and coordinate with their actions, and communicate over the radio with pilots and air traffic controllers. The researchers aim to develop the AI so the behaviors of their system will be indistinguishable from those of a human pilot. "We believe we could eventually pass the Turing Test," said Jean Oh, an associate research professor at CMU's Robotics Institute (RI) and a member of the AI pilot team, referring to the test of an AI's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to a human. To interact with other aircraft as a human pilot would, the AI uses both vision and natural language to communicate its intent with other aircraft, whether piloted or not.

A robotic surgeon is set to be tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS) – and could one day independently perform surgery on humans in space. After years of support and sponsorship from NASA, scientists in Nebraska have developed a robot called MIRA, short for'miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant'. In 2024, the miniature surgical robot will blast off towards the space station, where it will demonstrate its ability to cut simulated tissue. Scientists claim it could one day repair an astronaut's ruptured appendix during a mission to Mars, or remove shrapnel from a soldier injured by an explosive thousands of miles away. The ISS (pictured) floats in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 254 miles.

UK "safety tech" companies saw a revenue increase of 21% over the past year to reach £381m, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors of the UK tech industry, according to a government-backed sectoral analysis. Conducted by Perspective Economics on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the UK safety tech sector: 2022 analysis found that the number of companies delivering safety tech products and services grew by 17% to 117, with jobs in the sector increasing by 30% to total 2,850. Of the 117 safety tech companies identified by the analysis, 57% are based outside London and the South East, with hotspots in Leeds and Edinburgh, and emerging centres of activity in Greater Manchester, Oxford, Bristol and Belfast. "There are encouraging signs of newly registered startups, particularly in the domains of tackling disinformation and developing new approaches to content moderation and video and image analysis at scale," said the analysis. "Existing firms specialising in communication and semantics are also moving into the safety tech domain. "As a result of considerable growth within UK safety tech, there has been sustained interest from the investment community.

Kabul, Afghanistan – The news of the killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri slowly made its way through the Afghan capital. For many Afghans, it came as a complete surprise. The announcement by the United States of a "precision" drone attack that killed the elusive 71-year-old al-Qaeda leader came in Kabul in the early hours of Tuesday. As the day advanced, more details started to trickle in. However, in a sign of the growing fears over the freedom of speech under a Taliban government, many city residents seemed hesitant to talk about the killing of al-Zawahiri, who had a reward of $25m on his head for the 9/11 attacks.