Thousands of North Korean “soldier-builders” in olive green uniforms and bright red hardhats are doing everything from digging ditches to putting up walls on multistory apartment blocks and government buildings in this northern city near the Chinese border. Samjiyon is one of the main focuses of a massive nationwide construction campaign ahead of North Korea’s 70th anniversary in what leader Kim Jong Un has described as a symbolic battle against anyone who would oppose his country.The Sept. 9 anniversary is shaping up to be the biggest event since Kim assumed power in late 2011. Along with huge rallies in Pyongyang…

Russian trolls and social media bots use tactics similar to those employed during the 2016 presidential election to spread misinformation about vaccines, research has revealed.An examination of over 1,793,690 tweets posted between July 2014 and September 2017 revealed that a handful of accounts which have since been identified as Russian trolls who meddled in the U.S. election, as well as malware and marketing bots, spread false information about vaccines.“Health communications have become ‘weaponized’: public health issues, such as vaccination, are included in attempts to spread misinformation and disinformation by foreign powers,” wrote the authors of the study published in the…