5/16/25Violent Threats Against US Judges Are Skyrocketing Online | Foreign Countries Aim to Poach America’s Best and Brightest | U.S. Needs a Bold Strategy to Win the U.S.-China Tech Race, and more

Violent Threats Against US Judges Are Skyrocketing Online  (Dvid Gilbert, Wired)
Threatening social media posts targeting US judges have increased by more than 300 percent since last year, a new report shows.

Proposal to Enhance Texas’ Pioneering Junk Science Law Approved by Texas House  (Kayla Guo, Texas Tribune)
Last year, lawmakers waded into a dramatic feud over the case of death row inmate Robert Roberson, seen as the embodiment of the failures of Texas’ junk science law.

Violent Crime Is Falling Rapidly Across America (Economist)
Baltimore’s success may illustrate why.

Gabbard Seeks to Consolidate Her Control of President’s Daily Brief  (Maggie Haberman and Julian E. Barnes, New York Times)
President Trump has wondered over time about whether the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created after the 9/11 attacks, should continue to exist.

North Korean IT Workers Are Being Exposed on a Massive Scale  (Matt Burgess, Wired)
Security researchers are publishing 1,000 email addresses they claim are linked to North Korean IT worker scams that infiltrated Western companies—along with photos of men allegedly involved in the schemes.

Foreign Countries Aim to Poach America’s Best and Brightest  (Christina Lu, Foreign Policy)
As Trump cracks down on U.S. universities and international students, governments see an opportunity.

The U.S. Needs a Bold Strategy to Win the U.S.-China Tech Race  (Kelsey Quinn, National Interest)
China is outpacing the U.S. in critical technologies—preserving American leadership demands urgent, systemic, and strategic reform across innovation, regulation, and global alliances.

White Afrikaner Brought to U.S. by Trump Administration Has History of Antisemitic Posts  (José Olivares, Guardian)
Charl Kleinhaus confirms he owns account that contained posts, as White House uses antisemitism as rationale for deportations.

‘Gatekeepers Are Dead’: Kanye West’s Antisemitic Song Plays on Despite Takedowns  (Anne Steele and Katherine Sayre, Wall Street Journal)
Controversial rapper’s new song garners millions of views on X after bans on music-streaming services.
There was a time in the music business that a song paying homage to Hitler, even one by a hit rapper, would have been shut out of popular culture. Not so in the age of TikTok and X. Controversial rapper Kanye West’s latest antisemitic provocation—a song with the hook “Heil Hitler”—is going viral on social media after being removed from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. The song got even more attention after it was discussed on star podcaster Joe Rogan’s show this week and on X by comedian Russell Brand, who called West “uncancellable” and the song’s hook “catchy.”