• China and Rare-Earth Elements: Is Trump Blinking on Tariffs?

    On 2 April 2025, President Trump announced a significant shift in the US trade policy, imposing tariffs on multiple countries, with special emphasis on China. In response, on 4 April 2025, China placed export restrictions on REEs, which are also known as rare metals.

  • BOOM! LIGHTS OUT

    Power generation is the center of gravity for space capabilities, and it is vulnerable to the effects of explosive ordnance, for example, drone delivered bombs.

  • Why Ukraine’s AI Drones Aren’t a Breakthrough Yet

    Machine vision, a form of AI, allows drones to identify and strike targets autonomously. The drones can’t be jammed, and they don’t need continuous monitoring by operators. Despite early hopes, the technology has not yet become a game-changing feature of Ukraine’s battlefield drones. But its time will come.

  • Why U.S. Should Be Worried About Ukrainian Attack on Russian Warplanes

    Audacious — and wildly successful — use of inexpensive drones against superior force can be used anywhere, against anyone.

  • What Warped the Minds of Serial Killers? Lead Pollution, a New Book Argues.

    Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, and others terrorized the Pacific Northwest. “Murderland” asks what role polluters played.

  • Guns Kill More U.S. Children Than Other Causes, but State Policies Can Help, Study Finds

    More American children and teens die from firearms than any other cause. Black children, especially, suffer when laws allow more guns to circulate, researchers found. There are more deaths — and wider racial disparities — in states with more permissive gun policies, according to a new study.

  • Improving Resilience to Tsunamis and Earthquakes via Predictions of Waste Disposal Times

    Researchers develop framework to predict cleanup times after seismic events by analyzing the interdependence of disposal facilities and road networks.

  • Violent Extremists Like the Minnesota Shooter Are Not Lone Wolves

    The threat of domestic violence and terrorism is high in the United States – especially the danger posed by white power extremists, many of whom believe white people are being “replaced” by people of color. Contrary to popular myth, the vast majority of far-right extremists are not abnormal deviants with anti-social personalities, but are, in fact, otherwise ordinary men and women.

  • Trump’s Military Response to Protests: A Conversation on Law and Precedent

    “The federalized response to riots in Los Angeles will inspire demonstrations in other cities, not just against ICE and its tactics, but against the use of military forces in civilian law enforcement. If those demonstrations turn violent, they could lure the president to use military forces elsewhere within the United States—creating a dangerous feedback loop with a very uncertain ending,” says Peter Mansour.

  • Israel and Iran: An Early Read

    It’s too soon to tell how exactly the current waves of Israeli strikes could transform the region, but one thing is clear: Israel’s actions have fundamentally reshaped the security landscape of the Middle East in the span of less than two years. These two years saw the collapse of Iran’s regional strategy as its two main proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, have been decimated, while Syria, the linchpin of Iran’s regional aspirations, has changed sides when the country’s Sunni majority removed the pro-Iran Assad regime in December last year.

  • With Troops in Los Angeles, Echoes of the Kent State Massacre

    The 1970 shooting of student demonstrators underscores the risks of President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the military against protesters, a history professor explains.

  • Trump’s Use of the National Guard Against LA Protesters Defies All Precedents

    Unlike his predecessors, Trump has not mobilized the national guard to protect civil rights against a hostile police force. Instead, he appears to be using this as leverage to undermine a political opponent he views as blocking his agenda. Circumventing gubernatorial powers over the national guard in this way has no precedent and heralds the next stage in an extended conflict between the president and the state of California.

  • Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles

    To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”

  • From Kent State to Los Angeles, Using Armed Forces to Police Civilians Is a High-Risk Strategy

    I am a historian, and my recent book — Kent State: An American Tragedy —  examines a historic clash on 4 May 1970, between anti-war protesters and National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio. Troops opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four students and wounding nine others. Dispatching California National Guard troops against civilian protesters in Los Angeles chillingly echoes decisions and actions that led to the tragic Kent State shooting. Some active-duty units, as well as National Guard troops, are better prepared today than in 1970 to respond to riots and violent protests – but the vast majority of their training and their primary mission remains to fight, to kill, and to win wars.

  • AI-enabled Control System Helps Autonomous Drones Stay on Target in Uncertain Environments

    An autonomous drone carrying water to help extinguish a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada might encounter swirling Santa Ana winds that threaten to push it off course. Rapidly adapting to these unknown disturbances inflight presents an enormous challenge for the drone’s flight control system.