• South Korea and Nuclear Weapons

    By Ranjit Kumar Dhawan

    The constant threat of North Korean aggression and fears of abandonment by the United States of its security commitment to South Korea have been the primary reasons for Seoul’s nuclear ambitions. More recently, the deepening military alliance between North Korea and Russia has raised serious concerns in South Korea.

  • Emergency Responders Struggle with Burnout, Budgets as Disasters Mount

    By David Montgomery

    Climate change has rewritten the script for disasters, leaving communities vulnerable to weather patterns that don’t abide by schedules or the rules of past behavior. As a result, hundreds of thousands of emergency responders are facing unprecedented challenges —from burnout to post-traumatic stress disorder to tighter budgets — as they battle hurricanes, windstorms, wildfires, floods and other natural disasters that are more frequent and intense than those in the past.

  • Protecting Voters and Election Workers from Armed Intimidation

    By Allison Anderman

    Although the United States is no stranger to political violence, our elections in the 21st century have been safe and secure. Rare events of violence closely covered by the media, but in reality, voter suppression by intimidation is much more likely to occur. While guns have rarely been used in elections to commit violent acts, they are increasingly being wielded as tools of intimidation.

  • The Accelerationists’ App: How Telegram Became the “Center of Gravity” for a New Breed of Domestic Terrorists

    By James Bandler, A. C. Thompson, and Karina Meier

    From attempting to incite racially motivated violence to encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure, the alleged crimes planned and advertised by extremists on Telegram go far beyond the charges facing CEO Pavel Durov.

  • The Country’s Biggest Ghost Gun Manufacturer Has Shuttered

    By Alain Stephens

    As its products increasingly turned up at crime scenes, Polymer80 drew scrutiny from law enforcement and policymakers.

  • Defense Department Should Secure Access to Advanced Semiconductor Technologies

    A new, multipronged strategy is needed for the U.S. Department of Defense to secure access to advanced semiconductor technologies, one of the agency’s defining challenges, says a new report. DOD should invest in leap-ahead semiconductor technologies, work to reshore production capabilities, and strengthen industry and interagency engagement, says a new report.

  • AI Technology and Self-Coordinating Drones to Detect and Investigate Wildfires

    Engineers have developed a swarm of self-coordinating drones for firefighting, as part of an effort to develop cost-effective early mitigation strategies for wildfires.

  • The Israel-Hezbollah Conflict: Where It Stands

    By Steven A. Cook

    Cross-border fighting has returned to a lower intensity following Israel’s preemptive strike in Lebanon, but the conflict could escalate again, and a reprisal from Iran remains likely.

  • New Gels Could Protect Buildings During Wildfires

    Researchers have developed a sprayable gel that creates a shield to protect buildings from wildfire damage. It lasts longer and is more effective than existing commercial options.

  • Solingen Knife Attack Prompts Tough Security Measures

    By Marcel Fürstenau

    The German government is taking action in response to the fatal knife attack in Solingen, banning knives in public places and putting pressure on rejected asylum seekers and criminal offenders.

  • The History and Future of the Nordic Resistance Movement

    By Peter Smith

    In June 2024, the United States designated Scandinavia’s largest National Socialist organization, the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), as a terrorist entity. NRM has grown into a pan-Nordic organization with a rigid hierarchy and has expanded with chapters throughout Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland. The designation is a disruption to NRM’s ability to operate, but it is unlikely to dismantle the network that makes up its far-right membership.

  • Global AI Adoption Is Outpacing Risk Understanding, Warns MIT CSAIL

    By Peter Slattery, Rachel Gordon, and Neil Thompson

    As organizations rush to implement artificial intelligence (AI), a new analysis of AI-related risks finds significant gaps in our understanding, highlighting an urgent need for a more comprehensive approach.

  • The Danger of AI in War: It Doesn’t Care About Self-Preservation

    By Nishank Motwani

    Recent wargames using artificial-intelligence models from OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic revealed a troubling trend: AI models are more likely than humans to escalate conflicts to kinetic, even nuclear, war.

  • How U.S. Military Planning Has Shifted Away from Fighting Terrorism to Readying for Tensions and Conflict with China and Russia

    By Eric Rosenbach

    As changes emerge in the types of threats facing the U.S., the American military adjusts its strategic focus, budgets and planning. For instance, after 9/11, the U.S. military refocused away from its Cold War emphasis on preparing for combat against a powerful nation – the Soviet Union – and toward fighting small terrorist and insurgent groups instead. Over the past decade, the Pentagon’s efforts have shifted back to preparing for what officials call “great power competition” among the U.S., Russia and China.

  • Yacht Crew’s Decisions Questioned as Investigation Continues

    Investigators continue to piece together the events which led to the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian on 19 August. They focus on two issues: whether the yacht’s keel was lowered to provide stability as the storm raged, and whether large quantities of water managed to flood the yacht and sink it. The crew’s decisions may have contributed to problems with both issues. The captain n and two crew members are being investigated for manslaughter by the Italian police.