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Continued Post-Oct. 7 Spike in Antisemitism: 84% Increase in Incidents on Campus; 21% Increase in Physical Assaults
The massive spike in antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel continued in 2024, with totals again exceeding any other annual tally in the past 46 years. This is the fourth year in a row that antisemitic incidents increased and broke the previous all-time high.
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Operation Opera Redux? Iran’s Nuclear Program and the Preventive War Paradox
The 1981 Israeli destruction of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor was an operational success, but is regarded by many as a strategic failure. Scholars call this the preventive war paradox: compromising one’s security in the long term through military action that is operationally successful.
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Trump Denies Disaster Aid, Tells States to Do More
In the wake of recent natural disasters, state leaders across the country are finding that emergency support from the federal government is no longer a given, as the White House says states must have an ‘appetite to own the problem.’
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The Trump Administration Says It Wants a “Nuclear Renaissance.” These Actions Suggest Otherwise.
For nuclear advocates, it’s an open question whether the Trump administration’s energy officials recognize the scale of the effort that would be required to achieve their purported ambition for a nuclear revival. In fact, some of the actions the administration has taken, such as tariffs and a shake-up at the Tennessee Valley Authority, could be getting in the way of such revival.
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White House Proposal Could Gut Climate Modeling the World Depends On
Potential funding cuts for NOAA and its research partners threaten irreparable harm not only to climate research but to American safety, competitiveness, and national security.
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The U.S. Trade Deficit: How Much Does It Matter?
President Trump has made reducing U.S. trade deficits a priority, but economists disagree over how much they matter and what to do about them.
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Trump’s Obsession with Trade Deficits Has No Basis in Economics. And It’s a Bad Reason for Tariffs
President Donald Trump believes that if a country has a trade surplus with the U.S. it is somehow playing unfairly and needs to be dealt with. But anyone who understands the basics of international economics will recognize the fallacy in both of these beliefs. That the U.S. has a trade deficit is not a sign that the rest of the world is “ripping it off.” It is a reflection of an affluent society with relatively high wages buying products from countries that can produce them more cheaply. Trump’s tariffs will hurt Americans first – basic international economics is clear on that too.
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Texas May Study the Impact of Immigration Again, but Focus Only on Costs
The only time the state conducted such an assessment two decades ago, it found that undocumented Texans contributed more to the state’s economy than they cost the state.
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No Nation Is an Island: The Dangers of Modern U.S. Isolationism
The resurgence of isolationist sentiment in American politics is understandable but misguided. While the desire to refocus on domestic renewal is justified, retreating from the world will not bring the security, prosperity, or sovereignty that its proponents promise. On the contrary, it invites instability, diminishes U.S. influence, and erodes the democratic order the U.S. helped forge.
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Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More
By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades.
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Trump Touts Manufacturing While Undercutting State Efforts to Help Factories
Tariffs, spending cuts and the winding down of state-based manufacturing aid could hurt small factories.
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What Happened to Putin’s Friends? How Europe’s Radical Right Navigated the Ukraine Crisis on Social Media
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine created a dilemma for European radical right parties: these parties had cultivated friendly ties with Vladimir Putin. An analysis of a decade of Facebook posts reveals how these parties strategically managed their communications to avoid the political fallout while maintaining their Eurosceptic agenda.
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Patriots’ Day: How Far-Right Groups Hijack History and Patriotic Symbols to Advance Their Cause, According to an Expert on Extremism
Extremist groups have attempted to change the meaning of freedom and liberty embedded in Patriots’ Day — a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – to serve their far-right rhetoric, recruitment, and radicalization. Understanding how patriotic symbols can be exploited offers important insights into how historical narratives may be manipulated, potentially leading to harmful consequences in American society.
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Trump Is Shifting Cybersecurity to the States, but Many Aren’t Prepared
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order which substantially reduced the role of the federal government in securing elections, health care, and critical infrastructure against cyberattacks by state actors and cybercriminals. The responsibility of for protection has been shifyed to states and localities, but only 22 of 48 states in a Nationwide Cybersecurity Review met recommended security levels. Moreover, Trump’s funding cuts will make it more difficult for states to bolster their cyber defenses.
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White Supremacist Terrorgram Network Allegedly Inspired Teen Accused of Killing Parents and Plotting Trump Assassination
Court documents reveal that Nikita Casap’s alleged manifesto calling for Trump’s assassination cited multiple Terrorgram publications and urged people to read the writings of a network member who murdered two people outside an LGTBQ+ bar in 2022.
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The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
A Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
“The Federal Government Is Gone”: Under Trump, the Fight Against Extremist Violence Is Left Up to the States
As President Donald Trump guts the main federal office dedicated to preventing terrorism, states say they’re left to take the lead in spotlighting threats. Some state efforts are robust, others are fledgling, and yet other states are still formalizing strategies for addressing extremism. With the federal government largely retreating from focusing on extremist dangers, prevention advocates say the threat of violent extremism is likely to increase.
The “Invasion” Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy
The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”
How DHS Laid the Groundwork for More Intelligence Abuse
I&A, the lead intelligence unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) —long plagued by politicized targeting, permissive rules, and a toxic culture —has undergone a transformation over the last two years. Spencer Reynolds writes that this effort falls short. “Ultimately, Congress must rein in I&A,” he adds.