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Inadequate Information Released After Southport Attack by Authorities, Says Terror Law Reviewer  (Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz, BBC)
In the aftermath of the Southport knife attack there was a sense of national trauma over the killings of three girls at a summer holiday dance and yoga class. Seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King who was six, and nine-year-old Alice Aguiar were murdered. Eight other children were badly injured.
Anger and disbelief soon followed, prompting burning questions over the identity, background and possible motive of the attacker, and suspicions about why the authorities appeared to be saying a lot less than they knew.
Despite public demands for information, the police provided few details about the attacker. There was very little information in their statements about his background. He was not even named because he was 17 at the time of the attack. One thing was made public early on - it was not being treated as terror-related by the authorities.
The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has told BBC Panorama that he believes the quality and quantity of information released by the authorities in the hours after the attack on 29 July 2024 was “inadequate”.

Why Hate Speech Is Punishable By Law in Germany(Peter Hille, DW)
Can you express your opinion freely in Germany? Yes, but not unconditionally. Rules on speech are stricter in Germany than, for example, in the United States.

“Unappetizing”: AfD Election Advertising on Amazon Leads Directly to Reich Citizens Articles(Peter Sieben, Gmunder Tagespost)
There are numerous AfD advertising items on Amazon – right next to fan material for right-wing extremists. Experts consider this form of election advertising to be highly problematic. Berlin – Shortly before the federal election, the online mail order company Amazon is being flooded with AfD promotional items . There are numerous T-shirts and hoodies with the party logo, buttons and stickers with slogans. We reported on AfD merchandise on Amazon a year ago, but one shop suddenly disappeared during our research . But new ones have been added: Often, shipping is done directly via the Amazon service “Merch on Demand”… Articles from other parties cannot be found on Amazon. Experts are extremely critical of this particular form of election advertising. Extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project, told our editorial team: “The AfD is pursuing a normalization strategy. The technical term for remigration is ‘ethnic cleansing’. And now the party is using it officially and it is being printed on merchandise. That is more than worrying.”

Following US Lead, Canada Designates 7 Latin American Criminal Groups as Terrorist Entities  (Jim Morris, AP)
Canada is designating seven Latin American criminal organizations as terrorist entities under the country’s Criminal Code, giving Canadian law enforcement another tool in the fight against fentanyl trafficking, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said Thursday. The list includes Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel and La Nueva Familia Michoacana, and was announced a day after the U.S. government formally designated eight Latin American organized crime groups as “foreign terrorist organizations.” “The measures will help keep fentanyl off Canadian streets and from entering the United States,” McGuinty told a news conference.

Confronting Global Terrorism: A Data-Driven Analysis of Tactics, Weapons, and Trends Using GTTAC  (Mahmut Cengiz, HSToday)
Terrorism has consistently remained a significant concern amidst the many challenges the world faces today. While issues such as illegal migration, border security, illicit trade, human trafficking, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and climate change have dominated the agendas of Western governments, none have managed to overshadow the persistent threat of terrorism. Despite evolving security paradigms that highlight emerging threats, such as China’s military and economic expansion, terrorism continues to be a critical issue in Western countries.

Mexico Eyes Constitutional Reform After U.S. Terrorism Designations  (Frances Vinall, Washington Post)
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her party has proposed reforms to the country’s constitution to better protect its sovereignty in response to the United States designating six Mexican organized-crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. State Department on Thursday upgraded the designation of cartels including Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación, which together dominate fentanyl manufacturing and importation into the United States, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. “This cannot be an opportunity for the United States to invade our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said at a news conference Thursday, adding that Mexico would collaborate on combating organized crime but would not accept “subordination.”

US Declares Tren De Aragua, Other Cartels Are Global Terrorist Organizations (Ted Hesson, Reuters)
The United States on Wednesday designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and other drug cartels as global terrorist organizations, according to a Federal Register notice, a move that comes as President Donald Trump steps up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members in the U.S. The notice issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the groups pose a risk to U.S. national security, foreign policy and economic interests. Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order after taking office on January 20 that called on officials to evaluate whether any criminal cartels or transnational gangs should be designated as terrorism groups.

Australia’s Growing Youth Radicalization  (Bloomberg)
Australia’s spy chief revealed almost all foiled terrorist attacks over the past year involved the radicalization of children. In his annual threat assessment, the Security Intelligence Organization Director-General Mike Burgess said the threat of terrorism and politically-motivated violence is rising, with individuals as young as 12 “self-radicalizing” through complicated and contradictory systems of belief. There are probably more than 1 million underage users in Australia on leading social media platforms such as Meta Platforms, TikTok, Snapchat , a regulatory report said, highlighting the scale of policy failure at the companies before the country enforces unprecedented user age limits this year.

DEMOCRACY WATCH

In Trump’s Washington, a Moscow-Like Chill Takes Hold  (Peter Baker, New York Times)
A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia.

One Word Describes Trump  (Jonathan Rauch, The Atlantic)
A century ago, a German sociologist explained precisely how the president thinks about the world.

Judge Questions Constitutionality of DOGE, Musk’s Role  (Michael Stratford, Politico)
The judge said that it’s possible DOGE is running afoul of the appointments clause of the Constitution, which generally requires federal agencies to be run by Senate-confirmed officials.

3 Ways Trump Is Acting Like a King and Bypassing the Constitution’s Checks and Balances on Presidential Authority  (David Lopez, The Conversation)
In civics classes in school, we learned, Congress passes the laws, the president administers the laws, and the courts interpret the laws.
This elegant but simple system stood in contrast to the nearly unshackled power of the British king, who ruled over the American colonies before independence. And it provided representation for “We the People,” because we vote for members of Congress.
During its first month, the second Trump administration has pushed a new balance of these powers, granting the president expansive and far-reaching authority. These actions imperil the power of elected lawmakers in the House and Senate to pass legislation, oversee the federal government and exercise spending authority.

Trump, Putin and the Authoritarian Take on Constitutionalism  (Stephen Lovell, The Conversation)
When Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” for his failure to hold elections, it was a shocking moment. Even by the topsy-turvy standards of the current US administration, this looked like deliberate ignorance of the facts. Ukrainian law and the electoral code state that elections cannot be held while martial law is in place. That leaves aside the practical impossibility of ensuring fair, free and secure elections during war on the scale Russia is inflicting on Ukraine.

In making this dangerous intervention, the US president was simply repeating a well-established trope of Russian propaganda. For some time, the Kremlin has been casting aspersions on the legitimacy of Zelensky. Vladimir Putin has been using this as a pretext to allow him to sidestep any direct contact with the (legitimately elected) Ukrainian president.

Ukraine now finds the legitimacy of its constitution under threat from both the dominant regional power – Russia – and the world power of the US. It falls on Europe – a region almost defined by its commitment to constitutional democracy – to articulate and defend an alternative vision.

European leaders – and their electorates – need to act on the belief that democracy and sovereignty are not on separate tracks but belong together. Ukraine deserves to retain its free elections, but it also deserves a state.

Only 6% of Gen Z Actually Favor Dictatorship – Not Half, as Some Reports Would Have You Believe  (Bobby Duffy and Paolo Morini, The Conversation)
America’s constitutional framework was designed specifically to prevent the concentration of power and to impede any president’s authoritarian aspirations. It is certainly being put to the test right now.
When US vice-president J.D. Vance recently wrote that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power”, he gave perhaps the clearest indication to date that the Trump administration might ignore court rulings, potentially laying the ground for what some have argued would amount to a dictatorship.
Given this context, it certainly seemed plausible when a recent Channel 4 study suggested UK democracy could be heading towards a similar crisis. However, we have conducted research that paints a very different picture of gen z’s tendency towards dictatorship.
Our analysis of the WVS shows precisely this. Gen Z are the least likely to think we even currently live in a democracy. That’s perhaps understandable from their perspective when so many policy decisions – from pensions and housing, to support for the costs of education and childcare – have favored older people.
Older generations face a serious challenge convincing gen Z that democracy and our political institutions can work for them. But exaggerating their desire to rip it all up doesn’t increase the sense of urgency, it just adds to the drama of generational division. It risks giving a false sense of momentum to the decline of democracy, which is the last thing we need right now.

Trump Administration Sets Out to Create an America Its People Have Never Experienced − One without a Meaningful Government  (Sidney Shapiro and Joseph P. Tomain, The Conversation)
Many Trump voters cited economic factors as motivating their support. And our book, How Government Built America,documents how policies supported by both political parties – particularly globalization, which led to the flood of manufacturing jobs that went overseas – contributed to the economic struggles with which many Americans are burdened.
But based on the history of how government built America, we believe the most effective way to improve the economic prospects of those and other Americans is not to eliminate portions of the government entirely. Rather, it’s to adopt government programs that create economic opportunity in deindustrialized areas of the country.
These problems – economic inequality and loss of opportunity – were caused by the free market’s response to the lack of government action, or insufficient or misdirected action. The market cannot be expected to fix what it has created. And markets don’t answer to the American people. Government does, and it can take action.

Donald Trump Should Not Replace Us with His Stooges, Warns a Fired Inspector-General  (Economist)
Mark Greenblatt on the dangers America will face if oversight officials lose their independence.

Musk and Republican Lawmakers Pressure Judges with Impeachment Threats  (Carl Hulse, New York Times)
Democrats say the calls to remove judges who block Trump administration initiatives amount to intimidation. Some senior Republicans are also skeptical of the effort.

Can Elon Musk Find Any Fraud Before Trump’s Base Notices the Con?  (Philip Bump, Washington Post)
The truth is that “fraud” has never been the target.

What the Choice of Dan Bongino Could Mean for Kash Patel’s FBI Vision  (Perry Stein, Jeremy Roebuck, Jonathan Baran and Clara Ence Morse,Washington Post)
The FBI’s new deputy director is a bombastic podcast host who has never worked at the bureau and has pushed conspiracy theories about it for years.

DOGE’s Grab of Personal Data Stokes Privacy and Security Fears  (Faiz Siddiqui, Joseph Menn and Jacob Bogage, Washington Post)
Twenty-one staffers of the U.S. DOGE Service announced their resignations Tuesday citing, among other worries, “mishandling sensitive data.”

January 6 Still Happened  (Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic)
The Trump administration can pardon the insurrectionists and delete pages of evidence. But it cannot hide what took place on that day.

Washington Post Cancels Ad from Groups Calling for Trump to Fire Musk  (Julie Creswell, New York Times)
The newspaper told Common Cause, an advocacy group, that it was pulling its special ad, which would have covered the front and back pages of some Tuesday editions.

A Guide to the Trump Administration Lexicon  (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post)
Transparency, free speech and fraud have different meanings under Trump

Bannon Salute at Right-Wing Event Sparks Outcry, Even on French Right  (Charles Homans, Emma Bubola and Michael Gold, New York Times)
A gesture by Stephen Bannon at CPAC, outside Washington, echoed a move by Elon Musk and prompted the president of France’s far-right National Rally to say it had evoked “Nazi ideology.”

Trump Officials Attack a German Consensus on Nazis and Speech  (Jim Tankersley, New York Times)
Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk have challenged decades-long approaches to political extremism that were designed to prevent another Hitler.

The Dangers of Presidential Impoundment  (Julian E. Zelizer, Foreign Policy)
Nixon tried what Trump is planning—and it caused a constitutional crisis.

Trump Official Destroying USAID Secretly Met with Christian Nationalists Abroad in Defiance of U.S. Policy  (Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester, ProPublica)Now one of the most powerful people in the U.S. government, Peter Marocco’s turbulent tenure during the first Trump administration sheds light on his current efforts to dismantle the American foreign aid system from the inside out.

Trump Vowed to Clean Up Washington, Then His Team Hired a Man Who Pushed a Scam the IRS Called the “Worst of the Worst”  (Peter Elkind, ProPublica)Frank Schuler was a leading promoter of a tax deduction derided as a scam by prosecutors, senators and the IRS. Now he’s a senior adviser to the General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s property.

Elon Musk Is Leading a “Hostile Takeover of the Federal Government”  (Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times)President Trump has empowered Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, to fire government employees, eliminate federal agencies and run roughshod over both federal law and the Constitution.
In an unparalleled delegation of executive branch authority, Trump has chosen Musk —who is at once an entrepreneur whose companies have won billions of dollars in federal contracts and an open supporter of far-right political parties in Europe —to conduct a radical reconfiguration of the American government in conformity with the ideological agendas of both Trump and Musk.

Bolsonaro’s Indictment Over Alleged Coup Plot Signals Shift in Brazil’s Approach to Political Accountability (Felipe Tirado, The Conversation)
Given Bolsonaro’s history, this seems paradoxical. Throughout his decades-long public career, Bolsonaro has consistently celebrated the crimes of the military dictatorship and supported violations of human rights. At the same time, he has also opposed individuals and organizations that advocate for victims of the dictatorship.
If Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices are found guilty, it could be an unparalleled lesson for Brazil. Punishing anyone convicted would be an opportunity to step away from the country’s tradition of impunity and move towards addressing systemic injustices.

Donald Trump: The Would-be King  (Economist)
America is fated to wage a titanic struggle over the power of the president.

Trump Administration Brings Fear of Censorship to Arts Scene  (Sarah Hucal, DW)
A children’s book about inclusion was put “under review” by the Trump administration. What effects does the new US government have on the arts sector?

Donald Trump Is Taking Presidential Power to Alarming Places (Jack Goldsmith, Economist)
Congress won’t check his Napoleonic instincts. Will a solidly conservative Supreme Court?

Donald Trump Is a Reckless President, but Not Yet a Lawless One  (Economist)
He has yet to flatly defy a court order, which would initiate a constitutional crisis.

MAGA Has Found a New Model  (Peter Wehner, The Atlantic)
The leading figures of the Trump administration have fallen for a far-right party in Germany.

FBI Agents Association Sounds Alarm Over Potential Mass Firing of New Agents  (Megan Norris, HSToday)
In a strongly-worded letter to federal officials, the association representing over 14,000 active and retired Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents warned that nearly 1,000 FBI Special Agents could face termination due to a new federal workforce directive, potentially creating a devastating blow to national security from which it could take decades to recover.
The controversy stems from a January 20, 2025, memo from the Office of Personnel Management directing federal agencies to evaluate employees on probationary status. For the FBI, this could affect approximately 10% of its Special Agent workforce –agents who have already completed detailed background checks and extensive training that costs around $300,000 per agent, or $300 million total.

AP Sues White House Officials Over Denial of Access  (AFP / VOA News)
The move would be a drastic escalation by the White House to militarize immigration enforcement.
The Associated Press filed a lawsuit against three White House officials on Friday after the news agency was barred from some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s events.
The AP, in the suit filed in a federal court in Washington, said the denial of access violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.
The White House began blocking AP journalists from the Oval Office 10 days ago over the news agency’s refusal to follow Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

NEW RISKS

Musk’s “5 Things” Email Mandate a “Nightmare” Risk, Cyber Officials Say  (By Alex Horton and Warren P. Strobel, Washington Post)
Officials at Cyber Command said in interviews and internal emails that there is considerable risk that the aggregation of unclassified material could reveal secretive details to foreign adversaries.

Donald Trump’s Economic Delusions Are Already Hurting America  (Economist)
The president and reality are drifting apart.

It Is Not the Economic Impact of Tariffs That Is Most Worrying  (Economist)
What are the lessons of the 1930s?

Pentagon Cuts Threaten Programs That Secure Loose Nukes and Weapons of Mass Destruction  (Justin Ling, Wired)
Documents obtained by WIRED show the US Department of Defense is considering cutting up to 75 percent of workers who stop the spread of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

Inside U.S. Spy Agencies, Workers Fear a Cataclysmic Trump Cull  (Warren P. Strobel and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post)
Firings and mass disruptions could harm intelligence collection on foreign threats and future recruiting, current and former officials say.

What Erratic Government Does to a Country  (Emily Chamlee-Wright, Persuasion)
Unpredictability is bad for business.

How Dan Bongino Went from Infowars to FBI Deputy Director  (David Gilbert, Wired)
Dan Bongino rose through the ranks of right-wing media thanks to his unflinching loyalty to Donald Trump and willingness to push baseless conspiracies—including about the FBI.

Here Are the Digital Clues to What Musk Is Really Up To  (Zeynep Tufekci, New York Times)
Watching Elon Musk and his band of young acolytes slash their way through the federal government, many observers have struggled to understand how such a small group could do so much damage in so little time.
The mistake is trying to situate Musk solely in the context of politics. He isn’t approaching this challenge like a budget-minded official. He’s approaching it like an engineer, exploiting vulnerabilities that are built into the nation’s technological systems, operating as what cybersecurity experts call an insider threat. We were warned about these vulnerabilities but no one listened, and the consequences — for the United States and the world — will be vast.

How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy  (Jonathan Swan, et al, New York Times)
The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies.

Trump’s Cuts Come with Risks. Including From Volcanoes.  (Raymond Zhong, New York Times)
A spending freeze could disrupt systems that warn communities when eruptions appear imminent.

Trump’s FDA Cuts Are Putting Drug Development at Risk  (Caroline Haskins, Wired)
New SEC filings from pharmaceutical companies reveal Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s cost-cutting measures could slow drug research and delay FDA approvals.

Trump’s Chilling Effect on Medical Research  (Washington Post)
Inside the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, the past six weeks have been chaos. The NIH has long been a driver of scientific discoveries on treatments for diseases from cancer to covid –but under Trump, its future is uncertain.

How Dan Bongino Would Run the F.B.I., According to Dan Bongino  (Stuart A. Thompson, Adam Goldman, and Dylan Freedman, New York Times)
The newly appointed deputy director of the F.B.I. has a long history of criticizing the bureau and its leadership. He has promised “dramatic change.”

DOGE Is Working on Software That Automates the Firing of Government Workers  (Makena Kelly, Wired)
Operatives working for Elon Musk’s DOGE appear to be editing the code of AutoRIF—software designed by the Defense Department that could assist in mass firings of federal workers, sources tell WIRED.

CDC Layoffs Strike Deeply at Its Ability to Respond to the Current Flu, Norovirus and Measles Outbreaks and Other Public Health Emergencies  (Jordan Miller, The Conversation)
In just a few short weeks, the Trump administration has brought drastic changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health. Beginning with the removal of websites and key public health datasets in January 2025, the Trump administration has taken actions to dismantle established public health infrastructure as part of its second-term agenda.
In addition, the administration has begun a widespread purge of the federal public health workforce. As of Feb. 19, around 5,200 employees at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health had been let go. About 10% of the CDC’s staff have been removed, with plans for additional firings.

Hegseth Has All the Wrong Enemies  (Jason Dempsey, The Atlantic)
Appointing his personal lawyer to a top spot at the Pentagon is another sign that the U.S. military is now fighting culture wars.

How Dan Bongino Went from Infowars to FBI Deputy Director  (David Gilbert, Wired)
Dan Bongino rose through the ranks of right-wing media thanks to his unflinching loyalty to Donald Trump and willingness to push baseless conspiracies—including about the FBI.

Here Are the Digital Clues to What Musk Is Really Up To  (Zeynep Tufekci, New York Times)
Watching Elon Musk and his band of young acolytes slash their way through the federal government, many observers have struggled to understand how such a small group could do so much damage in so little time.
The mistake is trying to situate Musk solely in the context of politics. He isn’t approaching this challenge like a budget-minded official. He’s approaching it like an engineer, exploiting vulnerabilities that are built into the nation’s technological systems, operating as what cybersecurity experts call an insider threat. We were warned about these vulnerabilities but no one listened, and the consequences — for the United States and the world — will be vast.

How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy  (Jonathan Swan, et al, New York Times)
The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies.

U.S. digital disarmament gives Russia free rein in cyberspace. Bad idea.  (Colin Ahern and Mark Montgomery, Washington Post)
In cyberspace, as in other domains, peace comes through strength.

The New Meaning of “Munich”  (Michael Hirsh, Foreign Policy)
After J.D. Vance’s bizarre speech, a word synonymous with appeasement may now signal the voluntary surrender of global hegemony.

A Friday-Night Massacre at the Pentagon  (Tom Nichols, The Atlantic)
Trump’s purge started with his firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top Navy officer, and the vice chief of the Air Force.
Trump and Hegseth have announced their intentions to fire several other senior officers—and perhaps even most ominously, including the head lawyers of each of the services. Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI, the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government. None of this has anything to do with effectiveness, or “lethality,” or promoting “warfighters,” or any other buzzwords. It is praetorianism, plain and simple.

Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientists and Public Health Leaders  (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times)
A core group of so-called disease detectives, who track outbreaks, was apparently spared. But other young researchers are out of jobs.

How the Trump Administration Could End a Century of American Scientific Dominance  (Adam Sobel, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
When the Trump administration issued its federal funding freeze in its first days, it was immediately felt as an enormous shock to scientists across the country. And it still is; while the freeze was officially blocked by court order, functionally, it still appears to be in place to some extent, in that the processes by which federal funds are disbursed to universities, government, and industry laboratories are not operating normally. Communication with most federal science agencies is currently difficult if not impossible.
At the same time, Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has been trying to convince employees of the science agencies to quit, through a buyout offer of questionable legality combined with threats that they may be fired in any case.
Project 2025, the playbook behind the administration’s actions, calls for drastic and unprecedented reductions in agency budgets. The National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have both been reportedly threatened with cuts of 30 to 50 percent or more. A new directive on Friday orders overhead on grants from the National Institute of Health to be cut to 15 percent. At this level, universities will lose money for research, such that many will have to do less of it or none at all.
The damage won’t be limited to the universities themselves: According to United for Medical Research, a coalition of university and private industry research institutions, the $37.81 billion awarded in NIH research grants in 2023 generated $92.89 billion in economic activity. Even that statistic doesn’t account for more diffuse benefits, or the way those benefits compound in subsequent years. One recent economic study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, for example, found that non-defense R&D spending overall paid returns of 150 to 300 percent, and was responsible for a quarter of the United States’ productivity growth since World War II.
These actions have shattered scientists’ trust in systems that have been in place since World War II. If the administration continues down this path, and neither Congress nor the courts are able or willing to stop it, the damage will be catastrophic and long-lasting and will extend far beyond the laboratories where government research funds are spent.

Should We Worry About DOGE Controlling the U.S. Payment System?  (Cameron Abadi and Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy)
The payments that it processes amount to a quarter of U.S. GDP.

Trump Begins Firings of FAA Air Traffic Control Staff Just Weeks After Fatal DC Plane Crash  (AP / VOA News)
The Trump administration began firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told The Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Social Security Head Steps Down Over DOGE Access of Recipient Information: AP Sources  (AP / VOA News)
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Acting Commissioner Michelle King’s departure from the agency over the weekend —after more than 30 years of service —was initiated after King refused to provide DOGE staffers at the SSA with access to sensitive information, the people said Monday.

THE LONG VIEW

Yes, America Is Europe’s Enemy Now  (Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy)
The Trump administration has gone way past revising the transatlantic alliance.

The Crisis of Democracy Is Here  (Larry Diamond, Persuasion)
Less than a month into his second term as president, Donald Trump and his loyalists in government are already posing grave risks to the legal, constitutional, and normative foundations of American democracy. The threat Trump poses is much more severe than during his first term (which ended with him and his allies staging an insurrection to nullify the national election outcome and block the peaceful transfer of power). This time, there are no weighty figures in his administration willing to put the Constitution above personal loyalty to him. This time, Trump and his MAGA team have had four years to plan a more concerted assault on democratic checks and balances, and a revolutionary campaign to destroy many core institutions of the federal government. And this time, Trump and his loyalists have a long agenda of revenge against a wide range of actors who they believe have wronged them and who they now want to punish and subdue.
No doubt, extreme partisans of the MAGA cause will view this essay as purely partisan. I hope more open-minded and objective readers will see it for what I believe it is: an articulation of urgent concern for the future of American democracy, shaped by my study over the last half-century of how democracies rise and fall, and my last two decades of tracking and unpacking the global democratic recession. Having won the presidency fair and square, Donald Trump has earned the right to propose, and in many cases to implement, radical new policy directions. But he does not have the right to violate the law, the Constitution, and the civil liberties of Americans in doing so.

Censored Science Can’t Save Lives  (Jehan AlladinaC. Corey Hardin and Alexander Rabin, New York Times)
Shockingly, 10 people die of asthma daily in the United States.
Why? Specifically, why do some patients with severe asthma get prescribed the newer drugs more than others? And what is the influence of race or gender on respiratory health?
In recent weeks, studies that would help us answer these and other health equity questions have come under attack from the federal government for their purported shameful agenda and wokeness. They have, in a word, been censored.
Censoring research on how to deliver treatments to those most in need isn’t just nonsensical; it puts lives at risk and undermines America’s leadership in medical innovation. Progress cannot occur if scientists are barred from asking certain questions. This is not how science works.
This kind of research into health disparities might now be deemed illegal by the federal government. And it appears that scientific censorship will not end there: The administration is sending a warning directed at all kinds of other medical research, too. Work related to the effects of climate change on human health may also soon be on the chopping block, just as infectious diseases expand their global reach.

America Is Botching Measles  (Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic)
Vaccination is the only way to prevent measles infection, a fact the Trump administration has downplayed.

Recent Virus Research Should Raise Alarm  (. Ian Lipkin and Ralph Baric, New York Times)
There’s a central question that many scientists face: How can scientific discoveries drive humanity’s progress without posing a dire risk to it? As virus experts, we’re committed to research that uncovers pandemic threats and helps protect people from them. But we are concerned about how some scientists are experimenting with viruses in ways that could put all of us in harm’s way.

Artificial Intelligence Can Be America’s Strategic Advantage  (Manisha Singh, National Interest)
The world is shifting from great power competition to global strategic advantage, and artificial intelligence can be America’s great strategic advantage. Like every other significant innovation in the last century, AI was created in the U.S. Both allies and adversaries are racing to surpass our economic and security capabilities. America must accelerate in the race to mobilize AI for great strategic advantage.

In Texas Measles Outbreak, Signs of a Riskier Future for Children  (Teddy Rosenbluth, New York Times)
Vaccine hesitancy has been rising for years in the United States. Doctors and parents in one rural county are confronting the consequences.

Geothermal: An Energy Source We Can Agree On?  (Robert L. Kleinberg, National Security)
Does Trump have a plan to build out a low-carbon energy source?

MORE PICKS

Army Corps Knew Trump Order Would Waste California Water, Memo Shows  (Scott Dance and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post)
The Army Corps colonel responsible for releasing reservoir water at Trump’s direction knew it wouldn’t reach Southern California as he promised, a memo obtained by The Post shows.

A Sensitive Complex Housing a CIA Facility Was on GSA’s List of US Properties for Sale  (Dhruv Mehrotra et al., Wired)
Plans to redevelop a Northern Virginia warehouse site have long been complicated by the area’s worst-kept secret—the presence of a CIA facility. The GSA put the site up for sale anyway.

Trump’s Spy Chief Urged to Declassify Details of Secret Surveillance Program  (Dell Cameron, Wired)
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has long held anti-surveillance views. Now she oversees a key surveillance program she once tried to dismantle.

CDC Plans Study on Vaccines and Autism Despite Research Showing No Link  (Lena H. Sun and Lauren Weber, Washington Post)
President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have repeatedly raised the idea that autism could be linked to vaccines.

A Thousand Snipers in the Sky: The New War in Ukraine  (Marc Santora, Lara Jakes, Andrew E. Kramer, Marco Hernandez and Liubov Sholudko, New York Times)
Drones have changed the war in Ukraine, with soldiers adapting off-the-shelf models and swarming the front lines.

Trump’s Armed Forces Won’t Look Like Biden’s  (Economist)
America is set to spend more—and differently.

What the U.K. Wants from Apple Will Make Our Phones Less Safe  (Bruce Schneier, Foreign Policy)
Once a back door to user data exists, everyone will want in.

Farmers Sue USDA After Agency Deletes Climate Change Data  (Annabelle Timsit, Washington Post)
The lawsuit says the Agriculture Department is hindering farmers from using the data to make “agricultural decisions” while they also face a recent funding freeze.

“Unknown Disease” That Can Kill Within Days Leaves 53 Dead in Congo  (Vivian Ho, Washington Post)
World Health Organization officials said the outbreak appeared to originate from a village where three children died after reportedly eating a bat carcass.

The American Path to Competitive Advantage (Yaël Ossowski, National Security)
As a global economic and financial power with military hegemon status facing increasing challenges from the East, the United States is presented with a unique opportunity to project its strength and influence. As a reigning technological leader with thriving markets and capital, the U.S. must ensure that its policies continue to adhere to its values while providing the autonomy and support structure needed to enrich its people and contribute to global flourishing.

Trump Plans to Use Military Sites Across the Country to Detain Undocumented Immigrants  (Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hamed Aleaziz, and Eric Schmitt, New York Times)
The move would be a drastic escalation by the White House to militarize immigration enforcement.

Los Angeles Mayor Ousts Fire Chief for Response to Deadly Fires  (AP /VOA News)
Six weeks after the most destructive wildfire in city history, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ousted the city’s fire chief Friday amid a public rift over preparations for a potential fire and finger-pointing between the chief and City Hall over responsibility for the devastation.
Bass said in a statement that she is removing Chief Kristin Crowley immediately.
“Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs,” Bass said in a statement.

Nearly 100 Cases of Measles Reported in Texas, New Mexico   ((AP /VOA News)
The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 90 cases across seven counties, the state health department posted online Friday, and 16 people are hospitalized.
Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is safe and highly effective in preventing measles infection and severe cases of the disease.
There is no link between the vaccine and autism, despite a now-discredited study and health disinformation.

In Texas, Vaccine-Choice Activists Are Ascendant  (Economist)
Amid a measles outbreak they are lobbying for more “medical freedom.”

Only Asia Can Help America Counter China’s Shipbuilding Prowess  (Economist)
But will Donald Trump let it?