OUR PICKS LAST WEEKIs the NSC Dead? | America Is Becoming Less Ready for Natural Disasters | How America Lost Control of the Seas | Harvard Derangement Syndrome, and more

Published 1 June 2025

EXTREMISM

·  What Are People Still Doing on X?

·  Sharp Spike in Threats to Judges Prompts Calls for More Security 

·  Experts Warn of More Attacks and Terrorism as Trump Hacks Law Enforcement Budgets to Fund His Deportation Plans 

·  Africa Terror Group Ramping up Ability to Strike Inside the U.S., General Says

·  Man Who Says Far-Right Content Led Him to Threaten Election Officials Is Sentenced to 3 Years 

·  The Surprising History of Using Vehicles as Weapons for Mass Attacks

·  A Swedish MMA Tournament Spotlights the Trump Administration’s Handling of Far-Right Terrorism

 

·  Germany’s Federal Police Chief Warns of Right-Wing Extremist Youth Groups 

·  Already Several Proceedings Against Young Neo-Nazis

·  U-Haul Bans Patriot Front Members After Trucks Rented in KC for March

·  Official Who Posted Antisemitic Rhetoric Becomes Pentagon Press Secretary

·  Veterans Recoil at Trump Plan to End Afghans’ Deportation Protection

THE LONG VIEW

·  Like Many Populist Leaders, Trump Accuses Judges of Being Illegitimate Obstacles to Safety and Democracy

·  Is the NSC Dead?

·  How America Lost Control of the Seas

·  The U.S. Military Needs to Relearn Nuclear Signaling

·  National Security Council Staff Will Be Cut by Half

·  Crypto Has Become the Ultimate Swamp Asset 

ASSAULT ON SCIENCE

·  Harvard Derangement Syndrome

·  Trump’s War on Harvard Is Bizarre — and Incredibly Damaging

·  White House Health Report Included Fake Citations 

·  Demand for American Degrees Is Sinking 

·  16 States Sue Trump Over $1.4 Billion in Science Cuts

·  Pausing Foreign Applications to U.S. Universities Is a Terrible Idea

·  Trump’s Crackdown on Foreign Student Visas Could Derail Critical AI Research

·  Republican Lawmakers and Agriculture Groups Question MAHA Report

·  Watch Out: America Is Becoming Less Ready for Natural Disasters

·  The EPA Will Likely Gut Team That Studies Health Risks from Chemicals

·  Dismantling NOAA Threatens the World’s Ability to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Levels

·  Trump Administration Plans to End Greenhouse Gas Limits on Power Plants

·  RFK Jr. Says He May Bar Scientists from Publishing in Top Medical Journals 

MORE PICKS

·  Trump’s Visa Crackdown Plunges 275,000 Chinese Students into Uncertainty

·  FEMA Has Canceled Its 4-Year Strategic Plan Ahead of Hurricane Season

·  Checks on Migrant Children by Homeland Security Agents Stir Fear

·  How Much Worse Could America’s Measles Outbreak Get?

·  US Gun Trafficking to Mexico: Independent Gun Shops Supply the Most Dangerous Weapons

·  Gun Trafficking from the US to Mexico: The Drug Connection

EXTREMISM

What Are People Still Doing on X?  (Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic)
Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout.

Sharp Spike in Threats to Judges Prompts Calls for More Security  (Derek Hawkins, Washington Post)
The U.S. Marshals Service investigated 373 threats to judges in the first five months of 2025, fueling calls for better protection for judges and courthouses.

Experts Warn of More Attacks and Terrorism as Trump Hacks Law Enforcement Budgets to Fund His Deportation Plans  (Ariana Baio, Independent)
Federal cuts to local and state terrorism combating efforts have raised concerns among advocates and researchers about the possibility of more attacks at a time when threats of violence are on the rise. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has directed his administration to reallocate some law enforcement resources to assist in carrying out his mass deportation agenda. That includes shutting down a national database that kept track of attempted and successful terrorism and targeted violence events and cutting FBI staff tasked with focusing on domestic terrorism.

Africa Terror Group Ramping up Ability to Strike Inside the U.S., General Says  (Anne Flaherty, ABC News)
The Sahel region in Africa is now the “epicenter of terrorism on the globe,” a four-star Marine Corps general warned Thursday, with terror factions there having increased their presence dramatically in the past three years and ramping up their ability to launch attacks inside the U.S. The dire warning by Gen. Michael Langley, head of U.S. Africa Command, comes as the Trump administration cancels aid programs across the continent and considers consolidating military leadership in Africa with one already overseeing troops in Europe.

Man Who Says Far-Right Content Led Him to Threaten Election Officials Is Sentenced to 3 Years  (Colleen Slevin, AP News)
A man who blamed exposure to far-right extremist content for his online threats to kill Democratic election officials in Colorado and Arizona was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday. U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews said the penalty for such “keyboard terrorism” needed to be serious enough to deter others, particularly because threats against public officials are on the rise. People need to work out differences through the democratic process, not violence, Crews said.

The Surprising History of Using Vehicles as Weapons for Mass Attacks  (Charles Lane, Washington Post)
The latest incident, in Liverpool, underlined that assumptions about perpetrators can be misguided.