The Attacks in Minnesota Reflect a Worrying Trend | What Is the Golden Dome, and Can the United States Afford It? | When the Military Comes to American Soil | The EPA Plans to ‘Reconsider’ Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos, and more
As ‘Lone Actor’ Attacks Rise, Trump Cuts Program Aimed at Spotting Them (USATODAY)
Just as politically motivated attacks by so-called “lone actors” surge across the country, the administration of President Donald Trump is dismantling the very office that oversees efforts to identify and stop such violent extremists before they strike.
Minnesota Shooting Suspect Went from Youthful Evangelizer to Far-Right Zealot (Dustin Nelson, Annie Gowen, Jonathan O’Connell and Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post)
Vance Boelter grew up in a sports-loving Lutheran family in a small Minnesota town where nobody locked their doors — a background that gave little hint of the zealotry to come or the deadly violence of which he is now accused. At 17, he had a religious conversion. As he recalled decades later during a passionate sermon overseas, what happened next shook his life. Waving a Bible and thundering from the podium, he spoke about meeting the holy spirit and running off pamphlets about Jesus to give to everyone he knew.
Fewer Hate Groups Formed in 2024 Even as Far-Right Ideologies Are Gaining Ground in Mainstream Culture (Milwaukee Independent)
The number of White Nationalist, hate, and anti-government groups around the U.S. dropped slightly in 2024, not because of any shrinking influence but rather the opposite. Many feel their beliefs, which include racist narratives and so-called Christian persecution, have become more normalized in government and mainstream discourse.
Terrorists Could Turn Driverless Cars into Slaughterbots, UN Warns (Matt Dathan, The Times)
Its report also suggests that reliance on artificial intelligence may leave the emergency services vulnerable to malicious hackers.
Prompted to Harm: Analyzing the Pirkkala School Stabbing and Its Digital Manifesto (Anda Solea, GNET)
On 20 May 2025, a stabbing incident occurred at a school in the town of Pirkkala, southern Finland, in which three female pupils, all under the age of 15, were injured. Prior to the attack, the perpetrator – a 16-year-old male student – sent a manifesto allegedly written with the aid of ChatGPT to a Finnish newspaper.
The attack bears a disturbing resemblance to the all-too-frequent school shootings in the United States, but also a pattern of violent misogynist incidents seen in the UK, such as the 2024 Southport stabbings and the 2025 Bournemouth stabbings. The violent attack also echoes the pattern of extremist violence perpetuated by misogynistic incels (involuntary celibates), who have become a security concern over the last decade.
This Insight will provide an overview of the Pirkkala school stabbing, analyse the perpetrator’s alleged manifesto and discuss its links to the misogynistic incel ideology and the broader rise in violence against women and girls (VAWG). Further, the role of Generative AI (GenAI) as a facilitator in planning violent extremist attacks, and the use of such tools in the perpetuation of Technology Facilitated Gender Based Violence (TFGBV) will be discussed. The Insight will conclude with a discussion of the intersection between technology misuse and misogynistic violence.
Far-Right Parties Surge Across Europe (Christoph Hasselbach, DW)
While the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party continues to be isolated in the German political scene, similar populist parties are gaining momentum in other EU countries.
Targeting Terror at the Source: AFRICOM’s Airstrikes Shield U.S. Homeland (Pearl Matibe, HSToday)
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) conducted a precision airstrike against ISIS-Somalia on June 12, 2025, about 45 miles southeast of Bosaso, Puntland—underscoring Washington’s sustained effort to neutralize threats at their origin before they can reach American shores.
Far-Right Groups Buzz with Violent Talk on How to Respond to ‘No Kings’ Protest (Brenna T. Smith and Cameron McWhirter, Wall Street Journal)
Proud Boys and other extremists capitalize on planned demonstrations against Trump policies.
DHS Posted an Image Calling for Help Locating ‘All Foreign Invaders.’ It Was Previously Circulated by Far-Right Accounts (Clare Duffy, Sean Lyngaas and Ramishah Maruf, CNN)
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security posted a striking graphic on its official X account. Uncle Sam, a symbol of American patriotism, is depicted nailing a poster to a wall that reads, “Help your country… and yourself.” Written underneath the poster is the sentence, “REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,” and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement hot line.
The post — which DHS and the White House also posted to Instagram — prompted a flood of criticism, with some social media users comparing the post to authoritarian propaganda. On Thursday, at least two far-right X accounts claimed to have a hand in creating or disseminating the image before it was shared by DHS. A source within DHS told CNN the agency did not create the graphic.
How Young People Are Radicalized by Computer Games (Tagesspiegel)
According to the ministry, extremist groups, particularly right-wing extremists, Islamists and conspiracy ideologues, use online and gaming platforms to target young people at a low threshold and influence them ideologically. “The contact often takes place - unnoticed by parents or educational professionals - via voice chats, private groups or disguised content,” the state ministry said. Certain gaming forums serve as safe havens for extremist actors, who can spread ideologies there unhindered. Anonymity and technical barriers make it difficult for the security authorities to intervene.
Far-Right Conservative Catholics in the U.S. Are Experiencing a Resurgence (David Signer, NZZ)
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is the most prominent example of a Catholicism that is aligned with Trump’s politics, which is growing in popularity. The movement was not always in harmony with Pope Francis, and some within it also view the new Pope Leo XIV with suspicion.
THE LONG VIEW
What Is the Golden Dome, and Can the United States Afford It? (Harrison Kass, National Interest)
The Trump administration’s recently announced missile defense initiative makes sense on paper. However, several hurdles stand in the way of its implementation.
‘I Think He Is About to Destroy Vaccines in This Country’ (David Wallace-Wells, New York Times)
On 11 June, RFK Jr. appointed the physician Robert Malone, a discredited anti-vaxx activist and disseminator of bizarre conspiracy theories, to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), where he joins several other anti-vaxxers, appointed by RFK Jr. to replace the vaccination experts he had dismissed earlier.
“I think we are on the verge of losing vaccines for this country, from this country,” says the University of Pennsylvania vaccinologist Paul Offit, a former member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and a co-creator of the rotavirus vaccine. “And the reason is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will hold up a paper, in the next four or five months, that says it’s aluminum in vaccines that are causing a whole swath of problems, including autism,” he goes on. “I think he is about to destroy vaccines in this country. I do.”
Steel and Silicon: Shipbuilding’s Defense Tech Moment (Austin Gray, War on the Rocks)
Can the American military maintain deterrence in East Asia without fixing its shipbuilding? The U.S. Navy’s fleet is rusting and shrinking, while China’s grows. Last week, new data showed Chinese shipbuilding again accelerating relative to American, with 54 percent of global output, up from 35 percent a decade ago. “All of our programs are a mess,” said Secretary of the Navy John Phelan before the Senate. Chinese military planners may conclude it is time to risk their fleet against America’s. Without strong shipbuilding, the Pentagon may hesitate to commit a fleet it cannot regenerate.
Into this tense moment steps a new generation of political and industrial leaders. Tech and finance executives now leading in the Pentagon are laying siege to underperforming shipbuilding programs. From industry, a new Silicon Valley-backed company seems to charge into the breach of maritime defense tech every day. But most of these companies offer software rather than steel.
Traditional shipbuilders seem skeptical of new entrants who promise to transform the industry. None of them has yet built a ship. This sentiment echoes the feelings of the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer two years ago, at the height of the artillery ammo crunch in Ukraine: “The tech bros aren’t helping us.” Traditional ammo factories fed Ukrainian shell hunger, as Cold War shipyards, not new entrant tech companies, generate the U.S. fleet.
I am one of those new entrants, as co-founder of a shipbuilding and technology company making autonomous ships for the Navy. Although some might label me a “tech bro,” I work alongside shipbuilders every day. Because our work straddles the tech and shipbuilding worlds, I see the skepticism identified above. But I also see opportunity.
Shipbuilders are right that you can’t “just do it differently” as some tech executives opine on conference panels, wooing investors with talk of revolutionizing American shipbuilding. They know that when you go to build a ship, you quickly run into the physics of bending steel and laying down a keel. Shipyards already do this in the most efficient way they can. Even with a factory of the future to assemble ships, lead times for most maritime industrial hardware run 6–18 months and depend on one to two suppliers for the engine or propeller you need.
Defense tech entrepreneurs, shipbuilders, and acquisition reformers have a lot to accomplish together. Yards are digitizing. The Pentagon is adapting. But neither will move with blistering speed.
Traditional Federal Cybersecurity Modernization Has Failed – Time for a New Approach (Beau Hutto & Mark Mitchell, HSToday)
Modernization has become the mantra across government agencies, encompassing all areas of operations – including an urgent focus on cybersecurity as the risk of cyberthreats and cyber warfare continues to grow. However, agency leaders are finding that traditional cybersecurity modernization initiatives are becoming cost-prohibitive and ineffective.
FBI Reports 50% Decline in Active Shooter Incidents – A Call for Standardized Response Protocols (Claire Moravec, HSToday)
The FBI’s 2024 Active Shooter Report offers a rare moment of optimism in an otherwise sobering national security landscape. The Bureau identified 24 active shooter incidents across 19 states, marking a 50% decrease from 20231. It’s a welcome shift—fewer incidents, fewer lives lost, fewer communities devastated. But we would be dangerously naïve to interpret this decrease as an indication that the threat is behind us.
The truth is that the threat remains urgent, and our systems to respond remain uneven.
A Critical Mineral in a Critical Moment: The Antimony Crisis (Anna Gustafson and Cameryn Jones, National Interest)
America’s need for antimony is not going away, but it can’t produce what it needs on its own.
How Trump’s Executive Orders Are Transforming American Drone Policy (Harrison Kass, National Interest)
The president has used the power of the pen to enact sweeping changes to US drone policy. However, worries about infringements on civil liberties and other challenges linger.
DEMOCRACY WATCH
We May Be on the Brink of an Extremely Violent Era in American Politics (Robert A. Pape, New York Times)
Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term in January, acts of political violence in the United States have been occurring at an alarming rate.
What is most concerning is that the conditions for political violence today are worsening. We may be on the brink of an extremely violent era in American politics.
The Minnesota Suspect’s Radical Spiritual World (Stephanie McCrummen, The Atlantic)
Before Vance Boelter was accused of killing a Democratic state lawmaker, he had an active, even grandiose, religious life.
Trump Accelerates Push to Reward Loyalty in Federal Workforce (Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post)
Many critics say the administration is scrapping a nonpartisan, merit-based civil service in favor of a biased, politicized system.
Unpacking the Protective Power (Chris Mirasola, Lawfare)
The constitutional basis for Trump’s use of the military in LA has a long history but is ultimately unmoored from constitutional text.
The “Unwilling or Unable” Test for Sending U.S. Military to Los Angeles (Ryan Goodman, Just Security)
The Trump administration argues that the legal authority for sending military forces to Los Angeles is based on the president’s inherent Article II “protective power.” That authority would allow a president to use military personnel to protect federal buildings and federal personnel, according to decades-old opinions by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).
However, there’s a catch: The same OLC opinions state clearly that the protective power can be exercised only if state and civilian authorities cannot or will not provide adequate protection. The required showing is consistent with the traditional American aversion to having the military involved in domestic civilian affairs.
It is doubtful that the situation in Los Angeles could meet the test of necessity, particularly at the time that President Donald Trump federalized the California National Guard and sent in the Marines.
When the Military Comes to American Soil (Joshua Braver, The Atlantic)
Domestic deployments have generally been quite restrained. Can they still be?
American Bar Association Sues Trump Administration (Devlin Barrett, New York Times)
A lawsuit by the lawyers group seeks to stop the president’s efforts to punish law firms.
A Parade of Ignorance (Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic)
President Trump is sending tanks rolling through the streets of the capital not to honor service, but to celebrate power.
Trump’s Un-American Parade (T. H. Breen, The Atlantic)
What looks like an excess of strength may really be a deficit of liberty.
Is Trump Politicizing the Military? (John Haltiwanger and Rishi Iyengar,Foreign Policy)
Critics say Trump’s military parade falls into a dangerous pattern.
When a Radical Performance Artist Has Command of an Army (Economist)
Donald Trump’s troop deployment in LA could yet backfire.
Close Trump Allies Sponsored the Military Parade, Raising Ethical Concerns (Minho Kim, New York Times)
Federal regulations prohibit government employees from using their public office for private gain.
MORE PICKS
The EPA Plans to ‘Reconsider’ Ban on Cancer-Causing Asbestos (Beth Mole, Ars Technica / Wired)
President Donald Trump has supported use of asbestos in the past and blamed the mob for its bad reputation.
Trump Scales Back Biden’s Product Security Demands (Tom Uren, Lawfare)
An executive order signed by President Trump has scaled back the U.S. government’s cybersecurity ambitions. It has dropped a range of provisions that would encourage organizations to adopt more stringent security standards.
The order largely takes aim at directives issued in January of this year by then-President Biden. One part of that January order stipulated that the government “identify a coordinated set of practical and effective security practices to require when it procures software” and that vendors follow those practices. Trump’s order keeps the standards development part but ditches the need for vendors to actually adhere to them.
On Immigration, Trump Runs into Reality (Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times)
President Trump presented his election as a mandate for deportation. But he is encountering the competing forces that have long prevented any significant change in the status quo.
Last week Trump suspended a key part of his deportation campaign, instructing federal agents to suspend raids on farms, hotels and restaurants, looking for people who don’t have permission to work in the U.S.
The president attributed the shift to complaints from employers who depend on the labor of workers who aren’t allowed to work here.
Trump sought to reassure supporters by declaring that the government would expand immigration raids in cities, but he is caught in a trap of his own making.
The president has built political support for deportations by demonizing immigrants, and many Americans have been receptive to his arguments in the abstract, willing to believe that the immigrants they don’t know are bad people.
The problem Trump now faces is that the people he’s trying to round up and deport are not gang members. They’re farmworkers and restaurant cooks.
It’s easy to promise to deport millions of imaginary bad people. The hard part is figuring out how to deal with the millions of actual immigrants who live here.
Trump’s Deportations Aren’t What They Seem (Ali Breland, The Atlantic)
The White House’s callous tactics are warping perceptions of reality.
Head of FEMA Command Center Quits After Trump Says He’ll Phase Out the Agency (Lisa Friedman, New York Times)
The official, Jeremy Greenberg, was in charge of coordinating the national response to major disasters.
How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance (Andy Greenberg and Lily Hya Newman, Wired)
Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.
How Coast Guard Cyber Protection Teams Train for Real-World Port Attacks (Lt. Ievgen Stepanchuk, MyCG)
Three automated ship-to-shore cranes grind to a halt after unusual container movements are detected on the platform below. One thing quickly becomes clear: this is not a mechanical failure—it’s a cyberattack.
This vivid—though fictional—scenario launched a high-stakes training exercise for the U.S. Coast Guard’s 2013 Cyber Protection Team (CPT) last month at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington. As cyber threats to the Marine Transportation System (MTS) grow more advanced, exercises like this are helping prepare the Coast Guard’s cyber defenders for the realities of today’s threat landscape.
