OUR PICKS‘Our Era of Violent Populism’ | RFK’s Loopy Approach to Vaccines Endangers Americans | Microsoft Aided an Adversary’s AI Ambitions, and more

RFK’s Loopy Approach to Vaccines Endangers Americans  (Economist)
Donald Trump’s health secretary undermines global public health, too.

Harvard Should Prepare to Move Abroad  (Maciej Kisilowski, Foreign Policy)
CEU’s experience in Hungary shows that no amount of prestige or endowment can shield a university from determined state hostility.

Why Nuclear Power Is a Strategic Necessity: Lessons from the Strait of Hormuz  (Todd Royal, National Interest)
Nuclear power is a strategic necessity for the United States to meet the energy demands of the future while insulating themselves from the geopolitical dangers of the present.

Microsoft Aided an Adversary’s AI Ambitions  (Lars Erik Schönander and Luke Hogg, National Interest)
Microsoft’s China ties advanced authoritarian AI, exposing risks of US tech collaboration with adversaries.

As Mamdani Rises, Anti-Muslim Attacks Roll in from the Right  (Liam Stack, New York Times)
Even before Zohran Mamdani claimed victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, he had become a target of racist attacks from the far right. Those attacks have only intensified in the wake of his commanding performance on Tuesday, with Republican elected officials and right-wing media figures accusing him of promoting Islamic law, supporting terrorism and posing a threat to the safety of New Yorkers, especially Jews.

Jewish Caucus Calls for Pentagon Accountability Over Kingsley Wilson’s Antisemitic Remarks  (Mathilda Heller, Jerusalem Post)
Members of the US Congressional Jewish Caucus wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to highlight the “deeply troubling and offensive statements” of Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson. The Jerusalem Post has previously written about Wilson, who has a history of antisemitic statements, including the promotion of the antisemitic “Great Replacement” theory, praising far-right political movements using slogans tied to neo-Nazi groups, and repeating conspiracy theories frequented in neo-Nazi circles about Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was lynched by an antisemitic mob in Georgia in 1915.

Europol Report Focusing on IT and Terrorism (Moonshot)
IT as tool for terrorists is a focus in Europol’s report on terrorism and trends in the European Union. “The use of generative-AI to create and disseminate propaganda and hate speech has reached unprecedented levels, especially in the right-wing scene. Radical individuals are able to generate propaganda items at a fast pace, allowing them to evade content moderation.”

‘Our Era of Violent Populism’: the US Has Entered a New Phase of Political Violence  (J. Oliver Conroy, Guardian)
“We are in a historically high period of American political violence,” Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, told the Guardian. “I call it our ‘era of violent populism’. It’s been about 50 years since we’ve seen something like this. And the situation is getting worse.” He said the US is in a years-long stretch of political violence that started around the time of Donald Trump’s first election, with perpetrators coming from both the right and the left. Pape directs the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, which studies terrorism and conflict. He noted in a recent piece in the New York Times that his research has found rising support among both left- and right-leaning Americans for the “use of force” to achieve political means.