What Went Wrong in the Texas Floods? | Musk’s Chatbot Started Spouting Nazi Propaganda. That’s Not the Scariest Part. | A Band of Innovators Reimagines the Spy Game for a World with No Cover | What to Know About the Collapse of the F.D.A., and more
Playing with Hate: How Far-Right Extremists Use Minecraft to Gamify Radicalization (Gagandeep, GNET)
Far-right extremist networks have turned Minecraft, one of the world’s most popular online games, into a tool for ideological grooming and radicalization. By creating immersive, gamified spaces that embed hateful narratives into familiar gameplay mechanics, extremists are turning gaming culture into recruitment infrastructure. This refers to how extremists use popular and widely accessible cultural activities, such as video games, as tools to subtly introduce and reinforce their beliefs among users. This Insight focuses on Minecraft specifically because of its unique blend of accessibility, community-driven content, and low moderation thresholds that make it particularly vulnerable to abuse by ideologically motivated actors.
“Dangerous Demonstration of Power”: Islamic Group Separates Genders at University Lecture at Berlin Charité (FNP)
Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director at the NGO Counter Extremism Project, calls such actions transgressions : “They want to test how far they can go. This is a dangerous demonstration of power,” Schindler said in an interview with the Münchner Merkurby IPPEN.MEDIA . There is no justification for this, especially not at the Berlin University.
What Zohran Mamdani Has Actually Said About Jews and Israel (Gabe Friedman, JTA / Jerusalem Post)
Though he was elected to represent Astoria, Queens in New York’s State Assembly, Zohran Mamdani —who last week pulled off a stunning upset in New York City’s mayoral primary —has called the Palestinian cause “central to my identity,” both in and out of politics. Mamdani consistently and proudly associates with the pro-Palestinian movement in high-profile settings across New York City. Take Saturday night, for instance, when he took the stage with Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian protest leader who was detained by the Trump administration, at comedian Ramy Youssef’s show at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side.
Idaho Firefighter Shooting Connected to 2001 Fire at Aryan Nation Compound, Internet Sleuths Claim (Morgan Music, Latin Times)
The deadly ambush that killed two firefighters in Idaho over the weekend has sparked speculation online, as internet sleuths point to its timing on the anniversary of a pivotal moment in the region’s dark history. Wess Roley, 20, died by apparent suicide after deliberately setting a blaze on Canfield Mountain near Coeur d’Alene, allegedly luring firefighters to respond to the scene only to shoot at them. The attack occurred on Sunday, 24 years after local firefighters burned down the infamous Aryan Nations compound in nearby Hayden Lake as part of a training exercise.
Private DC-area School Expels Jewish Siblings After Parents Report Antisemitic Bullying —Lawsuit (Times of Israel)
At Nysmith School for the Gifted, an hour from US capital, students allegedly called Jews ‘baby killers,’ said they deserve to die over Gaza, and cast Hitler as a ‘strong leader.’
THE LONG VIEW
A Band of Innovators Reimagines the Spy Game for a World with No Cover (David Ignatius, Washington Post)
A profound transformation is taking place in the world of intelligence. For spies, there is literally no place to hide. Millions of cameras around the world record every movement and catalogue it forever. Every action leaves digital tracks that can be studied and linked with others. Your cellphone and social media accounts tell the world precisely who and where you are.
Firings Without Explanation Create Culture of Fear at Justice Dept., FBI (Perry Stein, Washington Post)
Widespread, abrupt terminations have left Justice Department and FBI employees wondering if they will be next, people familiar with the matter say.
What to Know About the Collapse of the F.D.A. (Jeneen Interlandi, New York Times)
The regulatory agency confronts a future determined by a health secretary hostile to its mission.
Measles Cases Hit Record High, 25 Years After U.S. Eliminated the Disease (Teddy Rosenbluth and Jonathan Corum, New York Times)
Experts worry that if vaccination rates do not improve, deadly outbreaks will become the new normal.
We Can Adapt and Prepare for Floods. But Will We? (David Wallace-Wells, New York Times)
These days, more and more disaster stories appear to be playing out far from the coasts, in defiance of naïve intuitions about climate risk and even of our recent experience of climate horror.
A Pro-Russia Disinformation Campaign Is Using Free AI Tools to Fuel a “Content Explosion” (David Gilbert, Wired)
Consumer-grade AI tools have supercharged Russian-aligned disinformation as pictures, videos, QR codes, and fake websites have proliferated.
A Group of Young Cybercriminals Poses the “Most Imminent Threat” of Cyberattacks Right Now (Matt Burgess and Lily Hay Newman, Wired)
The Scattered Spider hacking group has caused chaos among retailers, insurers, and airlines in recent months. Researchers warn that its flexible structure poses challenges for defense.
Five Considerations for Military Action Against Mexican Drug Cartels (Michael Brown, HSToday)
The American war on drugs is decades old and has arguably not achieved its core objectives. While the American government has made several attempts to degrade the ability of Mexican cartels to produce narcotics for sale and use in the United States, it has had a limited or temporary impact on drug interdiction, addiction, and fatalities.
The US government has made numerous diplomatic efforts to convince China and Mexico to assist in the fight against the trade of narcotics and precursor chemicals. For example, Mexico signed the Bicentennial Framework for Security in 2022, which was expanded in 2023, but produced minimal results. Similar agreements were signed with China. However, a 2024 House Select Committee discovered that China subsidizes the production and export of fentanyl precursor chemicals through tax rebates and grants.
As a result, one of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders was to declare some Mexican drug cartels and other supporting organizations as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and specially designated global terrorists”. As a result of this executive order, some questioned whether it was prudent to send in the military to attack the cartels. On paper, military action may seem like a good idea, but what would the consequences for the homeland be if implemented?
MORE PICKS
Before Tragedy, Texas Repeatedly Rejected Pleas for Flood Alarm Funding (Christopher FlavelleJ. David Goodman and Andrea Fuller, New York Times)
Kerr County failed to secure a warning system, even as local officials remained aware of the risks and as billions of dollars were available for similar projects.
Texts, Emails Bolster Whistleblower Account of DOJ Defying Court Order (Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck, Washington Post)
A fired Justice Department employee has given Congress a cache of internal communications related to Emil Bove, a top Trump official now nominated as a judge.
Viral ICE Deportation Claims Debunked (Alima de Graaf and Adnan Sidibe, DW)
As US President Donald Trump has expanded the role of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, unproven, misleading and fake claims on deportations are picking up steam on social media.
Administration Takes Steps to Target 2 Officials Who Investigated Trump (Glenn Thrush and Julian E. Barnes, New York Times)
It is unclear whether the moves will lead to charges, but they suggest that President Trump’s appointees intend to follow through on his campaign to exact retribution against his perceived enemies.
The ‘Russia Hoax,’ Revisited (Shane Harris, The Atlantic)
CIA Director John Ratcliffe wants to rewrite history.
Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe released a report that, by his account, finally reveals the whole story about one of the most closely scrutinized documents ever produced by American intelligence agencies.
The “CIA Note,” as it’s officially called, is ostensibly an effort to learn lessons from the past, and it might never have been written absent Ratcliffe’s intervention. In May, he ordered CIA analysts to review the “procedures and analytic tradecraft employed” when drafting an assessment that Russia conducted covert operations to influence the 2016 presidential election, intending to damage Hillary Clinton in order to help Donald Trump. These are the conclusions that Trump, for nearly a decade, has called the “Russia Hoax.”
In public remarks, Ratcliffe claimed that his agency’s review proved that Barack Obama–era national-security leaders had created a “politically charged environment” when they produced the assessment, throwing the credibility of their findings in doubt. “All the world can now see the truth,” he wrote in a post on X. The former heads of the FBI and CIA, along with the director of national intelligence, had “manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals—all to get Trump.”
Those are profound allegations of ethical misconduct and public deception, and they’re particularly serious coming from the CIA director, a historically apolitical office. But you will find scant evidence to support these claims in the report that Ratcliffe now brandishes like a smoking gun.
What Went Wrong in the Texas Floods? (Economist)
DOGE may not have been to blame but local politicians have a case to answer.
Insurers Aren’t Saying Whether They’ll Cover Vaccines for Kids if Government Stops Recommending Them (Elisa Muyl, Wired)
RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisory board could stop recommending some routine childhood immunizations, leaving insurers to decide whether to still cover them. For now, most are remaining tight-lipped.
Sinaloa Cartel Used Phone Data and Surveillance Cameras to find FBI Informants, DOJ Says (Raphael Satter, Reuters)
A hacker working for the Sinaloa drug cartel was able to obtain an FBI official’s phone records and use Mexico City’s surveillance cameras to help track and kill the agency’s informants in 2018, the U.S. Justice Department said in a report issued last Thursday.
The Big Beautiful Bill Reveals the Hollowness of Trumponomics (Economist)
Republicans battle to pass a profligate but insubstantial law.
DOGE Has the Keys to Sensitive Data That Could Help Elon Musk (Desmond Butler, Jonathan O’Connell, Hannah Natanson and Aaron Gregg, Washington Post)
A Washington Post review found that in at least seven major departments or agencies, DOGE secured the power to view records that experts say could benefit Musk’s businesses for years.
Catholic Bishops Try to Rally Opposition to Trump’s Immigration Agenda (Elizabeth Dias, New York Times)
Leading prelates are expressing outrage at the drive toward mass deportation.
Trump Says Ice Is Arresting the ‘Worst of the Worst’ —New Data Shows That’s Not True (David J. Bier, MSNBC / Cato)
Serious criminal convicts are a small minority of the people taken into custody by ICE. The vast majority of detainees have no convictions at all.
We Asked 5 AI Models to Fact-Check Trump. Here’s What We Learned. (Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Stephen Henriques and Steven Tian, Washington Post)
Trump appears to support AI, but that does not mean AI supports him, as our recent AI analysis of some of the president’s many questionable public statements shows.
Artificial intelligence discredited all the Trump claims we presented, fact-checking the president with startling accuracy and objective rigor.
The five AI models found Trump to be a falsifier of facts, a disseminator of untruths. How would Trump respond to the near-unanimous denial of his claims by the five AI models? Probably the way he always reacts to unfavorable news —by discrediting the dissent. But would he disavow the technology he is decisively promoting?
The simple truth our analysis points to is this: Either the president is wrong, or the technology is a failure.
In Dramatic Reversal, Senate Kills AI-law Moratorium (Will Oremus, Washington Post)
A GOP-led bid to stop states from regulating AI collapsed after a deal to save it fell through, handing Silicon Valley a painful defeat.
Pentagon Will No Longer Share Satellite Data That Tracks Hurricanes Overnight (Scott Dance, Washington Post)
Scientists were initially given less than a week to prepare for the loss of microwave observations that are key in detecting rapid intensification of storms.
