OUR PICKSWhere the DHS Shutdown Could Start to Hurt | After Six Decades of the War on Drugs, What Works? | Economic Statecraft and the Federal Institutional Architecture, and more
• DHS Wants a Single Search Engine to Flag Faces and Fingerprints Across Agencies
• The Deaths Doctors Never Thought They’d See in the U.S.
• The Republican Party Has a Nazi Problem
• Where the DHS Shutdown Could Start to Hurt
• After Six Decades of the War on Drugs, What Works?
• 9 Accused of Antifa Ties After a Violent ICE Protest Face Trial in Texas
• Economic Statecraft and the Federal Institutional Architecture
• DHS Opens a Billion-Dollar Tab with Palantir
• FEMA National Security Functions “Significantly Constrained” During Shutdown, Email Warns
DHS Wants a Single Search Engine to Flag Faces and Fingerprints Across Agencies (Dell Cameron, Wired)
Homeland Security aims to combine its face and fingerprint systems into one big biometric platform—after dismantling centralized privacy reviews and key limits on face recognition.
The Deaths Doctors Never Thought They’d See in the U.S. (Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic)
For years, the worst outcomes of measles were all but unknown in the U.S. Now they look inevitable.
The Republican Party Has a Nazi Problem (Tom Nichols, The Atlantic)
How did the GOP become a haven for slogans and ideas straight out of the Third Reich?
Where the DHS Shutdown Could Start to Hurt (Economist)
So far the budget impasse has caused little public outcry. That may soon change.
After Six Decades of the War on Drugs, What Works? (Maria Abi-Habib, New York Times)
The U.S. and its allies have spilled blood and treasure to kill drug lords and defeat cartels, but the drugs keep coming and the new groups are more violent than ever.
9 Accused of Antifa Ties After a Violent ICE Protest Face Trial in Texas (Shaila Dewan and Alan Feuer, New York Times)
The government said the protesters were part of a heavily armed “cell” of left-wing activists, one of whom was accused of shooting an officer at an anti-ICE protest.
Economic Statecraft and the Federal Institutional Architecture (William Norris, War on the Rocks)
Who actually runs America’s economic statecraft?
The answer matters because in today’s great power competition, national security increasingly hinges on economic decisions made across a sprawling federal system — and often outside government altogether.
At its core, economic statecraft refers to the deliberate use of the government’s economic policy tools and authorities to shape the behavior of commercial actors in ways that produce, mitigate, or manage national security externalities. Firms, not states, are the actors conducting global economic activity. The consequences of their transactions — from investment to supply‑chain structuring — often create strategic ripple effects. States can use government policy tools to intervene to align private incentives with national security priorities. This is the essence of contemporary economic statecraft.
What are the roles and responsibilities of the numerous U.S. government players involved in exercising economic statecraft authorities?
DHS Opens a Billion-Dollar Tab with Palantir (Makena Kelly, Wired)
“If you are interested in helping shape and deliver the next chapter of Palantir’s work across DHS, please reach out,” a Palantir executive wrote to employees about the massive purchasing agreement.
Judge Cannon Orders Secrecy for Report on Trump Classified-Documents Case (Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck, Washington Post)
A federal judge in Florida blocked public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s extensive report into the classified-documents case against President Donald Trump.
FEMA National Security Functions “Significantly Constrained” During Shutdown, Email Warns (Brianna Sacks, Washington Post)
An internal email sent to FEMA’s leader expressed concern about impacts to the Office of National Continuity Programs, tasked with keeping the executive branch running during a catastrophe.
