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TEXAS FLOODS“Disasters Are a Human Choice”: Texas Counties Have Little Power to Stop Building in Flood-Prone Areas
Experts suggested that more data and education are needed as Texas and the rest of the country build in known flood plains.
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TARRIFS & NATIONAL SECURITYThe National Security Costs of Trump’s Tariffs
Looking at the national security ledger, the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are starting to become clearer than the benefits, especially for the U.S. defense industry, critical infrastructure, and relations with partners and allies.
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PUBLIC HEALTHFDA Layoffs Could Compromise Safety of Medications Made at Foreign Factories, Inspectors Say
Beyond staff cuts, the departures of some longtime investigators in recent months have left less experienced people tasked with rooting out dangerous manufacturing practices.
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CRITICAL MINERALSManaging the Dark Side of the Critical Minerals Rush
As the world scrambles to meet the demands of a clean energy transition, it’s tempting to focus on the environmental, social and human security costs of mining. But focusing solely on these negative externalities obscures a hard reality: without mining, there is no energy transition.
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NUCLEAR POWERSmaller Nuclear Reactors Spark Renewed Interest in a Once-Shunned Energy Source
In the past two years, half the states have taken action to promote nuclear power, from creating nuclear task forces to integrating nuclear into long-term energy plans.
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SURVEILLANCEFlock Safety’s Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe
Two recent statements from the surveillance company reveal a troubling pattern: when confronted by evidence of widespread abuse, Flock Safety has blamed users, downplayed harms, and doubled down on the very systems that enabled the violations in the first place.
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CRITICAL MINERALSNth Cycle Is Bringing Critical Metals Refining to the U.S.
Much like Middle Eastern oil production in the 1970s, China today dominates the global refinement of critical metals that serve as the foundation of the United States economy. The U.S. needs another technological breakthrough to secure domestic supplies of metals like lithium, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements, which are needed for everything from batteries to jet engines and electric motors. Nth Cycle thinks it has a solution.
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DEPORTATIONSIf Trump Wants More Deportations, He’ll Need to Target the Construction Industry
As President Donald Trump sends mixed messages about immigration enforcement, ordering new raids on farms and hotels just days after saying he wouldn’t target those industries, he has hardly mentioned the industry that employs the most immigrant laborers: construction. Almost a quarter of all immigrants without a college degree work in construction.
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INNOVATIONMIx Helps Innovators Tackle Challenges in National Security
Startups and government defense agencies have historically seemed like polar opposites. Startups thrive on speed and risk, while defense agencies are more cautious. Mission Innovation x creates education and research opportunities while facilitating connections between defense agencies and MIT innovators.
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TARGETING SCIENCEACIP Draft Agenda Revives Anti-Vaccine Boilerplate Topics
RFK Jr. replaced scientists on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with anti-vaxx activists. On Wednesday, true to form, the new ACIP members issued a draft meeting agenda which contains topics which have become common talking points of vaccine-efficacy deniers.
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PUBLIC HEALTHNIH Terminates GoF Research; OMB Proposes 54% Cut to CDC Budget in FY 2026
HHS announced it would terminate funding for gain-of-function (GoF), while OMB proposed budget includes 54% cut to CDC budget in FY 2026. The cuts include a $1.4 billion cut to chronic disease prevention and $794 million in cuts to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, STD, and TB prevention.
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RARE EARTHChina and Rare-Earth Elements: Is Trump Blinking on Tariffs?
On 2 April 2025, President Trump announced a significant shift in the US trade policy, imposing tariffs on multiple countries, with special emphasis on China. In response, on 4 April 2025, China placed export restrictions on REEs, which are also known as rare metals.
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TRGETING SCIENCEFederal R&D Funding Boosts Productivity for the Whole Economy − Making Big Cuts to Such Government Spending Unwise
Large cuts to government-funded research and development can endanger American innovation – and the vital productivity gains it supports. If the government were to abandon its long-standing practice of investing in R&D, it would significantly slow the pace of U.S. innovation and economic growth.
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FOREIGN OWNERSHIPExamining State Legislation on Foreign Ownership of U.S. Farmland
Foreign entities now hold 3.5% of privately owned U.S. agricultural land, prompting growing attention from lawmakers. In 2023 alone, more than 30 U.S. states introduced bills seeking to restrict foreign ownership of farmland. An MSU study shows that these legislative efforts are driven more by national security concerns and political ideology than by economic factors.
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DEPORTATIONSDeportations to Add Almost $1 Trillion in Costs to the “Big Beautiful Bill”
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1). will direct an astounding $168 billion of the budget to immigration and border law enforcement, and there is even more for agencies that indirectly support immigration law enforcement. But the CBO’s cost estimate is deficient in three ways, not to mention the fact that immigrants are reducing the deficit and debt, so removing them will dramatically increase future debt.
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The long view
ARGUMENT: AI-DESIGNED BIOWEAPONS LOOMAre We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
THREATS TO U.S. S&T LEADERSHIPA Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
THREATS TO U.S. S&T LEADERSHIPBookshelf: Preserving the U.S. Technological Republic
The United States since its founding has always been a technological republic, one whose place in the world has been made possible and advanced by its capacity for innovation. But our present advantage cannot be taken for granted.
CRITICAL MINERALSCritical Minerals Don’t Belong in Landfills – Microwave Tech Offers a Cleaner Way to Reclaim Them from E-waste
E-waste recycling focuses on retrieving steel, copper, aluminum, but ignores tiny specks of critical materials. Once technology becomes available to recover these tiny but valuable specks of critical materials quickly and affordably, the U.S. can transform domestic recycling and take a big step toward solving its shortage of critical materials.
CRITICAL MINERALSMicrobes That Extract Rare Earth Elements Also Can Capture Carbon
A small but mighty microbe can safely extract the rare earth and other critical elements for building everything from satellites to solar panels – and it has another superpower: capturing carbon dioxide.