• CRITICAL MINERALSManaging the Dark Side of the Critical Minerals Rush

    By John Coyne and Raelene Lockhorst

    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.

  • NUCLEAR POWERSmaller Nuclear Reactors Spark Renewed Interest in a Once-Shunned Energy Source

    By David Montgomery

    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.

  • SURVEILLANCEFlock Safety’s Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe

    By Sarah Hamid and Rindala Alajaji

    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.

  • CRITICAL MINERALSNth Cycle Is Bringing Critical Metals Refining to the U.S.

    By Zach Winn

    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.

  • DEPORTATIONSIf Trump Wants More Deportations, He’ll Need to Target the Construction Industry

    By Tim Henderson

    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.

  • INNOVATIONMIx Helps Innovators Tackle Challenges in National Security

    By Zach Winn

    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.

  • TARGETING SCIENCEACIP Draft Agenda Revives Anti-Vaccine Boilerplate Topics

    By Lisa Schnirring

    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.

  • 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.

  • RARE EARTHChina and Rare-Earth Elements: Is Trump Blinking on Tariffs?

    By Ajey Lele

    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.

  • TRGETING SCIENCEFederal R&D Funding Boosts Productivity for the Whole Economy − Making Big Cuts to Such Government Spending Unwise

    By Andrew Fieldhouse

    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.

  • FOREIGN OWNERSHIPExamining State Legislation on Foreign Ownership of U.S. Farmland

    By Kim Ward

    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.

  • DEPORTATIONSDeportations to Add Almost $1 Trillion in Costs to the “Big Beautiful Bill”

    By David J. Bier

    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.  

  • CRITICAL MINERALSNevada Lithium Mining Expands with Estimated $87B Project

    By Liam Hibbert, The Center Square

    Amidst widespread speculation and local pushback, northern Nevada has taken another step toward realizing its lithium potential with an estimated $87 billion Elko County mine.

  • BATTERIESTrump’s Second Term Is Creating ‘a Limbo Moment’ for U.S. Battery Recyclers

    By Maddie Stone

    Since January, President Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to the Biden administration’s efforts to grow America’s clean energy industry. At the same time, citing economic and national security reasons, Trump has sought to advance efforts to produce more critical minerals like lithium in the United States. That is exactly what the emerging lithium-ion battery recycling industry seeks to do, which is why some industry insiders are optimistic about their future under Trump.

  • PATHOGEN SMUGGLINGChinese Nationals Charged with Conspiracy and Smuggling a Dangerous Biological Pathogen into the U.S. for their Work at a University of Michigan Laboratory

    Two Chinese nationals were charged with smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.