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Concerns about Elon Musk, Russia's Putin Not Fading Yet
Reports that billionaire Elon Musk has been talking on a consistent basis with Russian President Vladimir Putin are cause of concern. Musk’s companies are doing work for the Pentagon NASA. Some of that work is so sensitive that Musk has been given high-level security clearances due to his knowledge of the programs, raising concerns among some that top secret U.S. information and capabilities could be at risk.
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Thwarting Threats in the Supply Chain
Exploding pagers, a bridge in Baltimore collapsed by a cargo ship, and hacks on a water system in rural Texas. All spotlight vulnerabilities in our complex, global supply chain.
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U.S. Finalizes Rule Restricting Investment in Chinese Tech Firms
The Treasury Department on Monday finalized a new rule meant to prevent U.S.-based people and companies from investing in the development of a range of advanced technologies in China, thereby preventing Beijing from accessing cutting-edge expertise and equipment.
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The U.S. Business Community Used to Be a Force for Immigration Reform. What Happened?
For decades, the business lobby helped shape immigration legislation and moderated the immigration debate, working alongside advocates for immigrants. In the Trump era, businesses now see more risk than reward in immigration politics. Many have prioritized what’s still doable: tax cuts and deregulation.
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Major Lithium Mine Approved in Nevada, Supporting a Domestic Supply of Critical Minerals
Critical minerals are essential building blocks of the modern economy and America’s energy security, from clean energy technologies – like electric vehicle and grid storage batteries and wind turbines – to semiconductors to advanced defense systems and consumer electronics.
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Proof That Immigrants Fuel the U.S. Economy Is Found in the Billions They Send Back Home
Studies indicate that remittances — or money immigrants send back home — constitute 17.5% of immigrants’ income. Given that, we estimate that the immigrants who remitted in 2022 had take-home wages of over $466 billion. Assuming their take-home wages are around 21% of the economic value of what they produce for the businesses they work for – like workers in similar entry-level jobs in restaurants and construction – then immigrants added a total of $2.2 trillion to the U.S. economy yearly. That is about 8% of the U.S. GDP.
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To Make Children Better Fact-Checkers, Expose Them to More Misinformation — with Oversight
“We need to give children experience flexing these skepticism muscles and using these critical thinking skills within this online context,” a psychology researcher said.
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Salt Typhoon Hack Shows There's No Security Backdoor That's Only for The "Good Guys"
If U.S. policymakers care about China and other foreign countries engaging in espionage on U.S. citizens, it’s time to speak up in favor of encryption by default. If these policymakers don’t want to see bad actors take advantage of their constituents, domestic companies, or security agencies, again—they should speak up for encryption by default.
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Ohio Is Home to About 50 White Extremist Groups, but the State’s Social and Political Landscape Is Undergoing Rapid Racial Change
Rapidly changing social conditions in Ohio have played a significant role in the growth of extremism. Between 1990 and 2019, manufacturing jobs shrank from 21.7% of all employment in the state to 12.5%, mostly affecting white men. For many of these alienated men, extremist ideologies offer easy answers to complex questions that involve their sense of disenfranchisement.
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Immigration Isn’t Causing Unemployment
Immigrants are not taking jobs away from Americans or causing the unemployment rate to rise. A decline in immigration would be a bad sign for the labor market. Immigrants come when job opportunities exist. As the labor market has cooled, fewer immigrants have been crossing the border illegally since the start of the year.
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2025 Homeland Threat Assessment
DHS has issued its 2025 threat assessment, focusing on the most direct, pressing threats to the U.S. homeland during the next year. The assessment is organized around DHS missions that most closely align or apply to these threats—public safety, border and immigration, critical infrastructure, and economic security.
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Why Fracking Matters in the 2024 U.S. Election
The fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. With presidential candidates Harris and Trump clashing on climate and energy policy, the practice is once again in the spotlight.
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$100 Million to Accelerate R&D and AI Technologies for Sustainable Semiconductor Materials
The U.S. Commerce Deprtment ssued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to announce an open competition demonstrating how AI can assist in developing new sustainable semiconductor materials and processes that meet industry needs and can be designed and adopted within five years.
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The CHIPS Act: How U.S. Microchip Factories Could Reshape the Economy
The CHIPS and Science Act seeks to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor industry amid growing fears of a China-Taiwan conflict. Where is the money going, and how is the effort playing out?
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New Piggyback-Tech May Revolutionize Rail Travel
Trains are safe, reliable, cost effective and energy efficient. They’re a great mode of transport in almost every way, except for one thing. The gaps between them.
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The long view
Need for National Information Clearinghouse for Cybercrime Data, Categorization of Cybercrimes: Report
There is an acute need for the U.S. to address its lack of overall governance and coordination of cybercrime statistics. A new report recommends that relevant federal agencies create or designate a national information clearinghouse to draw information from multiple sources of cybercrime data and establish connections to assist in criminal investigations.
Trying to “Bring Back” Manufacturing Jobs Is a Fool’s Errand
Advocates of recent populist policies like to focus on the supposed demise of manufacturing that occurred after the 1970s, but that focus is misleading. The populists’ bleak economic narrative ignores the truth that the service sector has always been a major driver of America’s success, for decades, even more so than manufacturing. Trying to “bring back” manufacturing jobs, through harmful tariffs or other industrial policies, is destined to end badly for Americans. It makes about as much sense as trying to “bring back” all those farm jobs we had before the 1870s.
The Potential Impact of Seabed Mining on Critical Mineral Supply Chains and Global Geopolitics
The potential emergence of a seabed mining industry has important ramifications for the diversification of critical mineral supply chains, revenues for developing nations with substantial terrestrial mining sectors, and global geopolitics.
Are 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.”