• IRAN’S NUKES What Damage Did the U.S. Do to Iran’s Nuclear Program? Why It’s So Hard to Know

    By Joshua Rovner

    Disagreements over the damage the U.S. bombing did to Iran’s nuclear facilities are unsurprising. Battle damage assessment –originally called bomb damage assessment –is notoriously difficult, and past wars have featured intense controversies among military and intelligence professionals.

  • IRAN’S NUKESWhy the U.S. Bombed a Bunch of Metal Tubes − a Nuclear Engineer Explains the Importance of Centrifuges to Iranian Efforts to Build Nuclear Weapons

    By Anna Erickson

    It’s not clear what the U.S. attack has accomplished, but destroying the facilities targeted in the attack and hindering Iran’s ability to continue enriching uranium might be a way to slow Iran’s move toward producing nuclear weapons. But history shows that a more reliable means of preventing Iran from achieving its nuclear aims would be for diplomacy and cooperation to prevail.

  • NUCLEAR WARPotential Environmental Effects of Nuclear War

    In the 1980s, in response to the buildup of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals during the Cold War, scientists issued warnings about the potential for a “nuclear winter” scenario which would follow a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Since then, military, political, and technological changes have reshaped the nuclear weapons landscape, while scientific advances have deepened the understanding of and ability to model Earth system processes.

  • WILDFIRESGames Can Promote Preparedness and Build Community Resilience to Wildfire

    By Emily Cerf

    If a wildfire causes an evacuation, people are forced to leave quickly and make decisions under pressure. These challenging decisions can have serious impacts on the outcome of a fire, and are what players confront in ‘Firewise Residents,’ one of three simulation games  created by University of California, Santa Cruz computational media researchers.

  • 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.

  • DISASTER RESPONSEStates Fear Critical Funding from FEMA May Be Drying Up

    By Jennifer Berry Hawes

    Many states rely on the federal government for the vast majority of their emergency management funding. Now, local leaders are looking for clues about the money —and the future of FEMA itself.

  • IRAN’S NUKESPost-Attack Assessment of the First 12 Days of Israeli and U.S. Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities

    By David Albright and Spencer Faragasso, with the Good ISIS Team

    Israel’s historic Operation Rising Lion and the United States Operation Midnight Hammer have targeted many Iranian nuclear sites, causing massive damage to its nuclear program and setting it back significantly. 

  • IRAN’S NUKESThe Uncertainty in the Aftermath of the U.S. Bombing in Iran

    By Brian Michael Jenkins

    The U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites Sunday had a concrete strategic objective: thwart Iran’s ability to enrich nuclear material and potentially build nuclear weapons. It was intended to make the world a safer place. At the moment, however, the world remains a dangerous place.

  • Quote of the Day

    One thing I think that this attack signals is that there’s a big distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear states in that you can do whatever you want to a non-nuclear state. It would be much harder if Iran actually had a nuclear program…. Once you get nuclear weapons, it’s really hard for anybody to come and overturn your regime…. And so there’s going to be all these long-run consequences that aren’t going to be necessarily so pretty, meaning that a lot of countries are going to see this as a signal that they need to get serious about their own separate nuclear deterrence.

    — Francis Fukuyama, interviewed by Yascha Mounk, Persuasion, 25 June 1925

  • DHSA New Trump Plan Gives DHS and the White House Greater Influence in the Fight Against Organized Crime

    By Tim Golden

    The Trump administration has launched a major reorganization of the U.S. fight against drug traffickers and other transnational criminal groups. The overhaul would give new authority to DHS and deepen the influence of the White House.

  • Quote of the Day

    “The alleged Minnesota assassin was known as a ‘deeply religious’ Christian man. That should be an alarm bell for all of us.”

    — Mona Charen, The Bulwark, 18 June 2025

  • CHEMICAL EXPLOSIONSTrump Quietly Shutters the Only Federal Agency that Investigates Industrial Chemical Explosions

    By Tristan Baurick

    Hazardous chemical accidents happen in the U.S. about every other day. Who will investigate them now?

  • POLITICAL VIOLENCEMinnesota Assassination Prompts Many Lawmakers to Wonder: Is Service Worth the Danger?

    By Alex Brown and Robbie Sequeira

    More public officials across the country are taking stock of their safety. Nearly 9 in 10 state lawmakers reported facing insults and 4 in 10 facing harassment and threats.

  • TERRORISMFeds Warn Americans at Home and Abroad of Potential Terrorist Attacks

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    The U.S. departments of State and Homeland Security issued warnings to Americans on Sunday in all 50 states and living abroad of heightened security concerns and potential terrorist attacks after the U.S. targeted strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.

  • QUICK TAKES // By Ben FrankelTargeting Nuclear Scientists

    The killing of Iranian nuclear scientists has been an integral part of Israel’s campaign, stretching back more than two decades, to disrupt and derail Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The 14 Iranian scientists killed on and since 13 June were all leading members of the Iran’s nuclear weaponization group.