• Perfect Storm: Megafires Set the Stage for Debris Flows

    Storms now pounding Southern California are raising the specter of more danger for residents — debris flows in areas already reeling from devastating fires. Flows pose bigger threat than typical mudslides.

  • Spyware Is Spreading Far Beyond Its National-Security Role

    Spyware is increasingly exploited by criminals or used to suppress civil liberties, and this proliferation is in part due to weak regulation.

  • The U.K. Demands for Apple to Break Encryption Is an Emergency for Us All

    The United Kingdom is demanding that Apple create an encryption backdoor to give the government access to end-to-end encrypted data in iCloud. Encryption is one of the best ways we have to reclaim our privacy and security in a digital world filled with cyberattacks and security breaches, and there’s no way to weaken it in order to only provide access to the “good guys.”

  • Response to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Article on Iran’s Short Timeline to a Bomb

    Iran can build a crude nuclear weapon too quickly, in about six months, after a decision to do so, but the regime risks being detected early after its decision to do so and all along its subsequent pathway to a bomb. That time is more than sufficient for a devastating military response by Israel, hopefully supported by the United States and other allies.

  • Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish?

    The Trump administration’s decision to delete a DOJ database of cases against Capitol riot defendants places those who seek to preserve the historical record in direct opposition to their own government.

  • How Russia Neutralized Ukraine’s Tactical Nuclear Weapons

    When Ukraine declared its independence from the U.S.S.R in August 1991., Kyiv came into possession of the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world, after the Soviet Union and the United States.Anestimated 2,800-4,200 tactical nuclear weapons were relinquished to Russia in a move that may have changed the course of history.

  • FBI Agents Sue DOJ, Allege Retaliation Over Jan. 6 Cases

    FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 Capital riot investigations have filed lawsuits against the Justice Department, challenging its efforts to survey and identify personnel who participated in high-profile inquiries such as the riot and handling of classified documents at Mar-a-logo.

  • Southport Attacks: Why the U.K. Needs a Unified Approach to All Violent Attacks on the Public

    The conviction of Axel Rudakubana for the murder of three young girls in Southport has prompted many questions about how the UK handles violence without a clear ideological motive. This case has also shown up the confusion in this area, and made clear the need for a basic reframing of how we understand murderous violence against the public today.

  • Strengthening School Violence Prevention

    Violence by K-12 students is disturbingly common. Ensuring that schools have effective ways to identify and prevent such incidents is becoming increasingly important. Expanding intervention options and supporting K-12 school efforts in Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) would help.

  • Tommy Robinson: Five Things to Know

    Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is a former soccer hooligan who, around 2009, adopted the name Tommy Robinson. In 2009, he founded the English Defense League (EDL), an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant organization. The EDL’s anti-immigrant views, mostly directed at Muslims, mobilized Britons and attracted support from xenophobic groups in the U.S.

  • What’s Going on at the FBI?

    The Trump administration has launched a broad political purge of the FBI, aiming to remove senior officials and field agents who are regarded as insufficiently loyal to President Trump. In addition to forcing the retirement of senior bureau leaders, the FBI’s interim leadership is now trying to identify agents and other personnel who had worked on the Jan. 6 investigations. Benjamin Wittes writes that “A lot of people at the bureau—leadership and street agents, analysts and staff alike—are flirting with heroism right now” by engaging in conscientious objection: they “are upholding the law, which is closely aligned with their own oaths and the FBI’s culture, and the rule of law itself.”

  • Most Violent Crime Rates Have Fallen ack to Pre-Pandemic Levels: Report

    The number of homicides across the United States declined by 16% in 2024, continuing a recent downward trajectory. Crime is expected be a major focus for state lawmakers and the Trump administration.

  • Turns Out Neither. New Research Finds Mayors on Both Sides Mixed in Implementing Effective Policies.

    Many Republican political candidates and leaders accused their Democratic counterparts of being soft on crime during the run-up to the 2024 elections. Concerns over the safety of the nation’s cities has been a longstanding —and potent —political issue. But how much influence do elected officials actually have over crime rates?

  • Why Do Illegal Immigrants Have a Low Crime Rate? 12 Possible Explanations

    The evidence is overwhelming that immigrants in the United States have had a lower crime rate than native-born Americans since at least the 19th century. When people learn that fact, they aren’t surprised that legal immigrants have a lower crime rate than native-born Americans, but they are surprised that it’s also true for illegal immigrants.

  • This Icebreaker Has Design Problems and a History of Failure. It’s America’s Latest Military Vessel.

    The Coast Guard’s $125 million purchase of the Aiviq, made under congressional pressure, follows the service’s failure to get its preferred, $1 billion model built.