• Afghan Terrorism Is a Small Threat in the United States

    It is still not clear whether Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who murdered a West Virginia National Guard member in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, was a terrorist – but assuming he is a terrorist, it would mean that since 1975, Lakanwal is the only Afghan terrorist to have murdered somebody on U.S. soil in an attack. In other words, the annual chance of being murdered in an Afghan terrorist attack on U.S. soil is about 1 in 14.2 billion per year. The annual chance of being murdered in a normal homicide is about 1 in 14,000 per year, approximately one million times greater.

  • Trump Administration’s Immigrant Detention Policy Broadly Rejected by Federal Judges

    In response to the Trump administration’s practice of rounding up and jailing immigrants without a hearing — a departure from fundamental constitutional protections — federal judges have systematically rejected the administration’s attempt to drastically expand who can be locked up without a hearing while awaiting deportation proceedings.

  • The First MAGA National Security Strategy

    Trump’s ideologically driven statement of strategic intent indicates that the United States could be willing to interfere abroad to promote an illiberal world—a stunning victory for the MAGA wing of the Republican Party.

  • The Rise of the Far-Right in Japan

    Sohei Kamiya’s far-right populist Sanseito captured 14 seats (in addition to a previously existing seat) in the July 2025 elections to the House of Councilors, the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. The Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, along with its defining policy approaches and worldview, has found resonance among certain sections of the electorate in Japan.

  • The UK Has It Wrong on Digital ID. Here’s Why.

    In late September, the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his government’s plans to introduce a new digital ID scheme in the country to take effect before the end of the Parliament (no later than August 2029). This is the latest example of a government creating a new digital system that is fundamentally incompatible with a privacy-protecting and human rights-defending democracy.

  • Voting by Mail Faces Uncertain Moment Ahead of Midterm Elections

    Across the United States, voting by mail faces a moment of uncertainty ahead of the midterm elections next year, as the U.S. Supreme Court could require all mail ballots to arrive by Election Day.

  • University of Central Florida’s Tinley Park MHC secures top spot at the 2025 DOE CyberForce Competition

    The University of Central Florida’s Tinley Park MHC proved victorious in DOE’s CyberForce Competition, valiantly defending a simulated cyberattack on an offshore oil rig’s control system. The competition challenges students to solve real-world cybersecurity problems, focusing on protecting the nation’s energy systems.

  • Bookshelf: War Lessons from Robert McNamara

    Robert McNamara was the architect of the wasteful, unwinnable U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In retrospect, he stressed the importance of understanding local conditions and having an exit strategy: “Before each operation there should be a paper on how to get out. And if you can’t get out, don’t do it.” As the administration is considering expanding its questionable military efforts in the Caribbean into an invasion of Venezuela, it would do well to heed McNamara’s advice.

  • EPA’s Climate Science Erasure

    The EPA has removed scientific data and climate change information from the agency’s webpages, including all references to the contribution of human activities to climate change. The EPA also removed critical research evaluating the risks that climate change poses to the health of Americans, and to the impact of global warming on the U.S. economy through the intensification of natural disasters such as droughts, extreme precipitation, and wildfires.

  • CDC Advisers Drop Decades-Old Universal Hepatitis B Birth Dose Recommendation, Suggest Blood Testing After One Dose

    Scientists say that hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective, and that dropping the decades-old practice of a universal dose at birth will have only one result: hepatitis B rates and resulting liver cancer, cirrhosis, and premature death will rise among the unvaccinated or undervaccinated—whether in infancy or later in life, when unprotected adults will be vulnerable to infection.

  • Aluminum in Vaccines: Separating RFK Jr.’s Claims from Scientific Evidence

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s belief that aluminum in vaccines can cause health issues is contradicted by scientific evidence, a fact which RFK Jr. does not allow to interfere with his campaign against vaccination. What is incontrovertible is that increasing vaccine hesitancy and reduced vaccination rates lead to more vulnerable people and more infectious diseases, illnesses, and deaths. It is important to question medical interventions, but this questioning should be informed, rational, and open.

  • New Study Explains Why People Fall for Fake News

    In a world where misinformation spreads faster than fact, a new study is offering insight into why so many people fall for fake news, even when they suspect it’s false.

  • The President Should Not Have a License to Kill

    The administration claims that the “war” on drugs justifies extrajudicial killing. But redefining civilian drug criminals as “combatants” gives away the reality: the government just militarized what was a low-level criminal law enforcement incident outside the United States. Once we consider the victims’ alleged illegal actions, we can see that the government committed the most egregious crime here.

  • Far-Right Extremists Have Been Organizing Online Since Before the Internet – and AI Is Their Next Frontier

    How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? Far-right extremists have long pioneered innovative ways to exploit technological progress and free speech. Efforts to counter this radicalization are challenged to stay one step ahead of the far right’s technological advances.

  • More Industries Want Trump’s Help Hiring Immigrant Labor After Farms Get a Break

    Restaurants, construction and landscaping businesses have lost the most workers, a Stateline analysis found. Now, industries with large immigrant workforces are asking for relief as they combat labor shortages and raids.