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Safety and Security at Institutions of Higher Education
Ensuring the safety of students, faculty, and staff is a multifaceted challenge that requires institutions of higher education to navigate myriad threats, hazards, and risks.
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It’s Not Just Software. Physical Critical Equipment Can’t Be Trusted, Either
Just auditing the software in critical equipment isn’t enough. We must assume that adversaries, especially China, will also exploit the hardware if they can.
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Supreme Court allows Trump Administration to Terminate Venezuelan's Protected Status
The protected status was granted to roughly 600,000 Venezuelans, with one group’s status ending in April of this year and another in March of next year. The court’s decision applies to roughly 300,000 Venezuelans released into the country by the Biden administration.
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USGS to Fund States’ Efforts to Find Critical Minerals in Mine Waste
The U.S. Geological Survey invited states to compete for $5 million in cooperative agreements to find critical minerals needed to drive the U.S. economy in the materials left over from mining at active and legacy sites.
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U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday extended a previous ruling blocking the Trump administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in northern Texas. The Court pointedly criticized the administration’s grudging approach to due process: “Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster.”
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Romania at the Crossroads as Europe Watches On
George Simion and Nicușor Dan will contest the second round of Romania’s presidential election on 18 May. The election could have profound implications for both Romania and Europe.
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Romania, Foreign Election Interference, and a Dangerous U.S. Retreat
The Romanian election is but one example of recent foreign election interference incidents. The Russian interference in 2016 U.S. election led Congress, on bipartisan basis, and the relevant agencies in the executive branch, to make many changes to address this threat, but under the new administration, “the U.S. is now moving full steam ahead to completely destroy its defenses against that threat,” Katie Kedian writes. All of the positive U.S. government developments “have been dismantled or severely downgraded,” leaving “the U.S. public less informed and less safe from foreign interference.”
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Busting ‘Manufacturing Jobs’ Myths
A nostalgia-soaked return to the 1950s industrial workforce is neither preferable nor possible. Promises to use blanket tariffs to reengineer an industrial workforce of our parents’ distant memories are laughably out of touch.
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What Is Birthright Citizenship and Could the Supreme Court End It?
The Trump administration’s efforts to nullify birthright citizenship for millions of U.S.-born children could overturn a nearly 160-year legal precedent.
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Into the Crowd: The Evolution of Vehicular Attacks and Prevention Efforts
In recent months, there have been a series of vehicular attacks in Germany, the United States, and Israel targeting civilians during celebrations and public gatherings. The relative ease of launching a vehicle attack and the very large number of soft targets available means it is a tactic that is very difficult to defend against.
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Governments Continue Losing Efforts to Gain Backdoor Access to Secure Communications
The spotlight on encrypted apps such as Signal is a reminder of the complex debate pitting government interests against individual liberties.
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Trump’s Science Cuts Threaten Public Research Data
President Donald Trump’s cuts to scientific research create anxieties about the accessibility of research data. Scientists worldwide fear websites and data sets hosted in the United States will be deleted or decommissioned.
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As the Rio Grande Runs Dry, South Texas Leaders Look to New Water Supplies to Sustain Growth
The tension between water supply and demand has been an issue for decades. And now, city and county leaders throughout the Valley believe the problem has come to a head.
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States Are Telling Sheriffs Whether They Can — or Can’t — Work with ICE
Cooperation between sheriffs and ICE lies at the heart of Trump’s immigration policy.
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For First Time, U.S. Charges Sinaloa Cartel Leaders with Narco-Terrorism
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged alleged Sinaloa Cartel leaders with narco-terrorism and material support of terrorism for trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin into the United States. It is the first time prosecutors charged alleged drug traffickers with terrorism-related charges.
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The long view
Kinetic Operations Bring Authoritarian Violence to Democratic Streets
Foreign interference in democracies has a multifaceted toolkit. In addition to information manipulation, the tactical tools authoritarian actors use to undermine democracy include cyber operations, economic coercion, malign finance, and civil society subversion.
Patriots’ Day: How Far-Right Groups Hijack History and Patriotic Symbols to Advance Their Cause, According to an Expert on Extremism
Extremist groups have attempted to change the meaning of freedom and liberty embedded in Patriots’ Day — a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – to serve their far-right rhetoric, recruitment, and radicalization. Understanding how patriotic symbols can be exploited offers important insights into how historical narratives may be manipulated, potentially leading to harmful consequences in American society.
Trump Aims to Shut Down State Climate Policies
President Donald Trump has launched an all-out legal attack on states’ authority to set climate change policy. Climate-focused state leaders say his administration has no legal basis to unravel their efforts.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.
Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles
To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”