• Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM): Five Things to Know

    The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) is an anti-Zionist activist organization that expresses support for terrorism against Israel, promotes and engages in antisemitism, and frequently propagates inflammatory rhetoric about Zionism.

  • Trump Is Fast-Tracking New Coal Mines — Even When They Don’t Make Economic Sense

    In Appalachian Tennessee, mines shut down and couldn’t pay their debts. Now a new one is opening under the guise of an “energy emergency.”

  • Cuts to Early Warning Systems Are Leaving the U.S. Unprepared for Summer Floods

    The extreme costs and death toll of recent floodings across Texas, New Mexico, and the Northeast have put into question the future of the United States’ emergency preparedness amid major budget and staffing cuts to critical risk-reduction agencies and programs.

  • The Taiwan Scenarios 2: Warning Signs

    At first, it may not be easy to see what’s afoot. The difference between China’s routine coercion of Taiwan and early signs of serious escalation to take control of the island may not be clear.

  • Stand-Your-Ground Laws Linked to Higher Homicide Rates, New Report Finds

    Stand-your-ground laws, which are in effect in more than half of U.S. states, are associated with higher homicide rates, increased racial disparities in legal outcomes and broader public costs. And homicides with white shooters, Black victims ruled justifiable 4 times more often than when roles were reversed.

  • Congress Has a Chequered History of Overseeing U.S. Intelligence and National Security

    The role of Congress is to conduct oversight. It is the role of the governing administration to keep Congress informed of intelligence matters, particularly covert operations. History shows this has often been hard to achieve.

  • Factories First: Winning the Drone War Before It Starts

    Wars are won by factories before they are won on the battlefield,Martin C. Feldmann writes, noting that the United States lacks the manufacturing depth for the coming drone age. Rectifying this situation “will take far more than procurement tweaks,” Feldmann writes. “It demands a national-level, wartime-scale industrial mobilization.”

  • Lessons From the Ledger

    The United States and Canada recently began designating drug cartels and other transnational criminal organizations as terrorist groups, in part to use counterterrorism tools against these organizations. Jessica Davis writes that some “counterterrorist financing tools might yield some results against cartels. But here, the lessons of decades of counterterrorist financing will need to be applied for maximum disruptive effect.”

  • Forensic Crime Labs Are Buckling as New Technology Increases Demand

    Across the country, state and local crime labs are drowning in evidence. From rape kits to drug samples to vials of blood, delays in forensic testing are stalling prosecutions, stretching court calendars. A major federal funding cut could make labs’ struggles worse.

  • How the QAnon Movement Entered Mainstream Politics – and Why the Silence on Epstein Files Matters

    QAnon followers fervently believe that the United States is secretly controlled by a cabal of elites who are pedophiles, sex traffickers, and satanists, and that Trump is a mythological, heroic figure fighting this elite pedophile ring. The QAnon movement continues to evolve, even as its central figure hedges and hesitates, showing how potent myths can be in times of uncertainty. Understanding why this belief continues to gain traction is essential for understanding the current state of American democracy.

  • Trumps DOJ Wants States to Turn Over Voter Lists, Election Info

    The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the voter registration lists of several states —representing data on millions of Americans —and other election information ahead of the 2026 midterm. The sweeping requests raise fears about how the Trump administration plans to use the information.

  • Fragmented by Design: USAID’s Dismantling and the Future of American Foreign Aid

    The Trump administration launched an aggressive restructuring of U.S. foreign aid, effectively dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The humanitarian and geopolitical fallout of the demise of USAID includes shuttered clinics, destroyed food aid, and China’s growing influence in the global south. This new era of American soft power will determine how, and whether, the U.S. continues to lead in global development.

  • Significance of the Targeted Nuclear Scientists in the 12-Day War

    The June 2025 war between Israel and Iran, called the 12-Day War, saw the killing y the Israeli military of many Iranian nuclear scientists who participated in or are linked to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.  the elimination of these nuclear scientists deprived Iran’s nuclear weapons program of its most capable and experienced personnel.  This act weakened Iran’s base for building nuclear weapons, eliminating needed expertise and hard-to-get management experience.

  • Trump’s Deportations Could Cost 6M Jobs: Report

    President Donald Trump’s deportation plans could cost nearly 6 million jobs, according to a new analysis. The analysis warns that jobs held by both immigrants and US-born workers are at risk.

  • A Little-Known Microsoft Program Could Expose the Defense Department to Chinese Hackers

    Microsoft is using engineers in China to help maintain the Defense Department’s computer systems —with minimal supervision by U.S. personnel. Digital escorts often lack the technical expertise to police foreign engineers with far more advanced skills, leaving highly sensitive data vulnerable to hacking. Microsoft has been warned that the arrangement is inherently risky, but the company launched and expanded it anyway.