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The Future of Malign Influence Campaigns Is Here: In Moldova, the U.S. Allows Russia a Free Play
The Trump administration has dismantled the U.S. capabilities built to track, thwart, and respond to Russian disinformation and influence campaigns both around the world and in the United States. Russia will not be the only one to exploit this unilateral U.S. disarmament: China, Iran, North Korea, and other adversaries of the United States will readily, and gratefully, exploit it, too.
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Two Decades Later, the Experience of Katrina Continues to Shape How the Nation Prepares for and Responds to Disasters
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath exposed profound gaps in multiple systems, including flood protection, emergency response, health care, and housing. It marked a turning point in the way we understand the impacts of natural disasters.
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Hashtags and Humor Are Used to Spread Extreme Content on Social Media
Conspiracy theories and incitement to harassment and violence abound on mainstream social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. But the extreme content is often mixed with ironic play, memes and hashtags, which makes it difficult for authorities and media to know how to respond.
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Guyana’s President Wins Another Term in Election Watched Keenly by Venezuela and U.S.
Irfaan Ali, the leader of the People’s Progressive party (PPP), has secured a second term as Guyana’s president. Guyanese voters have endorsed Ali’s approach, expressed in his campaign, which was dominated by promises to use oil-related revenue to alleviate chronic poverty and support further social and economic development.
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Kennedy Hearing Deepens Crisis Over Dismantling of CDC Leadership - Health Scholar Explains Why the Agency’s Ability to Protect Public Health Is Compromised
CDC, long considered the nation’s –if not the world’s –premier public health organization, is unraveling. The reason: HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s effort to emasculate the agency, undermine its scientific foundations, replace scientists in the agency with unqualified anti-vaxxers, do away with its evidence-to-recommendations framework, and promote skepticism, if not rejection, of science and scientific methods. Public health professionals are now warning the public that vaccine recommendations coming from the CDC may not be trustworthy.
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Former NIH Officials File Whistleblower Complaint
Two former top NIH officials have filed whistleblower complaints, claiming they were removed from leadership positions over their objections to agency leadership’s hostility toward vaccines, politicization of scientific research, and suspension of funding for clinical trials and foreign research.
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Judge Warns of “National Police Force” in Ruling Trump Broke the Law Sending Guard to LA
President Donald Trump’s move to send National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles this summer violated a federal law against military members conducting domestic law enforcement, a federal judge in California ruled Tuesday.
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Governors Split Over Mobilizing National Guard as Trump Seeks More Troops
Republican governors want National Guard members to help ICE, in addition to deploying to Washington.
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U.S.-China Tech Rivalry: The Geopolitics of Semiconductors
The United States and China are locked in a high‑stakes contest for dominance in computing power. In response to US sanctions and export controls, China has ramped domestic chip design and manufacturing, aiming to create an all‑Chinese semiconductor supply chain that reduces dependence on foreign technologies.
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We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health
Nine former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who served as directors or acting directors under Republican and Democratic administrations, serving under presidents from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trrump, argue that HHS Secretary Roert F. Kennedy Jr. poses a clear and present danger to the health of Americans. He has placed anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists at top HHS positions, and he appears to be guided by a hostility to science and a belief in bizarre, unscientific approaches to public health.
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Florida Plans to Scrap Kid Vaccine Mandates as HHS Employees Demand RFK Jr Resignation
In ongoing upheaval over antivaccine policies espoused by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his allies in Florida today—in a national first—announced plans to scrap requirements for school-based vaccination.
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Raised for the Reich: White Supremacists Are Recruiting Teens for On-the-Ground Action
White supremacists have a long history of trying to recruit youths to join their movement as a means of filling their ranks and maintaining relevancy. The ubiquity of social media in young people’s lives means that today there are many opportunities for white supremacists to reach youths with their content and recruit them to their cause.
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Health Leaders, Medical Groups: CDC Leader Exodus Puts Nation's Health at Risk
As news broke of the ouster of newly confirmed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, PhD, and the resignations of some of the agency’s top scientists, reactions came fast and furious from public health leaders, professional groups, and lawmakers.
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Chaos Continues at CDC
RFK Jr. has replaced the scientists who served on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with individuals who share his skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines in fighting disease. These vaccine-skeptics have formed a new working group to review the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and named an operation research professor with no background in medicine, or in science more generally, to chair the working group. Chaos ensued.
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Exposing the Propaganda of the Christchurch Terrorist
The terrorist who murdered 51 people in two Christchurch mosques sent out a raft of propaganda at the time of the attacks which deliberately masked his real views and plans, according to a new University of Auckland study.
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The long view
Violent Acts in Houses of Worship Are Rare but Deadly – Here’s What the Data Shows
Houses of worship are meant to be open spaces of peace and refuge. The challenge is balancing this higher purpose with practical security. By studying past tragedies, Americans may better prepare for the future –and prevent more families from enduring the heartbreak of recent weeks.
U.S.-China Tech Rivalry: The Geopolitics of Semiconductors
The United States and China are locked in a high‑stakes contest for dominance in computing power. In response to US sanctions and export controls, China has ramped domestic chip design and manufacturing, aiming to create an all‑Chinese semiconductor supply chain that reduces dependence on foreign technologies.
The American TikTok Deal Doesn’t Address the Platform’s Potential for Manipulation, Only Who Profits
If we want to protect democratic information systems, we need to focus on reducing the vulnerabilities in our relationship with media platforms – platforms with surveillance power to know what we will like, the algorithmic power to curate our information diet and control of platform incentives, and rules and features that affect who gains influence. The biggest challenge is to make platforms less riggable, and thus less weaponizable, if only for the reason that motivated the TikTok ban: we don’t want our adversaries, foreign or domestic, to have power over us.
Hashtags and Humor Are Used to Spread Extreme Content on Social Media
Conspiracy theories and incitement to harassment and violence abound on mainstream social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. But the extreme content is often mixed with ironic play, memes and hashtags, which makes it difficult for authorities and media to know how to respond.
Funding Cuts, Policy Shifts, and the Erosion of U.S. Scientific and Public Health Capacity
The U.S. continues to face mounting threats to its health, scientific enterprise, and national security. A recent report warns that proposed FY 2026 budget cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) could reduce its funding by more than half – from $9 billion in FY 2025 to under $4 billion. If passed by Congress, these cuts would result in an estimated ~$11 billion in economic losses.
History is repeating itself at the FBI as Agents Resist a Director’s Political Agenda
President Trump has installed loyalists to head the DOJ and FBI – loyalists who are determined to use the organizations they lead to advance the president’s political interests. In the past 50 years, the FBI has had only one other director as overtly – if not as unabashedly — political as Kash Patel: L. Patrick Gray, who served for a year under President Richard Nixon. Gray was held accountable after he tried to help Nixon end the FBI’s Watergate investigation. Whether Kash Patel has more staying power is unclear.