Genetically modified organisms hold a lot of promise for creating hardier crops and faster growing fish, but even supporters are concerned about invasive organisms running wild. If a faster, better, stronger strain of bacteria escaped the lab, how would we stop it? Now, scientists have come up with a new solution: self-destructing DNA.The system would use cutting-edge gene-editing tools to erase D...Read More

Six months after abandoning its humanitarian but underperforming slogan, "America's Navy. A global force for good," the U.S. Navy is making an $84 million bet on a new, presumably more muscular advertising agency.The Pentagon recently announced that Young and Rubicam, a slick Manhattan marketing firm, has won the Navy's advertising contract for its recruitment effort for one year...Read More

When it comes to transparency, this year's Bilderberg summit fails in every way imaginable. Three prime ministers, two foreign ministers, one president, no press conference. No public oversight. Just a bunch of senior policymakers locked away for three days with some incredibly powerful corporate lobbyists, discussing subjects intimately related to public policy. Subjects such as "globali...Read More

Russia and China have cracked the top-secret cache of files stolen by the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden, forcing MI6 to pull agents out of live operations in hostile countries, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services.Western intelligence agencies say they have been forced into the rescue operations after Moscow gained access to more tha...Read More

Mark your calendar: The most talked-about talent competition since Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour will be broadcast Aug. 6 on Fox News, from the new entertainment capital of the world, Cleveland. Ten Republican presidential contenders — those ranked highest in the five most recent national polls prior to the event — out of a possible field of 19, at last count, will share the stage....Read More

"Don't make me f**king run around here with thirty pounds of g*d-d***ed gear on in the sun because you want to screw around out here." – McKinney (TX) police officer Eric Casebolt to unidentified teens at pool party, June 5, 2015 (transcript) News coverage of the McKinney police incident faded quickly once the out-of-control Cpl. Casebolt resigned. Most commentary has been on t...Read More

A review of the Federal Reserve's response to recent leaks about its bond-buying plans raises new questions about the central bank's efforts to police interactions with investors who can profit handsomely from inside information.In January 2011, the Fed adopted new rules for dealing with breaches, after a private research firm published an account of the central bank's deliberations. U...Read More

Washington's failure in recent years to keep careful watch over what goods are made where — especially when it comes to such vital items as electronics and drugs — means the United States now depends far more on China than vice versa. Back in the 1990s, advocates of liberalizing U.S. trade with China said economic interdependence would inevitably lead to peaceful coexistence. But o...Read More

In the 14 years since 9/11, you can count about six real terrorist attacks in the United States. These include the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, as well as failed attacks, such as the time when a man named Faisal Shahzad tried to deliver a car bomb to Times Square. In those same 14 years, the Bureau, however, has bragged about how it's foiled dozens of terrorism plots. In all, the FBI has...Read More

Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when Islamic State overran the northern city of Mosul in June 2014, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday in an interview with Iraqiya state television. Coupled with previous losses of American weapons, the conclusion is simple: The United States is effectively supplying Islamic State with tools of war the militant group cannot other...Read More

The migrants had been at sea for weeks, some of them months, with barely anything to eat and drink. Pictures circulated of migrants jumping into the water to grab scarce food thrown from helicopters. The Indonesian government, however, said that if it took in the Rohingya migrants, many more would follow. And that would create "social issues." It warned the fishermen against helping them...Read More

For the past eighteen months, I have called for reforms that better safeguard the privacy and civil liberties of the American people while ensuring our national security officials retain tools important to keeping Americans safe. That is why, today, I welcome the Senate's passage of the USA FREEDOM Act, which I will sign when it reaches my desk.After a needless delay and inexcusable lapse in i...Read More

Aviation buff John Zimmerman was at a weekly gathering of neighbors Friday night when he noticed something peculiar: a small plane circling a route overhead that didn't make sense to him.It was dark, so a sightseeing flight didn't make sense, and when Zimmerman pulled up more information on an aviation phone app he routinely checks, he had immediate concerns.The plane's flight path, re...Read More

J. Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican House speaker in history, was swept from leadership in 2006 on a wave of Republican revulsion over what critics saw as a legislative favor factory he presided over in Congress. That wave deposited him on K Street, a prime address for the capital's lobbyists, where his influence and good name kept the favors flowing – including into his ba...Read More

[T]he U.S. has bombed and/or invaded at least one other country at least once every year for the past twenty-one years straight. There has been an almost uninterrupted string of foreign interventions dating back to the invasion of Panama in 1989. The U.S. bombed Iraq on a regular basis between 1991 and 2003 in the name of patrolling the "no-fly" zones. There were also sporadic missile st...Read More

After nearly 20 years on the job, Jim Jeffries, the police chief in LaFollette, Tenn., has seen his share of marijuana seizures — dry green buds stashed in trunks or beneath seats, often double-bagged to smother the distinctive scent. But these days, Chief Jeffries is on the lookout for something unexpected: lollipops and marshmallows. …Recently his officers pulled over a Chevy Blazer...Read More

The Department of Defense and the National Guard are facing growing questions over why they spent millions of dollars on a promotional campaign to salute members of the military at professional football, baseball and basketball games around the country."So far everybody's just shocked to learn that this, that these feel-good moments are paid for by the U.S. taxpayer," Sen. Jeff Flake...Read More

What if I told you there was a $70 billion tax that the poor pay the most. You'd probably say that isn't very fair. But that's exactly what the lottery is: an almost 12-figure tax on the desperation of the least fortunate…Researchers have found that the bottom third of households buy more than half of all tickets. So that means households making less than $28,000 a year are dishi...Read More

Bank of England officials are secretly researching the financial shocks that could hit Britain if there is a vote to leave the European Union in the forthcoming referendum.The Bank blew its cover on Friday when it accidentally emailed details of the project – including how the bank intended to fend off any inquiries about its work – direct to the Guardian.According to the confidential...Read More

A collection of tech industry giants like Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft, as well as civil liberties organizations and Internet security experts, sent a letter to President Obama on Tuesday warning of the unintended consequences of any policy meant to weaken the encryption technologies that protect Internet communications.The White House has been weighing whether to mandate that companies u...Read More