• CHINA WATCHWhen Global Trade Is About More Than Money

    By Christy DeSmith

    International trade can yield far more than imports and exports. Economist’s new tool looks at how China is more effective than U.S. in exerting political power through import, export controls

  • PERSISTENT SURVEILLANCEThe Toxic Legacy of 9/11…and How to End It

    By Patrick G. Eddington

    Restoring the Bill of Rights to its proper shape and place in our civic life would be one way to honor those killed on 9/11 and in the wars that followed.

  • ELECTIONSDOJ Is Sharing State Voter Roll Lists with Homeland Security

    By Jonathan Shorman

    All studies of the subject have conclusively shown that the number of illegal liens voting in U.S. election is vanishingly small (these studies also hasten to add that the term “vanishingly small” exaggerates the number of illegal liens trying to vote). Still, DOJ demanded states turn over the lists. Homeland Security says it will comb through for “illegal aliens.”

  • ELECTIONSStates Rush to Pass New Political Maps in Gerrymandering Blitz

    By Brett Rowland, The Center Square

    States are gearing up to deliver more votes for their favored political parties in a rare, mid-decade overhaul of voting maps that threatens to frustrate voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHFunding Cuts to U.S. HIV Preventive Services Could Lead to Thousands More Cases, Billions in Costs

    By Mary Van Beusekom

    Two just-published studies estimate the health and economic consequences of reducing, interrupting, or ceasing HIV preventive services in the United States, revealing thousands of new infections and costs in the billions over the next decade.

  • FLOODSElon Musk Pushed Back on Our Reporting on His Houston Tunnels Plan. Experts Say His Comments Are Misleading.

    By Yilun Cheng, Houston Chronicle

    Elon Musk is taking issue with a recent investition by the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Newsroom that raised questions about a flood tunnel project he’s pitching to address Houston’s chronic flooding woes. But experts said his response, which he did not explain to the newsrooms, isn’t supported by facts or data.

  • OUR PICKSWhat If This Is a Turning Point? | Something Is Very Wrong Online |The ICE Raid at Hyundai Was a Massive Own Goal, and more

    ·  What If This Is a Turning Point?

    ·  Trump Escalates Attacks on Political Opponents After Charlie Kirk’s Killing

    ·  Leading Democrats Are Condemning Charlie Kirks Murder

    ·  Extremist Groups Hated Charlie Kirk. They’re Using His Death to Radicalize Others

    ·  Right-Wing Activists Are Targeting People for Allegedly Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Death

    ·  Something Is Very Wrong Online

    ·  The ICE Raid at Hyundai Was a Massive Own Goal

    ·  Trump’s Hyundai Raid Drains U.S. Battery Brains

    ·  Pentagon Plan Envisions 1,000 Troops for Louisiana Policing Mission

    ·  FBI Director Draws Criticism from the Right Over Handling of Kirk Shooting

  • WORLD ROUNDUPChina Is Ditching the Dollar, Fast | Brazil Just Succeeded Where America Failed | Outlawry in the Caribbean, and more

    ·  China Is Ditching the Dollar, Fast

    ·  How China’s Propaganda and Surveillance Systems Really Operate

    ·  Brazil’s Historic Conviction

    ·  Brazil Keeps Telling Trump to Get Lost

    ·  Brazil Just Succeeded Where America Failed

    ·  Outlawry in the Caribbean

    ·  As Sabotage in Europe Mounts, So Do Calls to Retaliate Against Russia

    ·  Nuclear Energy Now –Russia to Help China Overtake the United States in Nuclear 

  • TERRORISMThe Legacy of the 9/11 Attacks: Terror Threats Have Multiplied

    By Bruce Hoffman and Farah Pandith

    Nearly twenty-five years after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, the country faces a much different landscape of threats and counterterrorism challenges. The U.S. military handily defeated al-Qaeda and Taliban forces and supported the battlefield victory over forces of the so-called Islamic State, but it has largely abandoned soft power efforts that could counter their enduring appeal.

  • POLITICAL VIOLENCE“This Will Not End Here”: A Scholar Explains Why Charlie Kirk’s Killing Could Embolden Political Violence

    By Arie Perliger

    “Political assassinations come in waves. We see that not only in the United States but other countries. I’ve looked at political assassinations in many democracies, and one of the things I see in a fairly consistent manner is that political assassinations create a process of escalation that encourages others on the extreme political spectrum to feel the need to retaliate. And that is my main concern,” says University of Massachusetts Lowell scholar Arie Perliger, who studies political violence and assassinations.

  • POLITICAL VIOLENCEAre Political Assassinations on the Rise? A Criminologist Weighs in on the Shooting Death of Charlie Kirk

    By Tanner Stening

    James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist, says there has been a rise in politically motivated killings, attempted killings and partisan threats —even though the overall fatalities remains a small number.

  • POLARIZATIONInfluencers, Multipliers, and the Structure of Polarization: How Political Narratives Circulate on Twitter/X

    A recent study provides a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms driving polarization and issue alignment on Twitter/X and reveals how political polarization is reinforced and structured by two distinct types of highly active users: influencers and multipliers.

  • CHINA WATCHRising Dragon, Slumbering Sam

    By Bill Sweetman

    Last week was one for the books. President Donald Trump rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War, while China held a remarkable parade and flyover in Beijing. It was clearly intended to demonstrate that China’s armed forces had at least attained technical parity with the United States and possibly surpassed it. The week closed with a report of the Pentagon’s plan to prioritize focusing on domestic threats while downgrading other missions, such as deterring China and countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow.

  • POWER-GRID PROTECTIONProtecting the Grid with Artificial Intelligence

    The electric grid powers everything from traffic lights to pharmacy fridges, but it regularly faces threats from severe storms and advanced attackers. New neural network detects physical issues, cyberattacks.

  • OUR PICKSThe U.S. Is Undoing the Post-9/11 Security Architecture | America Enters a New Age of Political Violence | US Investment in Spyware Is Skyrocketing, and more

    ·  How the United States Is Undoing the Post-9/11 Security Architecture That Has Kept It Safe

    ·  Perpetual War and International Law: Enduring Legacies of the War on Terror

    ·  Charlie Kirk Assassination Raises Fear of Surging Political Violence

    ·  The Tragedy of Charlie Kirk’s Killing

    ·  America Enters a New Age of Political Violence 

    ·  “War Is Here”: The Far-Right Responds to Charlie Kirk Shooting with Calls for Violence

    ·  Man Accused of Printing 236-page Screed on Killing a Federal Judge 

    ·  Federal Judge Curbs DHS Force Against Journalists in L.A. 

    ·  US Investment in Spyware Is Skyrocketing

    ·  When the Vibes Are Off: The Security Risks of AI-Generated Code

  • WORLD ROUNDUPPentagon Plan Prioritizes Homeland Over China Threat | Europe’s Delusions Over What It Means to Deter Russia | Why Isn’t China Interested in Nuclear Risk Reduction?, and more

    ·  Pentagon Plan Prioritizes Homeland Over China Threat

    ·  The Top 10 Trump Administration Foreign-Policy Mistakes

    ·  Gulf Powers Question U.S. Protection After Israeli Attack on Qatari Soil

    ·  The Globalists of MAGA

    ·  Massive Leak Shows How a Chinese Company Is Exporting the Great Firewall to the World

    ·  Israel’s Qatarstrophic Error

    ·  Israel’s Strategic Declaration

    ·  Europe’s Delusions Over What It Means to Deter Russia

    ·  Right-Wing Influencers Are Turning to Foreign Affairs

    ·  Why Isn’t China Interested in Nuclear Risk Reduction?

  • EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGThe President Should Not Have a License to Kill

    By David J. Bier

    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.

  • POLITICL VIOLENCETransnational Dynamics in Violent Outcomes for Protest Movements: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

    By Sarah Marsden, Noah Tucker, and Nadine Salman

    This report offers a synthesis and critical analysis of research that has considered whether and how transnational dynamics inform the interaction between protest, radicalization, and terrorism. The analysis draws on research on transnational movements and processes that inform how and why people engage in protests which are or become violent, and which involve violent extremist actors. It explores the influence of transnational intergroup relations.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHBrazil’s Bolsonaro May Soon Join Ranks of Failed Coup Plotters Held to Account − Hampering the Chance of Any Political Comeback

    By John Joseph Chin and Joe Wright

    Brazil’s Supreme Court is expected to deliver a verdict by Sept. 12 over charges that the former president and key aides plotted to overturn Bolsonaro’s 2022 election defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Prosecutors allege that Bolsonaro and others discussed a scheme to assassinate Lula and incited a riot on Jan. 8, 2023, in hopes that Brazil’s military would intervene and return Bolsonaro to power.

  • AICalifornia, New York Could Become First States to Enact Laws Aiming to Prevent Catastrophic AI Harm

    By Madyson Fitzgerald

    California and New York could become the first states to establish rules aiming to prevent the most advanced, large-scale artificial intelligence models —known as frontier AI models —from causing catastrophic harm involving dozens of casualties or billion-dollar damages.

  • CRITICAL MINERALSSecuring South Korea's Critical Minerals Supply Chains Through Trilateral Cooperation

    South Korea, Japan, and the United States’ trilateral partnership has expanded to include collaboration on economic security, including on critical minerals supply chains (CMSCs). A new report offers analysis, tools, and recommendations to strengthen South Korea’s CMSCs and economic security.

  • WORLD ROUNDUP: RUSSIA’S POLAND INCURSION Russia’s Reckless Provocation | Russia Just Attacked NATO. Again. | Russia Tested NATO in Poland. NATO Flunked., and more

    ·  The Kremlin’s Plot to kill NATO’s Credibility 

    ·  Russia Just Attacked NATO. Again.

    ·  Trump’s Incompetence Has Created the Conditions for More Bloodshed

    ·  Now Putin Knows He Can Cross NATO’s Red Lines and Get Away with It

    ·  Russia’s Reckless Provocation

    ·  Russia Tested NATO in Poland. NATO Flunked.

    ·  Is NATO Prepared for Autonomous Warfare?