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U.S.-Led Taskforce Deploys in Red Sea as Middle East Crisis Threatens to Escalate Beyond Gaza
The world economy is strongly dependent on the global maritime supply chain. About 80% of international trade by volume is transported by sea. It does not take much to disrupt the global maritime supply chain. Intentional disruptions of the maritime supply chain by pirates or terrorists pose a challenge that goes beyond simple logistics. Attacks on civilian shipping directly affect insurance premiums and deter operators from transiting through certain areas for financial and security reasons.
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DOJ Charges High-Ranking Hezbollah Member for 1994 Bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Samuel Salman El Reda Participated in terrorist operations for Hezbollah in South America, Asia and Lebanon, and helped plan and execute Hezbollah’s July 18, 1994, bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina building in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people.
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Claims That U.S. Abandoned Arms in Afghanistan are “Farce”: U.S.
The United States has again denied leaving any weapons in Afghanistan during the American military’s withdrawal from the country in August 2021, dismissing such allegations as “farce.” An administration spokesperson said that over the course of 20 years in Afghanistan, the United States had equipped the Afghan national security forces. In the face of advances by the Taliban insurgency, many Afghan forces had decided not to fight and lay down their arms.
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Utah Supreme Court Upholds Right to Refuse to Tell Cops Your Passcode
The Utah Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors violated a defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when they presented testimony about his refusal to give police the passcode to his cell phone. The Utah court’s opinion is the latest in a thicket of state supreme court opinions dealing with whether law enforcement agents can compel suspects to disclose or enter their passwords.
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100 Years Ago, the KKK Planted Bombs at a U.S. University – part of the Terror Group’s Crusade Against American Catholics
The KKK is most infamous for violently terrorizing African Americans. But in the 1920s its hatred also had other targets, especially outside the South. This version of the KKK, known as the Second Ku Klux Klan, harassed Catholics, Jews and immigrants – including students and staff at Catholic universities like Dayton, where I am a historian of American religion.
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Benbrika Case Shows Australia in Danger of Complacency About Violent Extremism
The fact that convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika is being released from jail should be of concern to all Australians. Alarmingly, it’s happening without the court system even being asked to consider a continuing detention order.
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Why Pakistan Is Deporting Afghan Migrants
Pakistan’s decision to deport undocumented migrants over perceived security risks is poised to affect almost two million Afghans.
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Denialism in the Wake of the Oct. 7 Massacre
In the wake of the October 7 Hamas massacre, many expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians displayed anti-Israel sentiment and support for Hamas. Most Americans have been exposed to hateful online misinformation and disinformation about the current war. One form of misleading propaganda effort stands out in the current war: Denialism.
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U.S. Middle East Vision Emerges as Biden Focuses Beyond Gaza War
An American vision for a post-Gaza War Middle East is emerging as the Biden administration is exerting an increasing pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war Cabinet to scale back Israel’s 10-week-old campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza amid mounting civilian casualties.
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What European Security Services Say About the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe
The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe is a controversial topic, and much of the confusion stems from the opaque and secretive nature of the Brotherhood and, consequently, the difficulty of obtaining clear and unequivocal information.
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Shadow Play: A Pro-China and Anti-U.S. Influence Operation Thrives on YouTube
Experts have recently observed a coordinated inauthentic influence campaign originating on YouTube that’s promoting pro-China and anti-US narratives in an apparent effort to shift English-speaking audiences’ views of those countries’ roles in international politics, the global economy and strategic technology competition.
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A U.S. Ambassador Working for Cuba? Charges Against Former Diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha Spotlight Havana’s Importance in the World of Spying
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Dec. 4, 2023, that Victor Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, had been arrested and faced federal charges for secretly acting for decades as an agent of the Cuban government. It remains to be seen what damage Rocha may have done while working as a Cuban spy. His tenure in the U.S. government, however, would place him right up there with the most successful, and thus damaging, spies in modern history.
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U.S. Elected Officials Targeted by Vandalism, Threats Following October 7 Attacks
In the weeks following the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, political activists have targeted elected officials – and their offices – with harassment and vandalism. Many of these incidents featured anti-Israel rhetoric, allegations of support for genocide and demands for a ceasefire.
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U.S. Election: How Populists Encourage Blind Mistrust – and How to Push Back
At the heart of liberal democracy lies the principle ofnumerous institutions which operate independently to balance competing interests. For this principle to work, it’s important that the public trust that these diverse voices act in good faith. Populists, however, seek to chip away at this by accusing a wide variety of organizations as either being run by “elites,” or working as agents of elite interests. Details may vary from country to country, but the overall function remains the same: to discredit democratic institutions or the media. As the US gears up for the 2024 election, it’s crucial for people to understand how populists cultivate blind mistrust of independent institutions.
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Responding to Authoritarian Information Ops in Latin America
The Russian government is currently financing an on-going, well-funded disinformation campaign across Latin America. The Kremlin’s campaign plans to leverage developed media contacts in several Latin American countries in order to carry out an information manipulation campaign designed to surreptitiously exploit the openness of Latin America’s media and information environment.
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More headlines
The long view
Preventing Another 'Jan. 6' Starts by Changing How Elections Are Certified, Experts Say
The 2024 presidential election may be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, but preventing a repeat of Jan. 6, 2021 — when false claims of a stolen election promoted by Donald Trump and his allies led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol —will be top of mind this election year. Research finds broad support among public for nonpartisan certification commissions.
States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.
Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.
European Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
LNG Exports Have Had No Impact on Domestic Energy Costs: Analysis
U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports have not had any sustained and significant direct impact on U.S. natural gas prices and have, in fact, spurred production and productivity gains, which contribute to downward pressure on domestic prices.
Don’t Buy Moscow’s Shameless Campaign Tying Biden to Its Terrorist Attack
Russia has offered many different explanations to the ISIS-K’s 22 March 2024 terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, but the most recent explanation offered by Russia is the most audacious yet: Russia now charges that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma financed the attack. Burisma is at the center of an effort by a congressional committee to impeach President Biden, but the case has all but collapsed. Hunter Stoll writes that Russia’s disinformation and propaganda apparatus appears to be searching for ways to keep Burisma in the news ahead of the U.S. presidential election.