• EXTREMISMExtremist Groups Uphold Long Tradition of Exploiting National Tragedies for Publicity

    While Texas authorities respond to the devastation from the July 4 Hill Country flooding, which has killed at least 119 people and left over 170 still missing, Patriot Front, a Texas-based white supremacist group, is using the disaster to generate positive publicity under the guise of disaster relief.

  • IMMIGRTIONDHS Revokes Temporary Protected Status for Two More Latin American Countries

    By Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square

    After decades of extensions, DHS will not renew Temporary Protected Status for Honduran and Nicaraguan citizens residing in the U.S., per new agency announcements.

  • TARRIFS & NATIONAL SECURITYThe National Security Costs of Trump’s Tariffs

    By Jonathan Hillman

    Looking at the national security ledger, the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are starting to become clearer than the benefits, especially for the U.S. defense industry, critical infrastructure, and relations with partners and allies.

  • EMERGENCY POWERSEmergency Powers Are for Emergencies

    By Jeffrey Miron

    The country thrived for many decades before the creation of most emergency powers. It can do so as well, going forward.

  • SURVEILLANCEFlock Safety’s Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe

    By Sarah Hamid and Rindala Alajaji

    Two recent statements from the surveillance company reveal a troubling pattern: when confronted by evidence of widespread abuse, Flock Safety has blamed users, downplayed harms, and doubled down on the very systems that enabled the violations in the first place.

  • EXTREMISMWhat is CREC? The Christian Nationalist Group Has a Vision for America − and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Support

    By Samuel Perry

    CREC theology includes the belief that the establishment clause of the Constitution does not require a separation of church and state. The CREC broadly asserts that the government and anyone serving in it should be Christian. For Wilson and members of CREC churches, this means Christians and only Christians are qualified to hold political office in the United States.

  • TRUTH DECAYMost Americans Believe Misinformation Is a Problem — Federal Research Cuts Will Only Make the Problem Worse

    By H. Colleen Sinclair

    Research on misinformation and disinformation has become the latest casualty of the Trump administration’s restructuring of federal research priorities. Following Trump’s executive orde, the National Science Foundation canceled hundreds of grants that supported research on misinformation and disinformation. But Trump’s executive order, instead of providing protections, will likely weaken Americans’ defenses against misinformation and disinformation, whether generated at home or by foreign actors.

  • TRUTH DECAYGrok’s ‘White Genocide’ Responses Show How Generative AI Can Be Weaponized

    By James Foulds, Phil Feldman, and Shimei Pan

    The AI chatbot Grok spent one day in May 2025 spreading debunked conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa, echoing views publicly voiced by Elon Musk. There has been substantial research on methods for keeping AI from causing harm by avoiding such damaging statements – called AI alignment – but this incident is particularly alarming because it shows how those same techniques can be deliberately abused to produce misleading or ideologically motivated content.

  • TRUTH DECAYTrump Has Punished South Africa for Something Its Government Has Not Done

    The US president has claimed the South African government is seizing land from white farmers. The reality is much more mundane.

  • GUNSGuns Kill More U.S. Children Than Other Causes, but State Policies Can Help, Study Finds

    By Nada Hassanein

    More American children and teens die from firearms than any other cause. Black children, especially, suffer when laws allow more guns to circulate, researchers found. There are more deaths — and wider racial disparities — in states with more permissive gun policies, according to a new study.

  • RISKY POLICINGTrump’s Military Response to Protests: A Conversation on Law and Precedent

    By Matthew C. Waxman and Peter Mansoor

    “The federalized response to riots in Los Angeles will inspire demonstrations in other cities, not just against ICE and its tactics, but against the use of military forces in civilian law enforcement. If those demonstrations turn violent, they could lure the president to use military forces elsewhere within the United States—creating a dangerous feedback loop with a very uncertain ending,” says Peter Mansour.

  • ARGUMENT: THE MILITARY & IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENTThe Mounting Crisis of Militarizing Immigration Enforcement

    President Donald Trump has federalized 2,000 California National Guard troops to quell immigration protests pursuant to an obscure provision in federal law–10 USC §12406–which has not been used since 1970, when President Richard Nixon federalized the Guard to deliver mail during a postal strike. William Banks and Mark Nevitt write that “the last time the National Guard was federalized over a governor’s objection was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson deployed the Guard to Selma, Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators.”

  • IMMIGRATIONTrump’s Lawless, Baseless Immigration Ban

    By David J. Bier and Alex Nowrasteh

    President Trump signed a proclamation that, with few exceptions, bans nineteen nationalities from entering the United States, supposedly based on “security” concerns, and went into effect on June 9. The president claims that there is no way to vet these immigrants. Yet that is precisely what his consular officers and border officials were successfully doing for decades—up until June 9.

  • FOREIGN OWNERSHIPExamining State Legislation on Foreign Ownership of U.S. Farmland

    By Kim Ward

    Foreign entities now hold 3.5% of privately owned U.S. agricultural land, prompting growing attention from lawmakers. In 2023 alone, more than 30 U.S. states introduced bills seeking to restrict foreign ownership of farmland. An MSU study shows that these legislative efforts are driven more by national security concerns and political ideology than by economic factors.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHEurope’s Moment of Truth: A Democracy Shield for Today and Tomorrow

    Democracy in Europe is under growing pressure. Authoritarian regimes like Russia and the People’s Republic of China are conducting increasingly sophisticated foreign interference campaigns. Internally, illiberal actors – who are often the beneficiaries of this foreign interference — are eroding the rule of law and civic freedoms as democratic norms deteriorate in the EU’s immediate neighborhood. The EU’s European Democracy Shield, announced in 2024 and expected in 2025, aims to counter these threats to democracy.