• U.S. Stand Your Ground Laws Associated with 700 Additional Homicides Every Year: Study

    Stand Your Ground laws in the United States have expanded legal protections for individuals who use deadly violence in self-defense. A new study estimates they result in an additional 700 homicides each year - an increase in monthly homicide rates of 11 percent nationally, but up to 28 percent in some states.

  • U.K. Unveils Game Plan for “Living with COVID”

    In an address to the House of Commons Monday, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a plan for “living with COVID,” phasing out free testing for most people and removing requirements to self-isolate after testing positive.

  • Not a Suicide Pact: Urgent Strategic Recommendations for Reducing Domestic Terrorism in the United States

    America’s Bill of Rights protects U.S. citizens’ rights to free speech, to bear arms, and to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, among other things. As the Supreme Court has consistently held, however, no right is absolute: All rights must be balanced against other societal needs, including and especially public safety. Barbara L. McQuade writes that as the threat of domestic terrorism metastasizes in the United States, Americans need to use the practical wisdom urged by Justice Robert L. Jackson – who, in 1949, advised that the Constitution is not “a suicide pact” — to ensure the survival of the republic.

  • The Three Leading Cyber Risks: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fake News

    The risks associated with misleading information can have a profoundly negative impact. A study aims to provide recommendations on responding to the new digital age challenges.

  • Employment Fears May Explain rise of Extremist Parties in Europe

    Fears over job security and quality of work for a new class of disaffected citizens – the ‘precariat’ – could explain the rise of popular extremist parties across Europe, according to a new study. Rsearchers discovered a link between electoral support for radical populist parties of both the right and left and ‘precarity’ – a lack of economic security and stable occupational identities.

  • Support for Populist Politics “Collapsed” During the Pandemic: Report

    Support for populist parties and politicians, and agreement with populist sentiment, has fallen amid the pandemic, according to a “mega-dataset” taking in the attitudes of over half a million people across 109 countries.

  • Polarization: Parties Lead and Voters Follow

    Party polarization tends to come before voter polarization, according to new research. “People often rely on political parties as a source of information, so it makes sense to expect them to follow the lead of parties and other political elites,” says one researcher.

  • How Our Outdated Privacy Laws Doomed Contact-Tracing Apps

    Last spring, when the disease first started its rapid spread, contact-tracing apps were heralded as a promising way to control it by tracking diagnoses and exposure through self-reporting and location tracking. Jessica Rich writes that these apps have had mixed success worldwide, but “they’ve been a huge failure in the United States.” He adds: “A key reason for this failure is that people don’t trust the tech companies or the government to collect, use, and store their personal data, especially when that data involves their health and precise whereabouts.”

  • The “Sore Loser Effect”: Rejecting Election Results Can Destabilize Democracy and Drive Terrorism

    Acceptance of electoral defeat, something political scientists call “loser’s consent,” is essential for stability and order in democracies. The refusal by a candidate or a party to accept defeat a potentially dangerous situation for the United States. New research shows that when politicians refuse to accept a free and fair democratic election’s outcome, and instead choose to promote a popular narrative of a stolen or dirty election, they place their people in physical danger. Popular tolerance for terrorism grows, and so does terrorist activity itself.

  • Far Too Little Vote Fraud to Tip Election to Trump, AP Finds

    >The Associated Press conducted a thorough review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump.Joe Biden won the 79 Electoral College votes of these states by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The AP comprehensive review has found fewer than 475 potential fraud cases. The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all the potentially fraudulent votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not.

  • The Only Way for the U.S. to Maintain Tech Edge Over China: STEM Immigration

    U.S. global technology leadership is under serious threat. Given current trends, it is inevitable that China will overtake the United States. The most powerful—and perhaps only—lasting and asymmetric American science and technology advantage over China is the U.S. ability to attract and retain international S&T talent. But the U.S. government risks squandering that advantage through poor immigration policy.

  • U.S. Offers Reward for Information on Russian DarkSide Cybercrime Group

    The United States has announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any individual holding a “key leadership” position in DarkSide, a cybercrime group believed to be tied to Russia.The DarkSide syndicate was behind the attack on Colonial Pipeline – the largest publicly disclosed cyberattack against critical infrastructure in the United States.

  • Government Action Needed to Ensure Insurance Against Major Hacking of Driverless Vehicles: Experts

    Government action is needed so driverless vehicles can be insured against malicious hacks which could have potentially catastrophic consequences, experts say. Traditional vehicle insurance wouldn’t cover the mass hacking of driverless cars, and an incident like this could cost the industry tens of billions of pounds.

  • Twenty Years After the Patriot Act, What Is the Future of Biosecurity?

    The USA Patriot Act was signed into law twenty20 years ago, on 26 October 2001. Yong-Bee Lim, David Gillum, and Kathleen Vogel write Many changes have taken place since 2001, and  “The Patriot Act’s top-down approach cannot fully address this emerging reality, the authors write. Despite twenty years of effort, some old biosecurity issues continue to plague the country, while a whole new biosecurity frontier is opening up.”

  • Surveillance Equipment: Scrutiny Necessary for the Police, Manufacturers

    Facial recognition, body cameras and other digital technologies are increasingly used by police departments, municipalities and even gated communities, but these tools, manufactured by private companies, raise the specter of unchecked surveillance.