• Far-Right Populism is Resurgent in Germany

    The far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party recently won two local elections in breakthrough victories. Rising energy costs, widespread inflation, and migration levels that have doubled over last year are providing fodder for far-right messaging throughout Europe.

  • China’s Gallium and Germanium Controls: What They Mean and What Could Happen Next

    From August, China is to restrict exports of gallium and germanium, two critical elements for making semiconductor chips. China dominates the supply of both elements. The restrictions look likely to lead to higher prices for gallium and germanium, as well as longer delivery times.

  • Truth Decay Is Putting U.S. National Security at Risk

    America’s troubled relationship with facts is putting national security at risk. “Truth Decay”—the diminishing role of facts and analysis in public life—could weaken our military, costs us credibility with our allies, and calls into question our ability to respond to the next big crisis.

  • Preliminary Injunction Limiting Government Communications with Platforms Tackles Illegal “Jawboning,” but Fails to Provide Guidance on What’s Unconstitutional

    A July 4 preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in Louisiana limiting government contacts with social media platforms deals with government “jawboning” is a serious issue deserving serious attention and judicial scrutiny. The court order is notable as the first to hold the government accountable for unconstitutional jawboning of social media platforms, but it is not the serious examination of jawboning issues that is sorely needed. The court did not distinguish between unconstitutional and constitutional interactions or provide guideposts for distinguishing between them in the future.

  • Muting Trump’s “Megaphone” Easier Said Than Done

    How do you cover Donald Trump? He’s going to do a lot of speeches, and parts of his message will be provably false, reflect intolerance, and promote anti-democratic ideas. Political experts suggest ways media can blunt the former president’s skillful manipulation of coverage to disseminate falsehoods and spread messages which are often sharply divisive and periodically dangerous.

  • Facing Charges, Some Goyim Defense League Extremists Embrace “Sovereign Citizen” Tactics

    As they rack up littering charges for distributing propaganda, some individuals associated with the antisemitic and extremist Goyim Defense League (GDL)—including leader Jon Minadeo—have adopted pseudo-legal “sovereign citizen” tactics in a misguided attempt to escape legal troubles.

  • China-Based Chemical Manufacturing Companies Charged, Executives Arrested in Fentanyl Manufacturing

    DOJ announced the arrest of two individuals and the unsealing of three indictments in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York charging China-based companies and their employees with crimes related to fentanyl production, distribution, and sales resulting from precursor chemicals.

  • Lessons from Other Democracies: Ideas for Combatting Mistrust and Polarization in US Elections

    There remains a crisis of confidence in U.S. elections, as many Americans harbor mistaken beliefs about the outcome of the 2020 elections and the way elections are run. “Virulent polarization and the trust-destroying propagation of election related mis- and disinformation remain acute threats to American democracy,” says the co-author of a new report. The report pulls lessons from six countries and recommends several solutions the United States can implement to ensure free and fair elections.

  • No Simple Answer for Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories

    The moon landing was faked. 9/11 was an inside job. Mass shootings like Sandy Hook were “false flags.” Top Democrats are behind a child sex ring. COVID-19 as population control. Area 51 is home to lots of aliens. Trump had the 2020 election stolen from him. Psychologists say that people endorse conspiracy theories due to complex combination of personality traits and motivations, including relying strongly on their intuition, feeling a sense of antagonism and superiority toward others, and perceiving threats in their environment.

  • Supreme Court Rejects Texas Effort to Force Biden Administration to Change Deportation Policy

    Texas and Louisiana sued after the Biden administration told immigration agents to focus on deporting undocumented immigrants who are convicted of felonies or pose a risk to public safety. The Supreme Court said states didn’t have any standing to sue.

  • U.S. Policymakers Acting to Bolster Drug Supply Chains Amid Critical Shortages

    Alarmed by persistent shortages of critically important drugs such as cancer medications, Adderall, and antibiotics, U.S. policymakers are taking steps to shore up the country’s pharmaceutical supply chains. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists has more than 900 drug and dose shortages on its drug shortage list, and the FDA lists more than 200. The number and length of supply disruptions has grown over the last 10 years.

  • Three Convicted for Helping China to Repatriate Chinese Nationals

    The three men were acting on behalf of China in a campaign to harass, stalk and coerce certain residents of the United States to return to the PRC as part of a global and extralegal repatriation effort known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”

  • Can America’s Students Recover What They Lost During the Pandemic?

    Disastrous test scores increasingly show how steep a toll the COVID-19 era exacted on students, particularly minorities. Schools are grappling with how to catch up, and the experience of one city shows how intractable the obstacles are.

  • Support for Violence Nearly Doubles if Americans Believe Election Losses Stem from Unfair Actions: Study

    As dangerous rhetoric by political leaders dominates the news, new data on American views of political violence found that Americans’ support for political violence was deeply influenced by the context of why they believe their preferred candidate lost an election.Nearly 40 percent of survey respondents said that violence could be justified if they believe their preferred candidate lost as a result of “unfair actions” taken by political opponents.

  • Why Do We Believe Compulsive Liars? What Makes Them Tick?

    One of the fascinating aspects concerning the saga of convicted entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes and recently indicted New York Congressman George Santos is how long they got away with lying to investors, patients, voters, and the public. Given the sheer number of prevarications each of them employed, shouldn’t observers, even casual ones, have caught on to them sooner?