• Despite What Some Politicians Say, Crime Rates Are Decreasing

    Violent crime in the United States dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the same period last year, but some politicians continue to assert the opposite. Criminologists caution that while the overall decline in violent crime is an indisputable fact, the story may be different in individual cities and neighborhoods.

  • Illegal Immigrant Murderers in Texas, 2013–2022

    Crime committed by illegal immigrants is an important and contentious public policy issue, but it is notoriously difficult to measure and compare their criminal conviction rates with those of other groups such as legal immigrants and native‐born Americans. Most research, however, finds that all immigrants in the United States are less likely to commit crime or be incarcerated than native‐born Americans.

  • ‘Gun Control Is Dead and We Killed It’: Unmasking the ‘Lonely Incel’ Who Designed the World’s Most Popular 3D-printed Firearm

    The first 3D-printed firearm emerged in May 2013, but Despite the hype, the reality was that the gun was impractical and unreliable. It was not until spring 2020 that the threat of 3D-printed guns grew significantly with the emergence of the FGC-9. The open-source design  was accompanied by a meticulous, step-by-step instructional guide akin to an Ikea assembly booklet. The gun’s mysterious designer boasted in one anonymized interview that, by bringing out these designs and sharing them freely: “We f****d gun control for good; Gun control is dead, and we killed it.”

  • Racist Slurs and Death Threats: The Dangerous Life of a Georgia Elections Official

    The lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election have resonated with many Douglas County, Georgia, voters. Now many nonpartisan officials across the country are forced to face their ire. Ere is how one Georgia county official navigates the hatred inspired by election lies.

  • How to Equip the U.S. Coast Guard Against China’s Grey-Zone Operations

    America’s allies in the Indo-Pacific are getting pretty familiar with China’s grey-zone maritime behavior, but the United States itself is ill-prepared for dealing with it. Yet it should be prepared. The U.S. must not only counter the threat to its national security posed by China’s coercive operations, but also support its allies against Chinese efforts to rewrite the rule of law in the region.

  • Is the EU Doing Enough to Prepare for Wildfires?

    Europe faces more intense wildfires due to climate change, prompting the EU to expand its response. Experts stress the need for preventive actions and sustainable forest management.

  • High Noon at Second Thomas Shoal

    China has identified the beleaguered garrison at Second Thomas Shoal as a weak link among the South China Sea features physically occupied by the Philippines and, by extension, the US-Philippines alliance.

  • Privacy-Enhancing Browser Extensions Fail to Meet User Needs, New Study Finds

    Popular web browser extensions designed to protect user privacy and block online ads are falling short, according to researchers, who are proposing new measurement methodologies to better uncover and quantify these shortcomings.

  • ‘Risks of Nuclear Terrorism Are High and Growing.’ New Tools, Alliances, Renewed Focus Needed, experts recommend

    For roughly 80 years, the United States has managed the threat of nuclear terrorism through nonproliferation treaties, agency programs, intelligence activities, international monitoring support and more, withstanding the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and 9/11. A National Academies committee wants to ensure the U.S. remains prepared.

  • Iran Can Now Produce Enough Fissile Material for 5 Nuclear Bombs within 30 Days of Decision to Do So

    Iran notified the IAEA recently that over the next 3-4 weeks it would install eight cascades each containing 174 IR-6 centrifuges, about 1,400 in total, at the underground Fordow Enrichment Plant. The installation of eight more IR-6 cascades represents a dramatic increase in Fordow’s total enrichment capacity, meaning that by the end of the first month from a decision to “go nuclear,” Iran could produce a total of 145 kg of WGU, enough for five nuclear weapons.

  • Russian Wargame Practicing Tactical Nukes Use Is Warning to West

    Last month, the Russian defense ministry launched a multi-phase exercise near Ukraine meant to prepare its forces for using non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNWs). In addition to the obvious purpose of preparing Russian troops to use tactical nuclear weapons in battle, the multi-stage exercise was also meant to signal to the West that it should refrain from escalating assistance to Ukraine, as well as to warn the U.S. and its allies that Russia may liberalize its conditions for using nuclear weapons.

  • Record Number of NATO Allies to Hit 2% Defense Spending Goal

    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has announced that more NATO member states than originally expected were set to fulfill the 2% target of GDP defense spending this year. The NATO defense investment target was agreed upon in 2014. Across the alliance, all member states aside from Slovenia and Italy have upped their defense budget.

  • Joining NATO Binds Countries to Defend Each Other – but This Commitment Is Not Set in Stone

    At the root of debates over policy toward alliances such as NATO is the assumption that NATO requires its members to step in and help with defense if another member of the alliance is attacked, but it is important to understand that, in reality, alliance agreements are more flexible than people think. In practice, it is possible for the U.S. and other Western countries to stay out of a conflict that involves a NATO country without having to break their alliance commitments.

  • Evaluating U.S. Readiness to Prevent, Counter, and Respond to WMD

    Two new reports review the adequacy of U.S. strategies to prevent, counter, and respond to the threat of nuclear and chemical terrorism and highlight the strengths and limitations of U.S. efforts to prevent and counter threats from weapons of mass destruction (WMD), particularly in a changing terrorism threat landscape.

  • Role of Nuclear Weapons Grows as Geopolitical Relations Deteriorate: SIPRI

    The nine nuclear-armed states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel—continued to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023.