• California Hydropower Could Be Cut in Half This Summer: Report

    By Emily Pontecorvo

    A third year of drought spells less hydropower, more natural gas, and higher electricity prices. The U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, reported last week that as reservoir levels dip far below their historic averages, electricity generation from California’s hydroelectric dams could be cut in half this summer.

  • Iran Now Has Enough Fissile Material for One Nuclear Bomb: IAEA

    Iran has enriched enough uranium for making one Hiroshima-size nuclear bomb, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in its quarterly report. The IAEA says that Iran now has around 43 kilograms (95 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent (in March, Iran had 33 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent). The 43 kg of 60 percent enriched uranium would yield about 22-25 kg of uranium enriched to 90 percent, which is weapon-grade.

  • China’s Growing Agricultural Problems Pose Risks for the U.S.

    China is facing a growing demand on its agricultural production. The Chinese government has taken several domestic initiatives to address the growing problem, but it has also gone abroad to address its needs through investments and acquisitions of farmland, animal husbandry, agricultural equipment, and intellectual property (IP), particularly of GM seeds These efforts present several risks to U.S. economic and national security.

  • Inside the Government Fiasco That Nearly Closed the U.S. Air System

    By Peter Elkind

    The upgrade to 5G was supposed to bring a paradise of speedy wireless. But a chaotic process under the Trump administration, allowed to fester by the Biden administration, turned it into an epic disaster. The problems haven’t been solved.

  • Norway and Finland Have Levels of Gun Ownership Similar to the U.S., but Far Less Gun Crime

    By Peter Squires

    The number of children killed by guns is 36.5 times higher in the U.S. compared to many other high-income countries. But in terms of the level of gun crimes more broadly – measured by examining the relationship between gun-ownership rates and gun violence — the U.S. is ranked 20th in the world, although all the countries ahead of it are much poorer and more conflicted. European societies similar to the U.S. in terms of gun owners per 100,000 people (but with hunting rifles and shotguns rather than handguns), such as Finland and Norway, are among the safest societies in Europe. Gun researchers now focus increasingly upon wider “gun control regimes” which have a big part to play in increasing or reducing levels of gun violence.  

  • After Mass Shootings Like Uvalde, National Gun Control Fails – but States Often Loosen Gun Laws

    By Christopher Poliquin

    Contrary to the view that nothing changes, state legislatures consider 15% more firearm bills the year after a mass shooting. Deadlier shootings – which receive more media attention – have larger effects. As impressive as this 15% increase in gun bills may sound, gun legislation can reduce gun violence only if it becomes law. And when it comes to enacting these bills into law, our research found that mass shootings do not regularly cause lawmakers to tighten gun restrictions. In fact, we found the opposite. Republican state legislatures pass significantly more gun laws that loosen restrictions on firearms after mass shootings.

  • Why 18-Year-Olds in Texas Can Buy AR-15s but Not Handguns

    By Kiah Collier and Jeremy Schwartz

    The massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, highlights disparities in how federal laws regulate rifles and handguns. The shooter bought two rifles days after his 18th birthday. 

  • The Buffalo and Uvalde Gunmen Bought Their Rifles Legally at 18

    By Jennifer Mascia

    Both teenage gunmen in the Buffalo and Uvalde mass-shootings acquired their rifles legally, through federally licensed dealers. Federal law allows people as young as 18 to buy long guns, including rifles and shotguns, and only a handful of states have enacted laws raising the minimum age to 21. There’s no federal minimum age for the possession of long guns, meaning it’s legal to give one to a minor in more than half the country.

  • Breaking the Black Sea Blockade

    By Lawrence Freedman

    There is an aspect to Ukraine war which has received insufficient attention, though it is now slowly coming into focus and where pressure could build for a NATO operation. This is the need to relieve the blockade Russia has successfully inflicted on Ukraine’s southern ports in the Black Sea. This is urgent not only because of the effect on Ukraine’s battered economy but also on supplies of essential agricultural products to the rest of the world.

  • Reforming DHS’s Biodefense Operations and Governance

    Today’s biological threats show no signs of desisting any time soon. Naturally occurring outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics, and laboratory accidents pose a growing challenge – while the number of high-containment laboratories and amount of dangerous research continues to increase unabated. “DHS, as chief among those federal departments and agencies responsible for securing the homeland, must overcome its current state of fractionation and demonstrate to the rest of the government, country, and world that it is capable of coordinating and leading efforts in biodefense and other arenas,” Carrie Cordero and Asha M. George write.

  • The Meaning of Biden’s Big Shift on Taiwan

    By David Sacks

    The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) does not obligate the United States to directly intervene on Taiwan’s behalf. Instead, for four decades Washington has maintained a policy of “strategic ambiguity,” leaving unanswered the question of whether it would defend Taiwan. In moving away from strategic ambiguity, Biden made a long overdue adjustment to U.S. policy.

  • Statistical Physics Refutes Theory of ‘Two Ukraines’

    The notion that there are two Ukraines –a western Ukraine which is more Europe-oriented, the other in east Ukraine, which is more Russia-oriented – has been widespread. The key finding of a new statistical study is that the theory of two Ukraines doesn’t hold up against the data. Conflicts do exist within Ukraine but aren’t ideologically west versus east.

  • Does Drought-Prone California Need Another Reservoir?

    By Felicity Barringer

    For a century, California and the West have grappled with the job of storing water. The first half of the 20th century was the heyday of western dams; now many of them are aging; they were designed for the needs and values of another era. Is California “dammed out?” Or could increasing reservoir capacity help the state ride out the new era of aridification?

  • Codifying Support for Nuclear Inspections in Iran

    By David Albright

    The main obstacle for a new nuclear deal with Iran is Iran’s disregard of its safeguards commitments and defiance of standard International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) procedures are more problematic for a nuclear deal. Resolving those outstanding inspection issues offers a far more promising pathway to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons in the long run.

  • How a Fellow of Germany’s Humboldt Foundation Joined China's Military Commission

    By Sandra Petersmann, Esther Felden, Naomi Conrad

    Germany’s Humboldt Research Fellowships are very popular with visiting Chinese scientists. Back in China, some of them go on to do research for the Chinese military. According to the Max Planck Society, “around one-third” of all scientific management positions in China today are held by people who were trained in Germany.