• Concerns About Google AI Being Sentient

    From virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, to robotic vacuums and self-driving cars, to automated investment portfolio managers and marketing bots, artificial intelligence has become a big part of our everyday lives. No one knows when humans will create an intelligent or sentient AI, but recent revelations about LaMDA, Google’s artificially intelligent chatbot generator, raised concerns.

  • Supreme Court: Biden Can Terminate “Remain in Mexico” Program

    Almost a year after the Supreme Court allowed a federal judge in Texas to order the Biden administration to restart the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy, also known as the “Remain in Mexico program, the Supreme Court on Thursday, 30 June, ruled in the Biden administration’s favor, allowing President Biden to end MPP.

  • Hate Sites: Using the Broader Abortion Argument to Spread Racism, Extremism

    Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists are using the debate around women’s reproductive rights to promote racist and extremist agendas.

  • Exploring the Role of Place Attachment Following California Wildfires

    Homeowners across the United States are not only experiencing higher mortgage rates and property costs, they’re also at risk of damage from an increasing number of disasters linked to natural hazards, including wildfires. 

  • Controversial Confucius Institutes, Under New Name, Returning to U.S. Schools

    Confucius Institutes, the controversial Beijing-backed language and cultural learning centers, are rebranding and reopening. Most of the 118 Institutes which operated in the U.S. were closed in June 2021 after being designated as a “foreign mission” by the State Department.

  • The Strategic Relevance of Cybersecurity Skills

    Evidence suggests there is a global cybersecurity skills shortage affecting businesses and governments alike, which means that organizations are struggling to fill their cybersecurity vacancies. Tommaso De Zan writes that “the absence of cybersecurity experts protecting national critical infrastructures constitutes a national security threat, a loophole that may be exploited by malicious actors.”

  • U.K. Extremists Sentenced to More Than 30 Years Imprisonment

    A Sheffield, U.K., court sentenced four extremists who advocated racist violence and the manufacture and possession of weapons to more than 30 years imprisonment.

  • Announcing the Electric Resilience Toolkit

    A new Electric Resilience Toolkit aims to support policymakers and stakeholders working on issues around electric sector regulation and climate resilience planning. Such planning is essential to ensure electricity infrastructure is designed and operated in a way that accounts for the impacts of climate change—impacts that are already being felt and which will only intensify in coming years.

  • Will Closing the “Boyfriend Loophole” in Gun Legislation Save lives? Here’s What the Research Says

    If you have two domestic abusers who have both committed the same severe physical violence against their partners, but one of them is married to their intimate partner while the other isn’t, then only the domestic abuser who is married could be prohibited from having a gun. Among the provisions of the bipartisan gun safety bill passed by Congress, is one which closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” which allows some people with a record of domestic violence to still buy firearms.

  • Public Safety Experts Warn: NYC’s Crime-Fighting Strategy Could Backfire

    As city leaders double down on policing amid a spike in shootings, a new idea is gaining hold among experts: could less policing actually reduce gun violence?

  • Firearms: Weapons of Choice for Domestic Extremists

    Every year, extremists overwhelmingly use guns to carry out their deadly attacks. In any given year, more people are killed by extremists who use firearms than those who choose any other weapon. Over the past decade, shootings accounted for 75 percent of the deaths at the hands of extremists.

  • Supreme Court Sweeps Aside New York’s Limits on Carrying a Gun, Raising Second Amendment Rights to New Heights

    The core argument of the 23 June Supreme Court decision in a case involving New York State law is that gun rights are to be treated the same as other hallowed rights like the freedom of speech or freedom of religion recognized in the First Amendment. For most of the history of the court, Second Amendment rights have been seen as distinct, more dangerous, and thus more open to regulation. The majority of justices have now changed that approach to the Second Amendment.

  • Obsessive Passion and Social Alienation Linked to Support for Political Violence

    What underlies violent extremism – that is, support for violence to achieve political, ideological or social objectives — and what drives an individual to exhibit these behaviors in which political violence is a desirable option?

  • Taliban Faces Growing Armed Resistance Across Afghanistan

    Ten months into their extremist theocratic rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban are facing growing resistance in different parts of the country. Contrary to the Taliban’s claim that an atmosphere of calm and security prevails in Afghanistan, there has been growing resistance to their rule, led by the National Resistance Front (NRF), headed by Ahmad Massoud—the son of the legendary Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

  • Examining Scenarios of U.S.-China War Over Taiwan

    For years, U.S. policy has been to effectively deter a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait while preparing for contingencies in the event of a Chinese attack. More recently, top officials from President Joe Biden’s administration have repeatedly warned against Beijing’s use of force to alter the status quo.