• Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections Focuses on Cultivating Distrust to Reduce Political Consensus

    The Soviet Union and then Russia institutionalized active political interference measures over many decades and advanced them into a comprehensive foreign policy tool. The strategy is used to undermine democratic governance processes in the United States and its allies, with the overarching aim to weaken the United States and its allies, while advancing Russia as a global power. Russian-backed attempts to create discord in the United States have made use of existing movements across the American political ideological spectrum and worked to create new ones.

  • Rebuttal: Ukraine Is Emerging as Critical Node for White-Supremacy Extremists

    Foreigners are still networking, training and fighting on both sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, cultivating skills and connections that strengthen the transnational white-supremacy extremist networks of today—which, though far from monolithic, are more violent, more organized and more capable than even five years ago.

  • Emmanuel Macron's Plans to Protect French Values Anger Muslims

    Upcoming legislation crafted to “protect” the Republic and French values promises to be deeply divisive, with French Muslims fearing it will unfairly single them out. Some also see political calculus behind the effort.

  • Muslims, Atheists More Likely to Face Religious Discrimination in U.S.

    Muslims and atheists in the United States are more likely than those of Christian faiths to experience religious discrimination, according to new research. In the study, which focused on public schools because they are government-run, community-facing institutions, the researchers tested responses to an individual’s expression of religious belief. In addition to finding greater bias against religious minorities, the researchers also saw that ardent expressions of faith, regardless of religious tradition, were more prone to discrimination.

  • Mystery Over Russian’s Suspected Poisoning Deepens with New FBI Records

    RFE/RL Exclusive: In hundreds of FBI documents obtained exclusively by RFE/RL, new clues to the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza — and new details about how serious the U.S. government considered his case.

  • Age Restrictions for Handguns Make Little Difference in Homicides in U.S.

    In the United States, individual state laws barring 18- to 20-year-olds from buying or possessing a handgun make little difference in the rate of homicides involving a gun by people in that age group, a new study has found.

  • Macron to Outline France's Controversial Anti-Separatism Bill

    Five years after the Paris terrorist strikes and a week after a brutal knife attack in the French capital, French President Emmanuel Macron sketches the broad outlines Friday of upcoming legislation targeting groups considered hostile to the French Republic and its values — with radical Islam, including its political dimension, at the forefront.

  • Election Violence in November? Here’s What the Research Says

    As the U.S. presidential election draws near, many have expressed concern that violent clashes will follow the 3 November election. Some envision President Donald Trump’s supporters using misinformation to mobilize vigilante militias to clash with leftist protesters. Others envision that groups on the left will refuse to accept the results and mobilize, leading to violence and deaths across the country. What does the research say about the likelihood of election-related violence in November? The answer: The United States is not likely to experience post-election violence because, thankfully, the conditions which allow violence to erupt in other countries do not exist in the United States.

  • U.S. Democratic Indicators Plummet Amid Racial Justice Protests, Pandemic: Watchdog report

    The health of democracy in the United States has reached its lowest point since Bright Line Watch, an academic watchdog group of political scientists, began tracking its performance in 2017. Latest Bright Line Watch analysis finds erosion “across the board” on measures of democratic principles and how well the U.S. is abiding by them.

  • Energy security The Promise of California Offshore Wind Energy

    As California aims to provide 60 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2045, a Cal Poly study provides some good news: Offshore winds along the Central Coast increase at the same time that people start using more energy — in the evening.

  • U.S. Imposes Curbs on Exports by China's Top Chipmaker SMIC

    The U.S. government has placed new export restrictions on China’s most advanced maker of computer chips, citing an “unacceptable risk” that equipment sold to the country’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) could be used for military purposes.

  • EU Takes Action against Fake News

    A special committee of the European Parliament is set to detect and combat foreign cyberattacks. The EU has confirmed that targeted disinformation campaigns are on the rise — partly relating to the coronavirus pandemic.

  • China Expanding Detention Camp Network in Xinjiang

    China’s network of detention centers in the northwest Xinjiang region is much more extended than previously thought and has been expanded in recent years. The number of facilities where China is believed to have detained more than 1 million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities is around 40 percent greater than previous estimates and the network has been growing despite China’s claims that many Uyghurs have been released.

  • Chinese Nuke Arsenal Next on Beijing’s “To-Do” List, U.S. Commander Warns

    The commander in charge of the U.S. military’s nuclear arsenal has warned that increasing China’s nuclear stockpile is “next” on Beijing’s “to-do list.” Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, U.S. Strategic Command chief Adm. Charles Richard said that while the United States has “no margin” of error left to start recapitalizing its nuclear force, China has a proven record of steadily building its military.

  • 50,000 Benghazis, 109 Katrinas: U.S. COVID-19 Death in Perspective

    The United States now counts over 200,000 dead in direct connection with the novel coronavirus. Elizabeth Hunt Brockway writes that to grasp the enormity of this figure, we need to see how this massive number stacks up to Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and other iconic events of mass death, suffering, and pain seared into the American collective conscience.