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Channeling Frustrations: Russian and Chinese Messaging Exploit the US-Panama Canal Dispute
Russian and Chinese messaging underscores a strategic effort to reshape global perceptions of the United States. Moscow and Beijing seek to erode Washington’s international credibility, particularly in Latin America.
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How Russia Neutralized Ukraine’s Tactical Nuclear Weapons
When Ukraine declared its independence from the U.S.S.R in August 1991., Kyiv came into possession of the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world, after the Soviet Union and the United States.Anestimated 2,800-4,200 tactical nuclear weapons were relinquished to Russia in a move that may have changed the course of history.
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Houston Man Pardoned by Trump Arrested on Child Sex Charge
Andrew Taake received a six-year sentence for assaulting officers on Jan. 6. He was arrested Thursday on an outstanding charge of soliciting a minor. Harris County District Attorney’s office had faxed a copy of Taake’s outstanding warrant to the Federal Bureau of Prisons five days before he was pardoned, but the Bureau ignored it.
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Sweden’s Deadliest Mass Shooting Highlights Global Reality of Gun Violence, Criminologist Says
“We in the United States don’t have a monopoly on mass shootings,” James Alan Fox says, “though we certainly have more than our share.”
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FBI Agents Sue DOJ, Allege Retaliation Over Jan. 6 Cases
FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 Capital riot investigations have filed lawsuits against the Justice Department, challenging its efforts to survey and identify personnel who participated in high-profile inquiries such as the riot and handling of classified documents at Mar-a-logo.
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Researchers Calculate Cyberattack Risk for All 50 States
Local governments are common victims of cyberattack, with economic damage often extending to the state and federal levels. Scholars aggregate threats to thousands of county governments to draw conclusions.
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Water Is the Other U.S.-Mexico Border Crisis, and the Supply Crunch Is Getting Worse
The United States and Mexico are aware of the political and economic importance of the border region. But if water scarcity worsens, it could supplant other border priorities. The two countries should recognize that conditions are deteriorating and update the existing cross-border governance regime so that it reflects today’s new water realities.
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Ukraine Needs U.S. Weapons. Trump Wants Its Rare Earth Minerals in Return.
President Donald Trump wants to condition future U.S. aid to Ukraine on getting more access to the country’s valuable “rare earth” minerals — minerals that are in increasing demand for batteries, computers, smart phones, and electric cars, not to mention weaponry.
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Southport Attacks: Why the U.K. Needs a Unified Approach to All Violent Attacks on the Public
The conviction of Axel Rudakubana for the murder of three young girls in Southport has prompted many questions about how the UK handles violence without a clear ideological motive. This case has also shown up the confusion in this area, and made clear the need for a basic reframing of how we understand murderous violence against the public today.
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What’s Going on at the FBI?
The Trump administration has launched a broad political purge of the FBI, aiming to remove senior officials and field agents who are regarded as insufficiently loyal to President Trump. In addition to forcing the retirement of senior bureau leaders, the FBI’s interim leadership is now trying to identify agents and other personnel who had worked on the Jan. 6 investigations. Benjamin Wittes writes that “A lot of people at the bureau—leadership and street agents, analysts and staff alike—are flirting with heroism right now” by engaging in conscientious objection: they “are upholding the law, which is closely aligned with their own oaths and the FBI’s culture, and the rule of law itself.”
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Turkey: The Threat of the Neo-Ottoman Caliphate to Regional Security
Turkey is swiftly expanding its influence in a rapidly imploding Islamic world, as its ‘neo-Ottoman’ president is whipping up a new wave of Islamism across continents. The country is even intervening in South Asia now, by forging defense deals with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
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Trump’s Risky New Era of Broken Trade Norms
For many decades now, the international economy has been backstopped by a reasonably predictable set of rules, led by a United States that believed it had a strong national interest in nurturing that sort of predictability. With President Donald Trump’s decision over the week to declare a specious “emergency” for the purpose of slapping crippling tariffs on his continental neighbors, that era has come to an end.
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Trump’s Tariff Threats Fit a Growing Global Phenomenon: Hardball Migration Diplomacy
As an expert on migration policy and international affairs, I have observed the evolution of this global trend: nations leverage migration policies for geopolitical ends. While migration diplomacy does work both ways, richer countries by and large have the upper hand. And Trump’s threats against Colombia –and others –are just one example of this hardball migration diplomacy.
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Get Rid of FEMA? Trump-appointed Group to Look at Shifting Disaster Response to States.
Governors and state legislatures may have to bolster their natural disaster response and recovery efforts in the coming years as President Donald Trump looks for ways to shift the federal government’s role onto states.
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A Michigan Nuclear Plant Is Slated to Restart, but Trump Could Complicate Things
The owners of a shuttered nuclear plant on the shores of Lake Michigan are still banking on its historic reopening later this year, despite the confusion of President Donald Trump’s first days.
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The long view
Factories First: Winning the Drone War Before It Starts
Wars are won by factories before they are won on the battlefield,Martin C. Feldmann writes, noting that the United States lacks the manufacturing depth for the coming drone age. Rectifying this situation “will take far more than procurement tweaks,” Feldmann writes. “It demands a national-level, wartime-scale industrial mobilization.”
No Nation Is an Island: The Dangers of Modern U.S. Isolationism
The resurgence of isolationist sentiment in American politics is understandable but misguided. While the desire to refocus on domestic renewal is justified, retreating from the world will not bring the security, prosperity, or sovereignty that its proponents promise. On the contrary, it invites instability, diminishes U.S. influence, and erodes the democratic order the U.S. helped forge.
Fragmented by Design: USAID’s Dismantling and the Future of American Foreign Aid
The Trump administration launched an aggressive restructuring of U.S. foreign aid, effectively dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The humanitarian and geopolitical fallout of the demise of USAID includes shuttered clinics, destroyed food aid, and China’s growing influence in the global south. This new era of American soft power will determine how, and whether, the U.S. continues to lead in global development.
Water Wars: A Historic Agreement Between Mexico and US Is Ramping Up Border Tension
As climate change drives rising temperatures and changes in rainfall, Mexico and the US are in the middle of a conflict over water, putting an additional strain on their relationship. Partly due to constant droughts, Mexico has struggled to maintain its water deliveries for much of the last 25 years, deliveries to which it is obligated by a 1944 water-sharing agreement between the two countries.
How Disastrous Was the Trump-Putin Meeting?
In Alaska, Trump got played by Putin. Therefore, Steven Pifer writes, the European leaders and Zelensky have to “diplomatically offer suggestions to walk Trump back from a position that he does not appear to understand would be bad for Ukraine, bad for Europe, and bad for American interests. And they have to do so without setting off an explosion that could disrupt U.S.-Ukrainian and U.S.-European relations—all to the delight of Putin and the Kremlin.”
How Male Grievance Fuels Radicalization and Extremist Violence
Social extremism is evolving in reach and form. While traditional racial supremacy ideologies remain, contemporary movements are now often fueled by something more personal and emotionally resonant: male grievance.