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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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China’s DeepSee Has Close Ties to Beijing
Rising AI star DeepSeek has close ties to the Chinese government that could explain its rapid progress from a 1 million yuan (US$138,000) startup in 2023 to a major global challenger in the industry, according to a recent investigation by RFA Cantonese. Founder Liang Wenfeng recently met with Premier Li Qiang to comment on his annual work report.
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Analysts: Rubio Charts a Course for Countering China
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Southeast and East Asia strategies will be aimed at countering China by toughening U.S. policies to secure regional peace and maximize American interests, analysts say.
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Diseased Illegal Immigrants Aren’t “Invading” the United States
My research at the Cato Institute on crime and terrorism committed by illegal immigrants conclusively shows that they commit less crime than native-born Americans and have murdered zero people in domestic attacks since 1975. We also fond no statistically significant relationship between the size of the immigrant population, the illegal immigrant population, or the legal immigrant population and the spread of serious communicable diseases.
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DeepSeek: How a Small Chinese AI Company Is Shaking Up U.S. Tech Heavyweights
For consumers, access to AI may also become cheaper. For researchers who already have a lot of resources, more efficiency may have less of an effect. It is unclear whether DeepSeek’s approach will help to make models with better performance overall, or simply models that are more efficient.
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DeepSeek Shatters Beliefs About the Cost of AI, Leaving U.S. Tech Giants Reeling
Society may benefit from less computationally intensive, and therefore more energy-efficient, AI. However, the geopolitical risk of a single country capturing the market, together with concerns about data privacy, intellectual property and censorship may outweigh the benefits.
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Greg Abbott Seeks $11 Billion in Federal Reimbursements for Border Security
In a letter to U.S. congressional leaders, the governor blamed previous border security policy for leaving Texas “defenseless,” forcing state officials to spend billions.
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Madison and Nashville School Shooters Appear to Have Crossed Paths in Online Extremist Communities
A month after a student opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School, another killed a classmate at Antioch High School. Both were active in an internet subculture that glorifies mass shooters and encourages young people to commit attacks.
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Antioch, Tenn., Shooter Inspired by Broad Extremist Beliefs and Previous Mass Killers
On January 22, 2025, a 17-year-old student opened fire inside the cafeteria at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooter subscribed to broad accelerationist beliefs, which hold that society is irrevocably broken and must be destroyed to be rebuilt.
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Bystander Reporting Helps Prevent Mass Violence
Bystander reporting’s role in mitigating mass violence deserves much more attention –because peers, bystanders, and “bystanders of bystanders” often know a lot about a person’s concerning behavior, and because they often choose not to report because they perceive authority figures are not receptive or are unlikely to be helpful.
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California Just Debunked a Big Myth About Renewable Energy
One of the biggest myths about renewable energy is that it isn’t reliable. clifornia went a record 98 of 116 days providing up to 10 hours of electricity with renewables alone.
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Trump and the Future of the USMCA
The joint review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will be influenced by the discussions to reshape North American trade, migration, and security, as well as the need to address China’s growing influence in regional supply chains.
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Will Trump Spark a Mineral 'Gold Rush' in Greenland?
The mineral wealth on the Arctic island of Greenland is in the global spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to take control of the territory from Denmark, prompting alarm from European allies.
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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.