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How Polarization Drives Republicans to Spread Misinformation
Researchers say people most likely to spread misinformation are Republicans, i.e., conservatives, but mainly only under certain conditions. “Both liberals and conservatives have a baseline tendency to do this,” says one expert, “but we see these big spikes only among the Republicans when they’re in a situation that feels like there is political conflict. When they’re in a competitive situation, Republicans want to win—almost at any cost.”
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What Is a Self-Coup? South Korea President’s Attempt Ended in Failure − a Notable Exception in a Growing Global Trend
South Kore’s President Yoon Suk Yeol short-lived martial law declaration was an example of “autogolpe,” or, in English, a “self-coup.” Self-coups are becoming more common, with more in the past decade compared with any other 10-year period since the end of World War II. Why that’s happening? What self-coups involve? And why, unlike in around 80% of self-coups, Yoon’s gambit failed.
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Washington Office Begins Tracking Statewide Deadly Use of Force Incidents
This month, the Washington State Office of Independent Investigation began tracking deadly use of force incidents involving law enforcement officers.
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The Apocalypse That Wasn’t: AI Was Everywhere in 2024’s Elections, but Deepfakes and Misinformation Were Only Part of the Picture
2024 is a “super-cycle” year in which 3.7 billion eligible voters in 72 countries had the chance to go the polls. The vast majority of various surveys’ respondents expected AI to be used for mostly bad purposes in these elections, but the dreaded “death of truth” has not materialized – at least, not due to AI.
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Election Denialism Has Staying Power Even After Trump’s Win
President-elect Donald Trump may have quieted his lies about widespread voter fraud after his win earlier this month, but the impact of his effort to cast doubt on the integrity of American elections lingers on.
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The Ghost Gun Surge Is Abating. This Is How It Happened.
Ghost guns went from being relatively rare to ubiquitous in a short time span. Regulating them appears to be fueling a reversal.
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Denver Will Stand in the Way of Mass Deportation
“More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep [National Guard units from other states] out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said. “It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.”
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Texas Offers Land for Use for Trump Deportations
Trump has said he plans to declare a national emergency on his first day in office, citing the border crisis. In an effort to aid the administration, Texas offered state property in Starr County, where more than 1,400 acres could be used to construct deportation facilities and staging areas.
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Even Blue States Are Embracing a Tougher Approach to Crime
A nationwide shift toward more conservative policies continues in 3 more states. The outcomes of seven ballot measures in Arizona, California and Colorado reflect the stricter approach to crime that’s been seen across much of the country recently.
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Ranked Choice Voting Faces Cloudy Future After Election Setbacks
Voters in 5 states rejected the voting system, while DC voters approved it. The rejection clouds the future of an idea that had seen strong momentum in recent years.
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Misinformation Really Does Spread Like a Virus, Suggest Mathematical Models Drawn from Epidemiology
When it comes to misinformation, “going viral” appears to be more than a simple catchphrase. Scientists have found a close analogy between the spread of misinformation and the spread of viruses: how misinformation gets around can be effectively described using mathematical models designed to simulate the spread of pathogens.
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The Genesis of Christian Nationalism
Christian Nationalism may seem like a phenomenon born out of our current political moment, but it represents the culmination of various movements with roots that trace back decades. The more extreme elements – waging a battle to win America from Satanic forces and Christianize it — didn’t just materialize a few years ago. They’ve been there from the start.
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Prosecuting Female Terrorists: What Do We Know?
Research from Europe and America suggests women frequently receive lesser sentences for terrorism-related crimes than male offenders. What do we know about prosecuting female terrorists in England and Wales?
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‘Inflation Is Radioactive’: Trump’s Victory Is Part of a Global Populist Wave of Voters Throwing Out Incumbents
The person running against the unpopular incumbent party won this election, just like the person running against the unpopular incumbent won the 2020 election. The election result should not necessarily be interpreted as a shift in the levels of racism or sexism or xenophobia necessarily.
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EFF to Court: Reject X’s Effort to Revive a Speech-Chilling Lawsuit Against a Nonprofit
X’s lawsuit against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate is intended to stifle criticism and punish the organization for its reports criticizing the platform’s content moderation practices, and a previous ruling dismissing the lawsuit should be affirmed.
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The long view
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”