Society

Urban Institute Associate Dr. Nebeela Ahmed has published a new article titled "Infrastructure as territorial stigma: labor migrant exclusions in the Indian city" in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.... Read more

As federal support for election security faces major cutbacks, a study in the journal Operations Research introduces a scientifically backed, low-cost solution to strengthen the integrity of U.S. elections.... Read more

With US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's "proud" cancellation of the military's Women, Peace and Security (WPS) program, the "war on woke" has found its latest frontier—war itself.... Read more

Ukraine and the US have signed a much-anticipated deal on natural resources. The deal would open up some of the war-torn country's mineral and energy resources to the United States.... Read more

This election, social media has been a major battleground as candidates try to reach younger voters. As Gen Z and Millennials now make up the dominant voter bloc in Australia, securing their support is more electorally important than ever.... Read more

In early April 2025, the Trump administration terminated the immigration statuses of thousands of international students listed in a government database, meaning they no longer had legal permission to be in the country. Some students self-deported instead of facing deportation.... Read more

As demonstrators gathered outside, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 30, 2025, about whether Oklahoma can operate the nation's first faith-based charter school. St. Isidore of Seville would be a virtual K-12 school run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa.... Read more

Terrorist attacks are more common during security and economic crises, but they decrease during humanitarian disasters.... Read more

Donald Trump won the US election on a campaign that included rolling back environmental laws. In the UK, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has called the national net zero target "impossible." And former prime minister Tony Blair has said the current approach of phasing out fossil fuels is "doomed to... Read more

Donald Trump's tariffs will make many things more expensive for his fellow US citizens. The price of imported cars, building materials and some tech will go up—and so will the cost of the food on American dining tables.... Read more

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, organizers opted for an eco-friendly cooling system in athlete housing, skipping central air in favor of a low-energy alternative. Countries responded by bringing their own air conditioning units—a move that undercut the original environmental goal. According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Dietrich College of... Read more

A study led by researchers at the Columbia Butler Aging Center and the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health has unveiled a framework for rethinking political decision-making—drawing inspiration from how the human body maintains stability and health. The findings are published in npj Complexity.... Read more

With federal elections looming and with global politics in the spotlight, researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) have offered political parties some sage advice, warning that broken election promises could damage the party brand and ultimately lead to a loss of political power.... Read more

Policymakers often overlook the challenges faced by shrinking small and medium-sized cities. Yet, keeping these cities sustainable is crucial for many urban stakeholders. Unfortunately, the methods that have succeeded in large cities cannot be unilaterally applied to combat this issue. This suggests that a research gap on effective urban management... Read more

The Trump administration is trying to reshape how schools discipline students—and alter the federal government's role in the process.... Read more

The recent deportation orders targeting foreign students in the U.S. have prompted a heated debate about the legality of these actions. The Trump administration made no secret that many individuals were facing removal because of their pro-Palestinian advocacy.... Read more

New research from a team of leading U.K. universities has revealed that over £3.77 billion in government contracts has been awarded to private companies since 2015 for managing border security and small boat crossings in the English Channel.... Read more

In an otherwise unremarkable election campaign, the major parties are promising sharply different energy blueprints for Australia. Labor is pitching a high-renewables future powered largely by wind, solar, hydroelectricity and batteries. The Coalition wants more gas and coal now, and would build nuclear power later.... Read more

Nearly two‐thirds of adults in the U.S. have experienced some form of in‐person exposure to gun violence, according to a national study by Rutgers researchers tracking racial disparities in direct and media‐based experiences.... Read more

The Trump administration claims to be rooting out "gender ideology extremism" and "restoring biological truth" in the United States.... Read more

News outlets across the country have been making efforts to engage more deeply with their communities and enhance transparency in their reporting. New research from the University of Kansas has found that journalism engagement training has begun to shift political coverage, reducing the prevalence of "horse race" stories about who... Read more

By autumn 2026, all frontline officers of the UK's second largest police force will be expected to wear a camera while on duty, at a cost of over £13 million.... Read more

Whistleblowers—people who expose wrongdoing within their organizations—play a crucial role in holding governments and corporations accountable. But speaking up can come at a cost. People who report misconduct often face retaliation, job loss or legal threats, making whistleblowing risky and challenging. And when legal protections for whistleblowers are weakened, the... Read more

"The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must."... Read more

With Donald Trump back in the White House, cryptocurrencies continue to gain momentum. Trump's administration has signaled a more hands-off approach to crypto regulation. In addition, an executive order issued in January prohibited federal agencies from developing a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC)—a "digital dollar"—a shift that appears to... Read more

Secret police are a quintessential feature of authoritarian regimes. From Azerbaijan's State Security Service to Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization, these agencies typically target political opponents and dissidents through covert surveillance, imprisonment and physical violence.... Read more

One hundred days into the new federal administration, a new poll reports that major segments of the U.S. public anticipate they will lose trust in public health recommendations with the changes in health agency leadership.... Read more

Women in prison are four times as likely to report having been raped in their lifetime than those who are not incarcerated and 10 times as likely to report having been raped as a child, according to newly published research by a University of Colorado Boulder criminologist.... Read more

A recent study published by political scientists at Freie Universität Berlin, Christopher Olk and Louis Miebs, indicates that the global cryptocurrency system has been undergoing significant transformations. The crypto system, which was originally intended as an alternative to currencies that depend on a central authority like the state or banks,... Read more

A first-of-its-kind study on the link between police budgeting and the housing market seemed to be a dead end—showing practically no relation between the spending on law enforcement and home transaction volume and prices, just like previous studies.... Read more

Societal challenges, from climate change to public health crises to advancements in artificial intelligence, have been intrinsically linked with scientific progress for generations. But as politics become more polarized, the role of science in law making has become increasingly contested.... Read more

Imagine a country with deep political divisions, where different groups don't trust each other and violence seems likely. Now, imagine a flood of political images, hateful memes and mocking videos from domestic and foreign sources taking over social media. What is likely to happen next?... Read more

With Canada's federal election approaching, political parties are focused on mobilizing voters. However, they may be overlooking how ethnic communities are already shaping the country's political life.... Read more

A new study co-led by Dr. Eran Amsalem from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Michael Nicholas Stagnaro of MIT challenges long-held beliefs about the role of information in political discourse: factual knowledge, rather than deepening political divides, can actually help bridge them.... Read more

Politically motivated attacks, carried out by lone individuals lacking direct affiliation with any terrorist group, have become more common in Europe during the last few decades.... Read more

Dr. Ozge Ozduzen and co-authors Dr. Bogdan Lanosev and Dr. Billur Aslan Ozgul have collaborated on a study recently published in European Politics and Society. The paper titled "'They don't care about you, me or anyone else': populist storytelling in anti-lockdown protests" explores populism and populist social movements based on... Read more

Most people generally are more concerned about the immediate risks of artificial intelligence than they are about a theoretical future in which AI threatens humanity. A new study by the University of Zurich reveals that respondents draw clear distinctions between abstract scenarios and specific tangible problems and particularly take the... Read more

While all people are innately driven to find meaning in their lives, this subconscious desire pulls some people to conspiracy theories and dangerous belief systems.... Read more

A new analysis of school shootings in the U.S. suggests that most shooters had a social background in which guns were a key leisure item, with attached meanings of bonding and affection, which also translated into easy access to firearms. Anne Nassauer of the University of Erfurt, Germany, presents these... Read more

Female lobbyists are more likely to gain access to meetings with policymakers, regardless of the policymaker's gender, indicating gender is used strategically by interest groups to improve their influence, finds a new UCL led study.... Read more

Snipers in helicopters have shot more than 700 koalas in the Budj Bim National Park in western Victoria in recent weeks. It's believed to be the first time koalas have been culled in this way.... Read more

Recent royal commissions and inquiries into Crown and Star casino groups attracted much media attention. Most of this was focused on money laundering and other illegalities.... Read more

In today's polarized online landscape, fact-checking has become a vital tool for countering misinformation. But for fact-checks to make a difference, people have to actually pay attention to them.... Read more

What happens when politicians post false or toxic messages online? My team and I found evidence that suggests U.S. state legislators can increase or decrease their public visibility by sharing unverified claims or using uncivil language during times of high political tension. This raises questions about how social media platforms... Read more

Large majorities of U.S. adults support the role of the courts and Congress in serving as checks on presidential power, even though the public has less trust in all three branches of the federal government than it does in many other American institutions and professions, according to a survey from... Read more

Courts around the world are struggling to keep up with growing caseloads, leaving individuals and businesses waiting months—sometimes years—for resolution. But a new study in the journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management has uncovered a surprisingly simple way to speed up the system that doesn't require hiring more judges.... Read more

Understanding the acceleration of human impacts on the environment is key to addressing the complex planetary and social challenges of the Anthropocene. But even as the inter-relatedness of environmental, political, and social processes becomes clearer, the conditions that produce sustainable outcomes remain little understood.... Read more

In a February 2025 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump declared a "Golden Age in Arts and Culture."... Read more

President Donald Trump and members of his administration have long used allegations of anti-Christian discrimination as a rallying cry for supporters, arguing that policies and laws on issues like school prayer and LGBTQ+ rights threaten Christians' right to express their beliefs.... Read more

Following George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis in 2020, the U.S. has undergone a national reckoning over crime prevention and police reform.... Read more