Society & Politics

"When people think of extremists, they tend to think of neo-Nazis," said Francesco Campisi, a lecturer at Université de Montréal's School of Criminology. "But there are many other fringe groups that may not be violent yet can give rise to extremism."... Read more

TikTok's algorithm did not treat Democrats and Republicans equally during the 2024 US presidential election. According to a paper published in Nature, its recommendation system showed a Republican-leaning skew in three states. The journal's editors have also published a Research Briefing in the same issue covering the study.... Read more

On April 29, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's voting map on the basis that the state had illegally used race as a consideration when it created a new majority-Black district. Observers say the ruling could have major implications across the country for how future district boundary decisions are... Read more

Brexit sent waves of financial volatility through European markets, reshaping how risk traveled between countries and exposing how tightly connected the continent's financial systems had become, according to new research from the University of Surrey published in the International Journal of Finance & Economics.... Read more

Many scholars have studied the effects of colonial management on terrestrial resources, but what about the effect of colonialism on bodies of water? A new article in Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society examines the ways in which fisheries science and colonial development converged for the purpose... Read more

The global financial order has entered a new, shifting and disruptive era of nationalism and these changes lay bare the difference between the haves and have nots, according to a new study by Charles Darwin University (CDU).... Read more

"Mercy," a film released in January 2026, depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in the near future: a city riddled with violence, homelessness, and civic disorder. California's response is to set up the Mercy Capital Court, run entirely by an AI bot that goes by the name Judge Maddox. The judge... Read more

A Florida law designed to prevent gun violence by temporarily removing firearms from people at risk of harming themselves or others is used unevenly across the state, according to a new study. The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, examined nearly four years of data to assess... Read more

Hostage-taking by nation-states is emerging as an overlooked consequence of the more unstable and dangerous world that's been created by the fracturing rules-based order. In an increasingly might-is-right system of international relations, malign actors have become even more emboldened to take the citizens of Western democracies hostage.... Read more

More than a third of Americans have lost relationships with friends, family members, romantic partners, or others due to political differences, according to a study. Mertcan Güngör and Peter Ditto examined survey data from thousands of American adults to explore the interpersonal consequences of political polarization in the United States.... Read more

Heightened immigration enforcement during the second Trump administration has not expanded job opportunities for U.S.-born workers and is associated with a reduction of employment for U.S.-born men with no more than a high school degree, according to new CU Boulder research.... Read more

If you're registered to vote in the United States and you're not among the richest of the rich, political scientist Peter K. Enns has a message for you: Your voice still matters. So does data analysis methodology.... Read more

The rare earths so essential to our modern technology have become a new diplomatic weapon—used to leverage influence and wield power, reshape global alliances, and exert economic dominance. For centuries, says Boston University historian Benjamin R. Siegel, opium was used in much the same way.... Read more

"On behalf of President Donald J. Trump," read 22 emails sent from the White House Presidential Personnel Office on Friday afternoon, April 24, 2026, "I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately."... Read more

A physics-inspired model calibrated on 40 years of US congressional data pinpoints a spending threshold of roughly 1.8 million USD at which campaigns stop influencing who wins and start fueling polarization instead.... Read more