From Portugal to Portland

Oregon decriminalized all drugs, and overdoses have surged.

‘An Act of War’: Inside America’s Silicon Blockade Against China

The Biden administration thinks it can preserve America’s technological primacy by cutting China off from advanced computer chips. Could the plan backfire?

This Is One Republican Strategy That Isn’t Paying Off

Voter suppression isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

I’m in Wyoming to celebrate the next nuclear breakthrough

Bill Gates writes about visiting Kemmerer, Wyoming, the future site of the fourth-generation Natrium nuclear power plant being designed by TerraPower.

Biden Expected to Move Ahead on a Major Oil Project in Alaska

The decision would allow an enormous $8 billion drilling project in the largest expanse of pristine wilderness in the United States.

The Surprising Reason Europe Came Together Against Putin

A major advance in translation technology means that Ukrainians can inform and debunk in real time. The world hasn’t seen a weapon quite like it before.

Why Medicare and Social Security Are Sustainable

Reports of their inevitable collapse are greatly exaggerated.

Facebook’s Bridge to Nowhere (Published 2023)

The tech giant had already remade the virtual world. For a brief period, it also tried to make it easier for people in the Bay Area to get to work. Then it gave up.

Biden Just Clobbered China’s Chip Industry

The latest American trade restrictions could significantly set back China’s semiconductor ambitions.

Victor Shi: We don’t need a third party. We need ranked choice voting.

Earlier this summer, a group of anti-Trump and moderate Republicans and Democrats launched a new political party called the Forward Party. On the surface, this movement echoes recent polls indicati…

Pocket

Study: More Than 335,000 Lives Could Have Been Saved During Pandemic if U.S. Had Universal Health Care

If the U.S. had had a single-payer universal health care system in 2020, nearly 212,000 American lives would have been saved that year, according to a new study

Insurers force change on police departments long resistant to it

Insurance companies are successfully dictating reforms in police departments, a movement driven by the large settlements out of use-of-force cases.

Blocked persons and letters of marque

What are letters of marque and reprisal, and who is on the US’s list of Block Persons?

24 charts that show we’re (mostly) living better than our parents

Ignore the haters: living standards have improved a lot since the 1980s.

Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes on an Epic Scale

After a year of reporting on the tax machinations of the ultrawealthy, ProPublica spotlights the top tax-avoidance techniques that provide massive benefits to billionaires.

The Dollar-Store Economy (Published 2011)

The ubiquitous dollar store is the American dream writ small.

We are not in a recession, nor is one inevitable.

Americans are rightly angry about inflation. A strong labor market is not enough reason to celebrate. But, we are coming out of, not going into the hurricane.

Inside the experimental world of animal infrastructure

Wildlife crossings cut down on roadkill. But are they really a boon for conservation?

Timing a Recession vs. Timing the Stock Market

It's not always easy to predict the timing of a recession and what that means for the stock market.

U.S. Inflation in May: More Mixed News

Some charts on what's good and what's bad.

The Police Have No Reason to Help You

Cops have been given an incredible set of legal powers immunizing them from the fatal errors of their own decisions—including their decision to do nothing in Uvalde, Texas.

A Movement That’s Quietly Reshaping Democracy For The Better | NOEMA

Citizens’ assemblies can help us better address societal challenges, overcome polarization and strengthen trust.

Quadratic Voting

We are a community of activists, artists, entrepreneurs, and scholars committed to using mechanism design to inspire radical social change.

The Games We Play: Understanding Strategic Culture Through Games - Modern War Institute

This article is part of the contribution made by the US Army War College to the series “Compete and Win: Envisioning a Competitive Strategy for the Twenty-First Century.” The series […]

Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine Is Backfiring

Putin’s military moves are rallying Ukrainians and unifying NATO.

Qassem Suleimani and How Nations Decide to Kill

The political, moral, and visceral considerations behind assassination.

The Looming Threat of a Nuclear Crisis with Iran

The Biden Administration faces a potential confrontation with a longtime rival that is better armed and more hard-line than at any time in its modern history.

Can we actually "brain-drain" China? - by Noah Smith

No. But we can give America a big economic boost while boosting our moral image.

The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning

In the Tales Told by Sewage, Public Health and Privacy Collide

Sewage epidemiology has been embraced in other countries for decades, but not in the U.S. Will Covid change that?

West Virginia Has Everyone’s Attention. What Does It Really Need? - The New

With the right federal response, it could become a model of renewal for other places around the country that prosperity has left behind.

The Denver STAR program that replaces police with mental and behavioral hea

DPD Chief Pazen, who is fond of the STAR program, says it frees up officers to do their jobs: fight crime.

The Egghead Gap — The New Atlantis

If America wants to keep China from setting the global course of science, we need a crash program to recruit international talent.

Why Did America Give Up on Mass Transit? (Don't Blame Cars.)

Streetcar, bus, and metro systems have been ignoring one lesson for 100 years: Service drives demand.

An AI can simulate an economy millions of times to create fairer tax policy

Deep reinforcement learning has trained AIs to beat humans at complex games like Go and StarCraft. Could it also do a better job at running the economy?

Some shirts hide you from cameras—but will anyone wear them?

It’s theoretically possible to become invisible to cameras. But can it catch on?

basics: walking distance to transit — Human Transit

The question of walking distance in transit is much bigger than it seems. A huge range of consequential decisions — including stop spacing, network structure, travel time, reliability standards, frequency and even mode choice — depend on assumptions about how far customers will…

What Happened When Oslo Decided to Make its Downtown Basically Car-Free?

If you decide to drive in downtown Oslo, be forewarned: You won’t be able to park on the street.

Teaching Ethics in Appalachia Taught Me About Bridging America’s Partisan D

There’s a language for talking about hot-button issues. And we’re not learning it.

Spain's Happy Little Carless City - Reasons to be Cheerful

Wherever you find advocates for saner transportation, their dream scenario usually hinges on the same outcome: making cities blissfully free of cars. To this end, the Spanish city of Pontevedra, population 84,000, has done something remarkable: it has reduced car use in its…

Here Are the Urban Highways That Deserve to Die

The Congress for New Urbanism ranks the most-loathed urban freeways in North America—and makes the case for tearing them down.

Something Special Is Happening in Rural America

There is a “brain gain” afoot that suggests a national homecoming to less bustling spaces.

Palaces for the People - 99% Invisible

Eric Klinenberg is the author of a book called Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. The phrase “palaces for the people” actually comes from Andrew Carnegie who was known as a titan of the Gilded…

China’s rust belt cities shrouded in uncertainty as exhausted natural resou

As the natural resources that gave rise to heavy industries in China’s northeast run dry, the cities that developed around coal mines are struggling to modernise.

US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums – People's Policy Project

Only the Netherlands has a higher average compulsory payment wedge than the US.

Opting Out of Vaccines Should Opt You Out of American Society

People who are able to take vaccines but refuse to do so are the moral equivalent of drunk drivers

What a beautiful tiny house in rural Japan can teach us about the health of

Guests are transforming the sleepy town into a major destination for tourists seeking the "real Japan."

Why ‘micropolitan’ cities may be the key to rural resurgence

A development expert says small cities and towns can be catalysts for lagging rural counties

What I learned from a Taipei alley — Remains of the Day

I was in Taipei the past few weeks working on a documentary with friends. Because of a busy schedule, it wasn't like my usual travels abroad for fun, it felt more like a work trip. Still, even if I'd been there purely for vacation, I would've wanted to try a different mode of…