High-profile mass shootings in the United States in recent years have rekindled the gun control debate and raised comparisons of policies around the world.
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The U.S. government responds to scores of disasters each year, coordinating closely with state, local, and foreign partners. However, more frequent and severe storms, fires, and floods are straining resources.
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Through mass kidnappings, bombings, and other acts of terrorism, the Islamist insurgent group remains an enduring threat to northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.
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China’s industrial policy is aimed at rapidly expanding its high-tech sectors and developing its advanced manufacturing base, but President Trump and other leaders of industrial democracies see the plan as a threat.
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In North Korea, all authority flows from Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. He has reinstated the party as the central hub to consolidate his power and bring elites to heel.
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Nearly all nuclear weapon states, as a matter of policy, remain ready to use their weapons without having first suffered a nuclear attack.
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NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NATO is girding up for what some believe is a new Cold War with Russia, but President Trump’s criticism of longtime allies has unsettled the twenty-nine-member bloc. -
Comprehensive immigration reform has eluded Congress for years, moving controversial policy decisions into the executive and judicial branches of government.
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Singapore, one of the world’s wealthiest and most trade-dependent countries, punches above its weight in regional and global affairs.
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Violence and rampant crime have driven asylum seekers from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to the United States, which is seeking to help address the root causes.
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As technology companies and carmakers become increasingly reliant on cobalt, many business, government, and nonprofit leaders have grown concerned about the mineral’s controversial supply chain.
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Differences over Taiwan’s status fuel tensions between the island and mainland, yet cross-strait economic ties continue to deepen.
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Public Health Threats and Pandemics
Endemic to the African tropics, the Ebola virus has killed thousands in recent years, putting the World Health Organization and major donor countries in the limelight as they’ve grappled with how to respond to outbreaks. -
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North Korea has embarked on an accelerated buildup of weapons of mass destruction and modernization of its already large conventional force.
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With the U.S. national debt already exceeding $15 trillion, President Trump’s tax reform and budget deals with Congress are poised to add massively to the country’s deficits.
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Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
Though President Trump withdrew from the TPP, the remaining members of the trade pact have forged ahead with a new version, leaving the U.S. role in the Asia-Pacific in question. -
President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the landmark agreement jeopardizes the unprecedented visibility international inspectors now have into Iran’s nuclear program.
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South Korea’s megaconglomerates have helped lift the country out of poverty, but their extraordinary influence could put the health of the Korean economy at risk.
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Federal investigators in Brazil have uncovered corruption at the highest levels of the government and in the country’s largest corporations.
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Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group, are fleeing persecution in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, fueling a historic migration crisis.
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With the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, London hopes its Commonwealth partners can help boost trade, but critics say the group is outmoded and ineffective.
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The Good Friday Agreement has dampened sectarian tensions and brought stability to Northern Ireland since 1998, but Brexit negotiations and local political paralysis are throwing the region’s hard-won gains into doubt.
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The Organization of American States is an important forum for regional diplomacy, but it has been hesitant to censure member states for violating democratic principles.