Comment: Putin is afraid of one thing. Make him think it could happen.

Facebook revealed on July 31 that it had discovered a 17-month-long influence campaign to sow political divisiveness on its network, an effort that bore the hallmarks of the Kremlin-connected Internet Research Agency.

Two days later at the White House, the nation’s top national security officials said Russia is conducting a pervasive campaign to weaken our democracy and influence this year’s midterm elections.

11-year-old girl hospitalized after getting Tased by Cincinnati cop who allegedly caught her shoplifting

A Cincinnati police officer is now being investigated by his own department after he deployed a stun gun against an 11-year-old girl who was allegedly shoplifting at a grocery store.

USA Today reports that the officer, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, was working at his second job as a security guard at a local Kroger in the neighborhood of Spring Grove Village.

Anti-Semitic crimes on the rise in Germany

The number of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany increased substantially in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2017.

According to figures from the government, 401 such crimes were reported in the first half of the year, a rise of more than 10 percentage points. Most of the offences — 349 — had a far-right motive. Twelve of the 401 were classed as violent crimes.

Corbyn’s new Stalinist voice

LONDON — Jeremy Corbyn has done it again — he’s confounded everyone’s expectations. This time, he’s done it not by winning the Labour leadership but in his latest bid to win the general election itself. He has hired the Guardian columnist Seumas Milne to be his director of communications.

This is a man who many in the British media — the very people Corbyn’s team will need to reach out to, after all — regard as being as close to an unreconstructed Stalinist as you can get in 21st century Britain. Holding the sorts of positions Milne does takes serious commitment these days, considering the Soviet archives have long been opened and Communism has gone the way of feudalism as a viable, or indeed ethical, political system.

Britain’s most dangerous export: Corbynism

WASHINGTON — It is a testament to the enervated state of the European left that Jeremy Corbyn could be viewed as some sort of savior. And yet that is how an increasing number of desperate social democrats appear to see the hard-left leader of Britain’s Labour Party.

It’s easy enough to understand why: Despite being in opposition, Labour is relatively strong compared to nearly every other social democratic party in Europe, where the left is in freefall and center-right and far-right parties dominate.

Trans Mountain Pipeline Could Cost $1.9 Billion More Than Expected, Kinder Morgan Says

OTTAWA — Kinder Morgan Canada says expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline could cost the federal government as much as $1.9 billion beyond the company's original construction estimate and take 12 months longer to finish.

The figures are included in documents the company filed Tuesday with the United States Security and Exchange Commission related to its plan to sell the pipeline to the Canadian government for $4.5 billion.

Q&A: We All Benefit from Welfare. Most of Us Just Don’t Realize It.

In recent decades, Americans have become increasingly angry at the federal government, anger that helped propel Donald Trump to the White House. And yet, more Americans than ever are benefiting from government social programs, many of which the Trump administration is actively working to destroy. Political scientist Suzanne Mettler calls this paradox “the government-citizen disconnect.” Such is the title of Mettler’s new book, which draws on original survey data to explore how the use of 21 federal social policies is connected to Americans’ attitudes about government. She finds that 96 percent of Americans have used at least one of these policies. But partly because of policy design—which makes means-tested programs for the poor more visible than policies for the rich hidden in the tax code—many Americans don’t recognize the value of government social programs. Critically, wealthier Americans—who tend to exert more influence over national politics—often don’t see themselves as benefiting from government support.

Charlottesville Isn't Playing The Media's 'Both Sides' Game Anymore

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ― The Associated Press reporter on the phone with Jalane Schmidt wanted two voices for her article: One would be Jason Kessler, the white supremacist who organized the Unite the Right rally here last year that left one dead and dozens injured. The other, the reporter hoped, would be Schmidt herself, a Black Lives Matter activist and associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia.

The story would be a debate, of sorts. Both sides would be represented.

The Two Words That Made Saudi Arabia Furious at Canada

The pandemonium started with a tweet, as so many political uproars seem to do these days.

“Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia, including Samar Badawi,” said a tweet from the Canadian government’s official foreign-policy account last Friday. “We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful human rights activists.” Canada was responding to the arrest days earlier of two activists, the latest targets of a Saudi government crackdown on women’s rights campaigners, more than a dozen of whom have been arrested since May.

Here's What America Must Do to Protect Its Electric Grid from Russian Hacking

The U.S. electricity grid is hard to defend because of its enormous size and heavy dependency on digital communication and computerized control software. The number of potential targets is growing as “internet of things” devices, such as smart meters, solar arrays and household batteries, connect to smart grid systems.

As researchers of grid security, we believe that current security standards mandated by federal regulations provide sufficient protection against observed threats. But recent incidents demonstrate the ongoing challenge of ensuring everyone follows the guidelines, which themselves must change over time to keep up with technological shifts.