Short Reads

Amount the U.S. intelligence community proposed to spend on counter-terrorism in fiscal 2013.

The presidency may well be a “bully pulpit,” in Theodore Roosevelt’s original sense, a position that commands attention. But as President Barack Obama prepares to address the nation Tuesday in support of taking military action against Syria, there’s little evidence (at least in recent times) that presidential speeches are very effective at moving the needle […]

Anti-Ahmadi sentiment runs high in Pakistan, where two in three Pakistani Muslims say Ahmadis are not Muslim.

Decline in the average selling price of smartphones over past two years.

The American and French publics, who a decade ago bitterly disagreed over the U.S. invasion of Iraq, now see eye-to-eye on the looming military strike against Syria because of its alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people. In principle they both think there are times when it is necessary to use military force […]

CNN's "Crossfire" is back, injecting more opinion-driven programming into an evening cable news landscape that is already chock full of ideology and commentary.

Three-quarters of Americans said in the wake of the Boston bombings that occasional acts of terrorism will be part of U.S. life in the future.

Americans generally are less willing to support foreign policies on moral or humanitarian grounds than when they are cast as directly benefiting the United States or its allies.

The release of 2012 statistics on the U.S. birth rates indicates a flattening of the sharp decline in fertility that accompanied the Great Recession.

Some Catholic leaders have thrown their support behind changes in immigration laws, a position that is in line with the views of many U.S. Catholics.