The Conversation U.S. - News written by experts to help you understand

An unsmiling man in a dark jacket and light blue tie, walking.

A silent Trump with eyes closed and a convicted liar on the stand − 2 experienced observers of Trump’s criminal trial discuss what stands out

David E. Clementson, University of Georgia and John E. Jones III, Dickinson College

A television screen with headlines about stock market activity

Dow tops 40,000 as stock indexes continue to cross milestones − making many investors feel wealthier

Alexander Kurov, West Virginia University

How Black teachers lost when civil rights won in Brown v. Board

Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz, University of North Dakota; Andrea Guiden Pittman, American University; Andrene J. Castro, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Marvin G. Powell, George Mason University

A teacher helps a student on a tablet at a desk.

College students in Austin, Texas, have dwelled in windowless rooms for years − here’s why the city finally decided to ban them

Juan Miró, The University of Texas at Austin

A windowless room features a single twin bed, a desk and a chair.

Biden’s labor report card: Historian gives ‘Union Joe’ a higher grade than any president since FDR

Erik Loomis, University of Rhode Island

President Joe Biden holds a megaphone, surrounded by people wearing red t-shirts.

You should call House members ‘representatives,’ because that’s what they are − not ‘congressmen’ or ‘congresswomen’

Daniel Wirls, University of California, Santa Cruz

People standing in front of a series of elevated desks, with their right hands up.

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A faded painting shows two men in medieval clothing casting books into a small fire.

‘Don’t Say Gay’ rules and book bans might have felt familiar in medieval Europe − but queer themes in literature survived nonetheless

Jessica Hines, Whitman College

A scientist picks through a handful of dark wet soil.

Humans have been altering nature for thousands of years – to shape a sustainable future, it’s important to understand that deep history

Todd Braje, University of Oregon

Preying on white fears worked for Georgia’s Lester Maddox in the ’60s − and is working there for Donald Trump today

David Cason, University of North Dakota

A white man raises his right hand as he is surrounded by other white men.

Latest inflation figures are good news – even if they give a lot of people heartburn

Christopher Decker, University of Nebraska Omaha

A person is seen from behind examining freezers full of dairy products at a Brooklyn grocery store.

Florence Nightingale overcame the limits set on proper Victorian women – and brought modern science and statistics to nursing

Melissa Pritchard, Arizona State University

Illustration of English nurse Florence Nightingale overseeing patients lying in beds in a hospital.

An obscure provision of Ohio law could keep Biden off the ballot there in November

Jonathan Entin, Case Western Reserve University

A statue of a man silhouetted against a large gray building with columns and a dome.

Flowering plants grouped together in a garden

It’s OK to mow in May − the best way to help pollinators is by adding native plants

Christina Grozinger, Penn State and Harland Patch, Penn State

Black holes are mysterious, yet also deceptively simple − a new space mission may help physicists answer hairy questions about these astronomical objects

Gaurav Khanna, University of Rhode Island

An illustration of a supermassive black hole with a swirling disk of material moving into its spherical center.

Vatican conference on ‘climate resilience’ is the latest in a long line of environment initiatives by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church

Molly Jackson, The Conversation

People outside an ornate building hold a sign that says 'Climate action now!'

How the manosphere found its way into the Black community

Steven Dashiell, Morgan State University

Vintage photograph of a Black family eating dinner – a father, mother and their two young kids.

Confusion over how pregnancy dates are measured is widespread – and makes for uninformed debate over abortion limits

Laurel Elder, Hartwick College; Mary-Kate Lizotte, Augusta University, and Steven Greene, North Carolina State University

An empty exam room shows a reclining blue doctors chair and medical equipment.

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Campus protests

A student at the University of Oregon sets up a sign that reads 'Divest from death' at a campus encampment.

Divesting university endowments: Easier demanded than done

Todd L. Ely, University of Colorado Denver

5 books to help you better understand today’s campus protests

Steve Friess, University of Michigan

Protesters confront police in riot gear.

What students protesting Israel’s Gaza siege want — and how their demands on divestment fit into the BDS movement

Mira Sucharov, Carleton University

Woman in sunglasses waves a Palestinian red, green, white and black flag surrounded by people wearing keffiyah.

Media coverage of campus protests tends to focus on the spectacle, rather than the substance

Danielle K. Brown, Michigan State University

A group of people stand next to microphones.

Columbia University protests look increasingly like those in 1968 as police storm campuses nationwide

Stefan M. Bradley, Amherst College

Two police officers stand in front of the doors of a college building that students have taken over.

War in Gaza

A crowd of people stand in a street that looks packed with traffic. Smoke billows behind them down the street above buildings.

Could Biden stop Netanyahu’s plans? A national security expert looks at Israel’s attack on Rafah

Gregory F. Treverton, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Palestinian writers have long explored the horrors of amputation

Graham Liddell, Hope College

Young boy without a leg uses crutches as he leans against a wall. A faceless adult stands in the foreground.

A look inside the cyberwar between Israel and Hamas reveals the civilian toll

Ryan Shandler, Georgia Institute of Technology; Daphna Canetti, University of Haifa, and Tal Mimran, Zefat Academic College

Palestinian and Israeli flags overlaid by letters and numbers.

International prosecution of Israeli or Hamas leaders wouldn’t bring quick justice − and even bringing them to court will be difficult

Victor Peskin, Arizona State University

A blue sign says 'International Criminal Court' and people stand in the grass behind, holding some Palestinian flags on a grey day.

Are embassies off-limits? Ecuadorian and Israeli actions suggest otherwise − and that sets a dangerous diplomatic precedent

Jorge Heine, Boston University

people in helmets and riot gear carrying guns stand outside a white building.

Jewish American Heritage Month

A group of young teens, mostly girls in white dresses, pose around a middle-aged man in a suit in a formal black and white portrait.

Shavuot: The Jewish holiday that became all about children

Laura Yares, Michigan State University

Asian Jewish Americans have a double reason to celebrate their heritage in May

Samira Mehta, University of Colorado Boulder

Two children in long-sleeve T-shirts look at two burning candles on a table.

Warsaw Ghetto’s defiant Jewish doctors secretly documented the medical effects of Nazi starvation policies in a book rediscovered on a library shelf

Merry Fitzpatrick, Tufts University and Irwin Rosenberg, Tufts University

nurse stands over a bed with two naked emaciated children in it

FBI reaches out to Hasidic Jews to fight antisemitism – but bureau has fraught history with Judaism

Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University

Hasidic man crosses the street in New York City

‘Traditional’ Jewish American foods keep changing, with cookbooks playing an influential role in how Jews mark Rosh Hashana

Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan

Two young Jewish girls baking challah bread.

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Pictures in 500 Words

A string of numbers and letters with the last ones blurred.

What’s in a VIN? How to decode the vehicle identification number, your car’s unique fingerprint

Jordan Frith, Clemson University

A painting of a man with hands stretched out, halo around his head, wearing a red and purple color gown.

Artists created images of Christ that focused not on historical accuracy but on reflecting different communities − a scholar of religious history explains

Virginia Raguin, College of the Holy Cross

Election 2024

Trump promises to deport all undocumented immigrants, resurrecting a 1950s strategy − but it didn’t work then and is less likely to do so now

Katrina Burgess, Tufts University

A man with a police hat lifts up the hood of an old car to reveal a man lying there in a black and white photo.

Third parties will affect the 2024 campaigns, but election laws written by Democrats and Republicans will prevent them from winning

Barry C. Burden, University of Wisconsin-Madison

A gray-haired man in a dark suit standing in front of a banner that says 'Kennedy for president'

Opening statements are the most important part of a trial – as lawyers in Trump’s hush money case know well

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard University

A man with golden hair is walking into a courtroom surrounded by police officers and men and women dressed in business attire.

How Trump is using courtroom machinations to his political advantage

Tim Bakken, United States Military Academy West Point and Karrin Vasby Anderson, Colorado State University

People sit at a desk with papers and computer cables on it.

New research in health and science

Illustration of DNA helix stretching up into an opaque light as virus particles float around it

Viruses are doing mysterious things everywhere – AI can help researchers understand what they’re up to in the oceans and in your gut

Libusha Kelly, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Iron fuels immune cells – and it could make asthma worse

Benjamin Hurrell, University of Southern California and Omid Akbari, University of Southern California

Lung cancer is the deadliest of all cancers, and screening could save many lives − if more people could access it

Nina Thomas, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Future pandemics will have the same human causes as ancient outbreaks − lessons from anthropology can help prevent them

Ron Barrett, Macalester College

etching of people in ancient Roman garb harvesting grain and using oxen and horses

Mexico emerges as a destination for Americans seeking reproductive health services – not for the first time

Alejandra Marquez Guajardo, Michigan State University

A blue sign displays departures. People are silhouetted in the foreground.

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