The Conversation

Most Americans (69%) believe it is essential that the United States continue to be a world leader in space. But only a subsection of that group believes NASA should prioritize sending people to the Moon. The United States’ most visible effort to maintain world leadership in space is arguably its Artemis Program to land humans on the Moon by late 2024.

Because these kinds of slavery took place so long ago and weren’t based on modern racism, some people have the impression that they weren’t as harsh or violent. That impression makes room for public figures like Christian theologian and analytic philosopher William Lane Craig to argue that ancient slavery was actually beneficial for enslaved people. Those arguments are wrong.

Though it can be vital for the advancement of their missions that charities exercise this right, fewer than a third of charities in the U.S. (31%) engaged in advocacy in the last five years. This represents a dramatic decline in the past two decades, even though the law allows these groups to speak up regarding the issues that affect the people they serve.

While people are used to thinking about how clothing, air movement, temperature and humidity affect comfort, two lesser-known measures help explain how they experience comfort indoors: Mean radiant temperature. and operative temperature.

In a world of potential nuclear terrorism and conflicts that risk the unthinkable use of nuclear weapons, the need to control proliferation and double down on arms control, such as a US-Iran agreement and better relations with China, are essential starting points.

Twitter has swapped the fluffy bird that used to symbolize the social media platform for a spindly black X. Ditching the company’s well-known logo and changing its name to a letter often associated with danger, death and the unknown is only the latest user-aggravating step CEO Elon Musk has taken since he bought Twitter in October 2022 for US$44 billion.

Three counts in this new indictment allege conspiracies: There is conspiracy to defraud the government; to obstruct an official proceeding – in this case, counting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021; and against the rights of the voters to cast ballots and have them fairly and honestly counted.

Aromatherapy is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of any medical condition. Clinicians say there’s not sufficient evidence to show that it works. Conversely, public acceptance of aromatherapy has never been higher. But this is not always a good thing. Although information about aromatherapy abounds on the internet, many of the claims are based on personal experience. This is not scientific evidence.

Though Roberts’ opinions appear at odds, his general disdain for the use of race is not. In both landmark race-related cases this term–the repeal of affirmative action, the requirement that race be considered when drawing congressional districts–he was clear that his preference is for as little use of race as possible, a position he has held for decades.

As school leaders in the U.S. wrestle with whether or not to ban smartphones–and Flagler County schools have banned the use of cell phones during instructional time–four scholars to weigh in on the issue.

The fast track to citizenship is not as important in explaining immigrant enlistments as economic factors like poverty and debt, and cultural factors, such as valuing warrior masculinity and legitimization of war.

For women playing football in this year’s Women’s World Cup, there are issues and concerns they must play through. Unfortunately, most of these obstacles exist outside the corners of the football pitch. Lack of funds for training and pay equity continue to be at the forefront.

People who come to rely on certain AI systems will have to trust them implicitly to navigate daily life. That means they will need to be sure the AIs aren’t secretly working for someone else. Across the internet, devices and services that seem to work for you already secretly work against you.

Barbie fits perfectly into director Greta Gerwig’s repertoire of women-focused stories, which includes two Oscar-nominated coming of age films, Ladybird (2017) and Little Women (2019). Gerwig is a feminist filmmaker whose characters are curious, transgressive and rebel against their restrictive circumstances. Barbie is no exception.

UFOs trend in and out of collective awareness but never fully disappear. Thirty years of polling find that 25%-50% of surveyed Americans believe at least some UFOs are alien spacecraft. Today in the U.S., over 100 million adults think our galactic neighbors pay us visits.

On July 19, 1848, nearly 300 men and women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, to begin the United States’ first public political meeting regarding women’s rights. The Quaker women who participated in the gathering at Seneca Falls were at the forefront of efforts to abolish slavery, promote the temperance movement and grant rights to women.

With the news on July 18, 2023, that Special Counsel Jack Smith had informed former President Donald Trump that he was a target of the federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the related Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, speculation began immediately among political analysts and pundits about what charges the former president might face.

Efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution to recognize women’s rights have faced major challenges for the past century. Most recently, in April 2023 Senate Republicans blocked a similar resolution that would let states ratify the amendment, despite an expired deadline.

In the 125 years since U.S. troops invaded Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the U.S. government has controlled the island militarily, politically and economically – with no end in sight or, for Puerto Rico, a clear path to statehood.

The water off South Florida is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) in mid-July, and scientists are already seeing signs of coral bleaching off Central and South America. Particularly concerning is how early in the summer we are seeing these high ocean temperatures. If the extreme heat persists, it could have dire consequences for coral reefs.

On July 13, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a drugmaker’s application for the first daily over-the-counter birth control pill for people seeking to prevent pregnancy, to be available next year. This expanded access could be a significant development in the post-Roe era as individual states further restrict women’s access to abortion.

In the United States, any Black person outside of what someone else determines is his or her socially designated physical or social location is presumed to be out of place, with repercussions ranging from what some might call benign amusement to death.

Nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures in the U.S. in 2023. Most have not become law, and many of those that have did not survive legal scrutiny when challenged in court.

The ability of small suburban municipalities to limit multifamily housing is more the rule than the exception. As proposals for new housing are deflected away from smaller communities, housing either doesn’t get built, thus raising rents by limiting residential supply, or it gets pushed to far-flung exurbs that are distant from most jobs.

While secure attachment is important, ever rising levels of attention won’t necessarily increase it proportionally. Instead, it is important to carefully consider the degree of engagement and balance this with supporting children to reach appropriate stages of resilience and independence.

Meta’s launch of social media app Threads as a competitor to Twitter is a game-changer. It was welcomed almost immediately – especially by hordes of Twitter users that have watched in dismay as their beloved platform crumbles in the hands of Elon Musk.

Existing AI applications execute specific tasks rather than making broad judgments. The technology is far from being able to decide on and then plan out the goals and subordinate goals necessary for shutting down traffic in order to get you a seat in a restaurant, or blowing up a car factory in order to satisfy your itch for paper clips.

There are still political and legal attempts to restrict people’s ability to vote. Social equality remains far off for many people, including undocumented immigrants, for example, and LGBTQ+ individuals.

The number of people directly exposed to wildfires more than doubled from 2000 to 2019. Three-quarters of this trend was driven by intense fires growing out of control and encroaching on existing communities. It’s a reminder of what’s at risk from human activities, such as fireworks on July 4, a day when wildfire ignitions spike.

When payments resume in October, the average student loan payment is expected to be between $200 and $500 per month. For those that resume making their federal student loan payments on time, this may lead to an increase in their credit score, while those that miss the first payment after payments resume can expect their credit score to fall.

A bitterly divided Supreme Court held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibited state officials from requiring the designer to create a website that communicates a message with which she disagrees. Ensuring both freedom of speech and civil rights means more litigation is ahead.

Earth’s remaining ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are far more vulnerable to climate warming than models predict, and that the ice sheets may be destabilizing from inside.

The words nationalism and patriotism are sometimes used as synonyms, such as when Trump and his supporters describe his America First agenda. But many political scientists and citizens don’t typically see those two terms as equivalent – or even compatible.

More than 3.6 million electric cars are driving around the U.S., but if you live in an apartment, finding an available charger isn’t always easy. Several states and cities, aiming to expand EV use, are now trying to lift that barrier to ownership with “right to charge” laws. Florida is one of them.

A movement to weaken American child labor protections at the state level began in 2022. By June 2023, Arkansas, Iowa, New Jersey and New Hampshire had enacted this kind of legislation, and lawmakers in at least another eight states had introduced similar measures.

While the mutiny of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner brutes was short-lived and its goals unclear, it will have lasting effects – exposing the fragility of Putin’s grip on power and his ability to lead Russia to victory over Ukraine.

Tourists are generally seeking more authentic experiences that occur without prescribed paths or known endpoints. Technology can often make the extreme environments of adventure tourism more safe, but at the bottom of the ocean, the vacuum of space or the cold of a mountain summit the consequences of failure can be high.

When photography started to become popular, there was a debate about whether photography was a form of art. It came down to a court case in France in 1861 to decide whether photography could be copyrighted as an art form. Those same questions emerge when considering AI systems that are taught with the internet’s existing images.

While there is no law in the U.S. that regulates what a man can do with his body, the reproductive health of women is now more regulated than it has been in 50 years. And the scope of reproductive health care that women can receive is highly dependent on where they live.

The Southern Baptist Conference’s stance on issues of gender and sexuality have not always been just about fidelity to their interpretation of scripture. Rather, the SBC uses these issues to differentiate itself from other, more progressive denominations.

Many Juneteeth celebrations not only commemorate the end of slavery, but they also honor the generations of Black men and women who have fought to end slavery and for racial justice.