The Conversation

During Biden’s first year in office, he held a total of 10 press conferences. Most of those featured him reading prepared remarks and then leaving without taking questions from reporters. When he does take questions, he tends to call on only preselected reporters from – in his own words – “a list I’ve been given.”

“White saviour complex,” which has a long and sordid history, presumes that people of color, whether in the Global South or in the West, need “saving” from a white western person or aid worker, when what they do is ignore the role of western countries in encouraging inequalities and wars in the Global South.

More than 80 years ago, an English professor named Samuel Steward was dismissed from his teaching position after publishing what his college’s president deemed a “racy” novel.

The notion of equal access to capital flies in the face of one of the central tenets of capitalism. The ability of different organizations to borrow and the price they pay is never equal. It depends on the risk of the investment and how many investors will take that risk.

The Biden Administration’s proposed rule change – which would see the rapid deportation of anyone who had not first applied for asylum en route to the U.S. – has been condemned by immigration rights groups, which claim it runs counter to the “humane immigration system” that Joe Biden promised while campaigning for the White House.

Despite the current state of the housing market, property is still considered a sound investment – at least for the limited group who can afford it. However, property ownership can have serious consequences on others’ lives.

A new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine looked at organ damage in long Covid patients, most of whom were not severely affected when they had Covid initially. Organ damage was identified in 59% of participants a year after their initial symptoms.

In 2018 Poland passed a law punishing anyone who claimed Poles had any responsibility in the Holocaust. The law is intended to silence historians, even beyond Poland’s borders.

Critics have described Carter’s foreign policies as “ineffectual” and “hopelessly muddled,” and their formulation demonstrated “weakness and indecision.” But his overseas policies were far more effective than critics have claimed.

Most Americans don’t know the normal or healthy range for blood pressure – yet strikingly, they think they do. And that is cause for serious concern in a nation where nearly half of Americans ages 20 years and up, and three-quarters of those 65 and up, have high blood pressure.

Headaches and lingering chemical smells from a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have left residents worried about their air and water – and misinformation on social media hasn’t helped.

Though the court is the most diverse in American history – with three justices of color and four women – the conservatives who have historically opposed affirmative action programs hold a 6-3 majority. That majority may ban the use of race when the court issues a decision in a Harvard case expected in June.

For Valentine’s Day, some couples only roll their eyes at each other in mutual cynicism. The capitalisation of love in the modern world can certainly seem banal. But people have been celebrating the day and gifting love tokens for hundreds of years.

Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States. Some states that have banned abortion altogether or have restricted access to it are vowing to block access to abortion pills.

While there is growing evidence that CBD can help with certain conditions, caution is needed. Rigorous scientific studies are limited, so it is important that the marketing of CBD products does not get out ahead of the research and of robust evidence.

Dramatic evidence of learning loss has mobilized federal, state and local education leaders. The federal government has allocated US$122 billion to support state and local efforts to help students “catch up in the classroom.”

Since Parkland, there have been over 900 shootings in K-12 school settings. Thirty-two were indiscriminate attacks apparently driven by the intent to kill as many people as possible, including mass casualty events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022 and at Oxford High School, in Oxford, Michigan, in November 2021.

Du Bois’ words in a 1951 article are especially prescient today, offering a reminder about the importance of Black History Month and what is at stake in current conversations about African American studies.

A boundless wealth of high-quality information is available at our fingertips right next to a ceaseless torrent of low-quality, distracting, false and manipulative information. It’s necessary not only to distinguish between the two but to ignore much of the trashier information.

Parking garages and parking lots end up using precious land to house cars instead of people at a time when cities are confronted with a severe housing shortage and skyrocketing housing costs.

A typical argument made by those who oppose immigration is that it increases crime. If people believe immigrants cause crime rates to climb, it’s not hard to understand a backlash. But evidence points against the assumption.

On Jan. 24, history was again made when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ organization moved the seconds hand of the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. It is now at ‘90 seconds to midnight,’ the closest it has ever been to the symbolic midnight hour of global catastrophe.

California is embarking on an audacious new climate plan that aims to eliminate the state’s greenhouse gas footprint by 2045, and in the process, slash emissions far beyond its borders. The blueprint calls for massive transformations in industry, energy and transportation, as well as changes in institutions and human behaviors.

Antisemitism and Holocaust denial are no longer hidden in the margins, spewed by fringe hate groups. From Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – and NBA player Kyrie Irving to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, well-recognized personalities have echoed antisemitic ideas, often online.

While special counsels are intended to be independent, in practice they are aren’t entirely. Ensuring impartiality in the Department of Justice can be difficult, as the attorney general is appointed by – and answerable to – a partisan president.

Although the style and content of Roth’s fiction is extraordinarily diverse, there is always audible a distinctive voice: irreverent yet earnest, questioning yet authoritative, subtle and nuanced yet powerful and passionate.

The degenerate characters whose perspectives Poe invites readers to inhabit don’t exactly align with a cultural moment characterized by the #MeToo movement, safe spaces and trigger warnings.

South Carolina decided in 2021 to allow its inmates on death row the option of execution by firing squad. With that move, South Carolina has elected to deploy a form of capital punishment not used in the state since the Civil War.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s liberal prime minister who just announced her resignation, faced a constant barrage of online and in-person abuse – from anti-vaxxers, misogynists and sundry others who simply don’t like her.

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, hailed the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, a convicted terrorist, and is trying to make his anti-Palestinian movement seem less extremist and more appealing to Jews and the international community. A rewrite of American history could help him do it.

At the time of the Black Lives Matter movement, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work is more relevant than ever. It highlights racial inequalities and the lack of representation of racialized people in the media, but also the violence suffered by African Americans.

As of Jan. 1, 2023, foreign buyers are banned from buying homes in Canada for two years under the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act. The ban is part of the federal government’s effort to ease Canadians’ struggle to afford homes.

A five-minute light walk every half-hour was the only strategy that reduced blood sugar levels substantially compared with sitting all day. In particular, five-minute walks every half-hour reduced the blood sugar spike after eating by almost 60%.

Autofiction is contentious. Some authors renounce the label, including Annie Ernaux, who views her first-person “I” as a collective self. Some disagree that it is a genre at all. Instead, they view autofiction as a “mode” of writing – or as a “strategy” or “lens”. Some go so far as to argue that all works of literature necessarily stem from personal experience.

While many Muslims believe it is inappropriate to depict Muhammad, the recent labeling of such paintings as “hate speech” and “blasphemy” not only inaccurate but inflammatory. Such condemnations can pose a threat to individuals and works of art.