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Iran’s military forces combine state-of-the-art drones and hackers with out-of-date conventional weapons

  • Written by Paul J. Springer, Professor of Comparative Military Studies, Air University
imageRevolutionary Guard personnel stand under an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle, the Shahed-136, while participating in a military rally in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 10, 2025. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Six weeks of U.S. and Israeli bombardment have served to degrade Iran’s nuclear facilities and cripple parts of its military.

Bu...

Read more: Iran’s military forces combine state-of-the-art drones and hackers with out-of-date conventional...

Trump’s clash with the pope reenacts a 1,000-year-old question: What happens when sacred and secular power collide?

  • Written by Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Professor of Medieval History, University of Rhode Island
imagePope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day, 800 A.D.Levan Ramishvili/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons

Alarm over the war of words between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV has escalated with remarkable speed, from The New York Times to the Daily Beast and local television.

The pope has repeatedly called for peace in the Middle...

Read more: Trump’s clash with the pope reenacts a 1,000-year-old question: What happens when sacred and...

Salty drinking water could be increasing your blood pressure – people living in coastal areas are most at risk

  • Written by Rajiv Chowdhury, Professor of Global Health, Florida International University

When people consider what causes high blood pressure, they often think of lifestyle factors, such as eating salty foods, lack of exercise or smoking. However, an unexpected source of salt might also be raising blood pressure for millions of people: the water they drink.

As sea levels rise, more and more salt water tends to infiltrate global...

Read more: Salty drinking water could be increasing your blood pressure – people living in coastal areas are...

Why women in groups face a ‘collaboration penalty’ that solo female stars like Taylor Swift and Coco Gauff escape

  • Written by David Hekman, Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership, University of Colorado Boulder
imageWhether in sports, music or business, all-women teams earn less. Minnesota Lynx guard Renee Montgomery drives between Indiana Fever guards Layshia Clarendon, left, and Shenise Johnson at a WNBA game in Minneapolis. AP Photo/Stacy Bengs

When Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time in 2024, hauling in more...

Read more: Why women in groups face a ‘collaboration penalty’ that solo female stars like Taylor Swift and...

Ads for GLP-1 drugs are flooding the internet – here’s how to know if it’s safe to buy them online

  • Written by Sujith Ramachandran, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Administration, University of Mississippi
imageWebsites that sell compounded versions of GLP-1 drugs are not allowed to sell them under the brand names.Michael Siluk/UCG, Universal Images Group via Getty Images

If you watched the Super Bowl in 2026, you likely saw Serena Williams share her weight loss journey on GLP-1 medications in a commercial.

Like millions of others around the country, if...

Read more: Ads for GLP-1 drugs are flooding the internet – here’s how to know if it’s safe to buy them online

Your local fishing hole is getting browner, changing which fish species thrive and which ones struggle

  • Written by Allison M. Roth, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia
imageIncreased carbon in runoff from land is turning freshwaters darker.Andrew P. Hendry via Flickr

The lakes, streams and ponds you’ve visited for years are likely looking more brown than they used to. And people who are fishing those waters are likely catching different species and sizes of fish than in the past.

Our research has identified a link...

Read more: Your local fishing hole is getting browner, changing which fish species thrive and which ones...

Why Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon prayer services challenge traditional notions of separation of church and state – but might be blessed by the Roberts Supreme Court

  • Written by John E. Jones III, President, Dickinson College
imageThe wall between church and state appears increasingly thin.hayesphotography/iStock Getty Images Plus

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is engaging in “a proselytizing Christian campaign” in his job, according to The Washington Post.

Hegseth hosts prayer services at the Pentagon and virtually crusades as a Christian, praying at the...

Read more: Why Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon prayer services challenge traditional notions of separation of church...

Thousands of AI-written, edited or ‘polished’ books are being sold – an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel-writing machines’

  • Written by Laura Beers, Professor of History, American University
imageWhen it comes to machine-produced 'literature,' does it really matter whether the outputs can pass for original art?J Studios/Digital Vision via Getty Images

At some point in the next several months, I am hoping to receive a modest check as a member of the class covered in the class-action settlement Bartz v. Anthropic.

In 2025, the artificial...

Read more: Thousands of AI-written, edited or ‘polished’ books are being sold – an eerie echo of Orwell’s...

Strait of Hormuz: Why the US and Iran are sailing in very different legal waters

  • Written by Elizabeth Mendenhall, Associate Professor of Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island
imageA vessel heads toward the Strait of Hormuz on April 8, 2026.Shady Alassar/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Strait of Hormuz exists in the eye of the beholder.

While everyone agrees that, geographically speaking, it is a strait – a narrow sea passage connecting two places that ships want to go – its political and legal status is rather more...

Read more: Strait of Hormuz: Why the US and Iran are sailing in very different legal waters

The Islamabad talks were doomed to failure – and Hormuz blockade has thrown another obstacle to any Iran-US deal

  • Written by Farah N. Jan, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Pennsylvania
imageU.S. Vice President JD Vance leaves Islamabad on April 12, 2026. Jacquelyn Martin - Pool/Getty ImagesJacquelyn Martin/Getty Images

Twenty-one hours of direct negotiations. The highest-level face-to-face engagement between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

And yet, U.S. Vice President JD Vance boarded Air Force Two in Islamabad...

Read more: The Islamabad talks were doomed to failure – and Hormuz blockade has thrown another obstacle to...

More Articles ...

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  2. Antibiotics can trigger bacteria to release bubbles of inflammation tinder, making it harder to treat infection
  3. How debate about gender identity could undermine global efforts to protect victims of violence
  4. A justice department opinion arguing the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional could revert the nation to a time when presidents freely burned their papers
  5. What if Texas’ destructive Tax Day flood had centered on inner Houston instead? It’s why cities should plan for the improbable
  6. New federal figures reveal 1 in 3 US households struggle to pay energy bills, but the reality is likely even worse
  7. Using atomic nuclei could allow scientists to read time more precisely than ever – what this research could mean for future clocks
  8. Industries most exposed to AI are not only seeing productivity gains but jobs and wage growth too
  9. Why rural hospitals in Pennsylvania and across the country are closing in increasing numbers – 5 myths about rural health care
  10. Trump’s exchange with Pope Leo reflects deep-rooted tensions between the Vatican and the United States: 4 essential reads
  11. How a new mapping tool helps Florida planners protect wildlife corridors as the state grows
  12. Cannabis legalization spurs innovation, but not always in ways that benefit patients or public health
  13. AIs have ‘personalities’ – here’s how they affect you more deeply than you may realize
  14. Artemis II crew brought a human eye and storytelling vision to the photos they took on their mission
  15. ‘Bouncing back’ is a myth – resilience means integrating hard experiences into your life story, not ignoring them
  16. 25 million people lost Medicaid after the COVID-19 pandemic — and state policies shaped who stayed covered
  17. Gray whales are dying in San Francisco Bay at an alarming rate – this isn’t normal
  18. The enduring legacy of medieval Christian depictions of Islam in today’s political discourse
  19. District school boards have become political hotbeds for book bans and more – here’s what they actually do
  20. 4 ways the war in Iran has weakened the United States in the great power game
  21. Artemis II crew used modern photography to tell the visual story of their lunar journey – and update some classic Apollo images
  22. Artemis II moonshot reflects a spacefaring vision present in Jules Verne’s 19th-century novel
  23. US ceasefire with Iran: What’s next? A former diplomat explains 3 possible scenarios
  24. In his efforts to remake federal architecture, Trump repudiates the ‘republican ideals’ that have long informed it
  25. I found a new meteor shower, and it comes from an asteroid getting broken down by the Sun
  26. As a philosopher, I’m convinced that Trump isn’t lying − he’s doing something worse
  27. Doctors can refuse to treat LGBTQ+ patients in several states – these religious exemption laws lead to drops in HIV testing
  28. Tobacco is still one of the world’s top killers – here are the key obstacles to enacting generational smoking bans
  29. What declining vaccination rates mean for families in Allegheny County – where 1 in 3 kindergarten classrooms lack herd immunity for measles
  30. Health care sticker shock has become the norm, but talking to your doctor about costs can help you rein it in
  31. After ceasefire, negotiating a lasting deal with Iran would require overcoming regional rivalries and strategic incoherence
  32. 80 years later, scholarship is breaking silence on women’s suffering and strength at Treblinka – including their role in its uprising
  33. It’s OK to love all the bees (the honey bees, too)
  34. We collected data on how 779 Michigan school districts are regulating student cellphones − here are the trends
  35. AI can design and run thousands of lab experiments without human hands. Humanity isn’t ready for the new risks this brings to biology
  36. Psilocybin mushrooms are going mainstream, but scientific research and regulation lag behind
  37. What a Chinese crackdown on corruption meant for Beijing’s high-end restaurant market
  38. Standards-based grading offers a different model of assessing student learning in the classroom
  39. Trump administration’s lawsuits against Harvard and UCLA have roots in a decades-old fight over civil rights law
  40. Pope Leo XIV’s Africa journey: How each stop reflects his message of peace
  41. The good life requires two things, self-knowledge and friends – you can’t have one without the other
  42. Israeli threats to occupy or annex south Lebanon dust off a decades-old playbook
  43. Presidential words can turn the unthinkable into the thinkable − for better or for worse
  44. Philadelphia’s 40-year history of protecting undocumented immigrants began with churches hiding refugees from El Salvador
  45. Mutual aid and self-sufficiency are key to life near USSR’s contaminated nuclear test zone in Kazakhstan
  46. City animals act in the same brazen ways around the world
  47. Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the future
  48. From a vaccine mascot to business leadership, lessons for the US from Brazil’s public health system in building public trust and keeping it
  49. Why Americans are buying $22 smoothies despite feeling terrible about the economy
  50. When a president is unfit for office, here’s what the Constitution says can happen