The Conversation

Mexican president suffers setback in country's deadliest election in decades

Written by Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong

Voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Ayahualtempa, Mexico, on June 6, 2021. Hector Vivas/Getty Images

Mexicans turned away from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s party in the country’s June 6, 2021, midterm election, widely seen as a referendum on his administration’s self-proclaimed...

Congress considers future of the military draft, while Supreme Court holds off

Written by Max Margulies, Director of Research, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, United States Military Academy West Point

The Supreme Court has declined to hear arguments in the case of National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System. In doing so, it acceded to the Biden administration’s wishes that it not address the question of whether women should join the millions of young men required to register each year with the Selective Service – the...

I'm fully vaccinated – should I keep wearing a mask for my unvaccinated child?

Written by Nancy S. Jecker, Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine, University of Washington

Keeping kids safe is complicated and requires care for both physical and mental health.Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images

Fully vaccinated adults are celebrating their new freedom and removing their face masks. Yet for parents of children under age 12, the rejoicing might be short-lived.

Since children that age do not yet have access to vaccines, the Center...

What the Ottoman Empire can teach us about the consequences of climate change – and how drought can uproot peoples and fuel warfare

Written by Andrea Duffy, Director of International Studies, Colorado State University

Drought's effects on the population slowed the Ottoman Empire's expansion in the 16th century.Lessing Archives

In the late 16th century, hundreds of bandits on horseback stormed through the countryside of Ottoman Anatolia raiding villages, inciting violence and destabilizing the sultan’s grip on power

Four hundred years later and a few hundred...

'Bride kidnapping' haunts rural Kyrgyzstan, causing young women to flee their homeland

Written by Erin Hofmann, Associate Professor, Utah State University

A protest against bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, on April 8, 2021, after a young woman abducted for marriage was found dead. Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images

There are many types of forced marriage in this world, but perhaps the most dramatic is marriage by abduction, or bride kidnapping.

Bride kidnapping is common in...

'Lady of Guadalupe' avoids tough truths about the Catholic Church and Indigenous genocide

Written by Rebecca Janzen, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina

The 2020 film is the latest of many movie takes on this Catholic miracle story.@ladyofguadalupemovie via Facebook

The film “Lady of Guadalupe,” first released in 2020 and now available on many streaming services, mixes a fictional retelling of the 16th-century appearance of the Virgin Mary to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego with the...

How virus detectives trace the origins of an outbreak – and why it's so tricky

Written by Marilyn J. Roossinck, Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Penn State

The prevention of future pandemics requires examining viral family trees.Stockcrafter/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Every time there is a major disease outbreak, one of the first questions scientists and the public ask is: “Where did this come from?”

In order to predict and prevent future pandemics like COVID-19, researchers need to find...

Study shows AI-generated fake reports fool experts

Written by Priyanka Ranade, PhD Student in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

It doesn't take a human mind to produce misinformation convincing enough to fool experts in such critical fields as cybersecurity.iLexx/iStock via Getty Images

Takeaways

· AIs can generate fake reports that are convincing enough to trick cybersecurity experts.

· If widely used, these AIs could hinder efforts to defend against...

Why are some mushrooms poisonous?

Written by Karen Hughes, Professor of Mycology, University of Tennessee

Poisonous or edible?Ekaterina Morozova/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why are some mushrooms poisonous and some are not? – Alice T., age 11

You may have noticed that mushrooms pop up in your...

Are companies that support Pride and other social causes 'wokewashing'?

Written by Kim Sheehan, Professor of Journalism and Communication and Director of the Master's Program in Brand Responsibility, University of Oregon

People with the Pride Alliance Network, sponsored by Starbucks, walk along Ocean Drive during the 11th annual Pride Parade as part of Miami Beach Pride week on April 7, 2019, in Miami Beach, Florida.

Consumers increasingly want companies to address society’s big problems, such as climate change and crumbling infrastructure. And polls suggest...