The Conversation

Trump promises to end birthright citizenship and shut down the border – a legal scholar explains the challenges these actions could face

Written by Jean Lantz Reisz, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Co-Director, USC Immigration Clinic, University of Southern California

Vice President JD Vance, President Donald Trump and their families attend the inaugural parade in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

During his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders on immigration that would make it harder for refugees, asylum seekers and others...

Trump’s Jan. 6 pardon order ‘flies in the face of the facts’ of violent insurrection, retired federal judge explains

Written by John E. Jones III, President, Dickinson College

Rioters scale a wall of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

In the first hours of his second term, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly everyone convicted of crimes associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol – including former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio – and commuted the...

Trump’s executive orders can make change – but are limited and can be undone by the courts

Written by Sharece Thrower, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives for inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, January 20, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Before his inauguration, Donald Trump promised to issue a total of 100 or so executive orders once he regained the presidency. These orders are expected to reset government policy on everything...

Neighbors and strangers pulled together to help LA fire survivors – 60 years of research shows these unsung heroes are crucial to disaster response

Written by Tricia Wachtendorf, Professor of Sociology and Director, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware

Neighbors fill and pass a bucket of pool water to help extinguish a spot fire in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Jan. 9, 2025.Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Image

As wildfires swept through neighborhoods on the outskirts of Los Angeles in January 2025, stories about residents there helping their neighbors and total strangers began...

Amid LA fires, neighbors helped each other survive – 60 years of research shows how local heroes are crucial to disaster response

Written by Tricia Wachtendorf, Professor of Sociology and Director, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware

Neighbors fill and pass a bucket of pool water to help extinguish a spot fire in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Jan. 9, 2025.Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Image

As wildfires swept through neighborhoods on the outskirts of Los Angeles in January 2025, stories about residents there helping their neighbors and total strangers began...

Astronauts on NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon will need better boots − here’s why

Written by Jesse Rhoades, Associate Professor of Education, Heath & Behavior, University of North Dakota

The lunar south pole's terrain is rugged, and it can reach extreme temperatures. Michael Karrer/Flickr, CC BY-NC

The U.S.’s return to the Moon with NASA’s Artemis program will not be a mere stroll in the park. Instead it will be a perilous journey to a lunar location representing one of the most extreme environments in the solar system....

Trump’s idea to use military to deport over 10 million migrants faces legal, constitutional and practical hurdles

Written by Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western Reserve University

A sweeping crackdown on immigration was the centerpiece of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

“On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America,” Trump promised at a rally in Madison Square Garden in late October 2024.

After winning, he suggested in a Nov. 18 post on his...

Why is the sky blue?

Written by Daniel Freedman, Dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Management, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Light at the blue end of the rainbow is scattered more efficiently than the other colors.shomos uddin/Moment via Getty Images

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 is the sky blue? – Mariana A-E., age 11, Tucson, Arizona

Yo...

What’s happening on RedNote? A media scholar explains the app TikTok users are fleeing to – and the cultural moment unfolding there

Written by Jianqing Chen, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and of Film and Media Studies, Washington University in St. Louis

TikTok users fleeing to the app RedNote are mingling with Chinese social media users.VCG/VCG via Getty Images

TikTok refugees fled by the millions to RedNote, a Chinese app, in response to the TikTok ban, which went into effect Jan. 19, 2025. The company shut down the app shortly before midnight on Jan. 18.

Through cat memes, shared jokes about the...

Texas is already policing the Mexican border − and will play an outsize role in any Trump plan to crack down on immigration

Written by Dan DeBree, Associate Professor of the Practice, Texas A&M University

Maverick County Sheriff's Office Deputy Sgt. Aaron Horta, EMT operators and Border Patrol officers carry a body out of a canal on June 28, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Over the past half-decade, the state of Texas has been pushing an evolution in the administration and enforcement of immigration law. Stepping into a...