What the Texas inferno leaves in its wake

Is the United States overestimating China’s power?

Dan Murphy, Harvard Kennedy School

Most Americans see China as the biggest threat to the US. But away from headline economic figures, China has a slew of challenges.

COVID-19 rapid tests still work against new variants – researchers keep ‘testing the tests,’ and they pass

Nathaniel Hafer, UMass Chan Medical School; Anuradha Rao, Emory University; Apurv Soni, UMass Chan Medical School

Research shows that rapid antigen tests are performing as well at detecting the most recent dominant variants as they did with the earliest strains in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Measles is one of the deadliest and most contagious infectious diseases – and one of the most easily preventable

David Higgins, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

A pediatrician and preventive medicine physician explains how measles vaccines became victims of their own success and the risk that rising outbreaks pose to everyone.

Altitude sickness is typically mild but can sometimes turn very serious − a high-altitude medicine physician explains how to safely prepare

Brian Strickland, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Whether you’re ascending to high altitudes for casual travel or for adventure tourism, there are specific strategies to help you acclimate and reduce the likelihood of altitude sickness.

The tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines

Alessandro Poletto, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

In medieval Japan, healing might mean taking medicine, undergoing an exorcism or sidestepping harm in the first place by avoiding inauspicious days.

My Malaysia ordeal shows how religion can fuse with populist nationalism to silence dissent

Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University

Religion and nationalism were once ideologies at odds. Now, they are increasingly bedfellows, with populism often the glue.

Yes, Trump’s PACs really can pay his legal fees

Richard Briffault, Columbia University

Trump-aligned political action committees have paid lawyers for the former president tens of millions of dollars. Are there any limits on how much, or on what, they can spend?

Remembering the 1932 Ford Hunger March: Detroit park honors labor and environmental history

Paul Draus, University of Michigan-Dearborn

On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions, sparking America’s labor movement. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory.

What does a state’s secretary of state do? Most run elections, a once-routine job facing increasing scrutiny

John J. Martin, University of Virginia

There are dozens of secretaries of state in the US. Only one deals with foreign affairs. The majority of the rest, state secretaries of state, have powerful positions running elections in each state.

Though CBS legend Edward R. Murrow is given credit, he wasn’t the first muckraking journalist to question Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunts

W. Joseph Campbell, American University School of Communication

Starting in 1950, as the fear of communist subversion spread throughout America, McCarthy launched hearings that were based on scant evidence and overblown charges.

Ben Shapiro’s hip-hop hypocrisy and white male grievance lands him on top of pop music charts for a brief moment

A.D. Carson, University of Virginia

Since its birth 50 years ago, hip-hop music has embraced artists of every race and ethnic background. An avowed hip-hop hater might be a step too far.

Betty Smith enchanted a generation of readers with ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ − even as she groused that she hoped Williamsburg would be flattened

Rachel Gordan, University of Florida

No other 20th-century American novel did quite so much to burnish Brooklyn’s reputation. But Smith rarely saw her hometown through rose-colored glasses − and even grew to resent it.

The ‘average’ revolutionized scientific research, but overreliance on it has led to discrimination and injury

Zachary del Rosario, Olin College of Engineering

The average might come in handy for certain data analyses, but is any one person really ‘average’?

Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores

Nigeria’s security problems deepen as Anglophone insurgency in Cameroon spills across border

Can Trump be prosecuted? Supreme Court will take up precedent-setting case to define the limits of presidential immunity

The Conversation U.S. weekly news quiz

Fritz Holznagel, The Conversation

Here’s the first question of this week’s edition:

Mitch McConnell has announced that he will step down as Senate minority leader later this year. But in his speech on Feb. 28, he said, "I still have enough gas in my tank to" do what?

1. A. "Help Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin"
2. B. "Block the woke agenda at every turn"
3. C. "Thoroughly disappoint my critics"
4. D. "Dance on the grave of Ruth Bader Ginsburg"

Test your knowledge