Oman's crucial role as Iran-US whisperer

Columbia University president holds her own under congressional grilling over campus antisemitism that felled the leaders of Harvard and Penn

Lynn Greenky, Syracuse University

A rhetoric scholar says Columbia University President Nemat Shafik fared much better than her predecessors at a hearing about how her school was handling antisemitism on campus.

Graduation rates for low-income students lag while their student loan debt soars

Robert Samuels, University of California, Santa Barbara

Nearly half of all students who enroll in college never finish. Are colleges and universities to blame?

The tragedy of sudden unexpected infant deaths – and how bedsharing, maternal smoking and stomach sleeping all contribute

Fern R. Hauck, MD, MS, University of Virginia

Rates of sudden unexpected infant deaths have not gone down significantly over the last 20 years, and in some racial groups the numbers are rising.

Billions of cicadas are about to emerge from underground in a rare double-brood convergence

John Cooley, University of Connecticut; Chris Simon, University of Connecticut

The last time that these two groups of cicadas emerged from underground together, Thomas Jefferson was president.

Why luck plays such a big role in hockey

Mark Robert Rank, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

With low-scoring games and a preponderance of deflected shots, randomness is much more likely to color NHL teams’ records than those of squads in the other four major US pro sports leagues.

3 things to learn about patience − and impatience − from al-Ghazali, a medieval Islamic scholar

Liz Bucar, Northeastern University

In religious traditions, patience is more than waiting, or even more than enduring a hardship. But what does patience look like? And when should we not exercise patience?

AI chatbots refuse to produce ‘controversial’ output − why that’s a free speech problem

Jordi Calvet-Bademunt, Vanderbilt University; Jacob Mchangama, Vanderbilt University

AI chatbot makers’ restrictive use policies hinder people’s access to information.

5 years after the Mueller report into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election on behalf of Trump: 4 essential reads

Howard Manly, The Conversation

What Trump knew about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election remains an open question despite the nearly two-year investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Cities with Black women police chiefs had less street violence during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests

Kayla Stajkovic, University of California, Davis; Alex Stajkovic, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The type of life and professional experience a police chief has can influence how their departments react to protests, new research finds.

The big dry: forests and shrublands are dying in parched Western Australia

Joe Fontaine, Murdoch University; George Matusick, Auburn University; Jatin Kala, Murdoch University; Kerryn Hawke, Murdoch University; Nate Anderson, The University of Western Australia

Intense heat and no rain in southwest Western Australia are causing widespread tree and shrub die-offs.

South Africans tasted the fruits of freedom and then corruption snatched them away

Gemma Ware, The Conversation; Thabo Leshilo, The Conversation

The second episode of What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa?, a three-part podcast series on The Conversation Weekly. Featuring interviews with Mashupye Maserumule and Michael Sachs.

Removing PFAS from public water will cost billions and take time – here are ways to filter out some harmful ‘forever chemicals’ at home

The US is losing access to its bases in Niger − here’s why that’s a big deal

Supreme Court to consider whether local governments can make it a crime to sleep outside if no inside space is available