One city's year of compounding disasters

Ukraine’s cross-border incursion challenges Moscow’s war narrative – but will it shift Russian opinion?

Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University

The Kremlin has pushed a dual narrative: that the conflict represents an existential battle with the West, but that life goes on as normal for most Russians.

3 years after fall of Kabul, US Congress has still not acted to secure future of more than 70,000 Afghan evacuees in US

Kelsey Norman, Rice University; Ana Martín Gil, Rice University

Attempts to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act have faltered, leaving tens of thousands of Afghans who fled chaos during the fall of Kabul in limbo.

Americans love free speech, survey finds − until they realize everyone else has it, too

John G. Geer, Vanderbilt University; Jacob Mchangama, Vanderbilt University

Americans agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. But a large minority also thinks it’s acceptable to bar certain subjects or speakers from public debate.

Offensive names dot the American street map − a new app provides a way to track them

Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee; Daniel Oto-Peralías, Universidad Pablo de Olavide; Joshua F.J. Inwood, Penn State

A newly released app allows users to search for discriminatory roadway names, helping communities grasp the ubiquity of inequalities embedded in everyday spaces and the harm they cause.

Historians diving for balloons and hoping for hot dish: What Smithsonian curators will be doing at the Democratic National Convention

Claire Jerry, Smithsonian Institution; Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Institution; Lisa Kathleen Graddy, Smithsonian Institution

Will there be Minnesota hot dish hats worn at the upcoming Democratic National Convention? Curators from the Smithsonian will be there, looking for both routine and unconventional campaign items.

Philly schools are in disrepair − the municipal bond market is 1 big reason

David I. Backer, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

The district spends only 43 cents of every dollar loaned to it.

Future lawyers learn key lessons from studying poetry in parks in this course

Patrick Barry, University of Michigan; Steve Friess, University of Michigan

Parks around campus at this university become a place for law students to produce prose and draw parallels between nature and the law.

Fluid keeps your brain from crushing itself and shields your spine from shock – a neurologist explains what happens when it stops working

Danielle Wilhour, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Cerebrospinal fluid can sometimes leak or collect in the brain without an identifiable cause, leading to symptoms that can be difficult to diagnose.

3 of Jane Austen’s 6 brothers engaged in antislavery activism − new research offers more clues about her own views

Devoney Looser, Arizona State University

The author of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and other classic novels used the words ‘slave’ and ‘slavery’ nearly a dozen times in her books.

Kamala, a common name in India, is associated with several deities and is a symbol of wisdom

Archana Venkatesan, University of California, Davis

Kamala, a Sanskrit word for lotus, symbolizes wisdom. Its rooted in the fact that even though the flower blooms in a swamp, it remains untouched by the dirt around it.

Repeating aids believing: climate misinformation feels more true through repetition - even if you back climate science

Yangxueqing Mary Jiang, Australian National University; Eryn Newman, Australian National University; Kate Reynolds, The University of Melbourne; Norbert Schwarz, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

If you come across the same piece of misinformation several times, it will start to feel familiar – and familiar information feels more true.

Could dinosaurs still exist somewhere in the world? A paleontologist explains

If you want Americans to pay attention to climate change, just call it climate change

Wagner Group setback in Mali challenges Moscow’s strategy in Africa and the region’s faith in Russian mercenaries