An inside story of how White House staff worked through 9/11

Can burying power lines protect storm-wracked electric grids? Not always

Theodore J. Kury, University of Florida

Hurricane Ida left the entire city of New Orleans in the dark and renewed discussion of burying power lines. But there’s no way to completely protect the grid, above ground or below.

Pandemic hardship is about to get a lot worse for millions of out-of-work Americans

Jeffrey Kucik, University of Arizona; Don Leonard, The Ohio State University

Three pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs expire on Labor Day, putting millions of mostly low-income families in financial jeopardy.

20 years of ‘forever’ wars have left a toll on US veterans returning to the question: ‘Did you kill?’

Marian Eide, Texas A&M University

The act of killing in combat is associated with heightened risks of PTSD and suicide. A scholar interviewed 30 veterans about their common experiences.

At the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, ancient Greece and Rome can tell us a lot about the links between collective trauma and going to war

Joel Christensen, Brandeis University

Ancient Athenians and Romans also let shared mass tragedies propel justifications for going to war – even when it wasn’t clear what that violence would solve.

Slavery was the ultimate labor distortion – empowering workers today would be a form of reparations

Joerg Rieger, Vanderbilt Divinity School

Rebalancing labor relations so that workers are empowered would be an effective way to address racial wealth disparities and atone for the legacy of slavery, a scholar argues.

An entire generation of Americans has no idea how easy air travel used to be

Janet Bednarek, University of Dayton

Since 9/11, billions have been spent beefing up airport security. Was it worth it?

Lessons about 9/11 often provoke harassment of Muslim students

Amaarah DeCuir, American University

Comments made during class discussions about 9/11 often put Muslim students on edge, according to a researcher who interviewed 55 Muslim students in and around the nation’s capital.

Al-Qaida, Islamic State group struggle for recruits

Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A second plot was planned on 9/11, but there were too few terrorists to carry it off. Twenty years later, al-Qaida and its offshoot the Islamic State group still have trouble attracting recruits.

How memories of Japanese American imprisonment during WWII guided the US response to 9/11

Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

In the wake of 9/11, some called for rounding up whole groups of people viewed as potential threats to the nation. But Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta knew the U.S. had done that before.

Japan: why PM Suga unexpectedly stepped down – and what happens next

Sebastian Maslow, Sendai Shirayuri Women’s College; Paul O'Shea, Lund University

The Japanese prime minister has announced he will not seek re-election as party leader ahead of a general election later this year.

DNA analysis of grizzly bears aligns with Indigenous languages

Lauren H. Henson, University of Victoria; Jennifer Walkus

Genetic analysis of grizzly bear populations in British Columbia has revealed a connection in how bear and human cultures may have responded to the landscape.

Small seashells tell a big story of slavery and transoceanic trade 500 years ago

Justine Wintjes, KwaZulu-Natal Museum

Money cowries were used for thousands of years as currency across the Indo-Pacific world but introduced into Atlantic commercial networks relatively late.

Today’s graphic