Author: TheConversation

By Anne Marshall, Associate Professor of History, Mississippi State University Tucked away in an amendment to the FY2023 U.S. defense authorization bill is a rare instance of congressional bipartisanship and a tribute to President Ulysses S. Grant. If approved, the measure would posthumously promote Grant to the rank of General of the Armies of the U.S., making him only the third person – along with John J. Pershing and George Washington – to be awarded the nation’s highest military honor. As Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, I believe that the promotion would be much more...

By Matthew Woodruff, Instructor of Human Immunology, Emory University For almost three years, scientists have raced to understand the immune responses in patients who develop severe COVID-19, with an enormous effort aimed at defining where healthy immunity ends and destructive immunity begins. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, much attention focused on reports of harmful inflammation and so-called cytokine storms – dangerous immune overreactions that can lead to tissue damage and death – in patients with severe COVID-19. It was not long before researchers began to identify antibodies that target the patient’s own body rather than attacking SARS-CoV-2,...

By Shuang-Ye Wu, Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, University of Dayton The year 2022 will be remembered across the U.S. for its devastating flooding and storms, and also for its extreme heat waves and droughts. By October, the U.S. had already seen 15 disasters causing more than US$1 billion in damage each, well above the average. The year started and ended with widespread severe winter storms from Texas to Maine, affecting tens of million of people and causing significant damages. Then, March set the record for the most reported tornadoes in the month – 233. During a period...

By Hajar Yazdiha, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is just the latest conservative lawmaker to misuse the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to judge a person on character and not race. In the protracted battle to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, Roy, a Republican, nominated a Black man, Byron Donalds, a two-term representative from Florida who had little chance of winning the seat. Considered a rising star in the GOP, Donalds has opposed the very things that King fought for and ultimately was...

By Jonathan Este, Associate Editor, International Affairs Editor Bitter fighting continues in the salt-mining town of Soledar, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. And depending on who is doing the reporting, either Russia is poised to take Soledar any time now or Ukrainian forces are valiantly beating off what has been described as “wave” assaults. On the Russian side, the fighting is reported to mainly involve mercenary troops and ex-prisoners contracted to the Wagner group of mercenaries loosely affiliated to Russia’s military and run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a key Putin ally. On January 11, Prigozhin insisted his troops...