Category: The Conversation – USA

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Rhonda Conner-Warren, Assistant Professor of Health Programs, Michigan State University

Detroit kids 17 and under were nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than other kids in Michigan, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released on Sept. 2, 2025. The data examines the years 2019 to 2023.

During those years, the asthma death rate among Detroit kids was more than four times higher than the state average, according to the state’s data. Dying from asthma is rare and largely preventable.

Detroit was also named the most challenging place to live with asthma in the country by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s annual rankings of asthma capitals. The ranking, released on Sept. 9, 2025, looked at the 100 largest cities in the U.S. The high number of low-income residents in Detroit and the city’s air pollution are among the risk factors that can worsen asthma and drive asthma rates, the report said. Last year the city ranked third.

Even mild asthma exacerbations such as coughing or congestion can disrupt a child’s and family’s daily routines. When a child is unwell, parents may have to miss work, and children can fall behind in school, adding stress for everyone in the family.

September is the peak month for asthma flare-ups in children. It’s a time when they can be exposed to a variety of triggers such as mold, pollen and respiratory viruses at school or home.

As a pediatric nurse practitioner and clinical faculty member in community health, I partner with health educators and families to create personalized, practical care plans that promote children’s well-being.

I currently work with Focus: HOPE’s early childhood education center in Detroit. During the 2024–25 school year, Focus: HOPE observed a 20% increase in asthma diagnoses among students, meaning we were serving 30 children with asthma, a trend that aligns with state health data.

Although Focus: HOPE shut down part of its Head Start program in August 2025 after losing federal funding, I remain deeply proud of the work my colleagues and I have done to care for children and their families. We remain committed to finding new ways to support our families, communities and children at risk for poor health and educational outcomes.

What worsens asthma symptoms

Asthma is a condition that affects the child’s lungs. It causes the airway to become swollen and narrow, sometimes producing extra mucus. This can make it harder to breathe and may lead to symptoms such as coughing, wheezing – a whistling sound when breathing out – and shortness of breath.

Asthma is not always classified strictly as an allergic disease, but many cases are allergy related, and such cases are becoming more common worldwide. This increase is fueled in part by climate and environmental changes, living in urban populations, increased time spent indoors, obesity and use of cleaning products that can worsen asthma and allergies.

Understanding asthma medications

Asthma is treated with medications, including emergency inhalers, daily long-acting inhalers, combination inhalers, which contains two or more medicines and nebulizer machines. Knowing when and how to use each is essential, and your child’s provider should review this with you regularly.

Many parents from my practice share a common concern about their children taking asthma medications with steroids. They often worry their children will build up a resistance or intolerance to them.

I tell them inhaled steroids go straight to the lungs and don’t affect the whole body like oral or systemic steroids do. They help control daily inflammation and prevent attacks.

An oral corticosteroid “burst” is a short-term treatment, typically lasting five to seven days, used to rapidly reduce severe airway inflammation during asthma flare-ups. It’s usually given in a tapering dose and is not meant for long-term use. These medications are safe, targeted and can make a huge difference in keeping your child out of the ER.

Many believe that children and families will simply “grow out of” asthma. While some with mild symptoms may improve over time, others remain at risk, especially when exposed to common triggers such as freshly cut grass or outdoor play during high-pollen days. Even simple activities such as running through a field can lead to serious asthma flare-ups.

Here are practical steps to help protect your child from experiencing an asthma attack:

• Talk with their health care provider to create an asthma action plan.

• Clearly label inhalers.

• Keep their vaccines up to date.

• Limit exposure to outdoor allergens.

Emergency medical plans at school

Every school staff member should be prepared for a student’s asthma flare-up with a documented emergency plan, knowledge of triggers and medication protocols.

Children should be sent to school with an individualized asthma action plan. An asthma action plan is a form that outlines what to do when symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, fatigue or abdominal pain occur. It specifies the medication, dosage, frequency and when to call parents or 911. The plan should be signed by the provider and kept in the child’s classroom file with their medication.

At school, ensure your child’s inhaler is clearly labeled. Put a prescription label showing the child’s name on both the box and the canister itself. Ask your pharmacy for an extra label, since unlabeled inhalers can easily get lost or mixed up, especially on the playground.

Viruses can trigger serious asthma attacks and lead to complications such as bronchitis or pneumonia. Staying up to date on yearly immunizations, especially the flu and COVID vaccines, can lower these risks and keep your child breathing easier.

Keep your child’s provider up to date about any changes, improvements or worsening symptoms — such as during travel or after moving to a new area. Ask about environmental irritants in your area and what “poor air quality,” increasingly caused by wildfire smoke in Michigan, means for your child’s breathing.

Protect your child from outdoor allergens at home

Everything your child brings in from outside – on their clothes, shoes, and even in their hair – can trigger allergies or asthma symptoms indoors. Here’s how you can help reduce exposure and keep their environment healthy:

1. Vacuum or dust floors frequently to remove allergens that may trigger an asthma attack. Install HEPA filters on vacuums and HVAC systems to improve air quality in the home.

2. Take shoes off at the door. Leave sneakers and outdoor shoes outside to avoid tracking allergens inside.

3. Change clothes before entering bedrooms. Clothes worn outside can carry pollen, dust and other irritants.

4. Wash hair before bed. Outdoor allergens can settle in your child’s hair and transfer to their pillow, increasing overnight exposure. If daily washing isn’t possible, consider using a bonnet and changing pillowcases frequently.

5. Daily hygiene matters. A warm shower and nose-blowing at the end of the day help clear inhaled irritants.

6. Stay hydrated. Keeping your child well hydrated helps thin mucus and reduce respiratory discomfort.

Rhonda Conner-Warren Full-time faculty at MSU College of Nursing, with part of my time subcontracted to Focus: HOPE in Detroit.

– ref. Detroit is the most challenging place in the country for people with asthma − here’s how to help kids in the Motor City breathe easier – https://theconversation.com/detroit-is-the-most-challenging-place-in-the-country-for-people-with-asthma-heres-how-to-help-kids-in-the-motor-city-breathe-easier-262474

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin, Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs, Boise State University

The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, has drawn widespread condemnation and renewed attention to the climate of political violence in the United States. To many, Kirk was not just another partisan commentator.

He was one of the most visible leaders of the young conservative movement. Kirk helped shape Republican politics on college campuses, in media and within President Donald Trump’s coalition.

To understand the significance of the attack — and why the reactions to it have been so strong — it helps to know who Kirk was, what the organization he built stood for, and the role he and his allies have played in national debates.

Turning Point USA founder

Charlie Kirk was a conservative activist, author and media personality who rose to prominence unusually early.

Raised in the Chicago suburbs, he made national headlines at 18 for founding Turning Point USA, a conservative youth movement. Kirk only briefly attended college. Instead, he chose to devote himself full time to conservative organizing.

That decision became central to the mythos surrounding him: He represented a choice among promising young conservatives to skip higher education in protest of the alleged left-leaning bias of universities.

Over the next decade, Kirk grew into a national figure. Beginning in 2016, he frequently spoke at Trump rallies, which helped him to build an extensive media profile.

In 2020 he published the “The MAGA Doctrine,” a bestselling book that argued in favor of nationalism and Trump’s “America First Agenda.” And his eponymous podcast – “The Charlie Kirk Show” – was downloaded more than 120 million times over the past 10 months, according to Turning Point.

Kirk’s program featured political commentary and interviews with prominent Republican personalities and politicians – guests included Tucker Carlson, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. These conversations amplified Kirk’s reach well beyond student audiences.

Connecting college students and GOP

Turning Point USA was founded in 2012 by Kirk and Bill Montgomery. Kirk met Montgomery, a retired businessman, after Kirk gave a speech at a conservative youth summit in Kansas. Montgomery urged him not to pursue college but to instead dedicate himself fully to building a youth conservative movement.

Kirk described the early days as lonely: driving to campuses, handing out flyers and trying to recruit students to talk about free markets and limited government.

Turning Point drew significant financial backing from high-profile conservative donors, including Foster Friess, the Wyoming financier; the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation; and Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein and his family foundation.

By 2024, Turning Point claimed chapters at more than 1,000 campuses, employed more than 400 staffers and had grown its annual budget to over US$8 million

Today, Turning Point is best known for hosting large-scale conferences. Its Student Action Summit in Florida regularly draws between 4,000 and 5,000 students and has featured appearances by GOP heavyweights including Donald Trump Jr. and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. A 2022 gathering in Phoenix, called AmericaFest, attracted more than 10,000 attendees.

Most controversially, the group’s Professor Watchlist webpage publishes the names of academics it accuses of bias against conservatives.

Turning Point has also spun off like-minded subsidiaries, including Turning Point Action and TPUSA Faith. These organizations expand Turning Point’s reach into electoral politics and church organizing. TPUSA’s media division produces a steady stream of popular videos, livestreams and podcasts, a legacy that should ensure Kirk’s influence lasts despite his death.

Expanding national role for Turning Point

Kirk and Turning Point provided important connections for younger conservatives and the Republican Party. In 2016, Turning Point mobilized thousands of students for Trump’s campaign, and Kirk was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention.

By 2020, the organization was playing a more overt political role. Turning Point Action ran voter-registration drives in battleground states, and the group sponsored buses and advertising to bring supporters to Washington, D.C., ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally. Kirk tweeted at the time that Turning Point would be sending “80+ buses full of patriots” to the event.

While he later deleted the message and distanced himself from the violence, it underscored the group’s entanglement in the most contested moments of the Trump era.

Kirk also acted as a crucial media surrogate for Trump. He used his podcast, social media, and speaking tours to amplify Trump’s message and attack critics. He was an early and persistent promoter of Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, helping translate them for younger conservative audiences.

Spreading misinformation, inflaming tensions

Critics argued that Kirk thrived on outrage and intimidation rather than debate.

The Professor Watchlist has been denounced by faculty associations as a blacklist that chills academic freedom. Journalistic investigations by outlets such as The New Yorker raised questions about Turning Point’s finances, including allegations of blurred lines between nonprofit educational work and partisan campaigning.

Kirk was criticized for spreading misinformation, such as false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and misleading statements about COVID-19 vaccines and mask mandates. He suggested that public health measures were a form of government control, rhetoric that public health experts argue undermined trust during a crisis.

More broadly, his sharp attacks on political opponents – he framed them not merely as wrong but as dangerous – drew accusations that he fueled polarization and inflamed tensions on American college campuses and beyond.

Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Who was Charlie Kirk? The activist who turned campus politics into national influence – https://theconversation.com/who-was-charlie-kirk-the-activist-who-turned-campus-politics-into-national-influence-265056

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Cal J. Halvorsen, Associate Professor of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis

For the first time in U.S. history, there are more Americans over 62 than under 18. With the national workforce getting older every year, many economists argue that having people keep working longer than they used to would help maintain a robust labor market.

But it can be hard for many older adults to stay employed past the age of 62, the year they typically become eligible for early Social Security retirement benefits, even when their health is good. In part that’s because approximately half of full-time workers in their early 50s lose their jobs involuntarily by the time they turn 65, possibly due to age bias and discrimination. And because it is much harder for workers over 50 to get hired than their younger counterparts, many of those older Americans exit the labor force before they’re ready to retire when they unexpectedly become unemployed.

As gerontological social work researchers, we have conducted multiple studies on the career aspirations, workplace experiences and civic engagement of older adults.

We’re concerned about the fate of a federal program that helps low-income and unemployed adults age 55 and older get help with employment. The Trump administration has not released more than $300 million in funds – typically disbursed in May – to its grantees in 2025 from the Senior Community Service Employment Program.

And the Trump administration proposes that no money be spent on it at all in the 2026 fiscal year. The effects of this defunding are already rippling across the country, from Florida to Oregon.

Job training for older adults

This federal program has been running since 1965. It provides on-the-job training to people over the age of 55 who are unemployed and have incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty level, which in 2025 means $19,563 for singles and $26,438 for couples.

The approximately 40,000 older workers who have benefited from it annually in recent years have earned their area’s prevailing minimum wage as a stipend while working part time. With some exceptions, workers can remain in the program for up to four years, but the average tenure was less than half that in 2022, around 22 months.

The program funds job training that takes place at nonprofits and government agencies, such as Goodwill Industries, Easterseals, local social services agencies, and the network of public and nonprofit agencies that serve older adults and their caregivers around the country, called Area Agencies on Aging.

The Department of Labor funds the program through direct grants to states, as well as grants to 20 national nonprofits, which in turn work with local organizations to recruit older adults and train them to do jobs like clerical, janitorial and customer service roles in all 50 states, Washington and U.S. territories. In most cases, at least 75% of federal funds must go directly to wages and benefits for participants, with the payments usually being made by the local and statewide organizations that recruit the participants and place them into host agencies.

Benefits for individuals and communities

This program helps older Americans balance their checkbooks, enjoy better health and engage more regularly with their own communities.

Many participants consider it a lifeline because it helps them to pay their bills and gives them a sense of purpose. For older adults who have trouble finding jobs, the program gets them out of their homes and back into their communities while boosting their self-esteem.

Once they’re trained, many of them find jobs – as many as 26%, according to the most recently posted estimates from the Department of Labor, and up to 38% in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the economy and labor markets.

For some participants, the government-supported employment becomes an avenue out of homelessness, a way to boost mental health or an activity that strengthens their relationships.

Through working for the government or nonprofits, participants in this program also learn about other ways they can get help, whether it’s accessing affordable health insurance or other job-training opportunities.

The program’s benefits outweigh its costs at the federal level, the Urban Institute has found. And the government and nonprofit agencies that host these older workers are better able to serve their local communities, partly because the program’s participants often share information about the services they learn about with their relatives and friends.

On the chopping block

In the summer of 2025, Senior Community Service Employment Program grant recipients across the country began to furlough their staff. Program participants have exited ahead of schedule, and prospective participants are missing out on job-training opportunities that would have otherwise been available to them.

The White House said it left the program out of its proposed 2026 budget due to what it said was a failure at moving older workers into unsubsidized employment.

We question this rationale because it ignores the constraints that federal regulations place onto the Senior Community Service Employment Program.

Its grantees are required to enroll unemployed and low-income older adults who have trouble getting jobs. Many can’t find work due to severe disabilities, limited literacy, trouble speaking English, homelessness, being 75 or older, having formerly been incarcerated and other challenges.

To require a program designed to help people who are inherently going to have the most trouble landing jobs – and then to criticize it because all of its participants do not successfully and quickly wind up employed – is a Catch-22. The mission and purpose of the program make that expectation unrealistic.

There’s another Catch-22.

On one hand, the Trump administration has mandated work requirements for health insurance coverage through Medicaid and introduced those requirements for food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the first time for able-bodied adults who are 60 to 64 years old.

On the other hand, it is disrupting the only federal program specifically created to help older adults with low incomes find jobs and become better positioned to earn a living.

These policies effectively remove a ladder while insisting that older adults must climb it.

Improvement and innovation

To be sure, we do see some room for improvement in the program.

For starters, we think it needs new metrics of success beyond job placement rates. Remaining employed requires good health, so it’s worth tracking what happens to the physical and mental health of older adults who participate in this program.

We support the Labor Department’s efforts to find new ways to deliver this job-training program. AmeriCorps, the volunteering and community service arm of the federal government, is also testing a new workforce development program for older workers that we think is promising.

But for now, there are few alternatives to the Senior Community Service Employment Program. In our view, it’s well worth preserving it at a time when older workers face growing pressure to earn a paycheck.

Cal J. Halvorsen is an adviser to two research projects on programs to support older job seekers, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and AmeriCorps Seniors.

Ernest Gonzales received funding from Senior Service America Inc in 2015.

Nancy Morrow-Howell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. A federal program helps older people get jobs, but the Trump administration wants to get rid of it – https://theconversation.com/a-federal-program-helps-older-people-get-jobs-but-the-trump-administration-wants-to-get-rid-of-it-262596

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Margaret Riley, Professor of Law, Public Health Sciences, and Public Policy, University of Virginia

On Sept. 10, 2025, a federal judge blocked the Department of Justice’s attempt to subpoena medical records and other private health information on minors receiving hormone therapy and other gender affirming care at Boston Children’s Hospital.

The move is the first public legal decision after the Department of Justice, in July, issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics treating transgender patients under age 19.

A subpoena to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, made public by The Washington Post on Aug. 20, demanded documents that are related to virtually any aspect of the care provided, including highly confidential documents like psychotherapy notes.

According to news reports, the Justice Department subpoenas have sown fear and concern, both among people whose information is sought and among the doctors and other providers who offer such care. Some health providers have reportedly decided to no longer provide gender-affirming care to minors as a result of the inquiries, even in states where that care is legal.

I’m a law professor at the University of Virginia specializing in health law. I spend a lot of time teaching future lawyers and medical professionals how medical privacy laws work. Normally, subpoenas demand information relating to specific crimes. But these subpoenas are unusual in how much information they seek, while giving no inkling of any alleged crimes that may have been committed.

The subpoenas also push against the bounds of legal protections on health information.

What is HIPAA and why did Congress pass the legislation?

In the 1990s, growing use of the internet made it increasingly easier to violate people’s health care privacy. Some notorious breaches of privacy involving celebrities, such as USA Today’s revelation that tennis champion Arthur Ashe had AIDS, drove the point home. Genetic testing was also becoming prevalent in clinical care, raising concerns about the privacy of peoples’ genetic information.

In response, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, in 1996. The legislation required the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a set of privacy regulations specific to health care. These regulations went into force in 2003.

HIPAA prohibits health care providers and people working with them, such as administrative staff, laboratories, pharmacies and health insurers, as well as businesses, from disclosing patients’ health information without their permission. The regulations cover everything in a patient’s medical record as well as any documents or information kept by their health provider relating to their health care.

Most if not all of the information sought by Justice Department subpoenas is the type of information typically covered by HIPAA, meaning that it would generally be illegal for health care providers to disclose it.

Does HIPAA constrain providers’ response to subpoenas?

HIPAA’s privacy rule has a few exceptions, however – and responding to a subpoena is one of them.

The regulations permit but do not require health care providers to disclose protected health information in response to a subpoena. In other words, providers may choose not to comply with a subpoena. Notably, however, they may face consequences for doing so. For example, a court might find a provider in contempt if it does not disclose the requested information. That can leave health care providers in a difficult position, caught between their interests in protecting their patients and obligations demanded by courts or law enforcement.

If health care providers do choose to share HIPAA-protected health information in response to a subpoena, the regulations outline certain requirements that both providers and, in this case, the government, must follow. Providers must get written authorization from patients before disclosing some types of information, such as psychotherapy notes.

The government, meanwhile, must notify patients whose health information it seeks and provide them with enough information about the crimes or other legal violations that it is investigating so that they can decide whether they want to object to the subpoena. It must also give patients enough time to do so.

The government must also wait until after that time period ends before taking any action on providers’ compliance with the subpoenas. And it must certify to providers that it has followed these rules and that the court has resolved any objections patients may have filed.

Finally, HIPAA requires that when health care providers do disclose protected health information, they disclose the “minimum necessary” to accomplish the intended purpose of the subpoena or other legal request. In the context of a subpoena, that means the health care provider must ascertain the purpose, accuracy and legality of the subpoena before disclosing any information.

The subpoena to the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania provides very little information about the government’s allegations, so without more information, the health care providers would be unable to determine the minimum necessary here.

How might shield laws affect privacy protections?

HIPAA acts as a floor for privacy protections. In other words, states cannot pass laws that reduce those privacy protections. But they can introduce laws that offer more protection. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have so-called shield laws that offer protections both for those providing and those receiving gender-affirming care.

Shield laws are state laws that protect individuals from being required to reveal specific types of information. In the context of gender-affirming care, most of these laws are designed to limit the effect another state’s laws might have on care performed in the state with the shield law. For example, if someone travels from a state where gender-affirming care is banned and receives that care in another state where it is legal, a shield law may protect the people who received or provided the care against civil or criminal charges from the state where the care is banned.

Some state shield laws may offer additional privacy protections. For example, Washington law on protected health services does not permit health care providers to respond to any requests for information from out of state that are related to investigations or proceedings relating to services lawfully provided in Washington.

It remains to be seen whether the federal courts will uphold these shield laws, and it is not clear whether they apply at all against a federal subpoena.

How will this play out?

Both the health care providers that have been subpoenaed and the individuals whose health information has been requested may raise objections to the subpoenas.

At this point, the Justice Department has not revealed the underlying claims it intends to pursue. Based on its press release, which mentions “health care fraud,” it seems likely that the government intends to pursue claims under the federal health care fraud statute and the False Claims Act for failing to meet federal requirements or for providing fraudulent billing or claims.

The government may decide to proceed under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, perhaps alleging that physicians somehow used a drug or device for a prohibited purpose. Given that the press release about the subpoenas refers to “mutilated children,” it is even possible that in some instances, the government might allege violations of a federal law against female genital mutilation. That law was passed to prohibit the removal of female genitals for nonmedical, usually cultural, reasons.

Before any of the subpoenaed health care providers or the people whose health information the government requested can determine how to respond to the subpoenas, they will need more information about the underlying claims. Their lawyers may move to dismiss or modify the subpoenas because they are so broad, arguing that they amount to a fishing expedition rather than a targeted investigation – as Boston Children’s Hospital has done.

These issues will undoubtedly continue to be decided in the courts, and their resolution may take some time. More broadly, however, medical privacy laws were passed to help patients feel comfortable seeking medical care – and the government’s intrusion on medical privacy is likely to make that harder.

Margaret Riley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Federal subpoenas for transgender care records raise medical privacy concerns and put providers in a legal bind – a health law expert explains what’s at stake – https://theconversation.com/federal-subpoenas-for-transgender-care-records-raise-medical-privacy-concerns-and-put-providers-in-a-legal-bind-a-health-law-expert-explains-whats-at-stake-264120

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jayde N. Hirniak, Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology, Arizona State University

If you were lucky 74,000 years ago, you would have survived the Toba supereruption, one of the largest catastrophic events that Earth has seen in the past 2.5 million years.

While the volcano is located in what’s now Indonesia, living organisms across the entire globe were potentially affected. As an archaeologist who specializes in studying volcanic eruptions of the past, I often think about how incredible it is that humans survived this extinction-level event that was over 10,000 times larger than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

The Toba supereruption ejected 672 cubic miles (2,800 km³) of volcanic ash into the stratosphere, producing an enormous crater roughly 1,000 football fields in length (62 x 18 miles, or 100 x 30 kilometers). An eruption this size would have produced black skies blocking most of the sunlight, potentially causing years of global cooling. Closer to the volcano, acid rain would have contaminated water supplies, and thick layers of ash would have buried animals and vegetation.

With all those odds stacked against Homo sapiens as a species, how did we survive to piece together the story today?

Survival amid the ashes

Human populations living in close proximity to the Toba volcano were probably completely wiped out. Whether people on other parts of the globe were affected is a question that scientists are still investigating.

The Toba catastrophe hypothesis was one prominent school of thought for many years. It proposes that the Toba supereruption caused a global cooling event that lasted up to six years. Its effects, according to the hypothesis, caused human population sizes to plummet to fewer than 10,000 individual people living on Earth.

This scenario is supported by genetic evidence found in the genomes of people alive today. Our DNA suggests that modern humans spread into separate regions around 100,000 years ago and then shortly after that experienced what scientists call a genetic bottleneck: an event, such as a natural disaster or disease outbreak, that leads to a large decline in population sizes. These calamities drastically reduce the genetic diversity in a group.

Whether this apparent reduction in human population size resulted from the Toba supereruption or some other factor is heavily debated. As scientists collect more data from climate, environmental and archaeological records, we can begin to understand what conditions were most important for human survival.

How to study a supereruption’s impact

To piece together what happened 74,000 years ago, scientists have one direct line of evidence they can use: the rock and ash ejected from the volcanic eruption itself. This material is referred to as tephra. Scientists can trace the layers of tephra across the landscape both visually and chemically.

Microscopic volcanic glass called cryptotephra travels the farthest, making it important for understanding the true extent of an eruption. Because cryptotephra is not visible to the naked eye, it can be really challenging to identify. Researchers like me carefully separate out the tiny glass shards by sifting through the dirt and using a micromanipulator, a tool that can pick up and move microscopic grains. This process can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack and can take months to complete for one site.

Every volcanic eruption has a unique chemistry, which scientists can use to determine which eruption a particular sample of volcanic material originated from. For instance, tephra from one eruption might have more iron in it compared to tephra from another eruption. With this knowledge, we can begin to understand how large past eruptions were and who they directly affected.

When I work in the field, I look for cryptotephra that settled on archaeological sites – places with traces of past human activity such as tools, art or even buried remains. I collect samples from areas of the site that have been excavated and bring them back to the lab to extract the microscopic volcanic glass out of the dirt. Then I chemically analyze the glass to figure out the volcanic fingerprint.

But even if I determine that a certain sample from an archaeological site is from the Toba supereruption, what does that reveal about whether people survived the blast?

Once we identify a tephra or cryptotephra layer, the next step is to look closely at what’s preserved in the archaeological record before and after that eruption. In some cases, people change their behavior after an eruption, such as using a new stone tool technology or eating something different. Sometimes, people even abandon a site, leaving no trace of human activity after a catastrophic event.

Studying volcanic deposits on archaeological sites fills in only one piece of the puzzle, though. Environmental and climate records preserve information on how the local vegetation or global temperatures changed at the time of the eruption. This information helps scientists understand why people made the changes they did.

What does the archaeological evidence reveal?

Given the size and intensity of the Toba supereruption, it almost seems inevitable that humans across the globe would have suffered immensely. However, most archaeological sites tell a story of resilience.

In places such as South Africa, humans not only survived this catastrophic event but thrived. At archaeological site Pinnacle Point 5-6, evidence of cryptotephra from Toba shows that humans occupied the site before, during and after the eruption. In fact, human activity increased and new technological innovations appeared shortly after, demonstrating humans’ adaptability.

This miraculous result was not restricted to South Africa. Similar evidence is also preserved at archaeological site Shinfa-Metema 1 in the lowlands of Ethiopia, where cryptotephra from Toba was present in layers that also preserve human activity.

Here, past humans adapted to changes in the local environment by following seasonal rivers and fishing in small, shallow waterholes present during long dry seasons. Around the time of the Toba supereruption, humans in this region also adopted bow-and-arrow technology. This behavioral flexibility allowed people to survive the intense arid conditions and other potential effects of the Toba supereruption.

Through the years, archaeologists have found similar results at many other sites in Indonesia, India and China. As the evidence accumulates, it appears that people were able to survive and continue to be productive after Toba blew its stack. This suggests that this eruption might not have been the main cause of the population bottleneck originally suggested in the Toba catastrophe hypothesis.

While Toba might not help scientists understand what caused ancient human populations to plummet to 10,000 individuals, it does help us understand how humans have adapted to catastrophic events in the past and what that means for our future.

What could a future disaster mean?

The good news is that we are a lot more prepared now than people were 74,000 years ago, and even then, they were able to adapt and find new solutions in the wake of devastating events. Today, programs such as the USGS Volcanic Hazards Program and the Global Volcanism Program focus on preparation by monitoring active volcanoes through a variety of techniques. In fact, you can check out what volcanoes are currently erupting at any time.

Aside from our increased preparedness, humans are defined by our adaptability to almost any condition, even cataclysmic events. By studying the impact of volcanic eruptions in the archaeological record, we can better understand what conditions were key for human survival in the past and apply these lessons to the future.

Jayde N. Hirniak has received funding from the Hyde Family Foundation, Institute of Human Origins, Geological Society of America, Society for Archaeological Sciences, and the Cave Research Foundation for work related to this topic. This work also involves a collaboration between Arizona State University and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

– ref. A massive eruption 74,000 years ago affected the whole planet – archaeologists use volcanic glass to figure out how people survived – https://theconversation.com/a-massive-eruption-74-000-years-ago-affected-the-whole-planet-archaeologists-use-volcanic-glass-to-figure-out-how-people-survived-254782

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén, Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress, University of Southern California

The death of Giorgio Armani marks the passing of one of Italy’s most influential fashion designers.

As someone who studies the intersection of fashion, media and entertainment, I think one of the designer’s most impressive feats is how he harnessed Hollywood to extend the global reach of his brand.

Born in Piacenza in 1934, Armani abandoned medical school in 1954 to work at Milan’s La Rinascente department store. There, he developed a passion for fabrics and first learned about fashion licensing, a business strategy that allowed brands to sell luxury designs at affordable prices to middle-class customers.

Observing how the licensed lines of fashion designer Pierre Cardin retailed at La Rinascente at lower prices, Armani came to understand that diversifying a brand to appeal to different customer groups could be a profitable strategy for global expansion.

When he went off on his own in 1975 to co-found his own brand with architect Sergio Galeotti, Armani soon found success by executing simple, relaxed tailoring that rejected the stiff formality of traditional suits.

In 1978, he signed an agreement with Gruppo Finanziario Tessile to produce luxury, ready-to-wear clothing under his close supervision. That deal gave rise to the Giorgio Armani Corporation and its multiple lines aimed at international markets.

Introducing affordable luxury to America

Armani’s first ready-to-wear line debuted in the U.S. in 1979.

The designer had appointed Edward Glantz, a former employee at Barney’s New York, as the product development coordinator for Giorgio Armani U.S.

Glantz was tasked with adapting Armani’s products for Americans, who were accustomed to low-maintenance, affordable clothing. He worked to ensure the designs retained their relaxed elegance by using permanent-press fabrics, which require less ironing than natural fibers, while incorporating cheaper materials to reduce costs.

In Milan, Armani’s jackets retailed for US$600, while his suits went for $800. In the U.S., prices for his sports and formal-wear lines ranged from $150 to $450, and could be found at department stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Nan Dusking.

But many Americans encountered Armani’s clothes for the first time while watching the 1980 film “American Gigolo.” The protagonist, Julian Kay, a high-priced escort played by Richard Gere, wears lightweight Armani suits that can be worn with a tie for a formal look or paired with jeans and a polo shirt for a more casual style. Part of the trick for this relaxed look involved using softer textiles that were commonly used for womenswear.

As fashion scholar John Potvin noted, “The film introduced American audiences to a visual style which has been much imitated since. Its wardrobe launched Giorgio Armani in the U.S. and … consolidated Richard Gere’s sex symbol image.”

The designs featured in the film came from the white label Armani Collezioni – Armani’s more affordable line targeted at American consumers – meaning audiences could watch Julian’s wardrobe on screen and purchase the similar pieces in stores.

Over the course of the decade, power dressing – donning outfits that communicate authority, competence and confidence – was in vogue, further fueling the popularity of Armani’s sleek, broad-shouldered suits. In 1982, Armani became just the second designer in history to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

But Hollywood is where he continued to flex his brand’s muscles. Over the years, he outfitted characters in more than 200 films.

Titles such as “The Untouchables” (1987) and, more recently, “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013) featured hard-charging leads who donned Armani suits, reinforcing the brand’s reputation as a symbol of style and power. During this time, Armani managed to earn a reputation as a master tailor, even though his suits were 70% machine-made and partially manufactured in Hong Kong.

Selling ‘prestige and dreams’

Recognizing the importance of celebrity exposure, Armani hired Wanda McDaniel in 1988 as his West Coast liaison to coordinate Hollywood A-listers’ wardrobes for on- and off-screen appearances.

A former journalist turned Hollywood housewife, McDaniel had observed how entrepreneur Fred Hayman had pampered clients at his Rodeo Drive boutique, Giorgio Beverly Hills – no relation to Armani – making him the go-to outfitter for Hollywood elites.

She worked to apply that same VIP treatment for clients at Armani’s newly inaugurated Rodeo Drive flagship store, which opened in August 1988 to cater to Hollywood celebrities and what the Los Angeles Times described as “the generic working rich.”

In the 1990s, McDaniel became the president of the Rodeo Drive Committee, a nonprofit organization for local business and property owners to shape and promote the shopping district. It had been founded by Hayman, who was also serving as the Oscars’ fashion coordinator.

Armani soon became regularly name-dropped during media coverage of the red carpet, with commentators gushing over the Armani dresses – and, sometimes, unisex suits – that actresses donned as they posed for the cameras. Armani later said that the gowns worn at the Oscars were always the first to sell out in his collections.

The designer’s awareness of the entertainment industry’s promotional power only grew over time, with the company’s Entertainment Industry Relations department – which is still active – overseeing celebrity relationships and styling for the company’s various lines. This paved the way for other fashion houses to establish their own in-house VIP teams.

Reflecting on the significance of the red carpet to his career, Armani once said, “It is about prestige and dreams, but those lead to dollars and cents.”

Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén receives funding from Fulbright and The Kluge Center.

– ref. How Giorgio Armani mastered the art of outfitting Hollywood stars to sell clothes to the masses – https://theconversation.com/how-giorgio-armani-mastered-the-art-of-outfitting-hollywood-stars-to-sell-clothes-to-the-masses-264730

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Nick Marx, Professor of Film and Media Studies, Colorado State University

The Season 27 premiere of “South Park” in July 2025 began like so many of the show’s episodes: Resident bigot Eric Cartman is pissed off. He directs his ire at the Trump administration, which had recently pulled federal funding for NPR, because he enjoyed hearing liberals “whine about stuff.” In other words, Cartman is irate that Trump has stolen his hateful, vindictive shtick.

As the episode goes on, other South Park residents join Cartman in rallying against Donald Trump. In the show’s infamously over-the-top style, the president is depicted as thin-skinned, deceitful – and, well, sexually ill-equipped. The episode ends with a surreal, graphic deepfake scene of a totally nude Donald Trump stumbling around a desert.

The White House immediately blasted “South Park” as irrelevant and “desperate for attention.”

The ratings tell a different story. The season premiere scored 6 million viewers across Comedy Central and Paramount+, with even more tuning in two weeks later for the follow-up. Each ensuing episode has further skewered Trump and his administration.

“South Park” has long targeted ineffectual authority figures with ripped-from-the-headlines timeliness, which is made possible by its weekly production schedule. Whereas most animated television shows require months of production lead time, series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone need just a week or two to write, voice and animate an entire episode.

While the ever-churning news cycle has made it more difficult to hold those in power accountable, the cartoon’s timely satire still galvanizes viewer attention. This makes it uniquely suited to channel rage toward Trump and other political leaders – and, perhaps, influence an audience that has recently proved elusive to Democrats.

A history of poking the powerful

The appeal of “South Park” doesn’t necessarily lie in partisan attacks on Republicans.

Its politics have always been all over the map, with both liberals and conservatives railing against the show at various points.

The 2006 episode “ManBearPig” ridiculed former Democratic Vice President Al Gore’s climate activism. In 2014, liberal critics decried an episode titled “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina” for deploying transphobic tropes. And “The Pandemic Special,” which aired in 2020, mocked the restrictive vaccine policies promoted by progressives.

Meanwhile, conservative watchdog groups such as the Parents Television and Media Council have long targeted “South Park” for its allegedly harmful influence on children. The none-too-subtly titled 1999 movie “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” satirized these efforts: Throughout the movie, Kyle’s mom, Sheila, tries to censor the graphic children’s cartoon characters Terrance and Phillip.

That movie also marks one of the earliest appearances of the Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein. It portrays him as a crazed, lecherous supervillain hellbent on taking over the world alongside his gay lover, Satan.

The current “South Park” season has animated Trump with the same cutout, stop-motion style as it did with Hussein, implying direct parallels between their dictatorial desires. Behind the scenes, Trump has reportedly been “seething” over the depiction.

In the 2006 two-part episode “Cartoon Wars,” Parker and Stone warred with Comedy Central over the right to show an animated depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

The network rejected the idea after political violence followed in the wake of a Danish newspaper’s publication of a cartoon featuring Muhammad. Eventually, censored animations of Muhammad aired with disclaimers from Comedy Central, but only after Parker and Stone’s refusal to address the issue before broadcast.

The cartoon continues to relish poking its corporate benefactors. The current season premiered hours after Trump’s Federal Communications Commission approved a merger for the show’s parent company, Paramount. The administration delayed the transaction in order to settle its lawsuit against the Paramount-owned news show “60 Minutes,” which Trump had accused of favorably editing an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris while she was running as the Democratic nominee for president.

That same day also saw the announcement of a new US$1.5 billion deal keeping “South Park” at Paramount. Parker and Stone’s skewering of Trump sends a message to Paramount in the wake of the “60 Minutes” settlement and the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”: Let politics dictate your content at your own risk.

Reaching the right voters

As the Democratic Party’s establishment struggles to appeal to young, internet-savvy, male voters – look no further than party strategists’ attempts to find “a liberal Joe Rogan” – “South Park” is garnering record viewership with young audiences.

The rest of the season, meanwhile, has provided a timely, steady drumbeat of Trump mockery.

The second episode of the current season calls out the Trump administration’s illegal ICE raids. The next episode lampoons Trump’s affinity for lavish gifts and compliments. In it, tech CEOs and world leaders obsequiously note that Trump “does not have a small penis.” The fourth episode depicts him as a negligent and emotionally abusive lover to Satan, further connecting him to the show’s previous portrayals of Saddam Hussein.

Despite its penchant for outrageous and, at times, scattershot satire, “South Park” has an important lesson to teach Trump’s political opponents.

The appeal of both Trump and “South Park” to many young men is not in the positive ideas they offer, but in the way they both humiliate their opponents. I research comedy on the right, and I’ve written about how right-wing humor has long thrived on “owning the libs.” Now, “South Park” is owning Trump, and with each new lurid reveal in the Jeffrey Epstein saga, it will have plenty of fodder as the season progresses.

Simply calling attention to Trump’s hypocrisies and corruption – long the forte of media figures such as Jon Stewart, John Oliver and the hosts of the podcast “Pod Save America” – becomes white noise after a while.

But actually animating the sitting president with a micropenis? Making a mockery of the self-serving business deals of the “dealmaker in chief” and his spineless corporate cronies?

Well, those things won’t win an election on their own. But they inadvertently could help Democrats lure back some of the young men who drifted to Trump in 2024.

Nick Marx does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How ‘South Park’ could help Democrats win back the young voters the party lost to Trump – https://theconversation.com/how-south-park-could-help-democrats-win-back-the-young-voters-the-party-lost-to-trump-263488

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Andrew Yockey, Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of Mississippi

In October 2023, an unthinkable tragedy unfolded in Coleman, Wisconsin: An 8‑month‑old girl lost her life when a driver, impaired by cannabis, ran a stop sign and crashed into another vehicle. In February 2025, the driver pleaded guilty to negligent vehicular homicide and drugged driving with a minor passenger – and now faces up to 10 years behind bars.

These preventable circumstances highlight a stark reality: Drugged driving can be just as deadly as alcohol-impaired driving. Meanwhile, driving under the influence of drugs is becoming increasingly common across the United States.

Yet public awareness and policy responses continue to lag behind.

I study the prevalence and risk factors of drugged driving. Although public health messaging in the U.S. has long emphasized the dangers of alcohol-impaired driving, far less attention has been paid to the risks posed by other substances — even as drug-impaired driving becomes more widespread and complex.

Whether the substance is illegal, like methamphetamine, or legal but still impairing – like cannabis, sedating sleep aids or certain prescription drugs like benzodiazepines and pain killers – the result is the same: impaired judgment, dulled reflexes and devastating outcomes on the road.

A different form of impairment

In 2020, an estimated 12.6 million people ages 16 and up drove after using illicit drugs. Of that total, roughly 11.7 million were under the influence of cannabis. In 2018, some 2.3 million people in the United States reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs other than marijuana during the previous 12 months. Globally, roadside surveys worldwide find that between 3.9% and 20% of drivers tested positive for drugs.

While alcohol typically impairs coordination and reaction time, drugs present a more complex picture. Cannabis, for example, slows reaction time and affects spatial awareness. Opioids can cause drowsiness and dizziness. Stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamine may lead to overconfidence and aggressive driving. When drugs are mixed — or combined with alcohol — the risks increase dramatically.

Cannabis, in particular, presents a unique challenge: It’s the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the United States, and public perception often downplays its risks behind the wheel.

Research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reveals that over 80% of cannabis users admit to driving just hours after using the drug, and nearly 20% believe their driving got much better. Multiple studies have found that drivers with THC, the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis, in their bloodstream are about twice as likely to be involved in a fatal crash – either as the cause or as a victim – compared with those who haven’t used drugs or alcohol. For alcohol, with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%, the odds of dying in a motor vehicle crash are approximately 13 times higher than sober drivers.

Outdated laws and patchy enforcement

Every U.S. state has laws prohibiting drug-impaired driving, but enforcement varies dramatically.

Some states, such as Texas and California, use “impairment-based” laws, which rely on observable signs of impairment. Others, such as Ohio and Wisconsin, use per se laws, setting thresholds for drugs like THC — such as 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

Then there are zero-tolerance laws, in states like Georgia and Rhode Island, which penalize drivers for having any trace of a controlled substance while behind the wheel, regardless of whether they’re impaired at the time.

These inconsistencies create legal gray areas in how the laws are interpreted and enforced. For instance, in Illinois, it is a crime to drive with any trace of a controlled substance in your system, even if you are not impaired — and even if the drug was legally prescribed. In Arizona, medical cannabis patients cannot be convicted solely based on THC presence, but prosecutors can still argue impairment.

Detection is the biggest hurdle

A significant factor in the inconsistency from state to state is that there is no standardized way to measure drug impairment as there is with blood alcohol content.

While alcohol can be tested on the spot using a breathalyzer, detecting drug use is far more complicated. THC and other substances can linger in the body long after their impairing effects have worn off. Meanwhile, newer synthetic drugs such as spice or bath salts may not be detected at all without specialized equipment.

To address this, many states are turning to oral fluid testing — or saliva tests — which can detect recent drug use more quickly. As of late 2023, 27 states had authorized some form of roadside oral fluid screening.

Public misconceptions and potential solutions

Unlike alcohol, where there’s a clear legal limit of 0.08% blood alcohol concentration, there’s no easy-to-understand number for cannabis. Laws around driving after cannabis use vary widely and can be confusing. Scientists are still figuring out how much THC it takes to affect a person’s driving skills and to what degree, so it stands to reason that people don’t know how to judge it for themselves.

Another twist is that the roadside tests that cops use to spot drunk drivers don’t work as well for drug impairment. THC can linger in the body long after the high fades, so a test might not tell the whole story. New testing tools, like saliva swabs and eye-tracking, are being developed, but are not yet ready for application in real-life scenarios.

So what can you do? The big takeaway is that if you feel “different,” you’re probably driving differently, too. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “If You Feel Different, You Drive Different” campaign is a helpful reminder that even if you think you’re fine, your driving might not be.

If you’re riding with friends, don’t be shy about speaking up if someone looks or behaves as if they are impaired. Planning ahead with a designated driver or ride-share can make all the difference.

At the end of the day, it’s about making smart, safer choices – and being honest with ourselves and each other about what it really means to be safe on the road.

Andrew Yockey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Drugged driving – including under the influence of cannabis and prescription drugs – is quietly becoming one of the most dangerous road hazards – https://theconversation.com/drugged-driving-including-under-the-influence-of-cannabis-and-prescription-drugs-is-quietly-becoming-one-of-the-most-dangerous-road-hazards-263410

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Chad Hanna, Professor of Physics, Penn State

Scientists first detected ripples in space known as gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes in September 2015. This discovery marked the culmination of a 100-year quest to prove one of Einstein’s predictions.

Two years after this watershed moment in physics came a second late-summer breakthrough in August 2017: the first detection of gravitational waves accompanied by electromagnetic waves from the merger of two neutron stars.

Gravitational waves are exciting to scientists because they provide a completely new view of the universe. Conventional astronomy relies on electromagnetic waves – like light – but gravitational waves are an independent messenger that can emanate from objects that don’t emit light. Gravitational wave detection has unlocked the universe’s dark side, giving scientists access to phenomena never observed before.

As a gravitational wave physicist with over 20 years of research experience in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, I have seen firsthand how these discoveries have transformed scientists’ knowledge of the universe.

This summer, in 2025, scientists with the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration also marked a new milestone. After a long hiatus to upgrade its equipment, this collaboration just released an updated list of gravitational wave discoveries. The discoveries on this list provide researchers with an unprecedented view of the universe featuring, among other things, the clearest gravitational wave detection yet.

What are gravitational waves?

Albert Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916. According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, known as general relativity, massive, dense celestial objects bend space and time.

When these massive objects, like black holes and neutron stars – the end product of a supernova – orbit around each other, they form a binary system. The motion from this system dynamically stretches and squeezes the space around these objects, sending gravitational waves across the universe. These waves ever so slightly change the distance between other objects in the universe as they pass.

Detecting gravitational waves requires measuring distances very carefully. The LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration operates four gravitational wave observatories: two LIGO observatories in the U.S., the Virgo observatory in Italy and the KAGRA observatory in Japan.

Each detector has L-shaped arms that span over two miles. Each arm contains a cavity full of reflected laser light that precisely measures the distance between two mirrors.

As a gravitational wave passes, it changes the distance between the mirrors by 10^-18 meters — just 0.1% of the diameter of a proton. Astronomers can measure how the mirrors oscillate to track the orbit of black holes.

These tiny changes in distance encode a tremendous amount of information about their source. They can tell us the masses of each black hole or neutron star, their location and whether they are spinning on their own axis.

A neutron star-black hole merger

As mentioned previously, the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration recently reported 128 new binary mergers from data taken between May 24, 2023, and Jan. 16, 2024 – which more than doubles the previous count.

Among these new discoveries is a neutron star–black hole merger. This merger consists of a relatively light black hole with mass between 2.5 and 4.5 times the mass of our Sun paired with a neutron star that is 1.4 times the mass of our Sun.

In this kind of system, scientists theorize that the black hole tears the neutron star apart before swallowing it, which releases electromagnetic waves. Sadly, the collaboration didn’t manage to detect any such electromagnetic waves for this particular system.

Detecting an electromagnetic counterpart to a black hole tearing apart a neutron star is among the holy grails of astronomy and astrophysics. These electromagnetic waves will provide the rich datasets required for understanding both the extreme conditions present in matter, and extreme gravity. Scientists hope for better fortune the next time the detectors spot such a system.

A massive binary and clear gravitational waves

In July 2025, the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration also announced they’d found the most massive binary black hole merger ever detected. The combined mass of this system is more than 200 times the mass of our Sun. And, one of the two black holes in this system likely has a mass that scientists previously assumed could not be produced from the collapse of a single star.

The most recent discovery announced by the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration, in September 2025, is the clearest gravitational wave observation to date. This event is a near clone of the first gravitational wave observation from 10 years ago, but because LIGO’s detectors have improved over the last decade, it stands out above the noise three times as much as the first discovery.

Because the observed gravitational wave signal is so clear, scientists could confirm that the final black hole that formed from the merger emitted gravitational waves exactly as it should according to general relativity.

They also showed that the surface area of the final black hole was greater than the surface area of the initial black holes combined, which implies that the merger increased the entropy, according to foundational work from Stephen Hawking and Jacob Bekenstein. Entropy measures how disordered a system is. All physical interactions are expected to increase the disorder of the universe, according to thermodynamics. This recent discovery showed that black holes obey their own laws similar to thermodynamics.

The beginning of a longer legacy

The LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA collaboration’s fourth observing run is ongoing and will last through November. My colleagues and I anticipate more than 100 additional discoveries within the coming year.

New observations starting in 2028 may bring the tally of binary mergers to as many as 1,000 by around 2030, if the collaboration keeps its funding.

Gravitational wave observation is still in its infancy. A proposed upgrade to LIGO called A# may increase the gravitational wave detection rate by another factor of 10. Proposed new observatories called Cosmic Explorer and the Einstein Telescope that may be built in 10 to 20 years would increase the rate of gravitational wave detection by 1,000, relative to the current rate, by further reducing noise in the detector.

Chad Hanna receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

– ref. The discovery of a gravitational wave 10 years ago shook astrophysics – these ripples in spacetime continue to reveal dark objects in the cosmos – https://theconversation.com/the-discovery-of-a-gravitational-wave-10-years-ago-shook-astrophysics-these-ripples-in-spacetime-continue-to-reveal-dark-objects-in-the-cosmos-264554

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Claire B. Wofford, Associate Professor of Political Science, College of Charleston

President Donald Trump’s penchant to act first, ask later was on full display recently when he became the first president in American history to fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board.

Trump’s axing of federal employees is nothing new – thousands have been terminated, including the heads of agencies that, like the Federal Reserve, are designed to be insulated from presidential control.

But in removing Lisa Cook, Trump has entered into a morass of legal questions and challenged long-standing beliefs about the power of the president to control the U.S. economy.

Trump’s action, if upheld by courts, would upend the Fed’s century-long practice of formulating the nation’s monetary policy free from political pressure. It also could affect the budget of every American household, with the cost of goods and services influenced by political ideology more than financial expertise.

As a scholar of the American courts, I believe that, depending upon how courts resolve the case, it could also mark a significant shift in the ability of the judicial branch to check executive power.

This agency is different

The dispute with Cook reached the public on Aug. 20, 2025, when Trump-appointed director of the Federal Finance Housing Agency Bill Pulte announced on social media that he had made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice about potential mortgage fraud by Cook. The DOJ subsequently opened an official investigation.

After Pulte’s announcement, Trump posted, “Cook must resign, now!!!” She refused and was officially fired by Trump five days later.

Cook then filed suit in federal court on Aug. 28, asking U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb to issue an emergency order blocking her removal. Cobb did just that on Sept. 9, 2025.

Cobb’s order, however, will likely be appealed by Trump. In the meantime, Cook will stay on the job and participate in decisions made by the Fed, which is set to meet again on Sept. 16.

Among the multitude of cases about Trump’s ability to fire employees of federal agencies, this one is different – because the agency is different.

Created by Congress in 1913 after a series of banking panics, the Federal Reserve is charged with managing the nation’s economy. It acts as the national bank, monitors the health of other financial institutions, and, most critically, develops monetary policy, which includes setting interest rates, the primary tool with which it manages inflation and ensures long-term economic growth and stability.

Precisely because of the Fed’s power, presidents have often tried to influence it. Sharp criticism of its members is nothing new. Trump has an ongoing and very public fight with the chair of the Fed board, Jerome Powell, about interest rates.

But a president actually firing a board member is something else entirely.

Supreme Court warning

The Fed is just one of dozens of what are termed “independent agencies.” These are part of the executive branch but designed by Congress to operate insulated from the president’s preferences and pressure. Over time, precisely because it is so powerful, the Fed’s ability to act free from the president has become particularly sacrosanct.

The primary mechanisms through which Congress ensures agency independence are “removal provisions,” statutory directives that define when and why the president can fire agency leadership. The Federal Reserve Act, the law that creates the Fed and sets out its structure and mission, provides that members of the board, called “Governors,” serve 14-year terms, “unless sooner removed for cause by the President.”

“For cause” may sound familiar because its appearance in a different law also recently triggered litigation. That happened when Trump removed the heads of two other independent agencies, Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board. The Supreme Court decided in April that the restriction on the president’s ability to fire those two independent agency heads violated Article 2 of the Constitution.

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Read more:
Supreme Court ignores precedent instead of overruling it in allowing president to fire officials whom Congress tried to make independent

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In that same opinion, however, the court took pains to specify that its ruling did not apply to the Federal Reserve Board. Calling the Fed a “uniquely structured, quasi-private agency” with a “distinct historical tradition,” the majority signaled to Trump that booting members off the Federal Reserve Board was a no-go.

When he fired Cook, Trump flouted this directive. A legal battle was inevitable.

What’s behind the case

The case is complex and involves questions about whether Cook’s termination violates a congressional statute and the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Notably, the parties are not arguing about the constitutionality of the removal provision itself, as they were in the Wilcox case. Instead, the dispute centers primarily around the meaning of “for cause” – that is, what reasons can legally justify firing a board governor. Unlike other statutes, which use additional terms such as “inefficiency, neglect or malfeasance of duty while in office,” the Federal Reserve Act provides no further guidance.

Trump argues that the – alleged – mortgage fraud is sufficient “cause” to remove Cook, particularly from an agency charged with managing the nation’s finances. Cook claims that mere allegations about private conduct before she was appointed to the board cannot justify her termination, particularly when those allegations appear to be a pretext for a political disagreement.

But lurking in the background of this seemingly picayune fight over a single word in a 111-year-old statute are fundamental questions about separation of powers, checks and balances, and which branch of government determines the law.

‘Say what the law is’

Trump’s fuller argument is actually quite bold.

As he is doing in other lawsuits, the president is asserting that he – and he alone – gets to determine the meaning of “cause.” The term, his lawyers write, is “capacious” and its meaning is entirely vested by Congress in the president. No court can second-guess his judgment.

The claim is striking and seems to fly in the face of the country’s system of checks and balances. In addition, if the branch of government charged with carrying out the law – the executive branch – also gets to define it, separation of powers also appears to be left by the wayside.

Cook counters that judicial review of termination decisions is critical.

If courts abandon their responsibility here, she argues, they will obliterate the independence of the Federal Reserve and subject the national economy to the short-term whims of a president rather than the long-term vision of economic experts.

In her order blocking Trump’s removal of Cook, Judge Cobb declared that the court has a “responsibility to review” the president’s firing of Cook, rejecting Trump’s claim that the decision was immune from judicial oversight.

And given the clear and continued acquiescence of Congress to this president’s broad assertions of power, they would also remove what, at least until the next presidential election, may be the last remaining check on executive power.

The case will likely reach the Supreme Court this fall, and the outcome is hard to predict. Trump has benefited from a string of victories there issued by a conservative majority that believes strongly in executive power and judicial deference to the president.

At the same time, it will be difficult to ignore the sentiments about the independence of the Fed that those same conservative justices expressed in the Wilcox case and the potential economic consequences a ruling for Trump might generate.

The court’s ultimate decision may actually depend upon what role it wants to play in the country’s fraying democratic system. The legendary Chief Justice John Marshall famously wrote in 1803 that it is “emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary department to say what the law is,” a sentiment inscribed on the marble wall of the Supreme Court building in D.C.

This case provides the opportunity to see whether the maxim still holds true.

This story has been updated to reflect U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb’s Sept. 9, 2025, decision blocking President Trump from removing Cook from the Federal Reserve Board.

Claire B. Wofford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Trump’s radical argument that he alone can interpret vague laws fails its first court test in dismissal of Fed governor – https://theconversation.com/trumps-radical-argument-that-he-alone-can-interpret-vague-laws-fails-its-first-court-test-in-dismissal-of-fed-governor-264566