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April 2, 2026

Frederick Wiseman, l’intelligence du regard

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Vincent Amiel, professeur d’histoire et esthétique du cinéma, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Frederick Wiseman, disparu le 16 février 2026, à l’âge de 96 ans, était un des plus grands cinéastes documentaires des XXᵉ et XXIᵉ siècles. Il se distingue par la taille et la cohérence de son œuvre, mais aussi par l’intraitable méthode de fabrication de ses films, bien éloignée de l’usage problématique qui peut être fait aujourd’hui des images d’actualité.

Dans l’œuvre de Frederick Wiseman (1930-2026), il faut d’abord retenir une cartographie unique des lieux de pouvoir aux États-Unis (et très accessoirement, le temps de quelques films, en France), officiels ou non, publics ou non : des prisons d’État (Titicut Follies) aux camps d’entraînement militaires (Basic Training), de la police aux services sociaux (Law and Order, Welfare), des écoles de mannequins aux grands magasins (Model, The Store), en passant par les centres de recherche, les universités, etc.

Le schéma est simple : un lieu relativement fermé, suffisamment pour afficher sa logique interne, et une attention particulière pour les moments où s’exposent les règles, les conventions plus ou moins explicites, où se cristallise l’autorité. Il faut voir la professeure de maintien d’une public school à la fin des années 1960 apprendre aux lycéennes à marcher convenablement, comme on leur apprend à prononcer les langues étrangères ; il faut voir l’employée d’un centre d’aide social désorienter définitivement ses interlocuteurs dans les arcanes de l’administration : dans les moindres gestes, dans les compromissions quotidiennes, se transmettent les normes, les interdits, s’établissent les oppressions banales.

Filmer l’organisation sociale

Depuis 1967, et jusqu’à aujourd’hui, à raison d’un film par an, le filet jeté sur la société étatsunienne est dense, et ne laisse pas échapper grand-chose. Car si la plupart des films concernent des institutions, surtout les premières années, Wiseman comprend vite que les lieux de décision de l’organisation sociale sont souvent plus diffus, et n’ont pas besoin, pour être efficaces, d’être des organismes officiels.

Ainsi va-t-il consacrer son attention à des amicales de quartier, des syndics d’immeubles (formidable Plublic Housing, dans une banlieue de Chicago), des clubs de sport, et en France à des lieux de création artistiques (l’Opéra de Paris, la Comédie-Française). Sans que cette question de l’autorité, sociale et culturelle, ne soit jamais son propos explicite, et sans que ce thème ne cache jamais l’humanité singulière de chacune des situations filmées, il laisse affleurer au fur et à mesure des séquences (ses films sont souvent longs) les jeux d’influence, les modèles à l’œuvre, les interdits tacites, et, souvent, la violence scandaleuse, révoltante, et pourtant calmement exposée par ses auteurs, de ceux dont le pouvoir est sans bornes, qu’il s’agisse des policiers de Kansas City ou des scientifiques apparemment plus cools d’un centre de recherches en Géorgie.

Raymond Depardon se souviendra de la leçon lorsqu’il filmera, au milieu des années 1980, trois lieux de pouvoir de la société française, à quelques centaines de mètres les uns des autres, autour de l’île de la Cité à Paris : commissariat de police (Faits divers), hôpital psychiatrique (Urgences) et Palais de justice (Délits flagrants).

Loin du spectaculaire

Mais tout cela ne serait encore pas grand-chose si Wiseman n’avait pas inventé, au fur et à mesure de ses productions, une façon de faire qui, aujourd’hui plus que jamais, donne à ses films une vérité incomparable. À cent lieues des documentaires développés sur les plateformes contemporaines à grands coups de commentaires ampoulés, de musique ronflante et surtout de reconstitutions à but narratif ou spectaculaire, ses films se contentent de l’observation, la plus neutre possible, des travaux et des jours dans le lieu choisi. Dans ses grands principes, sa méthode est celle du cinéma direct (petite équipe de tournage discrète, enregistrement sans intervention et a fortiori sans répétition ou reconstitution, prise de son directe), mais avec trois caractéristiques qui lui sont propres :

L’absence de documentation préalable : à rebours de tout ce que l’on peut enseigner dans les écoles de journalisme, il se renseigne le moins possible sur son sujet, pour être plus réceptif aux observations spontanées, et moins influencé par les a priori qui peuvent circuler à son endroit. La perspicacité de son regard, les angles nouveaux qui sont les siens prouvent l’efficacité du procédé.
La mise en scène par l’écoute : le cinéaste dirige son équipe en prenant lui-même le son, casque sur les oreilles, laissant à d’autres le soin de tenir la caméra, et orientant le regard de celle-ci, et donc du spectateur en fonction de ce qui s’entend plutôt que de ce qui se voit, ou de ce qui s’expose… Là encore, il s’agit de capter ce qui souvent a pu échapper aux autres.
Le montage, qui dure des mois et concerne à chaque fois des dizaines voire des centaines d’heures de rushes (même lorsqu’il s’agissait de pellicule, beaucoup plus chère à utiliser que la vidéo ou le numérique), est le moment où se dessinent des liens, des échos, où se répondent des témoignages, où s’expliquent certaines positions ou actions.

On comprend que ces trois spécificités vont dans le même sens : donner au moment de l’enregistrement lui-même toute sa force, détaché des clichés, des lectures préétablies. C’est la réalité brute, la vérité des attitudes et la spontanéité captée qui décrivent les liens et les forces en présence. Mais cette immédiateté, loin de faire la part belle à l’émotion superficielle, si prisée par ailleurs par les médias, est relue par l’intelligence du montage, sa compréhension synthétique.

Des films aussi libres que lisibles

C’est le point critique de ce type de documentaires : il permet aux films de Wiseman de dépasser la simple observation, puisqu’il introduit grâce au montage des lignes de sens, des liens de corrélation, entre des faits éparpillés dans le temps ou les lieux. Il met en regard, il permet d’opposer ou de comparer ; en un mot il donne à lire la réalité, en fournissant des axes, et des points d’accroche. Telle question soulevée par un des habitants reviendra sous d’autres formes à plusieurs reprises, tel personnage apparaissant dans une réunion aura un autre rôle dans un autre contexte, etc.

Au moment du montage, le réalisateur met au jour des potentialités, établit des correspondances :

« Je dois avoir une idée, par exemple, de la manière dont les dix premières minutes du film correspondront avec les dix dernières. »

C’est donc une architecture très élaborée, très consciente, que forme ce montage, dans une toute autre perspective que celle d’un choc entre images (qui serait l’héritage du montage soviétique) ou d’une distraction constante imposée par la musique ou les commentaires (à la suite d’un Michael Moore par exemple). C’est le principe adopté en France par Nicolas Philibert (qui a souvent dit sa dette envers Frederick Wiseman) dans le célèbre Être et Avoir, ou dans ses plus récents films sur diverses institutions psychiatriques

La longueur des films, celle des séquences captées sur le vif, sont garantes de la liberté du spectateur, tandis que la lisibilité est pourtant permise par leur construction. C’est le paradoxe exemplaire de cette œuvre. Rien n’est plus trompeur en effet que l’insignifiance d’un reportage sans forme qui ne laisse aucun moyen de comprendre le réel, si ce n’est selon l’idéologie du moment.

Permettre de voir vraiment, c’est permettre de se laisser ballotter par le désordre et la diversité, avant de saisir des lignes de force, de repérer le relief de la réalité, ses failles, ses dynamiques. C’est bien ce que font les films de Wiseman, fournissant au spectateur une matière proliférante (tant de vies, tant de destinées dans Public Housing, tant de facettes du monde qui se construit dans At Berkeley), et lui offrant en plus le cadeau d’une intelligence possible.

Vincent Amiel ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Frederick Wiseman, l’intelligence du regard – https://theconversation.com/frederick-wiseman-lintelligence-du-regard-278458

April 2, 2026

Faut-il dé-moraliser la dette publique ?

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Maxime Menuet, Professeur de sciences économiques, Université Côte d’Azur

Longtemps, la dette a servi à financer la guerre et les crises. Depuis les années 1970, l’endettement des États ne répond plus seulement au financement de ces événements exceptionnels. La dette structure désormais nos économies, nos politiques… et même nos imaginaires. Faut-il libérer la dette de l’idée de péché ? Le peut-on seulement ?

Contrairement à une idée reçue, l’endettement public est un phénomène relativement récent. Il est en effet essentiel de distinguer la dette d’un individu privé, fût-il prince, roi ou empereur, de celle contractée par une société dans son ensemble. Sous l’Ancien Régime, le trésor royal et le trésor du royaume étaient souvent confondus. La dette relevait alors d’un engagement personnel. Cette confusion comptable était même revendiquée par les mercantilistes, qui évaluaient la richesse de la nation à l’aune du trésor personnel du roi.

La véritable naissance de la dette publique coïncide avec celle de l’État-nation moderne, un moment où les individus, en tant que sujets ou citoyens, reconnaissent une entité transcendante – l’État – capable d’émettre des titres de dette en leur nom. Dès l’origine, cet instrument est donc étroitement lié à la confiance dans le pouvoir politique.

S’endetter pour la guerre

Pendant longtemps, la dynamique de la dette publique a obéi à un schéma relativement simple : un cycle de guerre et de paix. Les États s’endettaient pour financer des dépenses extraordinaires, en particulier les conflits, puis se désendettaient en période de paix, portés par la croissance économique ou l’inflation. Les exemples sont bien connus : la dette britannique dépasse 150 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB) après les guerres napoléoniennes, tandis que celle de la France excède 200 % à l’issue des deux guerres mondiales.

Depuis les années 1970, une transformation majeure s’opère. Les pays développés s’endettent désormais de manière durable… en temps de paix. Les déficits deviennent structurels, atteignant en moyenne près de 3 % du PIB dans les pays de l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE).

Cette rupture soulève une question centrale : pourquoi les États continuent-ils de s’endetter en l’absence de chocs exceptionnels, et quelles en sont les conséquences ?

La dette publique, un levier stratégique

Mes travaux s’attachent précisément à éclairer les origines de cet endettement ainsi que ses effets. Du côté des causes, j’ai montré que l’accumulation de dette publique peut résulter d’inefficacités économiques liées à des conflits sociaux ou à des stratégies politiques. La dette n’est pas seulement un instrument financier : elle peut devenir un levier stratégique pour les gouvernants.

Par exemple, la réputation de compétence d’un responsable politique – notamment sa capacité à « gérer » la dette – n’a de valeur que si le problème persiste. En résolvant totalement la question de la dette aujourd’hui, il priverait en partie son action future de justification. Il existe ainsi une incitation à laisser s’accumuler la dette, plutôt que de la liquider définitivement.

Un outil de régulation sociale

Dans un autre registre, la dette peut également jouer un rôle dans la gestion des tensions sociales internes. Un dirigeant peut avoir intérêt à déplacer le conflit vers l’extérieur – par exemple, vis-à-vis de créanciers internationaux – afin de réduire les divisions internes, notamment en période préélectorale. Ce mécanisme de « diversion » a été observé, par exemple, lors de la crise grecque, lorsque le gouvernement d’Alexis Tsipras a fortement politisé le conflit avec la fameuse « Troïka », contribuant à fédérer le soutien domestique face à une contrainte extérieure.

Au-delà de ses causes, la dette publique transforme en profondeur le fonctionnement des économies. Une idée largement admise, notamment depuis les travaux de Henning Bohn à la fin des années 1990, est que la soutenabilité repose sur la réaction des gouvernements : si ces derniers augmentent les impôts ou réduisent les dépenses lorsque la dette s’accroît, alors sa trajectoire reste maîtrisée.

Des gouvernements moins sensibles à la dette qu’aux intérêts

Mes recherches invitent à nuancer ce diagnostic. En pratique, les gouvernements réagissent moins au stock de dettes qu’à son coût, c’est-à-dire à la charge d’intérêts. Cette distinction est décisive, en particulier dans le contexte actuel où la remontée des taux d’intérêt apparaît difficilement évitable, compte tenu des besoins d’investissements massifs à venir – qu’il s’agisse de la transition énergétique ou du réarmement. Un tel environnement est susceptible de conduire à des politiques budgétaires plus restrictives.

Mais une réaction trop forte peut, paradoxalement, produire l’effet inverse de celui recherché. Elle peut enfermer l’économie dans une dynamique instable, caractérisée par de fortes fluctuations du ratio de dette et une incertitude accrue sur la trajectoire future. C’est ce que j’ai appelé le « péril des règles budgétaires » : vouloir discipliner excessivement la dette peut, en réalité, fragiliser l’économie.

Un exemple extrême en est donné par la Roumanie, alors membre du bloc de l’Est et dotée d’une économie communiste, de Nicolae Ceaușescu. Dans les années 1980, le régime impose une austérité drastique afin de rembourser intégralement la dette extérieure. Si l’objectif est atteint en 1989, le coût économique et social est considérable. Cet épisode illustre qu’une réaction excessive à la dette peut produire des effets profondément déstabilisateurs sur le long terme.

Un imaginaire moral et religieux

Toutefois, réduire la dette publique à un simple mécanisme contractuel ou à une variable macroéconomique revient à en manquer une dimension essentielle : sa portée morale. Mes travaux récents suggèrent que, depuis les années 1970 au moins, les économies développées sont entrées dans un régime nouveau, où la dette publique dépasse largement sa fonction initiale de financement des déficits.

Elle devient un instrument central de régulation du capitalisme, structurant à la fois les politiques publiques et les anticipations collectives. En ce sens, elle doit être comprise comme un « fait social total », pour reprendre l’expression de Marcel Mauss.

Arte, 2024.

Mais cette centralité ne tient pas uniquement à ses effets économiques ou institutionnels. Elle repose aussi sur les représentations qui lui sont associées.

L’endettement mobilise en effet un imaginaire moral et religieux profondément ancré. Être endetté, c’est être en faute. Dans les traditions abrahamiques, le péché est pensé comme une dette à rembourser – au point que les deux notions se confondent, comme l’énonçait saint Ambroise (339-397) : « Qu’est-ce que la dette, sinon le péché ? » L’obligation de remboursement ne se réduit pas alors à la simple restitution : elle implique une réparation, parfois une expiation, qui excède en valeur la somme initialement due.

Cette articulation entre dette, faute et libération est particulièrement visible dans la tradition biblique. L’une de ses expressions les plus saisissantes est celle du jubilé : tous les cinquante ans, il était prescrit de libérer les esclaves, d’annuler les dettes, de redistribuer les propriétés et de laisser la terre en repos. Cet héritage continue d’inspirer certaines prises de position contemporaines : depuis Jean-Paul II, plusieurs papes – comme ce fut encore le cas en 2024 – ont ainsi appelé à l’annulation des dettes publiques, notamment celles des pays les plus pauvres, à l’occasion des années jubilaires.

Une société coupable ?

Cet imaginaire n’a pas totalement disparu. Il continue de structurer, souvent implicitement, les discours contemporains sur la dette publique. Celle-ci est fréquemment présentée comme une faute collective, justifiant des politiques de rigueur ou l’impossibilité d’agir. La société endettée devient ainsi une société coupable, sommée de se discipliner. Dans cette perspective, la dette n’est pas seulement un outil économique : elle organise le fonctionnement du capitalisme lui-même. En imposant des obligations dans le temps, elle façonne les comportements – discipline budgétaire, arbitrages politiques –, tout en stabilisant le système et en en limitant les marges de transformation.

Sortir de cette logique suppose de déplacer le regard. Il ne s’agit pas de nier les enjeux économiques de la dette, mais de rompre avec l’idée qu’elle serait d’abord une faute. D’autres imaginaires existent. Avec Felwine Sarr notamment, certaines traditions africaines invitent à penser la dette publique autrement : non comme une culpabilité mais comme un lien, une relation, voire un levier de transformation collective. C’est dans cette direction que s’inscrivent mes travaux actuels.

Cet article est publié en association avec le Cercle des économistes dans le cadre du Prix du meilleur jeune économiste, pour lequel l’auteur était finaliste.

Maxime Menuet a reçu des financements de l’Agence nationale de la recherche au titre du projet SustainDebt (ANR-24-CE26-3350)

– ref. Faut-il dé-moraliser la dette publique ? – https://theconversation.com/faut-il-de-moraliser-la-dette-publique-279614

April 2, 2026

Consommation énergétique des data centers : la France à la croisée des chemins

Source: The Conversation – in French – By Bruno Lafitte, Expert data center, Ademe (Agence de la transition écologique)

La France a la volonté d’être une terre d’accueil pour les data centers dans les prochaines décennies. L’Agence de la transition écologique, l’Ademe, a réalisé un travail de prospective à l’horizon 2060 pour évaluer plusieurs scénarios de montée en puissance sur le territoire national de ces infrastructures très gourmandes en énergie et les choix de société qu’ils impliquent. Entretien avec Bruno Lafitte, expert data centers à l’Ademe, qui a coordonné cette étude.

The Conversation : Commençons par l’état des lieux : que sait-on aujourd’hui de la présence des data centers en France, des usages qui en sont faits et de leur consommation électrique totale ?

Bruno Lafitte : Aujourd’hui, l’Ademe recense 352 data centers en activité sur le territoire national. Leur consommation électrique totale représente 10 térawattheurs (TWh) par an, ce qui correspond à l’électricité consommée par environ 10 agglomérations de plus de 100 000 habitants pendant un an.

Cela équivaut à 2,2 % de la consommation annuelle électrique totale du pays. En effet, l’usage du numérique a une matérialité que l’on ne soupçonne pas toujours : des infrastructures énergivores en électricité, en eau pour le refroidissement, sans compter la chaîne de production des serveurs en amont qui charrie également son lot d’impacts environnementaux.

Pourquoi la France souhaite-t-elle être une terre d’accueil pour ces infrastructures ?

B. L. : Il y a aujourd’hui une vraie volonté politique de la France de se placer en leader européen en matière d’accueil de data centers. Cela se traduit déjà par des investissements massifs dans le pays, qui sont facilités par une souplesse administrative. Ce choix repose sur deux grands constats.

L’un tient à l’enjeu crucial de souveraineté numérique : la moitié des usages numériques des Français est actuellement traitée par des data centers situés à l’étranger, et tous les scénarios montrent que cette dépendance augmentera à mesure que les usages s’intensifieront. Au regard des enjeux géopolitiques actuels, relocaliser nos données apparaît crucial.

L’autre est lié à l’avantage majeur dont dispose la France en la matière. Du fait de son mix électrique décarboné et de son électricité largement disponible, mais également de ses normes environnementales, les data centers seront en France mieux encadrés. De ce fait, ils auront des impacts climatiques moindres qu’ailleurs, et en particulier qu’aux États-Unis, où se concentrent aujourd’hui la majorité des data centers dont nous dépendons. (À titre d’exemple, l’intensité carbone de l’électricité française s’élevait, en 2024, à environ 30 gCO₂/kWh, tandis qu’aux États-Unis, celle-ci était en moyenne de 391 gCO₂/kWh en 2019, ndlr.)

Car, en 2050, près de 80 % des usages numériques français feront appel à des data centers basés à l’étranger. Ces usages délocalisés totaliseront 97 % des émissions de gaz à effet de serre du numérique en France.

Que sait-on des perspectives de développement des data centers à horizon 2050 et de leur consommation énergétique ?

B. L. : Avec l’accélération de l’intelligence artificielle générative et, à moyen terme, de la blockchain, les besoins en data centers sont appelés à exploser. Leur typologie va évoluer vers de très grands centres dits « hyperscale », abritant des supercalculateurs très énergivores.

Pour donner un ordre d’idée, les très gros data centers aujourd’hui présents en France représentent 10 mégawatts (MW) de puissance électrique installée. Demain, ils avoisineront plutôt le gigawatt (GW) pour les plus importants – soit 100 fois plus.

Pour évaluer les perspectives en France, nous avons conçu un modèle prospectif, fondé sur le modèle international le plus fiable à ce jour, que nous avons actualisé, le modèle Masanet, qui tient compte du volume des serveurs et de l’évolution à venir de leur efficacité énergétique selon leur modèle type. Ce modèle ouvert sera mis à disposition du grand public.

Dans le scénario tendanciel, qui poursuivrait la trajectoire actuelle, la consommation d’électricité induite par les usages numériques français pourrait progresser d’un facteur de 3,7 d’ici à 2035 pour les data centers installés en France – et même de 4,4, en tenant compte de la consommation des data centers situés à l’étranger.

Dans cette configuration, les usages numériques français entraîneront, à l’horizon 2050, une consommation de 55 TWh par les data centers français – soit l’émission de 1,8 million de tonnes équivalent CO₂ –, et presque 200 TWh par des data centers situés à l’étranger – ce qui correspond à l’émission de plus de 48 millions de tonnes équivalent CO₂. (À titre de comparaison, la consommation d’électricité totale en France atteignait près de 450 TWh en 2024, ndlr.)

Quels défis et risques cela représente-t-il pour nos infrastructures électriques ?

B. L. : Cette évolution pose de nombreux défis territoriaux, environnementaux et socioéconomiques. Aujourd’hui, la France a accès à de l’électricité décarbonée en grande quantité (94 % de sa production, en 2024, ndlr). De ce fait, elle est relativement épargnée par les tensions engendrées par l’implantation de data centers au regard de certains de ses voisins européens.

Toutefois, elle s’est fixée, dans tous les domaines, des ambitions d’électrification (notamment pour la décarbonation de l’économie, ndlr) qui feront augmenter significativement les besoins et la pression sur le réseau électrique. S’y ajoute désormais le développement de data centers, pour répondre à la fois à l’explosion des usages et à la volonté de relocalisation exprimée par la France.

Nous avons pris en compte, dans notre étude, les progrès à venir en matière d’efficacité énergétique, mais ils ne suffiront pas à compenser l’augmentation du volume de données hébergées.

L’éventualité d’une révolution technologique, par exemple liée à l’informatique quantique, n’est certes pas à exclure, mais elle ne garantit pas des économies d’énergie. On sait, par ailleurs, que les innovations technologiques ont toujours amené l’éclosion de nouveaux services conduisant à l’augmentation des usages plutôt qu’à une baisse des consommations.

Quelles options s’offrent à la France pour répondre à sa volonté de souveraineté numérique en accueillant des data centers, tout en se tenant à son objectif de neutralité carbone à l’horizon 2050 ?

B. L. : Dans ce contexte, il s’agit pour la France de faire des choix de société. L’une des options est celle de la sobriété, avec une priorisation des usages numériques et une prise de distance, plus ou moins forte, avec le tout-numérique. Dans le scénario le plus frugal que nous avons envisagé, la puissance installée pour les data centers sur le territoire peut être limitée à seulement 5,7 TWh en 2050, soit 190 000 tonnes équivalent CO₂.

L’autre chemin consiste à miser sur l’innovation pour réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre des autres secteurs d’activité et à optimiser la consommation d’énergie du numérique. Notre modèle estime que la puissance installée pour les data centers en France avoisinerait alors les 64 TWh, soit 11 fois plus qu’en optant pour la sobriété. Cela correspondrait à l’émission de 2,15 millions de tonnes équivalent CO₂.

La question centrale ici, qui relève d’un choix citoyen, est celle du rôle que l’on souhaite donner demain au numérique dans notre société sans renoncer à notre objectif de neutralité carbone.

Propos recueillis par Nolwenn Jaumouillé.

Bruno Lafitte ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Consommation énergétique des data centers : la France à la croisée des chemins – https://theconversation.com/consommation-energetique-des-data-centers-la-france-a-la-croisee-des-chemins-276815

April 2, 2026

From Artemis II to ‘Project Hail Mary’, spaceflight captures audiences when it centers on people because human space travel is hazardous

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Scott Solomon, Teaching Professor of BioSciences, Rice University

The Artemis II crew poses during a ground systems test ahead of launch. NASA/Frank Michaux

The central premise of the blockbuster film “Project Hail Mary” is a long-shot mission with a familiar goal: Save humanity from extinction. While the details of the threat facing humanity are new to this story, moviegoers are used to bingeing on popcorn while watching a heroic quest to save the Earth from certain doom. And like so many popular movies of this genre, from “Armageddon” to “Interstellar,” the hero’s journey involves a seemingly impossible mission into space.

The film’s release is well timed for the new era of space exploration. NASA’s Artemis II mission, which launched on April 1, 2026, is sending four astronauts around the Moon on a path that will take them deeper into space than any humans have ever traveled.

A rocket on a launchpad with a rising sun in the background — NASA’s Space Launch System rocket stands ready at the launchpad ahead of the Artemis II launch.
Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images

The flyby mission is primarily about testing equipment for a lunar landing in 2028. But the broader plan was outlined in detail in March 2026 by NASA officials: to establish a permanent base on the Moon.

NASA is not alone in its lunar ambitions. Private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing next-generation spacecraft, rovers and drones to facilitate the American Moon base. And other nations, notably China, are working toward their own lunar outposts.

These nations and corporations see the Moon as a stepping stone toward more ambitious goals: a major human migration into deep space, including Mars.

Given the moment, it’s worth reflecting on what those investing billions in human space exploration, whether tax dollars or private funds, are trying to accomplish. As a biologist, I recognize the limitations of humans as space explorers. As I explain in my book, “Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds,” while biologists have learned a lot about how the conditions of space affect the human body and mind, sending people on longer missions deeper into space will expose people to unknown health risks.

Boldly going

Plans to send people to the Moon and beyond are accelerating. NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, has argued that beating China to the Moon is a matter of national security, calling the Moon “the ultimate high ground.” He has also promoted the economic benefits of establishing a space economy that includes mining and manufacturing on the Moon.

A diagram showing the three phases on NASA's lunar base plan, with phase 1 securing access, phase 2 establishing a base and phase 3 a semi-permanent crew presence — NASA’s Artemis program seeks to establish a long-term human presence on the lunar surface.
NASA TV

Subcommittees in both the House and Senate have passed bills to codify these initiatives into law – making the goal of creating a permanent base on the Moon official U.S. policy. They appear to have bipartisan support, and votes in both houses of Congress are expected soon.

The United States and China are targeting landing humans on Mars in the 2030s, with the intention of building infrastructure that enables long-term habitation.

In March 2026, NASA also announced that the agency intends to test nuclear propulsion during an uncrewed flight to Mars in 2028. Nuclear-powered rockets have the potential to substantially reduce the time it takes to reach Mars, which would make crewed flight to the red planet more feasible.

Humans or robots?

But why do people need to go to Mars? As with the Moon, the purported motivations for both the U.S. and China establishing a human presence on Mars are scientific, economic and geopolitical. Yet these are distinct objectives that are often conflated.

In terms of science, NASA has had dramatic success with its Mars rovers, including the discovery last year of a potential biosignature that could be the best evidence yet that the planet was once home to microbial life.

Robotic missions also have a lower price tag and a higher acceptable risk margin than human missions. While Isaacman remains publicly committed to the Artemis program and its human spaceflight goals, the agency’s plan also includes a suite of robotic missions to the Moon’s surface it hopes to develop in partnership with companies, universities and international partners.

Likewise, some economic objectives, such as establishing mining and manufacturing facilities, could be accomplished using AI-equipped robots, such as those Tesla is developing. Robots are a long way from being able to accomplish the full range of tasks that a human can do, but prioritizing robotic activities could lower the exposure that people have to the hazards of space.

If having people on the Moon and Mars is indeed necessary to achieve these objectives, let’s be clear about the risks that the people undertaking these missions will be assuming.

Space and the human body

While scientists have learned a lot about how space affects the body during the six decades of human spaceflight, there are still significant blind spots. Among them are the effects of deep-space radiation.

Astronauts need to exercise every day on the International Space Station to keep their muscles and bones strong, yet their bodies are still affected in various ways by the conditions of space.

The 24 Apollo astronauts who traveled to the Moon are the only people who have ever been past the Van Allen radiation belts, an area of space surrounding our planet formed by Earth’s magnetic field.

By trapping radiation from the Sun and from deep space, our planet’s magnetic field is part of what makes Earth habitable for us and other life forms. The Moon and Mars lack magnetic fields, so radiation levels on their surfaces are substantial. NASA researchers are now conducting experiments on rodents using simulated galactic cosmic rays, which are largely blocked by Earth’s magnetic fields. Preliminary results suggest that this type of radiation may impair cognitive abilities, but the actual effects on people are unknown.

Similarly, while medical researchers know that floating in a zero-g environment causes muscle atrophy and bone density loss during long stays on the International Space Station, they know relatively little about how partial gravity affects muscles and bones. The Moon has one-sixth the gravity of Earth, and Mars has a little over one-third.

Pilots on Earth can simulate partial gravity for up to 30 seconds at a time during parabolic flights, but only the 12 Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon have ever experienced it for longer than that. The longest they stayed was about three days. Scientists can only speculate about whether prolonged exposure to the partial gravity of the Moon or Mars would have consequential health effects.

Human interest

Sending robots to space avoids having to deal with risks to human health. But there are downsides. Not only do robotic space missions have fewer capabilities than crewed missions, they often fail to capture interest and imagination and demonstrate national prestige in the same way that human missions can.

The four members of the Artemis crew will captivate people worldwide watching their daring mission around the Moon, much like moviegoers root for Ryan Gosling’s character in “Project Hail Mary” as he boldly seeks to save humanity from certain doom on the big screen.

That human interest is the common link that ties together public and private space ambitions worldwide. While robotic missions are more practical and cost effective, they simply don’t inspire the masses the way a human crew can. Beyond achieving any economic, political or scientific goals, space exploration is ultimately about people doing difficult things.

This article was updated with news of the launch of Artemis II.

I am the author of the book Becoming Martian published by MIT Press

– ref. From Artemis II to ‘Project Hail Mary’, spaceflight captures audiences when it centers on people because human space travel is hazardous – https://theconversation.com/from-artemis-ii-to-project-hail-mary-spaceflight-captures-audiences-when-it-centers-on-people-because-human-space-travel-is-hazardous-279147

April 2, 2026

Pentecostal churches are a place of everyday care, not just bizarre spectacle: southern African study

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Admire Thonje, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Johannesburg

A growing brand of new Pentecostal churches in southern Africa is known to emphasise the prosperity gospel, deliverance, miracles and healing.

Miracles, including people apparently rising from the dead, are just one of the contentious issues swirling around these churches. Pastors have been the subject of sensational media headlines for spraying congregants with insecticide or making them eat grass, selfies taken in heaven, or claims of fraud and rape.

In response to these kinds of abuses, the South African government even established an independent cultural commission which created a special committee “to deal with issues in the religious sector”.

The concerns of government regulators are easy to understand, given Pentecostalism’s status as a rapidly growing arm of Christianity all around the world, including South Africa and other parts of the African continent.

But such spectacular events are less important in my research than finding out how most of these churches really work in everyday life. The complex reality of lived experience is far harder to regulate than the spectacular event.

Since 2019, my ongoing research has focused on a Zimbabwe-founded church whose growth followed migrants to South Africa, starting off in inner-city Johannesburg.

One of my key interests is to understand how church members navigate everyday Pentecostalism. To explore this, I use the social science idea of affect and emotion, which can be found in both regular church performance and during moments of spectacle.

I define affect as the raw physical buzz or charge felt during powerful church moments – before you even know what to call it. Emotion is when that feeling gets a name, like joy or sorrow, shaped by what culture and community have taught one to feel in those moments.

It is clear from my fieldwork that miracles and bizarre acts are not in the regular repertoires of the churches I studied. Instead, religious lives form around care, around forging friendships, relations, emotional support systems and events which bring members together, even as daily tensions arise within the church. Much religious activity happens in ordinary, everyday conduct that consists of simple activities, performances, rites and rituals.

These kind of environments are what scholars have called “affective economies”, where emotions like hope and security help a community to manage a precarious world.

This gives us a deeper understanding of the reasons behind the rise of new Pentecostalism, often missed when media or governments focus on the spectacle alone.

Everyday Pentecostalism

On almost any given Sunday in the churches I study, one sees grimaces on people’s faces; swaying of bodies during song; mumbling of words along with great physical gestures with hands and arms; tears flowing down faces. This is not because the members are sorrowful or in pain. Rather, it is the normal course of performing religion within Pentecostal settings.

After church on Sundays, prayer meetings on Tuesdays, in home groups on Wednesdays, prayer meetings on Fridays and at social events or preaching on the streets on Saturdays, members catch up on one another’s lives.

Prayer and teaching are part of the social mix. I have attended church soccer matches that start in prayer, are followed by a braai (barbecue) and end with biblical teachings.

Everyday churching is characterised by joy, compassion, sincerity, collegiality and care. This is particularly evident in the church groups that many join. As one member told me:

I’m in the music team so I go to practice every Saturday. That is when I socialise with church people. There are church people who become like friends as well as like very close friends … we visit each other, hang out, share life experiences, and so forth.

It is these feelings of connection that enable members to persist with their faiths. Such connections amount to what is called “affective solidarity” – a bond, or alliance that’s built on shared emotions. Congregants experience it differently, but it is how care is established in the church and even spread outside the church.

It also affects love. It’s not uncommon for church members, who spend so much time together, to fall in love and get married. In my study I explore how, within affective solidarity, love and marriage is negotiated in the church. It is one of the areas of church life that can also create discord.

Tensions

Relations in the church can, of course, be exploited by church leaders, who have more spiritual authority than ordinary members. Spiritual authority allows religious leaders to lay claim over abilities that unlock a better life – like access to economic and social capital. These are signs of upward mobility and, perhaps more importantly, divine blessing.

To tap into these networks, members will need to show respect, loyalty and submission to a pastor’s authority. Loyal members seek guidance from pastors on life decisions like whether to relocate for work or whether a potential partner is suitable to marry.

But relations among ordinary members are less scripted. Disagreements are common. Some are affronted when leaders advise against their choice for marriage. Others are uneasy about finding love in a church where undesired suitors are the only ones available, yet pastors strongly encourage courtship and marriage within the church.

When bad conduct happens, like actual or rumoured financial wrongdoing by church leaders, some members leave while others will disagree and stay in the church and continue paying money to it. Tensions arise and wane in the ordinary course of churching.

It is in the ordinary where simple ideas and rationalisations like loyalty and submission become normalised. Unfortunately, it is also where opportunities for abuse exist, as many church leaders are aware.

These, I found, are the issues that characterise the Pentecostal churches I have studied. The big spectacle and the dubious miracle are few and far between.

Regulation

Real accountability for new Pentecostalism’s abuses requires understanding how these churches actually work. It also involves churches taking heed of the everyday dynamics which open opportunities for exploitation.

Until regulators and churches engage in dialogue, regulations will miss their mark, and churches will resist oversight that seems disconnected from their reality.

Admire Thonje received graduate research funding from the VW Foundation’s Humanities for Africa program. He is currently a GES funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of Johannesburg.

– ref. Pentecostal churches are a place of everyday care, not just bizarre spectacle: southern African study – https://theconversation.com/pentecostal-churches-are-a-place-of-everyday-care-not-just-bizarre-spectacle-southern-african-study-278564

April 2, 2026

The school you go to affects whether you become Neet – new research

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Robin Evans, Postgraduate Researcher, Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, University of Leeds

Almost 1 million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training. These so-called Neets – aged 16 to 24 – face a significantly higher risk of long-term unemployment, poor health and involvement in crime.

The proportion of 16- to 17-year-olds who are Neet is now higher than when the participation age was raised in 2014, requiring young people in England to stay in education or training until 18. The government has launched an inquiry into why so many are falling out of work and study.

Most research into this problem has focused on the characteristics of individual young people: low exam results, high absenteeism, socio-economic disadvantage. These factors matter, of course. But in our new research, we asked a different question: do the characteristics of the school itself make a difference to whether its leavers end up Neet?

The answer, it turns out, is yes – and it may have a lot to do with school culture and inclusivity.

We analysed publicly available data from over 3,000 secondary schools in England across three academic years, tracking how many of their school leavers dropped out of education or training within six months of finishing their GCSEs. Using statistical models, we controlled for factors like deprivation, special educational needs and prior attainment so we could isolate what the school environment itself was contributing.

Five school characteristics stood out. Schools with lower suspension rates, higher “Progress 8” scores (a government measure of how much academic progress students make during secondary school), and their own sixth form or post-16 provision all had a lower risk of students becoming Neet. Single-sex and faith schools also showed lower rates. Together with our control variables, these characteristics explained over 80% of the variation in dropout rates between schools.

We believe these characteristics may be markers of how inclusive a school is. Take suspensions. The rate at which schools suspend students varies enormously – in our sample, some schools barely used suspensions at all, while others issued the equivalent of nearly four per student per year.

Research shows that schools with the lowest suspension rates tend to have a more supportive culture, with clear strategies for keeping students connected rather than pushing them away. High suspension rates, by contrast, may signal an environment where some students feel they don’t belong.

Teacher talking to teenagers — Schools with lower suspension rates had more supportive cultures.
Rido/Shutterstock

Progress 8 tells a similar story. Schools where students make more progress than expected tend to be those investing in all their pupils, not just the high achievers. Research has linked high progress scores to a growth mindset among staff and effective professional development – hallmarks of a school that works hard for every student.

Previous research has found that many young people who become Neet feel lost and confused about what to do after their GCSEs. Having a sixth form on site may provide a default pathway – a familiar option for students who might otherwise drift away. Not every school can offer this, but strengthening partnerships between schools without sixth forms and local colleges could achieve something similar.

Faith and single-sex schools may benefit from a stronger sense of shared identity between students, staff and families, which research suggests fosters a feeling of belonging. That said, these schools can also have socio-economic advantages we couldn’t fully account for, so this finding should be interpreted with some caution.

Even after accounting for all the factors in our model, there was still meaningful variation between individual schools. Some had less than half the average rate of students becoming Neet; others had more than double. This tells us that something about individual schools – their ethos, their relationships, their everyday practices – is shaping young people’s futures in ways that go beyond what we can capture in published statistics.

Our study can’t prove that these school characteristics directly cause lower Neet rates. We are working with associations, not experiments. But the patterns are consistent, they hold up across three years of data covering the whole of England, and they align with a growing body of qualitative evidence about what makes schools effective.

The government has rightly made school inclusion a priority, and our findings support that direction. Rethinking zero-tolerance behaviour policies, investing in restorative approaches (which focus on building connections), and ensuring every young person has a clear and supported pathway after their GCSEs could all make a real difference. Nearly a million young lives hang in the balance – and schools have more power to help than we might have assumed.

Robin Evans receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Matthew Warburton receives funding from an anonymous donation to the University of Leeds to investigate NEET.

Nick Malleson has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the European Research Council (ERC)

– ref. The school you go to affects whether you become Neet – new research – https://theconversation.com/the-school-you-go-to-affects-whether-you-become-neet-new-research-279365

April 2, 2026

Donald Trump says the US doesn’t get much out of Nato membership – but is that true?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Andrew Gawthorpe, Lecturer in History and International Studies, Leiden University

Following the reluctance of many traditional American allies to become involved in the war against Iran, Donald Trump is once again threatening to withdraw the US from Nato. “They haven’t been friends when we needed them,” he said in an interview with Reuters on April 1. “We’ve never asked them for much … it’s a one-way street.”

To be sure, membership in Nato does impose some costs on the US. Washington pays roughly US$750 million (£568 million) per year in direct costs to keep the organisation running, and a further US$4 billion or so towards the European Deterrence Initiative. This initiative rotates some US forces in and out of Europe to deter Russian aggression.

There are also other US forces stationed permanently in Germany and various other European countries, including the UK and Italy. The cost to the US of keeping these forces where they are is comparable to the cost of basing them at home.

For a global superpower which is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a robust military presence in every region of the world, these costs are not negligible – particularly when some of them could be taken on by wealthy European countries themselves.

But, at the same time, it is hard to justify Trump’s belief that Nato is a “one-way street”. The US derives many benefits from the existence of Nato, which generations of American strategists, military officers and diplomats have viewed as worthwhile.

Following the first and second world wars, US presidents concluded that allowing Europe to be dominated either by recurrent cycles of conflict or a single hostile power was unacceptable. The American economy could not prosper without transatlantic trade and investment, and the US could not be secure if one of the great centres of global wealth and power was in hostile hands.

Founded in 1949, Nato was intended to be a stabilising force that avoided these outcomes. Its primary purpose is to deter aggression against any of its 32 member states, with Article 5 of the alliance stating that an armed attack against one Nato member shall be considered an attack against them all.

The world has changed since Nato’s founding, but the importance of European stability to the US economy remains. Europe is a key market for many American companies. In 2024, the US exported nearly US$295 billion in services and US$414 billion in goods to the EU – figures that are together equivalent to about 80% of the entire US defence budget that year.

By providing European countries with solid security guarantees, Nato remains vital to maintaining the stability which underpins this economic relationship. It deters Russia from military forays into eastern Europe and the Baltics and helps to prevent the catastrophic descent into European war that occurred so frequently in the centuries before the alliance was founded.

American defence guarantees also mean that most European allies do not feel the need to develop their own arsenal of nuclear weapons – a step that could unleash a dangerous arms race.

Defending US interests

These benefits may seem intangible because they mostly concern things that, since Nato’s formation, have not happened. But at the same time, the alliance provides plenty of direct, tangible benefits to the US as well. For instance, Nato provides the US with the means to defend its interests in other regions of the world.

Through the alliance, the US has access to a network of strategically located naval, air and ground force bases which can be used to project power into the Middle East, Africa and central Asia. For instance, the US has used RAF Fairford in the UK to support operations in the current conflict in Iran.

Nato allies frequently contribute capabilities to US military missions too, or carry out tasks that the US would have to perform if Europeans were not doing them. Tens of thousands of Nato soldiers fought in Afghanistan, for example, with over 1,000 of these people losing their lives. Nato sailors also patrol the Atlantic Ocean, keeping trade flowing.

A convoy of armoured vehicles patrol a mountainous area of Afghanistan. — Nato forces on patrol in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan in 2012.
Ryanzo W. Perez / Shutterstock

The US’s Nato partners are also stepping up their contributions to Arctic security, a key demand of the Trump administration. In addition, many Nato members have specialised capabilities in cyber warfare or intelligence collection, which the US would struggle to replicate.

Nato provides a unified and durable framework in which this cooperation can occur. The US does not have to renegotiate its defence relationship with each of the 31 other Nato states constantly. Instead, all members of the alliance invest in equipment and capabilities which are able to be integrated into one common battle plan.

Finally, Nato serves as a springboard for unified diplomacy. Countries that are aligned in their defence policies are likely to be aligned diplomatically, too. Thus, the US has a ready made stable of allies to draw on if tensions rise with any non-Nato country. And if the situation deteriorates to the point that conflict looks likely, the alliance provides the basis for coordinating increased defence spending and, ultimately, war-fighting.

None of this means that Nato will necessarily follow the US into every conflict. But to dismantle an alliance that brings such profound benefits to the US over one disagreement would be a shame. It would perhaps be better for Trump to appreciate one key virtue of close friends and allies – that they are willing to tell you when you are making a mistake.

Andrew Gawthorpe is affiliated with the Foreign Policy Centre.

– ref. Donald Trump says the US doesn’t get much out of Nato membership – but is that true? – https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-says-the-us-doesnt-get-much-out-of-nato-membership-but-is-that-true-279798

April 2, 2026

Men’s wellbeing groups are growing – and helping fill gaps in mental health support

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Richard Gater, Research Assistant at the Centre for Adult Social Care Research, Cardiff University

Pressure on mental health services across the UK is leaving many men without timely support when they need it most.

Men in the UK die by suicide at more than three times the rate of women. There’s a link between poor mental health and suicide, which means men’s wellbeing needs urgent attention. Yet long NHS waiting lists for psychological support mean that many men are unable to access help when they need it.

In Wales, the mental health charity Mind Cymru reports that more than 2,000 people with moderate to severe mental health problems are waiting over six months for therapy in any given month. When men are unable or unwilling to seek support, they have historically been inclined to engage in alternative coping strategies, such as substance use.

As formal services come under increasing strain, informal men’s groups, including community-based peer support groups, continue to grow. These groups remain poorly understood. New research by my colleagues and I on these groups in Wales shows that they could help fill an important gap in mental health support.

We surveyed 30 men’s wellbeing groups across Wales and found that these initiatives are thriving despite limited resources. More than 80% reported rising attendance, drawing in men of all ages, which suggests they may be responding to unmet demand.

Most groups were volunteer-run and operated without public funding, which many highlighted as the biggest barrier to providing the group. Only 21% reported having any professionally qualified staff.

Yet these groups offer men a space where they can turn up and talk without fear of judgment. Their informal environments often appeal to men who feel uncomfortable with clinical structures, assessments, diagnoses and formal appointments. Community groups help remove barriers that can deter men from seeking support and can create a trusting environment perceived as more “male-friendly”.

From health by stealth to emotional openness

Traditionally, men’s wellbeing community initiatives, such as Men’s Sheds, have used “health by stealth” approaches. This means that by engaging in activities together, men are encouraged to communicate with one another. While 40% of groups still used these methods, the research showed a clear shift. Emotional expression is now central in many groups rather than incidental.

Talking about personal issues featured strongly in our survey responses, with nearly 80% of the groups saying they actively encouraged men to speak openly about personal difficulties. Activities used to allow for conversation included support groups, structured discussions and one-to-one conversations.

Emotional expression matters because traditional masculine norms, especially the expectations that men should be tough, reject weakness and hide vulnerability, have made it difficult for many men to talk openly about mental health. These challenges are intensified by long NHS waiting lists that can stretch into months and leave men without timely support.

Against this backdrop, our research shows that community groups are especially important and could help fill an important gap in mental health support. These groups are creating spaces where men can be more emotionally open and talk about difficulties before they escalate. In doing so, they challenge traditional masculine norms and the idea that men simply will not talk about their problems.

Our evidence contributes to emerging research showing that when the environment feels safe, men do talk. This shift reflects a broader cultural moment in which more inclusive expressions of manhood are being promoted and widely accepted, and softer expressions of masculinity are becoming more common among men.

Close up of people in a group therapy session. — Most groups surveyed operated without public funding.
StockLab/Shutterstock

A quiet cultural shift

The growth of these community support groups signals a subtle but meaningful shift in how men are experiencing different types of masculinity. These groups are not only helping men cope with health difficulties, but also helping reshape the landscape of manhood.

Within these spaces, men are learning to express vulnerability without feeling that it undermines their identity or masculinity. This matters because these groups may be offering support at a time when demand for NHS mental health services is exceeding what is available.

But informal volunteer‑led services also come with their own challenges. Operating without qualified staff means limited regulation and uncertainty about the quality, standard and consistency of the support on offer.

Our research had a modest sample size, so we still do not know exactly how these groups operate in everyday practice or what they offer to different men. More detailed and in‑depth research would help build this understanding and provide clearer insight into how these groups might complement overstretched NHS services.

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

– ref. Men’s wellbeing groups are growing – and helping fill gaps in mental health support – https://theconversation.com/mens-wellbeing-groups-are-growing-and-helping-fill-gaps-in-mental-health-support-276933

April 2, 2026

Irresponsible parental gun ownership could become a factor in custody disputes

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Marcia Zug, Professor of Family Law, University of South Carolina

Colin Gray enters the Barrow County courthouse on Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga. AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

The first parents convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a mass school shooting committed by their child were Jennifer and James Crumbley. The Crumbleys were convicted in 2024, after their 15-year-old son Ethan killed four students at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021.

In March 2026, Colin Gray became the first parent convicted of murder for a mass shooting carried out by his child. His son, Colt, 14, killed two students and two teachers in 2024 at Apalachee High School in Georgia.

Critics of the Crumbley and Gray decisions worry that holding parents responsible for school shootings may lead to parental accountability for a broad range of children’s actions.

This is possible, but I believe it is unlikely.

That’s because parents already have long been held liable for the actions of their children, as Baylor law professor Dyllan Taxman notes. The previous failure to find parental liability for gun dangers was the exception.

But even if the Crumbley and Gray convictions do not portend the beginning of parental convictions for a new and wide-ranging category of parental actions, they do suggest a growing belief that parents who allow their children easy access to guns are dangerous and unfit.

As a family law scholar, I think this changing view about parental gun ownership may have significant ramifications for parents in other legal contexts, most notably custody determinations.

Guns and best interests

Child custody decisions in the U.S. are based on a court’s determination regarding the “best interest of the child.” Irresponsible gun ownership can be a factor in such conclusions, but historically such considerations have been rare.

This absence is shocking given the well-documented dangers that unsecured firearms pose. Since 2020, firearms have been the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1 and 19. The statistic includes accidental shootings as well as homicides and suicides. The vast majority of child gun deaths occur at home. And more than 4.6 million children live in a home with at least one unlocked and loaded firearm.

The failure to routinely consider parental gun practices, including gun storage and children’s access, in custody determinations is notable – not just because unsecured guns pose a significant danger to children, but because other less substantial risks regularly factor into custody decisions.

Split screen of a man and a woman dressed in prison clothes. — James and Jennifer Crumbley were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a mass school shooting committed by their son.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File

Perceived moral dangers, such as a child’s exposure to profanity or a parent’s nonmarital relationship, are common factors in custody determinations. Similarly, exposure to secondhand smoke or a child’s obesity are also frequent considerations.

Consequently, while the consideration of parental gun behaviors is not entirely absent from custody decisions, its relative rarity suggests a deliberate unwillingness to link them with parental fitness considerations.

The Crumbley and Gray convictions suggest this reluctance may be waning.

Loss of custody as a deterrent

School shootings are relatively rare, but custody disputes are not.

Consequently, if irresponsible gun ownership becomes a common consideration in custody decisions, the implications for gun safety could be substantial. That’s because this approach avoids the pitfalls of previous gun control attempts.

Unlike other gun safety measures, the consideration of gun ownership in custody cases largely avoids Second Amendment concerns regarding the constitutional right to bear arms. As William & Mary law professor James Dwyer notes, in child custody cases the state operates “outside the bounds of the (Constitution) … to the extent of being freed from the restrictions ordinarily generated by the constitutional rights of others.”

The result is that constitutionally protected behaviors are frequently considered in custody decisions.

In the 2011 South Carolina case Purser v. Owens, for instance, the family court considered the mother’s abortion in its best-interest analysis and held that having an abortion demonstrated the mother was irresponsible and thus unfit.

In the 2003 Virginia case Roberts v. Roberts, a father lost custody for his statements that women cannot do what men do.

And in the 1985 Colorado case In re Marriage of Short, a court affirmed parents’ religious beliefs are a relevant factor in custody determinations.

As these cases demonstrate, the fact that some harmful parental behaviors are also constitutional rights doesn’t mean they’re excluded from custody determinations.

A second benefit of raising gun ownership in a custody dispute is that the parent raising this issue does not need to be a gun control advocate. They don’t need to dislike guns, and they can even be a gun owner themselves.

For gun ownership to become relevant, a parent simply needs to argue that the other parent’s gun practices are irresponsible compared to their own. If this increases a parent’s custody prospects, it can be assumed many parents will make this argument.

A woman in court holds a posters with images on it. — During Colin Gray’s trial, Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks presents evidence of a school shooter shrine that was found in Colt Gray’s bedroom, in Winder, Ga., on March 2, 2026.
Abbey Cutrer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool

Parents are paying attention

For parents facing accusations of irresponsible gun practices, the potential loss of custody should provide a strong incentive for modifying their gun behavior.

Case law demonstrates that parents routinely refrain from behaviors that could hurt their custody case. And there is every reason to expect the same result with gun ownership.

Importantly, the Gray case already proved that parents are paying attention to these trends. During his trial, it was revealed that about a week before the September 2024 shooting, Gray’s estranged wife – and Colin Gray’s mother – Marcee Gray, did an internet search for “school shooter parents charged with manslaughter.”

Then, after reading articles about the Crumbley cases’ convictions, she called Colin and asked him to secure his guns. Although Colin ignored his wife’s warning, the next parent might listen, especially when the warning is coming from a divorce attorney.

Should irresponsible gun ownership become a common factor in custody disputes, parents will be advised to secure their guns, and many will heed this advice, I believe. The Crumbley conviction almost prevented Colt Gray’s access to firearms.

Marcia Zug 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. Irresponsible parental gun ownership could become a factor in custody disputes – https://theconversation.com/irresponsible-parental-gun-ownership-could-become-a-factor-in-custody-disputes-278251

April 2, 2026

75 years after she led a student strike that helped end school segregation, Barbara Rose Johns now stands in the US Capitol where Robert E. Lee once did

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jonathan Entin, Professor Emeritus of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University

A statue of civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns is unveiled in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 16, 2025, in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence isn’t the only important anniversary in 2026. This year also marks the 75th anniversary of an extraordinary case of student activism that helped lead to the Supreme Court’s decision outlawing segregated schools.

In April 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns organized a student strike to protest the shabby conditions and inadequate education at her segregated Black high school in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

Prince Edward County is located about 65 miles southwest of Richmond and around 30 miles east of Appomattox, or 48 kilometers, in a part of Virginia known as Southside. African Americans constituted almost half the population, but they were largely prevented from voting before passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and could not eat in local restaurants before passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The public schools were segregated, and for decades there was no Black high school at all.

In 1939, following years of pressure by Black residents, the white authorities opened a high school for African Americans. That segregated institution was named for Robert Roosa Moton, who had been raised in Prince Edward County and served as an administrator at Hampton Institute in Virginia before being appointed as the second head of Tuskegee Institute following the death of Booker T. Washington.

The new building became severely overcrowded almost immediately. Although it was designed for a maximum enrollment of 180, attendance reached 219 the year after it opened and 377 in 1947.

The following year, the school board put up three temporary outbuildings to accommodate the overflow. Many Black residents scorned these buildings as “tar paper shacks” because of their covering and dilapidated condition. They had inefficient wood stoves that provided limited heating, and their thin walls often leaked when rain fell.

The shabbiness of these interim structures became a source of continuing tension, as negotiations between the Black community and white authorities for a more permanent facility dragged on inconclusively into early 1951.

Johns makes her move

As an 11th grader at Moton High School, Johns began talking with some of her fellow students about taking action to protest the shacks and improve their education.

On April 23, 1951, someone lured Moton’s principal, Boyd Jones, out of the building on the pretext that two students were in trouble elsewhere in town. After Jones left, Johns summoned the student body to the auditorium, where she exhorted her peers to walk out to protest the deplorable condition of their school.

Johns also sent a letter to Oliver W. Hill and Spottswood W. Robinson III, two Richmond civil rights lawyers who worked closely with the NAACP, asking for their legal assistance.

The strike went on for two weeks. During that time, Hill and Robinson met twice with hundreds of students and parents. The meetings grew out of the lawyers’ initial skepticism about litigating over school conditions in rural Prince Edward County, where they feared that plaintiffs would be subject to severe physical and economic retaliation.

Those meetings persuaded Hill and Robinson that the Black community broadly supported an effort to obtain desegregation rather than mere improvements in the separate Black schools. The lawyers therefore filed their lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of scores of Black students and parents, alleging that segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment.

Victory – and messy history

Johns’ initiative had both short- and long-term consequences.

In the immediate aftermath of the strike, the all-white school board fired Jones, whom they regarded as having put the students up to their activism despite his – and the students’ – insistence that the whole affair was a student initiative.

The lawsuit – and other similar suits filed in South Carolina, Delaware and Kansas – failed in the lower court. The plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, which reversed those judgments and ruled in the consolidated case called Brown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

A yellowed page from a legal decision with the name 'SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES' at the top. — The first page of the printed copy of the Supreme Court’s desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education, May 17, 1954.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Meanwhile, in the wake of the student strike at Moton, Johns’ family feared that she would be in physical danger if she remained in Prince Edward County for her senior year. They sent her to live with her uncle Vernon Johns, a minister and outspoken civil rights advocate, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Johns graduated from Drexel University and worked for many years as a public school librarian in Philadelphia before her death in 1991.

The post-Brown history of Prince Edward County is very complicated. White authorities closed the public schools for five years to avoid desegregation. For a long time afterward, virtually all the white children went to a private academy that opened when the public schools closed.

But that messy history cannot detract from the courage and impact of Barbara Johns.

In December 2025, her statue replaced that of Robert E. Lee as one of the two Virginians displayed in the U.S. Capitol. Johns is there – along with George Washington.

Jonathan Entin 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. 75 years after she led a student strike that helped end school segregation, Barbara Rose Johns now stands in the US Capitol where Robert E. Lee once did – https://theconversation.com/75-years-after-she-led-a-student-strike-that-helped-end-school-segregation-barbara-rose-johns-now-stands-in-the-us-capitol-where-robert-e-lee-once-did-273531