According to the staffers who were there Anita McBride, American University On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I anticipated a busy but relatively calm day at the White House. I was the special assistant to the president for management and administration, and President George W. Bush was in Sarasota, Florida, promoting the No Child Left Behind legislation. The senior official in the White House was Vice President Dick Cheney. First lady Laura Bush was scheduled to travel to Capitol Hill to brief senators on early childhood education. On the South Lawn, tables were being set up for that evening’s congressional barbecue. With … Continue reading ‘Get out now’ – inside the White House on 9/11

20 years of ‘forever’ wars have left a toll on US veterans returning to the question: ‘Did you kill?’ Marian Eide, Texas A&M University Military service members returning from America’s “forever” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have often faced deeply personal questions about their experience. As one veteran explained to me: “I’ve been asked, ‘Have you ever killed anyone in war? Are you messed up at all?’” “I don’t take offense to any of that because I realize, we went somewhere, we were gone for a couple years, and now we’re back, and now no one knows how to talk to … Continue reading US veterans returning to the traumatic question: ‘Did you kill?’

Monkeying about: getting to know ‘ugly’ animals better could be the key to their conservation Mike Jeffries, Northumbria University, Newcastle The current threat to the Earth’s biodiversity is no laughing matter, but it may be that raising a smile might help some vulnerable species dogged by unfortunate looks or dark reputations. Studies of conservation strategies for two endangered primates – the proboscis monkey from Borneo and the aye aye lemur native to Madagascar – show the surprisingly powerful influence of public attitudes towards less photogenic creatures at risk of extinction. September 1 marks International Primate Day, an opportunity to take a … Continue reading Knowing ‘Ugly’ animals is key to their conservation

Stephen: almost 30 years on, ITV’s drama on the murder of Stephen Lawrence shows how little has changed Simon Holdaway, University of Sheffield Almost three decades after the murder of Stephen Lawrence, ITV has launched a new three-part drama about Stephen’s parents, Doreen and Neville Lawrence. The series explores the Lawrences’ crusade to achieve justice for their son, a black British school student from Plumstead, south-east London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus. Stephen is a sequel to The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, a Bafta-winning 1999 film written and directed by Paul Greengrass, who … Continue reading ITV’s drama on the murder of Stephen Lawrence shows how little has changed

Understanding Islam – a brief introduction to its past and present in the United States Kalpana Jain, The Conversation For people who would like to learn more about Islam, The Conversation is publishing a series of articles, available on our website or as six emails delivered every other day, written by Senior Religion and Ethics Editor Kalpana Jain. Over the past few years she has commissioned dozens of articles on Islam written by academics. These articles draw from that archive and have been checked for accuracy by religion scholars. For much of my childhood in India, the sound of the adhan … Continue reading Brief introduction to Islam in the United States

A quarter of Sun-like stars eat their own planets, according to new research Lorenzo Spina, Monash University How rare is our Solar System? In the 30 years or so since planets were first discovered orbiting stars other than our Sun, we have found that planetary systems are common in the Galaxy. However, many of them are quite different from the Solar System we know. The planets in our Solar System revolve around the Sun in stable and almost circular paths, which suggests the orbits have not changed much since the planets first formed. But many planetary systems orbiting around other stars … Continue reading Sun-like stars eat their planets!

Out of Afghanistan: Joe Biden and the future of America’s foreign policy Andrew Mumford, University of Nottingham As the last US forces leave Afghanistan, President Joe Biden’s decision to press ahead with the American withdrawal has prompted the first major foreign policy crisis of his presidency. The harrowing pictures after the bombing attack at Kabul airport were the result of a desire on behalf of Biden to draw a line under a war he never truly believed in and shift the direction of American foreign policy away from under the long shadow of the “war on terror” as it nears its … Continue reading Joe Biden and the future of America’s foreign policy

The Taliban reportedly have control of US biometric devices – a lesson in life-and-death consequences of data privacy Margaret Hu, Penn State In the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and the ouster of the Afghan national government, alarming reports indicate that the insurgents could potentially access biometric data collected by the U.S. to track Afghans, including people who worked for U.S. and coalition forces. Afghans who once supported the U.S. have been attempting to hide or destroy physical and digital evidence of their identities. Many Afghans fear that the identity documents and databases storing personally identifiable data could be … Continue reading Taliban now control of US biometric devices

Why is it so difficult to fight domestic terrorism? 6 experts share their thoughts Mikkel Dack, Rowan University; Colleen Murphy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Gary LaFree, University of Maryland; John Horgan, Georgia State University; Kurt Braddock, American University School of Communication, and Monika Nalepa, University of Chicago The United States’ first-ever national strategy for countering domestic terrorism calls for better information-sharing among law enforcement agencies and efforts to prevent extremist groups from recruiting online. Published in June 2021, the document is bolstered by the recent introduction of several counterterrorism bills. The Department of Homeland Security has earmarked hundreds of millions … Continue reading Fight Domestic Terrorism – Difficult?

Afghanistan: ISIS-K violence could force the west into an unlikely alliance with Taliban Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham The decades-long conflict in Afghanistan was always far more than a simple case of the Taliban versus the Afghan government, or a US-led “war on terror”. This is because Afghanistan is not a single country in the sense of a legitimate system accepted by the vast majority. Beyond the capital Kabul, it is more a mosaic of local areas with factions – among them the Taliban – seeking rule and profit. The suicide bombing of the crowd outside Hamid Karzai International Airport by … Continue reading Will ISIS-K force the West into alliance with Taliban ?