Red, white but rarely blue – the science of fireworks colors, explained

I’m a chemist and also president of Pyrotechnics Guild International, an organization that promotes the safe use of fireworks and using them here in the U.S. to celebrate Independence Day and other ...

Military voters were at the heart of the Supreme Court’s mail-in ballot decision

In Watson v. RNC, decided June 29, 2026, liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices joined a noteworthy cross-ideological majority to uphold state grace periods for mail-in ballots. The decision, ...
Opinion

How health insurers get a free pass to deny coverage from a 52-year-old law meant to protect worker pensions

Despite the recommendation, her health insurer determined that it would only cover partial-day at-home nursing care. While a nurse was off duty, her fetus went into distress and died. Corcoran sued ...

Data center fights pit social values, democracy and capitalism against each other

In part, that’s because a variety of different groups have competing interests – some in favor of them, some opposed and others with no direct view on data centers themselves, but with concerns that ...

How to empower kids to make safer choices

Unintentional injuries kill 20 U.S. children every day. Building a family culture of safety can help them learn to make wise ...

Supreme Court soon to hear a religious freedom case that’s united both sides of the church-state divide

Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content.

Beyond car seats and childproof pill bottles: A child psychologist explains how to empower kids to make safer choices

Unintentional injuries kill more than 7,000 children ages 1-19 in the U.S. each year – close to 20 deaths per day. Injuries are the leading cause of child death, and these injuries are often ...

Here’s why the colonists’ grievances are surprisingly relevant 250 years later

The issues that most disturbed the Revolution’s leaders in 1776: a partisan judiciary, arbitrary power, officials not being responsible to their constituents.

I study the Declaration of Independence, and here’s why the colonists’ grievances are surprisingly relevant, 250 years later

The Declaration of Independence, with its block of cursive letters scrawled onto parchment, looks like a relic from the distant past. Likewise, you might think the 27 grievances against King George ...

Political parties can now spend unlimited money supporting candidates, after Supreme Court overturns decades of precedent

A decades-old law limiting how much money political parties can spend in coordination with candidates was struck down by the Supreme Court on June 30, 2026. Citing First Amendment principles, the ...
Opinion

As key trade talks start, the US-Mexico relationship will likely limp along – but at a cost

Most Americans understand that their avocado toast and Super Bowl guacamole depend on a green fruit imported from Mexico. But few realize that Mexico is the United States’ top trading partner, both as ...

Digging Further Into AI System Prompts That Guide How AI Is To Conduct Mental Health Chats

This is the 2nd part of my analysis on Anthropic Claude and its system-wide prompt, focusing on the mental health directives.