What the Texas inferno leaves in its wake

+ is China's power overstated? US Edition - Today's top story: Texas fires: Burned rangeland can recover quickly, but cattle ranchers face struggles ahead to find and feed their herds [View in browser]( US Edition | 1 March 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Do old COVID-19 rapid tests work for new variants?]( - [Trump’s PACs are spending millions on his legal bills]( - [See if you can conquer The Conversation’s weekly news quiz]( Lead story The Texas Panhandle and parts of Oklahoma faced an inferno this week as strong winds quickly spread wildfires over more than 1 million acres of the region’s prime rangeland. Several homes burned, along with the prairie grasses that many cattle producers count on to feed their herds. Karen Hickman, a grassland ecologist at Oklahoma State University, explains that these prairie ecosystems will quickly recover [and may actually benefit from the fires](. Cattle producers, however, face a difficult spring. [[How faith and religion drive the world. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, This Week in Religion.](] Stacy Morford Environment + Climate Editor Over 1 million acres of grassland burn in the Texas Panhandle in late February 2024. Greenville Fire-Rescue via AP [Texas fires: Burned rangeland can recover quickly, but cattle ranchers face struggles ahead to find and feed their herds]( Karen Hickman, Oklahoma State University Over 1 million acres have burned in Texas’ largest wildfire on record, and more days of strong winds are forecast across the Panhandle, the heart of Texas’ cattle country. Economy + Business - [Is the United States overestimating China’s power?]( Dan Murphy, Harvard Kennedy School Most Americans see China as the biggest threat to the US. But away from headline economic figures, China has a slew of challenges. Health + Medicine - [COVID-19 rapid tests still work against new variants – researchers keep ‘testing the tests,’ and they pass]( Nathaniel Hafer, UMass Chan Medical School; Anuradha Rao, Emory University; Apurv Soni, UMass Chan Medical School Research shows that rapid antigen tests are performing as well at detecting the most recent dominant variants as they did with the earliest strains in the COVID-19 pandemic. - [Measles is one of the deadliest and most contagious infectious diseases – and one of the most easily preventable]( David Higgins, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus A pediatrician and preventive medicine physician explains how measles vaccines became victims of their own success and the risk that rising outbreaks pose to everyone. - [Altitude sickness is typically mild but can sometimes turn very serious − a high-altitude medicine physician explains how to safely prepare]( Brian Strickland, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Whether you’re ascending to high altitudes for casual travel or for adventure tourism, there are specific strategies to help you acclimate and reduce the likelihood of altitude sickness. Ethics + Religion - [The tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines]( Alessandro Poletto, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis In medieval Japan, healing might mean taking medicine, undergoing an exorcism or sidestepping harm in the first place by avoiding inauspicious days. - [My Malaysia ordeal shows how religion can fuse with populist nationalism to silence dissent]( Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University Religion and nationalism were once ideologies at odds. Now, they are increasingly bedfellows, with populism often the glue. Politics + Society - [Yes, Trump’s PACs really can pay his legal fees]( Richard Briffault, Columbia University Trump-aligned political action committees have paid lawyers for the former president tens of millions of dollars. Are there any limits on how much, or on what, they can spend? - [Remembering the 1932 Ford Hunger March: Detroit park honors labor and environmental history]( Paul Draus, University of Michigan-Dearborn On March 7, workers at the Ford Rouge River plant marched for better working conditions, sparking America’s labor movement. Almost a century later, a quiet park honors their memory. - [What does a state’s secretary of state do? Most run elections, a once-routine job facing increasing scrutiny]( John J. Martin, University of Virginia There are dozens of secretaries of state in the US. Only one deals with foreign affairs. The majority of the rest, state secretaries of state, have powerful positions running elections in each state. - [Though CBS legend Edward R. Murrow is given credit, he wasn’t the first muckraking journalist to question Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunts]( W. Joseph Campbell, American University School of Communication Starting in 1950, as the fear of communist subversion spread throughout America, McCarthy launched hearings that were based on scant evidence and overblown charges. - [Ben Shapiro’s hip-hop hypocrisy and white male grievance lands him on top of pop music charts for a brief moment]( A.D. Carson, University of Virginia Since its birth 50 years ago, hip-hop music has embraced artists of every race and ethnic background. An avowed hip-hop hater might be a step too far. Arts + Culture - [Betty Smith enchanted a generation of readers with ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ − even as she groused that she hoped Williamsburg would be flattened]( Rachel Gordan, University of Florida No other 20th-century American novel did quite so much to burnish Brooklyn’s reputation. But Smith rarely saw her hometown through rose-colored glasses − and even grew to resent it. Science + Technology - [The ‘average’ revolutionized scientific research, but overreliance on it has led to discrimination and injury]( Zachary del Rosario, Olin College of Engineering The average might come in handy for certain data analyses, but is any one person really ‘average’? Trending on site - [Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores]( - [Nigeria’s security problems deepen as Anglophone insurgency in Cameroon spills across border]( - [Can Trump be prosecuted? Supreme Court will take up precedent-setting case to define the limits of presidential immunity]( The Conversation Quiz 🧠- [The Conversation U.S. weekly news quiz]( Fritz Holznagel, The Conversation Here’s the first question of [this week’s edition:]( Mitch McConnell has announced that he will step down as Senate minority leader later this year. But in his speech on Feb. 28, he said, "I still have enough gas in my tank to" do what? - A. "Help Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin" - B. "Block the woke agenda at every turn" - C. "Thoroughly disappoint my critics" - D. "Dance on the grave of Ruth Bader Ginsburg" [Test your knowledge]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? You might be interested in our weekly and biweekly emails: • [Weekly Highlights]( • [Science Editors' Picks]( • [This Week in Religion]( • [Politics Weekly]( • [Global Perspectives]( • [Global Economy & Business]( Follow us on social media: • [Threads]( • [Bluesky]( • [Mastodon]( • [Post.news]( • [LinkedIn]( • [Instagram]( • [Facebook]( • Or [get a daily text from us]( - - About The Conversation We're a nonprofit news organization dedicated to [helping academic experts share ideas with the public](. We can give away our articles thanks to the help of foundations, universities and readers like you. 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