Brazilian markets suffered steep losses after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pulled off a stunning comeback to defeat Flávio Bolsonaro, the right-wing candidate that many investors preferred.

Brazil’s real slumped 11% in early Monday trading, while some longer-dated swap-rates contracts surged almost 300 basis points, after hitting ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Maryland officials still cannot say how much taxpayer money the state spends on private lawyers, three months after the Comptroller’s Office said it would try to add up those costs.

In July, the Comptroller’s Office said it would review financial records to produce what would’ve been the first statewide estimate. But ...Read more

On the evening of Oct. 11, just weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop airing taxpayer-funded television advertisements praising President Donald Trump.

Yet two of the ads continued running past the court’s deadline, including during broadcasts of “60 Minutes” and “ABC...Read more

It may not be as shocking as rogue AI agents hacking another system, but the current political resistance to data centers has taken a surprising turn: It’s bringing together strange bedfellows, from democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders to right-wing strategist Steve Bannon.

Organized opposition to new data centers, made up of a ...Read more

It’s easy to stereotype older adults as tech-averse or novice tech users. Yet a growing number of adults age 60 and older are embracing artificial intelligence, using it for entertainment, planning trips and even accessing health information.

I study how people interact with computers and technology – and specifically, how older ...Read more

Hurricane Belle was barreling toward New England in August 1976 when an editor from Foreign Affairs called. Physicist Amory Lovins took the call on a payphone in a shack in the Maine woods, where he spent summers as a camp guide.

“If it happened to hit that area, the wires would be down with trees on them for weeks, so we’d miss ...Read more

It turns out you can rent a Steinway piano and have it delivered pretty much anywhere – including the lecture hall of a major working hospital.

In October 2025, I had one delivered to UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh for the premiere of “One in Four, One in Eight,” a 60-minute piece I composed about infertility and ...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Why are people still getting polio in some countries and in not others? – Mia, age 9, Centennial, Colorado

On a busy street in Karachi, Pakistan, a healthcare worker kneels...Read more

Jalen Hurts is 28, a Super Bowl MVP and an elite athlete in peak physical condition. He was also recently diagnosed with blood clots in his leg and both lungs.

After a cleat to the left calf during a game against the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 4, 2026, and after a team flight to London, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback was given an ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Global warming likely intensified the wildfires that raged for months this summer in the Boundary Waters and Canada, according to new research from the University of California, Merced. The intensity, in turn, made the smoke more hazardous to breathe.

The findings shed new light on a devastating summer in Minnesota.

State ...Read more

For months, Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has pitched himself as a modest alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, campaigning more on reliability than a markedly different approach to the country’s myriad security challenges.

But in the final days of the election campaign, the question of Iran – and of Israel’s future ...Read more

A former Cornell University student’s allegation that seven members of a campus fraternity drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2024 has sparked national outrage, recalling a high-profile incident at Stanford University more than a decade ago.

Stanford Law professor emerita Michele Dauber said little has changed since former college swimmer ...Read more

Until recently, a Manhattanite might venture no more than a few dozen blocks to find the world’s most sophisticated cancer treatment. Cutting-edge American medicines have helped reduce the U.S. cancer death rate by about a third since 1990, and New York City hospitals deliver some of the best care in the country.

But in January 2025, the city...Read more

For decades, manufactured home builders have been working to shed the old image of boxy trailer homes reserved for the outskirts of cities and suburbia. Now, a small change in federal regulations could open the door for architecture welcomed in more neighborhoods.

This summer’s sweeping housing bill, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, ...Read more

The Philippine interior minister confirmed Sunday that Thomas Markle Sr., father of the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, is under investigation for alleged child pornography, as it emerged that a damning letter shared with his daughter was penned by his ex-wife.

Robin Loveless, who was married to Thomas Markle Sr. until divorcing him in 1975, ...Read more

In a rare Sunday hearing, a federal appeals court judge appointed by President Trump questioned how the Trump administration's request to intervene in California's ongoing midterm election in order to force state officials to set aside 20,000 ballots from voters whose citizenship it questions squares with the U.S. Constitution.

Judge Mark J. ...Read more

Mayor Michelle Wu’s planning chief said the city knows it’s hard for developers to build in Boston and plans to keep it that way.

Chief of Planning Kairos Shen said the city won’t lower the costly affordability requirements that critics say have stalled housing production, when battling with developers at a forum hosted by the MIT Center ...Read more

Sunday morning brought a reaction to Saturday night’s mass shooting in Tallahassee from Florida major political office candidates.

Around 8 p.m., Tallahassee Police Department said, a fight escalated to gunfire and 11 people were shot near the intersection of Perry Street and Manatee Street. Perry Street borders the west side of Bragg ...Read more

Some South Florida streets and parks likely will be submerged at some point in the next few days, as another — stronger — round of king tides strike the region.

These higher-than-usual high tides are supercharged by winds blowing onshore, pushing more seawater on land. Couple that with the 1 to 2 inches of rain expected along the coast over...Read more