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 do we use gasoline for small vehicles and diesel fuel for big vehicles? – Methdini, age 15, Sri Lanka

Gasoline fuels most light-duty vehicles, such as passenger cars ...Read more

Since 2021, about 15,000 Haitians have found new lives in Springfield, Ohio, after fleeing the violence of Haiti, their native country.

But a wave of baseless rumors and hate, amplified by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, has shattered that sense of safety. Many of the city’s Haitian immigrants...Read more

Victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election may come down to LGBTQ+ voters.

Polling data shows that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are running in a near-dead heat in four states – Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. And as a scholar of LGBTQ+ politics, I suspect that LGBTQ+ voters could play an outsize role in ...Read more

Civil rights groups say new Georgia voting rules have made it too easy to challenge the eligibility of people living in nursing homes, college dormitories and military facilities, and will make it more difficult for homeless people to register to vote.

The new rules are included in a broader law, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in May, ...Read more

Voters in 10 states will consider whether or not to protect or expand abortion rights in November. That includes battleground states such as Arizona and Nevada and such Republican strongholds as South Dakota and Missouri.

In Maryland, where abortion is legal, a proposed amendment is much broader than many abortion-related ballot questions in ...Read more

If former President Trump is reelected and follows through with his promise to slap new tariffs on all imports to the U.S., experts say much of the global economy could be upended. And few countries would be more vulnerable than Mexico.

The economy here is driven almost exclusively by trade, with 83% of exports sent north of the border.

...Read more

In the summer of 2004, Tamiko Thomas, a Bad Boy Entertainment executive, brought an aspiring entertainer named Adria English to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ mansion in East Hampton, New York. The rap mogul, bon vivant and tabloid fixture was throwing one of his exclusive, celebrity-filled bacchanals known as a “White Party.”

English claims ...Read more

Five Pennsylvania Republicans who signed on to Donald Trump's 2020 slate of alternate electors are back this year — and some say that, under the right circumstances, they're prepared to do it again.

The returnees range from a prominent Lehigh Valley election denier who funded fruitless efforts to uncover fraud in at least three battleground ...Read more

There is just one full week left to get out the vote before the general election, and neither presidential candidate appears ready to leave anything on the table at this late stage in the race.

Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as their campaign surrogates, have a jam-packed week ahead in the run up ...Read more

California aims to more than double annual tax credits for film and television production in the state to about $750 million, Governor Gavin Newsom said Sunday at a media event in Los Angeles.

“We needed to make a statement and do something that was meaningful,” Newsom, a Democrat, said at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles, describing the ...Read more

In the late 1960s, the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party distributed free breakfast to schoolchildren at a youth services center in North Lawndale.

On Sunday, several former chapter members gathered at the center over collard greens, chicken thighs and macaroni to celebrate the organization being permanently written into the history ...Read more

Elon Musk claimed he can eliminate at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, laying out his vision for substantial government spending cuts if Donald Trump wins the presidency.

“Your money is being wasted,” Musk said Sunday at a rally for Trump in New York’s Madison Square Garden. “We’re going to get the government off your back ...Read more

If former President Trump is reelected and follows through with his promise to slap new tariffs on all imports to the U.S., experts say much of the global economy could be upended. And few countries would be more vulnerable than Mexico.

The economy here is driven almost exclusively by trade, with 83% of exports sent north of the border.

...Read more

As if voters didn’t have enough on their plates ahead of next week’s Presidential Election, it’s apparently already time to start thinking about the midterms which will follow.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, the Bay State’s elder but junior senator, on Sunday announced he will seek a third term in office in 2026, proclaiming that at 78 years old ...Read more

As if voters didn’t have enough on their plates ahead of next week’s Presidential Election, it’s apparently already time to start thinking about the midterms which will follow.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, the Bay State’s elder but junior senator, on Sunday announced he will seek a third term in office in 2026, proclaiming that at 78 years old ...Read more

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to return to North Carolina on Wednesday as part of her final push before Election Day, the Harris-Walz campaign told The News & Observer.

Harris will be in Raleigh, while her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will be in Charlotte and Asheville that same day.

The campaign didn’t provide details of what...Read more

Japan faces political instability after a gamble by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to call a snap election backfired with the ruling coalition failing to win a majority in parliament for the first time since 2009.

Voter discontent over a slush-fund scandal has pummeled support for Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party, causing it and its ruling ...Read more

Pittsburgh and its Jewish community are six years removed from the 2018 synagogue shooting and more than a year removed from the shooter's trial in which the events of Oct. 27, 2018, were laid bare in excruciating detail.

Work on the renewed synagogue space at the corner of Shady and Wilkins avenues started in earnest earlier this year. The ...Read more