2025 has been a tough year for farmers.

As if the perennial problems of price volatility and changing weather patterns were not enough, the Trump administration’s trade war with China made matters worse. In the past year, grain farmers have seen their markets increasingly taken by their Brazilian counterparts. Even after reaching a deal to ...Read more

Federal agencies are preparing new guidance on recovery housing, transitional housing and long-term recovery supports. The shift comes at a time when communities face growing pressure from rising addiction, repeat overdoses, and a widening gap between treatment and stable housing. Programs serving people in recovery need clearer expectations, ...Read more

President Donald Trump's geopolitical ambitions have almost been harder to follow than his other policies, encompassing as they have the annexation of Greenland, the conversion of Canada into the 51st state and the retaking of the Panama Canal.

Trump's current focus is on Venezuela, which has been led by the dictator Nicolás Maduro since 2013....Read more

At the advent of Facebook in 2004, you had to have a college email address to create an account. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation was a relatively controlled, college-age environment in which you could learn more about and interact with your peers.

Those days are long over, and kids as young as 13 now can log into a wide array of social media ...Read more

There have been recent reports that the U.S. Department of Defense, under Secretary Pete Hegseth, is planning significant revisions to its Unified Command Plan (UCP).

This document lays out the U.S. military's global command structure and defines the missions and geographic areas of responsibility of the most senior four-star commanders.

This...Read more

While the gaming industry waits on Congress to clean up an inane provision in President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” that taxes gamblers on winnings they never earned, there is a small bit of good news on the wagering tax front.

The president’s signature legislation, passed in May (House) and July (Senate) without Democratic ...Read more

For decades, American families have gathered to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve.

The 1946 Frank Capra movie, about a man who on one of the worst days of his life discovers how he has positively impacted his hometown of Bedford Falls, is beloved for extolling selflessness, community and the little guy taking on rapacious ...Read more

Who doesn’t have a soft spot for the smells of the holidays? The aromatic cinnamon stick flavoring a cup of eggnog or the hint of vanilla in grandma’s baked goods can trigger wonderful memories of the Christmas season.

Leave it to progressive climate Grinches to warn that global warming represents a threat to some of these cherished ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — I’ve got a wish list for Santa and it’s topped by this urgent request: a remodeled president with at least an ounce of humanity and humility.

Maybe a Ronald Reagan type. I’m not referring here to ideology or policies. Just common decency, someone who acts presidential.

I know, forget it. That’s beyond Santa’s ...Read more

The year was already a debacle for the Los Angeles Fire Department and Mayor Karen Bass, with multiple stumbles before and after the epic January blaze that obliterated Pacific Palisades, so it was hard to imagine that things could get worse in the closing days of 2025.

But they have.

A blistering Times investigation found that the Fire ...Read more

The grisly murders last week of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, allegedly at the hands of their deranged son, moved me to go back and watch two of my favorite “All in the Family” episodes.

They are both from Season 2. In the first one, “Edith Writes a Song,” a pair of thieves, Demond Wilson (“Sanford and Son”) ...Read more

I got my son an Elf on the Shelf this year. Do I regret it? Absolutely. But it reminded me of something this holiday season, something too easy to forget in our modern age.

For an otherwise bright child, my son is convinced that the elf is real in the sense that he moves himself around the house at night and ends up in all sorts of compromising...Read more

Just a week ago, we saw how fast a viral video could virally whip around the world.

It was taken during Australia’s Hanukkah-by-the-Sea family-fest that turned into a mass shooting tragedy. Yet it ended with that astonishing, made-for Hollywood heroic twist. It was quickly seen by just about all the planet’s most powerful deciders; and also...Read more

U.S. officials from across the political spectrum vow to ramp up efforts to wean the nation off rare-earth mineral imports from China. But the most promising path isn’t central planning or a federal industrial policy, but a reliance on the innovation and entrepreneurship that have made America’s private economy the envy of the world.

Rare-...Read more

For a president who is stingy with the Epstein files and refuses to release the video of the extrajudicial executions (probably) of a couple of shipwrecked Venezuelan mariners/criminals (maybe), Donald Trump has had a very transparent week.

How much more do we need to know about a person than was revealed by Trump’s erroneous and tasteless ...Read more

There’s not enough time or space to react to every Donald Trump rant that’s so offensive coming from a president of the United States.

What he said about the Reiner murders demands discussion — and not just because it was so vile. It confirms much of what’s deplorable in Trump.

Without waiting to hear who might have killed Rob Reiner ...Read more

In my corner of the world, it feels like 2020 all over again, experiencing the push and pull between losing someone I love due to medical misinformation, all while holding respect for free speech.

The tension between combating medical misinformation and protecting free speech represents one of the most challenging dilemmas of our age. On one ...Read more

For many decades, Iranian citizens have lived under one of the world’s most restrictive internet regimes. The Islamic Republic has crafted a sophisticated digital architecture that allows the state to surveil, monitor and limit access to information at will. Yet it was only recently — following Elon Musk’s decision to reveal the ...Read more

As the United States confronts the limits of its own divisions, it can feel as though blame has replaced problem-solving in nearly every area of public life. That perception has led to public trust in just about every major institution—from government to media, religious institutions, and nonprofits—reaching historic lows.

But Americans are...Read more

The world’s first social media ban of users under age 16 is now in effect in Australia. Whatever parents’ genuine concerns and understandable frustrations around their kids’ safety online, the Aussie approach is not the answer and should not be emulated by U.S. lawmakers.

The Australian ban covers Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube ...Read more