You may have only recently heard about Demis Hassabis. He’s been named one of Time magazine’s “AI architects,” won a Nobel Prize for using the technology to predict protein folding and runs Google’s AI efforts. When the search giant acquired his company DeepMind in 2014, he embraced his new employer’s vast resources to build machines...Read more

President Donald Trump spent much of 2025 squandering the public’s support on what was once his best issue: immigration. Yes, he quickly delivered on his campaign promise to secure the southern border. But as the year unfolded, his anti-immigrant agenda drove immigration policy far beyond where most Americans are willing to go.

Trump has ...Read more

A week or so before Christmas, Sacramento police descended on a residential block in a Latino neighborhood in California's capital city, closing it off on either end.

Then the party started.

Undocumented families filled the street for a posada, a Latin American Christmas tradition akin to a roving block party, with music, food and an ...Read more

Having watched Chicago’s City Council rebel against his budget — to some extent, anyway — Mayor Brandon Johnson is now focused on the matter of how (and if) the city collects its past-due debts. It’s one of the last weapons against the alternative budget he has in his quiver.

Noting the eye-popping $8 billion currently owed to the city,...Read more

Last week, Australia’s social media ban for children under age 16 officially took effect. It remains to be seen how this law will shape families' behavior; however, it’s at least a stand against the tech takeover of childhood. Here in the U.S., however, we're in a different boat — a consensus on what's best for kids feels much harder to ...Read more

Last week the Supreme Court gave the country one notable gift in blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, part of a campaign of intimidation that has seen troops deploy now to various (invariably heavily Democratic) areas.

Six justices said no to Trump, Chief John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena ...Read more

The United States Postal Service has reached a pivotal moment. Challenged by technological disruptions and constrained by outdated regulations, it is in the midst of a major restructuring plan to modernize operations, achieve service excellence and survive financially.

But to enable its transformation, the Postal Service urgently needs ...Read more

As winter settles in and daylight fades early, Americans long have turned to books for comfort, curiosity and company. The good news this holiday season is that the bookstores which make that habit possible are rebounding, too.

In the late 1990s, many book lovers often looked with scorn upon the likes of Barnes & Noble and the now-defunct ...Read more

President Donald Trump's executive order directing states to deploy artificial intelligence in foster care isn't just welcome—it's overdue.

The provision calling for "predictive analytics and tools powered by artificial intelligence, to increase caregiver recruitment and retention rates, improve caregiver and child matching, and deploy ...Read more

At a recent peaceful Hanukkah celebration of Australian Jews at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, two gunmen opened fire on families who were singing, laughing, eating festive food and enjoying fellowship. Fifteen innocent people were killed, and more than 50 were wounded.

The mourning has begun, but the anger and alienation felt by the Jewish community...Read more

“I’m not really fearful anymore,” Mary Wood told me. Wood, 49, doesn’t dodge uncomfortable topics. But I’m unsure how much to credit this claim. Over dinner in late November at a chain restaurant near her home outside Columbia, South Carolina, she recalled the “constant state of fear” that enveloped her in February 2023 when she ...Read more

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski’s appeal to Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump to pause immigration enforcement during the holiday season is the humane thing to do — in a situation that has become increasingly inhumane.

Wenski, who has long been active in immigration issues in Miami, made his pitch Monday on behalf of the Bishops ...Read more

"As far as human nature is concerned, with panic comes irrationality."

This simple statement by Professor Steve Calandrillo and Nolan Anderson has profound implications for public policy. When panic is highest, and demand for reactive policy is greatest, that's exactly when we need our lawmakers to resist the temptation to move fast and ban ...Read more

Of course, not all of the Jeffrey Epstein files were released.

Even some files made available late Friday were quickly removed. Large portions were heavily redacted. Some portions contained boldfaced names, but there was little mention of Donald Trump.

As long as Trump keeps his thumb on the scales at the U.S. Department of Justice, no one ...Read more

The Frances Perkins Building in Washington, D.C., serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor. Its dedicated employees implement and enforce labor laws passed by Congress. It’s not a church, or a synagogue, and its mission is not to serve or praise any religious deity. But if you stopped in at the Cesar Chavez auditorium on Dec....Read more

A decade ago, the Islamic State terrorist group was a household name. Tens of thousands of fighters, many from countries as far afield as Australia and France, traveled to Iraq and Syria to join an organization that sought to establish the world’s first modern-day caliphate.

It was a time when civil war raged in Syria, the Iraqi government ...Read more

“A holiday from the facts.” That’s how the antagonist of "Brave New World" describes the wonder drug soma. The phrase might equally apply to U.S. marijuana policy.

Since California first legalized medicinal cannabis in 1996, the U.S. pot industry has morphed into a $40 billion behemoth. Weed is now legal in 24 states for recreational ...Read more

From U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war to AI developments, 2025 has been full of dramatic twists and turns. One of the most consequential takeaways is to never, ever underestimate China.

At the onset of the year, the world’s second-largest economy was left for dead. Economists were predicting lost decades akin to what Japan ...Read more