A large national survey released last week by PRRI, a nonpartisan, nonprofit polling organization, applied some sharp detail to the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S. The overall trend, of course, is unmistakable. Donald Trump lavishes praise on international thugs and promises to unleash vengeance on any American who excites his insecurities ...Read more

Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) is back in the news. As of early September, the World Health Organization has reported more than 5,000 laboratory-confirmed cases this year. Given the well-documented shortcomings of mpox surveillance, these numbers underestimate the true magnitude of the disease burden.

The highest number of cases are in the ...Read more

As a scientist, I view every animal behavior as a crucial data point, revealing an animal’s well-being through the collective story they tell. After 25 years in the wildlife world, this skill is finely tuned. That’s why watching the HBO docuseries “Chimp Crazy,” from the producers of “ Tiger King,” is so distressing. The image the ...Read more

Anyone glancing at the headlines might think the electric vehicle market is doomed: Mainstream shoppers are skeptical, old-fashioned gas guzzlers are making the profits, and ex-President Donald Trump has vowed to target the Democrats’ pro-EV policies if he wins on Nov. 5.

In fact, the market for EVs is growing at a good clip, albeit more ...Read more

Since President Jimmy Carter created the modern Department of Education in 1979, the department has faced continuous calls for its abolition. This threat has persisted through Republican administrations, from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump.

Never following through on their campaign promises to abolish it, some presidents have often used the ...Read more

Tax increases get the attention, but regulations can be even costlier.

The Committee to Unleash Prosperity recently found new rules imposed during the Biden-Harris administration will cost taxpayers almost $50,000 per household in net present value. That means those costs won’t all be felt immediately. Study author Casey Mulligan, a senior ...Read more

Everyone needs to stop talking about the lube. Right now.

The arrest of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is not about the 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lube discovered during the March raids on his Los Angeles and Miami properties; it's about allegations of coordinated and documented physical and sexual abuse.

It's not about the slickly named "...Read more

Former President Donald Trump isn’t a threat to democracy. Vice President Kamala Harris should acknowledge this before someone else tries to murder the former president.

On Sunday, the Secret Service stopped a would-be assassin at a golf course Trump was playing on. A federal criminal complaint stated that Ryan Wesley Routh may have been ...Read more

Once again, former President Donald Trump is talking about his candidacy as if he doesn't have a presidency we can refer to.

This time the topic is the construction of Nord Stream 2, a controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. For years members of both parties had opposed Nord Stream 2, fearing it would increase Europe's dependency...Read more

Three tiny puppies born last year at an Ohio breeding facility were just 3 days old when they took their last breath. According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection report, the breeder noticed they weren’t gaining weight but didn’t bother to seek veterinary care.

Three days later, a fourth puppy from the same litter ...Read more

There now is no question that Chicago needs the gunfire detection technology known as ShotSpotter.

We sympathize with those who wish this financially strapped city did not have use for an expensive system designed to get police officers more quickly to a bloody scene on its streets. We dearly wish the same. But the data is clear. Need it we do....Read more

For the first time since the Nazi era, a far-right party made a significant political breakthrough in Germany. The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) won a regional election this month in the state of Thuringia and came second in neighboring Saxony. Visceral angst for democracy has befallen the country, but all is not as bleak as it seems.

As ...Read more

Could our unshakeable addiction to plastics be broken?

That’s certainly the hope of activists. The U.S. — birthplace of the modern polymers industry, and the biggest producer of its key feedstocks, oil and gas — has joined a bloc supporting a worldwide treaty capping plastics production. That could make a United Nations meeting in South ...Read more

President Ronald Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” California Gov. Gavin Newsom keeps proving him right.

Last September, Newsom signed a bill mandating a $20 per hour minimum wage for fast-food workers. The requirement went into effect in ...Read more

Nearly half a million Americans received an unpleasant surprise this summer, according to insurance billing data: a new diagnosis of Lyme disease. Those numbers could shrink if scientists succeed in developing a vaccine for the tick-borne illness.

Low consumer demand scuppered a previous vaccine in the 1990s, but the situation is very ...Read more

Why does cynicism feel like a reasonable, inevitable, even smart posture these days? I think most of us have been there … ready to write off politics as corrupt or hopeless, ready to identify those on the other side of an issue as heartless or evil, feeling like the savvy thing is to keep our cards close, our hearts protected, our hopes low. ...Read more

Are Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump really the two best candidates for America's most demanding and important job? Hardly. Trump tried to reverse the last election. And while Harris would be a reversion toward the mean — after an unfit Trump and an aging Joe Biden — she's far from the most talented executive in...Read more

A seismic shift has occurred in America's race, identity and power discourse. Like tectonic plates beneath the Earth's surface, long-held assumptions are adjusting and giving way to a reimagined lingua franca for civic engagement. This revived language of liberation redefines the terms of debate. It empowers us to reclaim and reinvigorate words ...Read more

Getting folks to watch a documentary about the Big Lie is a Big Ask. Who wants to relive that horrible chapter in America’s political history, especially while we’re writing a new, possibly less-horrible chapter?

Despite its title, HBO’s “Stopping the Steal” is as much about what lies ahead of us as it is about that other election ...Read more