Let’s stipulate this up front: The Des Moines Register’s poll of the presidential race in Iowa that was published just days before the election was miles off the mark.

The poll, overseen by veteran pollster Ann Selzer, shockingly had Democrat Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by three points in a state everyone assumed Trump would win ...Read more

David Walker ran the Government Accountability Office for a decade, under both a Republican and Democratic president. Elected officials should take him seriously when he warns that the nation is headed for fiscal blowup.

“The fuse has been lit on our debt bomb,” Walker, who led the GAO from 1998 until 2008, told members of the House Budget ...Read more

U.S. educators better hope Santa doesn’t check test results. New results from an international comparison of K-12 students showed they continue to fall behind their peers around the world. If American students are to bounce back, policymakers nationwide need to ignore the calls for lower—yes, lower—standards coming from some sectors and ...Read more

Because it’s apparently too hard to cut the carbon emissions heating up the planet, many countries plan to sweep much of their pollution under the rug instead. This might be fine, except the rug will have to be comically, unrealistically large — the size of the entire U.S., according to a new study.

The net-zero promises made by 140 ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump received more than 77 million votes after having been held liable by a jury for sexual abuse in a civil case. (His previous election victory, in 2016, followed the release of a tape in which he bragged about groping women.)

In turn, Trump has nominated men for some of the most important positions in government — ...Read more

“I’m just waiting to start hearing methane explosions like they do in Russia,” says Bethel, Alaska, City Council Member Mark Springer. Until recently he and his wife would pick summer berries on a trail through the tundra outside their river town in southwest Alaska, but now that part of the tundra is too dangerous to traverse since water-...Read more

When George Lai of Portland, Oregon, took his toddler son to a pediatrician last summer for a checkup, the doctor noticed a little splinter in the child’s palm.

“He must have gotten it between the front door and the car,” Lai later recalled, and the child wasn’t complaining. The doctor grabbed a pair of forceps — aka tweezers — and...Read more

When the Nobel committee recognized Han Kang in October for her body of work exploring “the fragility of human life,” it could not have known how relevant the theme would feel in South Korea just two months later.

Han, the first Korean writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, has long been interested in the existence of the victims of ...Read more

This holiday season brings an extra reason to be joyful: A recent poll found that Americans’ belief in the existence of a “War on Christmas” has fallen dramatically since 2022, to 23%. Peace on earth and mercy mild!

Perhaps with the ongoing “invasion” of our southern border, Fox and other conservative networks have decided that it’s...Read more

The idyllic holiday scene — piles of presents, smiles all around — rarely matches reality. Who among us hasn’t faced the awkward silence of a gift that falls flat? Who hasn’t been disappointed by one we’ve received?

Why then, do we get it wrong so often? Why are we so bad at giving gifts? I’ve researched these questions through the ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump’s latest promise is to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which would mean putting the U.S. on Standard Time year-round.

Billionaire DOGE bosses Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, meanwhile, seem to want to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. Is this just a miscommunication? Or is the incoming administration as divided...Read more

The first thing I do each morning is check my watch — not for the time but for my sleep score.

As a runner, when the glowing red letters say my score — and my training readiness — are poor, I feel an instant dread. Regardless, I scroll on, inspecting my heart rate variability and stress level — snapshots that influence the tone I carry ...Read more

Reeling from a divisive and turbulent election season, many of us seek spaces of solace, light, unity and worship as we turn toward the winter holidays.

The cosmos and its reflection within us harbor such spaces.

By viewing and embracing scientific insights through the lens of humanity, you form a connection with your place in the universe. ...Read more

Taking off from Mérida’s airport, in Mexico’s southeastern Yucatán state, offers some breathtaking views: the emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the unusual geography shaped by an asteroid millions of years ago. But you might also note something else: gaps in the forest cover gashed out by massive real estate projects — private ...Read more

Most Americans who marry say “I do” between 25 and 30 — ages when serious illness is probably not the first thing on their minds. But in a way, tying the knot is a major health decision. For men, just being married is a predictor of living longer. For women, the picture is more complex.

Among men with prostate cancer, married men survive ...Read more

Did you miss it? On Tuesday, the electoral college made official what we've known for six weeks: Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris for the presidency.

Americans could be excused for being unaware that electors met in all 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia to cast votes. In nearly every presidential election year, the ...Read more

Now that pollsters are declaring President Joe Biden a “failure,” historians will reckon with too many economic signals rendering the prevailing narrative little more than media noise.

From the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that ushered in the longest period of unemployment below 4% since the 1960s to the Infrastructure Investment and ...Read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to project an image of economic strength while prosecuting the war in Ukraine, as if he could easily outlast the West’s efforts to counter his aggression. If President-elect Donald Trump and other Western leaders want to negotiate a prudent peace deal, they shouldn’t buy it.

More than most ...Read more

Sacramento-area congressman Kevin Kiley took to the floor of the House of Representatives recently to declare the following:

“Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to report that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has honed in on perhaps the single-greatest example of government waste in United States history,” the Republican from ...Read more

It seems everyone has a theory on the nocturnal drone sightings that have alarmed residents in the Northeast. They’re from our government, they’re from a foreign country, they’re planes, they’re just normal drones, they’re extraordinary craft that elude regular detection.

One thing we are sure of: The Biden Administration has dropped ...Read more