In the most black-swan election of our lifetimes, the politics of resentment and strongman rule rose to the apex of American power. As a result, our democracy is in danger of being degraded to a flimsy veneer overlaying autocratic and kleptocratic rule. As President-elect Donald Trump said, the intent is to fix the system “so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Joe.

As we wrote nearly two years ago when Jimmy Carter entered hospice care, “He was not a great president like Washington or Lincoln. Indeed, Carter had a troubled presidency for four years, but had a very successful post presidency for more than 40 years, promoting peace, democracy, human rights and development.”

As this historic 2024 political year comes to a close, many Democrats are crying in their eggnog. Not only did we fail to win back the House of Representatives (this prospect seemed likely in January), but we lost the Senate and frustratingly lost the White House again — and the popular vote. Three issues add to our tears as we enter 2025 in the political wilderness.

Forty years ago this month, a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, sprung a toxic gas leak, exposing half a million people to toxic fumes. Thousands of people lost their lives in the immediate aftermath, with the death toll climbing to more than 20,000 over the next two decades. Countless others, including children of survivors, continue to endure chronic health issues.

President Joe Biden’s commutation of the death sentences of 37 out of 40 men on federal death row in advance of a Trump administration that’s eager to speed up executions was a meaningful act of principle, as was keeping three politically motivated mass murders waiting for the fatal needle.

News that President-elect Donald Trump’s team wants to hack away at the forbidding tangle of U.S. bank regulation is welcome in the abstract. In practice, though, much will depend on the details. The goal should be simplifying financial oversight more broadly — not just defanging a tough watchdog.

Arude surprise could be in store for the millions of Americans who get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act. If Congress doesn’t act next year, enhanced premium subsidies will expire by December, causing enrollees’ payments to increase by more than 75% on average. Officials estimate more than 2 million people will become uninsured in the first year after the policy lapses. Extending the enhanced subsidies, meanwhile, would cost taxpayers $335 billion through 2034.

Fifty-nine letters, bound by a brittle rubber band, saved in a dresser drawer for a half-century. Wartime letters sent by my father to my mother at her family home in Chicago, written in his own hand on Navy letterhead, the precise print of an engineer, angled slightly to the right. Yellowed on the edges but otherwise pristine, each tucked in its envelope with care. Personal letters, private letters, too painful to touch.

Immigration is essential to America’s health, otherwise we would be losing population and heading to a downward economic spiral. According to Census Bureau figures published Thursday, international migration accounted for about 84% of the country’s roughly 3.3-million-person increase between 2023 and 2024; without it, the U.S. population would be without a shadow of a doubt stagnating.

In a new study, an experimental obesity drug from Novo Nordisk called CagriSema allowed people to lose more than 20% of their body weight, on average, a result that caused the Danish company’s stock price to fall by as much as 29%. Yes, fall.

As science continues its evolution, discoveries and technologies can act like a master key that opens doors that lead to novel advancements. Artificial intelligence is one such key, making innovations possible by solving complex problems, automating tasks and enabling research that would have been impossible, or very time-consuming, without it.

As he assembles his team for a second term, President-elect Donald Trump is entitled to some latitude, even for his more unconventional picks. Yet not all executive-branch positions are created equal. Senate Republicans should be willing to draw a line when it comes to national security.

“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-filled sinkholes have formed with surface slicks of volatile methane.

Across the country, a growing anti-college sentiment has been gaining momentum, positioning itself as an inclusive alternative to traditional views of success. The movement has led more high schools to promote alternative career paths and even revise their missions to exclude any mention of college.

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

No one loves the Internal Revenue Service, but we need the much-maligned agency having enough resources to make sure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes to support Uncle Sam and Republicans should not slash that funding.

Jolayne Houtz and Hector Martinez lost their 19-year-old son in 2019. And like many parents who have had that experience, they vowed to keep his memory alive. The Bellevue couple used the enormous personal tragedy of their son’s death to help thousands of others.