In most races in the midterm elections on Nov. 3, 2026, Americans had only two realistic choices: Democrats and Republicans.

As a scholar of parties and elections, I am often asked why the U.S. has only two major parties, while other democracies offer voters three, four or even five choices. The U.S. system looks weird compared to ...Read more

A family of five is exposed to the flu virus, but only two of them get sick. A lifelong chain-smoker lives 100 years, while a professional athlete in their prime dies of an unexpected heart attack. A drug fails a clinical trial due to harmful side effects in a subset of patients despite showing good results in others.

Could any of ...Read more

Unregulated peptides for weight loss, muscle building, longevity and more are a roaring wellness fad – even though these substances have not been proved safe and effective and have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Until now, consumers were getting wellness peptides online through the so-called gray market,...Read more

World leaders meeting at the annual U.N. climate summit in November 2026 are wrestling with a persistent challenge: how to get countries to follow through on their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet.

One of the biggest problems has long been fossil fuel power plants, but new research shows that ...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump indicated he’s keen to pursue diplomacy with Iran and wind down the war following a White House meeting with the prime minister of Qatar, the main mediator between the warring sides.

Further strikes on Iran won’t be necessary, though the U.S. remains “locked and loaded,” Trump said on Monday after talks with ...Read more

Central Florida Democrats celebrated one of their best nights in years last week after flipping six seats in the state House and one in the Senate.

But as part of the minority in both chambers, their power now largely rests in having broken the GOP supermajority in both the House and Senate, which allowed Republicans to push through ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Democrats swept back into full control of state government promising to make life more affordable, and Amy Klobuchar and DFL legislative leaders already agree lowering health care, child care and housing costs must come first.

Now comes the harder part: delivering on their promises with a tight budget and a governor-...Read more

CHICAGO -- When does punishment truly come to an end for those formerly incarcerated?

“Many people think they might be getting off pretty well with just probation or five years instead of 15 behind bars and yet what they often discover is that upon release, they find themselves locked in a permanent cage with invisible bars,” Michelle ...Read more

CHICAGO — The fish, caught in a net with dozens of others like it, had just been brought to the boat ramp and placed in one of several large, water-filled tubs, where it patiently waited its turn.

Soon enough, it was whisked up and away in a catch net, weighed in at 10.14 pounds, the same as a 12-pack of soda, measured at 25.7 inches, or ...Read more

Earlier this year, Madison Harden-Stein and her colleagues at the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms posed as consumers interested in buying insurance as part of a secret shopper study.

They found that insurance brokers and sales representatives often pushed short-term health insurance plans with limited coverage, and used...Read more

Global carbon emissions are falling this year, a drop explained more by the recent oil shock than by countries’ gradual transition to clean energy.

Carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels will decline by 0.4% in 2026, to 38.2 billion metric tons, this year’s Global Carbon Budget estimates. The main driver is the U.S.-Israeli war...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Democrat Mary Peltola inched further ahead of Republican U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in the Senate race on Monday after another small batch of preliminary election results was released by the Alaska Division of Elections.

Tens of thousands of early and absentee ballots still have yet to be counted following the Nov. 3 ...Read more

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said it has tested a new high-speed torpedo that it plans to deploy early next year, extending a recent run of weapons tests ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned Asia trip next week.

The test, conducted Monday, verified the combat effectiveness of the new weapon system, the official Korean Central News...Read more

OAKLAND — Two days before his first extended interview with federal investigators, Mario Juarez sent a longtime associate a blunt message: “I need to f— the Duongs.”

Defense attorneys highlighted that text Monday in the federal corruption trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, pressing the government’s star witness about whether ...Read more

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is throwing his support behind the United Nations-authorized Gang Suppression Force, warning Monday that the latest international effort to wrest control of Haiti from the powerful grip of criminal gangs must succeed because Washington has run out of other options.

“If the Gang Suppression Force effort ...Read more

The Center for Disease Control released its yearly Antimicrobial Threats Report in October, detailing illnesses that are becoming resistant to treatment. It listed four drug-resistant illnesses as urgent public health threats.

Candida auris, Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter and Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales are urgent public health ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — On the day after a smuggling boat capsized last year just off the coast of Del Mar, leaving two children from India and two adults from Mexico dead, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called on the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty for the boat’s pilot and co-pilot.

Federal prosecutors in San Diego ...Read more