The votes are still being tallied but the result of Tuesday’s top-two primary election in California seems pretty clear.

Despite an uptick in his performance, hopes for third-place finisher Tom Steyer are fading along with the number of uncounted ballots, suggesting Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton will face off in November...Read more

Modern societies depend on continuity.

Electric grids are built over decades. Infrastructure systems require long investment cycles. Defense planning depends on sustained procurement and strategic consistency. Climate adaptation, energy systems, artificial intelligence governance, public health preparedness, and fiscal stability all require ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Some students at a racially diverse Twin Cities high school are getting much too used to seeing swastikas.

Since February, someone at Hopkins Senior High School has scrawled slurs and hateful imagery in restrooms, including those designated as gender-neutral, which by their very nature are intended to be safe spaces.

...Read more

Until recently, the main threats to kelp and coral reefs were overfishing and pollution. Now it’s our warming seas.

A study carried out by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 30 other institutions around the world reports that the ocean absorbed more heat last year than ever before. Now the agency is...Read more

California is in the middle of a quiet but high-stakes argument about what it would mean to fix our water system in a hotter, drier century, especially in the age of AI.

Echoes of this argument will resonate in everyone’s lives. One side focuses on efficiency: building more conveyance, freeing up markets and moving water to its highest-value...Read more

The drastic demolition of cities and counties sought by the Legislature is the most irresponsible enactment by Tallahassee since 1861, when an elected convention made Florida the third state to secede from the Union.

How did that turn out?

Then, as now, the people gambling recklessly with Florida’s future had not thought out the consequences...Read more

Two decades after the first casino opened in Pennsylvania — paving the way for many older residents to get hooked on slot machines — gambling interests have moved on to kids.

The explosion of online gambling, sports betting apps, and prediction markets has tapped into younger and younger gamblers, especially young men and teenage boys.

A ...Read more

I still remember the excitement rippling through my elementary school classroom when Mrs. Kaiser walked in with a stack of linen cloths and colorful thread.

It was late spring 1976. It felt like the entire nation was celebrating the nation’s 200th birthday. Billboards, bumper stickers and T-shirts proclaimed the “Spirit of 76.” Kids ...Read more

As technology developers and researchers rush to develop autonomous AI research tools (i.e., systems that independently perform tasks by designing their workflows and utilizing available tools) an urgent but rarely discussed question is: Do we really need such tools at all?

Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold (an AI tool that visualizes the 3D ...Read more

Recently, close to 600 leaders from across the country — representing some of the nation’s largest grant makers, community foundations, and grassroots groups — gathered in Seattle. They joined forces to strategize on how to do the difficult work of bringing Americans together in an era of intense polarization that threatens to pull us ...Read more

CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley probably knew that what he was about to say to his bosses would get him fired from its marquee broadcast, “60 Minutes.”

What he said afterward implied why he might have forced their hand.

Pelley charged the new management, under Bari Weiss, with conduct that would disgrace any self-respecting news ...Read more

Recently, I attended a showing of a fascinating documentary called "A Chip Odyssey" that laid out the history of how that small self-governing island democracy of Taiwan came to manufacture around 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips.

It was not at all, as President Donald Trump keeps insisting, because Taiwan “stole our ...Read more

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito cannot participate in any cases involving the Treasury Department because his son Phil works as an attorney there. Justice Amy Coney Barrett has two adopted children from Haiti, so she should be disqualified from hearing an ongoing case involving Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Chief Justice John ...Read more

The most moving scene in Homer is not the death of the great heroes, Patroclus or Hector, but the tail-wagging of a pet dog, Argos. After 20 years away, 10 fighting the Trojans and 10 wandering the seas, Odysseus returns to his hometown of Ithaca disguised as a beggar.

As he approaches his family palace, where his wife is being besieged by ...Read more

Even as the U.S. struggles to conclude its war with Iran, it’s stumbling toward an equally ill-conceived conflict in Cuba. If the White House wants to avoid another strategic morass, it needs to adjust course soon.

Since the successful January raid to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. has steadily intensified a campaign to ...Read more

Until recently, American politics operated on a simple premise: Aspiring politicians must suck up to party bosses, run for local office, earn supporters, master policy details and only then earn a shot at higher office.

That model has collapsed.

Today’s rising stars take a different escalator — television, social media, podcasts, activism,...Read more

Contrary to popular belief, rearranging deck chairs on a sinking boat can theoretically be of some benefit, if you’re clearing a path to the lifeboats, say, or keeping panicky people busy. Very quickly, though, you’ll have to confront the real problem, which is that you are on a sinking boat.

Unlike the Titanic, the Colorado River has too ...Read more

Even as the U.S. struggles to conclude its war with Iran, it’s stumbling toward an equally ill-conceived conflict in Cuba. If the White House wants to avoid another strategic morass, it needs to adjust course soon.

Since the successful January raid to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. has steadily intensified a campaign to ...Read more