Gallup
@Gallup
A new Gallup poll finds 24% of Americans satisfied and 74% dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States.
December 31, 2025
Why Growing Fear of Nature Could Harm Public Health and Conservation
- Animal phobias affect between 4% and 9% of people worldwide, causing anxiety, stress, and avoidance of natural areas that weakens environmental support
- Research focuses almost exclusively on spiders and mammals while ignoring how people increasingly fear or dislike harmless species
- Evidence suggests a troubling feedback loop: less time in nature may breed more fear, leading to even less outdoor time and stronger disconnection
Iran
NPR - Iran is experiencing its largest protests in years as thousands of people, unhappy with the state of the economy, flood the streets. Inflation in the country has skyrocketed, and the currency has plummeted to a record low. Public anger is growing over sanctions against the ruling government.
Months of anger and frustration over water and energy shortages, civil rights abuses and widespread corruption have fueled the current unrest, NPR’s Jackie Northam says. These criticisms, combined with the economic protests, have the potential to spiral into something significantly larger. The 12-day war Iran had with Israel over the summer was costly. There is now a widespread belief that Israel will start another conflict with the country, which would add more economic uncertainty, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, an economics professor at Virginia Tech, tells Northam.
Months of anger and frustration over water and energy shortages, civil rights abuses and widespread corruption have fueled the current unrest, NPR’s Jackie Northam says. These criticisms, combined with the economic protests, have the potential to spiral into something significantly larger. The 12-day war Iran had with Israel over the summer was costly. There is now a widespread belief that Israel will start another conflict with the country, which would add more economic uncertainty, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, an economics professor at Virginia Tech, tells Northam.
Venezuela
NPR - President Trump’s critics say that a strike on a Venezuelan facility is dragging the U.S. even closer to a more dangerous conflict. This week, the president revealed new details about an attack against a Venezuelan dock allegedly used to load drugs onto boats. The latest operation marks the first known U.S. strike inside Venezuela — an escalation of Trump’s campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government. The strike is significant because it raises the risk of killing people who have nothing to do with narcotics trafficking, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez says. Up until this strike, the U.S. was targeting some sanctioned oil tankers and boats suspected of trafficking drugs. Both of those operations have taken place in international waters.
Trump regime halts federal child care payments to Minnesota
NBC News -
All federal child care payments to the state of Minnesota have been frozen after a viral video alleged widespread fraud at child care facilities across the state. The freeze comes days after FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau had "surged" resources to the state as part of an ongoing fraud investigation that has largely targeted Somali immigrants.
Patel said the FBI's work was in place before a right-wing influencer's video purporting to show certain child facilities weren't operational but were receiving state and federal funds gained traction online.
Nick Shirley, who describes himself as an independent journalist, brought the subject into the spotlight of conservative media in recent days. His report out of Minneapolis was quickly championed by Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk, and the video received millions of views on YouTube and X.
Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and Assistant Secretary Alex Adams said on X that they had halted the payments and implemented additional requirements for child care payments nationwide. Full story here.
Flu is surging nationwide, and doctors say we’re nowhere near the peak
NBC News - A new variant of Influenza A, nicknamed "super flu," is taking off faster than usual this season. "Just looking at the trajectory of the curve, it’s really a pretty sharp increase that we’re seeing, and it’s not anywhere close to peaking or leveling off," said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, a senior infectious disease physician at Mass General Brigham in Boston.
The dominant, mutated H3N2 strain emerged over the summer and includes changes to a key surface protein that make it harder for the immune system to recognize the virus.
Older adults and people with chronic conditions are more likely to need hospitalizations if they contract the flu, adding more stress to facilities that already have limited beds because of Covid and RSV cases, according to Dr. Lauren Siewny, the medical director of Duke University Hospital Emergency Department. But doctors warn that young children, particularly infants and young children through age 4, have been hit the hardest.
Symptoms mirror previous flu seasons but can start acutely, such as people experiencing higher fever, shaking, chills, cough and shortness of breath, said Dr. Molly Fleece, associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Bad news for national parks
Roll Call - From the start of the second Trump administration in January 2025, there has been a steady flow of bad news for staff and services at the [National Park Service] , the arm of the Interior Department that manages the 64 national parks and 369 other units, including historic sites, battlefields, memorials, monuments, preserves and recreation areas.
President Donald Trump’s quasi-federal agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, and, after DOGE, the Interior Department and the White House Office of Management and Budget eliminated more than 4,000 permanent employees through layoffs, buyouts, firings and forced resignations, according to Park Service records obtained by the NPCA. Some staff members also left voluntarily in frustration....
There also were fewer seasonal employees hired than are usually brought on for the park system’s busiest months for visitors, which totaled nearly 332 million in 2024. Visitor statistics for 2025 have not yet been released....
The 43-day partial government shutdown in the fall also took a toll, as thousands of employees were furloughed and others worked without pay. And in recent months there have been other stresses on staff, including orders from the administration to remove all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from Park Service informational materials and items for sale in gift shops.
Your mail-in ballot could get thrown out on a technicality
MS NOW - If you plan to vote by mail, you should plan to get your ballot in even earlier than usual.
That’s because a recent U.S. Postal Service policy change that affects how and when postmarks are applied could lead to some ballots being thrown out even if they were mailed on time.
To the extent that any of us thinks about postmarks — which is probably not much — we probably picture a postal clerk at a counter tapping that round rubber stamp on the upper-right corner of an envelope.
But these days, about the only people who get their mail postmarked by hand are couples sending out fancy wedding invitations. Most mail is postmarked by machine as it’s processed.
A recent Postal Service policy change that took effect this week ended the seven-decade policy of postmarks reflecting when an item is considered mailed. Now, the postmark could mean not when the Postal Service first took possession of an item but the day that that piece of mail was first received at a processing facility.
That means if you drop your ballot in a blue USPS box on Election Day — or your tax return on April 15, for that matter — it may get a postmark of the next day.
Social Security Delayed for Millions Due to Record Backlogs
Newsweek - Millions of Americans receiving Social Security benefits faced delays because of widespread backlogs in 2025, according to a new report from The Washington Post.
A Social Security Administration (SSA) spokesperson disputed the report in a statement to Newsweek, writing: "The Washington Post piece is full of Pinocchios. Social Security provided multiple on the record statements to refute the fake news, but the Washington Post would rather fearmonger seniors than print the truth. An independent OIG audit proved that the Social Security Administration has made profound customer service improvements as a result of technology and staffing decisions.
Nearly 75 million Americans rely on Social Security as part of their retirement, according to a report the SSA released in November. The program provides critical retirement, survivor and disability benefits to those recipients.
While the program remains broadly popular among Americans, it has faced questions about its future and has undergone changes since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, particularly amid cuts made through the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year.
December 30, 2025
The Social Costs of Declining Literacy
Kate Perry, The Observatory - The United States is in the grip of a reading recession—nearly half of Americans didn’t read a single book in 2023, and fewer than half read even one, according to data from YouGov and the National Endowment for the Arts. What is at stake is a deeper erosion of the habits that sustain knowledge, empathy, and democratic life.
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