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Economist Intelligence Unit

USPS Unveils New Stamps For 2026

TSA Giving the Names of All Air Travelers to ICE

Mediaite - The Transportation Security Administration is providing Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the names of all travelers passing through American airports. TSA has submitted lists of names to the immigration agency multiple times a week since the program began in March, The New York Times reported on Friday. ICE then checks travelers’ information against its own internal list of those subject to deportations.

2025 Was A ‘Great’ Year For Just 1 In 10 Americans

Study Finds - Americans are limping into 2026 with low expectations after a year most would rather forget. Only 10% of people called 2025 a “great” year, according to a survey, with the vast majority describing it as “just okay” (39%), “bad” (19%), or even “awful” (10%).

Determined to turn things around, 38% of Americans are setting personal goals for the new year. The Talker Research survey of 2,000 Americans shows people are creating an average of six resolutions each, with financial security and physical fitness leading the charge...

The widespread dissatisfaction with 2025 appears to be fueling a renewed commitment to self-improvement. Rather than accepting another lackluster year, Americans are doubling down on personal goals, hoping that intentional changes can shift their circumstances in meaningful ways.

Putting more money into savings (45%) and getting more exercise (45%) tied as the most common resolutions, followed by improving overall physical health (41%). Other popular goals include eating healthier (40%), improving holistic financial wellness (34%), spending more time outdoors (29%), and boosting mental health (29%).

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: Trump is now able to “fire all the scientists and the doctors and the economists and the PhDs and replace them with loyalists and people who don’t know anything."

Meanwhile. . .

Roll Call - Donald Trump posted 22 items on Truth Social yesterday. 

NY Times  -  TheTrump administration is providing the names of all travelers passing through U.S. airports to immigration officials in search of people with deportation orders, in an expansion of its crackdown.

Health

The Hill - Measles outbreaks are spreading across the U.S., and the nation is likely to lose its status as a country where the disease is eliminated, something that infectious disease specialists say is directly related to President Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

South Carolina this week quarantined at least 254 people after confirming more than two dozen measles cases in the state. It’s the latest in what has been the worst year for measles in the U.S. in recent history. 

An outbreak in West Texas this year saw more than 700 confirmed cases since January and the deaths of two children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 47 reported outbreaks in the country this year. 

Axios - American families, small business owners, farmers and shift workers all rely on the health care tax credit to afford health coverage. More than 22 million Americans now face a cost crisis if Congress does not extend the tax credit. Time is almost up. 

The Jewish Diaspora Movement

Photo by Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images

In These Times -  “I want the spiritual technologies of Judaism to be able to ground and nourish a movement that is facing despair after despair after despair,” [Rabbi Louisa] Solomon says. ?“And I don’t want these institutions that are fucking racist and transphobic and Zionist to … gate keep all of the access to those resources and that history.”

This is how Jewish Liberation Learning began: a slow, responsive and emergent educational program that launched in 2023. They hired Jewish educators, several of whom had been recently fired in relation to their activism for a cease-fire. The program was ready, but by then, interest had swelled.

Luckily, as Solomon explains, they are not the only game in town for anti-Zionist Jewish life. As a mass fracture hits American Jewry, new projects have sprouted, attempting to offer not just new options for observance but an entirely new model of Jewishness. 

While activist organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have created a space for a new kind of Jewish identity to flourish, a new network of religious projects is growing to offer a pathway back to Judaism itself. With little funding and support from the larger infrastructure of American Jewish life, this upstart confederation is remaking American Judaism with the same ingenuity that marked the historical Jewish Left’s attempt to celebrate a diverse and ethical vision for Jewish life.

Wood Banks Aren’t Inspiring. They’re a Sign of Collapse.

New Republic -  Rural America knows the truth long before the rest of the country feels it. Nothing collapses all at once. It just stops working in small places first while everyone else calls it local hardship. That’s why wood banks—like a food bank but for fuel—are important. They’re the clearest sign that basic systems in this country have already failed.

A wood bank is exactly what it sounds like. People in rural and Indigenous areas still heavily rely on wood heat as the primary fuel source for their homes. Volunteers cut and split firewood, stack it somewhere public, and give it away for free to those who can’t afford it. No paperwork. No means tests. No government forms. Just a pile of hardwood that shows up because someone else’s house would be cold without it.

Most articles about wood banks wrap them in the same tired language. Community spirit. Rural generosity. Neighbors helping neighbors. It’s the kind of coverage you get when journalists focus on the people stacking the wood instead of the conditions that made it necessary. They never mention the underlying reality. Wood banks exist because without them, people would freeze. It’s the same everywhere: Local news crews film volunteers splitting logs while pretending it’s heartwarming, reporting on senior citizens splitting 150 cords a year for neighbors in need as if the story is about kindness instead of the failure that created the need in the first place....
 

You don’t start a wood bank in a country with functioning institutions. You start one when heating assistance programs can’t keep up, when the grid flickers every time the wind shifts, when propane and heating oil costs swing so hard that families can’t budget more than a week out. You start a wood bank when seniors stop turning on their heat because they’re scared of the bill. You also start one when the country pretends energy insecurity doesn’t exist because acknowledging it would mean admitting that entire regions were left behind on purpose. Federal data shows that families are using less fuel than they did five years ago but spending more for it. Heating oil and propane have seen some of the steepest price swings, especially in rural states, and those increases hit households that already live on tight margins.

That’s collapse. Not the cinematic kind. Not the dramatic scenes everyone imagines when they talk about a country falling apart. Collapse is boring. It’s ordinary. It looks like people standing next to a log splitter on a Saturday morning because the safety net dissolved and no one replaced it. Collapse isn’t a single moment. It’s what happens when the systems people rely on keep existing on paper but stop functioning in practice. Heating programs remain funded but reach only a fraction of eligible households. The grid stays interconnected, but the outages keep stacking up and repairs keep getting delayed. Fuel is available, but the costs vary so widely that families can’t budget for it or afford it. These are small failures that accumulate until ordinary people are left to solve problems that institutions were supposed to solve.

Study: Sleep does more than diet or exercise for longevity

Science Alert  - What you gain in a day by staying up late might be curtailing how long you live, according to a new study linking insufficient sleep to a lower life expectancy.

While poor sleep has been previously linked to a host of health issues and shorter lifespans, this latest investigation found that getting enough shut-eye had a stronger connection to living longer than diet and exercise – factors that are known to add years to your life.

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) crunched the numbers on survey data from across the US, covering the years 2019 to 2025.

Measures of life expectancy were compared against self-reported evaluations of sleep duration, with less than seven hours per night considered a threshold for insufficient sleep.

States taking lead on AI health issues

Axios - While President Trump demands a single national framework on AI policy, states are going their own way with hundreds of proposals aimed at setting guardrails for how the technology is used in health care.

That could set up a clash over who determines how AI models and systems can be deployed in insurer reviews, mental health treatment and chatbots that interact with patients.

More than 250 AI bills affecting health care were introduced in 47 states as of mid-October, according to a tracker from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

• 33 of those bills in 21 states became law.
• A half dozen states have enacted laws focused on use of AI-enabled chatbots, including Illinois' new law banning apps or services from providing mental health and therapeutic decision-making.

What they're saying: "There is a lot of bipartisan alignment on the topic. Red states are mirroring provisions of laws introduced in blue states and vice versa," said Randi Seigel, a partner at Manatt...

Many of these efforts could bump up against Trump's push to establish a federal framework for AI and preempt state laws.

• Trump signed an executive order Thursday that requires the attorney general to establish a task force to challenge burdensome state AI regulations.
• It also draws Congress into the fight by calling for a legislative recommendation for a federal AI framework.  Share this

Polls

Newsweek - Recent polling shows the proportion of Latinos who support Trump is declining. According to Pew Research Center analysis based on September and October polling, 70 percent of Latinos disapprove of Trump's job performance. A further 65 percent disapprove of his approach to immigration and 61 percent say his economic policies have made the economy worse.

The analysis also found that 81 percent of Latino Trump voters still approve of his job performance—though this is a decline from the 93 percent they recorded at the start of his second term.

Other polls are similarly negative. A November poll by Axios/Ipsos of over 1,100 Latino and Hispanic Americans, conducted with Noticias Telemundo, found that 65 percent believe it is a "bad time" to be Latino or Hispanic in the United States. This is 25 percentage points more than in March 2024, when 40 percent reported this view.

 

Pew Research  - Roughly one-in-five U.S. teens say they use TikTok and YouTube almost constantly. And 64% of teens report using AI chatbots, including 28% who use them daily.  

 

Pew Researcg  - Roughly one-in-five U.S. teens say they use TikTok and YouTube almost constantly. And 64% of teens report using AI chatbots, including 28% who use them daily.  

 

 FactPost -  64% of Americans are buying cheaper or less food. 34% have skipped a meal altogether. 48% said they use savings for their basic expenses. Nearly half of Americans say groceries, housing, utilities, and health care are just getting harder to afford. 

Historic preservation trust sues Trump over White House ballroom

Roll Call -  The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging President Donald Trump’s plans to construct a ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing.

The trust, a congressionally chartered nonprofit, argued in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that Trump and administration officials have violated, and are continuing to violate, the Administrative Procedure Act and National Environmental Policy Act by demolishing the East Wing and moving forward with construction of the ballroom. 

The complaint said the administration violated the laws when it didn’t consult with the National Capital Planning Commission or the Commission of Fine Arts and failed to conduct environmental assessments before proceeding with the demolition.

The trust asked the court to prevent any further work until an adequate environmental assessment is prepared and “enjoin defendant President Trump, and anyone acting at his direction or in concert with him, from performing further work on the Ballroom Project.”

Seven Richest Billionaires Are All Media Barons

Mintpress News -  Trump loyalist and CIA contractor Larry Ellison’s purchase of CNN appears imminent, and marks the latest venture into media for the world’s second-richest individual. But Ellison is not alone. Indeed, the world’s seven richest individuals are all now powerful media barons, controlling what the world sees, reads, and hears, marking a new chapter in oligarchical control over society and striking another blow at a free, independent press and diversity of opinion.

Money

Robert Reich -The world's richest 0.001% now control 3x as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity combined. 56,000 wealthy individuals have more than roughly 4 billion people.

Via Annie

 

Photos from the Epstein file

Illinois becomes 12th state to let terminally ill residents choose to end their lives

Independent UK -  Illinois residents with terminal illnesses will soon be able to choose to end their lives on their own terms.

Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Medical Aid in Dying act into law Friday. It is also known as “Deb's Law” in recognition of Deb Robertson, a lifelong resident of the state living with a rare terminal illness who has pushed for the measure's approval.

She has testified to the suffering of people and their families wanting the chance to decide for themselves how and when their lives should end.

Pritzker said he was moved by stories of patients suffering from terminal illness and their devotion to "freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak.”

“This legislation will be thoughtfully implemented so that physicians can consult patients on making deeply personal decisions with authority, autonomy, and empathy,” Pritzker said after singing the measure in Chicago.

King Charles gives an update on his cancer

People -   King Charles is sharing a rare — and hopeful — update about his ongoing cancer treatment in a new televised message.

On Dec. 12, the King, 77, appeared in Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer broadcast with a pre-recorded message filmed at Clarence House several weeks ago, speaking candidly about his own “overwhelming” diagnosis, the importance of early detection and the reality that millions of people in the U.K. are missing out on potentially life-saving screenings.

But he also revealed a significant development in his own health journey.

"Today I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’ orders,’ my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the New Year," the King said.

"This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years; testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the fifty percent of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives," he continued. 

Word

Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent,” she told U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer during the hearing in Trump v. Slaughter.

Donald Trump

The Guardian -  London police chief Sir Mark Rowley on Trump's claims: How anybody in America can suggest the UK is violent is completely ridiculous. The homicide rate in London is lower than every single US state. It’s lower than all their big cities. The murder rate in New York last time I looked is three or four times higher than London per capita.

The homicide rate in London is lower than it is in Toronto, it’s lower than Paris, it’s lower than Brussels, it’s lower than Berlin.

Bad snow storms predicted

Newsweek -  Millions of Americans are on alert for treacherous winter conditions, with the National Weather Service (NWS) warning of up to 30 inches of snow in some areas.

Winter storm warnings, winter storm watches, and winter weather advisories have been issued, impacting at least 19 states and Washington, D.C., from the Rockies through the Midwest and Great Lakes to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. 

Authorities warn of avalanche risks as well as significant disruptions to travel and daily life due to hazardous conditions.

How pop music hs changed over time

Study Finds - Popular music has become progressively darker, more stressed, and linguistically simpler over the past 50 years, tracking alongside America’s growing mental health crisis, according to research that analyzed over 20,000 Billboard Hot 100 song lyrics..

•      Stress language surged: Words related to stress, anxiety, and pressure increased 81% from 1973 to 2023, tracking alongside rising depression and anxiety rates in clinical data.
•     Songs got simpler: Lyrics became more repetitive and structurally less complex over five decades, paralleling declines in educational test scores and cognitive measures.
•     Crises reversed trends: During COVID-19 and after 9/11, Americans unexpectedly chose less stressful, more positive music—suggesting people use songs as emotional relief rather than mirrors of distress.
•     Economy didn’t matter: Income fluctuations showed no relationship with lyrical mood once time trends were removed, indicating subjective experiences may matter more than economic data.

Trump Admin Scraps ‘DEI’ Coins

Newsweek -   The Trump administration scrapped Biden-era coin designs that highlighted themes like civil rights and the abolition of slavery to mark the U.S.’s 250th anniversary, which a Trump official described as focusing on “DEI.”

"The new Semiquincentennial Quarter designs will celebrate American history and the founding of our great nation," U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach told Fox News Digital on Thursday...

The coin design reversal is the latest example of the Trump administration’s broader effort to reshape how American history is officially depicted.

Trump officials have repeatedly moved to sideline interpretations of U.S. history that highlight racial injustice or systemic inequality, such as launching reviews of museum programs deemed ideologically “distorted,” and challenging how institutions teach the history of slavery.

Word

Intolerance

At a time of rising intolerance, the century-old work of C E M Joad reminds us what tolerance really is and why we need it

Childhood vaccination problems

Axios - The future of American health care may be shaped by a significantly less robust childhood vaccination schedule, especially now that President Trump has embraced rhetoric previously confined to anti-vaccine activists.

Less vaccination opens the door to a lot more infectious disease and its long-term ramifications, public health experts say. And complicating any effort to forecast how this all plays out is that it's not particularly clear which vaccines Trump would drop from the government's recommended list.

Trump, asked by reporters about the review of the childhood vaccination schedule that he ordered last week, said that "we're going to reduce it very substantially."

    He referenced "88 different shots" children now receive when, in reality, it's more like 54 doses by age 18, including annual flu shots.

    In the memo ordering the review, Trump directed health officials to "review best practices from peer, developed countries for core childhood vaccination recommendations."

The obvious question — to me at least — is which vaccines Trump and other health officials are concerned about...

Figuring out if there's a problem with the vaccine schedule depends on which country you're comparing the U.S. with, or even which genre of vaccine concerns you're talking about.

    While the U.S. is certainly on the hefty end of the spectrum, we're not alone there. Countries like Australia have vaccine schedules pretty similar to ours.
    Others, like Denmark — which was singled out by Trump and in discussions by CDC vaccine advisers — vaccinate every citizen against significantly fewer diseases.
    Public health experts point out that Denmark is many times smaller than the U.S. and, unlike us, has a national health system, among other differences.

But where the U.S. stands in relation to other developed nations isn't the only avenue of concern being explored by the administration and its advisers, many of whom lack formal backgrounds in vaccine science.

    Vaccine ingredients and even the FDA's approval processes have also come under fire, which further expands the potential list of vaccine targets.

The other side: "There [are] no problems that are being solved," said Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist and professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

    "They just sit and scour the landscape for any excuse they can to disrupt the childhood immunization and vaccine schedule," he added.

    "So I think you have to be very careful in giving too much credence to their reasons for it. They're all contrived reasons. These are not good-faith actors."

Ukraine

NPR - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the Ukrainian people would need to speak through a referendum for his country to surrender territory, which the U.S. wants Ukraine to do as part of a peace deal with Russia. Zelenskyy and other Europeans are working to offer answers and alternatives to pressure from Trump’s bid to end the war.

Zelenskyy is engaging with the Trump administration’s most painful proposals to show that Ukraine is negotiating in good faith, NPR’s Joanna Kakissis tells Up First. Giving up territory has been a red line for Ukrainians. Zelenskyy says he is examining the possibility of elections over the next 90 days or a referendum on giving up parts of eastern Ukraine to help end the war. Ukraine has not held elections because the country is under martial law due to the Russian invasion, and the constitution forbids elections during wartime, Kakissis says. Public opinion polls show that most Ukrainians think holding elections now is a terrible idea. 

Trump said to be considering reclassification of marijuana

Bloomberg - Trump is said to be considering directing his administration to have marijuana reclassified as a drug with a lower potential for dependency—on the same level as ketamine, Tylenol with codeine, and anabolic steroids.

• Such a move would make it easier to buy and sell it, ease tax burdens, help draw in more mainstream investors, and bolster medical research. But the government would first need to finish a rulemaking process on hold since January.
• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s spoken often about his own experiences with addiction, has said widespread state legalization and decriminalization offer a chance to study real-world effects.
• Legislation around cannabis is a patchwork. Though it’s banned federally, many states have legalized the drug for recreational use, opening the door for an industry valued at about $30 billion last year.
• Meanwhile, hemp-derived products have been around for years, thanks to a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, giving rise to a thriving market for cannabis cocktails and THC beverages—that even enticed Target—but which has prompted Congress to clamp down.
• Here’s what “rescheduling” marijuana would mean and how legal weed has changed the US, for better or for worse.

Axios -   Public sentiment on pot use has been shifting for the past half-century, with Americans increasingly in favor of it. According to a recent Gallup poll, 64% support legalization, up from 36% in 2005.

Washington state swamped by rain and swelling rivers

NBC -  Washington state is once again getting hammered by torrential rains and swelling rivers. Communities that have barely recovered from the last major series of storms are now facing another long rebuilding process.

John Perry, the mayor of Everson, Washington, described watching flood waters from the Nooksack River inundate his community as "déjà vu" — it's the second time in about four years that homes and businesses have been collateral damage to extreme weather.

About 100,000 people have been asked to evacuate their homes as a series of atmospheric river storms drenched the state this week, causing mudslides and shuttering highways. More than a dozen Washington rivers were expected to experience major flooding, according to the National Weather Service. Read the full story.

Health

NBC News - The Republican-controlled Senate voted to reject health care bills offered by each party