May 25, 2026
Spending on Seniors’ Benefits Soon to Make Up Majority of Federal Budget
Headline USA - (Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square) - More than half of the federal budget will go toward benefits for Americans 65 years and older by 2036, and that percentage is set to only grow, a recent congressional report finds. The Joint Economic Committee’s 2026 report shows that non-interest federal spending on Social Security and Medicare payouts will climb from 45% to 52% over the next decade
“Given long-term demographic forecasts, this increase does not represent a peak, but rather a step in a continued upward trajectory,” the report notes. In recent years, the U.S. has racked up record-breaking deficits, pushing the national debt past $39 trillion. The federal government is on track to post a $2 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2026, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
More than 5 million face sewage and fuel links in Potomac River
Inside Climate News - The warning signs were years in the making. And yet, regulators failed to heed the writing on the wall, according to Dean Naujoks. An investigator with the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, Naujoks spent three years documenting what he calls a systemic failure that culminated in dual environmental catastrophes now threatening the health of the entire Potomac River system, which is already stressed.
In January, a 60-year-old sewer pipe known as the Potomac Interceptor, running along the Maryland shoreline of the Potomac, collapsed near the Clara Barton Parkway corridor in Montgomery County, releasing an estimated 243 million gallons of raw sewage into the river over approximately three weeks.
But even before that spill, another crisis had already begun to unfold elsewhere in the watershed. At Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, a fuel system failure on Dec. 11 led to thousands of gallons of jet fuel entering the headwaters of Piscataway Creek, a tributary that feeds directly into the Potomac. The leak continued for months before state regulators were notified.
Stretching more than 400 miles, the Potomac River is a source of drinking water for more than 5 million people in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In April, American Rivers, a conservation nonprofit, named it the most endangered river in the country, citing both the sewage spill and the rapid expansion of data centers.
Piscataway Creek, an 18.6-mile tributary of the Potomac, begins at the edge of Joint Base Andrews and slips back into the Potomac at Fort Washington Park. Its name derives from the indigenous Piscataway people, who’ve stewarded these waters for thousands of years and maintain a living relationship with the creek and the river to this day.
Health
NY Times - The American Psychiatric Association gathered just 10 days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a set of policies to encourage doctors to deprescribe, or assist patients in stopping, the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants.
A current of anxiety ran through the meeting, held here this week. Many physicians in the crowd said they worried that Mr. Kennedy’s statements would prompt people to refuse medications, or to quit them and relapse. The plenary session erupted in applause when Dr. Marketa Wills, the organization’s chief executive, declared, “We will never support governmental interference in the practice of medicine.”
“We are standing tall for evidence-based care,” she continued. “We are standing tall against stigma, oversimplification, and anything that would move patients further away from the care that they need.” MORE
Epstein files
Daily Beast - Rep. Thomas Massie has claimed that Melania Trump “knows” Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t running his child sex abuse ring alone. Massie, 55, appeared on Meet the Press Sunday, and confirmed that he planned to personally reveal more names from the Epstein files after a lack of clear action from the acting attorney general.
“Todd Blanche is violating the law. There’s still millions of files they haven’t released,” he said.
“We know from talking to the victims’ lawyers that their own 302 forms haven’t been released. We know the files have been over-redacted....
The Republican, who lost his House primary last week, added: “I don’t think it’s possible to get to convictions with Todd Blanche at the top and with the FBI director, Kash Patel, at the top, because they have effectively both perjured themselves by saying there’s nobody else in the files.” He then claimed of Donald Trump’s wife: “Even Melania doesn’t believe that. The first lady knows that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t act alone.”
El Nino
New York Times - El Niño is the name given to powerful shifts in Pacific Ocean winds and water temperatures that can drastically transform global weather patterns. Over the centuries these natural patterns have sparked epic droughts and heat waves, and have intensified epidemics. Some academics even claim to see the fingerprints of El Niño on political and economic crises in ancient Egypt, or on the downfall of the Moche civilization in present-day Peru, more than 1,000 years ago. And in 1877 and 1878, a famine fueled by El Niño killed millions of people across the tropics, hardening inequities that, as one research paper put it, “would later be characterized as the ‘first world’ and ‘third world.’”
Right now, the world is entering a new El Niño phase. Researchers are warning it could be one of the strongest on record and are invoking this history as an admonition that natural forces, when they reach their highest magnitude, can lead to profound volatility and hardship. In general, El Niño makes for wetter conditions in some parts of the Americas while suppressing the Atlantic hurricane season. The phenomenon raises the risk of dryness in South and Southeast Asia, Australia, and southern Africa.
Donald Trump
Alternet America - Donald Trump is scheduled to undergo his third medical checkup at Walter Reed in 13 months on Tuesday. This is two more than presidents tend to need in a year if everything is fine.
The Washington Post reported Monday that independent physicians have been asking the White House to explain a number of things that are hard to miss: persistent bruises on the president’s hands, visibly swollen legs, and occasional public sleepiness. The White House says he’s in excellent health. This is also what they said last October, before quietly admitting that the visit involved a CT scan to rule out cardiovascular concerns.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who was Dick Cheney’s cardiologist, told the Post that the White House’s bruise explanation — too much aspirin, too much hand-shaking — doesn’t hold up.
“If you’re taking too much aspirin, one would likely take less aspirin,” he said. The bruises also appear on both hands, and Trump does not, as far as anyone can tell, shake hands with his left.
The White House response has been to publish what it calls a Wall of Shame, naming reporters and social media users who have noted that the president sometimes disappears from public view. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has alleged that Trump has the highest testosterone Mehmet Oz has ever seen in a 70-year-old, which is exactly the kind of medical opinion you’d expect from Mehmet Oz.
Biking risks
Live Long Newsletter - One UK study found that cycling to work carries a 41% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to driving or taking transit. A Copenhagen study estimated that cyclists gain up to 14 months of life expectancy from cycling, while the risk of injury costs five days—a 20-to-1 net gain. In the U.S., though, accidents ranked third among leading causes of death in 2023, accounting for 7.2%. Bicycle deaths are up 37% in the past decade, rising as more people take up cycling, and as more cities add bike lanes.
Move to ban non-native born citizens from governmenet
Deep State Tribunal - A sweeping constitutional fight over who can write our laws is erupting after Rep. Nancy Mace moved to bar naturalized citizens from Congress and other powerful federal posts. Rep. Nancy Mace proposes a constitutional amendment restricting top federal offices to the native-born. Supporters cite existing “natural born” limits for the presidency as precedent. Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi and Pramila Jayapal denounce the plan as anti-immigrant. The amendment route confirms the measure would require broad political consensus to pass.
Tech free classrooms
NBC News - Parents around the country are pressuring schools to cut back on screen time in class, presenting a tough question: What does that look like in 2026? I recently visited a rural district in North Carolina that experimented with going tech-free for two days a week. Several eighth graders told me they liked that it got them talking to classmates more, and they had fewer headaches from staring at screens. I also exclusively obtained survey results on how the trial went. While there were some big benefits and a lot of support from teachers, the survey revealed practical limits and hiccups that come with a big disruption like this.
Fake ICE
NBC News- In January of last year, a group of armed assailants entered a house shared by immigrants in North Carolina. A hooded man kicked down a bedroom door shouting “ICE! ICE!” one immigrant recalled. “I raised my hands, and he asked, ‘Where’s the money?’ That’s when I realized it was a robbery. It wasn’t ICE,” the Mexican immigrant, who didn’t share his name, said.
The incident is part of a growing trend of people impersonating immigration agents. Although neither the federal government nor local authorities publish specific records on such crimes, an analysis by Noticias Telemundo, based on court records, police reports and news articles, suggests that the number has increased over the past year.
The investigation documented at least 31 impersonation cases in 2025 alone. Recorded incidents appear to be growing more violent, and include intimidation, robbery and sexual assault, as well as so-called “immigration operations” carried out by armed vigilantes. MORE
The incident is part of a growing trend of people impersonating immigration agents. Although neither the federal government nor local authorities publish specific records on such crimes, an analysis by Noticias Telemundo, based on court records, police reports and news articles, suggests that the number has increased over the past year.
The investigation documented at least 31 impersonation cases in 2025 alone. Recorded incidents appear to be growing more violent, and include intimidation, robbery and sexual assault, as well as so-called “immigration operations” carried out by armed vigilantes. MORE
The Pope on Artificial Intelligence
NPR - Pope Leo XIV addressed the rise of artificial intelligence today in his first encyclical, a major teaching addressed to the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. Leo's “Magnificent Humanity” urges Catholics to engage in shaping AI ethics instead of leaving it in the hands ofl of wealthy tech elites. Pope Leo is concerned that Silicon Valley is pushing the idea of a hybrid human-machine world, says Claire Giangrave, Vatican correspondent for NPR's partner organization Religion News Service. Giangrave says the pope sees AI as a new Industrial Revolution and believes the Catholic Church can help guide society toward a more human and humane future. The pope describes a new face of colonialism, where people's data and information are exploited. He calls it "one of the most urgent moral challenges of our time" and argues that governments and international organizations must step up to place laws and regulations around AI use. While some AI companies resist any regulation of AI development, others in Silicon Valley are actively seeking guidance from religious traditions as they navigate new and unexpected technological advancements, Giangrave says.
California's cracked chemical tank
NPR - Approximately 50,000 residents in Garden Grove, Calif., remained under evacuation orders yesterday as emergency response teams worked to manage a potentially explosive situation at the GKN Aerospace manufacturing plant. Late Saturday, firefighters found a potential crack in a tank at the facility. Orange County Fire Division Chief Craig Covey says a crack in the tank could be a good outcome. While not ideal, it would be better if the chemicals leaked out slowly rather than exploding. This tank contains around 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, a highly toxic and flammable chemical used to make resins and plastics. Emergency responders say the incident started on Thursday when chemicals in a tank at the facility began exceeding safe temperature limits. Authorities evacuated residents to protect them from the risk of a large explosion and the harmful fumes it could produce. Since the fire department cannot predict the direction in which the fumes might move, they had to clear a wide area around the plant.
Just a reminder
The leaders of the United States and Iran have regularly lied or misled their people so that which is being said now about a possible agreement should be taken with reserve.
May 24, 2026
Polls
Interactive Polls - 2028 National Democratic Primary
Kamala Harris: 34% (=)
Gavin Newsom: 12% (-8)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 11% (+4)
Pete Buttigieg: 10%
@Rasmussen_Poll
NATIONAL POLL by Wall Street Journal
Pres. Trump
Approve: 41% [-4]
Disapprove: 57% [+3]
——
Generic Ballot
DEM: 48% [+1]
GOP: 40% [-3]
DEM: 48% [+1]
GOP: 40% [-3]Climate change
Newsweek - The Old Farmer’s Almanac is warning that gardeners should prepare for a hotter, drier-than-normal summer in 2026, with shifting weather patterns likely to put added strain on plants, soil, and water supplies across large parts of the United States. The long-range outlook suggests that above-average temperatures will dominate much of the country, while rainfall is expected to be uneven and, in many regions, below normal—creating the kind of dry conditions that can quickly stress gardens.
Throughout the week, NPR and the NPR Network have brought you stories of cities, states, and neighborhoods coming together to reduce climate emissions and make their communities more resilient.
KUER’s David Condos in Utah took us to communities across his state, which have joined to build renewable energy.
Montana Public Radio’s Ellis Juhlin told us about tribes coming together to fulfill their climate action plans.
NPR’s Lauren Frayer brought us face-to-face with a charismatic mammal that’s helping British communities be more resilient to climate change.
And I spoke with host Ayesha Roscoe on The Sunday Story about city-level solutions, and climate solutions on the neighborhood-level.
Cryosphere Capsules - Central Asia’s glaciers experienced their most severe mass loss year on record in 2025, with nearly 2% of the region’s total glacier volume disappearing. About two-thirds of large glaciers in the region (around 4,000 in total) experienced their worst year of ice loss since measurements began. This extreme melt was driven mainly by unusually warm spring and summer conditions, an early start to the melting season, and less snowfall than usual. With snow disappearing earlier in the year, darker ice surfaces were exposed for longer periods, causing more sunlight to be absorbed and speeding up further melting in a feedback loop. Long-term records and reconstructions going back to the 1950s show that 2025 was far outside the range of normal year-to-year variability and falls within a broader trend of increasing glacier loss across the region.
Health
Axios - A looming ban on an additive used in many New York pizza and bagel shops may soon force thousands of businesses to change ingredients.
- A bill passed by state lawmakers and awaiting signing by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) would bar potassium bromate, an oxidizing agent used to make bromated flour, AP reports.
- The chemical, which reduces rest time for dough and helps ensure a stronger, chewier product, is a suspected carcinogen that's already banned in much of the world.
"This is an earth-shaking event for New York pizza," said pizza historian Scott Wiener, who estimates that 80% of pizza and bagel joints rely on the flour. "That ingredient is part of the identity of the slice."
Artificial intelligence
Irish Times - After decades of dismissing liberal arts and humanities studies as useless and insisting that the mastery of science, engineering, maths and tech (STEM) is essential to future success, the tech world is coming around to the idea that learning about human nature could be a valuable asset in the coming artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.
As it turns out, tech jobs may be drying up after years of students rushing to computer science. Who needs to code? AI does that for you.
What AI can’t do – yet – is the stuff that makes us human: empathy, emotion, psychology, critical thinking. “What a piece of work is man,” Hamlet said, describing an intricate and infinite creature.
“I think AI is a false mirror,” said Drew Lichtenberg, the dramaturge, or literary adviser, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. “It reflects back answers to black-or-white questions, but it does little to help explain the human experience the way art or philosophy can.”
Daniela Amodei, a founder of Anthropic, told ABC News that “the things that make us human will become much more important instead of much less important”. She said that at Anthropic the company was looking to hire people who were “compassionate and curious” about other people.
Donald Trump
Democratic Conservation Alliance - Donald Trump has ordered herds of majestic bison to be removed from public lands so ranchers can use the lands for profit instead.
These animals aren’t just symbolic. The bison were raised by conservationists with the mission of restoring the species to its natural splendor — to make the American West the land where the buffalos roam once again.
We’ve seen this before. 60 million bison roamed the American West until settlers began hunting them in the 1800s. In less than a century, there were only hundreds of the majestic creatures left. They almost went extinct — because of decisions just like this one.
Legal experts say President Trump’s new $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is rife with legal and ethical issues that only Congress is likely to be able to address.
“A source familiar with the matter said that Gabbard had been forced out by the White House,” Reuters reported. Gabbard’s chief of staff Alexa Henning disputed this account directly, posting on X: “This is false. Her husband, who is an absolutely incredible human being, has been diagnosed with a rare bone cancer.”
Retirees' homes
NY Times - Homeownership has historically been the most common way for families to grow wealth and pass it on. Homeowners aged 70 and older hold $13 trillion in housing wealth, or roughly one out of every four dollars’ worth in the country, according to a March analysis by the real estate platform Redfin.
With the youngest baby boomers now 62 — the earliest age for claiming Social Security retirement benefits — many expect that wealth to keep them financially secure as they age, acting as a source of capital to fall back on if they need it.
This can be a risky strategy, new research shows.
A paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that older homeowners, particularly those 70 and up, earn lower prices when they sell than their younger counterparts. The gap increases with age; an average 80-year-old seller would likely get paid 5 percent less than a 45-year-old, all other factors being equal.
In the most extreme scenario, a home that fetches a significantly lower price can limit people’s future living options, if they wish to downsize a large house or need nursing care, according to real estate professionals and financial advisers. “The real question is, where are they transitioning to?” said Dan Sudit, wealth adviser and partner at Crewe Advisors in Salt Lake City.
A lower sale price could mean the difference between buying into a retirement community versus renting, or a smaller apartment. “It might not be a two-bedroom or a one-bedroom, but might wind up being a studio-type unit,” Mr. Sudit said.
One reason behind the age-price gap identified by researchers is that, compared with younger homeowners, older homeowners don’t invest as much in their properties. This can take the form of less renovation, more deferred maintenance and higher rates of disrepair. About 25 percent of the difference in sale prices is attributable to this discrepancy
Steve Pierce
Matt Witt - The U.S. Senate last week confirmed Steve Pearce to be in charge of the federal agency that oversees many special ecological places that have been designated as national monuments. Pearce made millions from the oil and gas industry, and while a member of Congress he co-authored a letter calling for elimination or drastic reductions of many of the monuments he will now oversee, including the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
What the GOP has done for the economy
New Republic - Donald Trump inherited an economy from Joe Biden that was perhaps not firing on all cylinders but was in pretty good shape all the same. Real GDP grew at 2.8 percent in 2024. Wages were growing at a higher rate, 4.8 percent. Inflation closed out 2024 at 2.9 percent—high, but way down from the 7 percent of 2021. Compared to the EU and China, the U.S. economy was, as The Economist famously put it right before the election, “The envy of the world.”
....And now, as The New York Times told us Sunday, we’ve hit another grim milestone: The national debt is bigger than the economy. It’s true that presidents of both parties have racked up big debt numbers. In this century, Democratic and Republican presidencies have contributed almost equally to the explosion in the national debt, from around $5.8 trillion at the dawn of the century to $39 trillion today. But only one party carries on about how awful the debt is. So it’s only that party, the Republicans, who are complete hypocrites about it.
As for the current economic mess—it’s virtually all Trump’s doing, in three major ways. First, there are the tax cuts in his one big ugly bill, which have not stimulated the economy in the way Republicans say tax cuts always do. That bill cut rich people’s taxes in several different ways—marginal income tax rate, estate tax, pass-through tax, and more.
Second, it’s the tariffs. It was obvious at the time other countries would retaliate against Trump’s tariffs, which is precisely what they did. The Federal Reserve estimated last fall that tariffs had raised consumer prices overall by 3.1 percent. It’s surely been worse since then, and now, the government is starting to return $166 billion in tariff revenue to importers after the Supreme Court ruled against the tariffs.
Third, of course, is the war in Iran, which has shot gas prices up near $5 a gallon in most places. The price of a barrel of oil today is around $105. What if it hits $150, which seems to many experts not just possible but inevitable if the war continues? That means a gallon of gas in the $6.50 range. And Trump said last week he didn’t care.
So here we go again: For the third straight time, a Democratic president handed a Republican president an economy that was at the least pretty good, and at most (Bill Clinton) really humming along very nicely. And, for the third straight time, the Republican has made things worse. Which also means that Democratic presidents have to clean up messes left by their GOP predecessors.
....And now, as The New York Times told us Sunday, we’ve hit another grim milestone: The national debt is bigger than the economy. It’s true that presidents of both parties have racked up big debt numbers. In this century, Democratic and Republican presidencies have contributed almost equally to the explosion in the national debt, from around $5.8 trillion at the dawn of the century to $39 trillion today. But only one party carries on about how awful the debt is. So it’s only that party, the Republicans, who are complete hypocrites about it.
As for the current economic mess—it’s virtually all Trump’s doing, in three major ways. First, there are the tax cuts in his one big ugly bill, which have not stimulated the economy in the way Republicans say tax cuts always do. That bill cut rich people’s taxes in several different ways—marginal income tax rate, estate tax, pass-through tax, and more.
Second, it’s the tariffs. It was obvious at the time other countries would retaliate against Trump’s tariffs, which is precisely what they did. The Federal Reserve estimated last fall that tariffs had raised consumer prices overall by 3.1 percent. It’s surely been worse since then, and now, the government is starting to return $166 billion in tariff revenue to importers after the Supreme Court ruled against the tariffs.
Third, of course, is the war in Iran, which has shot gas prices up near $5 a gallon in most places. The price of a barrel of oil today is around $105. What if it hits $150, which seems to many experts not just possible but inevitable if the war continues? That means a gallon of gas in the $6.50 range. And Trump said last week he didn’t care.
So here we go again: For the third straight time, a Democratic president handed a Republican president an economy that was at the least pretty good, and at most (Bill Clinton) really humming along very nicely. And, for the third straight time, the Republican has made things worse. Which also means that Democratic presidents have to clean up messes left by their GOP predecessors.
One in five Brits woud swap their dad for a better one
The Guardian - One in five British people would swap their dad for a better model. This is according to a new survey ... which also revealed that one in three pretend they have a better relationship with their dad than they really do. Many admitted they buy Father’s Day cards out of obligation rather than love, too. Oof.
As a result of this research, online retailer Thortful has launched a campaign called “Dad’s not perfect, but …” to challenge the stereotype of the “Best Dad Ever”, with a much more honest range of cards.
The company’s founder and CEO, Andy Pearce, said they provide a chance for customers to “mark Father’s Day in a way that reflects their actual relationship, not the one they feel they are supposed to have”.
While authenticity is, typically, to be applauded, and some of the options are a good compromise – “Dad, my therapist says thanks for all the business” – others are brutal. They include “Happy Father’s Day to a stranger with half my DNA” and “Father’s Day – I hope you enjoy doing nothing … you’ve had plenty of practice” and even the succinct, “Worst Dad Ever”. Surely at that point you’d just save your money?
Just wondering
Sam Smith - Just wondering. When you have a huge sum of money, how do you use it for happiness? It seems the more money he has, the more others react negatively to Trump and the more lawsuits he has. While Yahoo Finance estimates that Trump has become $3 billion richer since 2024, its also true that his fan club is collapsing.
California governor declares state of emergency due to chemical disaster
The Guardian - California’s governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday in response to the looming threat of chemical disaster in Orange county. The proclamation directs the governor’s office of emergency services and other state agencies to provide additional support to Orange county responders. The governor’s office is also making state-owned properties available to shelter the 40,000 people ordered to evacuate from the area. “The safety of Orange County residents is the top priority,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are mobilizing every state resource available to support local responders and make sure the community has what they need to stay safe.”
May 23, 2026
Donald Trump
Donald Trump - “I don't like friends that become very successful. I like people that are just OK. Even if they're terrible, I like that, too. I hate like when I have lunch with somebody that's really, really successful. I hate it. Because he or she is bragging about how great they are. And I hate that when they do that. Because they stopped me from talking about the fact that I became president.” (Via Jim Stewartson)
Hartmann Report - Why doesn’t anybody mention that Trump himself is the biggest recipient of his “settlement” $1.776 billion fund? The New York Times exposed this in an article with the headline “With Trump’s Deal, a Possible $100 Million I.R.S. Penalty Melts Away.” Back in 2010, the IRS busted him for allegedly claiming a deduction for his failing Chicago tower twice, a crime, and has been trying to collect around $100 million (plus interest) from him ever since. But this new Thug Fund will eliminate all claims against him, his kids, and his “affiliated entities” and businesses, for all past, present, and future times. So he gets to keep the $100 million (plus interest). And the media — other than that one reference in the Times — seems to have completely ignored it. Where’s the outrage? Can you imagine what would happen if Obama had tried to give himself $100 million out of our Treasury?
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