In a week of heavy national news, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade offered something surprisingly rare: a calm, comfortable holiday morning in New York. Temperatures hovered in the low 40s — brisk, but manageable — and a steady wind kept the giant balloons flying lower than usual. Instead of creating chaos, the breeze just added a bit of winter character. Crowds bundled up, grabbed coffee and watched floats roll past in a mood that felt more hometown-holiday than high-gloss spectacle.

Death is not suited to the Type A personality. For those who take great care in planning their lives down to the very last letter, our eternal demise presents a uniquely challenging conundrum: How does one prepare for the one aspect of life where there is no data, no insight, no facts and no instructions on where to park? There’s a wicked irony in micromanaging your entire life on Earth only to croak and have your soul potentially jettisoned to some formless state of being, entirely unknown to mere mortals.

While some find annual celebrations wonderful, studies show that for many Americans, they can be stressful, isolating and depressing – especially in these divisive times. Here, mental health experts share ways to ensure an easier and calmer season. Beware Best Laid Plans Double-check where you’ll be going, when, and with whom beforehand. When I asked what time the neighbors we invited over for…

With “Pluribus,” Vince Gilligan has what most series creators would envy: a show that generates constantly evolving conversation. Those who watch are careful about spoilers, often refusing to discuss the show with anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. Once a viewer is indoctrinated, however, they may find it difficult to refrain from puzzling over its message. Is it a parable about the dangers posed by artificial intelligence and the fawning tendencies of large language models?

In the author’s note for her new book, acclaimed veteran crime novelist and New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman admits she didn’t set out to write a newspaper story when she began her beguiling new novel “Lady in the Lake,” which borrows from two real deaths in her hometown of Baltimore. But where else would a woman like Maddie Schwartz find the cover she needed in 1960s Baltimore to pursue the stories she feels suddenly called to tell?

A disabled figure it took years for me to embrace is the title character of Tim Burton’s dark, modern fairy tale, “Edward Scissorhands.” “Edward Scissorhands” is not a horror movie per se, but the tragic tale of the man with scissors for hands creeped me out because of how it juxtaposed Edward’s disability with his outward appearance: the dark circles under his eyes and pale white skin, which are now the highlights of numerous…

JD Vance hasn’t exactly hidden his hostility to Ukraine. After spending much of the year positioning himself as Trumpworld’s foreign policy philosopher, the vice president is now on the defensive following fierce backlash from within his own party to a plan, backed by the administration, to end Russia’s war of aggression as it approaches its fourth year. Following days of talks with the Ukrainians in Switzerland, and hush-hush meetings in Abu Dhabi with the Russians, several Republicans on Capitol Hill found themselves confused, if not openly critical.

JD and Usha Vance can’t escape rumors that their marriage is on the rocks. It’s been less than a month since the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) conference where the vice president hugged Erika Kirk, the organization’s CEO and chair, in an oddly intimate manner onstage. He also publicly insulted his wife by complaining she won’t leave her Hindu faith and convert to Catholicism.

With the release of the Epstein files looming, experts warn that the expected documents will only be the tip of the iceberg in what could turn into a decades-long fight over transparency. The passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act started a 30-day countdown to the release of records related to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his associates by the Justice Department.

Across the political spectrum, with alarm on the right and delight on the left, the display of warmth from Donald Trump toward Zohran Mamdani on Friday set off shock waves. The president’s lavish praise of the New York City mayor-elect in the Oval Office was a 180-degree turn from his condemnation of the democratic socialist as “a pure true communist” and “a total nut job.” The stunning reversal made for a great political drama.

Kevin McCarthy is something of an expert in how quickly the mood of Republican legislators can turn. The Republican representative from California and former House speaker said on Tuesday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s upcoming retirement should shock GOP leaders into action. Speaking to Fox News‘ Jesse Watters, McCarthy called the Georgia congresswoman’s announcement a “canary in the coal mine” and warned that further Republican defections were imminent if party leaders didn’t work to promote unity.

President Donald Trump carried out the presidential tradition of pardoning two turkeys on Tuesday, but not before getting a crack in at his predecessor. Trump said that turkeys that were spared from the annual feast by former President Joe Biden could still face the processing plant, reviving his theory that many of Biden’s pardons were void because of the use of a…

If you have ovaries and a uterus, and are somewhere in your late 40s or beyond, you will have a body-informed epiphany. It might be barely noticeable. It may stop you in your tracks. You can see when it happens to and for Linda, Bridget Christie’s heroine in “The Change,” because it slaps her upside the head. The wife and mother of two is clearing plates and trash after her 50th birthday party, planned by a husband who enjoys all the attention and…

The first large image you see when entering the first gallery of “Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind,” the massive retrospective of Yoko Ono’s work currently on exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, is the large reproduction poster for her debut performance at Carnegie Hall, which took place on Friday, November 24th, 1961. It’s adjacent to both “A Work to Be Stepped On” (self-explanatory!) as well as “Waterdrop Painting (Version 1),” where the artwork is positioned on the floor beneath a water bottle.

The first ten months of the second Donald Trump administration feels like ten years, and nothing brings that home more than the recent exclusive from Reuters that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — also known as Elon Musk’s pet project — has ended its reign of terror eight months earlier than mandated.  The era of Elon feels like a bygone time, back when Trump’s return to the White House still felt surreal, as if we were all trying to run through water, stunned that the country actually voted for him again after all he’d done.

The news that came from across the Potomac on Monday was shocking: the Pentagon had launched an investigation into Mark Kelly, a combat veteran and Democratic senator from Arizona, after supposedly receiving “serious allegations of misconduct.” Kelly was unfazed. “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” he…

American hemp farmers are reeling after Republicans slipped a provision banning intoxicating hemp products into the deal to reopen the government. Now, industry insiders say that the hemp industry is about to leap into action to overturn the ban — or face destruction. Lukas Gilkey is the co-founder and CEO of Hometown Hero, an Austin, Texas-based hemp business that employs about 200 people across three locations and two states.

This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. This news analysis was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, …

Sen. Mark Kelly isn’t concerned about the Trump administration’s threats of a court-martial. Kelly joined several other Democratic lawmakers earlier this month in a video that encouraged troops to disobey any unlawful orders they might be asked to carry out. President Donald Trump claimed the video amounted to sedition and threatened the death penalty. On Monday, the Department of Defense…

A federal judge dismissed the government’s case against former FBI director James Comey after finding the sole prosecutor was not lawfully serving in her role. Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan was “unlawfully appointed” by President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi. She said that Halligan “had no lawful authority” to bring charges against Comey. 

Congressional Republicans are sounding the alarm over the next year’s midterm elections, with concerns growing that Democrats could be on track for a major victory next November. Polling data shows that a bipartisan majority disapprove of President Donald Trump‘s performance in his second term. In similar polls, generic Democrats have a five-point edge over Republicans on a hypothetical congressional ballot for 2026.

Republicans are sending their condolences to the newly shuttered Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which quietly ceased operations over the weekend, eight months ahead of schedule. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor reported that the Elon Musk-run DOGE “doesn’t exist” when asked by Reuters about the department’s status. “There is no target around reductions,” Kuport said, indicating that a government…

Something incredible happens in the five-minute preview of the “Stranger Things” finale season — maybe not by the standards of modern technology, granted, but watch and you’ll notice right away what I’m referring to. The clip rewinds to Nov. 12, 1983, six days after Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) went missing — the series’ inciting incident. We’ve only seen Will’s vanishing from the perspective of our world.

In 2014, Buzzfeed News reported on the Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm” based in Russia that waged an organized propaganda campaign across social media. According to internal emails, operatives were instructed to run multiple Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts, bombard comment sections and build fake audiences to shape American political discourse. It’s a method employed by Russia that dates back to at least…

The shooting death of Charlie Kirk was supposed to be a galvanizing moment for the MAGA movement. Mere hours after an assassin’s bullet tore through the neck of the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder on Sept. 10 on the campus of Utah Valley University, right-wing leaders and media figures, including President Donald Trump, were declaring Kirk “a martyr” and insisting his death was the…