All Else

President Barack Obama famously chided Donald Trump in April 2011 during the annual White House correspondents’ dinner. Obama called attention to a satirical photo the guests could see of a remodeled White House with the words “Trump” and “The White House” in large purple letters followed by the words “hotel,” “casino” and “golf course.”

Its first modules were launched in 1998. The first crew to live on the International Space Station – an American and two Russians – entered it in 2000. Nov. 2, 2025, marks 25 years of continuous habitation by at least two people, and as many as 13 at one time. It is a singular example of international cooperation that has stood the test of time.

Over three decades, the U.S. population soared by 28% and the economy more than doubled. Yet U.S. emissions from many of the activities that produce greenhouse gases – transportation, industry, agriculture, heating and cooling of buildings – have remained about the same over the past 30 years. Transportation is a bit up; industry a bit down. And electricity, once the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has seen its emissions drop significantly.

The holidays, while a magical time, can also be stressful. Society places an expectation on parents to buy gifts, regardless of their financial circumstances, and children themselves often feel a variety of complex emotions. How children react to getting presents is partially linked to temperament, which is the variety of ways that children experience, perceive and interact with the world. Temperament is the precursor to personality – some people are introverts, while others are extroverts. Temperament is partially heritable.

In September 2025, Florida announced its plan to end vaccine mandates for hepatitis B, chickenpox and bacterial meningitis, with seven additional diseases expected to follow. When four states between 2015 and 2021 stopped allowing parents to opt their children out of receiving routine vaccines without a medical reason, vaccination rates among kindergartners increased substantially, improving public health.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case to determine whether President Donald Trump’s global tariffs are legal. This primer explains what tariffs are, what effects they have, and why governments impose them.

Reiner’s career stands as one of the clearest demonstrations of a director moving fluidly across genres while maintaining a consistent worldview. Reiner’s films return again and again to deeply humanist beliefs: that people, however flawed, are capable of growth and connection; that care and empathy for each other is vital; and that cinematic stories can help us recognise this in one another.

Listening to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt assert “truths” so obviously discordant with people’s lives one is reminded of the repeated pronouncements from the Ministry of Plenty in Orwell’s “1984.” The novel’s doomed hero, Winston Smith, works in the Records Department that produces these fraudulent statistics – figures that are so far divorced from reality that they “had no connection with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie.”