Wrote about an intriguing finding in CNN polling: That Americans see more political commonality in age groupings than in gender or racial ones. www.pbump.net/o/americans-...

even if u find some of these pie-in-the-sky, it's an interesting list of goals and a good preview of agenda items for DOT and other agencies. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The Trump administration plans to freeze $10 billion in funding for child care subsidies, social services and cash support for low-income families in five states controlled by Democrats, claiming widespread fraud, without citing evidence, after a major welfare fraud scheme in Minnesota.

This would be big: Axios reports former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is "taking concrete steps toward a Senate run" in Alaska and is "expected" to announce a campaign against GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan this month.

ICYMI: There is a very weak relationship between economic growth and House seat change in midterm elections. Midterms are a backlash, not a referendum www.gelliottmorris.com/p/midterms-a...

Happy New Year! 🎉 While the Data Vis Dispatch is still on holiday break, we’ve rounded up the best-of-2025 lists celebrating data journalism, visualizations, and the people behind them. See something we missed? Send it our way, and we’ll happily include it! www.datawrapper.de/blog/data-vi...

Some pardoned, so-called J6ers have begun to ask why, after nearly a year in power, President Trump’s law enforcement agencies have yet to provide any proof of the conspiracy theory about the 2020 election they promoted. Now, they’re beginning to turn on Trump and his allies.

Here's our attempt to break down what the Trump administration's changes to the childhood vaccine schedule mean for access. The American Academy of Pediatrics still recommends all the vaccines that the CDC cut from the routine schedule. Gift link, from me, Dani Blum and @teddyrosenbluth.bsky.social:

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “The history of science is indeed a graveyard of theories, but the fact that science keeps changing is a mark of its strength,” writes the philosopher Elay Shech.

What a great @upshot.nytimes.com article www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Congestion pricing had two goals: ✅Reduce traffic in the birthplace of “gridlock” ✅Fund long overdue mass transit projects: nearly $550M raised for the MTA, exceeding their goal by abt 50M Here’s one impt project CP is helping to pay for: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

One in three Americans approve of the U.S. military strike on Venezuela that toppled the country's president and 72% worry the U.S. will become too involved in the South American country, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday. www.reuters.com/world/americ...

One of the most lopsided results you'll ever see in a poll, from our weekend Washington Post poll www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

Shifting many pediatric vaccines into the category of shared clinical decision-making means in many red states governors and legislators will be pressured to strip them from school-entry requirements. Vaccination rates could fall sharply with stark regional differences in protection against disease

Bill Cassidy — who voted to confirm RFK Jr — says his move to roll back vaccine recommendations “will make America sicker.”

BREAKING: Federal health officials on Monday announced dramatic revisions to the slate of vaccines recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine shots to 11 from 17. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/h...

President Trump reiterated on Sunday that he wants to take over Greenland, prompting Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark to urge him to “stop the threats” to annex the semiautonomous Danish territory.

“The most important word in politics and economics right now is ‘affordability,’” Jared Bernstein writes. “Fortunately, politicians can embrace a more realistic affordability agenda.”

The resulting small improvements in speed aren’t necessarily visible to many people. But if you cross one of the chokepoints into Manhattan, you can likely see real change.

That and other evidence from the policy, which is one year old today, in a big collab between @upshot.nytimes.com and the NYT Metro desk: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

My favorite evidence that congestion pricing in New York has reshaped peoples’ behavior: we can see a surge of people trying to enter the zone before the price kicks up at 5 a.m., and after it decreases at 9 p.m.

From Times Insider: "The image was stunning, newsworthy — and in need of a judgment call." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/i...

A new study found that the court’s Republican appointees voted for the wealthier side in cases 70 percent of the time in 2022, up from 45 percent in 1953. Via @adamliptak.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/u...

Some early Venezuela polling: -40% haven't heard much, high DKs, room for opinion to shift -Early coalescing along party lines -Split on military action but consensus it req'd Congress authorization -Little appetite for US "taking control" of Venezuela

The latest numbers are in: Congestion pricing cut 27M car trips in 2025. Commutes got faster Streets got safer And business went up See more exclusive analysis - and feedback from 600+readers - in our latest collab with @upshot.nytimes.com Free link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “It’s quite possible that the Maduro regime will stagger on without Maduro, leaving the population increasingly impoverished,” our columnist Nicholas Kristof writes.

Heavy rain and snow has pounded California in recent weeks, causing floods, power outages, mudslides and other disruptions. But the storms have also filled reservoirs and deepened the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, easing drought concerns.

Another blow for truth from @naomioreskes.bsky.social and colleagues. A great story from @hirokotabuchi.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/c...

From NYT Politics: The White House had pointed to drug trafficking and migration as reasons to crack down on Nicolás Maduro. But oil emerged as central to President Trump. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/u...

NEW w/ @kenvogel.bsky.social: Trump’s team raised more than $100 million for MAGA Inc. in the second half of 2025, with much of the money coming from wealthy people and corporations with issues before the administration. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/u...

Wrote this before yesterday but it gets at what undergirds that (and lots of other things in politics). "The internet universalized subjectivity instead of objectivity. … We have reverted from acting on what we *know* to acting on what we *think*."

From NYT World: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Eight years ago, the US govt's malaria program took over the fight against the disease in northern Cameroon, one of the worst-affected places in the world, and went at it with all guns blazing. In March, it shut down overnight. I traveled there to see what came next. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/h...

“In the wake of Saturday’s predawn military operation in Venezuela, in which Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and flown to a U.S. warship, Mr. Trump made clear that it was essentially about the oil all along,” W.J. Hennigan writes.

President Trump “is pushing our country toward an international crisis without valid reasons,” the editorial board writes after the U.S. attack on Venezuela was announced on Saturday. “If Mr. Trump wants to argue otherwise, the Constitution spells out what he must do: Go to Congress.”

“The Trump health cuts constitute a double blow because they not only reduce access to clinical care, but also undermine public health initiatives related to vaccinations or addiction,” our columnist Nicholas Kristof writes.

“In Venezuela, we have long faced a brutal paradox: an absent yet omnipotent state,” Colette Capriles writes. “Our society has been orphaned, ground down to its most basic capacities.”

For months, a segment of President Trump’s political base has been complaining that he has spent too much time on foreign policy and too little on America’s economic anxieties. His announcement on Saturday that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for an indefinite period is adding fuel to that fire.

“We don’t know what is going on — nobody knows.” Venezuelans began lining up at supermarkets throughout the country on Saturday to stock up on supplies as they woke to the news that the U.S. had launched airstrikes on the capital and seized the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Our weekly quiz: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I just updated my spreadsheet of crime-related papers published in top economics journals: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

“The only people who are categorically recommended to take aspirin every day are those who have a history of cardiovascular disease, meaning they’ve previously had a heart attack, ischemic (nonbleeding) stroke or peripheral artery disease, a condition in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow”

Is your transit agency "succeeding"? It depends on the definition of success, and not everyone agrees on that. Here's my timeless article on this, just now updated a bit. humantransit.org/2018/02/basi...

NEW: How many books did you read this year? If it was more than 2, congrats: you read more than the median American. Read on for way more @today.yougov.com polling from me on America's book-reading habits in 2025. 1/

Fascinating paper by Hood, McKee & Pittman demonstrating that election deniers were less likely to vote in the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff election. If fewer GA Republicans believed the big lie, both GA Senate seats might still be in Republican control. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Promising results from a new A.I. tool for spotting pancreatic cancer in routine CT scans are another example of how China is racing to apply the tech to medicine’s tough problems.

“In 2025, the American and global economy, led by A.I. and capital markets, skated through a series of obstacles. But the next round is just beginning,” Mohamed El-Erian writes.

Times Opinion invites readers who have been affected by expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies to tell us what changes, if any, they’re seeing in their premium bills.

Millions of borrowers have fallen behind on their federal student loans, and the government is preparing to take aggressive steps to collect in 2026. Here’s what to know if you’re struggling to afford your monthly payments.