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Lead: In a 2025 study published in Science Advances, researchers led by Economo and Matte report that several ant species appear to lower per-worker investment in costly exoskeleton tissue, effectively trading heavily armored individuals for larger numbers of cheaper workers. The work, based on comparative anatomical and ecological analysis, was conducted across multiple ant lineages … Read more

On Dec. 19, 2025, Representative Elise Stefanik announced she was suspending her campaign for New York governor and will not seek re-election to the House, saying she made the decision while spending time with family over the Christmas holiday. The 41-year-old Republican — a prominent ally of former President Donald Trump who transformed into a … Read more

On December 19, 2025, US forces carried out strikes across Syria tied by US officials to Islamic State remnants in response to a December 13 attack that killed two American service members. The operation, named “Operation Hawkeye” in reference to the Iowa origins of the fallen soldiers, struck roughly 70 targets including infrastructure and weapons … Read more

Lead: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that flu activity is rising nationwide this season, with an estimated 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths so far. New York City and several states are seeing elevated respiratory illness levels, while the majority of sequenced viruses are A(H3N2), driven by a subclade called … Read more

Lead On Friday, 19 December 2025, the US Department of Justice began publishing a long-awaited tranche of records from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation after weeks of political fighting and public pressure. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department would release “several hundred thousand documents” on a rolling basis while protecting victim identities and ongoing … Read more

On Dec. 13, investigators say a gunman opened fire in a Brown University lecture hall in Providence, killing two students and wounding nine. Two days later an MIT professor, Nuno F.G. Loureiro, was shot to death at his Brookline home. Federal officials later linked both scenes to the same suspect and found him dead in … Read more

Lead On Thursday, December 18, 2025, the performing arts complex on the Potomac was officially restyled as The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and by Friday crews were installing new signage. Lawmakers immediately raised legal questions, saying a formal name change may require Congressional action. Though … Read more

Bowen Yang, one of Saturday Night Live’s most prominent breakout performers, will leave the show after this Saturday’s episode, which is hosted by Ariana Grande; Cher is scheduled as the musical guest for SNL’s 2025 Christmas episode, Yang’s final broadcast. Yang began with SNL as a writer in 2018 (season 44), joined the cast as … Read more

On Friday, the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated Elon Musk’s 2018 compensation package for Tesla — a grant originally valued at $56 billion — overturning a previous court decision that had voided the award two years earlier. The opinion acknowledged breaches in the original approval process but ruled that rescinding the award outright would be “inequitable,” … Read more

Lead: A federal judge in Rhode Island on Dec. 19 issued a preliminary injunction halting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s abrupt changes to homelessness funding, which would have reshaped how roughly $4 billion is distributed. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy found plaintiffs — a coalition of states, cities and nonprofits — were … Read more

Lead: On Thursday night in Week 16, the Seattle Seahawks erased a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Los Angeles Rams 38-37 in overtime, moving to 12-3, clinching a playoff berth and seizing the top spot in the NFC. Facing a Rams offense led by Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua, Seattle rallied through a special-teams … Read more

On Dec. 19, 2025, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., backed by a directive from President Trump, moved closer to recommending that American children follow Denmark’s childhood immunization timetable rather than the U.S. schedule. The proposed shift would mean fewer recommended routine shots for children and a departure from the committee-driven process that has guided … Read more

On Friday, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a lower-court decision and ordered that Elon Musk’s 2018 Tesla compensation plan be reinstated, awarding nominal damages of $1. The 2018 package — structured as 12 milestone-based stock tranches and worth about $56 billion when fully vested — had been rescinded earlier by the Court of Chancery in … Read more

Lead On Friday in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin used his annual televised “Direct Line” event to say Russia would not start further large-scale military operations if Western countries treated Moscow with respect and its security interests were guaranteed. Speaking during a nearly four-and-a-half-hour broadcast, he rejected claims that Russia plans new attacks on Europe as … Read more

Lead Erika Kirk, widow of conservative organiser Charlie Kirk, publicly declared her backing for JD Vance as the next U.S. president on the opening day of Turning Point USA’s annual America Fest in Phoenix. Her endorsement on Thursday came at the organisation’s largest gathering since Charlie Kirk was shot dead in September. Erika Kirk said … Read more