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New Jersey Transit’s train engineers reached a tentative deal Sunday to end their three-day strike that had halted service for some 100,000 daily riders, including routes to Newark airport and across the Hudson River to New York City. The union said its members would return to work on Tuesday, when trains would resume their regular schedules. The walkout that began Friday was the state’s first transit strike in over 40 years, forcing people who normally rely on New Jersey Transit to take buses, cars, taxis and boats instead or consider staying home. The main sticking point had been how to accomplish a wage increase for the engineers without creating a financially disastr…

Did your Christmas morning start off with a Mac under the tree? No matter if you unwrapped a new MacBook, iMac, or Mac mini, that hardware is just the beginning of a gift that will keep on giving. In 2025, there are more apps and games for Apple computers than ever. Here are six we recommend taking a look at. Pages Whether you’re a student or a professional who just got a new Mac, one of the most critical apps to have is a word processor. For decades now, the word-processing king, Microsoft Word, has been available on Macs. The problem is that Microsoft Word is now largely a subscription service—meaning that if you use it, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee. …

As March Madness takes over this week, how many people are filling out NCAA brackets — and why? A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows what share of Americans typically take a shot at bracket predictions and their motivation for joining in the madness. The survey found that about one-quarter of Americans fill out a men’s March Madness bracket “every year” or “some years.” But what about the women’s tournament? High-profile NCAA women’s basketball games have closed the gap with men’s tournaments in terms of viewership and there is more money flowing in and around women’s sports in general; women’s teams will now be paid t…

A new research note just named Waymo the “Kool-Aid man” of the ride-haling economy. And it might leave Uber, Lyft, and Tesla playing catchup. The study, published on March 16 by Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson, is a 21-page exploration into how Alphabet’s self-driving car company is poised to disrupt the existing ride-sharing landscape as it continues to aggressively scale. “Waymo’s incursion into the U.S. rideshare narrative reminds us of the Kool-Aid commercials from our childhood,” the analysis begins. “The Kool-Aid man kicks down walls, causes havoc, screams ‘oh yeah,’ and runs off into the next scene.” In the case of Waymo, it continues…

Scientists may have overestimated the potential health risk of microplastics, according to a new study from the University of Michigan, which identified a major culprit that could have unintentionally skewed results over multiple studies. Researchers found that the nitrile and latex gloves that scientists wear while measuring microplastics may be leading to false positives of the tiny pollutants. That’s because the gloves are coated with non-plastic particles called stearates—soap-like particles which can rub off or shed onto lab equipment, “creating thousands of false positives per square millimeter (or about one-thousandth of a square inch.” However, the study a…

Over the past 20 years, the Walt Disney Company has spent billions acquiring the world’s most recognizable intellectual properties, including Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar. It’s not just putting those assets to use on the big screen. Increasingly, those properties are an ever-larger part of the company’s theme parks, including Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida. Last August, Disney announced an expansion of its parks, and now, at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin this month, Disney has provided more details about new experiences and rides coming to those parks—and yep, the upcoming theme park experiences are all about Marvel, Sta…

Your upper chest could be the key to your long-term health. A new study found a correlation between the health of a human’s thymus and the likelihood of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Published on Wednesday in the science journal Nature, researchers detailed the “crucial” effect of the thymus on long-term health and lifespan, reshaping prior assumptions about the organ. “These findings reposition the thymus as a central regulator of immune‑ mediated aging and disease susceptibility in adulthood,” the report states. Thymus health a key indicator Using AI tools, scientists analyzed more than 27,000 patient scans and medical records to evaluate thymus he…

AI is transforming companies everywhere. While some research has shown that women are falling behind in terms of AI adoption, at the leadership level women are highly involved in guiding AI strategy. According to new research from Chief, a network for senior women leaders, in partnership with The Harris Poll, women leaders are playing a key role in carefully building AI frameworks. The research, which polled 1,768 male, female, and nonbinary leaders, found that, overwhelmingly, women are driving AI strategy with 80% playing active roles in how it’s being implemented into workflows. Nearly a third (31%) said they were involved in AI governance, ethics, and responsi…

The impact of GLP-1 medications on weight loss is undeniable, but emerging research suggests the results may only be temporary. A growing body of evidence shows that when patients stop taking GLP-1 drugs, much of the weight they lost returns—and so do the medical complications that may have prompted treatment in the first place. “The only way that they work is if you keep taking them,” Scott Isaacs, an endocrinologist at the Grady Health System in Atlanta, told Market Watch. “And when people stop taking them, they have a lot of weight regain, and the medical problems that went away tend to come back.” New research from the University of Oxford found that weight i…

Lately, the conversation about office policy has been dominated by reports of return-to-office mandates, with many employers aiming to get all of their workers back in person by the end of the year. But a new study shows that, despite the best efforts of many RTO proponents, hybrid schedules represent a lasting shift in the way we work—and employees like it that way. The study is the ninth annual “State of Hybrid Work” report from Owl Labs, a company that offers remote work tech like videoconferencing. It found that, across industries, hybrid work isn’t just “a trend.” Rather, it’s now become a priority that workers are “often willing to trade compensation or quietly …

A lot has been written about how AI is coming for your job, but EY’s latest AI survey found some surprising results. Out of 500 top executives at major U.S. companies who said artificial intelligence was boosting productivity at their companies, only 17% of those polled actually turned around and laid off workers or cut their jobs. Instead, the new survey found they are reinvesting those gains back into the company. “Executives are plowing productivity gains right back into more AI tools and more talented people,” EY America’s consulting leader Colm Sparks Austin said. “The real breakthrough isn’t automation—it’s amplification. Leading companies are using AI …

Tax filing season is in full swing, and while preparing your taxes can often be filled with stress, misplaced documents, and worries about proper filing, this year, there may be a silver lining. According to analysts, many Americans may get larger refunds in 2026 due to The President’s 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill legislation. Last year, the average refund was $3,167, but, given there are a number of new changes and deductions, experts say many Americans are looking to get back an additional $1,000 or more. Overall, that could come out to around $90 billion more dollars in tax returns. Here are the biggest changes that could boost your tax refund this year: No tax…

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed into law a bill requiring Apple and Alphabet’s Google to verify the age of users of their app stores, putting the second-most-populous U.S. state at the center of a debate over whether and how to regulate smartphone use by children and teenagers. The law, effective on January 1, requires parental consent to download apps or make in-app purchases for users aged below 18. Utah was the first U.S. state to pass a similar law earlier this year, and U.S. lawmakers have also introduced a federal bill. Another Texas bill, passed in the state’s House of Representatives and awaiting a Senate vote, would restrict social media apps…

There is a persistent belief that food, fuel, and industrial uses compete for the same bushel. In practice, the opposite is increasingly true. Crops have always served multiple markets. What is changing is how intentionally we are designing agricultural and manufacturing systems to serve those markets together. In a previous article I wrote, I focused on how familiar crops like corn and soybeans are finding new life through new demand pathways and molecular innovation. What I see today goes a step further. The same acre is increasingly supporting food, industrial materials, energy applications, and emissions-reduction strategies simultaneously. That convergence is…

When the confetti settles and the ball has dropped, many Americans will wake up on New Year’s Day — Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026 — with errands to run, groceries to buy, or just the urge to grab coffee. But because New Year’s Day is a federal holiday, the holiday clock affects a wide range of services differently: some go dormant for the day, others hum along with normal or modified hours, and a few offer the convenience you might need as you kick off the new year. Here’s what to expect if you’re planning to be out and about — or just need to know whether that store you’re counting on is open. Will I get mail on New Year’s Day? Thursday is a full federal holiday, whi…

There are two sorts of people in this world: Those who think it sounds like fun to brave the elements for hours on end to watch the ball drop at midnight in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and then there’s the rest of us. It’s become a time-honored tradition for millions of people to crowd into a few blocks of New York to celebrate a new year, and some new features await revelers this year. A larger ball will be dropped in the annual countdown to midnight, weighing in at 12,000-plus pounds and adorned with 5,200 crystals and LED lights. And there’s some special red, white, and blue confetti among the nearly three tons to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary. …

There’s something incredibly compelling about a brand-new year. A fresh start beckons, with each day untroubled by your past decisions. Whatever mistakes you made in 2025 are old news. They were sooo last year. You’re a new person now with new priorities, new habits, and new strategies. It’s in this spirit of new-leaf-turning-over that nearly a third of American adults—and almost half of 18- to 29-year-olds—decide to make New Year’s resolutions for the coming year. Unfortunately, making resolutions doesn’t work. Baylor College of Medicine reported in January 2024 that 88% of people who make resolutions abandon them within two weeks. That doesn’t mean change or imp…

Every January, millions of people set ambitious New Year’s resolutions. They do this with genuine enthusiasm, hoping to transform their lives. Yet research indicates that by January 8th, just one week into the year, a quarter of these resolutions have already failed. By the end of the year, most individuals return to their familiar patterns, and the promises they made to themselves are often abandoned. My life doesn’t permit me the luxury of being part of that statistic. I operate at the intersection of three distinct and demanding identities: a PhD scholar at Oxford researching outer space financing, the founder of a career advancement platform called Network Capital…

Office work is officially back from the dead—if New York is any indication, that is. In Manhattan, businesses are leasing more office space than they have in close to a decade, in a sign that the return-to-office movement is likely to stick around. According to real estate investor CBRE, during the first nine months of 2025, Manhattan businesses leased 23.2 million square feet of office space, the most since 2006. Leasing has already surpassed last year’s total, with 143 leases at more than $100 per square foot. However, as the epicenter of business, New York City is an outlier: Nationally, leasing is still around 11% below the pre-COVID average. Unsurprisingly, …

As snow piled up in front of bus stops and fire hydrants during New York City’s second winter storm of the year, city workers have tried to move fast to remove it before snow hardened into ice. A new internal tool makes that job easier to track. The city’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY) now tags infrastructure that’s been plowed in a mobile mapping tool that employees can update on the go. “We have started the work of geotagging every single bus shelter and crosswalk,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday, and overnight, he said the city cleared more than 1,600 crosswalks, 419 fire hydrants, and nearly 900 bus stops. DSNY handles trash collection, but it’s al…

At the turn of the 20th century, the steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated $5.2 million to New York to build libraries across the city. Leading architects of the time designed the branches, 67 in all, to look and function like civic temples with elaborate Beaux-Arts detailing, welcoming entrances, dignified reading rooms, and open stacks where patrons could freely browse. They quickly became important, and beloved, neighborhood establishments and remain so today. After more than a century of use, and ad hoc upgrades and adaptations that are also dated, the buildings are due for upgrades. Last year, the New York Public Library (NYPL) completed a $17…