Leading Off: Ohtani Hr Streak, Icy Target Field, Yanks Hurt

Today, more than half the world’s population lives in cities—a figure expected to grow by 2.4 billion by 2050. Cities are at the heart of humanity’s future, but they are also ground zero for some of our biggest challenges: climate change, social inequality, and economic fragility. To house the growing urban population and achieve the U.

In a recent interview with NBC, President-elect Donald Trump suggested that his nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will investigate the relationship between early childhood vaccines and autism. Kennedy has a long history of blaming vaccines for autism. Now, he and his lawyer, Aaron Siri, are petitioning for the government to revoke approval for the polio vaccine and pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines.

Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk has made addressing climate change a central priority of his time running Pennsylvania’s third-most populous city. He ran for office in 2021 promising to align all city budgets with sustainability goals and since taking office the following year he has pursued a range of climate initiatives including decarbonizing the city’s transportation sector. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But when he found himself at the center of the U.

Hwang Dong-hyuk has his work cut out for him. There are two more seasons of Squid Game coming up—the second premiering Dec. 26, and the third set for a 2025 release. Creating what has become one of South Korea’s most valuable intellectual properties—a 12-year ordeal in itself—has come at a price, and that’s not just counting the at least eight teeth he lost due to the stress of filming the first season.

The women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the largest unit of Black women to serve overseas during World War II, certainly put their stamp on the war effort—processing about 65,000 pieces of mail per shift. The roughly 850 officers and enlisted personnel were in charge of delivering mail from the home front to the soldiers fighting in the European theater from 1945 to 1946. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Now, an operation that was totally behind the scenes is front-and-center in a major Hollywood production for the first time.

Like a shoddy police procedural with an easily-recognizable bad guy—the unshaven one with the heavy accent—the Christmas story has one villain in particular. Not Joseph, who didn’t believe Mary’s tale until an angel came to him in a dream. Not the innkeeper who said there was “no room” for Joseph and Mary.