CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As we look back on 2016, and perhaps fret about 2017, we can take some solace in the remarkable things we know and continue to learn about the universe. In addition to a better understanding of the 5 percent of matter that has been well studied and understood, scientists are unlocking mysteries about the rest — 25 percent of it dark matter, and the remaining 70 percent dark ener

Donald J. Trump’s election has raised a question that few Americans ever imagined asking: Is our democracy in danger? With the possible exception of the Civil War, American democracy has never collapsed; indeed, no democracy as rich or as established as America’s ever has. Yet past stability is no guarantee of democracy’s future survival. We have spent two decades studying the emergence and breakd

Trump Tower in the Makati City district of Manila is being developed by Donald J. Trump’s business partner Jose E.B. Antonio, who has just been named the Philippines’ special trade envoy to the United States.Credit...Hannah Reyes Morales for The New York Times MANILA — On Thanksgiving Day, a Philippine developer named Jose E. B. Antonio hosted a company anniversary bash at one of Manila’s poshest

There is a 19-year-old black man in Illinois who has no idea of the role he is playing in this election. He is sure he is going to vote for Donald J. Trump. And he has been held up as proof by conservatives — including outlets like Breitbart News and The New York Post — that Mr. Trump is excelling among black voters. He has even played a modest role in shifting entire polling aggregates, like the

Wall Street fears a Trump presidency. Stocks may lose 10 to 12 percent of their value if he wins the November election, and there may be a broader economic downturn. These conclusions arise from close analysis of financial markets during Monday’s presidential debate, which provides a fascinating case study of the complex interconnections between American politics and economics. The market’s judgme

transcript Trump’s Tax RecordsThe New York Times obtained records from 1995 showing that Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss. The figure is so substantial that it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying federal income tax for 18 years. The New York Times obtained records from 1995 showing that Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss. The figure is so substantial that it could

The Upshot |We Gave Four Good Pollsters the Same Raw Data. They Had Four Different Results.

The story of more than a decade of war, terror and revolution in the Middle East, seen through the eyes of six people whose lives were changed forever. Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart PART Fractured Lands Fractured Lands PART I: ORIGINS PART I I PART II: THE IRAQ WAR PART II II PART III: ARAB SPRING PART III III PART IV: ISIS RISING PART IV IV PART V: EXODUS PART V V This is a story

By LARRY BUCHANAN, JOSH KELLER, RICHARD A. OPPEL JR. and DANIEL VICTOR UPDATED FEB. 16, 2018 A vast majority of guns used in 19 recent mass shootings were bought legally and with a federal background check. At least nine gunmen had criminal histories or documented mental health problems that did not prevent them from obtaining their weapons. Related Article Feb. 14, 2018 Seventeen people were kill

Long before they found their way to the sport’s most hallowed temples, where did the top players first learn to swing a racket? Visit the childhood courts of Novak Djokovic, the Williams sisters, Roger Federer and others. By Catrin Einhorn, Joe Ward and Josh Williams

Ever since Donald Trump has risen to the top of the polls, Republican strategists have questioned whether those polls might be overestimating his support. There is evidence to support that theory. We wrote about Mr. Trump’s support on Sunday, using polling data provided by Civis Analytics, a Democratic data firm founded by the 2012 Obama campaign’s analytics director, Dan Wagner. It showed Mr. Tru

A short game sheds light on government policy, corporate America and why no one likes to be wrong. Related Article Here’s how it works: We’ve chosen a rule that some sequences of three numbers obey — and some do not. Your job is to guess what the rule is. We’ll start by telling you that the sequence 2, 4, 8 obeys the rule: Now it’s your turn. Enter a number sequence in the boxes below, and we’ll t

The journalists at Charlie Hebdo are now rightly being celebrated as martyrs on behalf of freedom of expression, but let’s face it: If they had tried to publish their satirical newspaper on any American university campus over the last two decades it wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds. Student and faculty groups would have accused them of hate speech. The administration would have cut financing and sh

Almost anyone who loves tennis and follows the men’s tour on television has, over the last few years, had what might be termed Federer Moments. These are times, as you watch the young Swiss play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re O.K. The Moments are more intense if you’ve played enough tennis to understand the impossib