Why is the U.S. defense bill so large? No one seems to know.

Slate columnist Fred Kaplan, a longtime observer of military spending, asks whether anyone actually looked at the $778 billion U.S. defense budget before passing it.

The January 6 panel recommended holding Trump’s former chief of staff in contempt, on a day of big revelations about the Capitol attack. CNBC has the key details.

California plans to use a measure modeled on Texas’s controversial anti-abortion law to try to get guns off the streets. Vox explains.

When it comes to gift giving, is it really the thought that counts? Not quite, psychologists tell the Washington Post.

In the Players’ Tribune, WNBA star A’ja Wilson shares a powerful message for young Black women.