Putting your money where your mouth is has never been easier, as it’s now possible to gamble on basically anything, including election outcomes. However, many experts worry that gamifying politics could compromise its integrity and manipulate how issues and candidates are represented in the media.

What are prediction markets?
They are like the stock market, but “instead of buying shares in companies, you buy shares in the outcomes of real-world events,” said Vox. Top prediction market apps like Kalshi and Polymarket “allow you to stake money on everything from the outcomes of elections and wars to the weather in your city tomorrow to who will win the Grammy for Album of the Year.” The apps essentially “transform any future scenario, regardless of how glib or disturbing, into a profitable wager,” said NPR.

Under the Biden administration, there was an “aggressive clampdown” on prediction markets, said NPR. However, they are once again “taking flight with the full blessing of the White House.” The industry skyrocketed in 2025 and brought in $10 billion combined in bets on Kalshi and Polymarket in November.

How will they affect politics?
President Donald Trump dropped the Biden administration campaign to outlaw betting on elections, and Kalshi and Polymarket added Donald Trump Jr. as an adviser. In 2024, a win in court allowed Kalshi to “offer event contracts that allowed its users to wager money on the U.S. election,” said MarketWatch. 

“We should probably prepare for a world where — much in the way that sports have become nearly impossible to follow or talk about without talking in this meta way about odds, betting outcomes, etc. — politics will start to feel like that,” said John Herrman, a tech columnist at New York Magazine, to Vox. Also, just as you can no longer watch sports without ads from various sportsbooks, CNN and CNBC have “announced partnerships with Kalshi that will incorporate the app's voting markets on things like elections into the networks’ news coverage,” said NPR. 

“Entanglements with prediction markets might create other problems for journalists,” said The New Yorker. “Considering how significantly news coverage shapes betting odds, there’s ample opportunity for insider trading.” Bets placed on certain candidates or issues might bring more interest or popularity and thus skew coverage or voter behavior.

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted in mid-December to add President Donald Trump’s name to the concert hall to reflect “unequivocal bipartisan support for America’s cultural center for generations to come,” said Vice President for Public Relations Roma Daravi. But in the weeks since, longtime performers have cancelled shows, and some have directly linked their decision to the center’s rebrand, resulting in a round of recriminations and threats from Trump allies.

‘Not symbolic gestures’
Musician Chuck Redd’s decision to cancel the holiday “Jazz Jams” performance he had hosted since 2006 came after seeing the “name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building,” said Redd to The Associated Press. And on Monday, New York group Doug Varone and the Dancers announced it had canceled an April performance “despite an invitation,” said WUSA. “We can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once-great institution,” said Varone on Instagram.

This “fresh round” of cancellations follows “earlier artist backlash” last spring, said the Los Angeles Times. And the latest ones are “not symbolic gestures,” said Mediaite. They involve “real money, professional risk and decisions artists did not make lightly.”

‘Classic intolerance’
The cancellations have led to a particularly harsh response from Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump ally and adviser who threatened a $1 million lawsuit against Redd in a letter obtained by ABC News. The decision to cancel the show is “classic intolerance” and an example of “sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left,” said Grenell. 

The Kennedy Center plans to pursue the suit “after the holidays,” said NPR. But Grenell’s position “requires believing that politics” only entered into the Kennedy Center’s equations when artists “objected to the renaming, not when the renaming happened,” said Mediaite. By “labelling dissenting artists extremists,” Grenell “shifts attention away” from the initial renaming that “set everything in motion” and “discourages others from making the same connection publicly.”

Federico Pellegrino of Italy, Edvin Anger of Sweden, Gus Schumacher of the U.S., and Emil Iversen of Norway (from left) compete on the final stretch at the FIS World Cup Cross-Country Tour de Ski Men's Pursuit in Toblach, Italy. Norway’s five-time Olympic champion Johannes Hosflot Klaebo won the race.
Federico Modica / NordicFocus / Getty Images

A new year means new trips and new places to explore. Check out these increasingly hot spots across the globe.

Botswana
Considering a safari in 2026? Book it in Botswana. The country’s landscapes span from “delta to desert,” and because light pollution isn’t an issue here, each “star and comet blazes in the dark sky,” said Lonely Planet. On your journey, you could spot elephant herds, “majestic” lions, cheetahs and meerkats. Botswana is also known for the quality craftsmanship of its artisans, which is “most apparent” when you see its “functional and stylish” woven baskets.

Sardinia
A “wild island escape” can be found on Sardinia (pictured above), where “pristine beaches” and “cultural riches” are plentiful, said Lonely Planet. Active travelers will jump at the chance to go diving, swimming, caving and snorkeling along the coast or hiking on the Cammino Minerario di Santa Barbara long-distance trail, while “archeology enthusiasts” focus on sights like the massive nuraghi stone structures built during the Bronze Age.

Uluru, Australia
This year, there will be a new way to experience Uluru, the sandstone monolith sacred to the Anangu people. Over five days, visitors can trek from the “soaring domes” of Kata Tjuta to the base of Uluru, going through “desert oak forest, spinifex plains and red-dune country normally closed to the public,” said the BBC. This is also the only way to sleep inside the national park.