How Memorial Day has evolved from its Civil War origins
Memorial Day in the United States is supposed to be about mourning fallen service members. But it has come to signal the unofficial start of summer and retail discounts.
The Sky Today on Monday, May 25: Three planets after sunset
A trio of planets stand in line in the evening sky after sunset: Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury, all visible in the twilit sky.
13 US service members have died in the war with Iran. Here are their stories
On this Memorial Day, grieving families are remembering the 13 US troops who have been killed so far in connection with the war with Iran.
See A Rare ‘Blue Moon’ Rise After Sunset This Week
North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead, which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere.
Rubio’s India trip focuses on trade, the Quad and sightseeing
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to India highlights efforts to stabilize relations between Washington and New Delhi.
In 1908 something exploded over a remote part of Siberia with the force of roughly 1,000 Hiroshima bombs, flattened 80 million trees, and was heard 600 miles away — and more than a century later, scientists still cannot fully agree on whether it was an asteroid, a comet, or something else entirely
On the morning of June 30, 1908, the sky over a remote stretch of Siberian forest split open. Eyewitnesses — and there were only a handful, because almost nobody lived there — described a column of bluish light, nearly as bright as the sun, moving across the sky. Then a flash. Then a sound like […]
Every GPS satellite is launched with a clock deliberately set to run slow, because Einstein’s relativity speeds it up by about 38 microseconds a day once in orbit — and without that built-in correction, your phone’s location would drift by roughly ten kilometres a day.
Every satellite in the GPS constellation carries atomic clocks, and before launch those clocks are deliberately set to tick at the wrong rate. They are adjusted to run slightly slow. The offset is small and precise, and it is built in on the ground, on purpose, by the engineers who designed the system. The reason […]
Pregnant wife of ICE detainee leads standoff as tensions boil over at N.J.’s Delaney Hall
Activists and protesters stood and chanted on the third day of a hunger and labor strike launched by roughly 300 detainees at ICE jail in New Jersey.
‘A hideous thing to have’: DC-area group pushes back on Trump’s plan for arch near Memorial Circle
As the annual Rolling to Remember motorcycle ride made its way to D.C. Sunday, a group gathered nearby holding signs and drawing attention to its artwork.
Trump’s emerging plan to end Iran war draws criticism from hard-line Republicans
President Donald Trump’s emerging deal to end the Iran war is drawing heavy criticism from some fellow Republicans who favor a harder line against the government in Tehran and fear a lost opportunity to finally rein in a longtime Mideast nemesis.