It’s a cliché no US presidential candidate can resist: “This election is the most important in our lifetime.” But this year it might be true, because also on the ballot is the destiny of the Supreme Court, which decides where America stands on issues like abortion, gay rights and guns. If given a second term,…… MORE
Tell Trump he’s got power and he’ll use it. Washington sages thought that the crushing pressures, ingrained customs and the implied morality of his office would force Donald Trump to conform to traditional notions of presidential behavior. But the US President’s latest flurry of decrees shows that was a bad bet. American presidents can pretty…… MORE
Among greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the most significant contributor to global warming and therefore, public enemy No. 1 when it comes to stopping the climate crisis. But methane — the main component in natural gas and an even more effective heat-trapping gas — is a close second. Scientists say that atmospheric methane is now…… MORE
Dagmar Turner wasn’t just showing off when she played the violin during her brain surgery at King’s College Hospital in London. Surgeons asked the 53-year-old to play her instrument to ensure that the professional violinist’s musical abilities were not damaged during a tumor removal. The tumor, in her right frontal lobe, was dangerously close to…… MORE
There are still several unknowns surrounding the novel coronavirus: How quickly it spreads, the symptoms it presents (or lack thereof) and the impact it will ultimately have on the global population. But the virus is already affecting pockets of business, travel and life in unexpected ways in China, where it originated, and beyond. Chinese nationals…… MORE
At first glance, Christiana Figueres doesn’t have that many reasons to be optimistic. The Costa Rican diplomat played a pivotal role in negotiating the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. But while the deal was widely praised as a landmark achievement, it has since begun to crumble. The United States left the pact under President Donald…… MORE
The sweeping scourge of the Black Death in 14th century England was so great it forced city-dwelling victims out to countryside hospitals, based on the tragic findings in a mass grave in Lincolnshire, England. The remains of 48 people, including 21 children, were found at a previously unknown Black Death mass grave site at Thornton…… MORE
Around 70,000 years ago, a Neanderthal was laid to rest in Shanidar Cave. Excavations in recent years have slowly revealed its entire upper body, including a lower back, the clenched bones of a right hand and the left hand almost acting as a pillow beneath the skull. It’s the first discovery of its kind in…… MORE
The image of cold-blooded, scaly, reptilian dinosaurs imprinted in our imaginations by movies like “Jurassic Park” may be inaccurate. We already know that many dinosaurs were feathered like birds and brightly colored. They may also have sounded like them too — making a cooing sound similar to a dove rather than roaring. Now, research from…… MORE
What will a second Donald Trump presidential term look like — if it happens? That was the thought in many delegates’ minds as they gathered over the weekend in the southern German city of Munich for a security conference. The official theme at the conference was “Westlessness,” an intentional gripe at the impact of Trump’s…… MORE
