ORLANDO, Fla. — That bump in the night you might have heard in the wee hours of Thursday morning could have been for national security.

That’s because a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the NROL-95 mission carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex ...Read more

Thick smoke from massive wildfires has been spreading in North America and Europe once again in 2026. The health impacts of breathing this particle-filled air are becoming well known, but wildfires’ influence on the weather is less widely recognized.

We often think about weather controlling wildfires: Dry air, heat, wind and ...Read more

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has halted construction at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam complex, a state-federal project in Joliet, Illinois, meant to block invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes.

"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the stop work order," Army Corps Public Affairs Officer Gene Pawlik said Wednesday. "The project is ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — That bump in the night that might be heard in Central Florida in the wee hours of Thursday morning might be for national security.

That’s because a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the NROL-95 mission carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s ...Read more

Moonshot AI secured a $35 billion valuation after raising a larger-than-anticipated $3.5 billion in a just-closed round of financing, riding the momentum from a breakthrough Kimi K3 model that sent ripples through Silicon Valley.

The Beijing-based startup managed to secure far more than the $1 billion to $2 billion it initially targeted, people...Read more

What will happen to the world if artificial intelligence bots break free from our control and act independently?

While it's been a troubling conundrum addressed by AI experts and Hollywood science-fiction scriptwriters for decades, it may have just happened.

OpenAI said last week that it temporarily lost control of its AI in what some worry ...Read more

Digital payments giant PayPal was soaring high five years ago, riding the surge in online shopping after the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped people's buying habits.

Now the San José fintech company has reportedly become a takeover target as it tries to get more people to click on the PayPal button to purchase items amid fierce competition.

Stripe,...Read more

At picnics and World Cup watch parties across the United States this summer, people have been reaching for bowls of chips and guacamole. Most of that guacamole is made from avocados grown in Mexico – on orchards that, in what might come as a surprise, contribute less water pollution today than they did a decade ago.

There’s a ...Read more

A few weeks back I wrote about removing your hard drive before you donate or recycle an old computer.

Occasionally, a reader will send me a follow up question about a column, but every once in a while, several people will write to me to point out a mistake or omission.

Today, I woke up to five emails from readers asking the same question: �...Read more

One of the rising trends in mechanical keyboards is the low-profile variants. These are lighter versions of the devices that act as a happy medium for the hobby. They have the joyous click of switches, but the portability, ergonomics and comfort of the membrane-style ones seen on laptops.

The one part holding back this category is that it isn...Read more

It might be hard to get excited about a portable power station since they're no longer a new or exclusive product category. But Anker's new Solix S2000 defies that expectation.

If I had to describe it in just two words, they'd be "necessary" and "efficient." But limiting it to two words hardly does it justice. I'd also call it user-friendly, ...Read more

Along with ongoing coverage of the latest bombings and missile and drone attacks in Iran and the oil-rich Gulf states, extreme weather events are also providing lead segments on evening news programs this summer. What you don’t see in much of the TV coverage, at least not since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term as ...Read more

Retail bettors are piling into long-shot multi-leg bets on prediction-market platforms, opening up a lucrative opportunity for sophisticated traders taking the other side.

Combo wagers, known as parlays in sports gambling, let users bundle multiple outcomes into a single bet. One popular combo for the World Cup final had Spain leading at ...Read more

As Maryland grapples with soaring electricity demand and rising energy costs, a Rockville-based nuclear company is betting that a new generation of small reactors could eventually help power the state — even as its first projects are being developed hundreds of miles away.

X-Energy Inc., with a Rockville headquarters and Frederick testing ...Read more

You’ve been planning your dream beach vacation for months, only to arrive and find the shoreline covered in large piles of smelly, brown seaweed, with even more floating offshore. It’s disappointing, for sure – and increasingly common.

Since 2011, summer scenes like this have played out on beaches in South Florida and throughout...Read more

A recent decision by a French court requires a major European oil and gas company to report not only its own climate-warming emissions and those of its contractors but also those of its customers, who burn the oil and petroleum products the company sells.

The court’s ruling against TotalEnergies, under a French law passed in 2017, ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Four years ago, Lake Mead hit a historic low, a harbinger of the threat facing Southern Nevada’s primary water source.

Lake Mead reached its record low of 1,040.58 feet above sea level on July 27, 2022. As Lake Mead’s water level continues to trend downward over the past 20 years, conditions this year have stressed its supply ...Read more

It’s no secret: This year has been a bad one so far for severe thunderstorms around Pittsburgh. In fact, it has been quite an active season throughout the Ohio Valley and a large part of the Midwest.

How bad has it been? In the months of March, April, May and June 2026, Pennsylvania saw a whopping 852 reports of severe weather. By ...Read more