NASA’s second thoughts about VIPER opened an opportunity for someone else to book that ride to the moon. Just because its cargo was canceled did not mean Astrobotic’s journey was off — it remains scheduled for later this year. And on Wednesday, a small startup named Venturi Astrolab Inc. announced it had claimed that opportunity…

Mr. Musk’s recent stand against U.S.A.I.D., the federal agency responsible for administering foreign and development assistance since 1961, could have come directly from the state capture playbook — only often more brazen in intent. “U.S.A.I.D. is a criminal organization,” Mr. Musk posted over the weekend. “Time for it to die.” In that time, the agency’s…

Sweden was reeling and the authorities were searching for answers on Wednesday after what the government called the worst mass shooting in the country’s history. The attack unfolded on Tuesday at an adult education center in the city of Orebro, west of Stockholm, the capital. The police said that at least 11 people were killed…

While it is the most popular sporting event in the United States, the Super Bowl can sometimes feel like an afterthought, compared with all the peripheral things happening on Super Bowl Sunday. In that spirit, ahead of this Sunday’s game in New Orleans between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, here is a…

In his first term, President Trump seemed to relish ripping through the norms and standards of self-restraint that his predecessors had respected. Three weeks into his second term, hand-wringing about norms seems quaint. Other presidents have occasionally ignored or claimed a right to bypass particular statutes. But Mr. Trump has opened the throttle on defying…

The U.S. trade deficit in goods hit a record last year, as American consumers snapped up imported products and a strong U.S. dollar weighed on export growth. Data released Wednesday morning by the Commerce Department showed that U.S. imports of goods and services grew 6.6 percent to $4.1 trillion, as Americans bought plenty of weight-loss…

For about a week leading up to the A.F.C. championship game, Meredith Nolan had been living on a hulking research vessel parked in an Antarctic port. The ship, called the Noosfera, had been waiting for favorable sea conditions before plowing into the icy waters below the southern tip of South America. It was late January,…

Bird flu is striking chickens across the country, causing shortages and pushing up prices at retailers and restaurants. Last week, one of the nation’s largest egg producers said that hens at one of its Indiana farms had tested positive for avian influenza. Researchers have stressed that bird flu still poses a minimal risk to the…

A gunman killed one person and injured five others on Tuesday evening at a cosmetics warehouse in suburban Columbus, Ohio, prompting more than 100 people inside to flee, the authorities said. The police were working to detain the shooter early Wednesday, Greg Jones, the police chief in the suburb of New Albany, told reporters. He…

President Trump said Tuesday that the United States should take over Gaza and forcibly relocate two million Palestinians to other countries, describing his plan as a humanitarian effort to provide a “beautiful” new home for people displaced by a devastating war. The proposal, delivered during a news conference at the White House with Prime Minister…