Paying tolls when you’re driving a rental car is largely unavoidable, but you can avoid paying hefty fees just to activate the device that allows you to pay tolls. In July, the Central Florida Expressway Authority, which is based in Orlando, began issuing free temporary toll passes to travelers who …

No country competing in the track and field competition at the Paris Olympics has had its athletes subjected to more drug testing than Kenya in recent years. There is a reason for that. Not only is the East African nation a running powerhouse, it has also been trying to emerge …

Every four years, the Summer Olympics brings forth a collective fever dream of strange, communal treasures. We discuss synchronized diving instead of the weather. Flavor Flav is temporarily rebranded as a champion of women’s water polo. The phrase “pommel horse” re-enters our shared lexicon. Snoop Dogg feeds carrots to dressage …

A new study describes 700,000-year-old teeth and arm bones from one of our most enigmatic relatives: a toddler-size “hobbit” who lived on a small island between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The study, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that the species, Homo floresiensis, sometimes nicknamed hobbits, …

As the runners hit the penultimate bend, the racing pulse of the music starts to beat faster. The choice, and the timing, are perfect: Darude’s now semi-ancient trance track “Sandstorm.” But very few of the 15,000 in attendance can hear any of it. Instead, the fans inside the Bislett Stadium …

The encounter happened years ago, but Beverly K. Brandt remembers it vividly. She was leaving her office at Arizona State University, where she taught design history, to run an errand for her ailing stepfather. He had moved into a retirement community nearby after his wife, Dr. Brandt’s mother, died of …

Organizing a vacation with members of your extended family can spark high expectations and happy emotions. The promise of reconnecting with loved ones at a beautiful location or on an exciting tour can make it easy to idealize these trips while in the planning stage. However, travel delays, bad service …

With the largest and deadliest war in Europe since the end of World War II now in its third year, the scale of the devastation wrought by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to mount. The front line is a place of ghastly violence where hundreds of thousands of Russian …

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said on Monday that “agents of the government of India” had carried out the assassination of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia in June, an explosive allegation that is likely to further sour relations between the two nations. Speaking in the House of …

This article is part of our Learning special report about how the pandemic has continued to change how we approach education. Last year, Leticia Guerrero-Castaneda’s 11-year-old son, Isaiah, was struggling. He was in the fifth grade when the pandemic shutdown occurred, and his reaction was to shut himself down; he …