Sometime on Oct. 21 of last year, high above the Arctic Circle, a lone missile shot skyward from a Russian island.
The missile flew northeast and then banked and began flying in loops for hours over the barren, frozen landscape.
According to Russian and Western sources, the new weapon, known in Russian as Burevestnik and by NATO as Skyfall, was powered by a small nuclear reactor. Few other details were forthcoming.
Now, two MIT researchers have published an analysis that sheds fresh light on how the nuclear-powered missile actually worked. If they are correct, the October flight test marks the first time a nuclear-powered aircraft has ever flown. It would also suggest the opening of an extraordinarily dangerous new chapter in the 21st century's simmering arms race.
"This is something that is possible, but wildly expensive and very dangerous," said Jake Hecla, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a dual appointment in both aerospace and nuclear science and engineering, who led the new analysis along with co-author R. Scott Kemp.
The Justice Department is seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging a Chicago suburb’s housing reparations program for Black residents, arguing it is “racially discriminatory” and unconstitutional.
Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione are now withdrawing plans to argue at his state murder trial that he was suffering from "extreme emotional disturbance" in the alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, according to reports.
Portions of the sealant that was recently applied at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as part of a series of renovations to the landmark appears to have begun peeling off the pool basin on June 18.
Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow in Kyiv’s biggest air raid on the city since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, setting a major oil refinery on fire and forcing evacuations at the country’s largest airport.
Mustafa Al-Shawa awoke at 2:30 a.m. on Monday to the sound of gunfire and the rumble of tanks in Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City. When he was finally able to go outside a few hours later, he found two yellow concrete blocks placed in the middle of the street—the Israeli military had moved them at least one hundred meters further west into Gaza where they now lay close to his home.
Of all the military failures the US has suffered in the past 25 years in the Middle East, the Iran war is probably the most consequential. 
Following the announcement of a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, it is time to revisit some criminal documents.
Kyiv came under repeated Russian attacks in the early hours of Thursday, as ballistic missile threats were followed by a new wave of strike drones, Ukrainian officials said.
