The United States is preparing Misawa Air Base in northern Japan to support the future deployment of F-35A stealth fighter aircraft, as part of a broader effort to modernize U.S. air power in the western Pacific. According to the report by Newsweek journalist Ryan Chan, the Pentagon plans to deploy 48 F-35A Lightning II jets […]

The United States Navy’s Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati (LCS 20) arrived at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base for a temporary port visit on January 24, 2026, marking the first visit by a U.S. warship since the base was expanded with Chinese support. According to the U.S. Navy, USS Cincinnati docked at the base in […]

Russia has replaced the leadership of its strategic aircraft manufacturer Tupolev, appointing 37-year-old Yuri Ambrosimov as chief executive to replace 76-year-old Aleksandr Bobryshev, according to a report by Defense Express citing Russian industry sources. The personnel change took place roughly one year after the previous round of management rotations at Tupolev in 2024 and comes […]

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said there is a "strong case" for banning under-16s from social media.

Pop culture has not been kind to the Neanderthal. In books, movies and even TV commercials, the species is portrayed as rough and mindless, a brutish type that was rightly supplanted by our Homo sapiens ancestors.

But even 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals walked the earth, we continue to make discoveries that challenge that portrayal. New research suggests Neanderthals might have been less primitive — and a lot more like modern humans — than we might have thought.

The Times science reporters Carl Zimmer and Franz Lidz discuss recent discoveries about Neanderthals, and what those discoveries can tell us about the origins of humanity.

 

On Today’s Episode:

Carl Zimmer writes the Origins column and covers news about science for The Times.

Franz Lidz writes about archaeology for The Times.

 

Background Reading:

The Year in Neanderthals

Morning Person? You Might Have Neanderthal Genes to Thank.

What Makes Your Brain Different From a Neanderthal’s?

The Neanderthal Inside Us

 

Photo: Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

💾

Some 140,000 households are without power in the United States as a huge winter storm stretches from the southern Rocky Mountains in the west of the country to New England on the northeast coast.

Trump officials says federal agents shot in self-defence, as Pretti's parents accuse them of "sickening lies".

President Xi has been accused of using investigations to purge political rivals.

The road where Alex Pretti was killed by a federal immigration agent is known in Minneapolis as "Eat Street" because it's lined with restaurants and cafes.

Alex Honnold has become the first person to climb the Taiwanese building alone without safety equipment.

Protesters chanted Alex Pretti's name after he became the second person this month to be shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis.

A total of 86 people have been arrested after a group of protesters supporting a Palestine Action-linked activist on hunger strike at Wormwood Scrubs breached the prison grounds, police have said.

Alex Pretti was 37 years old when his life ended.

Paris Hilton says the "pain and abuse" she faced as a teenager at so-called behaviour camps paved the way for her to find the "most meaningful work" of her life.

The family of a 37-year-old US citizen shot dead by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis have lashed out at "sickening lies told about our son by the [Trump] administration".

Who sits beside India’s president on Republic Day signals Delhi’s diplomatic priorities to the world.

BBC Analysis Editor Ros Atkins explores how Americans feel about their president during a nonstop start to 2026 shaped by pivotal events at home and abroad.

When Cameron Crawford saw the news that police had misidentified two teenagers after a fatal road accident, the memories came flooding back.

With economic stagnation and extremes of inequality comes corrosion of trust in democratic institutions. So Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of what Carney called a "rupture" with the post-WW2 order

Officials identified the man who was shot as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a nurse and US citizen.