Adam Minter Bloomberg

This year, Saudi Arabia's expansion into global sports has disrupted professional golf, upended the soccer business and garnered the kingdom the 2034 World Cup. Now it's turning to cricket.

Last week, the Senate passed a measure that would allot $10 billion over five years for NASA to develop two new lunar landers.

For years, Hawking had been making - and losing - public bets on fundamental questions of physics.

For decades, the donation bin has offered consumers in rich countries a guilt-free way to unload their old clothing. In a virtuous and profitable cycle, a global network of traders would collect these garments, grade them, and transport them around the world to be recycled, worn again, or turned into rags and stuffing.

The stakes involved in making jets are much higher than with cement mixers and phones, of course. But Comac isn't flying blind. The most important components in the C919, including the engines and most electronics, are made by non-Chinese companies with decades of aerospace experience.

A new generation of feature phones is suddenly looking like a threat to Apple and its rivals.

Last week, China announced that it had mastered the art of making ballpoint pens. Don't laugh: It was a years-long effort that cost millions of dollars and required the leadership of a state-run corporate colossus. It was front-page news, widely discussed on talk shows and celebrated on social media.

Like other big contractors, American space companies have long expected some friendly support from their government. And Uncle Sam has usually been more than happy to help. Sometimes, though, government help causes more harm than good.

This year more than 400 climbers and sherpas decided to try their luck at summiting Mount Everest during the spring climbing season. Tragically, at least four have died so far and more than 30 others are reported to be suffering from severe frostbite and other ailments caused by prolonged exposure to Everest's brutal conditions.

Imagine if Ford remotely disabled the engine on your new F-150 pickup because you chose to have the door locks fixed at a corner garage rather than a dealership. Sound absurd? Not if you're Apple.

Roughly 80 percent of India's population lacks access to the Internet. Apple, purveyor of some of the world's most expensive smartphones, has a solution. As the Indian Express reported last week, the U.S.-based company hopes to import used, refurbished Chinese iPhones into India and sell them cheaply. Later, it plans to build factories to refurbish...

When Chinese leaders convene this week for a four-day meeting on the future of the country's economy, the biggest news might have to do with babies. According to reports in Chinese media, the government may be ready to relax the notorious "one-child" policy, in existence since the late 1970s, and allow Chinese parents to have two kids.

The thick haze that's blanketed much of Southeast Asia for the last month carries the ashy remains of Indonesian forests and peatlands - burnt in many cases to clear land for producing palm oil, the world's most popular edible oil. It's an annual occurrence dating back decades, and this year it's particularly bad: According to one report, the 2015 ...

This year, Saudi Arabia's expansion into global sports has disrupted professional golf, upended the soccer business and garnered the kingdom the 2034 World Cup. Now it's turning to cricket.

Last week, the Senate passed a measure that would allot $10 billion over five years for NASA to develop two new lunar landers.

For years, Hawking had been making - and losing - public bets on fundamental questions of physics.

For decades, the donation bin has offered consumers in rich countries a guilt-free way to unload their old clothing. In a virtuous and profitable cycle, a global network of traders would collect these garments, grade them, and transport them around the world to be recycled, worn again, or turned into rags and stuffing.

The stakes involved in making jets are much higher than with cement mixers and phones, of course. But Comac isn't flying blind. The most important components in the C919, including the engines and most electronics, are made by non-Chinese companies with decades of aerospace experience.

A new generation of feature phones is suddenly looking like a threat to Apple and its rivals.

Last week, China announced that it had mastered the art of making ballpoint pens. Don't laugh: It was a years-long effort that cost millions of dollars and required the leadership of a state-run corporate colossus. It was front-page news, widely discussed on talk shows and celebrated on social media.

Like other big contractors, American space companies have long expected some friendly support from their government. And Uncle Sam has usually been more than happy to help. Sometimes, though, government help causes more harm than good.

This year more than 400 climbers and sherpas decided to try their luck at summiting Mount Everest during the spring climbing season. Tragically, at least four have died so far and more than 30 others are reported to be suffering from severe frostbite and other ailments caused by prolonged exposure to Everest's brutal conditions.

Imagine if Ford remotely disabled the engine on your new F-150 pickup because you chose to have the door locks fixed at a corner garage rather than a dealership. Sound absurd? Not if you're Apple.

Roughly 80 percent of India's population lacks access to the Internet. Apple, purveyor of some of the world's most expensive smartphones, has a solution. As the Indian Express reported last week, the U.S.-based company hopes to import used, refurbished Chinese iPhones into India and sell them cheaply. Later, it plans to build factories to refurbish...

When Chinese leaders convene this week for a four-day meeting on the future of the country's economy, the biggest news might have to do with babies. According to reports in Chinese media, the government may be ready to relax the notorious "one-child" policy, in existence since the late 1970s, and allow Chinese parents to have two kids.

The thick haze that's blanketed much of Southeast Asia for the last month carries the ashy remains of Indonesian forests and peatlands - burnt in many cases to clear land for producing palm oil, the world's most popular edible oil. It's an annual occurrence dating back decades, and this year it's particularly bad: According to one report, the 2015 ...