When President Trump tweeted his racist remarks Sunday, asking why certain Democratic congresswomen don't just "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," he did not just take aim at the four young women of color — three of whom were actually born in the U.S. He did so using a taunt that has long, deeply entrenched roots in American history: Why don't you just go back where you came from? The question doesn't always appear in those precise words,...

In the past year or so, scientists have discovered more evidence for liquid water under the surface of Mars. They've found complex organic compounds — the building blocks of life. And they've found that methane levels in Mars' atmosphere vary with the seasons. "Each of these things adds up to say that the probability of finding life on a world that's not our own is going up," says NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "And Mars, I think, is that best opportunity in our own solar system to find...

At a Border Patrol holding facility in El Paso, Texas, an agent told a Honduran family that one parent would be sent to Mexico while the other parent and their three children could stay in the United States, according to the family. The agent turned to the couple's youngest daughter — 3-year-old Sofia, whom they call Sofi — and asked her to make a choice. "The agent asked her who she wanted to go with, mom or dad," her mother, Tania, told NPR through an interpreter. "And the girl, because she...

July 16 marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the first spaceflight to land on the moon. Saturday is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, a goal that President John F. Kennedy first announced in 1961, well before the United States had the technology to carry out that mission. Charles Fishman documents the massive effort to land a man on the moon in his book One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us To The Moon . Here & Now s Jeremy Hobson talks with Fishman ( ...

Most snowshoes in the United States are probably in storage right now, gathering dust and waiting for temperatures to drop. In the town of Lake Tomahawk in the Northwoods of Wisconsin though, they're getting a lot of use this summer. Snowshoe baseball is exactly what it sounds like. It's a game of baseball played on snowshoes, though it more closely resembles a bizarre game of softball. Every Monday night in the summer—and on the 4th of July—hundreds of tourists and residents gather to cheer...

Updated at 3:35 p.m. ET The Trump administration is moving forward with a tough new asylum rule in its campaign to slow the flow of Central American migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Asylum-seeking immigrants who pass through a third country en route to the U.S. must first apply for refugee status in that country rather than at the U.S. border. The restriction will likely face court challenges, opening a new front in the battle over U.S. immigration policies. The interim final rule...

Weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts can't intervene in cases where state lawmakers have aggressively drawn political boundaries to benefit one political party over another, a new front in the nation's redistricting battles opens Monday in a North Carolina courtroom. The case has the potential to significantly alter how political maps are drawn in North Carolina and could serve as a blueprint for legal challenges in other states. Or, it could result in the latest...

Exit polls from the 2016 presidential election suggest that only 1 of 6 white evangelical voters supported Hillary Clinton. It was the worst such performance of any recent Democratic nominee. "She never asked for their votes," says Michael Wear, who directed religious outreach efforts for Barack Obama's successful reelection campaign in 2012. Democrats this year are making a more determined effort to reach voters whose political preferences are driven in part by their religious faith. Two...

Although I have never been a strict vegetarian, Ive eaten my fair share of tofu burgers, seitan and vegetable burgers, and veggie dogs throughout my youth. So it was with an open mind that I explored the world of fake meat. I didnt really love the taste of many of these top-selling burgers but I do understand the moral, environmental and health issues that lead people to become vegetarians. And I fully support fast-food chains and other restaurants and grocery stores offering alternatives to...

Maersk — the world's largest container shipping company — has an astonishing goal. By 2050, the company vows to send goods — everything from electronics to soybeans to sneakers — around the world with zero carbon emissions. The environmental logic behind such a promise is straightforward: Shipping contributes substantially to global climate change. But the business case is not as obvious. The goal, announced late last year, will cost Maersk billions to develop new technologies. Meanwhile, it...