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Williams shares daughters Olympia, 6, and three-month-old Adira with tech entrepreneur husband, Alexis Ohanian

Serena Williams gets candid about reality of being a mom. Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; Serena Williams TikTok

Serena Williams is getting candid about being a mom!

The tennis legend, 42, shared a light-hearted TikTok clip of her real-life parenting world Wednesday that opened with her posed in the black sequin gown with puff sleeves she wore to the recent 2023 CFDA Awards.

In a relatable moment for parents everywhere, the camera then switched to an image of her pumping breast milk and letting out a deep sigh.

“What my life is really like… It’s not as glamorous as you think,” the mother-of-two wrote in her caption.

Earlier this month, Williams — who shares daughters Olympia, 6, and three-month-old Adira with tech entrepreneur husband, Alexis Ohanian —  revealed that Olympia is successfully “navigating” being an older sister to Adira.

“She loves it,” Williams told Entertainment Tonight at the CFDA Awards. “Adira’s like a tiny little baby, so Olympia just calls her her little sis.”

Per the outlet, Williams explained that Olympia “prayed for a sister” but revealed she herself was a little “worried” ahead of Adira’s arrival.

“I was like, ‘OK, I don’t know if I can like anyone as much as I love Olympia,’” Williams said. “I was really nervous about that. But I feel like it all worked out.”

Serena Williams gets candid about being a mom. Serena Williams TikTok

Despite Williams sharing her reality of motherhood, the star became the first athlete to win the fashion icon honor from the Council of Fashion Designers of America at the CFDA Awards, following in the footsteps of Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell, Rihanna and Zendaya.

“Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve used fashion as an outlet to express myself,” Williams told the CFDA ahead of the ceremony while wearing the elegant black dress designed by CFDA Chairman Thom Browne. “Fashion gave me the confidence to step on the court and own who I was, and where I knew I was going,”

New research suggests the Chelmno group followed their water burials with mass deposits of bronze jewelry and artifacts

An excavation of the dry Papowo Biskupie lakebed unearthed over 550 bronze artifacts. A. Piasecka / Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Researchers have determined that a hoard of bronze jewelry found in a Polish lakebed may be related to ancient ritualistic water burials.

Metal detectorists discovered the jewelry last year at Papowo Biskupie, the site of a long dried-up lake in Poland. In the excavations that followed, researchers recovered over 550 bronze artifacts, as well as human bones—making the site “one of the most eloquent testimonies of ritual activity from the Lusatian period in Poland,” according to a study published this week in the journal Antiquity.

Between 1200 and 450 B.C.E., the site was occupied by the Chełmno group, a faction of a larger northern European culture called the Lusatian population, which was active during the late Bronze and early Iron Age, according to the researchers. Previously, historians knew that other Lusatian groups used metal for ritualistic purposes, but the Chelmno group wasn’t thought to have engaged in this practice—until the recent findings at Papowo Biskupie.

A recreation of a multistrand necklace, complete with beads and charms, found at the site A. Fisz / Antiquity Publications Ltd.
“The scale of metal consumption at the site is extraordinary,” study co-author Łukasz Kowalski, an archaeologist at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, tells Live Science’s Jennifer Nalewicki. “Until now, we thought that metal was a weak partner in the social and ritual strategies of the Chełmno group, in contrast with the metal-hoarding madness [practiced by the other Lusatians].”

Researchers also recovered skeletal remains from at least 33 human bodies—including infants, children, adolescents and adults—in the lakebed. After conducting radiocarbon testing, they determined the bones date to between 1040 and 780 B.C.E.

The trove of artifacts found at the site includes arm and neck accessories, such as a necklace made with oval- and tube-shaped beads and “swallow-tail pendants,” write the researchers, who think many of the metal pieces were made by locals. However, a glass bead from the same necklace appears to have traveled a longer distance, offering new insights into the community’s participation in trade.

“The bead is made of low-magnesium glass that was sourced from the Eastern Mediterranean region,” Kowalski tells Live Science. “This increases the use of evidence that power-elites of the Chełmno group became parties to a metal trading network that connected much of the European continent in the first millennium B.C.E.”

Researchers created this example of a Chełmno woman’s burial using the jewelry found at the site. A. Fisz / Antiquity Publications Ltd.
Radiocarbon dating suggests that the metal jewelry was buried in the lake sometime after the bodies. According to a Facebook post from Antiquity, this gap sheds light on a cultural shift within the Chelmno group: The community may have first buried only bodies in the lake, later adding the metal as they adopted new traditions.

“While the Chelmno group differed in many ways from others in Lusatian culture, it seems the ritual practices and their belief system aligned later on,” writes Newsweek’s Robyn White.

The researchers completed their study with illustrations imagining what a Chelmno woman’s burial might have looked like. In one of these images, she is seen lying down with her head turned to the side, adorned with some of the metal jewelry recovered from the site.

Pearl Harbor science

(Image credit: Public domain)

Although over 80 years have passed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many details of the event remain shrouded in mystery and debate. Even so, historical researchers and scientists have been able to shed light on at least some of the many lingering questions. Here are nine stories of secrets and science from the “date which will live in infamy.”

Purple/Magic

A long-standing conspiracy theory suggests that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt or his military advisors knew in advance of a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but neglected to act on the warnings, for political purposes, hoping to force the U.S. to join World War II.

The accusations were first made public by FDR’s political opponents during his campaign for re-election in 1944, but all of the 10 official inquiries into the events of the attack on Pearl Harbor have dismissed these ideas. The latest such inquiry took place in 1995.

Much attention has focused on a U.S. espionage effort, code-named Purple, which aimed to decipher Japanese radio communications picked up by U.S. listening stations around the Pacific Ocean. The deciphered messages produced by the Purple decipherment machine (pictured above) were code-named Magic.

But making sense of the Magic messages involved a complex and slow process; they were protected by two layers of codes and ciphers that changed each day, and most of these messages also needed to be translated from Japanese.

Although the Purple program was able to read some Japanese diplomatic communications before 1941, researchers have shown that the codes and ciphers used by the Japanese military were not broken until much later in the war. Japan’s military was distrustful of the country’s Foreign Office, and shared no details of the impending secret attack on Pearl Harbor with their ambassadors in the U.S.

One key Magic communication did relate to the attack: the famous “14-part message” between the Japanese foreign office in Tokyo and the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., which was intercepted on Dec. 6, 1941.

The message indicated that Japan would formally break off peace negotiations with the U.S. at 1 p.m. in Washington, D.C., the next day. This corresponded to dawn in Hawaii on the day of the Japanese attack.

Several U.S. officials read the message, and interpreted it as a strong sign that a Japanese attack was imminent.

But the message did not say anything more, and at the time, the U.S. was expecting Japan to invade Thailand and the British colony of Malaya — which the Japanese did do on Dec. 8, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Spies in Hawaii

Several foreign spies are known to have operated in Hawaii on behalf of the Japanese military before the Pearl Harbor attack. (Image credit: U.S. National Archives)
Several foreign spies are known to have operated in Hawaii on behalf of the Japanese military before the Pearl Harbor attack.

Among them was Otto Kuhn, a “sleeper agent” for Germany’s Abwehr military intelligence service, who had lived for many years in Hawaii with his family before the war. Kuhn was related to the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who arranged for Kuhn’s posting to Hawaii in 1935 to spy for the Japanese.

Kuhn trained his teenage son and daughter to listen for military secrets, while his wife was responsible for compiling the information the family gathered. Although the Kuhns diligently produced many espionage reports for many years, the family of spies failed to impress their Japanese controllers. Historical researchers have said the Kuhns gathered little information of real value. All four members of the family were arrested in February 1942, a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Kuhn, his wife and his daughter were imprisoned for spying, and returned to Germany after the war.

Japan, however, had its own master spy in Hawaii: a young intelligence officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy named Takeo Yoshikawa, who worked undercover at the Japanese consulate in Honolulu as a junior diplomat named Tadashi Morimura.

Yoshikawa was posted to Honolulu in March 1941, and lost no time making a thorough inventory of U.S. naval activity by touring the island via car and boat, taking photographs from hills overlooking the harbor, and chatting with taxi drivers. He even rented a small plane for aerial reconnaissance and went diving near the warships in the harbor while breathing through a hollow reed.

U.S. counterspies intercepted and deciphered some of the many messages Yoshikawa transmitted to Japan, but none of these messages gave any direct warning of an attack on Pearl Harbor — until his final message. This transmission, sent on Dec. 6, described the positions of the U.S. warships in the harbor. Unfortunately, U.S. experts did not decipher that message until after Japanese attack had begun.

Secret Fleet

Many historical researchers highlight two major factors in the success of the Pearl Harbor attack: the effectiveness of Japanese torpedoes and the strict secrecy surrounding the movements of the Japanese warships making the attack.

Japan went to a great deal of trouble to disguise the movements of its strike force (Kido Butai) of six aircraft carriers, 414 aircraft, and more than 40 other warships and submarines. This force left northern Japan under strict radio silence in late November 1941.

Many of the radio operators from the ships were left behind at their bases in Japan, where they continued to send transmissions as if still on board their vessels. This was an effort to fool the U.S. military, which was known to be listening in on Japanese radio communications.

At first, the Japanese fleet sailed almost due east, far north of the regular shipping lanes. The force had orders to destroy any commercial ships it encountered that might betray the fleet’s position, but reportedly only a single Japanese ship was sighted.

On the Dec. 4, 1941, the strike force turned southeast toward Hawaii, and finally approached the islands from the north — where the Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa had reported few U.S. air patrols were carried out, because the seas there were thought to be too rough for an attack.

Thunder Fish

The Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa also reported that the water in Pearl Harbor was not deep enough to use torpedoes. The U.S. Navy apparently thought the same, and later U.S. inquiries into the attack found that this was one of the reasons that no anti-torpedo nets were installed to protect the largest warships on Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row.

The Japanese answer to the shallow waters was to devise a new type of aerial torpedo (shown here in the center) that could be dropped from an aircraft into shallow water without burying itself in the mud of the harbor floor.

Two wooden fins were added to the torpedo to keep it stable after it dropped from the aircraft. The fins broke off when the torpedo entered the water, where a sophisticated control mechanism prevented the weapon from rolling out of control as it sped toward its target, a few feet below the surface.

The Japanese aerial torpedoes, nicknamed “thunder fish in the sky” (“koku gyorai”), devastated warships in the harbor, sinking more vessels than any other weapon used by the attacking aircraft, which included regular aerial bombs and armor-piercing anti-ship bombs.

At least 13 of the 40 torpedoes launched in the first wave of the Japanese aircraft attacks hit the U.S. battleships, which were then considered the most important warships in the American fleet.

“Missing” Carriers

That all three U.S. aircraft carriers based at Pearl Harbor were away at sea on the day of the Japanese attack has fueled rumors that senior U.S. officials knew in advance about the attack, and that they had dispatched the carriers on a distant mission to protect them from harm.

The fortunate survival of the carriers USS Lexington (shown here), USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise was an important boost to U.S. morale in the days after the Pearl Harbor attack. But historical researchers point out that the U.S. Navy did not consider aircraft carriers important until after the Pearl Harbor attack had shown the effectiveness of air attacks on warships.

Although aircraft carriers would later dominate the war in the Pacific, in December 1941, the U.S. Navy thought its battleships would be the most important warships in any war to come, as the ships had been since the First World War.

The Japanese also considered the American battleships to be their main target. And thanks to the country’s spy in Hawaii, Takeo Yoshikawa, Japan already knew that the U.S. carriers were not in harbor on the day before the attack, but that eight U.S. battleships were.

Naming the Dead

After 75 years, efforts continue to identify the remains of many of the victims of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, where more than 2,400 Americans died.

Researchers for the Department of the Defense based at Pearl Harbor are trying to establish the identity of hundreds of sailors and marines from the wreck of the battleship USS Oklahoma, using DNA analysis and dental records.

The Oklahoma capsized on Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row with more than 400 crew on board on the day of the attack, after Japanese torpedoes hit the ship.

Most of the badly damaged human remains from the Oklahoma were initially buried in mixed caskets at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, but the researchers have said they hope to eventually identify each individual.

So far, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has identified 392 distinct sets of DNA in the remains from the Oklahoma, and has positively identified the remains of more than 60 servicemen.

Mystery Catalina

Alongside the major wartime shipwrecks in Pearl Harbor, including those of the battleships USS Arizona and USS Utah, many smaller military wrecks still hold secrets.

Among them is the wreck of a Catalina PBY flying boat in Kane’ohe Bay, on the northeast side of the main island of Hawaii, which underwater archaeologists investigated in 2015.

Investigators have tried to identify the wrecked seaplane for many years, but so far its identity and that of its crew remain unknown.

The researchers said it may have been destroyed soon after it took off during the Japanese attack.

Submarine Wrecks

A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) has explored the wrecks of two Japanese submarines that took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, to mark the 75th anniversary of the events.

Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) live-streamed video from the ROV as it explored the wrecks.

The subs were among five Japanese submarines sent to infiltrate Pearl Harbor before the first air attacks. Each was armed with two torpedoes, but all failed in their mission.

One of the Japanese subs explored by the ROV was sunk by the USS Ward near the entrance of the harbor. Divers re-discovered the wreck in 2002.

The wreck of the second sub was found in 1951, before it was raised by the U.S. Navy and dumped in deeper waters.

Leaking Oil

The damage to U.S. warships by the Japanese raid has left a lasting impact on the marine environment of Pearl Harbor.

Oil continues to leak from the USS Arizona, which had taken on nearly 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million liters) of fuel on the day before the attack, in preparation for its return to the U.S. mainland that month.

Today, the wreck of the USS Arizona spills more than 2 gallons (8 L) of fuel oil a day, and some scientists have warned of a potential environmental disaster if the estimated half a million gallons of fuel remaining in the wreck escapes.

The National Park Service, which administers the wreck of the USS Arizona as a national monument, monitors the fuel spilling from the ship, but so far no major efforts have been made to contain the leakage.

But the fuel leaking from the ship may not be the greatest environmental threat to the waters of Pearl Harbor. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 5 million gallons (19 million L) of spilled fuel have collected in an underground plume beneath a fuel storage area near the main gate of the Pearl Harbor military base.

The U.S. Navy said some of the spilled fuel in the plume dates back to activities at the base during World War II – the rest comes from fuel spills and leaks that have occurred at the base in years since then. Although the Navy said there is no danger of the heavy fuel seeping into the water, scientists have warned of a major environmental disaster if such seepage ever occurs.

“She wears dresses all day every day, and insists on heels,” Venus Williams says of her niece Olympia

 

Photo: Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr./Instagram; Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty

Venus Williams sees a future in fashion for her niece Olympia!

During Monday night’s Met Gala, the athlete, 41, chatted with Access Hollywood on the red carpet about her stylish niece, 4, and her love for fashion.

“She wears dresses all day every day, and insists on heels, so she’ll be here next year,” Venus said of the daughter of Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian.

“Next year she’ll probably be chair,” Venus teased.

The toddler loves to get dressed up — especially when it’s to match her tennis pro mom.

Back in June, Olympia sported a miniature version of the iconic catsuit her mom, 39, wore at the Australian Open earlier this year. Olympia’s father documented the adorable matching moment on his daughter’s Instagram account.

Alexis’ post included several photos of Olympia on the tennis court, wearing her hair in two buns with hair ties that matched the red, pink and black suit. She also wore matching black, gray and pink Nike tennis shoes as she posed with her racket for the camera.

Serena Williams and her daughter Olympia. olympia ohanian/instagram

As perfect as Olympia looked, Alexis was apparently preemptive in showing off his daughter’s cute outfit.

“Awwwww mannnnnn I asked you to save this post until I was next to her side by side in my same outfit 🙄🙄,” Williams wrote in a comment on the post.

“Oophhh I guess I’ll have to pull the plug from your phone tonight,” she added. “And you wake up wondering why you have no battery 🤷🏿‍♀️🤷🏿‍♀️ LOL.”

 

Watch the sun spew out a giant eruption of plasma in incredible footage (video)

Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “Skyscapes” that connect both Earth and the night sky. 

On Feb. 22, 2022, a gigantic solar prominence formed on the surface of the sun, blasting a large coronal mass ejection (CME) into space.

Solar prominences, or filaments, are large loops of plasma flowing along twisted magnetic fields that extend outward from the sun’s surface. They are attached to the sun’s photosphere, or visible outer layer of its atmosphere, and while they can form in just a day, they can last for months. Some prominences can extend for thousands of miles into space. Solar scientists still aren’t exactly sure how they form.

This was likely the highest prominence I have witnessed and recorded to date. The prominence appears so tall when compared to the sun’s disk that it appears that we dozens of Earths could fit inside of it.

An image of a solar prominence captured by astrophotographer Miguel Claro on Feb. 22, 2022. (Image credit: Miguel Claro)
This was my most stressful and luckiest capture. As soon as I realized that the prominence was growing so fast and so drastically, I had to quickly decide what to do. So I decided to interrupt the first sequence and rotate the camera, framing again for the new composition, to be able to keep capturing this growing giant ejection.

That day, the conditions for solar photography were good, not perfect, but nice enough for a time-lapse. So I made a huge effort of gathering as much images as possible. The final result is a 4K high resolution solar movie comprising around 2 hours and 15 minutes, captured from the Dark Sky® Alqueva region of Portugal.

With a total solar eclipse arriving on April 8, 2024, you may want to take your own photos or videos of the sun. If so, be sure to take all precautions.

The first thing to be aware of is that viewing the sun or a solar eclipse can be dangerous without the right equipment. Never look directly at the sun with the naked eye, especially through additional optics like telescopes or binoculars. Whatever gear you use, make sure it has a certified solar filter, or a smart telescope with a solar filter like the Unistellar Equinox 2 might be your best bet.

There are three other ships in the United States Navy which were named after the state of Missouri besides the battleship USS Missouri (BB 63), and although she became associated with the history of the Japanese raid at Pearl Harbor, she never took part in the event. So, why is she known by so many around the world?

Missouri, a.k.a. “Mighty Mo” stands out in the history of the Second World War not just as the last battleship of the U.S. Navy, but also as the battleship which hosted the end of the Second World War in the Pacific.

A kamikaze plane about to hit Missouri 11 April 1945
The life of Mighty Mo began after her commissioning on 11 June 1944 as the last Iowa-class battleship of the U.S. Navy. She had a full-load displacement of 58,000 long tons, a length of 887.2 feet and a beam that measured about 108 feet. At her maximum speed of 33 knots, she possessed a range of about 14,900 miles.

USS Missouri (BB-63) (left) transferring personnel to USS Iowa (BB-61), while operating off Japan on 20 August 1945.
Just like the rest of the Iowa-class battleships, her main armament comprised nine 16-inch .50 caliber Mark 7 guns which could fire shells that weighed up to 2,700 lb at a target 20 miles away. Subordinate armament comprised twenty 5-inch .30 caliber Mark 12 guns that could hit a target 10 miles away. She was also fitted with anti-aircraft guns to defend Allied aircraft carriers from air attacks.

https://youtu.be/gHW7xhCx_t0

Missouri was one of the battleships that took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima, which is known as the fiercest battle of the war’s Pacific theater.

On 18 March 1945, she was part of the battleship group that struck airfields and naval bases along the coast of Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. During this event, she gunned down four enemy planes and provided cover for the badly damaged carrier Franklin.

Missouri moves through the Panama Canal en route to the United States in October 1945.
On March 24 and April 1, Mighty Mo was with the Task Force 58 battleship group during the raids at Okinawa. She shot down five airplanes, provided support in the downing of another six, helped repel numerous waves of attacks during the day and night of the invasion, and destroyed military and government infrastructure. Also, the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-56 was initiated by Missouri, whose radar had detected it.

After her contributions at Okinawa, she took part in the bombardment of the Japanese home islands. Her battle group devastated Japanese infrastructure such as the Nihon Steel Company and the Wanishi Ironworks, in Hokkaido, and several other industrial targets in Honshū, before the release of the second atomic bomb which would lead to Japan’s surrender in 1945.

Allied sailors and officers watch General of the Army Douglas MacArthur sign documents during the surrender ceremony aboard Missouri on 2 September 1945. The unconditional surrender of the Japanese to the Allies officially ended the Second World War.
The signing of the official instrument of surrender was done aboard Missouri, and thus, the end of the war was marked onboard this ship, the main fact for which she is remembered.

The outbreak of the Korean War saw Missouri back in action, providing support and going on bombardment missions. Her last of such missions was the bombardment of Kojo on 25 March 1953.

Missouri was accidentally grounded early on the morning of 17 January 1950.
On 26 February 1955, she was decommissioned. Following her decommissioning, one idea to move Missouri to Pearl Harbor as a museum ship was thwarted by the National Park Service because of fears that with her towering popularity she would overshadow Arizona, the battleship that had become a symbol of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor following her very dramatic end.

Missouri was instead mothballed in Bremerton, west of Seattle, Washington. However, more than 30 years later, she was reactivated and modified during the 600-ship Navy project.

USS Missouri at sea in her 1980s configuration
The resurrected version was equipped with Quad Cell Launchers to fire Harpoon missiles and Armored-box launchers for firing Tomahawk missiles. For protection against enemy missiles, a Phalanx CIWS was installed on the ship.

In 1991, during the Gulf War, she was back in combat again, serving until 31 March 1992, when she saw her final decommissioning.
Missouri received 11 battle stars throughout her lifetime of service, and was used by the USS Missouri Memorial Association as a museum ship at Pearl Harbor after her retirement.

More photos

A kamikaze plane about to hit Missouri 11 April 1945
 

USS Missouri (BB 63) prior to her being launched at the New York Navy Yard, January 29, 1944. Note the unusual view of the bow.
 

USS Missouri (BB-63). Photographed while on her shakedown cruise, August 1944.
 

The U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), with the destroyer USS Renshaw (DD-499) alongside, manning the rails during Navy Day ceremonies in the Hudson River, New York City (USA).
 

Aerial view of warships at the base piers of Norfolk Naval Base, Virginia (USA), circa August 1944. Among them are: the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), the largest ship; the battlecruiser USS Alaska (CB-1), on the other side of the pier; the escort carrier USS Croatan (CVE-25), and two destroyers, a Fletcher-class destroyer at the pier and a Clemson/Wilkes-class-destroyer moored outboard.
 

View of the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) looking aft towards the number three battery and the superstructure. Note the 20 mm antiaircraft gun mounts in the foreground and the SG surface-search radar antenna atop both mainmasts and the circular antenna for the SK-2 air-search radar on the foremast. Also visible are two Mk 37 gun directors with Mk 12 fire control radar for the 12.7 cm artillery and the Mk 38 gun director with Mk 8 fire control radar (“hedgehog”) for the 40.6 cm artillery.
 

View of the forecastele of the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) in heavy seas.
 

The U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) during battle practice in Chesapeake Bay on 1 August 1944. She is wearing Camouflage Measure 32 Design 22D.
 

USS Missouri leading USS Iowa into Tokyo Bay, Japan, 30 August 1945. Note destroyer USS Nicholas in escort.
 

Warships of the U.S. Third Fleet and the British Pacific Fleet in Sagami Wan, 28 August 1945, preparing for the formal Japanese surrender a few days later. Mount Fuji is in the background. Nearest ship is USS Missouri (BB-63), flying Admiral William F. Halsey’s four-star flag. The British battleship HMS Duke of York is just beyond her, with HMS King George V further in. USS Colorado (BB-45) is in the far center distance. Also present are U.S. and British cruisers and U.S. destroyers.
 

American aircraft fly over USS Missouri after the surrender.
 

USS Renshaw (DD 499) dwarfed in comparison, stands alongside USS Missouri (BB 63) to pipe President Harry S. Truman onboard for Navy Day luncheon, October 1945
 

USS Augusta, USS Midway, USS Enterprise, USS Missouri, USS New York, USS Helena, and USS Macon in the Hudson River in New York, New York, United States for Navy Day celebrations, 27 October 1945.
 

USS Missouri (BB-63) in drydock at Norfolk Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, November-December 1949.
 

Missouri (BB-63) bombarding Communist positions off Chong Jin, Korea. She is only about forty miles from the Soviet border, so all hands are at General Quarters, 21 October 1950.
 

The U.S. Navy battleship of USS Missouri (BB-63) upon arrival at Norfolk, Virginia (USA), after service in the Korean War on 27 April 1951.
 

Crew members man the rail as the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) arrives in port prior to a cruise to Australia and around the world, 1986.
 

The No. 1 and 2 Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber gun turrets are fired during a main battery firing exercise aboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63). The ship is en route to Sydney, Australia, during a cruise around the world, 1986.

The battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) transits the Suez Canal while en route to Istanbul, Turkey. The ship is on an around the world shakedown cruise, 1986.
 

The Iowa class battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) arrives off the coast of Australia for a ceremonial visit to Australia in honour of the Royal Australian Navy’s 75th anniversary.
 

An aerial starboard view of the fleet oiler USNS Kawishini (T-AO-146), center, the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), bottom, and the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), participating in an underway replenishment operation, 25 July 1986.
 

An aerial port view of the forward half of the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) while the ship is underway.
 

An aerial bow view of the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) underway.
 

Smoke billows from the muzzles of the Mark 7 16-inch/50-caliber guns in each of the three main gun turrets aboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) after the ship fired multiple salvos during exercise RimPac “90 near Hawaii.
Read another story from us: Pearl Harbor Survivor – The USS California “Prune Barge”

An elevated port bow view of the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) en route to recommissioning in San Francisco.

In the mid-2000s she was instrumental in convincing the governing bodies of Wimbledon and the French Open to award men and women equal prize money

This month Venus Williams finds herself on unfamiliar ground—that is, not on the well-manicured grass of the All England Club outside of London, competing in what would have been her 23rd career Wimbledon.

Canceled for the first time since World War II because of the coronavirus pandemic, the storied tournament is where Williams, 40, became bona fide tennis royalty.

“When the season starts, I will be ready,” Williams wrote to her fans on Twitter in late March. “Can’t wait. Can you?”

Williams, who turned pro in 1994 at only 14, made her Wimbledon debut in 1997, and in 2000 she won her first singles crown, defeating fellow American Lindsay Davenport.

Four singles titles, six doubles championships with her sister Serena Williams and an Olympic gold medal later, Williams says it’s challenging to pick a favorite memory from Centre Court.

“The first time was an overwhelming experience, and obviously super special for me,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “The 2012 Olympics stand out as of one of the most interesting experiences of my career, but all those doubles wins are so special to Serena and me.”

The victory that she calls her proudest professional accomplishment, however, did not take place on a court. In the mid-2000s she was instrumental in convincing the governing bodies of Wimbledon and the French Open to award men and women equal prize money.

“That was something we had been working on since the 1960s,” says Williams. “It was long overdue.”

Recently, Williams has been using this same can-do attitude to condemn police brutality and promote racial equality. On June 8, she posted a heartfelt message on Instagram. “Just as sexism is not only a ‘women’s issue,’” she wrote in a call for unity, “racism is not only a ‘black issue.’”

Venus Williams. Zebe Haupt

“We need to make sure lives are saved and preserved—to me, that’s number one,” Williams tells PEOPLE. “We change that by recognizing and giving a voice to what’s happening in our world. We also need to address other invisible faces of racism, from how we hire to whom we cast on television shows.”

For her part, Williams has been using her recurring Instagram Live #CoachVenus workouts as fundraisers for the Equal Justice Initiative, matching all donations to the nonprofit, whose goal is to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment, challenge racial and economic injustice, and protect basic human rights.

“I’m passionate about creating opportunities for Black youth at a grassroots level, especially with tennis and education,” explains Williams, who learned the game from her father, Richard, on public courts near her childhood home in Compton, California. “It’s important for me to help give minorities, disadvantaged youth and Black children the opportunity to play sports and have an education—just as I was given those opportunities. In turn, that gives them the opportunity to be excellent.”

Williams credits her mother, Oracene Price, with inspiring her on and off the court.

“Throughout my career, my mom has challenged me to pursue my creative side,” says Williams. “Her support and encouragement is what led me to realize my love for fashion and design and to get degrees in those fields.”

Despite a shifting tournament schedule, Williams has plenty to keep her busy, between V Starr Interiors, the design company she founded in 2002, and EleVen by Venus Williams, her lifestyle brand that recently introduced an eco-conscious skincare line in partnership with cosmetics brand Credo.

“I’m incredibly fortunate to have someone like her in my life who pushes me to be better than my best self,” says Williams. “That’s the meaning behind EleVen—always working to be an 11 out of 10.”

The 13-year and 17-year broods that will emerge from underground this spring will be appearing together for the first time in 221 years.

This spring, Brood XIII and Brood XIX of periodical cicadas will emerge together for the first time since 1803. JanetandPhil via Flickr under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED
Billions of cicadas from two different broods will emerge this spring in a rare, buzzy natural phenomenon that hasn’t happened since 1803.

The insects belong to two distinct populations of periodical cicadas: one that surfaces from underground every 13 years and another that emerges every 17 years. The last time these specific groups—called Brood XIII and Brood XIX, respectively—lined up their cycles and appeared at the same time, Thomas Jefferson was president, reports NBC News’ Denise Chow.

Though some cicadas surface every year, periodical cicadas spend most of their lives underground before emerging en masse every 13 or 17 years to mate and start the cycle over again.

Any pair of broods may occasionally overlap and emerge in the same year. But these specific groups—Brood XIII (also known as the Northern Illinois Brood) and Brood XIX (or the Great Southern Brood)—only appear simultaneously once every 221 years, making 2024 an especially exciting period for entomologists and bug aficionados alike.

The next time the broods align again will be in 2245.

“Nobody alive today will see it happen again,” says Floyd W. Shockley, an entomologist and collections manager at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, to the New York Times’ Aimee Ortiz. “That’s really rather humbling.”
Brood XIII (blue dots) and Brood XIX (red dots) will likely overlap in central Illinois and eastern Iowa. Gene Kritsky / Mount St. Joseph University

The two broods will also overlap geographically: Though at least some of the cicadas will emerge across the Midwest and Southeast, members of both groups are expected to converge in parts of central Illinois and eastern Iowa.

All told, scientists estimate more than one trillion cicadas will be buzzing around a 16-state area, with the greatest numbers emerging in forested regions and urban green spaces. Lined up end-to-end, one trillion cicadas would span 15,782,828 miles—long enough to cover the distance to the moon and back 33 times, per the New York Times.

Cicadas typically appear above ground once soil temperatures reach 64 degrees Fahrenheit. In some places, that could occur as early as late April, and the insect spectacle will likely continue on a rolling basis through May and June.

Once they crawl onto the surface, the nymphs will ditch their exoskeletons—leaving crunchy cicada-shaped shells in their wake—and start flapping their wings. They’ll spend the next six weeks or so making their cacophonous mating calls so they can lay their eggs before they die. In the meantime, they’ll also provide a smorgasbord for birds—and give caterpillars a brief respite from predation in the process. Later, when the cicada eggs hatch, nymphs will emerge and tunnel underground to start the broods’ cycles anew.

The rare, synchronized event should be finished by early July, meaning residents of affected states will once again be able to enjoy some peace and quiet. Cicadas’ mating songs can reach nearly 100 decibels, which is similar to the sound intensity of a chainsaw or a motorcycle.

“It’s pretty much this big spectacular macabre Mardi Gras,” says Jonathan Larson, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky, to NPR’s Clare Marie Schneider. “It’s a lot of singing, lots of paramours pairing up and then lots of dying.”
Cicadas are beneficial to their habitats. Gene Kritsky / Mount St. Joseph University
The broods are expected to draw some bug-curious travelers to the overlapping emergence areas in the Midwest. But some residents of those regions may be less than enthusiastic about the multi-week onslaught of bugs.

“I’ve talked to half a dozen people already who want to go on vacation and come into the area to seek the cicadas,” says Gene Kritsky, a biologist at Mount St. Joseph University and the author of A Tale of Two Broods: The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX, to NBC News. “In years past, I’ve also helped people plan vacations to leave while the cicadas are here.”

Some of those tourists will be scientists hoping to study everything from the bugs’ range to their reproductive behaviors. For instance, entomologists are curious to know whether the two groups will interbreed, which could possibly lead to the creation of an entirely new brood.

As for people living in the emergence zones, scientists recommend simply leaving the cicadas alone—and, if possible, cherishing this once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. Cicadas don’t carry diseases, bite or sting, and their presence benefits the broader ecosystem. For example, when they tunnel up from underground, they help aerate the soil. When they shed their exoskeletons and, later, die, their bodies provide nutrients to plants. They also naturally prune trees when laying eggs in their branches.

The dual emergence will be like “having a David Attenborough special in your backyard,” Kritsky tells NPR.

“If you’re lucky enough to live in an area where these things are going on, get your kids out there,” he adds. “Watch this.”

“In a shocking turn of events, Taylor Swift has announced that Travis Kelce is not the father of her child. This revelation has left many fans reeling, as they had previously assumed that Kelce was the father. Now, the question on everyone’s mind is – who is the father? And how will this affect Swift’s career and image? Stay tuned as more details emerge.”

“Some have suggested that Swift may have purposefully misled fans into believing that Kelce was the father. This has led to a heated debate about whether or not Swift is being honest and transparent with her fans. Some are calling for Swift to be more open and honest, while others are defending her right to privacy. It’s a complex and emotional situation, and only time will tell how it will play out.”

“Meanwhile, rumors are swirling about who the father of Swift’s child really is. Some have speculated that it might be one of Swift’s other famous friends, such as Ed Sheeran or Harry Styles. Others have suggested that the father is someone who is not in the public eye at all. No matter who the father is, it’s clear that Swift is entering a new chapter of her life – one that is full of mystery and intrigue.”

If Patrick Mahomes isn’t the Chiefs x-factor in Super Bowl 58, then who could it be?

To what really should be no surprise, the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to Super Bowl 58 to face the San Francisco 49ers. And of course, coming with them will be their prized quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

How can Patrick Mahomes not be the x-factor for Super Bowl 58?

Mahomes will be looking to not only win his third Super Bowl title before the age of 30, but he’ll also be looking to capture his third Super Bowl MVP. The 28-year-old continues to build upon his legacy through the Chiefs dynasty, to which he became a centerpiece. Year by year, his legend grows to the likes of which we have never truly seen before.

Overall, this will be Mahomes’ fourth overall Super Bowl appearance and his first chance at a repeat after Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ruined that back in 2020. That would be another accolade for the already overly accomplished quarterback.

So, with that said, how could the x-factor in Super Bowl 58 for the Chiefs not be who is now considered the greatest quarterback of this generation? The player who continually denies all his peers, like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and others, from their own opportunity to compete for championships.

Well, you should probably look no further than someone who has been with Mahomes throughout his entire career to date, someone with whom he owns records. That, of course, is veteran tight end Travis Kelce.

Travis Kelce is the x-factor for the Chiefs in Super Bowl 58

Whether it was the distraction of his new girlfriend Taylor Swift and his infatuation with her or the media circus it brought with their relationship, Travis Kelce did not have his best year in the league in 2023 during the regular season. But it likely wasn’t all to do with his famous pop singer girlfriend. Kelce turned 34 years old during the middle of the season, and his football age was starting to show.

After Super Bowl 58, the Chiefs tight end will have played for 11 seasons, participating in 159 regular-season games and 22 playoff games. That’s a lot of wear and tear on the body for a player that never missed more than three games in a single season and was a constant target for Mahomes.

This was the first season that Kelce hadn’t accrued at least 1,000 yards receiving since his third year in the league, according to Pro-Football-Reference. He was just shy with 984 yards. His yards per reception was also down to 10.6, the lowest of his career.

But then the playoffs started.

Randall Barnes · 15 hours ago

Travis Kelce turned it on during the NFL playoffs

In the Chiefs’ three playoff games during their current run, Kelce has 23 receptions for 262 yards at an 11.4 yards-per-reception rate with three touchdowns and 14 first downs. Kelce only has more touchdowns in two other playoff appearances, which resulted in two Super Bowl victories in 2019 and 2022. He already has more yards than in both of those postseasons. Kelce could potentially match or better some of his best playoff numbers in Super Bowl 58, including some other legendary records also.

With rumors swirling that this could be the final game of Kelce’s career, he’s making the most of the last of his playing career with this playoff run, only seeming to get better by the game. He’s come up huge for Mahomes and the Chiefs, making unbelievable catches that resemble the Travis Kelce of old. He was phenomenal against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, catching all of his 11 targets for 116 yards and a touchdown. He had most of that by the first half.

With what could be Kelce and Mahomes’ last ride together, it should be expected that the veteran tight end will give it his all in Super Bowl 58. That makes him the ultimate x-factor for the Chiefs.