Alex Summers articles

You check out, head home, and think the trip is over. That is, until a mysterious charge shows up on your card. The hotel says there was damage in your room. This happens more often than people realize. The good news is that you’re not powerless, and there’s a fairly clear playbook for disputing charges you don’t owe.

When archaeologists opened a Nubian grave dating back approximately 5,500 years, they expected the usual remains—bones, beads, maybe a tool or two. But what caught their eye was an ancient ostrich egg. At first glance, it looked plain. Then they saw the carvings.

Curiosity spikes fast when a dig meant to reveal palace walls instead exposes plumbing that looks surprisingly familiar. A team excavating ancient ruins in Xi’an uncovered a 2,400-year-old flush toilet built with inlet and drain pipes—technology far ahead of what many assume existed during China’s Warring States era. The idea of elite officials visiting a restroom with running water, long before Rome ever earned praise for aqueducts, adds a splash of humanity to a period known mostly for ritual and shifting power. Apart from kings and conquests, it seems that comfort and cleanliness mattered too.

A walk in a field with a metal detector uncovered an amazing relic left over from Tudor England: a gold pendant linked to the wedding of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The discovery is an amazing addition to our knowledge of England's turbulent royal past.

Archaeologists in southern Andalusia recently uncovered a massive stone tomb that dates back an astonishing 5,000 years. The structure, buried beneath layers of soil near the town of Teba, appears far more elaborate than most prehistoric graves found in the region.

Some states just lean into higher education harder than others. Using recent educational attainment data for adults age 25 and over, we’ve put together a ranking of the 20 states with the most college graduates. Let’s see which states are stacking the most diplomas.

It began more than a century ago, deep within the ancient turquoise mines of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. There, faint carvings etched into the stone puzzled archaeologists for decades—symbols that seemed familiar, yet resisted translation.

Flying first class is designed for those who demand the best the travel industry has to offer at 35,000 feet. This level of luxury caters to high-net-worth individuals who choose top airlines for an unmatched experience. Let’s rank ‘em up.

It’s wild how a quiet hillside can suddenly rewrite everything we thought we knew. A buried Roman tomb just surfaced in Albania, and it’s packed with clues about belief and the kind of wealth nobody expected to find there.