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Parikh, 14, Wins Spelling Bee in Spell-off
May 29, 2026
It went down to a spell-off, and Shrey Parikh was victorious. The 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., won the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Ending the competition was Parikh's correct spelling of bromocriptine. She took home the trophy, a cash prize of $52,500, a commemorative medal, and a host of spelling-related prizes, including a reference library from Merriam Webster, and a replica set of the 1768 Encyclopedia Brittanica. Technically non-spelling-related prizes included a total of $1,000 in flight credits from Delta Air Lines and a family-oriented trip to Kennedy Space Center, including two days of admission for up to four people, two nights in a hotel, and a meet & greet with astronauts. Runner-up was Ishaan Gupta of Jersey City, N.J., who correctly spelled 25 (of 35) words during the 90-second spell-off, compared to Parikh's winning total of 32 (of 35). That was a new record, breaking the previous high total of 29 (of 30) spelled correctly by Bruhat Soma in 2024.
Mona Lisa to Get Her Own Separate Space in the Louvre
May 26, 2026
The Mona Lisa is moving. The Louvre, perhaps France's most famous museum, has announced, as part of a $1 billion renovation, that the famed Leonardo painting will have its own exhibition space, 33,000 square foot large and separate from the rest of the museum. In addition, the room will have information about perhaps the world's most famous painting, including its history. Museum figures show that about 20,000 people a day come to look at the famed painting, one of a large handful of masterpieces by the famous Renaissance polymath. Museum officials hope that having the Mona Lisa in its own room will help ease congestion elsewhere in the museum. In 2022, the Louvre decided that the daily maximum was 30,000 people. Museum officials hope that the addition will enable them to accept more than 3 million new visitors annually.
The Strait of Hormuz: Geography and Global Importance
The Strait of Hormuz is a body of water between Iran and Oman and is vastly important economically and politically because it is the only waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the world's oceans. A very large number of ships move through the strait each day, transporting exports from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ports worldwide. All of this is important in a global economic sense because one-fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas and one-quarter of the ship-carried oil travels through the strait. If the tankers carrying that oil and gas cannot pass through the strait, then they must find a longer way around (if possible), causing delays with delivery and potentially raising prices of the oil and gas being delivered. (As well, a large number of ships transport fertilizers from Middle Eastern ports to the wider world.)
Iliad Fragment Found Stuffed in 2,000-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy
May 15, 2026
In Egypt, archaeologists have found, alongside a 2,000-year-old mummy, a fragment of Homer's Iliad, an ancient account of the Trojan War. The passage from Book 2 of the famed epic poem describes the naval strength of the Achaean army that was besieging the city of Troy. A team directed by Ignasi-Xavier Adiego of the University of Barcelona found the papyrus next to the mummy of a nonroyal male at Oxyrhynchus, a regional capital that was at one time the third-largest city in Egypt. The city ruins, near what is now El-Bahnasa about 120 miles south of Cairo, are known for the number of preserved papyri there. The team said that the inclusion of the papyrus, sealed inside a clay packet, with the mummy would have been intentional and that perhaps it was meant to accompany the person into the afterlife along with any number of other objects that Egyptians typically stored alongside bodies.
Iraq Funds New Effort to Restore Famed Ziggurat of Ur
May 15, 2026
The Iraqi government has poured money into a project to help preserve the Ziggurat of Ur, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the enduring symbols of a long-ago civilization. Ur is one of the oldest cities in the world, created and first inhabited nearly 6,000 years ago in the lands of ancient Sumeria, during the reign of King Ur-Nammu. Those doing the preservation work are using new materials that incorporate chemical materials and physical properties of samples of the existing building.
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David White