Police say the recovery operation in Truro, N.S., will continue over the weekend after a three-year-old boy disappeared from his grandmother’s yard Wednesday afternoon.

Bethenny Frankel is wishing her daughter Bryn a very happy 10th birthday. The former Real Housewives of New York star marked the pre-teen's birthday by sharing a rare few photos, one...

Family comes first for Tyler Cameron. On the latest episode of E!'s The Rundown, host Erin Lim spoke exclusively to The Bachelorette star about the very personal reason he's not...

Would Kourtney Kardashian have apologized to Kim Kardashian if they didn't have their Armenia trip planned? That very question was addressed in this bonus clip from season 18 of...

Coping with iffy audio quality, occasional feedback loops, new technology and MPs who speak too quickly has resulted in a steep increase in interpreters reporting workplace injuries, according to the union that represents some 70 accredited interpreters who translate English into French and vice versa.

As talk of reopening aspects of society continue across the country, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Richard Wagner and federal Justice Minister David Lametti have begun a study into how courts could safely begin to resume regular operations in light of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it's a fundamental principle of life in Canada that no one should have to go to work if they don't feel safe doing so.

Coronavirus: the symptoms Follow our live coronavirus updates here Who is Robert Jenrick?

The move comes after revelations that a party investigation claimed to have found "no evidence" of anti-Semitism complaints being handled differently to other forms of complaint.

The historic "hybrid" sitting of the House of Commons will be the springboard for further modernisation of Westminster, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told the Standard.

Sir Keir Starmer has called for Labour's inquiry into a leaked anti-Semitism dossier to be concluded in a "matter of months", ahead of a meeting of the party's ruling National Executive Committee.

Celebrities have backed calls for Home Secretary Priti Patel to end restrictions that prevent thousands of migrants in the UK from accessing financial support during the coronavirus crisis.

The new group, modelled on the pro-Brexit European Research Group that scrutinised Theresa May's fated Brexit deal, will assess China's handling of the outbreak and broader security concerns.

The investigation into bullying accusations against Priti Patel must be released "as soon as possible", Labour has demanded.

Boris Johnson will not take part in Prime Minister's Questions today following the birth of his son.

The PM has had two life-changing events in just three weeks - a new family and a brush with death

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will hold virtual meetings with members of the public over Zoom as he tries to resuscitate the party after its historic electoral defeat.

Nigel Farage has become the butt of mocking jokes online after sharing his Clap for Carers effort.

Asked by LBC's Nick Ferrari if he would join them, Mr Jenrick said: "No, I don't think I would do. But I'm not going to pass judgement on other people and what they're choosing to do.

Jennie Formby has resigned as Labour's general secretary as new leader Sir Keir Starmer reshapes the party.

EXCLUSIVE: Independent candidate withdraws after difficult decision over job 'I really, really dreamed of'

He also said he "bitterly regrets" the crisis in care homes, where staff have hit out at a lack of testing and PPE. The latest figures show that nursing home fatalities are continuing to rise, standing at 2,794 in the week to April 24, despite deaths in all settings beginning to fall.

Celebrities from across the globe came together Saturday night to lift their fans’ spirits as the world continues to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

25-year-old supermodel Gigi Hadid is expecting her first child with One Direction's Zayn Malik, reports TMZ and Entertainment Tonight.

I’m no stranger to forced isolation. For the better part of my 20s, I served as a nuclear submarine officer running secret missions for the United States Navy. I deployed across the vast Pacific Ocean with a hundred other sailors on the USS Connecticut, a Seawolf-class ship engineered in the bygone Cold War era to be one of the fastest, quietest, and deepest-diving submersibles ever constructed. The advanced reactor was loaded with decades of enriched uranium fuel that made steam for propulsion and electrical power so we could disappear under the waves indefinitely without returning to port. My longest stint was for two months, when I traveled under the polar ice cap to the North Pole with a team of scientists studying the Arctic environment and testing high frequency sonar and acoustic communications for under-ice operations. During deployments, critical-life events occur without you: holidays with loved ones, the birth of a child, or in my case, the New York Giants 2011-2012 playoff run to beat Tom Brady’s Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time. On the bright side, being cut off from the outside world was a great first job for an introvert.

It’s been a month since COVID-19 involuntarily drafted me into another period of isolation far away from home. I’m in Turkey, where a two-week trip with my partner to meet her family has been extended indefinitely. There were no reported cases here and only a few in California in early March when we left San Francisco, where I run a business design studio. I had a lot of anticipation about Turkey because I’d never been here. Now I’m sheltering in a coastal town outside of Izmir with my partner, her parents, their seven cats, and a new puppy.

Shuttered in a house on foreign soil where I don’t speak the language, I have found myself snapping back into submarine deployment mode. Each day I dutifully monitor online dashboards of data and report the status of the spread at the breakfast table to no one in particular. I stay in touch with friends and family all over the world who tell me they’re going stir crazy and their homes are getting claustrophobic. But if there is one thing my experience as a submarine officer taught me, it’s that you get comfortable being uncomfortable.

My training began with psychological testing, although it may not be what you think. Evaluating mental readiness for underwater isolation isn’t conducted in a laboratory by clipboard-toting, spectacled scientists. The process to select officers was created by Admiral Hyman Rickover—the engineering visionary and noted madman who put the first nuclear reactor in a submarine—to assess both technical acumen and composure under stress. For three decades as the director of the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program, Rickover tediously interviewed every officer, and the recruiting folklore is a true HR nightmare: locking candidates in closets for hours, asking obtuse questions such as “Do something to make me mad,” and sawing down chair legs to literally keep one off balance.

Rickover retired from the Navy as its longest-serving officer and his successors carried on the tradition of screening each officer candidate, but with a slightly more dignified approach. Rickover’s ghost, though, seemed to preside over my interview process when I applied to be a submariner as a junior at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. I was warned by other midshipmen that I would fail on the spot if I initiated a handshake. So, dressed in my formal navy blue uniform and doing my best to avoid tripping into accidental human contact, I rigidly marched into the Admiral’s office, staring straight ahead while barking my resume. When I took a seat on the unaltered and perfectly level chair in front of his desk, the Admiral asked me bluntly why I took so many philosophy classes and if I thought I could handle the technical rigors of nuclear power school. My response was a rote quip from John Paul Jones’ “Qualifications of a Naval Officer.” “Admiral, an officer should be a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor.” My future boss looked at me, shook his head like he thought I’d be a handful, and told me I got the job.

Confinement opened something up in my psyche and I gave myself permission to let go of my anxieties.

Nuclear power training is an academic kick in the face every day for over a year. The curriculum is highly technical and the pedagogy resembles a cyborg assembly-line without even a hint of the Socratic method. Our grades were conspicuously posted on the classroom wall and a line was drawn between those who passed and those who failed. I was below the line enough to earn the distinguished dishonor of 25 additional study hours each week, which meant I was at school at 5 a.m. and every weekend. This is how the Nuclear Navy builds the appropriate level of knowledge and right temperament to deal with shipboard reactor operations.

I finally sat down for a formal psychological evaluation a few months before my first deployment. I was ushered into a room no bigger than a broom closet and instructed to click through a computer-based questionnaire with multiple-choice questions about my emotions. I never did  learn the results, so I assume my responses didn’t raise too many red flags.

During my first year onboard, I spent all my waking hours either supervising reactor operations or learning the intricacies of every inch of the 350-foot tube and the science behind how it all worked. The electrolysis machine that split water molecules to generate oxygen was almost always out of commission, so instead we burned chlorate candles that produced breathable air. Seawater was distilled each day for drinking and shower water. Our satellite communications link had less bandwidth than my dial-up modem in the 1990s and we were permitted to send text-only emails to friends and family at certain times and in certain locations so as not to risk being detected. I took tests every month to demonstrate proficiency in nuclear engineering, navigation, and the battle capabilities of the ship. When I earned my submarine warfare qualification, the Captain pinned the gold dolphins insignia on my uniform and gave me the proverbial keys to the $4 billion warship. At that point, I was responsible for coordinating missions and navigating the ship as the Officer of the Deck.

Modern submarines are hydrodynamically shaped to have the most efficient laminar flow underwater, so that’s where we operated 99 percent of the time. The rare exception to being submerged is when we’d go in and out of port. The most unfortunate times were long transits tossing about in heavy swells, which made for a particularly nauseated cruise. To this day, conjuring the memory of some such sails causes a reflux flashback. A submariner’s true comfort zone is beneath the waves so as soon as we broke ties with the pier we navigated toward water that was deep enough for us to dive.

It’s unnatural to stuff humans, torpedoes, and a nuclear reactor into a steel boat that’s intentionally meant to sink. This engineering marvel ranks among the most complex, and before we’d proceed below and subject the ship and its inhabitants to extreme sea pressures, the officers would visually inspect thousands of valves to verify the proper lineup of systems that would propel us to the surface if we started flooding uncontrollably and sinking—a no-mistakes procedure called rigging for dive. Once we’d slip beneath the waves, the entire crew would walk around to check for leaks before we’d settle into a rotation of standing watch, practicing our casualty drills, engineering training, eating, showering (sometimes), and sleeping (rarely). The full cycle was 18 hours, which meant the timing of our circadian cycles were constantly changing. Regardless of the amount of government-issued Folger’s coffee I’d pour down my throat, I’d pass out upon immediate contact with my rack (the colloquialism for a submarine bunk in which your modicum of privacy was symbolized by a cloth curtain).

As an officer, I lived luxuriously with only two other grown men in a stateroom no bigger than a walk-in closet. Most of the crew slept stacked like lumber in an 18-person bunk room and they all took turns in the rack. This alternative lifestyle is known as hot-racking, because of the sensation you get when you crawl into bedding that’s been recently occupied. The bunk rooms are sanctuaries where silence is observed with monastic intensity. Slamming the door or setting an alarm clock was a cardinal sin so wakeups were conducted by a junior sailor who gently coaxed you awake when it was time to stand watch. Lieutenant Weiner, it’s time to wake up. You’ve got the midnight watch, sir. Words that haunt my dreams.

The electrolysis machine was out of commission, so we burned chlorate candles that produced breathable air.

I maintained some semblance of sanity and physical fitness by sneaking a workout on a rowing erg in the engine room or a stationary bike squeezed between electronics cabinets. The rhythmic beating of footsteps on a treadmill was a noise offender—the sound could be detected on sonar from miles away—so we shut it off unless we were in friendly waters where we weren’t concerned with counter-detection.

Like a heavily watered-down version of a Buddhist monk taking solitary retreat in a cave, my extended submarine confinements opened something up in my psyche and I gave myself permission to let go of my anxieties. Transiting underneath a vast ocean in a vessel with a few inches of steel preventing us from drowning helps put things into perspective. Now that I’m out of the Navy, I have more appreciation for the freedoms of personal choice, a fresh piece of fruit, and 24 hours in a day. My only regrets are not keeping a journal or having the wherewithal to discover the practice of meditation under the sea.

Today, I’m learning Turkish so I can understand more about what’s happening around me. I’m doing Kundalini yoga (a moving meditation that focuses on breathwork) and running on the treadmill (since I’m no longer concerned about my footsteps being detected on sonar). On my submarine, I looked at photos to stay connected to the world I left behind, knowing that I’d return soon enough. Now our friend who is isolating in our apartment in San Francisco sends us pictures of our cat and gives us reports about how the neighborhood has changed.

It’s hard to imagine that we’ll resume our lifestyles exactly as they were. But the submariner in me is optimistic that we have it in us to adapt to whatever conditions are waiting for us when it’s safe to ascend from the depths and return to the surface.

Steve Weiner is the founder of Very Scarce, a business design studio. He used to lead portfolio companies at Expa and drive nuclear submarines in the U.S. Navy. He has an MBA from The Wharton School and a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy. Instagram: @steve Twitter: @weenpeace

Lead image: Mike H. / Shutterstock

As a longtime Paris resident, at first I feared Dirt might be yet another expat tale of moving to France en famille, with all its tedious clichés. I should have known better.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Jean-Michel Blanquer, French minister of education, about how France is planning to reopen primary schools on May 11.

Exactly one week since Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp began reopening the state's economy, small businesses shared early success stories as customers welcomed their return. But at what cost? Business owners say only time will tell.

Florida health officials have halted the publication of up-to-the-minute death statistics related to the coronavirus pandemic that have, by law, been compiled by medical examiners in the state.

The Trump administration has issued an intelligence analysis claiming China purposely delayed notifying the World Health Organization about the spread of the coronavirus.

Thousands of people have volunteered to be exposed to coronavirus if it means a vaccine can be developed more quickly. Should we let them?

Five top pediatric heart, infectious disease or critical care specialists told Yahoo News they are tracking a serious new syndrome they believe is related to Kawasaki disease, affecting children infected with the coronavirus.

Rep. Sarah Anthony told Yahoo News that her security detail, made up of local black and Latino activists, came together because the armed protesters bearing white supremacist symbols represented a “different level of terror.”

Figuring out how to stage the nation’s largest and most important political gatherings will be tricky in the COVID-19 era. And while officials in both parties say they’re still planning for in-person conventions, pulling that off will be a lot easier said than done. 

Stay up to date on the latest on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting sports around the globe.

With major sports leagues preparing for the eventuality of restarting behind closed doors amid the coronavirus pandemic, NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly took the concept to the next level on Friday.

After watching three of the world's top male pole vaulters test their athleticism in a virtual backyard competition on Sunday, Canadian-record holder Alysha Newman wants to be part of a remote women's event she believes will be held in the coming weeks.

The Canadian Olympic Committee CEO talks about state of Canadian sport during COVID-19 and how funding will help keep sport organizations afloat.

Stay up to date on the latest on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting sports around the globe.

Major League Baseball will cut its amateur draft from 40 rounds to five this year, a move that figures to save teams about $30 million US, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

The federal government will provide relief funding to the country's sport sector that has seen myriad events cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Modern dating techniques are providing new time frames for indigenous settlements in Northeast North America, free from the Eurocentric bias that previously led to incorrect assumptions.

Visual challenges remain before autonomous cars are ready for the masses.

Based on fossils and artifacts, archaeologists try to understand the differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

This quiet black hole sits just 1,000 light-years from Earth. But the two stars that dance around it are possible to pick out with the naked eye.

If both can make a dough rise, why does your dough recipe call for both?

The province is reporting 346 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 19,944. There were 59 more deaths reported, for a total of 1,599. Of those, 775 involved residents in the troubled long-term care system. There are now 237 outbreaks in the province’s care facilities, increase of three. After […]

From the #MetGalaChallenge to high fashion Twitter's Met Gala

Archie celebrates his first birthday with story time with his mom