International News
Are tensions between US, Gulf allies and Iran coming to a head?
Al Jazeera
Iran-backed rebels attacking a Saudi oil pipeline with drones. A puzzling raid on oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sabre-rattling between Washington and Tehran as US warships head to the region.
Tensions have ratcheted up between the US and Iran following Washington's decision this month to try and cut Iranian oil exports to zero and to send a US aircraft carrier strike group to the Gulf in response to an unspecified threat.
Choco Leibniz biscuit heiress apologies over Nazi-era labour comments
BBC World News
The heiress of a German biscuit company has apologised for saying the firm "did nothing wrong" in its use of forced labour during Nazi rule.
Bahlsen, which makes Choco Leibniz biscuits, employed about 200 forced labourers between 1943 and 1945 - most of whom were women from Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
US abstains from global pledge to curb online violence
AP News
PARIS (AP) — The White House is not endorsing a global pledge to step up efforts to keep internet platforms from being used to spread hate, organize extremist groups and broadcast attacks, citing respect for “freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”
Germany and Netherlands halt training schemes in Iraq as tensions rise
The Guardian
Germany and the Netherlands have suspended their military training programmes in Iraq because of a perceived security threat in the wake of rising US-Iranian tensions in the region.
The announcements came after the US embassy in Baghdad ordered all but emergency staff to leave Iraq. No details of the supposed security threat were provided.
US News
PG&E power lines caused California’s deadliest fire, investigators conclude
LA Times
Investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have concluded that Pacific Gas & Electric equipment caused the devastating Camp fire that destroyed nearly 14,000 homes and killed 85 people, most of them elderly, last year.
The conclusion of the Cal Fire probe marks a milestone in the recovery from the worst wildfire in modern California history.
In Columbus, Ohio, a hall of justice offers drug users help getting back on their feet.
US News and World Report
WHEN NATHAN WILLIAMS was released after a monthlong stint in jail last summer, he headed straight back to the courthouse.
But the 27-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, wasn't headed to a probation meeting or drug court – he was seeking treatment for an opioid addiction that's plagued him for years. Now sober for nearly nine months, Williams credits his recovery in large part to a program housed in Franklin County's municipal courthouse that connects the recently incarcerated with medication-assisted treatment as well as peer support specialists, housing and other services.
Former Scottsdale pastor Les Hughey may soon face charges for more than a dozen sex abuse claims
AZ Central
A former Scottsdale pastor accused of sexually abusing multiple teenage girls may soon face formal criminal charges.
Scottsdale police submitted a 100-page report to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, detailing more than a dozen allegations against Les Hughey during his time as a high school youth pastor at Scottsdale Bible Church in the late 1980s and early '90s.
Science/ Environment News
The cure for your next infection may come from sewage
Vox News
As antibiotics become less effective, viruses found in dirty places may save our lives instead.
A "Dense Bullet of Something" Blasted Holes in the Milky Way
Futurism
Scientists say that something mysterious punched gigantic, cosmic “bullet holes” in parts of the Milky Way.
There’s a string of holes in a long stream of stars called GD-1 that suggests that some yet-undiscovered thing blasted its way through, according to research presented to the American Physical Society last month.