Unbiased headline news – Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling it a “critical moment,” urged parties in the Middle East to work towards easing tensions.
Concerns of a broader regional conflict are rising after last week’s killings of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. “We are engaged in intense diplomacy, pretty much round-the-clock. Escalation is not in anyone’s interests,” Blinken said at a signing ceremony with his Australian counterpart.
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The U.N. announced it has dismissed nine staff members from its agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after an internal probe suggested they may have been involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack against Israel.
The U.N. secretary-general’s office disclosed the decision in a brief statement to journalists on Monday. It did not detail the UNRWA staffers’ alleged roles in the attack. The nine included seven employees previously terminated over the allegations.
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Gunmen in Mexico shot and killed a crime reporter in the central state of Guanajuato.
Alejandro MartÃnez Noguez died in Celaya after being attacked while in his car. He survived a similar attack in 2022, the BBC reported. At the time of his death, he was under police protection, and the officers ineffectively returned fire at the attackers. Martinez was known by the nickname “El Hijo del Llanero Solitito,” which translates to “The Son of the Lone Ranger” in English.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose travel aboard a private jet provided by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow in 2010, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee revealed in a letter on Monday.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon cited international flight records from U.S. Customs and Border Protection showing that Thomas and his wife Ginni flew from Hawaii to New Zealand on Crow’s private jet in November 2010 and returned a week later.
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Google violated U.S. antitrust laws in maintaining a monopoly over the online search business, a federal judge ruled.
D.C. District judge Amit Mehta declared Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, finding the company illegally secured its dominance in the search market by paying billions of dollars to smartphone carriers like Apple to make Google the default search engine on their phones — effectively preventing any rival businesses from competing.
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Hurricane Debby brought more than powerful winds and storm surge to Florida; packages of cocaine worth over $1 million also made landfall, officials said, marking the latest in a string of recent drug discoveries along Florida shores.
Debby, which hit the state as a Category 1 hurricane but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, washed the drugs ashore in the Florida Keys, U.S. Border Patrol acting chief patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II wrote on social media. Hurricane Debby blew 25 packages of cocaine (70 lbs.) onto a beach in the Florida Keys.
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Recreational marijuana sales began across Ohio on Tuesday as the state issued its first operating certificates.
Nearly 100 medical marijuana dispensaries began sales immediately, though it’s unclear how many were ready to open, the Division of Cannabis Control said. Some were ready right away, while others faced potential delays due to staffing or inventory issues. The first round of operating certificates went to 98 locations, according to the Division of Cannabis Control.
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Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s Los Angeles home was recently burglarized, law enforcement officials reported.
The incident, which occurred a few weeks ago but only came to light Monday, was the latest in a series of home burglaries in Southern California. The burglars targeted the celebrity couple’s guest house but did not enter the main house. No one was home at the time, and it is not believed they were specifically targeted, according to officials.
