海角大神

Iranian drone strikes temporarily shut down Kuwait International Airport Wednesday. Kuwaiti authorities said the attack 鈥� one of Tehran鈥檚 biggest against Washington鈥檚 Gulf allies 鈥� killed one civilian and injured more than 60. The United States said it struck an Iranian military station near the Strait of Hormuz in response, continuing a series of tit-for-tat attacks that are testing the current ceasefire. Efforts to reach a more permanent truce and open the Strait have been complicated by Israel鈥檚 war against Iranian-backed militants in Lebanon.

The House voted 215-208 to pass a war powers resolution. Republican representatives Brian Fitzpatrick, Tom Barrett, Warren Davidson, and Thomas Massie joined Democrats in voting to direct the president to remove hostilities from Iran pending congressional approval. The vote marks the first time either chamber has passed a measure to stop the Iran war.聽The Senate advanced a similar resolution in May. Even if passed in both chambers, it would face a presidential veto.

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to implement a new congressional map. The decision shows the practical consequence of an earlier high court decision that weakened the impact of a key section of the landmark Voting Rights Act. In its April 29 decision, the justices ruled that courts must find evidence of intentional racial discrimination to invalidate voting maps. The decision on Tuesday, in an unsigned four-page order, eliminates one of two majority-Black districts in Alabama. The court鈥檚 three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the ruling 鈥渄ebases the democratic process.鈥�

Public support for LGBTQ issues is softening. Gallup鈥檚 annual Beliefs and 海角大神 poll of Americans found continuing slippage in support of same-sex marriage. In 2022, 71% of respondents supported legal marriage for gay couples. Now it鈥檚 62%. The slide is most apparent among Republicans. Gallup also found a slight increase in the number of respondents saying it is morally wrong to change one鈥檚 gender, to almost two-thirds of the country. This year, for the first time, Democrats and Independents pulled back support for changing one鈥檚 gender.

Northeastern states sued the U.S. government over scuttling offshore wind farms. In March, the government agreed to refund a French energy company $928 million if it canceled two offshore wind projects and invested the funds in fossil fuels instead. In response, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont are joining New York in a lawsuit. The states argue that the cancellation of a farm off New York did not follow proper federal procedures. The Trump administration and wind farm opponents have called the projects expensive and unreliable. The New York farm was projected to bring $25.6 billion in economic benefits to the state, the complaint says.
Our coverage: Why the US will pay a French company nearly $1 billion to give up wind farm plans

Just when seals thought it was safe to go back in the water...聽In the early 2000s, great white sharks started returning to their ancient seal-hunting waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Now, the endangered dusky shark has also reappeared there. Biologists credit conservation laws for saving them from hunting and accidental catches. Turns out protected Massachusetts seals, whose populations have also rebounded, are popular on the dusky shark takeout menu. 鈥淚t was a big discovery for us,鈥� Demian Chapman from the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida, told ABC News.

鈥� Compiled by Monitor writers around the world

International scientists decided it is no longer useful to study the most extreme model of runaway global warming. So why are some people upset?

Sanctions are one of Western governments' favorite foreign-policy weapons in recent years, as we reported earlier. But their use does not always result in the infliction of economic pain that is intended. Sometimes, their effects can be wholly unexpected 鈥� and counterproductive.

For nearly a year and a half, access to U.S. asylum has been suspended at the border. Recently, federal courts have ruled against the ban, renewing hopes for thousands of asylum seekers waiting in northern Mexico that they might be allowed one day to make their case.

Israel鈥檚 recapture of Beaufort Castle last month has echoes from the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and the nearly two decades that followed, with Israeli troops occupying parts of the country until withdrawing in 2000.

San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama is shaking off conventional stoicism as he seeks his first NBA title against the postseason鈥檚 surprise 鈥� the New York Knicks.

As the Northern Hemisphere summer approaches, parts of Europe and North America are seeing record-high temperatures. Yet as the mercury rises, an update on the worst-case scenario for global warming, calculated 15 years ago, shows that the forecast is no longer likely.聽

Known as RCP8.5, this 2011 projection was among many modeled at a time when greenhouse gas emissions had risen by 30% over the preceding decade. Today, RCP8.5 has 鈥渂ecome implausible,鈥� according to a study published in April. The reason? The worldwide advances in energy conservation and technologies, such as solar.

鈥淭he good news is that we did not follow the most dramatic emission pathway,鈥� Detlef van Vuuren, the study鈥檚 lead author, told The Associated Press. But, he cautioned, 鈥渢he risks of climate change have not disappeared.鈥澛�

Neither has the heated debate over the causes of global warming and how much of a threat it poses.聽

Referencing the study, U.S. President Donald Trump used strong language to claim that researchers had been wrong in their projections all along. Media attention to the issue picked up markedly after a mid-May social media post by the president.

But fanning the embers of the climate debate obscures larger lessons behind the retiring of the worst-case scenario. The move points to how governments, businesses, and individuals have adapted policies, products, and consumption habits.

It also highlights scientists鈥� continuing curiosity, pursuit of new and better data, and willingness to question and adjust working hypotheses. These aspects are key, given that the updated calibrations have also jettisoned the previous model鈥檚 best-case scenario as no longer attainable by 2100.聽

The complexities of climate research hint at a need for more nuance and balance in the sharing and reporting of emerging findings. As The New York Times noted in May, the RCP8.5 estimates of damage, even though now less likely, tended to be 鈥渁 big focus and got more attention.鈥澛�

The new study, the Times said, 鈥渉as raised questions about whether some of the risks of climate change have been poorly communicated or overstated in years past and how best to think about those risks going forward.鈥澛�

To Andrew King, a University of Melbourne scientist and one of the study鈥檚 more than 40 co-authors, updating the scenarios does not imply 鈥渇ailed modelling鈥� or a climate hoax. He underscores the need to revisit assumptions and changing circumstances (such as rates of renewable energy usage), while using continually improving climate models.

The best view of the new updates is that they increase knowledge and understanding, and provide a hopeful opening for heated debate to be replaced with respect and reason. In turn, that can fuel the expectation of finding solutions to the climate challenge.