International News
Iranian boats in bid to seize UK tanker in the Gulf: Officials
Al Jazeera
Five boats believed to belong to Iranian Revolutionary Guards approached a British oil tanker in the Gulf on Wednesday and asked it to stop in Iranian waters, but withdrew after a British warship gave warning to back away, according to two US officials.
Chernobyl nuclear site to become 'official tourist attraction'
BBC World News
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Wednesday that set out plans for new walking trails and enhanced mobile phone reception.
"Chernobyl has been a negative part of Ukraine's brand," Mr Zelensky said. "The time has come to change this."
"We will create a green corridor for tourists," Mr Zelensky said on Wednesday. "Chernobyl is a unique place on the planet where nature [has been] reborn after a huge man-made disaster."
US News
Louisiana declares state of emergency as storm develops into hurricane
The Guardian
Louisiana on Wednesday declared a state of emergency as a storm in the Gulf of Mexico was fast developing into a category 1 hurricane and spinning towards the Louisiana coast. Experts are warning that the resulting storm surge could push the already swollen Mississippi River precariously close to the tops of levees that protect New Orleans – in what will be their greatest test since the catastrophic failure during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
US passenger jet makes emergency landing after engine problem
BBC World News
Passengers on board a Delta Air Lines flight in the US have recalled the frightening moments when an engine malfunction forced their plane to make an emergency landing.
Video shot by a passenger showed what appeared to be a nose cone loose inside one of the engines.
Witnesses say there was a loud bang and the cabin filled with smoke.
Delta Flight 1425, travelling from Atlanta to Baltimore with 154 people, landed safely in North Carolina.
“Trump is quite easy to buy off”: how Trump is putting American foreign policy up for sale
Vox News
In Donald Trump’s America, what drives foreign policy decision-making in Washington isn’t interests and values — it’s cash and ego. And other countries have noticed.
Want the US to stop criticizing your terrible human rights record? Dangle a possible trade deal. Want the Trump administration to give you a pass on the gruesome assassination of a prominent critic of your brutal regime? A few billion dollars’ worth of US arms purchases should do the trick. Need to get the American president on your side in a messy geopolitical fight? Buy some Boeing airplanes.
Those aren’t just hypothetical scenarios. They describe three very real foreign policy decisions the Trump administration made in the past year.
Science/Environment News
Astronomers just spotted two supermassive black holes on a collision course
BGR.com
There’s really nothing in the universe that can compare to the awesome power of a supermassive black hole. Well, almost nothing. In a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers describe the discovery of not one, but two supermassive black holes located far from Earth, and they’re about to collide.
Washington Floods Expose a Double Threat: Old Drains and Climate Change
New York Times
WASHINGTON — When almost a month’s worth of rain deluged this city on Monday morning, turning streets into rivers and basements into wading pools, it showed just how vulnerable cities with aging water systems can be in the era of climate change.
“We’re still approaching this 21st-century problem with 20th-century infrastructure, and it’s completely inadequate,” said Constantine Samaras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. “And it’s only going to get worse.”