📌 Iran Rejects Restraint, Mars Has Water, More

Iran’s foreign ministry rejected calls for restraint in its response to the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, said the restraint pleas from France, Germany and Britain “lack political logic and contradict principles of international law.”

Iran’s president on Monday told Britain's prime minister that Iran has a right to retaliate against Israel over the killing of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, and retaliation would discourage future aggression.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby warned that Israel and its allies must be prepared for “what could be a significant set of attacks” from Iran as soon as “this week.”

In response to growing tensions, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Sunday ordered the USS Georgia, a guided missile submarine, to the Middle East and told the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to accelerate its transit to the region.

“We’re looking to have capabilities in the region to protect our forces while also supporting the defense of Israel,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The trial of a former Nevada county official charged with murdering a journalist started Monday with jury selection.

Robert Teles, a former Clark County administrator, is accused of murdering 69-year-old Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, found stabbed to death outside his home in Sept. 2022.

Telles, 47, was arrested days later after DNA evidence found in his home tied him to the crime scene, police said. He has been held without bail ever since.

“He's been looking forward to trial,” Telles' defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, said. “He wants to tell his story.” Before his death, German had reported on the hostile work environment in Telles' office, which included accusations of bullying, retaliation and an "inappropriate relationship" between Telles and a staffer. Telles denied the allegations.

German was the only journalist killed in the US in 2022, with a total of at least 67 journalists killed worldwide that year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The globally active criminal ransomware group Radar/Dispossessor has been taken down, US and German authorities said today.

The group, founded in August 2023 and led by the online moniker “Brain,” targeted small to medium-sized companies, first focusing on the US and then expanding globally.

The investigation has identified 43 companies worldwide as victims. Many others have likely been affected and are not yet known to authorities. In the US, the group also targeted hospitals.

Vulnerable computer systems, weak passwords and a lack of two-factor authentication were a gateway into company IT systems where data could then be held for ransom, the authorities said.

Servers and domains in Germany, the US and Britain have been dismantled. Twelve suspects from Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Kenya, Serbia, Lithuania and the UAE have been identified.

The focus is now on identifying further suspects and gaining information about other victimized companies, the authorities said.

President Joe Biden will visit New Orleans today to promote his “moonshot” initiative to reduce cancer deaths.

Before he leaves office in January, Biden hopes to move the US closer to the goal he set in 2022 to cut US cancer fatalities by 50% over the next 25 years and to improve the lives of caregivers and those who have cancer.

Cancer is the second-highest killer of Americans after heart disease. In 2024, the American Cancer Society estimates two million cancer cases will be diagnosed and 611,720 people will die of cancer diseases.

Both the president and first lady Jill Biden have had skin lesions removed—basal cell carcinoma, an easily treated cancer. In 2015, their eldest son, Beau, died of aggressive brain cancer at 46.

Advocates have praised Biden for keeping the spotlight on cancer, bringing stakeholders together and gathering commitments from private companies, nonprofit organizations and patient groups.

Data from a retired NASA mission has revealed evidence of an underground reservoir of water deep beneath the surface of Mars.

A team of scientists estimates water trapped in cracks and pores of rock in the middle of the Martian crust could create an ocean that could cover Mars to a depth of 1 mile, the study says.

The data came from NASA’s InSight lander, which used a seismometer to study the interior of Mars from 2018–2022. The water is located 7–12 miles beneath the surface.

Accessing the water poses numerous challenges. However, a study co-author said, “We have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life.”

The Major Cities Chief Association from 70 of the US’ largest cities reports fewer homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults.

Comparing the first halves of 2024 and 2023, reported homicides dropped 17.4%, reported rapes fell 9.7%, reported robberies declined 6% and reported aggravated assaults were down 5.4%.

Major Cities Chief Association showed sizable declines in homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault reports in 2021–2022 and again in 2022 and 2023.

Preliminary crime data from 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 from the FBI show significant decreases in violent crime.

In a poll taken earlier this year by Pew Research, 81% of Trump supporters and 40% of those who supported Biden said the justice system is not tough enough on crime.

An epic 80-mile swim across Lake Michigan was aborted on the third day when two batteries for a critical GPS device were lost.

Jim Dreyer, 60, was pulled from the water after 60 miles swimming from Michigan to Wisconsin for hours without a GPS, relying on a wrist compass and his reading of the sky and waves.

A support boat pulled up and informed him that he had been swimming north all day—“the wrong direction,” said Dreyer.

Dreyer was towing an inflatable boat with nutrition and supplies. On the second day, he paused to get fresh AA batteries to keep a GPS device working but somehow lost the bag in the lake.

Dreyer crossed Lake Michigan in 1998, starting in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and finishing in Ludington, Michigan. Three attempts to do it again since last summer have been unsuccessful.