Israel struck targets in Iran with missiles on Thursday night, according to multiple reports citing anonymous U.S. officials. Iran's semi-official FARS news agency reported at least one explosion in the vicinity of an airport in the city of Isfahan. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known. Flights were diverted around western Iran early on Friday, without immediate explanation. Air defense batteries had activated across multiple provinces. The targets were not nuclear in nature, according to anonymous U.S. officials who spoke to CNN. Iran's state news agency IRNA&nb ..read more

The daughter of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar said on Thursday she was suspended from Barnard College after "standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide." In a message written on X, Isra Hirsi wrote that she had just received a notification that she was one of three students who were suspended by the university that is both an independently incorporated educational institution and an official college of Columbia University, according to the university's website.  Hirsi said on X that she is a member of the student organization Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and an organi ..read more

Starbucks has redesigned its single-use cold drink cups to cut down on plastic waste. The chain says its cold drinks are surging in popularity; they now account for some 75% of Starbucks' drink sales annually. This has caused an associated increase in plastic use, so Starbucks has reworked the design of the cups so that they use as much as 20% less plastic. Now, Starbucks claims, the cups involve less energy and emissions to manufacture, and will help avert more than 13.5 million pounds of plastic waste that would otherwise go to landfills. Updated cups are expected to roll out in its sto ..read more

It's clear Amazon exists in a separate (grocery) lane from most of the marketplace, but it doesn't intend to stay that way. The company said Tuesday it's begun expanding its Dash Cart to third-party grocers in addition to all of its Amazon Fresh Stores and select Whole Foods Market locations.  For now, one McKeever's Market and four Price Chopper stores in the Kansas City area have started testing the checkout-free technology, making them the first grocers outside of Amazon and its affiliates it acquired Whole Foods in 2017 to do so. And Amazon plans to make the s ..read more

Virginia Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine called a "near crash" at Ronald Reagan National Airport on Thursday morning a "horrifying example" of the effects of efforts to undermine slot and perimeter rules. They called the runway where the incident happened "overburdened" and "the busiest in the country."  On Thursday morning at around 7:40 a.m. ET, Southwest Flight 2937 and JetBlue Flight 1554 almost collided as air traffic controllers frantically told the planes to stop, as later heard in audio of the incident. According to flight monitoring sites, the Southwest flight was around 65 fe ..read more

The Republican-majority House of Representatives could vote on a $95 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific as early as Saturday. It is the same amount that was requested by the Biden administration months ago  and that package now has the president's support.  How did we get here? Weeks ago, the Senate passed a foreign aid package that would have helped Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and Pacific allies, and provided humanitarian assistance to Gaza. And for weeks on the House of Representatives side, there were questions as to whether or not that bill would ever come up fo ..read more

Through mysterious social media posts, a pop-up installation in Los Angeles, and a real-life scavenger hunt across the world, pop star Taylor Swift is summoning her community of fans better known as "Swifties" for her latest album entitled The Tortured Poets Department. "What we see now as Taylor this unprecedented artist of today is the byproduct or the result of having invested so much time in her community over the years," said marketing expert Marcus Collins. "People feel like 'I'm talking to my friend, like Taylor, that's my girl!'" Collins is the author of the bestselling book "For the C ..read more

Employee safety is top of mind as U.S. Postal Service officials are offering rewards leading to evidence following a series of letter-carrier robberies and thefts.  This week the United States Postal Inspection Service announced a $150,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect who is accused of robbing a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier in late March in Arlington, Texas.  On Thursday the USPIS released an image and information as they work to arrest another suspect accused of stealing mail and parcels in New York. Postal officials are offerin ..read more

The system used to determine financial aid packages for millions of college students got revamped, but the transition has been anything but smooth, with glitches in calculations for federal Pell grants and setbacks in the rollout for the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Around this time of year, high school seniors bound for college and active college students should be weighing financial offers from those schools. But those decisions are delayed. Vanessa Mendiola would like to know where she's headed this fall. "I've applied to University of Texas-San Antonio, Lam ..read more

The United States vetoed a widely backed U.N. resolution on Thursday that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine. The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two abstentions. The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations. Some 140 countries have already recognized the state of Palestine, so its admission would have been approved. Before the vote, U.S. deputy State Department spoke ..read more