“Last week’s explosions sent massive fireballs into the sky and hurled burning debris across the industrial area at the world’s 10th-largest port, burning out buildings and shattering windows kilometres away,” reports the Daily Mail UK. MORE

Gov. Gary Herbert has ordered all state agencies to stop funneling federal funds to the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.

The federal government provides grants to Planned Parenthood that are distributed through the Utah Department of Health. Utah law already bars any organization from using state funds for abortions, and that prohibition extends to Planned Parenthood’s federal grants, Herbert said in a statement Friday afternoon. MORE

Iran wants to work with other powers in the Middle East to promote peace following last month’s nuclear deal, Vice-President Masumeh Ebtekar says.

In an interview with the BBC, Ms Ebtekar stressed that Iran had a right to defend itself, but that it had no intention of dominating the region. MORE

First in “China Sends In Chemical Warfare Troops, Orders Tianjin Blast Site Evacuation After Toxic Sodium Cyanide Found” and subsequently in “Poison Rain Feared In Tianjin As Death Toll Rumored At 1,400“, we documented China’s frantic attempts to reassure an increasingly agitated and frightened public that the air and water are safe after last Wednesday’s deadly chemical explosion at Tianjin.

Although the full environmental implications of the blast likely won’t be known for quite some time, the immediate concern is that rain could react with water soluble sodium cyanide, transforming the chemical into potentially fatal hydrogen cyanide gas. MORE

Gregory West, who appears to be Gilbert’s husband, tweeted the video, asking users: ‘Saw it several days ago during a trip and that’s amazing! Can you see the face? Who is it?’ MORE

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba put its civil defense system on alert on Monday due to a year-long drought that is forecast to worsen in the coming months and has already damaged agriculture and left more than a million people relying on trucked-in water. MORE

It may have fared badly in the recent robo-olympics, causing hilarity with a series of unexpected falls, but Google has revealed its humanoid robot has been set free in the woods to learn how to run free. MORE

Adverts for cleaning products are notorious for making claims that are probably best taken with a pinch of salt. MORE

It is a strange and wonderful adventure that has captivated readers since it was first published 289 years ago. MORE

The air reporting system takes measurements of pollutants including particulates less than 2.5 microns in diameter, known as PM 2.5, which can penetrate deep into the lungs causing heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and asthma. MORE

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The religious leaders come from across the spectrum, but hail overwhelmingly from Judaism’s Conservative and Reform streams as well as other progressive Jewish movements, a spokesperson said.

“We encourage the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to endorse this agreement,” the 340 rabbis wrote in a letter to Congress distributed by Ameinu, a progressive charitable Jewish organization. MORE

According to a new YouGov survey, 49% of 18-24 year-olds in Britain define themselves as something other than completely heterosexual. The Kinsey scale invented in the 1940s placed people on a range of sexual preferences from exclusively heterosexual at 0 to exclusively homosexual at 6. MORE

A magnitude 4.0 earthquake was reported Monday morning in Piedmont, Calif., near Oakland, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblor occurred at 6:49 a.m. Pacific time at a depth of 3.1 miles. MORE