Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, Pentagon officials said Wednesday, marking the first time the U.S. military has seen them in the area.

The officials have been tracking the movements in recent days of three Chinese combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious landing ship after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between U.S. and Russian control. MORE

Scientists had long suspected that humans were taxing the world’s underground water supply, but the NASA data was the first detailed assessment to demonstrate that major aquifers were indeed struggling to keep pace with demands from agriculture, growing populations, and industries such as mining. MORE

You see mercy is the first step towards redemption and reunification. In this broken world we need mercy, we need redemption, and we most certainly need to be united. So as our Catholic brothers and sisters celebrate and mark their year of mercy, may we in the Protestant tradition be bold enough to share in that work of grace with them. Because in the end, we’re all in this together. MORE

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Visitors looking for a place to stay during Pope Francis’ trip to Philadelphia have an unusual option.

The Battleship New Jersey is offering 400 bunks for $75 per person for a night between Sept. 22 and Sept. 26. Those are the same bunks where sailors slept. The price includes breakfast and dinner. Guests also will get a tour of the museum and a ride in a flight simulator. But there are no showers available.

The ship is docked in Camden, across the river from Philadelphia and less than a mile from the Ben Franklin Bridge. The bridge will be closed to traffic, but open to pedestrians and bicyclists during the pope’s visit. The battleship was launched on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.

The researchers find that the reason is the difference in power. Christians are in a privileged position. They have the power to promote the dominant religion and deny equality to other religions. Muslims are an out-group. They’re a religious minority that cannot take away the rights of others in Europe. The best way to obtain their rights is to argue for equality. MORE

The end of summer. It means back-to-school shopping, tearfully ended beach-borne romances, Labor Day barbecues—and, it would seem, the increased likelihood of new Russian adventurism. As if Moscow weren’t satisfied with thegame in Ukraine, the last month has seen a flurry of reports about its ever-expanding military involvement in Syria. MORE

Now massive wildfires rage from California to as far north as Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula near the Canadian border and all the way across to the Northern Rockies. Smoke and haze fill the air, darkening what would usually be crystal clear skies.

As of Aug. 24 the National Interagency Fire Center reports there are 72 large fires in the United States consuming 1,641,777 acres. There are currently 27,000 people working around the clock to stop the fires. Close to a thousand of them are soldiers. MORE

Startled residents of Gardner, Louisiana, alerted the sheriff last weekend over a black-and-white ‘welcome home’ sign in Hebrew that they thought bore a menacing Islamist message.

The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office and local news station KALB “were contacted by several residents who were concerned about the signs and that they might have been terror messages written in Arabic,” KALB reported Friday. MORE

Though the West Coast almost never gets hurricanes, an earthquake- or storm-induced flood could still do serious damage one of the state’s populated regions.

Only problem is, WIRED got the wrong one. Nick Stockton trumpeted the impending doom of Northern California’s Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta. But, measured in terms of possible loss of life and property, the risks surrounding the city of Sacramento are what are most alarming. MORE

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he was willing to engage in immediate and direct peace talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, without preconditions.

“I am ready now to go to Ramallah or any other place in order to meet and hold direct negotiations,” Netanyahu told members of Women Wage Peace, established following last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. MORE

Catholic priest Edward Belczak pleaded guilty Tuesday to mail fraud in connection with stealing $573,000 from St. Thomas More church in Troy, the prosperous parish he led as pastor for nearly 30 years.

Belczak agreed to forfeit a plush Florida condo he bought with parish money and pay $573,000 in restitution. His sentencing will be Dec. 1; the sentencing guidelines call for him spending 33 to 41 months in prison. MORE

Water births are certainly not uncommon. Many women feel it is a much more relaxing environment in which for them to give birth.

Typically, a water birth involves a bath tub and a midwife — a human midwife. There is apparently an entire group of women, however, who think dolphins have the qualifications to deliver their baby. MORE

SEATTLE (AP) — Minutes before a Washington state high school freshman fatally shot four friends and then himself, he sent a group text message to his family outlining his funeral wishes and apologizing to the parents of the teenagers he was about to kill.

“I love you family. I really do. More than anything,” Jaylen Fryberg said two minutes before opening fire in the cafeteria of Marysville-Pilchuck High School. “I needed to do this tho… I wasn’t happy. And I need my crew with me too. I’m sorry. I love you.” MORE

Typhoid has broken out among residents of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, the United Nations said on Wednesday, warning of further disease outbreaks unless aid reached the camp because of the appalling conditions there.

Eleven cases of typhoid were confirmed by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which gained access to residents from the Yarmouk camp for the first time since June in nearby Yalda, where it carried out more than 200 medical consultations. MORE