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The one-two punch delivered by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma has left the southern United States and many islands in the northern Caribbean reeling, collectively resulting in more than 130 deaths, massive long-term flooding, and property damage totaling to a minimum of $132 billion — a number expected to climb dramatically as the aftermath of Irma’s rampage is assessed.

The first major hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. in 12 years, Harvey was also the wettest tropical hurricane on record in the contiguous United States., dumping 51.88 inches (1,31.8 centimeters) — four and one-third feet — of rainfall. The resulting flooding inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displacing more than 30,000 people.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating what appears to be an attack on U.S. diplomats working in Cuba involving a covert sonic weapon. Last fall, a number of diplomats with the newly-opened U.S. embassy in Havana began to suffer an unexplained loss of hearing, forcing many of the afflicted diplomats to return home for medical treatment. Diplomatic ties were re-opened between Cuba and the U.S. in 2015, following decades of tension between the two countries.
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As per a 1992 law placing a 25-year deadline on the release of classified CIA and FBI documents pertaining to the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the National Archives has released a set of 3,810 files that have kept historians and JFK assassination researchers busy, combing the documents for anything that might provide further insight into Kennedy’s death. Although the files that have been released (with another 3,100 due by October) have not provided any game-changing evidence in regards to a possible conspiracy connected to Kennedy’s murder, they do offer new insight into skepticism that developed within the CIA about how the official investigation was conducted — and their possible role in prompting Oswald to plot to kill the president.
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Researchers have recently performed the first genetic modification of a human embryo in the U.S., paving the way for the potential to alter humans using the CRISPR gene-editing technique. Previous genetic modification experiments were carried out by researchers in China, but this experiment, conducted at the Oregon Health and Science University, is suspected to be the first successful Stateside endeavor.
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