
China begins building its own space station with launch of control module
CBSN
China launched the first module of a planned space station on Wednesday. The Chinese space agency hopes to complete the sophisticated research lab in 2022, securing its status as a space superpower with long-duration orbital expeditions by three-person crews.
While smaller than the sprawling International Space Station, built by the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada, the Chinese Space Station, or CSS, will focus on the same objectives, including microgravity research, Earth observation and technology development.
The United States launched military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities Sunday morning local time, an action President Trump said aimed to neutralize a threat "posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror." It was widely seen as a turning point in America's involvement in the ongoing Middle East conflicts as the first direct intervention by U.S. forces in the war between Israel and Iran.

Erbil, Iraq — Israel has been hammering Iran's nuclear and military sites for a week. To reach their targets, Israeli warplanes must cover about 1,000 miles, traversing as many as three countries, including Iraq, which sits right on Iran's western border. For decades, Iranian groups opposed to the Islamic Republic's theocratic rulers have organized in exile across the border in Iraq, including ethnic Kurdish factions that have become well organized, and armed.