- Cypress Island Natural Resources Conservation Area (NRCA) is the largest relatively undeveloped island in the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound. In these islands close to the greater metropolitan areas around Seattle, extensive undeveloped shorelines and uplands are becoming rare. Cypress Island contains unusual geological characteristics, outstanding examples of native biological communities, critical habitat for federally protected species, and significant marine and cultural resources. Cypress Island protects 5,230 acres of high quality forest, wetland and grassland communities and surrounding state-owned tidelands, and includes the only protected low-elevation serpentine forest in Washington. Cypress Island includes land in both NRCA and NAP (Natural Area Preserve) designations. The NAP areas on the island, 1072 acres of total conserved acres, and protect rare examples of grasslands underlain by basalt bedrock, and other plant communities and wetlands underlain by serpentine bedrock.
- Iran–Israel war (Wikipedia)
The ongoing armed conflict between Iran and the Houthi movement in Yemen against Israel and the United States began on 13 June 2025, when Israel launched a surprise series of attacks on key Iranian military and nuclear facilities. In the opening hours of the war, Israelis forces assassinated some of Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, and politicians; and damaged or destroyed Iran’s air defenses and some of its nuclear and military facilities. Iran retaliated by launching missiles at military sites and cities in Israel. The Iran-allied Houthis have also fired several missiles at Israel, in an adjunct of the Red Sea crisis. For the first nine days of the war, the United States refrained from military activity other than defending Israel against incoming Iranian missiles and drones, but on 22 June, it took offensive action by striking three Iranian nuclear sites. The Houthis took the American strikes as a “declaration of war” and unilaterally ended its May 2025 United States–Houthi ceasefire.