Humanlike fossils have emerged from the deep and twisting caverns of the Rising Star cave system in South Africa over the past decade — and what they have revealed has rocked the field of human origins. Now, new findings on the sex of individuals whose remains were discovered there are giving researchers a fresh but perplexing perspective on this oddball human relative. In 2015, scientists first described a tiny and puzzling species of hominin from an unusually rich cache of fossils found at a site known as Dinaledi Chamber within the cave system. Despite having a brain not much bigger than a chimp, researchers hypothesized that Homo naledi, as the species was named, deliberately buried its dead in the confines of the cave. This act represented a sophisticated practice once regarded as uniquely human. Members of the species may even have engraved symbols on the rock walls, they reported.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/24/science/homo-naledi-fossils-same-sex
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/25/world/video/kimchi-r-and-d-daesang-corey-lee-korea-spc-digvid-hnk
For decades, leaders of Arab nations in the Persian Gulf viewed their relationship with the United States as a strategic partnership. Donald Trump often saw it differently. “King, we’re protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us. You have to pay for your military,” Trump said in 2018, speaking of the Saudi monarch and encapsulating a more transactional vision of a relationship that Gulf leaders had long regarded as a cornerstone of their security. A year later, Saudi Arabia suffered the biggest attack on its territory in decades when strikes on key oil facilities temporarily knocked out roughly half of the kingdom’s crude production, sending global oil prices soaring. While Washington blamed Iran and condemned the attack, Gulf states were left with lingering questions about the extent of American willingness to confront Tehran on their behalf.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/24/middleeast/trumps-gulf-allies-iran-agreement-disastrous-intl
One day after adopting a resolution aimed at removing US military forces from the conflict with Iran, the Senate walked back its rebuke of President Donald Trump’s handling of the war, rejecting an attempt to advance a similar war powers measure. Wednesday’s late-night vote came after Trump expressed frustration with Senate Republicans who voted for an Iran war powers resolution on Tuesday, as well as Republicans who missed that vote, arguing that Congress had undermined his position at the negotiating table with Iran. GOP Sens. Rand Paul and Bill Cassidy, who had previously voted to rein in the president’s war powers on Iran, changed their votes; Paul voted present and Cassidy voted against advancing the resolution. GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski once again voted for the resolution, while Democratic Sen. John Fetterman again voted against it. The final tally was 47-50-1.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/24/politics/senate-walks-back-iran-war-powers-vote