A quick look at the most important news of the last 24 hours:
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Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing it of interfering in their internal affairs and supporting terrorist groups. A statement attributed to Emir Tamim which criticized Saudi Arabia while praising their arch-rival Iran sparked the diplomatic crisis, even though Qatar’s news agency retracted the statement and claimed its webstie had been hacked. The 4 countries said they will close air, sea, and land connections to and from Qatar, which says the moves are based on false allegations. Qatar has also been expelled from the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen.
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A federal contractor has been arrested and charged after she admitted sending a top secret report from the National Security Agency (NSA) to The Intercept news website. The report claims Russia executed a cyberattack on a U.S. voting software supplier and more than 100 local election officials just days before last year’s election, but a U.S. intelligence officer cautioned that the analysis in the report was not necessarily definitive.
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A man was killed and 3 police officers were injured during a shooting and hostage siege at an apartment building near Melbourne, Australia. A woman who was being held hostage was rescued after the suspect was shot dead by police. The man, who was known to counter-terrorism police, called a TV station during the siege, saying: “This is for [Islamic State], this is for al-Qaeda.” ISIS has claimed responsibility.
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Five people have been killed after a disgruntled ex-employee opened fire at his former workplace in Orlando. The man, who was fired in April, killed himself before deputies arrived. Officials say the man specifically targeted his victims as he carried out the shooting spree, at one point telling a woman he didn’t know to get out.
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UNICEF warns that an estimated 100,000 children are still trapped in ISIS-held neighborhoods in the Iraqi city of Mosul. There are reports that children have been killed while trying to escape and others have been used as human shields.
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