Spies at Twitter

The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday charged two former Twitter employees with spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia. According to the DOJ, Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen, and Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen, accessed the user data of Saudi government critics from Twitter’s San Francisco office.

Impeachment Inquiry Update

House Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry released transcripts yesterday of their interview with the top diplomat to Ukraine, William Taylor. Next week, House committees will begin public testimonies related to the inquiry.

Convoy Attack in West Africa

Gunmen in Burkina Faso ambushed a convoy near a Canadian mining site yesterday, killing 37 and injuring 60. A Montreal-based company, Semafo, operates two gold mines in the area and was transporting five buses of employees accompanied by a military escort.

David buys Goliath?

Officials from HP confirmed the company has received an acquisition offer from Xerox, as first reported by the WSJ. Xerox has reportedly secured an informal funding commitment for the offer from a major bank - HP’s market cap of $29 billion is more than three times Xerox’s $8 billion market cap.

Tough pill to swallow

CVS announced plans to close 22 drugstores early next year in addition to the 46 stores it already closed this year. Earlier this year, rival Walgreens announced plans to close 200 stores amidst competition from online shopping and prescription delivery services.

I is for Investigation

Alphabet's board has formed an independent subcommittee and hired an external law firm to investigate how Google handles claims of sexual harassment and misconduct. The move was prompted by a series of reports over the past year of sexual harassment by high-level executives.

Wheels down

Cabin crew working at Lufthansa - the largest airline in Germany - began a two-day strike over pay and pensions. A German court ruled against Lufthansa’s efforts to suppress the strike, which the company said will affect 1,300 flights and 180,000 passengers.

The full picture

At just 6 years old, Ethan Haus wandered off from his central Minnesota home one afternoon with the family dog, Remi. While the boy and pup had a well-known special bond and often spent hours playing together outside, it wasn’t normal for them to be gone after dark. So at around 8:00 p.m., Ethan’s mom got the Sheriff’s department involved, and a search began.

Steve Fines came across the announcement on Twitter, and immediately knew he had to help. He uses a $30,000 thermal drone camera to help farmers find lost livestock in the area – and what better way to find a child and dog, lost in the dark in a swamp? Steve quickly packed up and took the drone to the police station.

The first couple attempts were disappointments – a little group of otters, a deer, a bear, raccoons, and the temperature was dropping down below freezing as hundreds of volunteers trudged through the swampy terrain. Then, Steve located a blob that looked like a dog, running circles near another spot on the screen. Volunteers rushed over and found a shivering, but calm, Ethan – with his dog at his side, he was never too worried. His parents, on the other hand, were overwhelmed with relief. Over social media, Ethan’s mom thanked the more than 700 volunteers who helped by searching and spreading the message, posting a video of a squirmy Ethan saying, “Thank you for finding me! You make my heart full!”

The Dog Doctor

According to Edgardo “Perros” Juarez, 49, he’s done a lot of different things in his life. But for the last six years, he’s had a singular purpose – finding, treating, training, and caring for every dog he finds as he makes his way on foot along the perimeter of Mexico. Hunched over, he pushes his supply cart along the edge of the road, surrounded by a rotating cast of pups.

While three of the dogs have been by his side from the beginning, Edgardo’s looking for adoptive families for most of the dogs that he’s trained or nursed back to health. If a dog that he comes across requires serious treatment, like surgery or amputation, Edgardo and his furry family will camp out for a while near a veterinary clinic while the dog gets treated. And then they’ll be on their way again.

Before long, Edgardo will be back in the same place he started, having walked more than 8,500 miles. Upon his return, Edgardo says he’s not sure what his next project will be – but he knows he’ll continue working to rescue abandoned and lost dogs around the country.