412 bombardments, an injured soldier of the Armed Forces of the DPR, the village of Zaytsevo without energy, firefights on the outskirts of Spartak, and a lack of shells in the UAF - thus passed the 296th day of the "ceasefire."

Ukrainian punishers shelled the territory of the DPR 412 times, launching 130 mortars of 120 mm and 160 of 82 mm. Infantry fighting vehicles were also used in addition to shelling, along with grenade launchers and small arms. Zaytsevo, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya, Zhabichevo, Spartak, Sakhanka, Mineralnoe, and the Petrovsky district of Donetsk were subjected to the fiercest attacks of the enemy. One militiaman was wounded.

The fighting on the fronts of Donbass that unfolded on June 22nd, 2016 were commented on by the militiaman with the call-sign "Zodiac," who drew parallels to the tragic events of 1941:

"It is not at all ridiculous that some comrades have drawn parallels between the events of June 22nd, 1941 and today's situation. As if we were in 1941, at 4:00 in the morning on June 22nd, 2016, we heard the roar of planes and artillery of the UkroWerhmacht. As is usual, the evening began with mortar and small arms fighting in the Kominternovo district, at the airport, Spartak, Yasinovataya, and north of Gorlovka. Not too long ago we got a call from Marinka, and there the evening disco also began with machine gun and mortar fire and the icing on the cake: infantry fighting vehicles. In general, this is a standard evening in Novorossiya, with the exception of action on the font in Pervomaisk district."

The US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to laws in two states that restrict ownership of semi-automatic firearms.

On Monday, justices rejected an appeal of an October decision by the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld laws in Connecticut and New York that prohibit civilians from owning certain semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines.

The laws bar access to the same gun used by Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack on an Orlando nightclub last week.

A federal ban enacted in 1994 had similar prohibitions on certain semi-automatic firearms and magazines that were defined as high-capacity, but that law expired in 2004.

The bans in Connecticut and New York were enacted in response to the Sandy Hook massacre, where a shooter with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 children and six teachers at an elementary school in 2012. Five other states and Washington, DC also have bans on semi-automatic rifles.

The two states' gun laws were originally challenged in two cases from gun rights organizations and individual gun owners. The appeals courts consolidated the cases into one and upheld the law.

Omar Mateen, the man who murdered 49 people and wounded 53 in Orlando, Florida, may have spent his final days feeling his mind slip. An acquaintance says that Mateen had drastically changed his appearance the day before the massacre.

The morning before Mateen opened fire at Pulse, an LGBT nightclub, an acquaintance claims that he was behaving strangely. An unidentified source told Reuters that Mateen had shaved his head and face and "didn't seem himself."

The acquaintance was familiar with Mateen as a resident at the PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where Mateen worked as a security guard for G4S. The resident explained that he had passed Mateen several times a week and had exchanged small talk with him for the past three years.

Three weeks prior to the attack, Mateen appeared to behave erratically. When the PGA Village resident asked if he was alright, he said Mateen told him that he had spent the night researching psychiatric mediation.

"He'd been real worried about whether or not he'd slipped into psychosis," the source told Reuters. "He wasn't as friendly. He was obsessed with researching medication online."

Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology are getting into the "propaganda machine" business by launching their very own 24-hour news network and movie studio. Trying to capture the success of Rupert Murdoch, Vladimir Putin (redacted) and Queen Elizabeth II before them, the Los Angeles-based $50 million project will feature a 24-hour network to broadcast its messages to the masses - and film production facilities the "religious movement" claims is bigger and better than Paramount.

Located on the famed Sunset Boulevard, where Scientology owns a number of buildings, the studio took five years to build.

The grand opening was unveiled by leader David Miscavige - who faces a number of shocking accusations too dangerous to publish given his willingness to sue even his own father - said the studio would "change the history" and reach "virtually every person on Earth."

Nearly 240 alleged child molesters have been arrested in Southern California in just two months. It came as part of a nationwide crackdown on child sex abusers that netted nearly 1,400 predators, including a religious official and white-collar businessmen.

"Operation Broken Heart III" was launched over the last two months by all 61 Internet Crimes against Children (ICAC) task forces, a US Department of Justice agency. The operation "resulted in the arrest of over 238 child predators," the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement on Monday.

All the arrests are related to charges of possession and distribution of child pornography, sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution and sex tourism, major crimes on the ICAC's radar across the US.

Focusing primarily on online interactions, investigators used forensic equipment kept inside a mobile crime lab dubbed "The Beast." It scans through hard drives for any illicit images, the LA Times reported.

A trip to the beach turned into a nightmare for this turtle, who found himself involved with the wrong crowd of people.

Last Thursday afternoon, a loggerhead turtle was allegedly pulled out from the ocean at Havana Beach in Beirut, Lebanon. He was not only only used for selfies, but also allegedly attacked.

Reportedly, witnesses at the beach saw a beachgoer pull the turtle out from the sea. Then the turtle was thrown onto shore, beaten and stepped on, according to Green Area, which obtained photos of the upsetting scene.

The images show beachgoers posing with the turtle for photos, as well as one beachgoer apparently placing a standing child on top of the turtle. Jason Mier, executive director of Animals Lebanon, told The Dodo that he spoke with a person who claimed to have observed the turtle being hit with a stick on the beach.

Two marines are under investigation for posting a threatening picture on a Facebook page for male Marines. The image shows a corporal holding a rifle with his finger on the trigger accompanied by the caption "Coming to a gay bar near you!"

The picture was shared just days after a mass shooting on Sunday that left 50 dead at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando called Pulse. The person who shared the photo captioned it with, "Too soon?" the Marine Corps Times reported - a question that tends to answer itself.

Both the person in the photo and the person who shared it are active-duty Marines in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in California, just outside of San Diego. First Lieutenant Thomas Gray, a spokesman for IMEF, told the Marine Corps Times, "We cannot discuss details of an ongoing investigation, but I can tell you the command is taking this incident seriously."

The image was posted to "Camp MENdleton resale," a closed Facebook group with over 25,000 members - all of whom are male Marines.

Michael Moss, founder of the group, told the press, "We do not tolerate hate speech," while claiming to have removed the image as soon as it was reported. In addition, the person who first posted the picture was banned from the group.

The Federal Security Service has conducted 14 simultaneous raids on the Church of Scientology offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It seized documents that could shed light on the organization's illegal financial dealings in Russia.

The simultaneous raid across the two cities follow the November 2015 court decision in Moscow that ruled that the Church of Scientology did not comply with federal laws on freedom of religion, as it used its trademark for financial gain.

The ruling backed by the Justice Ministry said that since the Church of Scientology had registered its name as a US trademark, it can't call itself a religious entity. As the Russian court banned the activities of the Moscow branch, the organization threatened to appeal the decision claiming that it violates the rights of its parishioners.

"The days are long, but the years are short," goes the old saying. That's true of life itself, but the phrase has become a mantra of parents and caregivers, a reassuring bit of what's called "everyday wisdom" for the perpetually sleep-deprived and stressed-out. Even parents with the deepest reserves of patience and caring need the occasional reminder that 5 am feedings, toddler tantrums and teen eye-rolls will, in the distant future, be affectionately missed when the nest is finally empty. Because while child-rearing is filled with moments of unadulterated joy and wonder, there's another, far less-discussed open secret of parenting. And it's that raising kids can sometimes be a real drag.

People are often loath to say that out loud, but social scientists have been confirming it for decades. The New York Times quotes scholar and UK-based author Nick Powdthavee, who cuts to the chase about what the research has to say. "Over the past few decades, social scientists like me have found consistent evidence that there is an almost zero association between having children and happiness," Powdthavee writes. "But the warnings for prospective parents are even more stark than 'it's not going to make you happier.' Using data sets from Europe and America, numerous scholars have found some evidence that, on aggregate, parents often report statistically significantly lower levels of happiness (Alesina et al., 2004), life satisfaction (Di Tella et al., 2003), marital satisfaction (Twenge et al., 2003), and mental well-being (Clark & Oswald, 2002) compared with non-parents."

There's plenty more where that comes from. Back in 2004, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman asked 909 working women in Texas to rate their daily activities based on the pleasure they derived from each. On a list of 19 items, childcare came in near the bottom, way down in 16th place. Only "morning commute," "evening commute" and "working" scored lower, while "housework" actually placed higher. Another 2015 study focused on German parents found the "drop in life satisfaction during the year following the first birth [of a child] is even larger than that caused by unemployment, divorce or the death of a partner."

In the midst of Omar Mateen's shooting rampage in Orlando, law enforcement officials say the 30-year-old Florida resident called 911 and proclaimed his support for the Islamic State. Although FBI officials say they have not identified any direct connection between Mateen and the terrorist group, his case has once again brought calls for a harsh crackdown on individuals who might commit acts of domestic terrorism.

In the United States, 88 people have been arrested on charges of supporting ISIS since 2014, according to statistics compiled by George Washington University's Program on Extremism. Who are they? Most are young, male, and American citizens. But in contrast to the Islamic State's own propaganda, as well as the statements of many political figures, many of the U.S. supporters of ISIS come across as more pathetic than fearsome. While media reports have trumpeted the danger of sleeper cells, most of the people arrested by the FBI appear to have been wayward, isolated young men (and a few women) with little connection to international terrorist groups.

Recent coverage of the Orlando shooting has indicated that Mateen was motivated by homophobia and mental illness as much as any militant ideology; the FBI had investigated Mateen on two occasions and interviewed him but never pressed charges. The FBI's handling of his case, along with its handling of the often-hapless people it does arrest on terrorism charges, shows the complexity and, perhaps, the impossibility of the task — trying to identify and imprison real terrorists before they commit acts of terrorism.

Using court documents, interviews, and Google images of major landmarks from their personal lives, The Intercept has constructed brief portraits of nine recent cases of "ISIS in America."