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June 11, 2014 | | IT CAN HAPPEN HERE Female genital mutilation is practiced across 28 African and Middle Eastern countries—and the United States. An estimated 230,000 women in America are at risk of having their genitals removed, Nina Strochlic reports. While their peers go on summer vacation, a growing underground of young women are sent back to their native countries during the "cutting season." Now, the federal government is starting to wake up to the crisis. SAD TROMBONE Twenty-four hours ago, Eric Cantor thought he was cruising to reelection. Now he's stepping down as as the No. 2 Republican in the House. Cantor will resign as House Majority Leader next month, according to three Republicans "familiar with his plans," The Washington Post reports. Cantor lost his primary Tuesday to Tea Party candidate Dave Brat, capturing just 44.5 percent of the vote. As House Majority Leader, Cantor helped scuttle a "grand bargain" between House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama in 2011 to keep the government open and cut the deficit. In 2009, Cantor engineered unanimous House GOP opposition to Obama's stimulus plan. ANOTHER ONE Another Iraqi city has fallen into the hands of terrorists. This time it's the hometown of Saddam Hussein, Tikrit. Around 300 inmates have reportedly been freed since the city fell when it was attacked from the north, west, and south by fighters from ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. "All of Tikrit is in the hands of the militants," one police colonel told the AFP. ISIS became notorious for its fighting in the Syrian civil war, and for being so extreme that al Qaeda disassociated itself from it. Mass beheadings have been reported in both Tikrit and Mosul. VIVA As the immigration debate gets even more politicized, one church on the Arizona border is taking up the long-held tradition of offering safe haven for families facing deportation. Caitlin Dickson talks to the first man to take sanctuary at the church in more than 30 years about the dark sides of immigration enforcement: profiling, arrest, detention, and the very real threat of being kicked out. WET AND WILD The global weather phenomenon known as El Niño has a 90 percent chance of happening this year, according to the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. El Niño, which occurs when large amounts of water in the Pacific Ocean become warmer than usual, can have devastating effects. Predictions include weaker monsoon rains in India, hurting its already precarious food supply, even more severe droughts in Australia, and collapsed fisheries off South America. However, El Niño may be welcomed in North America, as its rains could bring an end to extended droughts in California and the Midwest. "The amount of warm water in the Pacific is now significant, perhaps the biggest since the 1997-98 event," said the ECMWF. The late '90s El Niño was the hottest recorded in the 20th century, and led to a mass die-off of coral reefs. | | 
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