With so much news in the U.S. and the Middle East, it’s a good moment to update you on the expanded news briefs section that we introduced in March. The goal of these is to give you a snapshot of major news and highlight other endeavors, from an opera being played in space to the vigilance that saved all but one resident in a Swiss village when a glacier slid down the mountainside. We’ve been steadily refining this section to include more staff-written briefs. And last week we debuted a briefs column on our homepage, so you can check back throughout the day. Let us know what you think at editor@csmonitor.com.