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ExxonMobil has sued the U.S. government to contest a fine on the oil giant for breaking sanctions against Russia. The $2 million penalty stems from Exxon’s decision to form a joint venture with Russia’s Rosneft in May 2014, weeks after the U.S. government imposed sanctions against Russia for the annexation of Crimea, in Ukraine. As part of the joint-venture deal, Exxon signed several agreements with the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, who had been blacklisted by the Treasury department. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the CEO of Exxon when the deal was signed. – REUTERS

President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida has filed 70 visa applications to hire foreign workers. The requests would allow the club to hire 35 waiters, 20 cooks and 15 housekeepers for seasonal work between October and May 2018. The U.S. government this week said it will grant 15,000 additional H-2B visas in the second half of the 2017 fiscal year to allow companies to hire more foreign workers. The White House has themed this as the “Made in America” week in a bid to promote both national workers and the products made in the country. – WAPO

A space enthusiast has sold a bag full of moon dust for $1.8 million. Inside the bag, made with a type cloth similar to the one used to make space suits, Neil Armstrong gathered a small amount of dust when he landed on the moon in 1969. Nancy Carlson bought it in 2015 for $995 at an auction of items that had been confiscated from a man named Max Ary, a former director of a space museum in Kansas. In a bid to regain control of the bag, NASA sued Carlson, but a judge said she was the legitimate owner of the moon dust. – NPR

White House press secretary Sean Spicer has stepped down. Spicer said he disagreed with President Trump's decision to appointment Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci as the White House communications director this morning. This story is developing. – NYT

Google is set to radically change its homepage for the first time since 1996. The company is using algorithms to develop a feed of personal information that will be added to its homepage. The feed will incorporate news items, popular videos and music suggestions, as well as information about what is trending in the area where the user is located, said Google’s vice president of engineering Shashi Thakur. Some of these features already appear in Google’s search apps, but they will be included for the first time on desktop sites over the next two weeks. – GUARDIAN

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit Greek and Turkish tourist sites last night, killing two vacationers and injuring around 500 people. The two victims, from Sweden and Turkey, perished when a building collapsed on the Greek island of Kos. The impact on infrastructure was limited, but the tremor damaged an old mosque in Kos, a harbor and a 14th century castle. Last month a powerful earthquake hit the Greek island of Lesbos killing one woman. – AP

A general strike against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro brought much of the country to a halt on Thursday, leading to clashes between protesters and police. Demonstrators built barricades and painted graffiti, and some of them hurled stones to riot police, who responded firing tear gas. Four people died during the strike. The chamber of commerce and industry, some unions and student groups supported the strike. The opposition wants President Maduro to call off plans to rewrite the country’s constitution. They say the move would allow the leftist leader to amass more power. But in a televised speech Maduro vowed to press ahead with his plans to organize a July 30 referendum to select the members of the assembly who will write a new constitution. – AP

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk says he has “verbal” approval from the government to build an ultra-fast “hyperloop” transport system to connect New York and Washington, D.C. The system will use electromagnetic propulsion to shoot pods through underground vacuum tubes. Musk says the “hyperloop” will transport passengers and cargo between the cities in 29 minutes, whereas the existing train takes three hours. Musk recently launched a firm called Boring Company to build tunnels for the project. – REUTERS

Hawaii has unveiled a campaign to educate locals and tourists about the dangers of a missile attack from North Korea. "We do not want to cause any undue stress for the public; however, we have a responsibility to plan for all hazards," Vern Miyagi, from the emergency management agency, told Hawaii News Now. The chances of a missile attack are slim, but if it were to happen, a North Korean missile could reach Hawaii in 12 to 20 minutes, the agency said. The state also plans to develop a new siren to warn residents of a missile attack. Earlier this month, North Korea tested an intercontinental missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. – NBC ...