QUICK HITS

1 New research explains

whale population crash: Climate change is the quiet force behind a sudden decline in the population of North Atlantic right whales, according to a new study that bolsters a growing body of research into why the critically endangered animals have veered from slow recovery to alarming decline.

2 Germany complains about phishing

attacks: The German government on Monday called on Moscow to cease“illegal cyber activities” immediately amid an increase in phishing attacks on politicians in the lead-up to pivotal parliamentary elections later this month.

3 French actor dies:

Jean-paul Belmondo, star of the iconic French New Wave film“breathless,”whose crooked boxer’s nose and rakish grin went on to make him one of the country’s most recognizable leading men, has died at 88.

4 Palestinians escape

from prison: Israeli security forces launched a manhunt on Monday for six Palestinian prisoners who escaped overnight from one of the country’s highest security prisons through a hole in their bathroom. A security official said the fugitives, including a former leader of the militant group Al-aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, fled down a shaft beneath the bathroom floor and then sneaked through underground passages in the prison’s foundation. Israeli police erected roadblocks after the rare jailbreak.

5 Furniture falls: Once every 46 minutes, a child is treated in an emergency room for serious and sometimes life-threatening injuries from furniture having fallen on them, according to a study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In the study’s 30-year span, 560,203 youths 18 and younger got ER treatment for such injuries.