The US women’s national soccer team rolled up Broadway in a ticker-tape parade this morning in New York City, cheered by thousands thrilled by their victory in the World Cup final over the weekend in France.
Sunday (July 7) will be a huge day for soccer in the United States, whatever happens in two big games.
In a state where many people live in fear of “the Big One,” it could have been worse. Yesterday evening a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the strongest to hit Southern California in 20 years, happened well away from major population centers.
For the most part, Utah’s $5 million wildlife overpass at Parleys Summit has been a success since opening seven months ago. Officials expected it to take several years before animals grew accustomed to using the large, natural-looking structure, but it seems to have happened already. Guided by miles of fencing, raccoons, bobcats, deer, elk, moose, cougars, and coyotes have taken advantage of the overpass, avoiding collisions with vehicles on Interstate 80 below.
Last year, drought-stricken Cape Town almost became the first major city to run out of water. That brought attention to the fact that many other places face a comparable threat, among them Nairobi, Bangalore, and Mexico City. It also led to the serious consideration of a seemingly crazy idea: towing an iceberg from Antarctica to Cape Town to help solve the city’s water crisis.
Japan’s population is shrinking. Last year it fell by nearly 450,000 people. Not since records began in 1899 had so few babies been born (921,000). Before that, 2017 had also set a record. Meanwhile the number of people passing away last year set a post-war record. The figures are part of a larger pattern in which births have declined and deaths increased steadily for decades.
The NFL Draft is supposed to be a joyous time, when young athletes realize their dreams of joining the National Football League. It feels somewhat different this weekend.
As long as there are highways and wildlife, there will be roadkill. Many a motorist has glimpsed a mangled but still-living animal squirming on the concrete, waiting for a merciful death. And many drivers have themselves perished upon colliding with a deer or some other large animal. Meanwhile, wide, dangerous roadways can cut wildlife off from the resources it needs to thrive, including genetic diversity.
The National Football League may have seen its lowest attendance numbers since 2011 last season, but for a few days this week, American football will once again thrill millions of fans.
Electric vehicle makers and owners have benefited for years from generous government subsidies aimed at fighting pollution and global warming. But the biggest boost, arguably, would come from a fuel crisis, such as the one that had the US enduring long lines for overpriced gasoline in the 1970s following an oil embargo by Middle East producers—or, on a much smaller scale, the one Portugal experienced this week.
A plane so big it has two cockpits and looks incapable of taking off flew yesterday for the first time.
The US hasn’t sold advanced fighter jets to Taiwan since 1992, primarily because it has been wary of antagonizing China. In the eyes of Beijing, of course, Taiwan—despite its democratic elections and self-governing status—is part of China.
All the Brexit drama could, in the end, prove to be much ado about nothing. In light of the UK Parliament shooting down prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal for a third time Friday (March 29), investment bank Goldman Sachs now puts the odds of Brexit not happening at all at 40%, up from 35%.
Following a massive anti-Brexit demonstration in London Saturday, a petition on the UK Parliament website for the government to reconsider its plan to leave the European Union has garnered over 5 million signatures. That makes it the most popular petition ever submitted on the site.
Donald Trump is slated to meet with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam next week (Feb. 27-28), in the second summit between the leaders of the US and North Korea. One thing that’s clearly on Trump’s mind ahead of the meeting: a Nobel Peace Prize.
Turkey lodged an official protest over China’s Uyghur detention camps in the Xinjiang region yesterday (Feb. 9), after years of silence. “It is no longer a secret that more than one million Uighur Turks incurring arbitrary arrests are subjected to torture and political brainwashing in internment camps and prisons,” wrote foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy in a statement posted online. He described China’s treatment of its Muslim ethnic Uyghur people as “a great shame for humanity.”
Sick of New England Patriots yet? If so, you can’t be blamed. The team has appeared in an inordinate number of Super Bowls with Tom Brady as quarterback and Bill Belichick as coach. In 2002, the franchise won its first Super Bowl. Including that game and this weekend’s, the Patriots have been in half of the last 18 Super Bowls, as shown below.
While on the campaign trail in October 2016, Donald Trump mocked the National Football League for becoming “soft” by taking measures to prevent player concussions, which he dismissed as “a little ding on the head.”
The Tesla Model 3 was named “vehicle of the year” by the Detroit News in December. Edmunds ranked it the best-selling luxury vehicle in America in the fourth quarter. Clearly, it’s winning people over.
This weekend millions of NFL fans will enjoy the Super Bowl. But not everyone can watch the game live. Some are stuck with a late weekend shift. Others might work in a city where the Sunday kickoff time of 6:30pm ET is rather inconvenient—that’s already Monday morning in Tokyo (8:30am) and Sydney (10:30am).
North Korea has been trumpeting its thawing relations with South Korea, with images of Kim Jong Un meeting his counterpart Moon Jae-in shown in state-controlled media. But that doesn’t mean its punishments will be any less harsh for citizens who dare to watch TV programs from across the border. People who commit that crime can still face prison, labor camp, or death, as police officials have been reminding residents during lectures in the South Hwanghae province this month.
On Saturday, former housing secretary Julian Castro officially announced his bid to become US president. Speaking in San Antonio, Texas, where he served as mayor from 2009 to 2014, the 44-year-old candidate denounced Donald Trump’s immigration policy, saying, “We say no to building a wall and say yes to building community. We say no to scapegoating immigrants, and yes to Dreamers, yes to keeping families together, and yes to finally passing comprehensive immigration reform.”
In a sign of just how oppressive Saudi Arabia has been toward women, a new rule aims to stop a practice that would be unthinkable in most places: husbands divorcing their wives without telling them.
The National Football League has enjoyed a spike in its TV ratings this season—and that’s before the current NFL playoffs kicked off this weekend. According to NBC Sports, the NFL’s TV viewership increased by an average of 5% per game.
