Celebrating the end of the week with a global round up of positive news nuggets.
Glasto Headliners
Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA will headline this year's Glastonbury Festival, organisers have announced. It marks the first time in the event's history that female acts have taken two of the three headline slots. And country star Shania Twain will play the coveted "legend slot" on Sunday afternoon.
The singer told BBC News she was "over the moon" to be taking part. "Everyone always talks about it being the pinnacle of festival slots," she said.
Olympic Record
This year’s Olympics in Paris will be the first in history to achieve numerical gender parity on the field of play - meaning there will be an equal number of female and male athletes participating in the largest sporting event in the world. Out of the 10,500 athletes participating in the Games, there will be 5,250 men and 5,250 women.
What's That?
If you're wondering what this towering coastal monolith is, you may be surprised to learn that it's not a CGI image from Game of Thrones, but an actual photograph of a lighthouse. Faro de Punta del Hidalgo is an active lighthouse on the northeast coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It has a unique angular design, consisting of unequal and irregular columns of increasing height rising from a triangular base. The lower columns culminate in a final square pillar that's 50m tall, facing the sea. It was completed in 1992 and its light - a pattern of two flashes of white light every seven seconds - can be seen for 16 nautical miles.
One of Only Two
A one cent postage stamp is coming up for auction and could fetch up to $5 million. A New York auction house is selling what it calls “America’s Most Valuable Postage Stamp” - a one cent Z-grill stamp from 1868 featuring Benjamin Franklin. It's one of only two of its kind known to exist. The auction will mark the first time the rare stamp is up for sale in 26 years. It's rarity comes from what philatelists call a Z-grill which is a type of mark impressed into a postage stamp invented in 1867 to prevent reuse (the pattern's small indentions would have made it difficult for Americans at the time to remove cancellation ink signifying the stamp's use.) The Z-grill, named after its zig-zag pattern, is the most rare of the grill shapes.
Cervical Cancer
The global effort to eliminate cervical cancer just got a huge boost after donors pledged nearly $600 million towards fighting the disease, reports Reuters. In a joint statement, the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, and UNICEF said that the funding will go towards expanding access to vaccination, screening, and treatment worldwide. This is particularly good news for low and middle-income countries, where access to preventative vaccines as well as screening and treatment can be very limited.
Oops!
Sometimes a picture says a thousand words, and this one is a prime example. A Washington State Patrol Trooper shared a picture of a drunk driver's car over which he had lost control and crashed on the side of the highway. The small red truck ended up sideways resting against some bushes and a street sign that said, "Please Don't Drink and Drive." Happily, nobody was hurt.
Remarkable Recovery
One of the most visible indicators of ocean surface temperature warming due to climate change is the bleaching of coral reefs. Environmental changes like warming waters can cause corals to expel the algae that live on them and provide them with nutrients, turning the corals white. A new study has found that, while most of the world’s coral reefs are currently damaged or under threat, efforts to restore them can revitalize important ecosystem functions remarkably quickly. “We found that restored coral reefs can grow at the same speed as healthy coral reefs just four years after coral transplantation,” says Ines Lange, lead author of the study. “This means that they provide lots of habitat for marine life and efficiently protect the adjacent island from wave energy and erosion. The speed of recovery that we saw was incredible. We did not expect a full recovery of reef framework production after only four years.”
"Spring is when you feel like whistling, even with a shoe full of slush." Doug Larson
On This Day
15 March 1972: The Godfather, an epic drama about organized crime, premiered to universal acclaim; the Academy Award-winning film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starred Al Pacino and Marlon Brando.
Jackie and Shadow enjoy celebrity status thanks to a live-cam broadcasting 24/7 from their home in San Bernardino. Have a look...
Giant redwoods - the world's largest trees - are flourishing in the UK and outnumber those found in their native California. Status symbols...
Mood Booster
In bright pink, Ryan Gosling performs I'm Just Ken live at the Oscars.