Celebrating the start of the weekend with a worldwide round-up of positive news nuggets.
Windsor Castle Guest
Katy Perry is one of the American musicians (Lionel Ritchie is another) slated to perform at King Charles III’s coronation concert on 7 May at Windsor Castle. Leading up to the event, she revealed that being invited to sing at the ceremony is an “honor.” But that's not what's getting her really excited as Perry revealed that the royal family has also kindly invited her to stay at Windsor Castle too. “I’m really excited,” the pop star shared, later hinting that fans may want to keep an eye on her social media content in the coming weeks. “I might be posting a lot because I’m gonna be in a castle, for real. This is wild.”
Papal Progress
Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an unprecedented change that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities. The Pope approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world’s bishops together for periodic meetings, following decades of demands by women to have the right to vote.
Pope Jokes that Whisky is 'the true holy water' - But this proved hard to swallow for po-faced Vatican minders who ensured that the pontiff's remark did not make the final cut of a documentary. Read on...
Fancy a Job?
Blackpool Zoo in north west England is recruiting human “seagull deterrents” to keep the “nuisance” birds at bay. According to a recently posted job ad, the seaside resort town’s many gulls “have been trying to steal food from our visitors and our animal enclosures”, so the zoo is hiring a team of life-sized scouts to scare the birds away. Applicants must be friendly, energetic, flexible and outgoing - and “you need to be comfortable wearing a bird costume”, warns the ad, which features an employee modelling the full-body inflatable uniform.
Global EV Sales Growth
Last year was a good year for the electric vehicle market. Of new cars sold in 2022, electric cars made up 14%, or around 10 million units, globally. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 9 percent of all cars sold globally were electric in 2021. This rose to 14 percent of new cars sold in 2022. The IEA's Global EV Outlook predicts this will increase to 19 percent in 2023. Already this year, 2.3 million electric cars were sold in the first three months - 25 percent higher than electric car sales in Q1 of 2022.
Surprise Surprise
Don Powell doesn't know how two little dolls found his mailbox, but he's glad they did. The Orchard Lake, Michigan, resident told USA Today he has a custom mailbox that looks like a modern house, and one day, instead of finding bills and flyers inside, he discovered two dolls and a note, which introduced the figures as Mary and Shelly and said, "We decided to make this our home." Powell and his wife wondered if someone left the dolls in the wrong mailbox, but two weeks later, they found Mary and Shelly surrounded by new items, including a painting and a rug. The Powells were "intrigued" by the miniature home being set up in their mailbox, Don said, and he started posting about it online. The mysterious benefactor continues to add and swap around items to the mailbox house, even putting in holiday decor. Don loves "never knowing what might be in the mailbox," and said the whole thing has "created happiness and joy for so many people."
Edge of Empire
Buried in a field in West Dunbartonshire in Scotland is a piece of history that eluded archaeologists for hundreds of years. In 1707, antiquarian Robert Sibbald described a Roman fortlet in the area, but attempts to find it during the 1970s and 1980s were futile. Now, thanks to advances in technology, archaeologists have been able to find the structure that was once believed lost to time - located on what once would have been the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire. “Archaeology is often partly detective work, and the discovery is a nice example of how an observation made 300 years ago and new technology can come together to add to our understanding,” Riona McMorrow, deputy head of world heritage at Historic Environment Scotland.
Carbon Import Tax
The world’s first carbon import tax was just approved by European Union lawmakers. The law would impose tariffs based on the amount of emissions generated in production, and could be effective in reducing industrial carbon emissions. The vote caps nearly two years of negotiations on the import tax, which aims to push economies around the world to put a price on CO2 emissions while shielding the EU’s manufacturers from countries that aren’t regulating emissions as strictly, or at all. The tax gives credit to countries that put a price on carbon, allowing importers of goods from those countries to deduct payments made for overseas emissions from the amount owed at the EU’s borders.
"Some of the best memories are made in flip-flops." Kellie Elmore
On this Day
29 April 2011: Prince William, then second in line to the British throne, married his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Middleton.
Australia, still massively reliant on coal for its energy, just took its most significant step in years in addressing the climate crisis. New law...
Airlander is a hybrid airship-airplane that combines the best of both worlds - and is set to transform air travel. Lift off...
When a rescue dog found herself lost in her new neighborhood, she cleverly figured out the best way to get help. Smart...
Mood Booster
Is this the world's stupidest competition? Chasing a rolling cheese down a steep hill. Mad!