Tasty bite-sized chunks of positive news to perk up the day.
River Clean Up
Parisians are beginning to get excited about the idea of swimming in the Seine again. To say ‘again’ is to really turn back the years, because for decades it’s been unthinkable. However, since being awarded the honour of hosting the 2024 Olympics, Paris has spent over $2 billion cleaning up the river in preparation for making it all set for the triathlon, and plenty of swimming recreation for Parisians in the decades to come.
Avian Superhighway
The UK government has announced that England’s east wetlands are being put forward as a potential Unesco world heritage site, recognising a key section of the East Atlantic Flyway that links bird migration routes from the Arctic Circle to southern Africa via western Europe. If approved, the salt marshes and mudflats on the Essex coast, the Wash, parts of the Thames, and the Humber estuary would be acknowledged on the Unesco list as sites of international importance, alongside the Galápagos Islands and Kilimanjaro. Over 1 million birds, comprising more than 155 birds species, rely on the 170,000 hectares of the east coast wetland network – around twice the size of New York City – to breed, overwinter and rest while migrating.
Potter Fans Rejoice
Good news for Harry Potter fans as he is to be brought to life on the small screen in a new decade-long television series. The series will be a "faithful adaptation" of the hugely popular books about the wizarding world by author JK Rowling, who will serve as an executive producer. It will feature a different cast to the films, with each season promising to be "authentic to the original books" and bring Harry Potter to new audiences. The series will be available on Max - currently branded as HBO Max - a streaming service from Warner Bros.
Plate Crazy
A charity auction in the United Arab Emirates saw a vehicle license plate with the letter and number combination “P7” sell for $14,975,356, beating the Guinness World Record for the most expensive car license plate, which was set at $14,200,000 for license plate “1” at an Abu Dhabi auction in 2008.
Keepie-Uppies
A 10-year-old in China broke a Guinness World Record by juggling a football with his feet 8,147 times in one hour, reports UPI. Tang Jinfan, who was awarded the title for most football (soccer) touches with alternating feet in one hour, said: “In our soccer club, many teammates can juggle the ball over 1,000 times with both feet, but I am the best performer.” His dream is to represent China at a future World Cup.
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." Vincent van Gogh
On this Day
18 April 1956: Abandoning her Hollywood career, American actress Grace Kelly wed Prince Rainier III of Monaco, in a civil ceremony; an opulent religious ceremony took place the following day.
Foreign Idioms are Hilarious: What sounds totally normal to us in the English speaking world, can sound utterly weird to other nationalities - and vice versa.
Musical Mood Booster
Staff at the airline of the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan get into the spirit of the Jerusalema Dance Challenge.