Monday's eclectic collection of upbeat news stories from around the world.
Just Keep Swimming
Meet Maya Merhige: The 16-year-old swam more than 20 miles across the English Channel in 11 hours and 39 minutes. Not only is she one of the youngest to complete the (very) impressive journey, but she also raised over $100,000 to fund cancer research. “I knew I had to keep swimming hard, no matter how exhausted I was,” she recalled, adding, “But I made it!”
This accomplishment makes the teen one of the youngest swimmers to complete the impressive Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, which includes the English Channel, the Catalina Channel and Manhattan 20 Bridges swims.
3 Million
That's the number of bananas the culinary team at Olympic Village think they’ll need over the course of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Beating Malaria
Malaria is the poster child for Pestilence. It’s killed more people than almost anything else - by some estimates, around 5 percent of all deaths, ever. It still kills half a million children annually. Now, after 70 years of trial and error, the really good news is that we have two cheap and effective vaccines (developed by scientists in the United Kingdom and manufactured in India) that give us a serious shot at eradicating it in the next decade or two.
Unlikely Sighting
Conservationists are elated and somewhat mystified after a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale was spotted in Donegal Bay, Ireland. The creatures were hunted to oblivion in Irish waters and have not been spotted in the region for more than a century. There are thought to be fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, and those that remain generally live off the eastern coast of the US and Canada. However, this sighting, while mysterious, offered a “glimmer of hope” for the beleaguered species, said researcher Dr Conor Ryan.
Bella Macchina
Some Ferraris are just a little bit more important than others. Take, for example, the 1960 250 GT SWB California that RM Sotheby’s is auctioning off during this year’s Monterey Car Week. Any example of the open-top beauty would attract interest, but this one just so happens to be the first one that was built. This example isn’t just the first to roll off the line. It’s the actual car that was used to introduce the world to the model at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show. No prizes for guessing that it's likely to sell for a an eye-watering sum.
Italy's Renewables Growth
Electricity produced from renewable sources in Italy in the first six months of the year surpassed power generated from fossil fuels for the first time ever, reports Reuters. The figures are a boost for Italy's efforts to pivot towards cleaner forms of generation. Under its energy and climate plan, Italy plans to increase the electricity produced by renewables to 63 percent of the total by the end of this decade.
Early Human Evidence
When scientists recently dug up fossilized bones of a two-tonne, heavily armoured grass-eating armadillo by a riverbank in Argentina, they found something even more fascinating than the remnants of this glyptodont. On those bones they found the type of cut marks not inflicted by other animals but by stone tools, in the process of primitive butchering. This would put human presence in the area at 21,000 years ago - some 5,000 years before people were thought to have settled in the Americas, according to most estimates.
“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” Langston Hughes
On This Day
22 July 1933: American aviator Wiley Post completes the first solo flight around the world, taking 7 days and 19 hours.
Today's Articles
Literally Anyone Else: Fed up with the state of affairs, a Texan has legally changed his name to Literally Anybody Else to run in the Presidential race.
Mood Boosting Video
Mutual Devotion: Clark's grebes are the only birds this heavy that can walk on water.