Las Vegas has run three self-driving vehicle trials since 2017
The first trial's shuttle crashed within two hours of its 2017 debut. Police cited the lorry driver, not the shuttle, for the crash.
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The Michelin Man began as a pile of tyres and a champagne toast
Bibendum, the Michelin Man, was first drawn in 1898 after a stack of tyres caught a Michelin brother's eye. He began as a cigar-chomping drinker.
Mont-Saint-Michel could have stopped being an island by 2040
A causeway built in 1878 let silt choke the bay around Mont-Saint-Michel. France tore it out and dammed a river to flush the mud back to sea.
Germany's allotments began as play space for poor children
Germany has about a million Kleingarten allotments, 70,000 of them in Berlin. They started as fresh air for factory children. Now builders want the land.
A London cabbie learns 25,000 streets to earn a green badge
London's black cab licence rests on the Knowledge: three or four years learning every street near Charing Cross, then oral tests until examiners approve.
Bulgaria's Varna gold undid the myth of an equal Copper Age
A cemetery near Varna in Bulgaria held 6,500-year-old gold in only a handful of graves, the earliest evidence that some people outranked others.
A pope's letter set Roger Bacon writing the Opus Majus
In 1266 Pope Clement IV asked a confined Franciscan friar for his writings. Roger Bacon had none, so he spent a year writing the Opus Majus.
Maasbommel's Dutch houses ride floods on concrete boxes
At Maasbommel in the Netherlands, amphibious houses sit on hollow concrete boxes that float up guide posts when the River Maas rises, by up to four metres.
Every household in Germany pays for ARD and ZDF, TV or not
Germany's Rundfunkbeitrag charges each household a flat monthly fee, whatever devices it owns, and that money pays for most of ARD and ZDF.
India falls to 23rd in the Climate Change Performance Index
India dropped 13 places in the 2026 Climate Change Performance Index, from 10th to 23rd, as its emissions rose and it set no date to phase out coal.
New York made its cable company give airtime to anyone
Manhattan Cable Television launched in 1971 with public access forced on it by the city. It aired TV Party, Midnight Blue and AIDS reports others avoided.
The elephant that carries Kandy's casket
At Sri Lanka's Kandy Esala Perahera one elephant carries a golden casket of relics. It must stand about 3.7 metres tall, with a flat back and curved tusks.
A donkey with no reason to choose starves where it stands
Buridan's ass starves between two equal piles of hay because it has no reason to choose. The tale is usually read as an argument against free will.
Britain and the US both moved against Iran's Press TV
Ofcom pulled Press TV's UK licence in 2012 because its editors sat in Tehran. The US later seized its web domains, alleging they spread disinformation.
IdentityTheft.gov turns a US theft report into a recovery plan
The Federal Trade Commission's site turns your answers into an official report and a recovery plan. Put a fraud alert on your credit report before you file.
Philippine lawmakers refused ABS-CBN's franchise, 70 votes to 11
ABS-CBN went off air in May 2020 after its renewal stalled in a Congress run by Duterte's allies. In July, lawmakers refused a new franchise, 70 to 11.
Cosmic radiation doubles with every 6,000 feet you climb
One long flight gives you about a week of background radiation. A 2019 UK law protects crew who could pass 1 millisievert of cosmic radiation a year.
Eighty-one states in Vienna wrote the rules diplomats still keep
The 1961 Vienna Convention wrote down 200 years of custom, upheld by reciprocity. Its immunity rule saw PC Yvonne Fletcher's killers expelled, not tried.
In the UK's North Sea, 78p of each £1 of profit goes in tax
The UK Energy Profits Levy adds 38% to the tax on North Sea oil and gas profits, for a 78% total. It has raised about £12bn and runs until March 2030.
Blind viewers once missed the action. Now a voice fills the gaps
Audio description slips short spoken notes on the action into pauses in the dialogue, some as short as a second. A spare audio channel carries it to sets.
In the UK, a dangerous building waits for a council's notice
Under the Building Act 1984, a council must serve notice before it makes a dangerous building safe. In Boston, a fire-hit wall stood unsupported meanwhile.
Britain sells its airwaves to the highest bidder, round by round
The UK sells mobile frequencies by auction. The 3G sale in 2000 ran 150 rounds and raised £22.5 billion. The 5G sale in 2018 raised £1.4 billion.
The UK is cutting aid to its lowest share of income since 1999
Britain's aid spending is set to fall to 0.3% of national income by 2027 to pay for defence. Aid to Africa falls by more than half, and polio funding ends.
The UK's Climate Change Act binds ministers to net zero by 2050
The 2008 Act made net zero by 2050 a legal duty for UK ministers, with five-year carbon budgets. The UK met the first three but is off track for the next two.