My Splendid Lifestyle

A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch center Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. “The UAE is now a member of the club and we will learn more and we will engage more and we’ll continue developing our space exploration program,” said UAE Space Agency chief Mohammed Al Ahbabi. The craft, named Amal, is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since the country’s formation.

This summer, tens of millions of people across China have been affected by torrential rains that caused floods and landslides and battered cities and villages in dozens of provinces. It is the worst flooding to hit China in decades. Heavy rains have lashed 27 of the country’s 31 provinces since June, affecting more than 37 million people and leaving 141 dead or missing, and economic losses have been estimated at 86 billion yuan (US$12.3 billion) so far. China has perennial flooding in summer but a combination of climate reasons and human behaviour have contributed to a longer-than-usual duration and incessant rainfall in some regions.

A fire has ravaged a 15th-century cathedral in the western French city of Nantes, blowing out stained-glass windows and destroying a grand organ. More than 100 firefighters battled for several hours to bring it under control and smoke was still coming out of the Gothic structure on Saturday afternoon. Prosecutor Pierre Sennes told reporters three fires had been started at the ancient site and authorities were treating the incident as a criminal act.

The U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program has been met with a certain amount of criticism as of late. The program reflects in part the government’s push to quickly lend more than $650 billion to businesses of all sorts based on an honor system that took companies’ claims at face value and offered the promise of loan forgiveness. That approach undoubtedly sped up aid to small businesses in need of a lifeline. But it also benefited an alleged Ponzi scheme and borrowers with troubled pasts, including companies accused of defrauding student borrowers and selling fake coronavirus treatments.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accused world powers of ignoring inequality in global institutions, but said the coronavirus pandemic has created a “generational opportunity” to build a more equal, sustainable world. He said the pandemic has revealed, like an x-ray, “fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built.” “It is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all; the delusion that we live in a post-racist world; the myth that we are all in the same boat,” said Guterres during the virtual lecture.

New research from the University of B.C. shows that even on their deathbed, our loved ones are listening. Using electroencephalography (EEG) – a way to measure electrical activity in the brain – the UBC team recorded brain activity in healthy individuals and then from patients at St. John Hospice both while they were conscious and again when they became unresponsive. The team found that the brains of dying individuals responded similarly to the brains of those who were healthy when they heard voices or tones. But while the evidence of brain activity supports the idea that a dying person can still hear, it doesn’t confirm whether they are aware of or acknowledge what they’re hearing.

The Chicago Marathon, originally scheduled for Oct. 11, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming the fourth World Marathon Major called off this year. Organizers cited the challenge of staging the 45,000-runner event “out of concern for the safety of event participants, volunteers, event staff and spectators.” The Chicago event is one of the most recent notable races to be scrapped amid the pandemic. In May, the Boston Marathon was canceled for the first time in its 124-year history. The New York City Marathon, the world's largest, was also canceled in June. Now, only the London Marathon, which was postponed from April to October 4, still has a chance of happening.

Italy's declining birth rate hit a new record low in 2019 with 420,170 babies registered. This is the lowest number of births since the unification of Italy in 1861. The birth rate in Italy is now 7 births per 1,000 inhabitants, while the EU member-states registering the biggest increases in birth rates in 2019 were Ireland with 12.1 births per 1,000 people, followed by France with 11.2, and Sweden with 11.1. Italy recently announced plans to introduce a family allowance for children from their birth up to the age of 21. The amount of the monthly allowance has not been set yet but according to plans it could range from €160 for the least well off families to €80 for the best off.

The U.S. National Football League's Washington franchise will change the Redskins name and logo. The announcement comes just days after the team said that a "thorough review" of the name would be conducted. The name has long been denounced by Native American groups as an ethnic slur. Owner Daniel Snyder and head coach Ron Rivera are working closely to develop a new name and design approach that will enhance the "standing of our proud, tradition rich franchise and inspire our sponsors, fans and community for the next years to come."

Global emissions of methane, a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2, increased 9% between 2006 and 2017, mainly due to the energy sector and agriculture, according to a recently published study. Methane is the second man-made greenhouse gas (related to human activity) after carbon dioxide (CO2), but its warming effect is 28 times greater per kilogram than that of CO2 within 100 years. “If we want to respond to the Paris Agreement, we must not be content with limiting carbon dioxide emissions, we must also reduce those of methane,” says Marielle Saunois, from the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences, who coordinated the study.

The chief of Russia's space corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, offered less-than-flattering comments about NASA's Moon program in a recent interview. Russia's space program does not currently have any concrete role in NASA's plans to explore space beyond low Earth orbit. NASA is talking to Russia about building an airlock for the Lunar Gateway, a small space station in orbit around the Moon, but U.S. officials suggest those talks are far from settled. Asked about Russia's interest in sending humans to the Moon and possibly partnering with NASA, Rogozin dismissed NASA’s  Artemis program. He responded: "Frankly speaking, we are not interested in participating in such a project."

Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, has said that nationwide use of face masks could significantly slow the spread of COVID-19 and end the epidemic in four to six weeks. “We are not defenseless against this virus. We actually have one of the most powerful weapons you could ask for,” he said. “The most powerful weapon we have that I know of is wearing face coverings.” Though the CDC first recommended that Americans start wearing face masks on April 3, the Trump administration has refrained from requiring all Americans to wear masks, instead leaving the decision up to individual states.

BTS, the Korean supergroup, is known for churning out hits and energizing a growing global fan base. Early in June, those fans, known as ARMY, put their energy behind an online campaign called #MatchAMillion to raise money for social justice causes in the United States. It hauled in $1 million in roughly one day, matching the donation of the band itself to the Black Lives Matter movement. Erika Overton, one of the administrators of the fan group that organised the #MatchAMillion fundraising effort said,  “This is not just a fan group to enjoy music – it’s an economic force, and something you can’t really dismiss as something trivial.”

More than one million people in the UK have given up smoking since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a survey for charity Action on Smoking and Health suggests. Just under half of people who had quit in the past four months said the pandemic had played a role in their decision. That may have been down to a range of factors including health concerns, access to tobacco while isolating or no longer smoking socially. Ash director Deborah Arnott said: "Over a million smokers may have succeeded in stopping smoking since Covid-19 hit Britain, but millions more have carried on smoking".  About 7 million people in the UK in total were smokers in 2019.

A high-profile Canadian dad who paid $200,000 to cheat his two sons’ way into California colleges — and helped craft a bogus admissions essay claiming one boy had been mugged by an LA street gang — is now headed to prison for three months. The man has also been ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. David Sidoo, a Vancouver businessman and former Canadian professional football player, was sentenced for paying the hefty sum to college admissions scandal mastermind William “Rick” Singer. Sidoo, first paid $100,000 to Singer in 2011 to have Harvard-educated test proctor Mark Riddell take the SAT in place of his older son.  Sidoo then made another $100,000 payment in 2013 to repeat the scheme the following year for his younger son.

A boycott is in full swing amongst western retailers to pull Thai coconut products from their shelves following allegations that the coconuts have been picked by monkeys who were ‘abused’ to learn how to pick coconuts. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals director, Elisa Allen, claims the macaque monkeys are “snatched from the wild” and cruelly trained to climb up coconut trees and pick up to 1,000 coconuts a day. The Thai Commerce Ministry has said it will invite members of the foreign diplomatic corps to observe the harvesting of coconuts, in an effort to prove that the process does not involve animal cruelty or abuse.

Hong Kong police have confirmed they collected DNA samples from 10 people arrested over the new national security law on July 1, sparking debate on whether this crosses the line in cases that are centered on protesting. According to the ordinance, senior officers can authorize taking a non-intimate DNA sample from a detainee if they suspect the person has committed a serious offence and the evidence will be instrumental to determine guilt. If the suspect does not consent, officers can use force to collect it. Taking genetic samples from suspects is most commonly used to investigate offences far more serious, according to a lawyer for several of the detained.

A Florida company is planning to fly passengers to the edge of space in a high-tech version of a hot air balloon, with a pilot and up to eight travelers riding in a pressurized capsule suspended from an enormous blimp. Human space flight company Space Perspective has scheduled the test flight of its Spaceship Neptune for early 2021, from the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The six-hour trips will involve a two-hour gentle ascent above 99% of the Earth's atmosphere to 100,000 feet, and another leisurely two hours for passengers to enjoy the 360-degree views from the cabin before the spaceship makes its two-hour descent to the ocean, where it will splash down safely. Passengers can expect to pay around  $125,000 for a ticket.

92-year-old Carlos Augusto Manco of Brazil is a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, and a university student. Carlos is chasing his dream of becoming an architect. He began his undergraduate studies at a university in Sao Paulo in 2018 and is currently in his third year. Carlos has decades of experience in the architecture, engineering, and construction field. He worked alongside architects and engineers as an urban designer. His career saw him work in the water and sewage department as well as helping to design a university hospital. Carlos is having to adapt to online classes during the pandemic. Although he finds using a computer challenging, he receives daily assistance from his granddaughter - the same granddaughter who encouraged him to take the course and make his dream come true.

Rachel Taylor, a 22-year-old nurse from Minnesota, sprang into action while driving home from her wedding ceremony. Rachel and her husband witnessed a car crash and saw people dragging a woman with a serious gash on her leg over to the side of the road. That was when Rachel's nursing instincts kicked in. Still wearing her wedding dress, she ran over to assist the injured woman. Rachel held the injured woman and was able to keep her calm until the paramedics arrived. The victim, Tamara Peterson, is now at home recovering. She hopes to be able to meet the Taylors again so she can thank Rachel for helping to save her life.