Top Stories
TOP STORY
TOP STORY
‘Global SOS’ issued over fast-rising Pacific
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a global climate "SOS" at today's Pacific Islands summit.
“I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS — Save Our Seas — on rising sea levels. A worldwide catastrophe is putting this Pacific paradise in peril,” Guterres said.
Sparsely populated and with few heavy industries, the Pacific islands collectively pump out less than 0.02% of global emissions yearly. But this vast arc of volcanic islands and low-lying coral atolls inhabits a corridor threatened by encroaching oceans.
A report released by the top UN climate monitoring body showed seas had risen by around 15 cm in some parts of the Pacific in the last 30 years. The global average was 9.4 cm.
In the low-lying Pacific nation Tuvalu, land is already so scarce that children use the tarmac at the international airport as their makeshift playground.
As well as swallowing scarce land and tainting food and water sources, rising and warmer waters fuel more natural disasters, while ocean acidification slowly kills the reefs that nourish key marine food chains.
WORLD
WORLD
Macron won’t name PM from left coalition
French political uncertainty reemerged after President Emmanuel Macron refused to name a PM from the left-wing coalition.
Despite the coalition winning the most parliamentary seats in France’s snap election last month, Macron is holding a fresh round of consultations today to form a new government.
The president said that while talks had been "fair, sincere, and useful,” no practical solution had been reached, adding the government would probably fall apart on appointing a PM from the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP).
The announcement immediately drew criticism from the NFP, which won the most seats in July's snap legislative elections but not enough to govern. The alliance warned it would not join any more talks unless they were about forming a government.
The left-wing NFP coalition comprises France Unbowed, the Socialists, the Communists, and the Greens. It has about a third of the seats in the National Assembly, France’s powerful lower parliament. Macron’s centrist alliance came in second.
Bubbling Under
Pope Francis
Pope will visit the Istiqlal mosque in Indonesia on the first stop of an interfaith Asian trip.Mississippi
Ex-deputy seeks shorter sentence in racist torture of 2 black men.Orcas slam boat
Killer whales attack another sailboat off Spain, prompting complex rescue that injures crewmember.Subscribe to our newsletter
Everything you need to know about today's news — in your inbox each morning.
It’s free
HEALTH
HEALTH
College graduates have more close friends
Nearly a quarter of US adults with a high school diploma or lower education level said they had no close friends.
People without college degrees reported less participation in social activities like going to parks or restaurants than college-educated adults. The findings come amid a documented rise in loneliness and social isolation nationwide.
Nonprofit Survey Center on American Life researched how culture, politics, and technology shape people’s lives, surveying around 6,600 adults.
“Our social fabric seems to have two layers now,” said Daniel Cox, the center’s director. “It has one for college-educated folks that seems relatively intact, and one for those without college degrees, which seems to be in tatters.”
The survey found college-educated adults were more likely to go to restaurants or coffee shops, converse with neighbors and belong to a neighborhood association, sports team or hobby group.
The US surgeon general declared loneliness an epidemic last year, citing links to heart disease, stroke, dementia and premature death. San Mateo County, CA, which includes part of Silicon Valley, declared a public health emergency over high rates of loneliness.
SOCIETY
SOCIETY
The hottest zip codes for home sales
Homebuyers are eying parts of the Midwest and metro-adjacent areas in the Northeast for affordable prices and desirable locales.
Midwest and Northeast zip codes dominated the top 10 slots on Realtor.com's list. Three of the top 10 are in the Midwest, where housing prices were, on average, 24.6% lower than the national median in June.
The other seven zip codes are in the Northeast, where, according to Realtor.com, average home prices in the three most affordable neighborhoods were 28.8% below the US median in June.
The real estate site calculated the most popular zip codes by measuring the unique views of properties listed on its website and the number of days each listing remained active.
Many house hunters also want to capitalize on solid local economies like Columbus and St. Louis. Living near major economic hubs gives consumers the benefits of city life without sacrificing space, affordability or quality of life.
The top five zip codes, cities and average prices are 43230, Gahanna, OH, $345,000; 63021, Ballwin, MO, $408,000; 01970, Salem, MA, $625,000; 07920, Basking Ridge, NJ, $995,000; and 14609, Rochester, NY, $165,000.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
New England flotilla unites against ‘menace’
A fleet of 25 fishing boats off Nantucket, MA, rallied on Sunday to protest Vineyard Wind, an offshore wind turbine project.
“Vineyard Wind is a menace to our fisheries,” said Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association. The project is under scrutiny after a turbine blade broke off, sending shards of sharp fiberglass into the ocean.
“Floating fiberglass shards remain a navigation and safety risk for mariners over a month after the blade disaster," he said. “We have no idea what effects this industrial litter will have on local food chains … [or] whether this could happen again."
NEFSA, a fishing advocacy group representing wild harvesters in fisheries across New England, criticized the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's plans to lease two million acres of ocean in Maine for more offshore wind development.
Clean Ocean Action noted that the “alarming number of [whale] deaths has been unprecedented in the last half century,” identifying the distinguishing factor as the scale and magnitude of offshore wind power plant activity.
ENTERTAINMENT
ENTERTAINMENT
Oasis reunion confirmed with 2025 tour
Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher have announced a 14-date reunion tour of the UK and Ireland in 2025.
A press release billed the dates as the “domestic leg” of the tour and said that “plans are underway” to extend it beyond Europe later in 2025.
Of the famously feuding brothers’ decision to reunite, the release stated: “There has been no great revelatory moment that has ignited the reunion—just the gradual realization that the time is right.”
The dates mark 16 years since the band split acrimoniously after Noel quit ahead of a show at a French festival and 30 years since the release of their second album, 1995’s “What’s the Story (Morning Glory)?”
The band has no plans to re-enter the recording studio to make new music. Despite their inactivity, Oasis has 21.6m monthly listeners on Spotify and a large Gen Z audience.
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
Postcard takes 121 years to deliver
A Christmas-themed postcard dated 1903 has just been delivered to a Swansea, South Wales, address.
The staff of the building society, where it was sent, hope to find the addressee’s relatives. Ewart, the sender, expressed to “L” his regrets that he couldn’t “pick up” a “pair” of an unspecified thing.
With 10 shillings (about 62 cents — but index-linked, worth about $67.30) “in pocket money, not counting the train fare,” he continues, “I am doing alright.”
When asked about the tardy delivery, the Royal Mail said that when an item is in its system, “we are under obligation to deliver it to the correct address.”
Proffering an explanation, the Royal Mail said: “It is likely that this postcard was put back into our system rather than being lost in the post for over a century.”
The Swansea building society employees are continuing their search for the relatives of “L,” — Miss Lydia Davis — who was 16 when the postcard was written.
Otherweb Editorial Staff
Alex FinkTechie in Chief
David WilliamsEditor in Chief
Angela PalmerContent Manager
Dan KriegerTechnical Director