Posted: August 7, 2020
WORLD Watch News in 3 is the newest current events resource from WORLD News Group. Each day, it delivers a lively three-minute roundup of top news headlines. News in 3 is a preview of WORLD Watch, coming in August.
WORLD Watch will be a daily, 10-minute current events program for teens that delivers headline news, in-depth feature stories, and thoughtful perspective to help students develop critical thinking skills and discernment.
Posted: August 6, 2020
What would Ben Franklin think? He started one of America’s first street-sweeping programs in the city of Philadelphia. Centuries later, trash fills the city streets. There are piles of fly-infested, rotting household waste, bottles, and cans. Philadelphia has a gigantic garbage problem.
People call Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love. Now it has a new nickname: Filthadelphia. “It’s just the smell of rot,” says James Gitto. He’s the president of a neighborhood association in South Philadelphia.
The city has a phone number for complaints. More than 9,700 people called to complain about trash and recycling just in July!
Why are garbage piles growing? People are making more trash. They’re staying home due to the pandemic. They are cleaning out garages and attics. More people are cooking and eating at home. Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams says, “I’ve never seen the amount of tonnage.” He reports a 30 percent increase in trash collections.
There are fewer sanitation workers on the streets these days too. Crews are quarantined if a team member tests positive for the coronavirus. There aren’t enough workers to keep up with the schedule.
Residents never know when trash will be picked up. It might sit outside for days and days. Jacqui Bowman lives in Philadelphia. Her trash stayed at the curb for almost three weeks. It sat in the heat. Heavy rainstorms drenched it. It was finally collected after Ms. Bowman complained to a city council member.
In June, sanitation employees protested. They asked for safer working conditions, hazard pay, and more personal protective equipment. They keep working overtime, trying to get back on schedule.
Of course, handling all that trash is expensive. Mr. Williams says disposing of the extra trash costs the city an additional $2.5 to $3 million dollars.
Posted: August 5, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic closed the University of Vermont. Students had to go home. But the school’s cows stayed behind. The university’s beloved herd of about 100 dairy cows is part of the Cooperative for Real Education in Agricultural Management program. The program’s nickname is CREAM. Students who take part are responsible for the cows. Without the students, no one was left to care for the Holstein herd.
Thankfully, dozens of volunteers stepped up to help. Some were graduates of the CREAM program. Others were students who were willing to come back.
“I would rather do nothing else than this over the summer,” says recent graduate Claudia Sacks of Macungie, Pennsylvania. That says a lot.
One hot day, she got up in the dark at 3:30 a.m. to milk cows. That afternoon, she shoveled out the calves’ stalls. She helps feed the cows twice each day, and even helps with births––any time of day or night. Her favorite cow is Lazlo. When Ms. Sacks sees Lazlo, she gives the bovine a big hug and kiss.
The students know each cow by name. They know how much milk each one gives, when she’s been bred, and when she’s going to have a calf.
“These cows are as well cared for as any animals in Vermont, maybe any animals in the country,” says veterinarian Dr. Steve Wadsworth.
Matt Bodette manages the herd. He is grateful for the help. When he asked for volunteers, 70 to 80 people stepped up. “They have really, really shined in every single way possible. . . . I will never forget them,” says Mr. Bodette. “They’ve been like a little family for me and I’m truly grateful.”
Colossians 3:23 tells us, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Posted: August 4, 2020
On Sunday, two astronauts who launched from American soil returned to Earth in a dramatic splashdown. While a tropical storm pounded Florida’s east coast, the "star sailors" had the ride of their lives into the sea along Florida’s west coast. Their space capsule parachuted into the calm Gulf waters about 40 miles from Pensacola, Florida. Sunday’s splashdown ended an extraordinary test flight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken went into space on May 30. You can read about that here: Taking Teamwork to Space.
Two months later, the astronauts are back on Earth. It took them less than a day to travel from the International Space Station home. The return from space was fast and furious, bumpy and hot. The spacecraft went from a screaming speed of 17,500 miles per hour (mph) to 350 mph as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. It slowed to just 15 mph at splashdown. The capsule was scorched and blistered from extreme temperatures. But the astronauts inside stayed safe.
“Welcome back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” said Mission Control.
Within an hour of the splashdown, a SpaceX recovery ship hoisted the capsule aboard. After medical checkups, the astronauts flew by plane to Houston, Texas. They were greeted by a small gathering of family and officials, including Mr. Musk. He was relieved that the mission was a success.
They were also congratulated by President Trump and Vice President Pence. “Great to have NASA astronauts return to Earth after a very successful two-month mission. Thank you to all!” the President tweeted.
What’s next? SpaceX will inspect the Dragon capsule and give it a makeover. If all goes according to plan, it will return to space next spring. As for the astronauts––they’re headed home. Mr. Behnken’s son had a message for his dad on Sunday morning. “Don’t worry, you can sleep in tomorrow,” said six-year-old Theo.
Posted: August 3, 2020
National Statuary Hall is at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. It is a room filled with sculptures of famous Americans. Each state gets two statues in the hall. Which ones represent North Carolina? One might just be a statue of the late Reverend Billy Graham. A North Carolina legislative committee said “yes” to a model of a Reverend Graham statue. If approved by a congressional committee, the statue will replace one of former North Carolina governor Charles Aycock.
The statue of Mr. Aycock has stood at the Capitol for nearly 90 years. Sadly, Mr. Aycock did not believe in equality for all people. That is why the government has decided to remove his statue.
The Bible is clear that God creates all people equally. All—not some—are made in His image. “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them,” says Genesis 1:27.
Reverend Graham was a native of Charlotte, North Carolina. He became a Southern Baptist minister. He counseled presidents. He spread the gospel around the world. Reverend Graham was the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history. He died in 2018 at the age of 99.
For five years, there have been plans to replace the statue of Mr. Aycock with one of Reverend Graham. Now there’s a bill in Congress that is speeding things up. It’s important that the statues at the Capitol represent each state well. Some of the statues are of people who did not treat all people with equal justice. The congressional bill aims to have those statues replaced.
The Charlotte Observer quotes former State Representative Dan Soucek, “When people from all over the country and all over the world walk through Washington and say, ‘North Carolina has two choices to be in here,’ what do we want them to be?” The Reverend Billy Graham seems like an excellent choice.
Posted: July 31, 2020
WORLD Watch News in 3 is the newest current events resource from WORLD News Group. Each day, it delivers a lively three-minute roundup of top news headlines. News in 3 is a preview of WORLD Watch, coming in August.
WORLD Watch will be a daily, 10-minute current events program for teens that delivers headline news, in-depth feature stories, and thoughtful perspective to help students develop critical thinking skills and discernment.
Posted: July 30, 2020
Wow! A woolly mammoth! Local reindeer herders in Siberia found the well-preserved skeleton of a giant, hairy, elephant-like beast that once walked the Earth. They discovered the bones in the shallows of Pechevalavato Lake. Now Russian scientists are working to collect the bones.
The herders found several parts of the skeleton. They found a section of the animal’s skull, the lower jaw, several ribs, and a piece of a foot. The foot fragment still has sinews intact. A sinew is a tough tissue that connects muscle to bone or bone to bone.
Most people thought all woolly mammoths disappeared around the same time many years ago. But some scientists think some mammoths lived longer in Alaska and Russia’s Wrangel Island off the Siberian coast.
Russian television stations showed scientists looking for skeleton pieces in the lake’s silt. They’ve already found more bones and gigantic bone fragments. It will take a long time with special tools to recover the rest of the skeleton. So far, they don’t even know where the rest of the skeleton is.
Scientists say that finding a complete skeleton of a mammoth is very rare. But when that happens, it surely does help scientists understand mammoths better! Over the years, people have discovered several other well-preserved frozen carcasses of mammoths in northern Siberia’s permafrost. Permafrost is ground that has stayed frozen for two or more years. Sometimes woolly mammoth bones pop up as the permafrost melts.
There is a heat wave in Siberia right now. Temperatures were around 18 degrees above average last month. That means more ice could melt, making more mammoth skeletons salvageable.
Posted: July 29, 2020
A United States Forest Service volunteer snapped a photo of an out-of-place frog. This rare Chiricahua leopard frog was in central Arizona. That’s a long way from where biologists thought it lived. The frog was in a stock tank near the town of Camp Verde. (A stock tank is a man-made container for holding water for animals.) Biologists later confirmed at least 10 leopard frogs living in the tank.
Until now, biologists thought the spotted frogs lived only in eastern Arizona, western New Mexico, and northern Mexico. How did they end up in Camp Verde? Did warmer temperatures lure the frogs to lower elevations? Or were they looking for a more protected habitat?
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the frogs as threatened in 2002. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there used to be around 400 water sites where these frogs lived. Now there are fewer than 80 sites. Habitat loss, disease, and predators are hurting the frogs’ numbers.
Biologists want to help these frogs survive. They raise some in captivity and then release them into their own stock tanks. The scientists pay close attention. If there is a drought, they fill the tanks with extra water. They make sure the tanks are deep enough. They control erosion. Biologists keep trying different things to give these frogs the best possible leg up they can.
Now, thanks to the new frog photo, biologists will go to Camp Verde. They will visit aquatic areas there. They hope to figure out how many more leopard frogs are in the water.
Leopard frogs can camouflage their bellies, so they could be hard to spot. But the male frogs shouldn’t take long to find. They snore loudly! (At least the sound they make sounds like they’re snoring.)
The Book of Exodus tells how God sent a plague of frogs over Egypt. Exodus 8:6 says, “So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.” Imagine how loud those frogs were!
Posted: July 28, 2020
A toy dog went on an adventure. Along the way, he got lost. But then he had some help. Workers at the Cincinnati-area airport found the beloved stuffed Dalmatian. They were able to reunite it with its owner. But first, they had a little fun with the padded pooch.
Airport employees found the toy left behind in the terminal. They snapped photos of the lost traveler. The pup posed wearing a mask at the airport’s restaurants, on the runway, and with a K9 police dog team. A staff member uploaded the snapshots to the airport’s Facebook page. Posts about the missing plaything reached a million people, says airport spokesperson Mindy Kershner.
The spotted toy belongs to Doug and Phyllis Ronco’s son, Jaydence. The little boy calls his doggy Masch-Masch. The Roncos live in Madeira Beach, Florida. They were traveling to visit relatives and friends in Ohio and Indiana when they took an early morning flight out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. That’s when Masch-Masch got lost. “I think our son was half asleep when he left Masch-Masch at the terminal,” Mr. Ronco says. “Under normal circumstances, he would never forget him.”
Jaydence treasures his stuffed dog. It was a gift. A judge gave the dog to Jaydence on his adoption day. “So it’s very special to him,” explains the boy’s dad.
The airport contacted Mr. Ronco by email, saying that the dog was left behind. He thinks they might have been the only family with children on the flight. Maybe that’s how airport staff figured out who Masch-Masch belonged to. Or maybe social media helped find the toy’s owner. After all, the fun story caught a lot of attention on Facebook.
Masch-Masch flew home to the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. His family picked him up there. As a thank you, the family took Oreo cookies to the airport for those who helped get Masch-Masch back home.
Posted: July 27, 2020
Say cheese! A telescope snapped a family portrait of another solar system. The picture shows not just one, but two planets orbiting a star like our Sun. The baby sun and its two giant gas planets are 300 light-years from Earth.
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope took the snapshot. The telescope stands in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Alexander Bohn of the Netherlands’ Leiden University calls the baby sun a “very young version of our own Sun.” He explains, “This is the first time astronomers were able to capture such a shot.”
Astronomers usually find planets around other stars by watching for dimming star light. That’s proof that a planet or other body is moving around a star. Researchers have spotted thousands of planets in our Milky Way galaxy this way. Scientists can tell they’re there––even if they haven’t actually seen the planets. Capturing images is hard to do. There have been 4,183 exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) identified by scientists. But only 48 of them have had their picture taken. That’s according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) statistics.
Spotting two exoplanets around the same star is even more rare. Only two multi-planet solar systems have ever been found this way.
The name of the star in the new photo is TYC 8998-760-1. It looks like the two gas giants orbit quite far from the young star. It could take them a few thousand years to circle all the way around it.
For now, it doesn’t look like the baby star has any other planets.
Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! –– Job 22:12
Posted: July 24, 2020
WORLD Watch News in 3 is the newest current events resource from WORLD News Group. Each day, it delivers a lively three-minute roundup of top news headlines. News in 3 is a preview of WORLD Watch, coming in August.
WORLD Watch will be a daily, 10-minute current events program for teens that delivers headline news, in-depth feature stories, and thoughtful perspective to help students develop critical thinking skills and discernment.
Posted: July 23, 2020
Cleo disappeared from her home in Kansas. She was missing for a few days. Then she turned up at a house where she once lived—in Missouri. She’d wandered about 50 miles from her family. How did she get there? No one knows.
Colton Michael told television station KMBC that the four-year-old dog showed up on his front porch. The Labrador retriever-border collie mix must have recognized the home in Lawson, Missouri. After all, it used to be hers.
At first, Cleo wouldn’t let anyone get near her. Mr. Michael could tell she was anxious. “She finds her way home, and there’s some strangers living in it. That would be scary for anybody,” he says.
Eventually, Mr. Michael gained Cleo’s trust. He took her to get checked for a microchip. The information on the chip revealed that Cleo belonged to the former owners of his house!
Cleo’s owners moved to Olathe, Kansas, a couple of years ago. That’s about 50 miles southwest of Lawson. Mr. Michael shocked them when he called to tell them Cleo was at his house. They had been looking for her. In fact, a week earlier, Cleo’s family posted on Facebook about their missing dog. Neither family knows how Cleo made the trip. She would have had to cross at least one river.
In the parable of the lost sheep, we read about the shepherd’s joy when he finds his lost lamb. Luke 15:6 says, “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” Imagine the joy of finding Cleo after her long journey back home!
Posted: July 22, 2020
Bid farewell to Boeing 747s. British Airways announced that it is retiring its entire fleet of these jumbos. The airline originally planned to ground the remaining 31 planes in 2024. But reduced travel during the pandemic prompted their early—and permanent—retirement. “It is with great sadness that we can confirm we are proposing to retire our entire 747 fleet with immediate effect,” says British Airways.
The 747 jets have been around for 50 years. Nicknamed “the queen of the skies,” these planes were built for high-volume passenger air travel. They flew people all over the Earth. Each jet carries 345 passengers and can reach a top speed of 614 mph. The 747s were the first partial double-deck aircraft. That means they had a second story inside the cabin! More seats for passengers made tickets affordable. Individuals could travel more easily. So could businesspeople. Over the years, Boeing produced more than 1,500 of the 747s.
Slowly, 747s have been replaced with aircraft such as Airbus’ A350 and Boeing’s 787. The newer planes are sleek and much more fuel-efficient.
“While the aircraft will always have a special place in our heart, as we head into the future, we will be operating more flights on modern, fuel-efficient aircraft,” explains British Airways.
Today, just 30 of the 747s are still in service anywhere. Another 132 are in storage, according to aviation data firm Cirium. What will happen to the retired fleet? Prime Minister Boris Johnson is looking at the idea of scrapping them. He hopes that 747 parts and pieces will help make greener, more environmentally friendly aircrafts.
Posted: July 21, 2020
Listen closely, baseball fans. The stands will be empty when the baseball season opens next week. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be quiet. Big league players will hear the roar of the crowd. That’s thanks to the Major League Baseball (MLB) official video game. The crowd noise from the video game will play through ballpark sound systems.
San Diego Studios (a branch of Sony Interactive Entertainment) gathered real ballpark noise. It collected the sounds during games over several seasons. Chris Marinak works for MLB. He says the recorded noise “is heard in a way that is natural with the play of the game and on field. The sounds do match what is happening.”
MLB is following the lead of two European soccer leagues. England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga both play with crowd sounds from video games.
What do people think about the fake noise? Brewers infielder Eric Sogard says the piped-in sounds help step up the competition. “You’re still focused on the game, but that noise is very helpful,” he says. Not everyone agrees. The artificial noise makes player conversations hard to hear over TV or radio. Some fans think those conversations could add a new and interesting aspect to the game.
There is another interesting filler detail popping up in some stadiums. Paper people! Some ballparks will try to look like they have “real” fans too. They’re offering people the chance to buy photo cutouts. The cardboard fans will “sit” in the stands for games.
At least MLB’s creativity will be a home run at ballparks this year.
Posted: July 20, 2020
This time of year, The Friendly Fisherman on Cape Cod is usually bustling with foreign students clearing tables and prepping orders. Not this summer. There aren’t enough workers at the restaurant. The restaurant can’t employ its usual 20 or so foreign workers. There is a freeze on foreign work visas. That’s bad news for beach town businesses.
The Trump administration lengthened a ban on green cards and temporary visas. The United States requires those documents for foreign workers. Many businesses depend on visas to bring summer staff.
Our hard work brings God glory. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,” says Colossians 3:23.
The ban freed up 525,000 jobs for Americans. Business want to hire Americans. But many beach towns don’t have enough people to fill summer jobs.
Business owners are scrambling to find workers. Mark Lazarus is the president and owner of Lazarus Entertainment Group. He owns three theme parks. He’s missing about 150 foreign employees. It seems there aren’t enough students to fill seasonal jobs in Myrtle Beach.
Some business are hiring relatives to work shifts. Owners are working longer hours. In some areas, local students are replacing visa workers.
“That is exactly what we have been missing from the market for the past few years,” says Tom McGuirk. The hotel and restaurant owner is happy to have replaced seven visa workers with local teens.
The same thing hasn’t worked at the Friendly Fisherman. Janet Demetri has advertised in newspapers and online, offered to pay $14 an hour for training, and started wages at $16 an hour plus tips. She still can’t find enough local help.
Posted: July 17, 2020
WORLD Watch News in 3 is the newest current events resource from WORLD News Group. Each day, it delivers a lively three-minute roundup of top news headlines. News in 3 is a preview of WORLD Watch, coming in August.
WORLD Watch will be a daily, 10-minute current events program for teens that delivers headline news, in-depth feature stories, and thoughtful perspective to help students develop critical thinking skills and discernment.
Posted: August 7, 2020
WORLD Watch News in 3 is the newest current events resource from WORLD News Group. Each day, it delivers a lively three-minute roundup of top news headlines. News in 3 is a preview of WORLD Watch, coming in August.
WORLD Watch will be a daily, 10-minute current events program for teens that delivers headline news, in-depth feature stories, and thoughtful perspective to help students develop critical thinking skills and discernment.
Posted: August 6, 2020
What would Ben Franklin think? He started one of America’s first street-sweeping programs in the city of Philadelphia. Centuries later, trash fills the city streets. There are piles of fly-infested, rotting household waste, bottles, and cans. Philadelphia has a gigantic garbage problem.
People call Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love. Now it has a new nickname: Filthadelphia. “It’s just the smell of rot,” says James Gitto. He’s the president of a neighborhood association in South Philadelphia.
The city has a phone number for complaints. More than 9,700 people called to complain about trash and recycling just in July!
Why are garbage piles growing? People are making more trash. They’re staying home due to the pandemic. They are cleaning out garages and attics. More people are cooking and eating at home. Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams says, “I’ve never seen the amount of tonnage.” He reports a 30 percent increase in trash collections.
There are fewer sanitation workers on the streets these days too. Crews are quarantined if a team member tests positive for the coronavirus. There aren’t enough workers to keep up with the schedule.
Residents never know when trash will be picked up. It might sit outside for days and days. Jacqui Bowman lives in Philadelphia. Her trash stayed at the curb for almost three weeks. It sat in the heat. Heavy rainstorms drenched it. It was finally collected after Ms. Bowman complained to a city council member.
In June, sanitation employees protested. They asked for safer working conditions, hazard pay, and more personal protective equipment. They keep working overtime, trying to get back on schedule.
Of course, handling all that trash is expensive. Mr. Williams says disposing of the extra trash costs the city an additional $2.5 to $3 million dollars.
Posted: August 5, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic closed the University of Vermont. Students had to go home. But the school’s cows stayed behind. The university’s beloved herd of about 100 dairy cows is part of the Cooperative for Real Education in Agricultural Management program. The program’s nickname is CREAM. Students who take part are responsible for the cows. Without the students, no one was left to care for the Holstein herd.
Thankfully, dozens of volunteers stepped up to help. Some were graduates of the CREAM program. Others were students who were willing to come back.
“I would rather do nothing else than this over the summer,” says recent graduate Claudia Sacks of Macungie, Pennsylvania. That says a lot.
One hot day, she got up in the dark at 3:30 a.m. to milk cows. That afternoon, she shoveled out the calves’ stalls. She helps feed the cows twice each day, and even helps with births––any time of day or night. Her favorite cow is Lazlo. When Ms. Sacks sees Lazlo, she gives the bovine a big hug and kiss.
The students know each cow by name. They know how much milk each one gives, when she’s been bred, and when she’s going to have a calf.
“These cows are as well cared for as any animals in Vermont, maybe any animals in the country,” says veterinarian Dr. Steve Wadsworth.
Matt Bodette manages the herd. He is grateful for the help. When he asked for volunteers, 70 to 80 people stepped up. “They have really, really shined in every single way possible. . . . I will never forget them,” says Mr. Bodette. “They’ve been like a little family for me and I’m truly grateful.”
Colossians 3:23 tells us, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Posted: August 4, 2020
On Sunday, two astronauts who launched from American soil returned to Earth in a dramatic splashdown. While a tropical storm pounded Florida’s east coast, the "star sailors" had the ride of their lives into the sea along Florida’s west coast. Their space capsule parachuted into the calm Gulf waters about 40 miles from Pensacola, Florida. Sunday’s splashdown ended an extraordinary test flight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken went into space on May 30. You can read about that here: Taking Teamwork to Space.
Two months later, the astronauts are back on Earth. It took them less than a day to travel from the International Space Station home. The return from space was fast and furious, bumpy and hot. The spacecraft went from a screaming speed of 17,500 miles per hour (mph) to 350 mph as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. It slowed to just 15 mph at splashdown. The capsule was scorched and blistered from extreme temperatures. But the astronauts inside stayed safe.
“Welcome back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” said Mission Control.
Within an hour of the splashdown, a SpaceX recovery ship hoisted the capsule aboard. After medical checkups, the astronauts flew by plane to Houston, Texas. They were greeted by a small gathering of family and officials, including Mr. Musk. He was relieved that the mission was a success.
They were also congratulated by President Trump and Vice President Pence. “Great to have NASA astronauts return to Earth after a very successful two-month mission. Thank you to all!” the President tweeted.
What’s next? SpaceX will inspect the Dragon capsule and give it a makeover. If all goes according to plan, it will return to space next spring. As for the astronauts––they’re headed home. Mr. Behnken’s son had a message for his dad on Sunday morning. “Don’t worry, you can sleep in tomorrow,” said six-year-old Theo.
Posted: August 3, 2020
National Statuary Hall is at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. It is a room filled with sculptures of famous Americans. Each state gets two statues in the hall. Which ones represent North Carolina? One might just be a statue of the late Reverend Billy Graham. A North Carolina legislative committee said “yes” to a model of a Reverend Graham statue. If approved by a congressional committee, the statue will replace one of former North Carolina governor Charles Aycock.
The statue of Mr. Aycock has stood at the Capitol for nearly 90 years. Sadly, Mr. Aycock did not believe in equality for all people. That is why the government has decided to remove his statue.
The Bible is clear that God creates all people equally. All—not some—are made in His image. “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them,” says Genesis 1:27.
Reverend Graham was a native of Charlotte, North Carolina. He became a Southern Baptist minister. He counseled presidents. He spread the gospel around the world. Reverend Graham was the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history. He died in 2018 at the age of 99.
For five years, there have been plans to replace the statue of Mr. Aycock with one of Reverend Graham. Now there’s a bill in Congress that is speeding things up. It’s important that the statues at the Capitol represent each state well. Some of the statues are of people who did not treat all people with equal justice. The congressional bill aims to have those statues replaced.
The Charlotte Observer quotes former State Representative Dan Soucek, “When people from all over the country and all over the world walk through Washington and say, ‘North Carolina has two choices to be in here,’ what do we want them to be?” The Reverend Billy Graham seems like an excellent choice.
Posted: July 31, 2020
WORLD Watch News in 3 is the newest current events resource from WORLD News Group. Each day, it delivers a lively three-minute roundup of top news headlines. News in 3 is a preview of WORLD Watch, coming in August.
WORLD Watch will be a daily, 10-minute current events program for teens that delivers headline news, in-depth feature stories, and thoughtful perspective to help students develop critical thinking skills and discernment.
Posted: July 30, 2020
Wow! A woolly mammoth! Local reindeer herders in Siberia found the well-preserved skeleton of a giant, hairy, elephant-like beast that once walked the Earth. They discovered the bones in the shallows of Pechevalavato Lake. Now Russian scientists are working to collect the bones.
The herders found several parts of the skeleton. They found a section of the animal’s skull, the lower jaw, several ribs, and a piece of a foot. The foot fragment still has sinews intact. A sinew is a tough tissue that connects muscle to bone or bone to bone.
Most people thought all woolly mammoths disappeared around the same time many years ago. But some scientists think some mammoths lived longer in Alaska and Russia’s Wrangel Island off the Siberian coast.
Russian television stations showed scientists looking for skeleton pieces in the lake’s silt. They’ve already found more bones and gigantic bone fragments. It will take a long time with special tools to recover the rest of the skeleton. So far, they don’t even know where the rest of the skeleton is.
Scientists say that finding a complete skeleton of a mammoth is very rare. But when that happens, it surely does help scientists understand mammoths better! Over the years, people have discovered several other well-preserved frozen carcasses of mammoths in northern Siberia’s permafrost. Permafrost is ground that has stayed frozen for two or more years. Sometimes woolly mammoth bones pop up as the permafrost melts.
There is a heat wave in Siberia right now. Temperatures were around 18 degrees above average last month. That means more ice could melt, making more mammoth skeletons salvageable.
Posted: July 29, 2020
A United States Forest Service volunteer snapped a photo of an out-of-place frog. This rare Chiricahua leopard frog was in central Arizona. That’s a long way from where biologists thought it lived. The frog was in a stock tank near the town of Camp Verde. (A stock tank is a man-made container for holding water for animals.) Biologists later confirmed at least 10 leopard frogs living in the tank.
Until now, biologists thought the spotted frogs lived only in eastern Arizona, western New Mexico, and northern Mexico. How did they end up in Camp Verde? Did warmer temperatures lure the frogs to lower elevations? Or were they looking for a more protected habitat?
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the frogs as threatened in 2002. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there used to be around 400 water sites where these frogs lived. Now there are fewer than 80 sites. Habitat loss, disease, and predators are hurting the frogs’ numbers.
Biologists want to help these frogs survive. They raise some in captivity and then release them into their own stock tanks. The scientists pay close attention. If there is a drought, they fill the tanks with extra water. They make sure the tanks are deep enough. They control erosion. Biologists keep trying different things to give these frogs the best possible leg up they can.
Now, thanks to the new frog photo, biologists will go to Camp Verde. They will visit aquatic areas there. They hope to figure out how many more leopard frogs are in the water.
Leopard frogs can camouflage their bellies, so they could be hard to spot. But the male frogs shouldn’t take long to find. They snore loudly! (At least the sound they make sounds like they’re snoring.)
The Book of Exodus tells how God sent a plague of frogs over Egypt. Exodus 8:6 says, “So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.” Imagine how loud those frogs were!
Posted: July 28, 2020
A toy dog went on an adventure. Along the way, he got lost. But then he had some help. Workers at the Cincinnati-area airport found the beloved stuffed Dalmatian. They were able to reunite it with its owner. But first, they had a little fun with the padded pooch.
Airport employees found the toy left behind in the terminal. They snapped photos of the lost traveler. The pup posed wearing a mask at the airport’s restaurants, on the runway, and with a K9 police dog team. A staff member uploaded the snapshots to the airport’s Facebook page. Posts about the missing plaything reached a million people, says airport spokesperson Mindy Kershner.
The spotted toy belongs to Doug and Phyllis Ronco’s son, Jaydence. The little boy calls his doggy Masch-Masch. The Roncos live in Madeira Beach, Florida. They were traveling to visit relatives and friends in Ohio and Indiana when they took an early morning flight out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. That’s when Masch-Masch got lost. “I think our son was half asleep when he left Masch-Masch at the terminal,” Mr. Ronco says. “Under normal circumstances, he would never forget him.”
Jaydence treasures his stuffed dog. It was a gift. A judge gave the dog to Jaydence on his adoption day. “So it’s very special to him,” explains the boy’s dad.
The airport contacted Mr. Ronco by email, saying that the dog was left behind. He thinks they might have been the only family with children on the flight. Maybe that’s how airport staff figured out who Masch-Masch belonged to. Or maybe social media helped find the toy’s owner. After all, the fun story caught a lot of attention on Facebook.
Masch-Masch flew home to the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. His family picked him up there. As a thank you, the family took Oreo cookies to the airport for those who helped get Masch-Masch back home.
Posted: July 27, 2020
Say cheese! A telescope snapped a family portrait of another solar system. The picture shows not just one, but two planets orbiting a star like our Sun. The baby sun and its two giant gas planets are 300 light-years from Earth.
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope took the snapshot. The telescope stands in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Alexander Bohn of the Netherlands’ Leiden University calls the baby sun a “very young version of our own Sun.” He explains, “This is the first time astronomers were able to capture such a shot.”
Astronomers usually find planets around other stars by watching for dimming star light. That’s proof that a planet or other body is moving around a star. Researchers have spotted thousands of planets in our Milky Way galaxy this way. Scientists can tell they’re there––even if they haven’t actually seen the planets. Capturing images is hard to do. There have been 4,183 exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) identified by scientists. But only 48 of them have had their picture taken. That’s according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) statistics.
Spotting two exoplanets around the same star is even more rare. Only two multi-planet solar systems have ever been found this way.
The name of the star in the new photo is TYC 8998-760-1. It looks like the two gas giants orbit quite far from the young star. It could take them a few thousand years to circle all the way around it.
For now, it doesn’t look like the baby star has any other planets.
Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! –– Job 22:12
Posted: July 24, 2020
WORLD Watch News in 3 is the newest current events resource from WORLD News Group. Each day, it delivers a lively three-minute roundup of top news headlines. News in 3 is a preview of WORLD Watch, coming in August.
WORLD Watch will be a daily, 10-minute current events program for teens that delivers headline news, in-depth feature stories, and thoughtful perspective to help students develop critical thinking skills and discernment.
Posted: July 23, 2020
Cleo disappeared from her home in Kansas. She was missing for a few days. Then she turned up at a house where she once lived—in Missouri. She’d wandered about 50 miles from her family. How did she get there? No one knows.
Colton Michael told television station KMBC that the four-year-old dog showed up on his front porch. The Labrador retriever-border collie mix must have recognized the home in Lawson, Missouri. After all, it used to be hers.
At first, Cleo wouldn’t let anyone get near her. Mr. Michael could tell she was anxious. “She finds her way home, and there’s some strangers living in it. That would be scary for anybody,” he says.
Eventually, Mr. Michael gained Cleo’s trust. He took her to get checked for a microchip. The information on the chip revealed that Cleo belonged to the former owners of his house!
Cleo’s owners moved to Olathe, Kansas, a couple of years ago. That’s about 50 miles southwest of Lawson. Mr. Michael shocked them when he called to tell them Cleo was at his house. They had been looking for her. In fact, a week earlier, Cleo’s family posted on Facebook about their missing dog. Neither family knows how Cleo made the trip. She would have had to cross at least one river.
In the parable of the lost sheep, we read about the shepherd’s joy when he finds his lost lamb. Luke 15:6 says, “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” Imagine the joy of finding Cleo after her long journey back home!
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