And suddenly the music burst through the borders. This was in May of 1999, in a city in the Netherlands called Alkmaar. Laura Hassler, an American woman who had been living in the Netherlands for many years by then — who was a choir director and, in essence, the “town musician,” the organizer of public…

Every Harry Potter fan knows the feeling of anxiously waiting for that acceptance letter, delivered via owl, to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now, 20 years after the first book was published, a whole generation of witches and wizards will be able to attend the school thanks to the new mobile game, Harry…

Germany, a pioneer in renewables among the advanced industrial economies, now gets 38% of its electricity from renewables. In the United States the proportion of electricity generated by renewables is only about 20%, about half as much as Germany, because of the opposition to green energy of Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Gas, and increasingly…

Taylor Swift is among the group of women collectively recognized by Time as one of the Silence Breakers in the magazine’s Person of the Year portfolio for their bravery in speaking up about sexual harassment. And in an interview for the issue, it’s easy to understand why she’s among the mix. In August, Taylor Swift…

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has had to cut his holiday vacation short to try to resolve an escalating strike among doctors at public hospitals over low pay and medical supply shortages. Now entering its second month, the strike comes as the government pursues a short-sighted effort to improve its reputation among international creditors by slashing…

There’s no doubt about it—2017 has been a massive year for the reigning queen of pop, Selena Gomez. In addition to dropping three acclaimed singles (and a chart-topping collaboration with Kygo, “It Ain’t Me”), the 25-year-old is riding high is all aspects of her life—from her successful recent kidney transplant to her renewed relationship with on-again,…

We either keep fossil fuels in the ground, or we fry. That’s the conclusion of another new blockbuster study on climate change, this one from the National Academy of Sciences. Our fossil-fuel industrial economy, the study details, has made for the fastest climate changes our Earth has ever seen. Our fossil-fuel industrial economy, the study…

What time is the Golden Globes and when is the Golden Globes red carpet? The Golden Globes ceremony starts at 8 p.m. ET and goes until 11 p.m., but tune in two hours prior to the ceremony start if you want to catch the red carpet. If you can’t get to a TV in time…

British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn led calls for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign Tuesday after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled his suspension of Parliament last month “unlawful, void, and of no effect.” “The Prime Minister has acted wrongly in shutting down Parliament,” Corbyn said during the Labour Party conference following the court’s decision. “It…

A Japanese court sparked widespread outrage Thursday by acquitting three former Tepco executives accused of criminal negligence for their failure to take adequate safety measures ahead of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Click Here: Golf special In 2011, a powerful earthquake off the coast of Japan caused a tsunami that severely damaged Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi power…