Euro News

Bordeaux, France just surpassed Paris in a new ranking of the world's most beautiful cities, with Europe dominating nine out of the top 10 spots. The rankings are based on buildings that adhere to the 'golden ratio' for balanced and harmonious structures. Venice takes the lead as the most beautiful city, followed by Rome and Barcelona in second and third place respectively. Despite iconic landmarks, Paris lands at 12th place. In fifth place is the only non-European city to make the top 10: New York City.

9 Out of 10 of the World’s Most Beautiful Cities Are in Europe, Says New Ranking

CTV News

It started with three kids, a bottle of wine, and a green message on the wall.

A few years ago, Kurt Neesley from Redondo Beach, California, needed a spot to hide the family’s Elf on the Shelf. He got creative. Using Tootsie Rolls, he built a mini climbing wall on the kitchen wall, posed the elf with a paintbrush, and scrawled a message reminding his children to behave. Paint splatter completed the scene.

“The paint was left over from St. Patrick’s Day when a leprechaun visited and made a mess,” Neesley said. He wasn’t worried about the mess — the wall needed repainting anyway. “Three glasses of wine usually gets the creativity flowing. Elf on the Shelf can be very stressful.”

If you know, you know.

The annual tradition — where parents secretly move the elf doll to a new spot each night — is now as much a part of December as wrapping paper and half-eaten advent calendars. It’s also a source of joy, guilt, comedy, and panic for families trying to keep the magic alive. This year marks two decades since the idea first found its way into homes across the United States.

How it started

The modern version of Elf on the Shelf goes back to the 1970s in Atlanta, when Carol Aebersold introduced her twin daughters to a magical elf named Fisbee. He would visit during December and perch in a different place each morning after flying to the North Pole to report to Santa.

Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, Aebersold’s daughters, believed Fisbee gave them a direct line to Santa Claus. “It’s the most wholesome thing you’ll ever see,” said Bell. The rule was simple: you couldn’t touch the elf, or he’d lose his magic. That part of the lore stuck.

In 2004, Aebersold and Bell self-published The Elf on the Shelf, a children’s book that came with a doll. Pitts helped market it. It eventually exploded in popularity. Today, the company they co-founded, Lumistella, has turned Elf on the Shelf into a full-fledged Christmas empire, complete with Netflix specials and even a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

How it’s going

For many parents, Elf on the Shelf has become a nightly creative challenge.

Antonia Katsanos, who lives in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has been doing it year-round. Her family’s elf, named Twinkle, has been spotted dressed as a mermaid in the shower, hiding in the ice machine, and dangling upside down in the car.

“I am a creative person, but you do go dry at some point doing this over and over again, year after year,” she said. “I Google ideas and look at Instagram. It’s sometimes a nuisance. I’ve popped up from sleep at 3:30 a.m. remembering I need to move the elf.”

Still, she keeps going — for the look on her daughters’ faces each morning.

Others take a more relaxed approach. Ashley Zavala of St. Paul, Minnesota, keeps it simple. “We don’t get elaborate, we just move the elf,” she said. As a bartender who works late, she doesn’t want to come home and build a miniature elf zipline.

“Our kids like it and they don’t know the difference because they haven’t had their elf do crazy things,” she said. Instead, she sends clever ideas to her cousin who goes all out.

The cheat code

Some parents outsource the job to older kids who’ve figured out the game. Actor Alan Ritchson, star of Reacher, says his teenage son now handles the nightly elf duties.

“Here’s the cheat code,” Ritchson said. “You get a 13-year-old who figures it out a couple years earlier than he should, and then he becomes your little Elf on the Shelf weapon. So they get excited. They’ll never miss a night.”

More than one elf

For Jewish families, there’s Mensch on a Bench — a Hanukkah-themed alternative created by Ohio dad Neal Hoffman. Inspired by Elf on the Shelf, Hoffman designed the Mensch doll and accompanying book to teach kids about Hanukkah traditions. He pitched the idea on Shark Tank in 2014 and landed investors.

Some households do both. Sandi Celentano, also from Franklin Lakes, once introduced both Elf on the Shelf and Mensch on a Bench to her interfaith family. It didn’t last.

“The amount of time and energy that it took thinking of creative ways to display these things every single day — it just took over everyone’s lives,” she said. “I’ve boycotted it for about three or four years.”

As for Neesley in California, he’s still embracing the chaos, Tootsie Rolls and all. Just don’t ask him to do it sober.

Parents Share Creative Tips For Moving Santa’s Spy Elf On The Shelf

ABC - Australia

Brodie Taylor didn’t set out to make history. He just wanted to be part of the game.

The 18-year-old from Lavington, a town straddling the Victorian-New South Wales border, has become the first person in Australia to earn national netball umpire accreditation while using a wheelchair.

“Honestly it was never something that I thought I would have wanted, and didn't think umpiring was going to be that serious,” he said. “But all the great umpires around me have their badges, and I thought that is one step closer for me having a purpose in the sport.”

Brodie is a familiar face on local courts, where he regularly officiates social matches and games in the competitive Hume League. What’s routine for him now was once unimaginable.

Growing up, he often found himself on the sidelines as his siblings played sport. Netball became his way in — first as a spectator alongside his mum, then as a coach, and eventually, an umpire.

“I enjoy having control over the games,” he said. “It can really dictate the way the game is played, and also produces fairness for everyone on the court.”

That passion didn’t go unnoticed. Amanda McLachlan, regional manager for Netball NSW’s Riverina branch, first saw Brodie in action during a local game.

“He was keeping up with the play, he knew the rules really well, his rapport with the players and his communication on the court was fantastic,” she said.

His mum, Del Taylor, remembers being stunned — and thrilled — when they learned Netball NSW was scouting him for official accreditation.

“I said to Brodie this will open a lot of doors for him,” she said. “He's watching all his peers and his siblings all go and get jobs, and so with opening up the umpiring it also gave him a leeway to … earn some extra money by doing something that he loves.”

Brodie earned his national C-badge — the first of four levels in Netball Australia’s umpiring pathway — without a single rule being changed. The only adjustment he needed was where he positioned himself on court to move smoothly in his motorised chair.

According to McLachlan, there was initial concern about how his wheelchair might affect play, but “Brodie proved us all wrong in that case.”

“We’re really lucky with Brodie because he already had some really good umpiring skills and he's just a natural find,” she said.

For Brodie, breaking a barrier wasn’t on his radar — not at first.

“But when I found out I was like — that is pretty darn cool.”

Since his accreditation, other state netball organisations have reached out to McLachlan for advice on how to support aspiring umpires with disabilities.

“I think it's just having an open mind that it can look different, and it's OK to look different as well,” she said.

With his Year 12 exams now behind him, Brodie has his sights set on university in Melbourne, where he hopes to study politics.

“My biggest passion is to make this world more understanding around disabilities, where it's not a question, it's just the norm,” he said.

Still, netball remains close to his heart. And he’s not done with it yet.

“I would still love to further my career in netball.”

This Teen Ref Just Made History — and He Did It In a Wheelchair

inspiremore

A bouncing baby elephant has made his debut at the Columbus Zoo, and the public has now helped give him a name: Oliver.

Born on October 21 and weighing in at 222 pounds, the hefty calf was introduced to the world two days later when the zoo shared his first photo. The zoo’s team said both baby and mom were “doing well and are under the watchful care of the Animal Care and Conservation Medicine teams.”

To celebrate the birth, the zoo opened up a naming contest, inviting fans to vote between four finalists: Frederick, Oliver (with the nickname Ollie), Ozzy, and Theodore (Theo). Over 20,000 people cast their votes, and the winner wasn’t even close—Oliver took the lead with nearly 40% of the total.

“He has a name!” the zoo announced on Instagram. “Walking away with almost 40% of the 20,000+ votes we received, a name has been chosen by YOU for our newest elephant calf…Meet OLIVER!”

Fans were thrilled with the result. One commented, “Yay! I submitted the name Oliver for his name. Maybe others did too but excited it was the one chosen.” Another celebrated their mom’s role in the vote: “My momma submitted the name!!!! You did it momma!”

Not everyone stuck to the script—some had their own ideas for what Ollie should be called. One person joked, “His name may be Oliver aka Ollie, but as Bindi Irwin put it years ago…by the way he looks I’ll call him Frederick,” referencing a sweet throwback moment from Irwin’s childhood.

Still, the majority of voters agreed—Ollie just fits. As one commenter put it, “That’s perfect! He looks like an Ollie.”

The Columbus Zoo hasn’t yet said when the public will be able to see Ollie in person, but based on the online excitement, it’s safe to say he’s already a star.

Columbus Zoo Celebrates Arrival Of Newborn Elephant With Perfect Name

ABC News

It took 15 years, a Kickstarter campaign, and a couple of unexpected detours, but RoboCop has finally taken his place in Detroit.

The towering bronze statue — 11 feet tall and weighing over 1.5 metric tons — now stands in Detroit’s Eastern Market district, just northeast of downtown. On Wednesday afternoon, despite heavy snow, fans came out to catch a glimpse of the city’s newest and most unusual landmark.

“Even in a snowstorm in the dark, people were driving by to see it,” said Jim Toscano, co-owner of FREE AGE, the film production company that now houses the statue outside its building.

RoboCop, the 1987 cult classic, depicted a dystopian Detroit plagued by crime and corruption. The film’s solution: a nearly indestructible cyborg law enforcer played by Peter Weller, designed by a powerful and shady corporation.

For years, Detroit distanced itself from the movie’s gritty portrayal. But times have changed. Violent crime in the city has steadily declined, and recent years have seen homicide numbers drop to levels not seen since the 1960s. When the statue finally went up this week, no one at city hall objected.

“I think there will be a lot more acceptance,” said Toscano. “Detroit has come a long way. You put in a little nostalgia and that helps.”

The idea to build the statue dates back to 2010, when a Twitter user suggested that RoboCop — like Philadelphia’s Rocky — would be a “GREAT ambassador for Detroit.” Then-Mayor Dave Bing responded politely, but shut it down. That only fired people up.

By 2012, a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter had raised more than $67,000 from over 2,700 backers around the world. Detroit-based sculptor Giorgio Gikas completed the statue in 2017, but for years, it sat in storage.

The Michigan Science Center had once planned to host it, but scrapped the idea in 2021 due to budget constraints during the pandemic. At one point, the city of Stevens Point, Wisconsin — hometown of actor Peter Weller — even offered to take it in.

It wasn’t until Toscano and his business partner bought their Eastern Market building that the statue finally found a permanent home. He initially thought it was a joke when the statue’s creators approached him. But when the Eastern Market Corporation got on board too, it became real.

“It’s too unusual, too unique, too cool not to do,” Toscano said.

He confessed he’s only seen the original RoboCop once. “It wasn’t a big film in our house,” he said. Still, he figures one line from the movie fits the moment: “Thank you for your cooperation.”

Not far from the statue, 52-year-old James Campbell was taking in the moment. “I own this. Do you guys know that?” he joked with a group taking photos. He had donated $100 to the Kickstarter more than a decade ago. “That makes me a .038 percent owner of this statue,” he said.

“I’m here to see this big, beautiful, bronze piece of art,” Campbell said. “What a piece of cinematic history to represent the city of Detroit.”

When asked why RoboCop makes sense as a Detroit symbol, Campbell didn’t hesitate: “He’s a cyborg crime fighter! In the movie, in the futuristic Detroit, he’s there to save the city. He’s a symbol of hope.”

Detroit Finally Welcomes its Cyborg Crime-Fighter — a Towering RoboCop Statue

GoodGoodGood

Cafeteria workers aren’t usually the ones making headlines — but in Beaverton, Oregon, one school food professional went far beyond her job description to help a student feel seen, supported, and independent.

Endelia Mottram has been serving lunch in the Beaverton School District for 18 years. This year, she turned her attention to a 6-year-old named Julian Worsham, a student with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism.

“My bones grow slower,” Julian explained in an interview with WHAS11 News. “I’m a little person.”

To help him navigate the school cafeteria, Julian had been using a makeshift cart built from milk crates and duct tape. It worked — barely — but Endelia saw a chance to do better.

“I thought we could do so much more for him, you know,” said her husband, James Mottram, a custom metal builder. “I wanted to make something cool that he would be happy to push around and be proud of.”

Working with his colleagues, James crafted a custom metal lunch cart designed just for Julian. It has handlebar grips, sleek detailing, and a matching stool so Julian can see over the lunch counter on his own. And, for a touch of flair, the cart features flame decals and personalized license plates.

Julian was thrilled. “I got this cart for lunch, and my favorite part was that it had my license plates, and it had flames on it,” he said in a video shared by the school district.

“He’s independent now,” Endelia said. “Before, a staff member [would] have to be there to help him.”

Julian’s parents, Heather and Aaron Worsham, were deeply moved by the gesture.

“There’s just wonderful people in this world that, you know, they have their eyes open,” Heather said. “They’re seeing needs that need to be met, and they’re meeting them. I hope that other kids can get their needs met, too, through this.”

The custom cart may seem small, but for Julian, it represents something much bigger — freedom, confidence, and the knowledge that someone cared enough to build something just for him.

Flashback Friday: Lunch Lady Builds Custom 'Cafeteria Cart' For First Grader To Ease Mealtime Struggles

BBC News

An 18-year-old from Herefordshire who once struggled to make eye contact or leave the house has received a national award after finding confidence through horses.

Kaden Wilson, a student at Shropshire Adventure Academy, was honoured with the Pamela Almond Changing Lives Through Horses Achieve Award at the British Horse Society’s annual ceremony. The award, presented by BHS president and actor Martin Clunes, recognises Kaden’s progress in overcoming severe social anxiety and building new life skills.

“I thought I was in trouble, because I had a private chat about it,” Kaden joked about the surprise announcement.

Kaden joined the BHS’s Changing Lives Through Horses programme, which offers young people an alternative path to education through working with horses. For Kaden, who was home-schooled and largely housebound before starting at the academy in Stottesdon, Shropshire, the change was profound.

“I wasn’t leaving the house or anything,” he said. “My mum wanted me to get into horses because my mum’s dad used to live at a house in Leominster with horses.”

At first, even approaching the animals felt impossible.

“I refused to get on, I was scared to get on [the horses],” he said. “I couldn’t make eye contact at first, eye contact was a big no. I’ve started speaking a lot more, telling lots of jokes.”

Asked what helped him open up, Kaden said the horses themselves were a big part of the breakthrough.

“They go at your pace,” he said. “When you want to do something, they’ll do it. They’re friendly. They’ll never judge you.”

The equine programme is one of several unique offerings at the Shropshire Adventure Academy, which provides outdoor learning and support for students with special educational needs and those seeking post-16 education. Other activities include forest school, caving, laser tag, and badminton — though Kaden is quick to point out caving wasn’t his favourite.

Academy director Daniel Eddies-Davies said Kaden’s transformation has been remarkable.

“When Kaden first started, he wouldn’t get out of the car,” he said. “Eventually he built up the confidence to go down to the yard. Initially, he was just walking with the horses.”

But things changed the day he met a horse named Flash.

“His first time when he got on a horse called Flash… this smile that came from Kaden — we knew we had conquered something,” Eddies-Davies said. “From that young person to then shaking hands with Martin Clunes, it just shows that horses work.”

The BHS programme is designed to support children and young people who may not thrive in traditional classrooms. For Kaden, it’s done more than that — it’s helped him reconnect with the world.

Teen Who Once Feared Leaving the House Wins National Award Thanks to Horses

Science Daily

Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day may help slow biological aging in people living with severe mental illness, according to a new study published in BMJ Mental Health. The research found that moderate coffee consumption was linked to longer telomeres — the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes — suggesting a biological age up to five years younger than those who didn’t drink coffee at all.

The findings were based on data from 436 adults who took part in the Norwegian Thematically Organised Psychosis (TOP) study between 2007 and 2018. Among the participants, 259 had schizophrenia and 177 had affective disorders such as bipolar disorder or major depression with psychotic features.

Participants were divided into four groups based on self-reported coffee intake: no coffee, 1–2 cups, 3–4 cups, and 5 or more cups per day. The group that consumed 3–4 cups — the same amount recommended as a maximum by health agencies like the NHS and FDA — had significantly longer telomeres. Those who drank 5 or more cups did not see the same benefit.

Telomeres, often compared to the plastic tips of shoelaces, prevent chromosome fraying and are known to shorten as people age. In individuals with major psychiatric disorders, previous studies have shown that telomeres may wear down faster, contributing to premature aging.

Because telomere length responds to environmental factors, the researchers investigated whether coffee — known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties — might help offset this acceleration. They found a J-shaped relationship: no benefit at zero or very high consumption, but a clear link to longer telomeres in the middle group.

"Telomeres are highly sensitive to both oxidative stress and inflammation, further highlighting how coffee intake could help preserve cellular aging in a population whose pathophysiology may be predisposing them to an accelerated rate of aging," the authors wrote.

The study also factored in age, sex, ethnicity, tobacco use, diagnosis type, and medication use. Smoking, which can impact caffeine metabolism, was common in the study population — 77% of participants were smokers, with an average history of nine years. Notably, the group that drank the most coffee also had the longest smoking history.

While the findings are promising, the researchers were careful to note the study’s limits. It was observational, meaning it cannot prove cause and effect. The team also lacked data on coffee type, caffeine content, other caffeinated drinks, and time of consumption.

Still, the results support growing evidence that moderate coffee intake may offer health benefits, particularly in populations vulnerable to faster biological aging.

Globally, coffee is a staple. In 2021–2022, over 10.5 billion kilos were consumed worldwide. But more isn’t necessarily better. The researchers warned that drinking beyond the daily 400 mg caffeine threshold — roughly four cups — could generate reactive oxygen species that actually accelerate telomere shortening.

In other words: when it comes to coffee and cellular aging, moderation matters.

Daily Coffee May Slow Biological Aging In Mental Illness

A soggy field in Leicestershire sparked a simple idea that's still making a difference more than a decade later — with a little help from Wimbledon.

Back in 2013, park ranger Dale Osborne was battling rising floodwaters at Watermead Country Park North in England. Torrential rain had turned the floodplains into pools, and local harvest mice were struggling to stay afloat.

"I was picking mice up swimming around in the water and putting them on dry land because some had been washed out of their homes,” Osborne told the BBC.

The tiny rodents had lost their grassy nests. So Osborne and a colleague turned to a surprisingly effective solution: used tennis balls.

They cut holes in the rubber casings, mounted them on stakes to keep them above water level, and gave the mice new homes. Warm, dry, and out of reach of predators, the repurposed tennis balls became safe havens where the mice could raise their young. "They will lay their young in there and they are so small you could probably get 10 in a tennis ball,” Osborne said.

Word spread, and that summer the team received more than 500 tennis balls from the public. Since then, the project hasn’t just survived — it’s grown, thanks to an unlikely partner.

The Wimbledon Championships, which goes through more than 50,000 balls each year, now donates used balls to the conservation effort. It’s part of the tournament’s wider push to reduce waste and hit net-zero emissions by 2030.

“What I try to demonstrate in a holistic way is that there is something that every single one of us can do to be part of the solution to help the environment,” said Hattie Park, sustainability manager at Wimbledon’s All England Club.

“Ultimately, we want to build a community of environment-positive champions and get everyone involved.”

The harvest mouse is Britain’s smallest rodent and an important part of the local ecosystem. But habitat loss and heavy flooding have put pressure on the species. These tennis ball homes — scattered across meadows and fields — offer a simple, low-cost way to help keep their populations stable.

Wimbledon’s balls have also gone to other causes over the years, but the harvest mouse project is one of the most enduring. What started with a flooded field and a bit of improvisation now serves as a quirky but effective model of sustainability in action.

And it’s not just about tennis balls or mice. It's a reminder that even small ideas — when supported and scaled — can have a lasting impact.

How Wimbledon's Tennis Balls are Finding a New Purpose — As Homes For Mice

Fox News

Scientists in Switzerland have built a robot as small as a grain of sand. Surgeons can control it with magnets, guiding it through blood vessels to deliver medicine directly where it’s needed.

Bradley J. Nelson, an author of the paper in Science and a professor of robotics at ETH Zurich, said the team has only just begun to understand what this technology can do. “He expects surgeons will find many new uses once they see how precise the tool becomes inside the body,” he said.

The robot sits inside a tiny capsule made from materials already used in medical devices, including tantalum, which makes it visible on X-rays. Inside, the capsule contains iron oxide nanoparticles and medication, all held together with gelatin. Surgeons steer it using a handheld controller while six electromagnetic coils surrounding the patient generate magnetic forces to push or pull the capsule in any direction—even against the flow of blood.

By combining these forces, doctors can navigate through blood vessels or cerebrospinal fluid with a high degree of control. When the capsule reaches its target, it can be dissolved on command, releasing the medication precisely where needed. Real-time X-ray imaging lets surgeons monitor every movement.

Many drugs fail in development because they spread throughout the body rather than staying in the target area, causing harmful side effects. Even something as simple as aspirin affects the whole body. A microrobot like this could solve that problem by delivering medicine directly to a tumor, blood vessel, or specific tissue.

ETH Zurich researchers believe this capsule could help treat conditions such as aneurysms, aggressive brain cancers, and arteriovenous malformations. Early tests in pigs and silicone models have shown promising results. The team says human clinical trials could begin within three to five years.

If it works, this approach could change how patients receive treatment. Rather than broad, body-wide therapies, patients may one day receive ultra-precise interventions that reduce side effects and speed recovery. It also opens the door to using drugs that were previously considered too risky to administer systemically.

This kind of precision medicine could be especially important for patients who can’t tolerate invasive procedures. For families dealing with aggressive cancers or complex vascular conditions, the ability to use targeted microrobots might eventually offer new treatment options with fewer complications.

The research is still in early stages, but it represents a major step forward in medical robotics. The capsule moves with precision, works under imaging, and dissolves safely. If the momentum continues, we could soon be entering a new era in how medicine is delivered.

Grain-Sized Robot Revolutionizes Drug Delivery In Medicine

When most people think of golf courses, environmental innovation probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. In places like California, the average 18-hole course soaks up 90 million gallons of water per year — that’s enough to fill 136 Olympic-sized pools.

But at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Arizona, sustainability is front and center. For the past 12 years, the PGA Tour event has earned the rare distinction of being zero waste, diverting 100 percent of its trash away from landfills through recycling, composting, and converting waste to energy.

The tournament is backed by Waste Management, one of the largest environmental services companies in North America, and it's become a test site for bold ideas.

“It’s very much our lab,” said Lee Spivak, who leads WM’s advisory services team. “We’ll try an idea, try an approach to a customer. Then we’ll scale it up here and take it to other customers.”

Those experiments include composting bins placed across the course, turf made from recycled material, and temporary structures built with reused scaffolding. Even water — one of the most contentious issues in golf — is handled differently. At the Phoenix Open, WM recycles greywater from kitchens and hospitality bars near the tournament’s most raucous hole, the par-3 16th, where fans pack into stadium-style seating to cheer and jeer.

By creating a reliable blueprint for running a large-scale sporting event without sending waste to landfills, WM has found other takers. The company has begun working with Major League Baseball to help 15 ballparks reduce their environmental footprint using lessons learned from the Phoenix Open.

“When they start to care, the ripple effect of the influence doesn’t really end,” Spivak said. “It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. That’s the pride I feel in this tournament.”

What started as an experiment is now being used to help shift the culture around sports and sustainability. And in a world where golf courses often make headlines for excessive water use and waste, the Phoenix Open is proving that with the right approach, sports venues can be part of the solution — not the problem.

Download the world's only news app designed to spread joy and happiness.

What's Good Now!