Some countries do strikingly better than others in saving energy, but all can better use efficiency to meet their Paris Agreement climate goals, according to The 2018 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

No country came close to a perfect score, and the average remained the same as in 2016 – 51 out of a possible 100 points. Overall, Germany and Italy tie for first place this year with 75.5 points, closely followed by France (73.5), the United Kingdom (73), and Japan (67).

In a troubling development, the United States slid from 8th place in 2016 to 10th in 2018 by scoring six fewer points.

“This trend is likely to persist if the current administration continues to dismantle key regulations,” said Shruti Vaidyanathan, ACEEE’s senior advisor for research. “At imminent risk are joint fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for light-duty vehicles for model years 2021 onwards, a program that put the United States at the forefront of vehicle efficiency efforts.” Environmental Protection Agency actions are also threatening heavy-duty vehicle standards, and future improvements to existing appliance standards have ground to a halt.

Is Russia Running Out of Beer? World Cup Fans Drink Cities Dry

Of all the problems Russia expected to encounter while hosting the World Cup, a booze shortage was not one. But that is precisely what soccer fans are facing in Moscow and other cities hosting the tournament as high demand has caught suppliers by surprise.

"We just didn't think they would only want beer," a waiter at an upmarket restaurant in the Russian capital told Reuters, asking not to be identified for fear of driving away thirsty customers.

Although alcohol plays an important role in Russian cuisine and culture—and shortages are virtually unheard of— beer is seen as simply not strong enough to make the grade. It was only reclassified from soft to alcoholic beverage in 2011.

In recent days, multiple reports from the host cities of Moscow, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod suggested that cafes and bars around tournament venues are running low. Martin Freidman, security chief for the Swedish soccer assosciation (SvFF), said that fans of the Scandinavian nation were struggling to find places able to serve them a pint in Nizhny Novgorod, with a day to go until the team’s opening match earlier this week, the Aftonbladet newspaper has reported.

Separation of immigrant children

As part of the 2018 Trump administration's family separation policy, nearly 2,000 children of asylum-seeking families have been separated from their parents and placed in "detention centers." These centers have been described by commentators as "prisons" and "concentration camps". Former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, compared the images of the centers to internment camps. 16 out of 34 of the centers located in Texas had previously been cited by Texas officials for more than 150 health violations. Actor George Takei, who lived through the internment of Japanese Americans, described the separation of children as "worse" due to the separation of children from their parents.

A border is a demarcation line which separates two geographic or political areas. A border may also refer to an edge or margin, often ornamental, such as a strip of flowers or bushes that grows along a house, garden or property line. Border may also act as a transitive verb, which takes an object, to describe providing an edge or boundary. As an instransitive verb, which takes no object, border describes something which is adjacent to another thing. Border may also mean on the brink of an extreme condition. Border comes from the mid-fourteenth century Old French word, bordure, which means seam, edge of a shield. Border was first used to describe boundaries between countries in the 1530s, when the word was used to name the area adjoining England and Scotland.


A boarder is a lodger, someone who lives in a residence of some sort where he receives regular meals in exchange for payment. A boarder may live in a home, dorm or other dwelling. A boarding school is one where students reside at the school in converted homes or dorms for the semester. Another use of the word boarder is to describe someone who gains entry to a boat or ship. Finally, a person who surfs, snowboards or skateboards may be referred to as a boarder, though skateboarders are usually called skaters. Boarder comes from the noun, board, which in the late fourteenth sense means table. In the 1520s boarder came to mean one who has food and lodging at the house of another.