Seven Days on Earth

Nora, Leo and Ziggy look back at the week of October 26 to November 1: a heartbreaking rail disaster in Spain, a facial recognition trial in Western Australia, desert lions in Namibia, the biggest crypto hack ever, trees with muscles, crocodiles that dodged extinction, and a Vegemite court case Ziggy takes very personally.

• Two high-speed trains collide in Spain, killing 69 people from at least eight countries (BBC News, The Guardian)
• Western Australia police scan more than a million faces in a real-time facial recognition trial, leading to 122 arrests and nine false alerts (The Guardian)
• Smartphones and traditional tracking skills help farmers and a recovering desert lion population in Namibia (Positive News)
• Binance users withdraw 3.6 billion dollars after the largest-ever crypto hack, linked to a North Korean group (BBC News)
• Storm Boelo clean-up and more high winds after the UK's wettest week in two years, with up to ten dry days forecast (BBC News)
• Why crocodiles survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs (ScienceDaily)
• Scientists discover the hidden muscles trees use to straighten themselves (ScienceDaily)
• Ancient ape fossil found in Egypt challenges ideas about where modern apes evolved (ScienceDaily)
• All-female boxing nights fund free classes for women rebuilding confidence after abusive relationships (Positive News)
• Police K-9 Rocco eats garden rocks after crock pot juice spill and needs surgery (UPI)
• British collector opens seven packs of trading cards in a minute while wing walking for a world record (UPI)
• Swiss researchers unveil a robot hand that walks on its fingers (UPI)
• Australian judge rules a prison Vegemite ban doesn't violate a prisoner's human rights (HuffPost)
• Michigan man carries a one million dollar Powerball ticket in his wallet for nearly two months (UPI)
• Eerie baby doll among disturbing sewer finds as Brits are told to think before they flush (Metro)

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This past week on Seven Days on Earth: Nora, Leo and Ziggy dig into the AI-discovered flaws that sent governments scrambling to patch a huge chunk of the internet, guess what weighs eighteen tonnes, follow storms from Taiwan to Queensland to Scotland, meet a moon that might not be a moon, and end with a teddy bear rescue. Here's every real story we covered:

• Escaped cow leads police on a chase and blocks traffic on a Maryland highway (UPI Odd News)
• AI uncovers long-hidden severe flaws in PHP, used by around 70% of websites, sparking a rare global cyber-security response as hacking attempts rise (NPR, BBC News)
• What we still don't know about the 18-tonne Tyne nurdle spill (BBC News)
• Uganda says it has no active Ebola cases as officials investigate infections in Kenya and Nigeria (Deutsche Welle)
• Attackers kill a nurse and injure a health worker responding to an Ebola case in eastern DR Congo (Al Jazeera)
• Typhoon Champi kills one and injures more than 500 in Taiwan (The Guardian)
• Man found dead in Queensland floodwaters as the state is hit by multiple storms and a days-long deluge (The Guardian)
• Storm Boelo leaves around 90,000 properties without power in Scotland and northern England (BBC News)
• Astronomers may have discovered the first moon beyond our Solar System (ScienceDaily)
• Low-dose aspirin linked to 70% lower relative dementia risk in older adults with a specific genetic profile (ScienceDaily)
• Somerset volunteers imagine life as salmon, deer and earthworms to plan a 30-year route to save their river (Positive News)
• Ghanaian cocoa farmer Susana Afrifa Ankrah shows how protecting forests can sustain livelihoods (Positive News)
• Firefighters rescue a chameleon stuck in a tree in Forsyth County, Georgia (UPI Odd News)
• Florida fitness coach sets a Guinness World Record with a 639-pound hip thrust (UPI Odd News)
• Gas price war at a Georgia intersection drops fuel to 97 cents and triggers a police response (via r/nottheonion)
• 470,000 dollars' worth of graphics cards goes missing at a Brazilian airport (via r/nottheonion)
• Dota 2 player scores 32 kills to convince police to release his teammates (via r/nottheonion)
• New GTA game could cause a 1 billion dollar sick day with 1.5 million skipping work, reports estimate (via r/nottheonion)
• Ohio public works employee rescues a stuffed animal from a storm drain (UPI Odd News)

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Seven Days on Earth is your weekly trip around the planet. Every Monday, Nora, Leo and Ziggy catch you up on the stories that mattered: science breakthroughs, big moments from places you rarely hear about, the good news that got buried, and the weird news nobody could make up. No politics, no shouting. Every episode brings the big story, the Number of the Week, a trip around the world, a good-news break, Ziggy's Fact or Fake and the Weird News Corner. The hosts are AI voices and the show is written with AI, but every story comes from real reporting by real news outlets, with sources listed in the show notes. The only invented thing is the one fake headline in Fact or Fake, and Ziggy always reveals it straight away. Follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any podcast app so every new episode shows up on Monday.

Email us: [email protected]