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Today's featured article

One of Kes's costumes with wig and ear prosthetics

Kes is a fictional character in the science fiction television show Star Trek: Voyager, played by Jennifer Lien. Kes joins the crew of the starship USS Voyager in the pilot episode, opening an aeroponics garden and working as a medical assistant. She is a member of a telepathic alien species with a life span of only nine years. She leaves the ship in the fourth season after her powers threaten to destroy it. She reappears in an episode in the sixth season and features in Star Trek: Voyager novels and short stories. Voyager's creators intended Kes to provide audiences with a different perspective on time. Although Kes is portrayed as fragile and innocent, she is also shown as having hidden strength and maturity. Voyager's producers reluctantly fired Lien after her personal issues affected her reliability on set. Kes was a fan favorite character while Voyager was airing, although critics reacted more negatively, finding her boring and without a clear purpose. Lien was praised for her performance. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

August 18: Ghost Festival in China (2024)

Blackwater Fire

684 – Second Fitna: Umayyad partisans defeated the supporters of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr near Damascus, cementing Umayyad control of Syria.
1823 – At least 9,000 enslaved people rebelled in the British colony in Demerara-Essequibo (in present-day Guyana), demanding emancipation.
1864 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Globe Tavern, Union forces attempted to sever the Weldon Railroad during the siege of Petersburg.
1937 – A lightning strike started the Blackwater Fire (pictured) in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming, consuming 1,700 acres (7 km²) of old-growth forest and killing 15 firefighters.
2017 – Two people were fatally stabbed and eight others wounded by a rejected asylum seeker in an Islamist terrorist attack in Turku, Finland.

Knut Alvsson (d. 1502)
Maria Ulfah Santoso (b. 1911)
Edward Norton (b. 1969)
Evan Gattis (b. 1986)

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In the news

Paetongtarn Shinawatra

Paetongtarn Shinawatra (pictured) becomes Prime Minister of Thailand after Srettha Thavisin is dismissed by the Constitutional Court.
The World Health Organization declares the African mpox epidemic to be a global health emergency.
Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashes in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, killing all 62 people on board.
Sheikh Hasina resigns as Prime Minister of Bangladesh following anti-government protests, and Muhammad Yunus is appointed leader of an interim government.

Did you know...

Ravenswood standing stone

... that the 4,000-year-old Ravenswood standing stone (pictured) now lies in a cul-de-sac in a 1970s Scottish housing estate?
... that Dov Noy founded the Israel Folktale Archives, which have collected around 25,000 Jewish folk tales?
... that Choco Togo produces heat-resistant chocolate bars that can withstand temperatures of up to 35 °C (95 °F)?
... that one newspaper expected mayor Sun Zhiyang to help turn Guangzhou into a "smart car city"?
... that Jennifer Brea directed an Academy Award–shortlisted documentary while bedbound from ME/CFS?
... that the DI MA-1 Mk. III rifle was made in Myanmar as a reverse-engineered copy of the Chinese QBZ-97?
... that sport in Vatican City has included cricket, calcio fiorentino, and taekwondo?
... that a scrapped song from SZA's second album was supposed to be on her next one, but when the song was leaked she had to scrap it again?
... that Abraham Lincoln felt obliged to propose to Mary Owens – a woman he did not want to marry – but was rejected several times?

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