Crowdfunded Canadian team reaches Women’s Rugby World Cup final

CANADA

Canada’s women’s rugby team is making history after they crowdfunded close to $700,000 to keep themselves alive and then played in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday against England. The Maple Leafs managed to beat six-time world champions New Zealand, kicking them out of a place in the finals for the first time in over a decade. In March, they put out a crowdfunding ask of $725,000 that included the statement: “Win Rugby World Cup 2025,” and have received 95% of their goal.

ICELAND

Iceland’s Personal Names Committee has approved new monikers to its register, a mix of traditional and international ones, such as the female names Natasha and Emerentíana and the male name of Samir. The committee rules over which names can be used legally, making sure they fit with the country’s grammar and alphabet.

JAPAN

The travel specialist InsideJapan, which offers tours and cultural experiences, is launching its largest-ever small-group tour program which is rolling out next year. The new offerings, sparked by a recent record-breaking increase of 21% bookings, include more departures, shoulder-season choices and itineraries for less explored hidden gems. The Japan National Tourism Organization reported 24.9 million foreign visitors between January and July 2025, an 18.4% increase since last year.

MEXICO

Greenpeace activists scaled Mexico City’s 100-meter monument Estela de Luz in protest of the destruction of the Maya Forest, hanging an 88-foot long banner, which said that the forest is “screaming.” The group is demanding the country’s environment ministry step up to protect the jungle, a critical ecosystem and the largest remaining tropical rainforest in the Americas.

SCOTLAND

To combat the increase of car crashes, hotel owner Robert Marshall invented Tourist Plate, an adhesive sticker drivers can place on their cars to show they are not from the area. Its website touts the initiative as something that “helps reduce stress for drivers and encourages courtesy from others on the road.” In the past decade, there have been close to 50 deaths on Scotland’s longest road, the A9, which switches from single to multiple-lanes.

With Wires