Hard Numbers: France makes abortion a right, Colombia nabs migrant boat captains, Sinead’s estate rips Trump, Cricket causes Indian train crash, Dutchman’s heart goes on

People are gathering near the Eiffel Tower at the Place du Trocadero in Paris, France, on March 4, 2024
People are gathering near the Eiffel Tower at the Place du Trocadero in Paris, France, on March 4, 2024

NURPHOTO/Michel Stoupak

780: In a historic vote, 780 to 72, a joint session of France’s parliament on Monday enshrined the right to abortion in the Constitution. Abortion has been legal for decades in France, where it has widespread public support. But after the US Supreme Court rolled back federal protections for abortion access in 2022, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to make it a constitutional right, thereby protecting it from future legislative or judicial whims. France is the only country in the world to explicitly protect the right to abortion in its Constitution, though Serbia’s recognizes “everyone’s right to decide on childbirth.”

3,000: The arrest of two boat captains who ran a business ferrying US-bound migrants to the Darién Gap, a perilous stretch of jungle that spans Colombia and Panamá, has left more than 3,000 people stranded at a remote embarkation point on the Colombian coast. Authorities are now concerned about a humanitarian crisis as local infrastructure isn’t equipped to handle so many people at once.

2: Nothing compares 2 getting a cease and desist letter from Sinead O’Connor’s estate demanding you stop using her most iconic song at your rallies. That’s exactly what’s happened to Donald Trump, who blared “Nothing Compares 2 U” at a February event. The fiercely outspoken O’Connor, who died last year, once called Trump a “biblical devil.” O’Connor’s estate joins a long list of musicians who have told Trump to pull the plug, including Bruce Springsteen (“Born in the USA”) the Rolling Stones (“You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” Pavarotti (“Nessun Dorma”), and Prince (“Purple Rain”), the original author of O’Connor’s song.

14: Indian investigators have determined that a train crash that killed 14 people last October in Southern India happened because the conductors were watching a cricket match on a cell phone. In fairness, it wasn’t just any cricket match, it was an epic faceoff between India and England that drew hundreds of millions of viewers, but still – you gotta keep your eyes on the track! The news comes just days after a separate incident in which an Indian freight train hurtled down more than 40 miles of track without a conductor.

40: A Dutchman (and a flying one at that) has set the Guinness World Record for being the longest-surviving recipient of a heart transplant, which he received 40 years ago. Bert Janssen, who received the alt-heart as a 17-year-old after being diagnosed with a terminal cardiac condition, has survived nearly three times as long as the average recipient. And it's not as though he lives a quiet life – he is a hang-glider pilot.

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