Tuesday’s Google Doodle features a short animation of three falafel balls jumping into an open pita filled with hummus, tomato, and cucumber. As Google itself put it, falafel is “the best thing that ever happened to chickpeas – with the possible exception of hummus, of course.”

Although, as Google notes, the origins of falafel are unclear, it is a treat that has been enjoyed across cultures for centuries.

India is by far the largest exporter of chickpeas in the world, producing over 9 million metric tons of the crop in 2017, according to Statista. Australia is a distant second at 2 million metric tons. Israel has long had a love affair with the crispy chickpea delight, paying homage to the popular street food with its own song: And We Have Falafel.

While some claim the treat has Egyptian roots, Google notes that the nation puts its own twist on the deep-fried balls with their variation dubbed “ta’amiya,” which uses fava beans instead of chickpeas.

Different cultures also use a vari..

A dozen Chinese tourists, armed with their cameras, are capturing the sights, standing on sandstone cliffs looking over dusty plains 1500 feet below. The sky is clear: in the distance, hundreds of villages on the plains of Dogon country stretch as far as the horizon.

Behind them, hardly visible, a handful of Malian soldiers wait with assault rifles at the ready. Their military green outfits and flak jackets blend in with the light brown cliffs.

The tourists take pictures of the view and pose with the villagers who welcomed them earlier with a few songs, an activity organized by Mali’s Ministry of Tourism, which says it wants to show visitors “the real Africa.” Then they return to their convoy of vehicles, surrounded by armed men dispatched by the government to ensure their protection.

Just four days before their arrival, an hour’s drive south in Bankass, armed men slit the throat of a nearby village chief before carrying his lifeless body away on a motorbike.

The Bandiagara cliff..

As it continues to explore new business models that may work in a world focused on privacy rather than broadly sharing data online, Facebook on Tuesday revealed plans for its own global digital currency, Libra, which aims to allow users to make purchases or send money with close to zero transaction fees.

Facebook said it hopes Libra will make it easier for the estimated 1.7 billion unbanked adults worldwide to access banking services and transfer money electronically. “Just as people can use their phones to message friends anywhere in the world today, with Libra, the same can be done with money — instantly, securely and at a low cost,” Facebook said in a Libra white paper.

3/ Because it's time for the internet to have a protocol for money, and it's time to try something new for the 1.7 billion people who are still unbanked 30 years after the invention of the web.

— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) June 18, 2019

Users will be able to make transactions with Libra by 2020, Faceb..