The UK election is underway. And it’s going to be a close one

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NEED TO KNOW:

It's legal to be drunk when voting in the UK elections. That's a good thing because the British like to drink, and this one is going to be close. While the campaign was kind of weak by most accounts, the results could be the most exciting in decades.

It will come down, probably, to either the Labour Party or the Conservative Party, one of which always wins the UK elections. But really the two-party system is over. This time around, Labour (that's the mainstream liberals) and the Conservatives (the mainstream conservatives who are in power now) are joined by a handful of other parties that have done a pretty good job of driving the conversation.

There is the Green Party. Everyone can probably guess its agenda. Then there is the Scottish National Party, which wants Scotland to disunite from the kingdom. It is expected to do very well, and ironically could end up being a kingmaker for a country it wants no part of. Then there's the United Kingdom Independence Party, known as UKIP. These guys are the far-right ultra-conservatives. They are the British equivalent to the Tea Party, at least in their isolationist ways. And they are the ones who made the UK leaving the EU a major campaign issue.

All these smaller parties are taking millions of votes away from the country's traditional rulers. Most likely either Labour or the Conservatives will win with only a small majority. In the wacky world of parliamentary politics, that means a coalition will need to be formed. That coalition could be strong or it could be weak. Everyone's going to have to learn to compromise.

Just ask Israeli Prime Minister Banjamin Netanyahu, who has formed what might be the weakest and most contentious coalition in history.

WANT TO KNOW:

Food and other aid is only now beginning to reach many of Nepal's remote mountain towns and villages. It's been well over a week since the earthquake and they are desperate. But while survivors begin to emerge from the devastation — in some cases in truly miraculous ways — they know that another potential disaster is not far off: the monsoon season.

The torrential rains that drench Nepal every year will arrive in earnest next month. In the meantime, the many thousands left without shelter are getting anxious. Not only will they be left out in the driving rain, attempting to survive under makeshift tarps; sickness is likely to spread.

But the thing that scares everyone the most is the potential for landslides. Every year landslides threaten anyone living near the mountains. Last year a single landslide killed 156 people. This year it could be a whole lot worse. Experts say the earthquake unsettled much of the land. And when the rains come, that land could come loose.

This is a big reason why the need for basic aid to build shelter and to relocate the displaced is urgent. “We are racing against time because of the monsoons,” the executive director of the UN's World Food Program told GlobalPost. “We have a lot of work to do.”

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

Things rich people do: hold absurdly lavish engagement parties. Most people who get engaged post the news on Facebook and maybe have a small celebration. The extraordinarily rich do it differently. Case in point: Thai soap opera star Arya A. Hargate, who's also known as "Chompoo," and Witsarut "Nott" Rungsisingpipat, her boyfriend of six years who is the heir to a business fortune.

They just got engaged. He paid a dowry of about $3 million. He also gave her a property deed, a bunch of cash, an eight-carat diamond ring and 14-carat diamond earrings. He rolled up with the decadent haul in a Mercedes motorcade. Here is a video of the engagement party, courtesy of the Bangkok Post. Remember, this isn't the wedding. This is the engagement.