Backspin: Japan’s Naomi Osaka toppled Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 yesterday at the US Open to become the first Grand Slam singles champion born in her country.

The 20 -year-old Osaka moved to the US at age 3.

Her win was tarnished by a controversy over a hand signal Williams’ coach gave her during the second set that was seen by the head ref as illegal coaching. Williams argued that, “I don’t cheat to win I’d rather lose.”She accused the ref of sexism, calling her on something that men get away with. Williams pointed her finger and argued so much that she was penalized an entire game.

Her coach admitted later that he was in fact sending her a signal about playing more aggressively toward the net.

The Hermit Kingdom: In what may be a signal that North Korea is serious about nuclear disarmament, the country celebrated its 70th anniversary with a parade that featured thousands of goose-stepping soldiers but no ballistic missiles.

The parade had less of a belligerent tone than previous years. Some of the tanks, though, carried the message,  “Destroy the U.S. Imperialist Aggressor, the sworn enemy of the DPRK.”They always sound like a caricature of themselves.

Publicly, at least, the US and North Korea appear to have made little progress since President Trump met with dictator Kim Jong-un.

Heavy Weather: Tropical Storm Florence is threatening to grow into a major hurricane that hits the southeast coast of the US in the middle of the week. Florence is moving over warm seas that might grow it to a category 3 or 4 before it hits somewhere along the border of North and South Carolina.

Cleanup: Little known to most people is that parts of the Pacific Ocean have become floating islands of plastic junk dumped in the water around the entire Pacific Rim. It is collected and concentrated by ocean currents.

The plastic breaks down in the sun and salt water, eventually even creating multi-colored plastic sand on Pacific islands.

A giant ocean-cleaning boom is now being towed out into the Pacific in a $30 million test of whether the plastic can be rounded up and scooped up for recycling. It’s the baby of Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old college dropout  who has made ocean cleanup his mission.

It’s an enormous job and what appears on the surface is only a tiny percentage of the plastic in the ocean. Slat knows, and everyone knows, that the real solution is to stop dumping plastic in the ocean.

High Heels: The Miss America pageant takes place today without a swimsuit competition for the first time in the event’s history. The pageant, and the swimsuit parade, was created by hotel owners in 1921 to stretch the summer season past Labor Day.

The organization now refers to the event as a “competition” rather than a “pageant.” They say they want to focus on the accomplishments of the young women rather than their looks. We’ll see how many people tune in. No one is going to watch Rhodes Scholars parade in turtlenecks.

The Music Died: Mac Miller, the Pittsburgh rapper who made  five popular albums ,died Friday of an apparent overdose in his Los Angeles home.

Miller had a string of hit albums but it was known that he struggled with drug addiction. He was dumped earlier this year by longtime girlfriend Ariane Grande, who suddenly announced her engagement to Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson.

Kid Stuff: Lego, the company that makes the little building bricks that spear the feet of parents with young children announced that it has embarked on research to make its blocks out of recycled plastic or plant fiber instead of new petroleum-based plastic. The company says it wants to avoid damaging the environment.

Lego makes about 100 million of its bricks every day which makes you wonder why the world needs more. If you need some, just  look under the sofa cushions.

Why Ask Why?: An article in The NY Times asks, “Why aren’t we eating more insects?”

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