Here in America, we've had a relatively cold winter. April's temperature measurements were only about average. However, if you look worldwide, it turns out April 2014 was the second-hottest April ever recorded, according to preliminary measurements. This discrepancy is because while some places were only average or below-average in temperature, more places were above-average, some ludicrously so. This fact is brought home in the latest temperature anomaly world map from NASA:

Check out that chunk of planet in eastern Asia. Roughly speaking, eastern Russia, Mongolia, and northeast China were getting absolutely fried last month, pegging the chart's maximum over an area about the size of the whole U.S. Remember that next time someone pulls the old "it's cold where I can see, how about that global warming?!" routine. Ryan Cooper

Last week, President Trump insisted that, contrary to his earlier suggestion, he did not tape his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey. And his elaboration on the topic, in an interview on Fox News, was a word-salad masterpiece, John Oliver marveled on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "Whenever Trump talks, it's like cross between a lottery machine that spits outs words and a Speak-and-Spell that just fell into a toilet." In just a few sentences, Trump somehow managed to validate Comey's damaging testimony, suggest he tampered with a witness, and coin the awkward phrase "not very stupid," Oliver noted.

That said, Trump's "extraordinarily stupid" comments on Comey and secret recordings "served to distract from the really important business going down in Washington this week concerning the Senate's new ObamaCare replacement bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act," Oliver said. Democrats immediately denounced the bill, some skillfully (Barack Obama) and some quite the opposite — here, Oliver played Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's "prop comedy," or attempt thereof. "If political theater were actual theater, that was the equivalent of someone falling to their death in Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark," Oliver sighed. "Now, as for the content of the bill, it is set to hurt a lot of people," he added, briefly explaining how.

"You may have heard some Republicans have come out against this bill in its current form, some because it's too harsh, others because it is not harsh enough — and of course Ted Cruz is in that group," Oliver said. "He's the only man in history whose personality somehow contracted bedbugs. But here's the thing: I would be very careful relying on those politicians to hold out." He noted that GOP senators are being pretty squirrelly with their language, and advised caution at news coverage that presupposes the bill is actually in trouble. "Oh, that's great — it's 'dead on arrival,'" Oliver deadpanned. "Then kick back and relax, everyone, because I haven't felt this confident about an outcome since Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016." The BCRA very well may pass, especially without momentous pushback from the public, he warned, "so resisting complacency would be, to borrow a truly moronic phrase, 'not very stupid, I can tell you that.'" There is some NSFW language. Watch below. Peter Weber

There used to be a time when American parents would line up to vaccinate their kids like vaccines were the latest iPhone, John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. But despite vaccines saving millions of lives, "small groups are both skeptical and vocal about vaccines, which is nothing new, but these days their voice has been amplified by the human megaphone that is the president of the United States." He showed some of President Trump's comments on the campaign trail, and subsequent tweets.

"This atmosphere of confusion about vaccines has caused real problems," Oliver said, pointing to the measles outbreak in Minnesota's Somali community. "So tonight, we are going to look at why these fears persist and what the consequences of succumbing to them can be. And before we start, I kind of get why vaccines can creep people out," he said, "although pretty much every medical practice sounds terrifying when you break it down," including the non-medical practice of basic exercise.

Oliver started with the elephant in the waiting room, the debunked link between autism and the MMR vaccine, started by the disgraced "Lance Armstrong of doctors," Andrew Wakefield. Despite losing his medical license, Wakefield still gives talks about vaccines and autism — including to Minnesota's Somali community, in 2011 — and he's joined by a motley crew that spans the political spectrum. "Now the good news is, these days, very few people will say they are completely anti-vaccine," Oliver said. "Instead, like the president, they'll say, 'I'm not anti-vaccine, but...' — and it's what comes after that 'but' that week need to look at tonight."

Oliver's main topic here was the idea that parents should space out vaccines, so young children don't get so many at once. He sided with the CDC on that one, and ridiculed Dr. Robert Sears, a famous pediatrician's less-famous son, noting that spreading out vaccinations for years leaves kids vulnerable to diseases like measles, which killed 134,200 kids worldwide in 2015 alone. "I honestly know for some people this is still hard, but what can help is to try and anchor yourself to what we know to be true about the risks of vaccines," he said. Oliver suggested that parents focus on the immense good vaccines have done rather than the scary Facebook anecdotes and memes, and he ended on a personal note. Watch below, but be warned: there is decidedly NSFW content spread throughout. Peter Weber

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants the Senate to pass his health-care bill this week, before the July 4 break, and the next couple of days will be a test of his strategy to craft a major overhaul of the U.S. health-care system in secret and spring it on the Senate with no public hearings. He can afford to lose only two Republicans, and five have said they won't vote yes on the current version of the bill, with at least three others expressing strong reservations. Republican senators began listing their demands over the weekend.

McConnell's former chief of staff Josh Holmes compared his former boss's week to "a 747 landing on a suburban driveway," but one current McConnell staffer tells Jonathan Swan at Axios that McConnell has a 60 percent shot of passing the bill. Still, "most folks I've talked to in McConnell's orbit say it's more like a jump ball," Swan says, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is in that camp, telling ABC News This Week on Sunday that Republicans "have, at best, a 50-50 chance of passing this bill," odds he attributed to the "devastating" effects of the proposed legislation.

McConnell has some levers he will pull, however, and "Senate leaders have been trying to lock down Republican votes by funneling money to red states, engineering a special deal for Alaska, and arguing that they could insure more people at a lower cost than the House, which passed a repeal bill last month," The New York Times reports. The Chamber of Commerce supports the bill, but opposing it is a motley group that includes the Koch brothers organization Americans for Prosperity, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, medical groups, some Republican governors, and most of the health-care industry.

Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Sunday that the bill is on track for a Wednesday procedural vote, and possible passage late Thursday or early Friday, "but it's going to be close." Speaking at a Colorado retreat hosted by Charles Koch, Cornyn said that even in McConnell doesn't get a vote this week, the legislation is hardly dead. "I think August is the drop-dead line, about Aug. 1," he said. Axios' Swan said McConnell actually does need to pass the bill before the July 4 break, because "no senator I've spoken to thinks a bit of extra time spent with angry voters will make them more likely to support this bill." Peter Weber

On Monday, President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet in Washington, D.C., with the pair engaging in one-on-one talks, followed by remarks to the media — without taking any questions — and a working dinner.

Trump and Modi do not agree on major issues like trade or the Paris climate agreement — Trump has said India negotiated in an unsavory way to ensure the country receives billions of dollars in aid — but a Trump administration official told Reuters they both have more than 30 million Twitter followers and that will help them form a bond. Another senior White House official said the administration is "very interested in making this a special visit. We're really seeking to roll out the red carpet."

An Indian official told Reuters "if the chemistry is good, everything else gets sorted. The only way is up." In 2014, Modi visited former President Barack Obama, who took him to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Catherine Garcia

Toting a backpack with scissors, a razor, clips, a comb, and a styling cape, Joshua Coombes is traveling around the world, giving free haircuts to homeless men and women.

The 30-year-old London hairdresser gets to know his homeless clientele as he works, and he shares their stories on his Instagram stream, tagging them with #DoSomethingForNothing. "When you cut someone's hair, it is about trust," Coombes told The Washington Post. He's found that clients get comfortable and "tell us everything. And that role translates to the street really well." He has cut the hair of hundreds of people, and earlier this year he gave haircuts to the homeless in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Coombes says he believes in the power of forging connections between people, and his aim is to make a positive impact through conversation and haircuts. On Instagram, he shared what it was like cutting the hair of Thomas, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran who has been homeless for 10 years. Thomas stared at the mirror for a long time, and asked Coombes why he chose to do this for him. "I told him the truth — I loved hearing his story," Coombes wrote. "I never want to stop learning. Every time I go out and do this, I get so much also. ... Fulfillment is different for everyone, but for me, connecting with others is what makes me tick." Catherine Garcia

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, secured a $285 million loan from Deutsche Bank, Trump's biggest known lender and at the time under investigation for allegedly allowing Russian money laundering, in October 2016, a month before Trump's election, The Washington Post reports. The Kushner loan was part of a refinancing deal for four retail floors of the former New York Times building off Times Square in Manhattan, and Kushner did not list the loan or his personal guarantee for the debt on his financial disclosure form filed with the Office of Government Ethics; a lawyer for Kushner said he was not obligated to disclose the loan.

Kushner purchased the four retail floors of the building for a reported $296 million in October 2015 from the family of an Uzbek-born Israeli billionaire named Lev Leviev, who is a vocal admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and once aspired to work with Trump on real estate deals in Moscow. Kushner filled the largely empty floors with retailers, and the October 2016 deal also included a $85 million loan from SL Green Realty, giving Kushner's business $74 million more than he paid for the retail space.

Kushner and his brother, Joshua, are listed as guarantors on the Deutsche Bank loan under what was termed a "nonrecourse carve-out," commonly known as a "bad boy" clause, the Post explains. "The way to look at this is, so long as you're not a 'bad boy' and don't do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about," James Schwarz, a real estate lawyer who is an expert in such clauses, tells the Post. "To the extent you would do something fraudulent, then you have things to worry about" — namely personally being on the hook for millions of dollars. Separately, Kushner and his mother have a personal line of credit worth up to $25 million from Deutsche Bank, the Post notes.

In December, Deutsche Bank paid $7.2 billion to settle U.S. charges related to fraud related to packaging residential mortgages, and in January it paid a $425 million fine to New York State to settle charges that it did not track large money transfers from Russia. The White House told the Post that Kushner "will recuse from any particular matter involving specific parties in which Deutsche Bank is a party." You can read more at The Washington Post. Peter Weber

The San Diego Splash women's basketball team may not win every game, but the players — all above 80 years old — always have a good time.

The team is part of the Senior Women's Basketball Association, a nonprofit that puts together teams made up of women older than 50. The San Diego Splash is made up of the oldest women in the league, and as they told ESPNW, "if you can stand up and move your legs, you're welcome."

The teams play 30-minute games, three on three, on the half court. Some of the women have been part of the Splash for more than 20 years, and they are all good friends, forming a sisterhood. "It's the nicest group of people, from all walks of life," one player said, and another shared that she was 78 years old when she bought her first pair of basketball shoes. "Growing up, we didn't have sports like the girls do today, we didn't have the opportunity to play. ... As long as I can, I'm going to play." Catherine Garcia