Harris slams Trump’s “enemy from within” comment. Early voting begins in Georgia. What a La Niña winter could mean for the US.
Canadians debated furiously before adopting the red maple leaf in 1965, an ensign pointedly free of colonial images. It has become one of the most recognizable flags in the world, due to its bright coloring, simple shapes and the fact Canadians love to slap them on everything from clothing to suitcases when traveling.Its double triangles symbolize the peaks of the Himalayas. The sun and moon represent calm and resolve — traits needed to tolerate the Everest-sized egos of those flag-planting foreign mountaineers.The blue stripes conjure the cobalt summer skies and azure seas that annually lure millions of vacationers; the white recalls spotless coastal buildings dotting its beautiful coastline.The beast on Bhutan’s flag is Druk, a thunder dragon of Bhutanese Buddhist mythology. The dragon is said to symbolize the origins of religious teachings on which Bhutan was founded.The modern incarnation of Betsy Ross’s purported creation is an oft-imitated design of which Americans are rightly proud. So proud in fact, it’s one of the only flags to have a National Anthem (“The Star-spangled Banner”) written specifically about it.Given Brazil’s skills on the pitch, you might think its flag symbolizes a blue soccer ball being booted into space from a grassy stadium. It doesn’t. The colors clash, the ball of stars looks messy. But somehow, it works.Shaking off Dutch colonial invaders, Indonesian freedom fighters created their flag by tearing the blue strip off a Dutch tricolor. Another version claims the colors are derived from the 14th century Majapahit Empire.
