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US Embassy officially responds to 'salt in tea' controversy by trolling the Brits even more

It's been 250 years since the Boston Tea Party, yet we're still sticking it to our tea-loving friends across the pond.

The U.S. Embassy put out a press release addressing the tea controversy threatening our "Special Relationship" with the U.K.

If there's one thing British culture is universally known for, it's tea. And if there's one thing Americans are known for in Britain, it's mucking up tea.

Admittedly, Americans' relationship with the U.K. and its tea is a bit…complicated. After all, it was Britain's taxation of imported tea that served as both a symbol and catalyst for the Revolutionary War, made famous by the so-called Boston Tea Party in 1773. (For those not steeped in American history, colonists famously dumped tea from British ship in Boston Harbor overnight in protest over being taxed without representation. They also tried to pin it on Native Americans, dressing as Mohawk Indians to disguise their identities, but that's another story for another time.)

Our complicated tea relationship just took an unexpected turn, as an American scientist dared to suggest that the secret to a perfect cup of tea is to add a bit of salt to it, which naturally caused the entire United Kingdom to lose its everlovin' mind.

Michelle Francl, a chemistry professor at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, argues in her book, "Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea," that sodium in salt can counteract the chemical process that causes tea to taste bitter, to which the British say, "Rubbish! Poppycock!"

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It's not easy facing a bully, but what do you do when you're confronted with a whole mob of them?

During President Donald Trump's visit to London last week, a crowd of his supporters and anti-Muslim protesters rallied in central London.

The protesters fixated their attention on a bus driven by a headscarf-wearing woman. The mob held up Islamophobic and pro-Trump signs, some shouted racial epithets, and a topless man ran up to the windshield and began verbally assaulting the driver.

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If you're an American who's not so sure what the difference is between Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and England, you're not alone.

During his recent trip to London, President Donald Trump showed he isn't exactly up to speed on the terminology either. In an interview with Piers Morgan, Trump was asked about the incentive for the United States to work out a trade agreement with the United Kingdom, Trump stumbled a bit:

"We would make a great deal with the United Kingdom because they have product that we like. I mean they have a lot of great product. They make phenomenal things, you know, and you have different names — you can say 'England,' you can say 'U.K.,' you can say 'United Kingdom' so many different — you know you have, you have so many different names — Great Britain. I always say: 'Which one do you prefer? Great Britain? You understand what I’m saying?'"

When Morgan stepped in to note that Great Britain and the U.K. weren't exactly the same, Trump said, "Right, yeah. You know I know, but a lot of people don't know that. But you have lots of different names."

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37 years ago, vaccines drove smallpox into extinction. Polio is about to be on death's doorstep. Now the U.K. can say it has added one more name to its personal kill list — measles.

According to a new report from the World Health Organization, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom in 2016 successfully eliminated the measles virus.

The secret behind this achievement is something simple: vaccines and herd immunity.

It's important to note that, as the WHO defines it, "elimination" doesn't mean "completely wiped out." There were still about 1,600 cases in the United Kingdom last year.

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