When thinking big works. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

Why some Israeli journalists only now are turning a lens on Gaza devastation

Please be careful @northeasternu.bsky.social neighborhood - serious accident at Brigham Circle 🙏

In the largest land-back deal in California history - note that it took the Yurok Tribe and Western Rivers Conservancy more than 20 years of work, including raising millions from a long list of funders to buy the territory. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

In Alabama, hurricane damage prompted voluntary building standards by @ibhs.org and insurance discounts. One key to their success is third-party verification. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

It's hard to avoid recalling this passage from the English historian Tony Judt:

A woman transforms agriculture in Brazil, a Chinese woman in school in Germany discovers how an ocean microbe makes its own surfactant that could break down oil spills, and the women running a hotel in Sri Lanka, a country w. low female workforce participation www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

😞

Someone please come get your white helicopter it’s been making a racket here for a good 20 minutes @universalhub.com (??)

This is a fascinating and thorough analysis of the 77 bus and why buses have problems in general. cc @universalhub.com A couple of things I'd add to this:

Wondering if we in the U.S. could do this - let people rip out the pavement in front of their house to plant green things. No permits, no red tape. (Granted, in the Netherlands, the hardscape is often tiles)

Two examples of empowerment via autonomy (Bear with me here): In the U.S. a small study found that home health care workers who owned the company reported greater satisfaction (so less turnover). & Greta Garbo, part 2: leaving uncontacted peoples alone in Colombia www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

For me as a reader, some relief and hope in this desire for peace, 5,000 miles away. I’ll take it. Thank you, @taylorluck.bsky.social www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle...

Thinking Greta Garbo. Smithsonian mag wrote in 2017 that she said in 1955: “I never said, ‘I want to be alone,’ ... I only said, ‘I want to be let alone! There is all the difference.”

Cacao trees can be less productive over time. But a tried-and-true technique – grafting – can rejuvenate a tree and help prevent the deforestation that is practiced when starting a new plantation. #chocolate www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

Earth Day post! This is how Points of Progress works: We read lots. We choose stories of positive change and squish them into short reads. You'll never see me write "BREAKING," it's more ICYMI. Here, @katharinehayhoe.com gave us facts about Finland's leadership. Links to original articles included.

Reading about the dire wolf news? Read this ⬇️

Do you hesitate to give your rideshare 5 ⭐? @larivera.bsky.social‬ explains studies on job evals: A 6-point scale instead of 10 eliminated gender gaps, maybe because a 6-out-of-6 rating is not as associated with perfection, which is more often attributed to men. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

In 2022, the president of Argentina took a climate class required of all public officials. He said, "We are complying with a law that imposes an obligation for public officials to listen to information about the scope of climate change and the consequences it can bring."

Where a Supreme Court struck down a pro-development law, and a Congress put animal rights into its constitution (OK, I’ll tell you – it’s Nepal and Mexico) www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

NEW: Feds say Lebanese transplant doctor deported from Boston airport had 'sympathetic' photos of Hezbollah leaders on her phone www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

We *can* all just get along, said the sheep to the solar panel. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

Shut down for the first time since 1942

A New Hampshire man with a green card was detained by immigration officers at Logan Airport and is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025...

>50% of Nephrologists in the US are foreign graduates, likely many not US citizens. It's one of most cognitively complicated specialties in medicine, and not paid well enough for amount of work involved for many US grads. Good luck caring for aging US population when deporting >50% of your doctors

R.I. doctor prevented from returning to U.S. after visiting parents in Lebanon. Dr. Rasha Alawieh works at Brown Medicine and Rhode Island Hospital, and she had secured an H-1B visa, her lawyer said. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/14/m...

School lunch yields up to a tenfold return on investment for the community, according to the World Food Program. Canada now has a national plan. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

Columbia University has thus far said nothing about DHS entering a university-owned building to detain a student who negotiated with them to try finding a resolution to the encampment protests. Meanwhile:

The past conference in Raleigh, which I attended a week after Election Day, had sessions on covering migrant workers dying from extreme heat, Hurricane Helene, HBCU research, health disparities and political polarization This is as direct of an attack on science and the free press that I've seen.

U.S. researchers, starting with @centerforcooperativemedia.org.web.brid.gy - are mapping local news coverage. It's helping some philanthropic funders know what communities to target for support. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

This elective was an important part of my children’s education and a source of pride at our school.

Pretty sure I am not going to see this movie, but Ken is the person I want to tell me how it matters anyway

A defeat for terrorism in the Mideast

@pauloffit.bsky.social "warned that it could interfere with or delay production of flu vaccines. 'It’s a six-month production cycle,' Dr. Offit said. 'So one can only assume that we’re not picking flu strains this year.' ” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

Do artists make art for themselves, or for others? The UK would like us to know that art is good for you. (No word on whether it has to be 'good' and can't be 'bad' art) www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

I'm all for the diversion. AP trying to teach us German, Wahltagsbefragung = exit polling www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe...

Some groups are working to archive and save government websites and data right now. Among them: WayBack Machine (my screengrab below is from) End of Term Crawl Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab ICPSR 19th News PolicyMap Public Environmental Data Partners Environmental Data & Governance Initiative

Public Environmental Data Partners archives climate datasets, uploading copies to public repositories and cataloging where and how to find them if they go missing from government websites. Scholars explain: #climatechange #data #epa #NOAA https://buff.ly/432r34Q

Beyond Ukraine talks, Putin counts on Trump to open world doors

On Toni Morrison's birthday - what a friend said to lift her up when she was in a bad mood about an election.

Boston University is building a database of datasets that have been scrubbed from agency's sites: findlostdata.org

In an NPR interview, Ophelia, child of Roald Dahl who went into public health, said this about the influence of her sister's death on her career choice: “I was really born into the echo of that loss and that sadness and that grief in my family. It certainly gave me a healthy respect for vaccines”

We count on the balancing power of the courts. In Belgium, a court recognized the harm of colonialism and a crime against humanity: Decades ago, children of Belgian fathers, born to Black mothers in Congo, were abducted and sent to Belgium. www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

I have a bulletin from the Great White North. Air Canada, the country's national air carrier is reducing flights to Florida, Arizona, and Las Vegas by 25% in March because so many Canadians have canceled trips to the US. Maybe more cancellations in the future.

Russia has deployed a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers that is worrying European nations. It’s not just about sanctions, which the vessels circumvent: They also pose environmental and navigational risks, particularly in the Baltic Sea. #Russia #oil #europe

It's been a decade since we learned about uncoupling (as in, divorce). DE-coupling is a different kind of separation - where economic growth is achieved without wrecking the environment. The Points of Progress team gives you the 100-word version; open the link to the research paper to read more.

The Trump administration and Elon Musk seem to think drastic upheaval is the only way to tame bloated government bureaucracy. The question is whether they are smashing the Constitution to bits along the way. musk #DOGE #trump #USAID