Think of how many small businesses are started by immigrants.

Came here for 🇫🇷🍞

How to create affordable housing for more people, and make a whole city a sponge Progress roundup: Copenhagen’s sponge-city strategy protects from floods, and more places in the U.S. adopt social housing to lock in affordability.

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

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

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

same but my vacation wasn't long enough

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

In California and in Poland, new laws for who belongs where Progress roundup: A $56 million purchase doubles the Yurok tribe’s holdings along the Klamath River, and Shanghai bus riders create new routes.

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...

Protecting homes from hurricanes, rice crops from heat, and seas from trawling Progress roundup: Science reveals how rice crops can resist heat for better yields and quality, and how building codes work against hurricanes.

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:

Helpful microbes: For cleaning up oil spills and helping crops grow Progress roundup: Science enables Brazil to transform its economy, German researchers to find a microbe that makes detergent, and California to filter PFAS.

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...

😞

White helicopter

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)

The surprising resilience of a smiling salamander and some old buried seeds Progress roundup: Captive-bred salamander can survive in the wild, and old fynbos seeds will germinate, sowing science’s hope for habitat restoration.

www.csmonitor.com/World/Points...

How independence helps caregivers on the job and Indigenous people in Colombia Progress roundup: Philippine island boosts incomes and mangrove forests, Colombia protects isolated tribes, and U.S. home care workers thrive in co-ops.

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...

Across Arab Mideast, a new alignment rises: An axis of cooperation A new regional alignment rising in the Middle East shifts power away from Iran’s “Axis of Resistance.” Moderate Sunnis seeking stability and prosperity now have friendly governments in Beirut, Damascu...

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.”

Grafting for chocolate in Peru, and going after invasive species in New Zealand Progress roundup: Grafting revives cacao trees, reforms in Fiji strengthen democracy, and New Zealand commits to pest eradication on three islands.

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 ⬇️

@csmonitor.bsky.social gives you the 180-word version, but also a link to Dr. Rivera's longer article in Nature.

When a ‘thumbs-up’ beats 5 stars, and where paralegals aid women’s land rights Progress roundup: three equity questions on job performance grades, the worthiness of women as landowners, and Indigenous people’s quality of life.

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."

The rights of animals and the environment, from Mexico to Nepal Progress roundup: Nepal’s Supreme Court disallowed development in protected areas. And in Mexico, Congress put animal welfare in the constitution.

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...

Deported Brown University professor had ‘sympathetic photos’ of Hezbollah leaders on her phone, DOJ says The government’s explanation for Rasha Alawieh’s deportation came before a judge postponed a hearing on whether it defied a judge’s order that she not be deported without advance notice to the court.

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...

Low-tech and upside-down: The solutions under our feet Progress roundup: Fish advance science on China’s space station, solar farms host sheep on the ground, and across Africa, new publishers boost writers.

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

Brown Medicine doctor deported despite federal court order. What we know. A court order that would have delayed the deportation of Dr. Rasha Alawieh was issued while her plane was on the tarmac, but it took off anyway.

www.providencejournal.com/story/news/l...

Shut down for the first time since 1942