In today’s edition, we’re talking about Ethiopia’s plan to plant more than seven billion trees by 2025, the Belgian town giving randomly selected residents real policymaking power, and how commuters in Warsaw can take a break from their screens thanks to a library inside the metro.
Aiming to curb erosion, combat drought, and improve the climate, Ethiopia plans to plant more than seven billion trees by 2025. Over thirty billion seedlings have already been planted since 2019, with the campaign also expected to create a large number of new employment opportunities.
Beginning in 2019, the town of Ostbelgien, home to roughly 80,000 residents, launched an experimental permanent Citizens’ Council and Assembly, granting policymaking roles to citizens chosen at random. Now, about six years into the experiment, participants say it’s working.
On Tuesday, Italy’s parliament passed legislation formally adding femicide to the criminal code and establishing life imprisonment as the penalty, following a number of high-profile cases which sparked nationwide protests.
The EU’s highest court has also rebuked Poland for refusing to recognise a marriage between two of its citizens that took place in Germany. The court said they didn’t require member states to allow marriage between people of the same sex in their national laws, but they are not allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples.
The transportation department has unveiled a first crash test dummy in the US modeled specifically on female anatomy, a move officials say is meant to close decades of safety gaps in vehicle testing. Although men make up the majority of annual car-crash victims, women are more likely to die in collisions of comparable severity.
During the one-off therapy in February, doctors collected stem cells from Oliver Chu’s blood and replaced the faulty gene with a working copy. The corrected stem cells were then re-infused back into his bloodstream. Since having the therapy, Oliver no longer needs weekly Elaprase infusions, an encouraging sign that the treatment is working.
Nyiyaparli Widi was designed to teach Nyiyaparli kids to learn the language, which was once widely spoken throughout a 40,000 square kilometre stretch of bushland in the Pilbara. Now, the community is 400 people-strong with just eight people speaking the language fluently.
At Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, sustainable tourism practices like capped visitor numbers and mandatory guided tours, have curbed illegal hunting and logging. Now, wildlife appears to be returning, inspiring plans to extend protection across the border into Laos, forming a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the Polish capital, commuters don’t have to rely on their smartphones for entertainment: a library tucked into the Warsaw subway lets riders grab a book just steps from the platform.
A new documentary from the makers of Jesus Camp follows the students enrolled at one of Norway’s 85 “folk high schools”. Can sledding and survival skills cure their social media-induced anxiety?
