Photo: Getty Images / Unsplash+
In today’s edition, researchers have spotted ‘breathtaking’ scenes of huge whale gatherings in Antarctica, France plans to reimburse young and low-income women for reusable menstrual products, and violence prevention groups in Philadelphia support teens to express themselves through music.
In the same waters where they were slaughtered en masse in the 20th century, whale populations are recovering. Independent researchers have spotted hundreds of them, exciting citizen scientists. Krill fishing could pose a threat, but the krill fishers have already agreed to a buffer around penguin colonies, so collaboration for conservation is possible.
Source: The Guardian
Starting next school year, the French social security system will reimburse women under 26 and those living in poverty when they purchase reusable period products. Intended to address period poverty, the move should help 6.7 million women.
Source: France 24
A timber company in cooperation with a state conservation project has created a conservation easement in Michigan’s upper peninsula: tens of thousands of acres protected forever for wildlife from subdivision or development. The land will be accessible to outdoor recreation and managed with only sustainable timber harvesting.
Source: MLive
In 2018 New Jersey became the first state to regulate PFAS in drinking water. The state’s levels were among the highest in the country. Now a study from Rutger’s university has shown that the regulations brought levels of the forever chemicals down by 55%.
Source: Science Friday
The International Trash Trap network says just the traps they monitor have kept more than six million pounds of litter out of the world’s waters. The giant ‘Mr. Trash Wheel’ has reduced Styrofoam debris by 92% in Maryland, but even low-tech storm drains play a role in removing litter and providing data about refuse levels and potential solutions.
Source: Reasons to be Cheerful
With a NIO electric car, motorists can stop at more than 4000 battery swap stations around the world, most of them in China. Drivers don’t need to wait while the car charges but can drive off with a fully charged battery in just over three minutes. They still have the option to charge the battery the usual way.
Source: NPR
About 422 indie bookshops opened in 2025, up 31%, defying predictions of retail consolidation. Moreover, small independent businesses in general are thriving as consumers increasingly support local business even though prices may be slightly higher.
Source: The Guardian
Gun violence in Philadelphia is decreasing. One rising trend is nonprofits and individuals helping teens channel anger and frustration into music and dance that expresses their daily lives rather than celebrating violence.
Source: New York Times
The Finchley Reform Synagogue opened its space during Ramadan to Muslim neighbours after an arson attack closed their centre. Now members of that community are showing support for the Jewish congregation, and both are reaffirming their commitment to what has been a close partnership.
Source: The Guardian
A huge failed artificial lake project in Budapest under communist rule, neglected for 17 years, gradually rewilded itself and finally received funding and recognition as a national park. That has inspired other similar reclamations of abandoned city spaces where native biodiversity has come to accidentally thrive.
Source: Bloomberg News
