Let’s listen to each other. Let’s compromise where we can in good conscience. But let’s also demand a halt to all that is cruel and unlawful. There is encouragement to be found in the links here if you will take the time to be fully open to each one to savor its gift.
From the West African nation of Benin comes the ultimate story in intercultural exchange, whereby a young man inspired by Jackie Chan films took up kung fu and persisted to run the largest Chinese martial arts club in his country.
After just three days of intentional silence, the brain begins to physically and functionally rewire itself. A growing body of neuroscience shows that silence can spark changes in the brain comparable to months of meditation, cognitive training, or rigorous exercise.
Antarctica's ice sheet has grown for the first time in decades with an astonishing rebound. Four major glaciers have reversed their previous pattern of accelerated mass loss from 2011 to 2020 and instead showed significant mass gain during the 2021 to 2023 period.
Objecting to elderspeak need not become adversarial. Residents and patients — and people who encounter elderspeak elsewhere, because it’s hardly limited to health care settings — can politely explain how they prefer to be spoken to and what they want to be called.
In a first-ever call, members of Indigenous peoples and coastal communities pushed for a seat at the table of the high seas biodiversity treaty (Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction - BBNJ) as they convened at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held in April, 2025 in New York City.
For seven years now, Pennsylvania Grade 9 English teacher Kristina Ulmer has been running a "$20 Kindness Challenge" with her class, giving each student $20, and asking them to do something kind with it. And every year, the teens in her class bring her to tears with their creativity, empathy and generosity.
On Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 2 p.m., Quaker activists Bill Holcombe and Lewis Randa will be arraigned at Natick Framingham District Court for “disturbing the peace” after participating in peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience on Inauguration Day, which coincided with the Martin Luther King Day of Service.
A man living with hand tremors for 30 years received an ultrasonic beam treatment at Delray Medical center in Florida, and is cured with what Dr. Lloyd Zucker calls his “magic trick." There are 79 centers in the country where this procedure is done and fully covered by Medicare.
To effectively engage in resistance within the U.S. political system, it is essential to address all three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. Each branch offers unique opportunities to express opposition, foster change, and strengthen democracy.
New research published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis reveals how the most colorful, anthocyanin-rich fruits and vegetables could help defend your body against toxic microplastic exposure, especially offering protection to the reproductive system from microplastic damage.
Indore, a lesser known city of India ranks the cleanest for 8 years in a row following an all-hands-on-deck approach to improve and maintain hygiene standards. One corporate executive remarked, ”It feels as though you aren’t in India.”
The West Ada School District made national headlines recently when administrators ordered a school teacher to remove signs containing welcoming messages from her classroom. Community members quickly responded, ensuring the signs’ messages would be seen far beyond a single classroom.
Schools and workplaces are more collaborative and responsive when people with disabilities are included at all levels of the organization. Disability inclusion isn’t about charity; it’s about making organizations work better.
Ireland announced on Wednesday a donation of 15 million euros ($16.3 million) to Brazil's Amazon Fund, which aims to stop deforestation and preserve the world's largest tropical rainforest. The donation is Ireland's first to the fund, raising the list of donors to eight countries.
Cambridge, Massachusetts has joined a growing list of cities that have banned gas-powered leaf blowers. The city’s ban went into effect over the weekend, and officials noted this move was in the interest of public health and reducing emissions for the environment.
Hollywood actor Michael Sheen has paid off £1 million in debt for 900 people impacted by Tata Steel’s blast furnace closure in Port Talbot, South Wales, which left 2,800 workers jobless five months ago. The actor launched a debt acquisition initiative, personally investing £100,000 to buy and cancel debts instead of profiting from them.
In hundreds of places across the country and around the world, we have been sustained by our individual and collective voices of hope for human freedom, equality, compassion, and love. This is our survival kit for troubled times.
More than 14,000 seed samples are headed for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week, where they’ll be preserved and protected against climate change, war, and other events that can threaten crops and plant diversity.
Do not allow external forces keep you from experiencing the internal freedom to choose how to respond and act, regardless of society’s gender expectations. The only one who can define you is you.
With Japanese know-how and the unwavering support of Japanese experts, Bhutan’s national bird is being hatched and hand-reared in captivity successfully for the first time ever. The major hurdle to rearing chicks was overcome, and two healthy birds were just hand-reared.
Michael Jordan has opened another health clinic in his home state of North Carolina, bringing the total to four clinics now serving the uninsured. The concept began in 2019 with a pair of clinics strategically placed in Charlotte to address barriers to care, including transportation.
Just over a quarter (26%) of voting members in the U.S. Congress identify as a race or ethnicity other than non-Hispanic White, making the 119th Congress the most racially and ethnically diverse to date. In continuation of a long-running trend, this is the eighth Congress to break the record set by the one before it.
Fish are thriving in the River Seine, which is teeming with marine life once again, as it did centuries ago. For years, the storied French waterway was nearly biologically dead, but now, “the Seine is a wild place in the heart of Paris.”
In what has been a particularly turbulent week in global affairs, the choice of ‘kindness’ as Oxford Children’s Word of the Year for 2024 offers a reminder of the hope we carry for younger generations. According to teachers, the choice of ‘kindness’, was selected by 61% of the youngsters asked.
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