We all need a little positivity

Blog for good news and positive ideas about environmental efforts and feminism. Mostly in English, but there will be some Spanish too (por mejor parte en ingles pero habrán cosas en español).

[hope-for-the-planet]

UN backs historic climate crisis ruling, despite US attempts to stop resolution

The US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters – opposed the measure

From the article:

The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – which is the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.

[reasonsforhope]

FDA just approved the world’s first once-a-week insulin injection for diabetics, a major development for patients who rely on daily insulin

For millions of people managing type 2 diabetes, mornings begin the same way — a needle, a dose, and a quiet mental note to do it all again

"For millions of people managing type 2 diabetes, mornings begin the same way — a needle, a dose, and a quiet mental note to do it all again tomorrow.

That routine just changed.

On March 26, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Awiqli (insulin icodec-abae), developed by Novo Nordisk, as the first and only once-weekly basal insulin ever approved for adults with type 2 diabetes in the United States.

This is not a minor update to an existing drug.

It is the first entirely new class of basal insulin to reach U.S. patients in more than two decades.

Instead of injecting insulin every single day, people with type 2 diabetes using Awiqli will only need one shot per week, on the same day, every week.

That means reducing from 365 injections a year down to just 52.

For anyone who has ever felt the weight of that daily ritual — the anxiety of forgetting, the physical discomfort, the constant reminder that their body needs help — this approval represents something much bigger than a dosing schedule.

It represents relief.

How the Drug Actually Works

Understanding why this injection lasts a full week requires a quick look inside the body.

Most traditional basal insulins are absorbed into the bloodstream and begin breaking down within 24 hours, which is why patients need a fresh dose every day to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

Awiqli works differently.

Its active ingredient, insulin icodec-abae, is engineered to loosely attach to a blood protein called albumin, which is found naturally and abundantly in the bloodstream.

This attachment creates a slow-release reservoir.

Instead of flooding the system and fading fast, the insulin releases gradually and consistently over an entire seven-day period, keeping blood sugar in a healthy range around the clock...

The FDA reviewed and ultimately declined to approve it for people with type 1 diabetes, citing concerns about a modestly increased risk of hypoglycemia in that population specifically.

Some regulatory agencies in other countries, including the European Union, Canada, Australia, and Japan, have approved Awiqli for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but for now the U.S. approval is limited to type 2...

What Comes Next

Awiqli is not standing alone in this space for long.

Eli Lilly is developing its own once-weekly basal insulin, called efsitora alfa, which is currently in late-stage clinical trials.

If that drug also earns FDA approval, it would give patients and doctors two once-weekly options to choose from, allowing for personalized decisions based on a patient’s health profile, insurance coverage, and individual response.

The broader direction of travel in diabetes care is unmistakable.

Fewer injections, smarter formulations, and better integration with digital tools like continuous glucose monitors and insulin-tracking apps are all converging toward a future where managing diabetes requires less daily mental effort without becoming any less medically precise...

A Small Shot With Large Implications

It is easy to look at a once-weekly injection and see only a scheduling change.

But the science behind Awiqli, the scale of the ONWARDS trials, and the consistent satisfaction reported by patients all point toward something that matters far more than convenience.

Diabetes management has always asked a lot of people.

It asks for daily vigilance, daily discipline, and a daily willingness to confront one’s own condition, sometimes in uncomfortable or inconvenient circumstances.

Anything that reduces that load, without reducing the quality of care, is worth taking seriously.

For the more than 37 million Americans living with diabetes, and the hundreds of millions more around the world, a simpler weekly routine could mean the difference between a treatment plan that works on paper and one that actually works in a person’s life.

That is the real significance of what the FDA approved on March 26, 2026.

Not just a new drug.

A new way of keeping people healthy, one week at a time."

-via Science Aim, March 29, 2026.

[hope-for-the-planet]

A First Among Major Nations, India Is Industrializing With Solar

While China's push to modernize sparked a surge in burning coal, India is turning to increasingly cheap solar to meet its booming energy nee

Most countries have followed a similar trend in energy usage as they industrialize, dramatically increasing their use of the dirtier fossil fuels, especially coal. Although they are now building out renewables faster than anywhere else on Earth, China is the biggest recent example of this.

However, India seems to be taking a different path--one that has recently become viable with the dramatically dropping prices of solar and battery storage. India's economy is now growing faster than China's and they are fueling this growth mostly with renewables.

This would make India the first major country to power it's industrialization with renewable energy, essentially skipping the step between coal and transitioning to cleaner forms of energy.

[yourreddancer]

The European Union already forced Apple to abandon its proprietary charging port and adopt USB-C across its entire iPhone lineup. It just did something bigger. A new EU mandate requires every smartphone sold in Europe including Apple devices to feature a battery that can be replaced by the user without specialist tools, without voiding a warranty, and without sending the device to a manufacturer approved service center. Batteries must maintain a minimum capacity threshold after a set number of charge cycles and replacement parts must remain available for up to ten years after a model goes on sale.

The consumer electronics industry built its current business model around batteries that degrade, cannot be replaced at home, and create a natural upgrade cycle every two to three years. The EU just legislated that model out of existence in the world's largest regulatory market.

Apple, Samsung, and every other manufacturer now faces a choice between redesigning their devices for the European market or accepting that their current hardware architecture is no longer legally sellable there.

Given that no company walks away from European consumers voluntarily the phones are going to change and once they change for Europe the rest of the world will ask why theirs still do not.

[validblogname]

one fight at a time

[lizardlicks]

Black Hills drilling project canceled after backlash from tribes

A South Dakota mining company has canceled a drilling project in the Black Hills after opposition from Native American tribes and local grou

[kimmycup]

Like I don't think you guys comprehend what happened in Poland just now but everyone needs to be talking about it.

A random influencer decided he'll listen to an anti cancer song on loop. People liked it enough times he ended up listening for 9 days.

He raised 90 million in these 9 days, and then 160 million more over the last 10 hours, for a total of 250 million.

Hundreds and thousands of people signed up to donate marrow.

Hundreds of celebrities shaved their heads in solidarity.

The Foundation receiving this money had to create a special commission to figure out how to distribute the money.

The national TV stations got highjacked to stream this for hours because it was better news than anything happening in the world.

Because we broke and DOUBLED the world record for this kind of thing.

They raised about as much as the biggest running charity event in Poland did in a whole year with three decades of tradition and a goddamn army of people.

And they did it on a goddamn amateur set up in a shabby room sitting on folding chairs.

[kimmycup]

Little update: people keep donating despite the stream being over. We're at 280 million in the fight against cancer.

Łatwogang refuses to collab with companies that only reached out to him now because of popularity or give interviews. He said any medals people wanna give them should go to the doctors and nurses and the cancer patients.

Someone offered to renovate that shabby little flat for him as a thank you. He refused.

Someone counted up how many people appeared in that room during the whole thing - it was 319 total.

[belladonna-rx]

Love to hear it. Love news articles too.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/polish-nine-day-charity-stream-breaks-records-support-kids-with-cancer-2026-04-27/

Just love this headline phrasing.

Streamer crushes MrBeast charity record with $70 million raised for kids with cancer - Dexerto

Polish streamer Łatwogang’s charity livestream has raised over 203 million złoty for children with cancer, breaking the charity stream recor

[dancinbutterfly]

Way to go Łatwogang! You and the rest of Poland are saving lives.

Bonus gift of: eat shit Mr Beast.

[dsudis]

Wheelchair users are finally winning the right to repair

State laws are forcing private equity–backed firms—which can make buyers wait months—to allow DIY fixes.

[hope-for-the-planet]

Extensive testing validates reuse of 23-year-old second-life polycrystalline solar modules

Researchers in Brazil tested second-life polycrystalline PV modules for two years and found they retained 87–88% of their original power, wi

From the article:

Researchers at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil have conducted a 2-year testing on second-life polycrystalline solar modules deployed at their campus and have found that they can still ensure “stable” behavior, with performance consistent with annual degradation rates of up to 0.44%. “Despite the many aspects making it a difficult sell, circular economy and sustainability issues might work in favor of second-life photovoltaic modules, due to the huge amount of panels that will become available with the exponential growth this technology is undergoing for nearly a decade,” the research's lead author, Ricardo Rüther, told pv magazine. 

This is so cool! They found that solar panels over two decades old still retain 87-88% of their original functionality.

If somebody can figure out how to build a sustainable business around secondhand solar panels we could see the price of solar installations become shockingly cheap. And it would save so many resources to just re-use the existing mostly-functional-but-older solar panels rather than recycling them for parts.

[hope-for-the-planet]

Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Nov. 28, 2025 – The following statement was issued today from CITES CoP20, celebrating the sweeping and historic adop

From the article:

“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections. Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal tabled for the CoP covering over 70 species. These decisions could not be more urgent: sharks and rays are the second most imperiled group of species on the planet, and many are running out of time. These animals are vital to the health and balance of our oceans, shaping entire marine ecosystems integrity and underpinning cultural heritage for Indigenous Peoples and local communities all over the world. Today’s votes give them a real chance at recovery, and now we must carry this momentum through the final plenary vote and into swift implementation. The world chose action over extinction today and recognized sharks as essential marine wildlife, and these decisions offer real hope for the future of our oceans. We cannot let up now.” [...] Together, these listings close major loopholes in the international market for fins, gill plates, meat, and other products – longstanding pressures that have accelerated population collapse across our ocean.

[hyeenagurrl]

FEDERAL MURDER CHARGE AGAINST LUIGI MANGIONE DISMISSED, NO DEATH PENALTY!!!!!

[humanerrers]

x

[humanerrers]

stop spreading despair and nihilism

stop buying into the idea that nonviolent activism is useless, rather than (by far) the most effective form of protest

stop falsely claiming that BLM accomplished nothing and that most citizens “don’t care” when people are murdered by the state

start understanding that most of your neighbors care about your rights, and their own

start noticing that most people are moved by injustice, including against people who look nothing like them

[crafting-and-tea]

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong

The pushback against ICE exposed a series of mistaken assumptions.

[crafting-and-tea]

Wed. Jan 28, 2026

Masked, armored, and armed to the teeth, and they're afraid of people blowing whistles at them. link to post

[crafting-and-tea]

My favorite good news from July 2025

https://archive.md/i6lle

Boston College Law School Magazine | The Tribal Victory of the Century

With discretion and respect for Native Americans, a BC Law alum helps restore a river, its salmon, and its people to their rightful places.

First malaria medicine for newborns is approved

The new treatment should begin rolling out in eight African countries before the end of 2025.

304: Superprogressive

Reclaiming the value of immersion in an era of compression. Plus, the most hopeful statistic in four decades of writing about the climate, B

[run-of-the-milf]

Video from Aaron Parnas on Instagram.

Government controlled media is already reducing it to "hundreds" of people in the streets today, but rest assured it is tens of thousands of Minnesotans marching through downtown. Local folks on bluesky were saying all the buses were full, the metro trains were all full, the highways were empty on a Friday.

This is not insignificant. This is what resistance looks like. We outnumber them and we are organized

[activists-hope]

Education for agency: Career training boosts women’s independence | UN Women – Headquarters

Through UN Women and our partners, refugee women in Uganda are gaining skills, challenging stereotypes and building brighter futures – one e

[Full text under cut]

“I tell my daughter I’m in school, too. I’m learning, too”, says Elina Iraguha, on how she explains her new training programme to her five-year-old. The fact that the programme focuses on motor vehicle mechanics – a male-dominated career – was no deterrent for Iraguha.

“I chose mechanics because I want to earn a living and show that women can succeed in any field.”

Iraguha, who was born in Rwanda and has been living in the Kyaka II Refugee Settlement in Uganda since she was a year old, is participating in a UN Women programme that boosts vocational skills for women living in refugee settlements and host communities. Through the second chance education intervention under the Programme, a collaboration with Peace Winds Japan with funding from the Government of Japan, participants earn marketable skills, self-sufficiency, and confidence. Education and economic empowerment programmes like these are also critical to peace and security: Pathways to sustainable livelihoods promote greater harmony and stability, and reduce local conflicts.

As these women become more independent, something else happens: They take their new experiences and earnings and give back to their communities. Whether helping to pay for their sibling’s school tuition, opening their own businesses with their own training centres, or busting stereotypes for women and girls, these women aspire to use their success to lift up others.

UN Women sat down with two future mechanics, Elina Iraguha and Ange Shokano, to learn about their motivations and their plans.

Education for independence and security

Ange Shokano arrived with her family at the Kyaka II Refugee Settlement in 2019. They had fled their village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was under constant attack by armed rebel groups. The second-born of seven children, Shokano describes finding peace and stability in Uganda.

Unfortunately, opportunities have been limited. Two years ago, she dropped out of school when her family could not afford the tuition fees.

“My mother was the first person to encourage me to join the mechanics programme”, says Shokano. “She said, ‘I don’t have money to keep you in school, but you can go for this training, and this will help you sustain yourself.’”

As for Elina Iraguha, she has been in love with cars since she was a little girl, she tells us. “But I used to only see men working as mechanics. How come women can drive – but not repair? I said, ‘What is this!’” she jokes.

“I expect a lot from this course”, explains Iraguha. “I see people with their own businesses because of these skills. My dream is to own my own workshop.”

Busting stereotypes and closing gender gaps

Shokano shares that she had some self-doubts on her first day of training. “I was worried about the energy and strength it would take”, she explains. “Then I realized, ‘It’s you that poisons your mind. I can do anything.’”

Both women describe how supportive their family members have been – though admitted that some needed convincing. “When I told my dad that I applied for the mechanics training, he said, ‘That job is for men! Leave that job for your brothers!’” says Iraguha. “I told him, ‘No, I can do it. Just allow me to try and you’ll see.”

“Once he started to see how well I was managing all the repairs, he was so impressed!”

But Iraguha has concerns that a lack of trust in women mechanics could hurt her future success. “There’s also the community. They say women who do ‘men’s work’ are tough. Many fear them!” She laughs at the thought, then centres herself: “But it is about my own motivation, my will, and what I want to get in life that will push me forward.”

She knows her father is just the beginning. Eventually, no one will be able to argue with the quality of her work.

Women’s success strengthens communities

“I want to earn enough money to start up my own garage, so I can sustain my life, as well as my siblings’”, says Iraguha.

She becomes animated as she describes her vision for the future: “My dream in 10 years is to have my own workshop where I can repair people’s cars and train others in the community. It would be a big workshop that could accommodate up to 50 learners, mostly women. Many women overlook this job because they think it is only for men. And yet it is just a skill. Anyone can learn it.”

After one month of training, Shokano and Iraguha have already mastered tyre repairs and breaks. After six months, they’ll earn their certificates.

Shokano says this is just the beginning for her. She hopes to form a garage with other women in the training programme so they can earn money while advancing their skills. “It’s important for women to focus on themselves. Learn mechanics or hair dressing – whatever skills you need to sustain yourself.”

Education as a foundation for gender equality

The stories of Shokano and Iraguha are reminders that education is not just about books – but about agency. It gives women the tools they need to challenge gender norms, support their families, and uplift communities.

As we mark International Day of Education, their journeys reflect what’s possible when learning meets opportunity.

“Education is the key”, says Shokano. “Education is the key to the doors that had been closed in my future.”

[reasonsforhope]

Mediterranean monk seals make a remarkable comeback

Once on the brink of extinction, the rare marine mammal's populations are rising, thanks to conservation efforts. 

Once on the brink of extinction, rare Mediterranean monk seal populations are rising, thanks to conservation efforts.

The Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, known as MOm, is a charity dedicated to the care and protection of these rare marine animals.

Nearly half of the world's estimated 800 Mediterranean monk seals live in Greek waters, where the extensive coastline offers an abundance of sea caves that provide shelter for females to rear their young.

The rare seals are the only seal species in the Mediterranean. They have big, round eyes, prominent whiskers and are remarkably fast in the water...

In the twentieth century, habitat deterioration and destruction, as well as deliberate aggression from fisherman has caused a drastic population decline, prompting the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN) to classify them as 'critically endangered'.

The population had decreased so dramatically that at one point the species faced extinction.

Pictured: Panagis is one of dozens of monk seals nursed back to health by the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, known as MOm.

How conservation efforts are changing their fate

Dr Alexandros Dendrinos, a marine biologist and coordinator at MOm, explains that the Mediterranean monk seal is "one of the rarest species of seal and marine mammal in the world."

"To protect an animal like the Mediterranean monk seal in its natural environment, you essentially have to protect the entire marine ecosystem,"

MOm is the only centre of its kind in the region, and has cared for around 40 seals both on location and at its facilities.

They respond to members of the public who find an animal in distress, aiding adult seals on-site when possible and bringing young seals, like Panagais, to the rehabilitation centre at Attica Zoological Park in Athens.

The young seals receive veterinary care, specialised nutrition, and swimming practice. 

They are often named after those who found them, but human interaction is kept minimal to ensure their successful reintegration into the wild.

Once they have reached a healthy weight and developed natural hunting instincts, they are tagged for tracking and reintroduced to their natural habitat.

"This year, we had a really pleasant surprise," Dr Dendrinos shared.

A female seal they rehabilitated and released four years ago was recently spotted nursing her own pup.

Conservation efforts have yielded significant results as the species moved from critically endangered to endangered on the IUCN Red List and, in 2023, improved even further to vulnerable.

-via ABC Australia, March 12, 2025

[hesperocyon-lesbian]

Whistleblower drops 'largest ever' ICE leak to unmask agents: 'The last straw'

A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower has released the identities of about 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees Tuesday in what h

A whistleblower at the fascist DHS has released the names of 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol agents, providing an unprecedented means to monitor and counter their local presence

[cognitivejustice]

Building future from past: How Eurasia's traditions can power a circular economy - Türkiye Today

Eurasia's heritage of reuse and cooperation offers a blueprint for sustainable growth through the circular economy and green innovation

For generations, communities across Eurasia have embraced resourcefulness—repairing, reusing, and making the most of what they had.

These traditions offer a practical foundation for sustainable living today.

In a Central Asian yurt, every item—from felt to wooden frames—was designed for reuse and longevity.

Georgian winemakers used clayqvevrifor centuries, fermenting wine underground in vessels that last for generations.

Across Anatolia, water systems—from Roman aqueducts to Ottoman fountains—reflect a deep respect for resource management.

In Serbia, the tradition ofmoba (collective labor for harvesting or building) embodies community-driven sustainability.

These examples show that circular principles are not new; they are rooted in the region’s cultural heritage—even if many of these traditions have faded in the wake of industrialization.

Today, as the world searches for new models of growth that combine climate neutrality, efficiency, and inclusivity, such habits can serve as a powerful starting point for the future.