Smorgasbord of good news nuggets to help perk up the day.
Humpback Migration
Up to 50,000 humpback whales are expected to pass Australia’s east coast during this year's annual migration from Antartica to the Great Barrier Reef - which runs from May to July. That's up from just a few hundred in the 1960s.
Whale Seems to Love Getting Hugs and Kisses: A whale enthusiast's dream of meeting one of these gentle giants finally came true on a recent expedition in Baja, Mexico. More...
Seminal Moment
China has passed the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecosystem Protection Act, a comprehensive law protecting the Tibetan plateau and its surroundings, an area of over one million square miles (2.5m km2), larger than all of Western Europe, reports Mongabay. It's a seminal moment in the story of conservation in China–not perfect, but a huge turnaround from the country's historical approach to nature.
You're Never Too Old
Joni Mitchell was showered with love on Saturday night, as she played her first headline show in more than 20 years. Until recently, the chance of seeing the 79-year-old in concert had seemed like a fading possibility. She suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2015 and had to re-learn how to walk, talk and play guitar. But on Saturday, she played for nearly three hours, accompanied by famous admirers like Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford and Brandi Carlile. The show, in Washington State, was billed as a "Joni Jam", recreating the loose, wine-fuelled sessions Mitchell hosted for other musicians in her California house during her rehabilitation.
Gun Reform
California Governor Gavin Newsom has laid out a plan to make the 28th Amendment to the Constitution about gun reform. Though it faces an uphill battle, says Politico, it would raise the minimum age to buy a firearm, mandate universal background checks, institute a waiting period on all gun sales, and ban assault rifles. Seeded with cash left over from his landslide 2022 re-election, fueled by frustration over the country’s failure to adopt restrictions that polls show most Americans broadly support, Newsom is on a mission.
Fridays for Future
Despite graduating, the Swedish climate activist behind the global school strikes says ‘The fight has only just begun’. Greta Thunberg staged her final School Strike for Climate last week. The Swedish activist sparked the global youth movement in 2018 when she encouraged students to skip classes on Fridays to demand action against climate change. Since then, millions of students in more than 180 countries have participated in the Fridays for Future strikes, calling for the fossil fuel industry to transition to renewable energy, among other demands. “When I started striking in 2018 I could never have expected that it would lead to anything,” Greta tweeted. “Some more people joined, and quite suddenly this was a global movement growing every day.”
Hiding in Plain Sight
Thomas Cromwell’s Book of Hours was “thought to be a lost relic of Henry VIII’s court”, said The Times, but “it transpires that it’s been hiding in plain sight for 363 years”. The book, which was immortalised in one of the most famous portraits from Tudor England, has been sitting quietly in a Cambridge library, researchers have found. Tracy Borman, the Tudor historian, said it was “the most exciting Cromwell discovery in a generation - if not more”.
"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." Judy Garland
On this Day
13 June 1967: Thurgood Marshall was nominated as justice to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson; he became the Court's first African American member.
Coldplay's latest global tour nearly hit its ambitious goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 50 percent. Blueprint...
Once predicted to be completely wiped out, America's only native stork is thriving again, partly through its own resourcefulness. Success...
Mood Booster
Secret Life of Dogs: Here's how they see, hear and smell.
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