The Best News of Last Week — April 25, 2022

🐺 — Hope you had a great weekend. Here’s some good things that happened last week from around the world

1. Spain makes it a crime for pro-lifers to harass people outside abortion clinics

Spain has criminalized the harassment or intimidation of women going for an abortion under new legislation approved by the Senate on Wednesday.

The move, which involves changes to the penal code, means anti-abortion activists who try to convince women not to terminate their pregnancies could face up to a year behind bars.

Anyone trying “to impede [a woman] from exercising her right to voluntarily interrupt pregnancy” through “bothersome, offensive, intimidating or threatening acts” will face jail time of between three and 12 months, or community service, the text reads.

2. India’s first openly gay prince vows to fight for ‘conversion therapy’ ban

Royal prince Manvendra Singh Gohil is fighting for a more accepting future for the LGBTQ+ community in India. Gohil has faced an onslaught of homophobic attitudes and was rejected by his parents, Maharaja and Maharani of Rajpipla, as the public turned against him.

Despite this, the prince has pushed ahead with his efforts to support the minority queer community in India. He launched the community-led charity Lakshya Trust two decades ago. The organization aims to educate on the topics of sexual tolerance, gender equity, HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQ+ community in the Gujarat state of India.

The prince has continued to support the community. In 2018, Gohil opened up his 15-acre palace grounds to become a center for India’s LGBTQ community.

3. More than one million African children protected by first malaria vaccine

More than a million children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have now received at least one dose of the first anti-malaria vaccine, the WHO said Thursday. The “breakthrough” RTS,S vaccine was pioneered in Malawi in April 2019 and found to be safe and to substantially reduce severe cases of the disease

4. French Town to Light its Streets With Bacteria Luminescence That Needs No Electricity

The turquoise blue glow bathing the waiting room in Rambouillet, comes from a marine bacterium gathered off the coast of France called Aliivibrio fischeri. The bacteria are stored inside saltwater-filled tubes, allowing them to circulate in a kind of luminous aquarium.

Since the light is generated through internal biochemical processes that are part of the organism’s normal metabolism, running it requires almost no energy other than that needed to produce the food the bacteria consume. A mix of basic nutrients is added and air is pumped through the water to provide oxygen.

To “turn off the lights”, the air is simply cut off, halting the process by sending the bacteria into an anaerobic state where it does not produce bioluminescence.

- we’re giving the bacteria jobs now

5. California grid set record of 97% renewable power on April 3

The California Independent System Operator (ISO) set a new record on April 3, when 97.6% of electricity on the grid came from clean, renewable energy.

- This is really exciting! California really has been upping and upping their game each year I swear.

6. Costs to ship breast milk now covered for military and DOD civilian nursing mothers

Nursing mothers in the U.S. military or the Defense Department civilian workforce now may be reimbursed up to $1,000 to ship breast milk when on official travel for more than three days, under a revised Pentagon policy adopted earlier this month.

Volunteers from the Air Force’s women’s initiative team have been pushing for the reimbursement for more than two years.

They had found that on average, 18% of active-duty airmen go on temporary duty orders within the first year of giving birth. Shipping breast milk can cost hundreds of dollars, which can be unaffordable to young parents early in their military careers, the team said.

7. Six pups born to pair of wild red wolves in North Carolina

A litter of endangered red wolves has been born to a wild pair of parents in eastern North Carolina for the first time in four years. The six pups were born in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.

The wild births are a big deal for a species nearing extinction. Red wolves are the rarest canine predator on earth. Only 20 are known to remain in the wild, living in five sparsely populated areas of eastern North Carolina.

That’s it for this week. Until next week, stay safe and don’t forget to share this post with your friends :)