The Rest of the World Report | August 23, 2026

Weekday morning and evening editions. Saturdays once. Good news on Sundays. All sources labeled.

Five stories this week, sent in part by two of you, and found in part the usual way. A library system saved, a wilderness protected, a man pulled alive from total darkness, teenagers who turned a summer hobby into a cleanup crew, and a bird that came back from extinction to have a baby.

A ROMANCE NOVELIST SAVES FIVE LIBRARIES

Rachel Reid, the Nova Scotia author whose “Heated Rivalry” book series became a hit TV show, donated $300,000 to the Annapolis Valley Regional Library after learning five of its rural branches faced permanent closure. The library board had already dipped into its reserves to keep the Hantsport, Kentville, Lawrencetown, Port Williams, and Middleton locations open through September, after Nova Scotia’s provincial government declined to close a funding gap of more than $200,000. Reid’s gift covers that shortfall through the rest of the fiscal year. She told CBC News she couldn’t see the point of being a successful Nova Scotia author without using that success for good. Library CEO Julia Merritt called it one of the most significant private gifts in the system’s history.

Source: CBC News

A LINE AROUND THE BOUNDARY WATERS

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed an executive order directing state agencies to halt all permitting and environmental review of copper-sulfide mining in the Rainy River Headwaters Watershed, the roughly 1.89-million-acre drainage basin that feeds the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The order comes four months after Congress voted to overturn a 20-year federal mining ban covering more than 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest. It freezes new state leases, orders a review of the 38 nonferrous mineral leases already active in the watershed, and directs Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources to draft legislation making the protection permanent. “We will protect this place forever,” Walz said. The watershed supports an outdoor recreation economy environmental advocates estimate at nearly $1 billion.

Source: CBS News Minnesota

FIFTEEN DAYS IN THE DARK

A fisherman in Mexico’s Veracruz state was rescued alive after spending 15 days trapped inside an unexplored underwater cave with no food and no light. Erasto Crisanto Valdez went missing on July 23 while diving in a cenote, one of the limestone sinkholes common across the region, and lost his way back to the entrance in total darkness. He survived by drinking rainwater and breathing from an air pocket until specialist cave divers, in an operation the Municipal Government of Uxpanapa called “exhaustive,” found him on August 7. He is now recovering in a hospital bed.

Source: Good News Network

EIGHT TEENAGERS AND A RIVER

A group of eight Idaho teenagers who built a following of nearly 200,000 people documenting their summer adventures on Instagram found something unexpected while diving in the Boise River for fish and lost sunglasses: a river bed full of garbage. Instead of scrolling past it, the “208 Boys” started hauling the trash out themselves and posting the cleanup alongside their usual videos. The response surprised them, drawing thousands of likes and comments thanking the group for taking care of their community. The teens have kept returning to the river through the rest of the summer, trash bags in hand, and are now asking their followers to do the same. “The Boise River means a lot to me,” said Caleb Slee, one of the group.

Source: SunnySkyz

THE BIRD IRELAND GOT BACK

White-tailed sea eagles disappeared from Ireland entirely in the 19th century, hunted out of existence. Fota Wildlife Park in County Cork announced the successful hatching and fledging of a chick this spring, the first born at the park in more than a decade, to resident pair Áine and Tony. The chick is part of a reintroduction program running since 2007 that has now released more than 200 eagles into the wild, and conservationists say Ireland’s population has reached a real milestone: it is now self-sustaining, breeding on its own without further human intervention. “The mother and father have done a great job,” said Jess Hodnett, the park’s Native Species Conservation Officer. Europe’s largest eagle, once entirely gone from Irish skies, is now living there again.