Welcome back to another edition of The Detour. First, we have a big announcement:
Frame has historically been supported by angel investors and venture capital. But lately, the media fundraising landscape has dried up. Without additional funding, Frame will have to stop publishing The Detour and new stories at the end of May.
Every week, thousands of you open this email. If each one of you who opens The Detour pledged $50 for a yearly subscription through Substack today, we could run Frame for at least another year or more.
We hope you consider pledging $50 dollars (or another amount that works for you) to keep Frame going and help us to keep publishing The Detour and important stories from around the world in interactive formats that foster curiosity.
And if you pledge $100, you’ll officially be a Frame founding partner, and we’ll send you a limited-edition Frame tote bag and a personal thank-you card from the team.
If The Detour and Frame have added meaning or value to your life, we would be so grateful for your support.
-The team at Frame (Aloma, Ben, Kelly, Jeremy, and Tom)
~ The team at Frame ~
Because Frame is a for-profit, pledges are not tax deductible, but they will go directly to keeping our team going and allowing us to bring you more interesting, global, sometimes quirky journalism!
Without further ado, here’s what’s on deck this week:
🧒 More children than ever are crossing the Darien Gap. Here’s why.
🆘 Dispatches fromAmerica’s last morse code station
🌳 The Japanese term for gentle light in a dense forest
But first, here’s a closer look at what’s been going on around the world in the last week or so:
0 — The number of countries in the world that afford women the same workplace opportunities as men. Yes, you read that correctly: According to a new report from the World Bank, precisely zero countries have adequately set the stage for women’s success, which is a stark difference from prior reports issued by the bank. This year, they incorporated the impact of childcare and safety policies in making or breaking women’s ability to thrive while on the job. You can read the full report here.
1.6 billion — The total number of Muslims amid the start of Ramadan on Sunday. This is Islam’s holiest month, and yet a great many practicing Muslims are celebrating in conflict zones, from Uyghurs in Xinjiang, to Rohingya in Burma and Bangladesh, and Palestinians in Gaza.
410% — The percent rise in U.S. layoff announcements year-over-year in February, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Last month was reportedly the worst February recorded since 2009 regarding job layoffs.
30 - The approximate hours of footage captured by the Associated Press journalist Mstislav Chernov on the ground in Ukraine, who won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature on Sunday for his work on the documentary “20 Days in Mariupol.” This footage had to be sent through humanitarian corridors due to the immense deconstruction in Ukraine in the immediate outset of Russia’s invasion. Chernov's team were the last journalists in Mariupol and became the first Frontline PBS crew to earn the documentary Academy Award for their storytelling.
$6.1 million USD — The amount of money a New Zealand court has ordered White Island Tours, Volcanic Air Safaris, Kahu New Zealand, and Aerius, and the corporate owner of White Island, Whakaari Management Ltd, to pay survivors of a 2019 volcanic eruption that killed 22 people, citing the groups’ negligence in not ensuring the safety of tourists who had descended upon the island under their care.
The Torres family in Panama // 2023. Source: Michelle Shen for Frame
Each year, hundreds of thousands of migrants cross one of the world’s most treacherous jungles, the Darien Gap, in between Panama and Columbia, hoping to reach the United States and Canada. This week, reporter Michelle Shen tells the story of one family’s perilous journey through the jungle.
I grew up just an hour and half’s drive from Point Reyes National Seashore in the California Bay Area. And despite a childhood spent gallivanting through the likes of Muir Woods and Half Moon Bay, I’m struck by my recent discovery that this expanse of protected coastline just north of San Francisco is also home to the last operational Morse-code radio station in North America.
Enter KPH Maritime Radio and its motley grew of so-called “radio squirrels.” On the weekends since resuscitating operations in 1997, they have beeped and booped the latest maritime news and weather reports via machine called a “bug” to seafarers scattered round the Bay.
Maritime Morse code was formally phased out in 1999, and it’s rarely taught in the U.S. Navy, but here the language thrives among an eager audience. A feature story about them in The Atlantic by Saahil Desai and photographed by Ann Hermes will leave you enchanted and nostalgic as it tracks the group’s mission to carry on the legacy of radio enthusiasm to younger generations.
On Thursday, March 14 — The Government of Italy is hosting a G7 Ministerial meeting in Verona and Trento to discuss technology. These talks will include AI for sustainable development and a Code of Conduct for AI developers. You can take a peek at all their meetings here.
On Friday, March 15 thru Sunday, March 17 — Russia holds its presidential election, but there’s no doubt as to who the winner may be. Barring any surprises, current Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to win yet another term in office since holding power as president or prime minister since 1999.
On Monday, March 18 — The 10th anniversary of Taiwan's Sunflower Movement takes place. In 2014, hundreds of students and young activists broke into Taiwan's Legislative Yuan and stayed for three weeks in efforts to block the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, a trade agreement between Taiwan and China, from being passed. My roommate was among those in the fray, and the group’s temporary seizure of the legislative palace rocked the world, permanently changing the face of Taiwanese activism.
Activists inside The Legislative Yuan on April 10, 2014
On Tuesday, March 19 - Pope Francis’s biography releases in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Written by the journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, the work promises to be a sweeping account of the Catholic leader’s life through key moments in world history, recounting his personal memories surrounding World War II, the 2008 economic recession, the attack of the Twin Towers in New York City, the COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond.
Sometimes when you’re walking through a forest, sunlight passes through the trees, illuminating the understory and creating an awe-inspiring experience. While there’s no word for this in English, in Japanese there is a precise term for it: komorebi, which loosely translates to “sunlight leaking through trees.”
The experience of komorebi can create a feeling of awe and wonder. Perhaps it’s seeing the power of the sun, broken into dancing rays of light, or the overall effect of the forest feeling alive.
Source: Alan Light/Wikimedia Commons
Writers have been entranced by this effect for generations. “The Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis wrote:
“Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are patches of Godlight in the woods of our experience.”
As spring arrives in the Northern Hemisphere maybe we can all seek out some more komorebi in our lives.
— Ben
We’re a small team of independent journalists creating stories we love and believe in. This takes a considerable amount of time and heart. Our focus on undercovered features and smart, cultural commentary wouldn’t be possible without your support. We’d be so grateful if you pledged your support below to keep Frame going.
