And so to Groundhog Day. Again.
In the 1993 film, the Bill Murray character Phil Connors ultimately comes to realise that ditching cynicism for more open-hearted enthusiasm breaks the loop of the same old story repeating itself day after day.
In a world in which the same dismal stories have a tendency of repeating themselves day after day, a bit of the Connors approach might go a long way.
Take Poland. Persistent reports of the populist, authoritarian government and its attempts to rein in the courts and the media have dominated international coverage over the past four years. You could be forgiven for thinking nothing much good is going on in the country. You’d be wrong.
Then there are rising sea levels, the slow-motion consequence of global warming. A formidable threat, of course, and one to take very seriously. But not insuperable, as a group of Filipino islanders are proving.
Electric cars are one of the technologies heralded in the fight against climate change. But even here the cynical view can prevail: they don’t have a long enough range, you can’t charge them easily or quickly, they won’t catch on. One Dutch driver sought to prove the naysayers wrong, as Naaman Zhou found out.
So is that all we need – a little optimism to break the Brexit Groundhog Day loop? Or just a bit of humour?
Absolutely brilliant ending to the BBC Six O'clock News tonight #ChocksAway pic.twitter.com/eM7sFuWXKZ
— Matt Chorley (@MattChorley) January 30, 2019
What we liked
A gossamer-thin silver lining to the cloud that is Venezuela: the efforts made by neighbouring Colombia to deal with millions of people who have fled hunger and poverty has been exemplary, the Atlantic reports.
At the other end of the scale, who could not be touched by the story of the Devon farmer so attached to his lambs that he drove them to a sanctuary, not an abattoir.
What we heard
The stories of how people have adapted and are now adapting should encourage us all to know that whatever the challenge, there will be those who will stand up to it and succeed.
Colddebtmountain, in the comments under the rising sea levels article
Who'd blame UK-based #Polish people returning home in face of UK #Brexit hostility? #Poland's #Democracy innovations, incl #sortition, make Brits look Retrograde (no, that not some foreign city). @marcingerwin https://t.co/x2YWmQtjw8 @GuardianUpside @markriceoxley69 @zuzfim
— Patrick Chalmers (@PatrickChalmers) January 30, 2019
Where was the Upside?
On Manus Island, where an asylum seeker who has been detained for almost six years won Australia’s most valuable literary prize.
Also, for women everywhere, with the announcement of a pioneering year-long trial into a male contraceptive gel.
