Mental Floss: 'Kedi,' a Heartwarming New Documentary, Stars Istanbul's Street Cats

Kedi follows seven street cats on their daily jaunts through the city, exploring their social lives and encounters with their favorite human friends. The documentary takes a cat’s-eye view of the city: The camera tracks low along the ground, eye-to-eye with the film’s feline stars as they roam the streets, following them into cafes, up onto rooftops, and down to the waterfront. Most have several human allies who care for them and whom they visit every day.

In interviews, these caretakers often meditate on the fiercely independent nature of the cats living around them. One compares being friends with a cat to communicating with aliens. Most of the interviewees call the cats that pop into their lives "friends," rather than "pets." The cats come and go as they please, each one with its own agenda and distinct personality. They might stop by for a bite to eat or for a round of petting, then move on to their next destination. Some stalk boldly into cafes, while others wait patiently outside for someone to bring them a snack. [...]

To get a sense of just how revered Istanbul's street cats are, consider this: In 2016, the city erected a statue by a local artist honoring a recently departed street cat, Tombili. He was so beloved (locally and on social media) that the petition for a statue of him gathered 17,000 signatures in less than two months. Street cats are welcome at mosques, in cafes, and in people’s apartments.

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The Telegraph: Hedgehogs vanish from British gardens

More than half of Britain’s gardeners did not spot a hedgehog, owl, frog, fox, mouse or bat, in their gardens in 2016, as wildlife experts warn that the once common animals are continuing to decline.

The annual survey by BBC Gardening World Magazine found there has been a further drop in hedgehog sightings as well as a decline in most garden birds, and butterflies. [...]

However 60 per cent of the 2,600 people surveyed said they had done something to help the plight of hedgehogs last year such as stopping using slug pellets, or keeping an eye out for the animals before using strimmers or lighting bonfires.

“Gardeners are increasingly acting to help wildlife, but the question is can we do it fast enough to halt this sharp decline in numbers?” said Lucy Hall, BBC Gardeners’ World Editor.

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Politico: Meet Denmark’s new anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-tax party

Nye Borgerlige, or “The New Right,” led by 41-year-old Pernille Vermund, pursues a libertarian economic agenda and wants even stricter controls on migrants in a country that already has some of the most stringent immigration laws in Western Europe.

Vermund, a trained architect, has called for a ban on headscarves in schools and public institutions. Her party wants asylum to be given only to refugees coming directly from the U.N. refugee agency’s resettlement scheme and those with “a job in hand,” and supports limiting Danish citizenship to people who “contribute positively” to society. [...]

Nye Borgerlige, which counts roughly 3,000 members, has gathered the required minimum of 20,109 signatures to run for parliament in the next election, scheduled for 2019. Polls put the party between 2.6 percent and 4.5 percent — above the 2 percent threshold required to enter the Danish parliament. [...]

Vermund’s party could shift the political debate even further to the right and force more mainstream parties to support anti-immigration policies. According to Larsen, the DPP is already trying to toughen its anti-immigration rhetoric in anticipation. “They are trying to send a message to both the government and the public that they want to strengthen their refugee policies, even more,” he said.

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The Guardian: US cardinal Raymond Burke stokes papal tensions by meeting nationalist in Rome

A powerful American cardinal who is engaged in a bitter feud with Pope Francis has met Matteo Salvini, the rightwing Italian nationalist who is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump and has praised Benito Mussolini. [...]

Burke, who is one of four cardinals who signed an open letter to Francis last year questioning new guidance allowing priests to decide whether divorced and remarried believers should be able to receive communion, praised Trump after his election in November. He said the surprise victory represented a clear win for pro-life causes and said the US president tended to surround himself with “very sound advisers”. [...]

The meeting could be a way for Burke – the unofficial head of the most conservative and traditional elements within the Roman Catholic church – to send a message to other conservatives. The next Italian election could be called as early as this summer. While Salvini has the support of only about 13% of Italian voters, a meeting between Burke and the rightwing leader could be an attempt by Burke to urge conservatives to rally around the Northern League.

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CityLab: The Highway Hit List

CNU insists that now is the moment to take highway removals seriously, as many of these goliaths of mid-century infrastructure are approaching the end of their useful lifetimes. “With tough decisions on repair and investment looming, American cities have a window of opportunity to reverse decades of decline and disinvestment in these neighborhoods and invest in healthier infrastructure for their communities,” the report reads. At least up until now, there’s been support for such efforts at the federal level; Anthony Foxx, the Secretary of Transportation under President Obama, broadly supported infrastructure fixes aimed at historic disparities.

But some highways on this list are here to stay—and even expand. State highway engineers still love straight, wide roads, and this inertia cannot be underestimated. At the very least, some state DOTs are becoming more sensitive to impacted communities. Lately, “cap parks” have emerged as compromise solutions that restitch neighborhoods bifurcated by highways by literally covering up their air and noise impacts. Denver’s much-protracted fight over I-70 came to a decisive moment last week, when the Federal Highway Administration approved Colorado’s plans to lower the highway below grade, widen lanes from six to ten, and put a grassy “cap” over a small section of it. It will adjoin a local schoolyard. The I-70 saga offers one illustration of the challenges in such highway facelifts: Many residents love the prospect of a grassy cap park, while others fear that hiding the highway beneath it could draw in a tide of gentrification and displacement.

What would happen if the interstate were torn down entirely, as CNU suggests? There are dramatic examples of success; San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Portland have shown that “highway removal is viable—saving tax dollars, adding value to local tax bases, and significantly improving neighborhoods without choking traffic,” as the report states. The economic windfall can indeed be staggering: After Milwaukee removed its Park East elevated freeway, average assessed land values in its old footprint grew by over 180 percent, and a Fortune 500 company set up headquarters there.

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