• An executive order on education: President Donald Trump made good on a campaign promise Thursday, signing an executive order to dismantle the Education Department. The move, which hinges on congressional approval, is another step by conservatives to rein in what they describe as federal overreach and liberal ideology in America’s public education system. Mr. Trump has said states should be taking the lead on education. Last week, the administration laid off roughly half of the department’s staff. Critics say the decision could particularly affect children with disabilities or from low-income households, and have generational consequences. – Staff 
  • Related Monitor stories: Are these agency cuts about student outcomes or a political agenda? Our recent report. Also: U.S. student performance is slipping. What’s to blame?
• Taliban releases American: An American man was released by the Taliban in a deal with the Trump administration that Qatari negotiators helped broker, the State Department said. George Glezmann was seized in 2022 while traveling in Afghanistan as a tourist. He was the third American to be freed since January in part of what the Taliban have described as a “normalization” of ties. – The Associated Press
• Scholar detained: Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher, was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked, prompting another high-profile legal fight over deportation proceedings against foreign-born scholars living in the United States. He was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” and determined to be deportable by the secretary of state’s office. – AP
  • Related Monitor story: We looked at the recent arrest of Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil.
• New Olympics chief: Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee, becoming the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in world sports. The Zimbabwean sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist was granted an eight-year term. – AP
• Still-happy Finns: A global report named people in Finland the happiest in the world for the eighth year in a row. The World Happiness Report found the top 20 happiest countries include 14 Western countries, two Latin American countries, and one in the Middle East. The U.S. was 24th. The report cited such happiness factors as sharing meals with others and having social support. – AP
• Knowing our universe: Scientists are finding increasing hints that what we think we know about dark energy, believed to make up about 70% of the energy of the universe, could be wrong. Instead of being constant, dark energy might ebb and flow, according to research presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society in California Wednesday. Such a finding could undermine the bedrock theory that the universe is perpetually expanding. More generally, the toppling of core scientific precepts often leads to periods of great discovery. – Staff

In towns and villages across Ukraine’s minerals-rich mining heartland, word of a potential U.S. deal has renewed confidence in the future. Ukraine has the world’s fifth-largest graphite deposits, and China’s domination of crucial mineral markets means President Donald Trump is eager to catch up. Not all in Ukraine approve of President Trump’s demands, but most agree that American investment would be a good thing. The hope is that Ukraine can broker a deal that will be mutually beneficial.

The collapse of the Gaza ceasefire has meant the resumption of deadly airstrikes and an Israeli ground offensive. For the people of Gaza, it has meant that no one cared about them enough to ensure the fighting stopped for good. At times, the glimmers of hope were just that – glimmers. The disruption of aid and the lack of progress in talks pointed to the fragility of the peace. Now, Palestinians must find the strength to begin again. Says one resident, “I don’t know how many times I have to start from scratch.” 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been flirting with authoritarianism for some time now. The detention of Istanbul’s popular mayor Wednesday could point to a more fundamental shift. The mayor was seen as Mr. Erdoğan’s chief political rival, with his party dealing Mr. Erdoğan a blow in the last election. “The effort to disqualify him is effectively putting him behind bars – and that is a tougher model of autocracy than what Turkey is used to,” says one expert.

By now you probably either are all in on “Severance,” the Apple TV+ series that feels like “Black Mirror” meets “Office Space” or have walled it off because it just seems so ... unsettling. Season 2 wraps on March 21, no doubt in a flurry of watch parties and Reddit threads. It’s that kind of fandom. For the eve of the season finale, we had a no-spoilers chat with our senior culture writer about why, for some, the dark show resonates. Work-life balance was never quite like this.

Produced by Clayton Collins and Jingnan Peng. You can find story links and a full episode transcript here. 

The books our reviewers liked best this month include an insightful biography of Yoko Ono that delves into her career as an avant-garde artist, a delightful memoir about how bonding with a baby wild hare during the pandemic rekindled a relationship with nature, and a murder mystery set in Dust Bowl-era Nebraska that explores our complicated connection to memories. There’s also the story of two young pen pals embracing joy even amid dark times.

In global rankings of countries by characteristics, Denmark is hard to beat. It is the least corrupt. Tops in rule of law. Second in happiness. And fourth in digitalization. In early March, the Danes learned they will soon become another leading model in global standings.

The state-run postal service, PostNord, has announced that it will stop delivering letters by the end of this year and start removing all postboxes. The action is due in large part to digital communications becoming so accessible while private delivery of physical letters has become so competitive.

Other reasons were given for a move that will end four centuries of obligatory universal service in letter delivery. PostNord is losing money. The cost of mailing a letter has reached 29 Danish kroner ($4.20). And nearly all official documents are sent electronically. (Exceptions are made for small islands and people with visual impairment.)

For Denmark, this decision is a big social experiment. Many other countries that subsidize their postal service are watching carefully. So much of a nation’s community identity has relied on writing personal letters, taking them to a post office where one can talk with others, and receiving letters, often in handwritten script, from a friend or family member. Historians have long relied on the preserved letters of famous and little-known people to find meaning for today; that may not be the case for easy-to-erase digital communications.

The tactile and social experiences of letters are often greater than in the use of email – even with the addition of evocative emoticons and digital photos. Written letters can still carry weight. In February, for example, a handwritten letter from King Charles III was given to President Donald Trump inviting him for a state visit to the United Kingdom.

Core values are at stake. “The broad concepts of openness and inclusiveness with respect to the circulation of information can be traced back through most of the history of the postal system,” according to a 2010 study by the Urban Institute.

For younger people, however, mailing a printed holiday, birthday, thank-you, or condolence card now seems eco-unfriendly and inefficient compared with sending electronic forms. In Denmark, the number of mailed letters has dropped by 90% since 2000, and very sharply in the last two years. Only a small percentage are now personal letters.

“Real letters have more kindness in them,” the late novelist Saul Bellow reportedly said. If that’s true, Denmark may now need to show the rest of the world where such kindness can be equally expressed.