Pop and shop: Although the details and countries might be different, the stories of the more than 20 refugee women who came together to do business in downtown Phoenix are strikingly similar. But they left their pasts behind to sell their homemade products out of a donated retail space with the help of graduate social work students at Arizona State University. Integrating the pop-up shop concept from the world of business into the world of social work offers the women a path to self-sufficiency in their new country.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On March 2, 1877, Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the US presidential election despite the fact that Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote on November 7, 1876. The decision comes just two days before the inauguration. (Photo: Rutherford B. Hayes (left) and Samuel J. Tilden)

India is planning the world’s largest public health insurance plan, which would offer coverage to poor and low-income families. Dubbed ‘Modicare’ after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ambitious plan has the potential to be a game-changer for the 63 million people who are driven into poverty every year by health care expenses — people like laborer Shavan Kumar, who VOA met when he brought his wife to New Delhi to be treated for a heart condition.

‘Italian hearts have hardened,’ says a university-educated African migrant who was harassed for trying to pay for groceries with a bag of change — the proceeds from begging. It happened in Campania, in Italy’s southwest region where small towns and villages have become ground-zeros in the migration crisis that’s roiling Italian politics. VOA is in Caserta which, along with other small towns in rural Italy, is expected to be critical in shaping Sunday’s election results. That, along with theinfluence of the mafia.

When the first Lao-American MMA fighter in the UFC steps into the octagon cage for a match in Las Vegas this weekend, he’ll be following a long tradition of ethnic fighters. Social mobility among ethnic and racial groups in the United States can be traced through boxing, according to Gerald Gems, a professor at North Central Illinois College. Today MMA is rising in popularity as boxing appears to be on the decline, and Soukhamthath, the son of Lao immigrants, is ready for his chance to shine.

Audiences could see the Oscars distributed more evenly by race and gender when the Academy Awards are handed out in Hollywood this weekend. Movements such as #OscarsSoWhite, Black Lives Matter, and #MeToo, have helped bring changes in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which now allows more female and minority voting members.

Warm Arctic, cold continents? Scientists are grappling with whether the loss of sea ice and rapid warming in the Arctic is linked to cold snaps in Europe. The plunging temperatures have caused travel chaos in Europe, with several airports closed, and rail lines and roads blocked. But the longer term impact could be far more profound for the planet.