By JESSICA DAMIANO

Got weeds in your lawn? Me too. And although it’s tempting to reach for a spray bottle, that shouldn’t be our first impulse.

Believe it or not, weeds aren’t just freeloaders crashing our garden party. They’re messengers with important information that requires our attention. We just have to learn to speak their language.

What common lawn weeds tell us

A dandelion popping up in the lawn is there because the soil is infertile and the grass is too thin. Fertilize and sow seeds for a fuller turf, and the opportunists will move on.

Black medic is a demure, clover-like weed with small yellow flowers that’s holding an invisible bullhorn, shouting, “What’s a girl got to do to get some nitrogen over here?” Check your soil’s nutrients and fertilize accordingly.

Both broadleaf and buckhorn plantain won’t grow unless the soil is compacted. Core aerate the lawn in spring and fall to allow water and air to circulate through it freely.

Likewise, prostrate knotweed thrives in high-traffic, compacted areas. If you have kids or a large dog running laps in the yard — or if passersby consistently cut through a portion of your lawn — chances are you have made its acquaintance. Again, core aeration is your best bet. Do it several times a year and incorporate compost to create an inhospitable environment.

Both mouse-ear and common chickweed flourish in shady spots, so cut back nearby tree branches to allow more sun to reach the soil. The lawn will appreciate the extra light, too. Common chickweed also loves cool weather, but that is out of our control.

Clover: One of the good guys

I’m conflicted about telling you how to get rid of clover, because I don’t believe you should. I actually mixed it into my lawn deliberately, and I’m not alone.

In fact, years ago, clover was a standard component of American grass seed mixes — it added a natural source of nitrogen to the soil that reduced or eliminated the need for fertilizer. But when the first weed killers were marketed to homeowners in the 1950s, clover was suddenly villainized. I wonder why.

Clover is a good guy that shows up to help when soil is lacking water or nutrients. But if you really want it gone, water and fertilize the lawn regularly.

And try to accept some imperfections. Nobody needs a flawless lawn — just a healthy one.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

By ALBERT STUMM

In the shadow of an imposing stone bell tower, market stalls fan out by the dozens from the central plaza of Sineu, Mallorca.

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Every Wednesday, vendors fill the surrounding streets with produce from the fertile central plain of the Spanish Mediterranean island. Interspersed among the plump tomatoes, leafy chard and bright citrus are more stalls overflowing with handcrafts, textiles, jewelry and more.

The scene plays out much like it has every week since at least the early 1200s. Designated a royal market in 1304, it’s the only remaining market in Spain’s Balearic Islands allowed to sell live rabbits, poultry and farm animals.

Naturally, the produce changes with the season, showcasing products that define a cuisine that’s little known outside the Balearic Islands.

Although the islands are better known for their pristine beaches and sun-drenched cliffs, Jeff Koehler’s new book, “The Spanish Mediterranean Islands Cookbook,” aims to give the food some worthy attention.

“It’s only a 30-minute flight from Barcelona,” said Koehler. “But it’s amazing to see that it has its own culinary culture.”

Mallorca is the biggest of the Mediterranean chain, which also includes Ibiza, Formentera and Menorca, where Koehler, an American, has lived part time for 15 years. Much of the diet is classic Mediterranean, with lots of olive oil, legumes and fresh vegetables.

But Koehler said the islands differ from the rest of the region because they were so isolated. The cuisine developed with few outside influences, with locals relying on heavily on fishing, foraging and preserving to survive the winter.

Restriction led to creativity. As an example, he cited the moment in springtime when fava beans are suddenly everywhere in springtime.

“Then you start thinking of five ways of making fava beans because it’s what’s there now,” he said. “What starts as this necessity of just survival eventually converts into real gastronomic treats.”

Locals may pair favas, or broad beans, with mint, spring onions and sobrassada, a paprika-spiced, uncased pork sausage that’s like a spreadable chorizo. Or they add them to a frittata-like Spanish tortilla, or use them with cuttlefish, bacon and onions.

The result in each case is a humble yet tasty dish, a combination that is typical of the islands.

One of the most representative is caldereta de peix, a simple fish stew that is served over slices of toasted day-old bread. Originally prepared with the worthless bycatch that got caught in fishermen’s nets, it features a saffron-scented tomato broth with garlic, onion and white wine.

The bold flavor is much more than the sum of its parts, and it exemplifies how leftovers can become a delicious classic.

“First came the need to eat,” Koehler writes. “Then came the desire to eat well.”

Caldereta de peix (Fish stew)

This cover image released by Phaidon shows “The Spanish Mediterranean Islands Cookbook” by Jeff Koehler. (Phaidon via AP)

From Jeff Koehler’s “The Spanish Mediterranean Islands Cookbook”

Time: About an hour, 10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

One 3- to 4-pound whole fish, such as scorpion fish, bream, sea bass or red snapper, or another firm-fleshed variety. Or 1 1/2 pound filets

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3 medium tomatoes, halved and grated

1/4 cup dry white wine

8 cups fish stock

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

Small pinch of saffron threads, crumbled

Very thin slices of day-old country-style bread, cut into 2.5-cm/1-inch-wide strips and lightly toasted, for serving

Directions:

Cut the fish crosswise into thick steaks. Reserve the heads and tails.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium. Add the onions and cook until soft, 8–10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and then add the tomatoes. Cook until pulpy and deeper red, about 10 minutes, adding a few tablespoons of water (or stock) from time to time to keep it moist. Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of the stock.

Use a hand blender to puree the sauce, or transfer it to a blender to puree and return it to the pot. Stir in the paprika and saffron, and season with salt and pepper.

Season the fish steaks and reserved heads and tails (if using whole fish) with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Pour over the remaining stock. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Don’t let it reach a strong boil, to keep the fish from breaking apart.

Remove the pot from the heat. Remove and discard the heads and tails. Cover the pot and let sit for 10 minutes.

To serve, put a couple of pieces of toasted bread in each of 4 wide soup bowls. Ladle over the soup with 1 or 2 pieces of fish per bowl.

Albert Stumm writes about food, travel and wellness. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

By CHRISTINA LARSON, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Humans are the only animal that lives in virtually every possible environment, from rainforests to deserts to tundra.

This adaptability is a skill that long predates the modern age. According to a new study published Wednesday in Nature, ancient Homo sapiens developed the flexibility to survive by finding food and other resources in a wide variety of difficult habitats before they dispersed from Africa about 50,000 years ago.

“Our superpower is that we are ecosystem generalists,” said Eleanor Scerri, an evolutionary archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany.

Our species first evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago. While prior fossil finds show some groups made early forays outside the continent, lasting human settlements in other parts of the world didn’t happen until a series of migrations around 50,000 years ago.

“What was different about the circumstance of the migrations that succeeded — why were humans ready this time?” said study co-author Emily Hallett, an archaeologist at Loyola University Chicago.

Earlier theories held that Stone Age humans might have made a single important technological advance or developed a new way of sharing information, but researchers haven’t found evidence to back that up.

This study took a different approach by looking at the trait of flexibility itself.

The scientists assembled a database of archaeological sites showing human presence across Africa from 120,000 to 14,000 years ago. For each site, researchers modeled what the local climate would have been like during the time periods that ancient humans lived there.

“There was a really sharp change in the range of habitats that humans were using starting around 70,000 years ago,” Hallett said. “We saw a really clear signal that humans were living in more challenging and more extreme environments.”

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While humans had long survived in savanna and forests, they shifted into everything from from dense rainforests to arid deserts in the period leading up to 50,000 years ago, developing what Hallett called an “ecological flexibility that let them succeed.”

While this leap in abilities is impressive, it’s important not to assume that only Homo sapiens did it, said University of Bordeaux archaeologist William Banks, who was not involved in the research.

Other groups of early human ancestors also left Africa and established long-term settlements elsewhere, including those that evolved into Europe’s Neanderthals, he said.

The new research helps explain why humans were ready to expand across the world way back when, he said, but it doesn’t answer the lasting question of why only our species remains today.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By FARNOUSH AMIRI

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations’ vast system has tackled everything from delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to providing crucial peacekeeping operations in conflict zones since it was established in the wake of World War II.

As the international body closes in on 80 years, questions about its relevancy and efficiency have sharpened from supporters and critics alike. Recent U.S. cuts to foreign assistance and the reevaluation of humanitarian contributions by other countries have forced a reckoning for the U.N.

The organization has long sought to highlight its unique role as the meeting place of global leaders, with an ambitious mandate to prevent another world war.

Staffers, however, say the U.N. does more than respond to civilians’ needs in war zones and debate resolutions in the Security Council.

“The things that are not on the radar of anyone, that nobody sees every day, that’s what we do everywhere, in more than 150 countries,” said Diene Keita, executive director for programs at the U.N.’s population agency.

Here are five things the U.N. does that you may not have known:

Providing training to women and girls who have faced gender-based violence

U.N. agencies facilitate programs worldwide focused on women, tied to education, financial literacy, employment opportunities and more. Among the most sensitive services provided are those for victims of gender-based violence.

In Chad, the U.N. Population Fund operates several rehabilitation programs for women and girls recovering from that trauma. One of them, Halima Yakoy Adam, was taken at age 15 to a Boko Haram training camp in Nigeria, where she and several other girls were forced to become suicide bombers. Adam managed to escape with severe injuries, while the others died in blasts.

Through U.N. programs on the islands of Lake Chad, Adam received health and reproductive services as well as vocational training. She is now working as a paralegal in her community to assist other women and girls.

“We are not created to stay,” Keita said of U.N. agencies’ long-term presence. “So this is embedded in what we do every single day. We have that humility in knowing that we make a difference, so that people do not need us the next day.”

Resettling refugees in Mexico

Images of refugees at U.S. and European borders show the migration crisis around the world. Often overlooked are the refugees who are resettled in communities outside American and European cities, ones that resemble their home countries and cultural upbringings.

Since 2016, the U.N.’s refugee agency has supported the integration of more than 50,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Mexico. They arrived in southern Mexico and were relocated to industrial cities after being screened and granted asylum by the government.

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The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees provides transportation, orientation and access to health, education and other social services. More than 650 companies have agreed to train and employ these people, whose labor has generated a $15 million annual contribution to the Mexican economy, according to the U.N.

According to U.N. estimates, 94% of these working-age refugees have secured formal employment within their first month in the country and nearly 90% of school-age children have enrolled in school. The U.N. program also provides what staffers describe as clear pathways to Mexican citizenship.

“Mexico has become a country where people forced to flee can find the stability they need to restart their lives with dignity,” Giovanni Lepri, the top U.N. refugee agency official in Mexico, said in March. “A strong asylum system and legal framework allows an effective integration of asylum-seekers and refugees.”

Eliminating exploding remnants of war

U.N. agencies are present throughout various phases of war, from delivering food, water and medical supplies in an active military zone to the iconic “Blue Helmets” — the military personnel deployed to help countries transition out of conflict.

Less attention is paid to efforts made after the dust has settled.

One of those initiatives, the United Nations Mine Action Service, was established in 1997 to facilitate projects aimed at mitigating the threat posed by unexploded munitions in countries years — and sometimes decades — after war.

The U.N. estimates that on average, one person is killed or injured by land mines and other explosive ordnance every hour.

In January, a 21-year-old man was harvesting olives in a Syrian orchard with two friends when they noticed a visible mine on the ground. Panicked, they tried to leave, but one of them stepped on a land mine and it exploded, amputating one of his legs above the knee.

A month later, in Cambodia, a rocket-propelled grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes.

The U.N. program aims to work with communities in Syria, Afghanistan and Nigeria to safely locate and remove these remnants of war while providing education and threat assessments.

Since its inception, the U.N. says more than 55 million land mines have been destroyed and over 30 countries have become mine-free.

Teaching refugee girls self-defense in Kenya

In a refugee camp in northwest Kenya, dozens of girls 12 to 18 have gathered every Saturday at a women’s empowerment center to learn self-defense through a Taekwondo class.

The program, launched by the U.N.’s Population Fund last year, has focused on providing an outlet for girls who have either been victims of gender-based violence or are at risk of it after fleeing conflict zones in countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia and Congo.

The coaches are locals who understand the cultural and political dynamics their students face while living in a camp that is home to nearly 300,000 refugees.

The goal is to use sports activities to create safe spaces for women and girls to discuss various issues like period poverty, abuse and domestic conflict. The program, which the U.N. has replicated in Egypt and elsewhere, is funded by the Olympic Refuge Foundation.

Sex education by monks in Bhutan

Topics surrounding sex and reproductive issues were considered taboo for centuries in Buddhist communities. U.N. staffers have spent the past decade working with religious leaders in Bhutan and other countries in Asia to “desensitize” the topics they believe are crucial to a healthy society.

The campaign has led more than 1,500 nuns from 26 nunneries to hold discussions with community members around sexual and reproductive health and the prevention of gender-based violence.

Now, at least 50 monks are trained to provide counseling services on these topics to students across Bhutan’s 20 districts.

The U.N. says these partnerships, which began in 2014, have contributed to a decrease in maternal mortality, an increase in contraception use, and better reproductive care for pregnant women.