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Good News
In the late 1990s, a group of scientists were birdwatching in a remote forest in Ecuador when they heard a call like no other. Following the mysterious avian siren, they saw a fairly large bird colored grey, black, and b
Richard Pulley was still working delivery shifts at 78. After a doorbell camera clip touched the internet, a fundraiser snowballed to $965,868.
Good News
It’s been a banner year for the annual campaign run by NBC and its parent company Universal to encourage shelter pet adoption nationwide, with 135,000 dogs, cats, and more taken home from shelters. Running from July to S
Gunner and Kohen, both 13, were just out riding when they spotted an elderly woman who had fallen in her yard the day before.
Good News
Wisconsin prison inmates have been offered a unique way to give back to their community by raising monarch butterflies from the inside. Set up at Redgranite Correctional Institute (RGCI), the idea first came to the progr
Dan Cuthern had been under a Missouri overpass with his dog Bentley for more than a decade — until five women decided to change that.
The Planet
The winners of Bird Photographer of the Year 2026 have been revealed The post Winners of Bird Photographer of the Year announced appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
25 years ago today, 35 American TV networks and cable channels simultaneously aired ‘A Tribute to Heroes’, a live commercial-free benefit concert and telethon organized to raise money for victims and their families– espe
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM If you clean your dryer’s lint trap after every load, you end up with a soft little cloud of fiber in your hand pretty regularly. Most people drop it straight in the trash, and that i
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The 200-year absence of bison from Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert left a gap that most people stopped noticing. Grass accumulated unchecked, soil compacted, fire risk crept upward. Wildli
Good News
Artificial intelligence has brought about a revolution in medical screening practices, with the technology able to make detections across hundreds of scans in seconds which can be forwarded to trained pairs of human eyes
Good News
With the help of the mayor and local council, a small town in Burgundy has saved its local cafe-bistro, what’s been described as the “heart” of the rural French economy and society. Au Bon Accueil, located in the commune
Community
Smoke hangs thick over southern Oklahoma’s Arbuckle Mountains as flames lick through prairie grass toward a stand of eastern red cedar trees. To many, the scene would look like a disaster in the making. But to father-son
Good News
In January, a community in northern Mozambique experienced one of its worst floods in decades, yet the raging waters failed to claim a single life. This miracle was made possible thanks to a small squadron of drones and
Good News
Hoping to allow millions of pet owners to access critical veterinary care beyond their budgets, a philanthropic organization has announced a groundbreaking $250 million commitment over the next 5 years The initiative rep
Drop Dead Generous gives ordinary people real money with one rule: use it creatively to help others.
The Planet
The UK has one of the highest NEET rates for young adults in Europe. New figures offer some encouragement The post The race to get more young people in the UK into work, education or training appeared first on Positive N
Good News
45 years ago today, Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in as the first female Supreme Court Justice. She was approved in the Senate 99-0, with one Montana Senator being absent from who vote, who later sent her a copy of A Riv
Good News
[Stephen Beech | SWNS news] Cavemen used mammoth tusk patterns to create unique art, reveals new research. Intricate designs engraved on the surface of 18,000-year-old female figurines carved from mammoth ivory were insp
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A company in India is reporting more than 90 percent accuracy in detecting seven types of cancer from breath samples. The diagnostic engine is artificial intelligence, trained on data
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Think about a memory that still makes you wince. Maybe it is the time you said something embarrassing in front of people you wanted to impress, or the moment you felt out of place whi
Good News
Meet the British couple who spent the last 15 years fostering 59 dogs—with no plans of stopping. While working from home and designing electronics, Nicole and Gary Wordsworth have been taking in pups from the Battersea D
Good News
After more than 30 years of planning, construction, and fundraising, a paved bike trail ambling through 165 miles of Minnesota beauty has officially been completed—and now becomes one of the longest paved cycling trails
Good News
46 years ago today, Blizzard of Ozz, the debut solo album of the great and lately deceased metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, was released to moderate reviews and success. However it grew to become a staple of the genre, and wa
Good News
Until the 1920s Park Avenue in Manhattan actually park running through it. Now, New York City has unveiled a new plan for transforming Park Avenue back into its original natural character, adding trees, benches, and a pr
Good News
A fox cub that was left for dead after being hit by a car is making a miracle recovery thanks to hydrotherapy swimming sessions. The young kit, aptly named Chance, was reportedly stuck for days with its back legs unable
Good News
Conservationists working to turn the tide on declining numbers of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, found some good news in their latest field surveys. After years of worryingly low numbers, the population appears to be
Good News
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Enlightenment for Rebels: Celebrating Our Wild and Sacred Earthly Selves, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrolog
Good News
51 years ago today, Fawlty Towers premiered on the BBC. John Cleese boldly stepped out into the situational comedy scene without the support of his legendary troupe, Monty Python, and created what the BBC considers “the
Good News
Hoping to tackle the 50% of textile emissions associated with the dyeing process, a vaunted French startup has created non-toxic dyes that require substantially less water to activate and last just as long. Additionally,
Science Wins
Episode Description: Most world maps show Greenland and Africa as roughly the same size… which is kind of unbelievable considering Africa is 14 times larger! This error has been built into classrooms, boardrooms, and ins
Good News
An unspoiled, undiscovered tomb containing the remains of an elite society belong to a major Andean civilization has been uncovered in Peru. Located in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed site of Chan Chan, inside a palatia
Good News
After becoming completely blind from cataracts, a 54-year-old chimpanzee named Pierre is seeing again following a successful surgery at Chimp Haven, the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary. The procedure, the first cata
Good News
In a story that proves ‘explorer’ is still a good answer to the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” a whole new cat species has been identified for the first time in over 100 years. Found in Bolivia, the
Community
This story was originally published by Civil Eats. The town of Skagway, in southeast Alaska, is home to approximately 1,000 year-round residents and hosts more than 1.3 million summer cruise ship passengers. Isolated in
Good News
188 years ago today, the Anti-Corn Law League was established in England by the economics-savvy liberals who understood that protectionism is immoral and useless in benefiting the economy. The League, led by Richard Cobd
The Planet
EU to ban social media for kids, England approves life-extending cancer drug, and reading linked to better health, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The lettuce in REWE’s Lankwitz store in Berlin has had a short morning. Grown on the rooftop farm directly above, cut, packaged by hand, and carried downstairs before most shoppers wa
Good News
In central California’s city of San Carlos, recycling plastics is a family affair. Nick Schick and his parents, David and Andrea, work exclusively with products made from hard-to-recycle plastic polymers called thermopla
Good News
A warming pool of tropical ocean water has been shown to be the cause of immense snowstorms over East Antarctica which contributed to a net gain of 695 billion tons of ice between 2021 and 2023. To put that tonnage into
Community
I spent years immersed in noise. Sometimes it was deafeningly loud, like the crescendo of horns and two-stroke motorcycles during rush hour in Mumbai. Other times it was simply maddening, like the parade of big-rig truck
Good News
Rather than bringing crude oil to boiling point over and over again as is done in traditional distillation refining, Chinese scientists have found a way to separate the mixture molecule by molecule at room temperature, c
Good News
A trio of students at Harvard University have invented a low-cost, eye-tracking headset designed to help schools quickly screen child athletes for possible concussions. The invention takes just 2 to 3 minutes to screen f
Good News
Happy 41st birthday to The Great 8, Alexander Ovechkin. Playing left wing for the Washington Capitals since 2004, he is quite simply among the greatest goal scorers in the history of ice hockey. He has won the Hart Memor
The Planet
Researchers have identified 51 environmental solutions to save the planet. Here are five of the most promising The post 51 ways to get the planet tipping the right way appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
Image alt text: Hands carefully pressing colorful flowers between the pages of an open book on a wooden table surrounded by dried botanicals and greenery Research has put a number on the value of a good hobby: eight hour
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The old cues for spotting a scam are becoming unreliable. Misspelled words, strange formatting, unfamiliar sender names, requests that arrive completely out of nowhere: those signals
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In 2019, a South American transport company ordered a diesel ferry. By the time it launched six years later, it had become the largest electric vehicle ever built, of any kind, on lan
Good News
A Nashville singer-songwriter has become a star—but not because of his guitar playing. Jerry Vandiver, whose songs have been recorded by country stars like Tim McGraw, moonlights as a volunteer hero to the local red fox
Good News
Scientists have revealed that Australia may hold the key to generating ample green energy while creating a major export industry, and that it’s buried underneath their feet. The breakthrough centers on magnetite, a miner
Good News
A series of reintroductions have seen the bison return to a landscape in Mexico’s Chihuahua Desert after a 200 year absence. Having acted as ecosystem anchors for the vegetation is this vital biosphere reserve for millen
Good News
Metal detectors have had a banner year in Scandinavia, where records for the largest recovered Viking silver hoards have been made in Norway, Denmark, and now Finland. A man found two large hoards of silver in southern F
Community
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Swimming upstream 20,000: Tha
The Planet
Angela Garwood swapped conversation for stillness at a device-free silent retreat, hoping to discover what lies beneath the noise The post What happened when I stopped filling the silence appeared first on Positive News
Good News
60 years ago today, the Metropolitan Opera House opened at the Lincoln Center on Broadway and Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. Back then, it opened its doors and its curtains for the fir
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM At a Baked Bites pop-up in Frisco, Texas, the transaction looks simple: you place a pre-order, you pick up a homemade cookie. Buried inside that small exchange, though, is something m
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The question most ambulances are designed to answer is how fast a patient can reach a hospital. In the Narok region of Kenya, where long distances and unreliable electricity make qual
Good News
The personal passion project of Hollywood A-lister Christian Bale has finally come to fruition, as the Welsh actor cut the ribbon on a children’s foster care village in Palmdale, California. Called Together California, t
Good News
When thousands of employees at Station Casinos arrived at one of the company’s resorts to celebrate its 50th anniversary, they hadn’t a clue what was about to happen. They were going to hit the jackpot. In a stunning dis
Good News
A runner whose improbable resurrection from the frigid fells of north England saw his heart stopped for hours, has returned to conquer the athletic challenge that nearly claimed his life. Tommy Price suffered cardiac arr
Good News
In 2006, the largest wind power project in Kansas was turned on among the Flint Hills. Today, the royalties it has generated for rancher Peter Ferrell are allowing him to pass the farm down to his children. The 50 turbin
The Planet
Twenty-five years on from 9/11, BGC Group has managed to turn tragedy into a day with purpose The post What if giving away a day’s revenue was the best day of your year? appeared first on Positive News .
Community
In Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Ram Bibi, a 30-year-old mother now pregnant with her sixth child, counts herself as one of the lucky ones. She gets regular prenatal checkups at the Qari Safed family health h
Good News
Many happy returns to a brilliant Brit, Tom Hardy, who turns 49 years old today. The London actor got his start in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, and preceded along a course of action and adventure films to rival any ac
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Lignin is the part of wood that paper mills and timber companies tend to get rid of. It comes off as a byproduct when wood is processed, resists most conventional uses, and usually en
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM On most world maps hanging in classrooms, conference rooms, and government offices around the world, Greenland and Africa look roughly the same size. The reality is that they are not.
Good News
A former Athens airport site is set to host one of the continent’s most ambitious urban greening projects. Called the Ellinikon Park, it won’t only add an unforgettable attraction to the birthplace of Democracy, but also
Good News
A feather preserved inside dinosaur dung could help explain why birds survived the mass extinction that wiped out most life on Earth. Specifically, it could explain whether it prepared a certain lineage of birds to weath
Good News
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced it has certified Timor-Leste as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. The leading infectious cause of blindness, the achievement on the island natio
The Planet
A housing model that gives people a permanent home before asking them to tackle their other problems has achieved striking results The post How ‘housing first’ is helping people leave rough sleeping behind appeared first
Good News
A conservation charity in the UK has turned what was once a dumping ground for material dug up during canal dredging into a nesting habitat for two-thirds of the UK’s black-necked grebes. These beautiful waterfowl with t
Community
César Maquieira has always loved the sea. Born and raised in the northwest of Spain, much of which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, he would for years regularly go fishing and on boat trips, and he dabbled in scuba div
Good News
41 years ago today, the Penang Bridge officially opened connecting the Malay Peninsula with the island of Penang. Stretching 5.2 miles across the Penang Strait, it’s the second-longest bridge over water in Malaysia. Arch
Science Wins
Image alt text: Close-up of dandelion seed heads and crabgrass growing between garden bed plants in late summer A single dandelion, left to finish its summer in the garden, can drop thousands of seeds. Those seeds can li
Science Wins
Image alt text: Dense green Amazon rainforest canopy photographed from above in Colombia with a winding river below On August 4, 2026, three days before he left office, Colombian President Gustavo Petro signed a resoluti
Good News
A woman in England had just “asked for a sign” when a kingfisher streaked in, and even landed on her hand—staying there for ten minutes. “I had just asked for a sign, then just moments later this happened,” Laura O’Brien
Good News
Millions of people playing their daily Wordle games will be eager to hear about this new research. Using information theory, the team of researchers from Binghamton University and State University of New York has develop
Good News
Elephants can think before they act, as well as resist impulsive behavior, reveals new research that adds to growing evidence of elephants possessing sophisticated cognitive skills. Experiments at the National Elephant I
Good News
Happy 75th Birthday to actor-comedian Jean Smart, the brilliant TV star and winner of 7 Emmys, 3 Golden Globes and many other awards for her lovable characters in Designing Women, Frasier, and Hacks. Check out her trophy
Good News
In November of 1965 a great blackout spread across the northeastern United States and parts of Canada. 30 million people were affected and Lynn Lowin was one of them. Now in her senior years, she wanted to finally tell h
Good News
Scientists have confirmed the discovery of the first adult T. rex trackway, providing new insights into how this emblematic predator moved. While a myriad of isolated footprints made by adults in the T. rex species have
Good News
A homeless man who was recorded playing piano in a church on a cold January night says his whole life has turned around, in the two years since his performance went viral. Rhys Wynne-Jones had been homeless for a decade
Good News
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
Good News
2,516 years ago today was one of two days in the ancient era of world history that, if events had gone a different way, Western Civilization as we know it may never have sprouted. Athenian citizen soldiers, demonstrating
Good News
The US Environmental Protection Agency has approved the first permit under the its new “Good Samaritan” law to remediate abandoned mine workings. The permit has been issued to Trout Unlimited, a fishing and sportsmen foc
Science Wins
Episode Description: An approach to treating degenerative blindness has been in development for more than ten years across research institutions in Spain. The result is not a surgery, a gene therapy, or an implant. It is
Good News
A Sicilian hotel recently went above and beyond the call of the reception bell in reuniting a young woman with a cherished childhood stuffed animal. Visiting the Four Seasons in Taormina recently was a mother and her dau
Good News
From Serbia comes the story of a technically-impressive and luxurious Roman bath complex discovered for the first time. Containing three different bathing pools and a sauna, it was designed for Emperor Maximinus Daza, wh
Good News
In Kenya, an entrepreneur has created a robotic hand that can translate a teacher’s voice into sign language for deaf students. Some 300,000 children in Kenya are either deaf or hearing impaired, and not only are just a
Community
This week in our New York City office, we found ourselves talking about what we remembered from 25 years ago: the darkness, the sadness — and the ways people cared for one another. Our managing director, Rebecca Faulkner
Good News
65 years ago today, the World Wildlife Fund was formed to save diverse species across the planet. With 35 million supporters and offices in nearly 100 countries, WWF has helped establish protected areas like the Galapago
The Planet
Solutions to save the planet, protecting childhood from algorithms, and the new world map, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a trial of 67,000 patients, an AI tool identified heart failure in up to 81 percent of cases and heart valve disease in up to 90 percent, all from a standard electrocardiogram (ECG
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When engineers drove 54 steel cylinders into the sandy seafloor southeast of Long Island to anchor Empire Wind 1’s turbines, the goal was simple: keep 810 megawatts of generating capa
Good News
Reprinted with permission from World at Large. On September 3rd, the European Space Agency marked the successful arrival of its BepiColombo mission to Mercury, just the third spacecraft to ever visit our solar system’s i
Good News
It’s a beautiful stone no, the Grand Condé diamond? Its presence in the public eye was almost lost 100 years ago, but thanks—of all people—to a hungry cleaning lady, it can still be part of new exhibitions like the one u
Good News
Not long ago on a lonely peak in Maine, a 91-year-old grey-bearded man stood taking in the sights, as he observed the sensation of success that came with being the oldest person to complete a hike along the famous Appala
Good News
It’s so tempting to dismiss social media as all doom scrolling through AI-generated slop and political arguments, but it also just turbo boosted this young comic book author’s career. @slow_comics has accumulated 40K fol
Community
On Doug Tallamy’s 10-acre property in rural Pennsylvania, the evidence arrives on wings. Wood thrushes now nest in shrubs that were once cut for hay. Luna moths — emerald-green giants that had become increasingly rare —
The Planet
Ten years of Comedy Wildlife Photography is brought to life in a new immersive experience in London this autumn The post Celebrating 10 years of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards appeared first on Positive New
Good News
35 years ago today, Nirvana’s single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was released in the US. The unexpected success of the Seattle band’s song propelled their second LP Nevermind to the top of the charts—an event often marked
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The world’s four leading cardiovascular health organizations just agreed on a universal heart attack definition for the first time. The announcement came at the European Society of Ca
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM New York City Public Schools, the nation’s largest school district, is banning generative AI for all students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade for the 2026-2027 school year. M
We know the tools for building transformative schools, but they must be in the hands of those who will most benefit from such a transformation.
Good News
The year was 1915, and before Henry Ford decided to turn a 2,000 acre stretch of land along the Rogue River into one of America’s largest manufacturing centers, he thought of turning it into a bird sanctuary. In a strang
Good News
An arthritis drug of all things was recently found in a study to restore up to 100% of hair in patients with severe alopecia. Around 2% of the world population live with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder where the
Good News
It wasn’t just the roars of the dinosaurs that made up the soundscape of the animal world during the Jurassic period. Crickets and grasshoppers communicated through a variety of songs and high-pitched sounds, some of whi
Good News
When a man in Denmark broke ground in his backyard on home improvement work, it was a new terrace that he was looking forward to seeing at the end of the sweaty job. Yet merely half an hour had passed when he realized th
The Planet
With nearly 50 million children displaced by conflict, charities are finding ways to give young people something often lost in war: the chance to play The post The right to play: displaced by conflict appeared first on P
Community
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Safe scrolling In December, A
Good News
On this day in history, two masters of early ocean exploration returned to their prospective homes—Vasco da Gama 527 years ago to Lisbon, and Thomas Cavendish 438 years ago to Plymouth. The former had chartered the first
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Scientists at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia developed light-activated compounds that restored light perception and visually guided behavior in blind animal models, wit
Science Wins
THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When you’re decluttering, the thrift store is the obvious first move. Drop it off, and it’s done. But a lot of what people donate there sits on a rack for weeks and then gets tossed anyw
Good News
Pancreatic cancer has long been a death sentence, and a rapid one at that, but a new two-a-day pill has seen patients live twice as long even after chemotherapy fails. “Surviving” cancer refers to living more than 5 year
Good News
Meet the world’s only armless racing driver who uses his feet to steer. 23-year-old Callum Smith was born without arms but has already handled speeds of more than 110 mph on track. Smith just signed his first driver cont
Good News
Experienced rock climber and father Jacob Gregory was dying. Experienced rock climber and EMT Will Soper wasn’t going to let that happen. Gregory had fallen 20 feet down a rock face on North Carolina’s Shortoff Mountain,
Good News
5 baby penguins from a species considered Critically-Endangered have hatched at an aquarium down in South Carolina. The 5 join 2 that hatched in May, and together make up a record nesting season for the organization’s re
The Planet
Forward-thinking gardeners are using leftover builders’ waste to create gardens that are drought-tolerant and full of biodiversity The post They’re resilient, low-effort and beautiful: how to plant a rubble garden appear
Good News
60 years ago, the first episode of Star Trek, featuring “Space: the final frontier” and the USS Enterprise, began its three-year mission of exploration on TV screens across America. The science-fiction television show cr
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Researchers at Nagoya University identified orexin-producing neurons as the brain’s apparent mechanism for deciding whether a reward is worth pursuing. Published in the Proceedings of
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In an NHS trial of nearly 1,000 patients across seven hospitals in England and Scotland, an at-home urine test detected 92 percent of bladder cancer cases. When the result came back n
Good News
A 22-year-old Utahan with Down Syndrome has just become a certified fitness instructor for the popular fitness program UpBeat Barre. UpBeat Barre instructor and co-owner of VASA Fitness in Kaysville, Jane Johnson, said s
Good News
Coal power has a huge role still to play in the American energy mix—by turning over its substantial grid infrastructure to renewable energy projects. Energy investment firm Panamint is putting up $1.7 billion to build Bi
Good News
From the UK comes the story of a baby called Macs, who seemed poised for final-stage heart failure, but who has been saved by a device called a Berlin Heart. The only device of its kind available for babies and children
Good News
See that red backpack there? Sampson James used it to carry around his meager possessions during a stint of homelessness. Little did James know at the time this photo was taken, however, that it was also carrying around
The Planet
Crossing the climate threshold now looks unavoidable, but temperatures are still shaped by the choices we make now The post We’re likely to breach 1.5C. What happens next is still in our hands appeared first on Positive
Community
Over the last 20 years, Oregon’s wilderness has suffered big time. Salmon have disappeared, wildfires have scoured the hills and drought has parched once-fertile soils. Years of small fixes — a little forest thinning her
Good News
90 years ago today, Buddy Holly was born into poverty in a musical family in Lubbock, Texas. In just 18 months, from his first #1 hit song, That’ll Be The Day, to when he died in a tragic plane crash at age 22, the proli
Good News
An East Honolulu high school student discovered a fungi in coconut husks that could clean up plastics and sunscreen from the ocean—and her won multiple awards at the Hawaiʻi State Science & Engineering Fair. Vera Wang, a
Good News
Space scientists have put together a photo gallery of ‘cosmic gems’ to showcase the variety of sizes, shapes, and high-energy features of distant galaxies. Astronomers put galaxies into three main categories: spirals lik
Good News
A British mom who racked up £23,000 in debt ($31K) has paid back $25,000 (£19,000) in just five months by decluttering and selling 410 household items on Vinted, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace. 32-year-old Ellie says her
Good News
31 years ago today, Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s baseball record when he played in his 2,131st consecutive game. Once considered a near-impossible feat, “the streak,” which continued for 2,632 games, earned Cal the
Good News
A gym equipment company from Finland is bringing physical fitness to the homeless community of Paris. Inactivity is a growing public health concern, but especially in lower income communities. To address this challenge,
Good News
Coral dying from heat stress has been revived after scientists successfully applied probiotic and post-biotic treatments in open seas for the the first time. Although probiotics have previously been shown to rehabilitate
Good News
A litter of 12 unexpected puppies were reunited with their golden mom and dad to celebrate their first birthday as a family. The humans, crucial to this dog family, were also there, reminiscing about when sister Rhian wa
Good News
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
Good News
252 years ago today, the First Continental Congress was organized in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, after the British Navy implemented a blockade of Boston Harbor and the Parliament of Great Britain passed the punitive
Good News
A record 30,000 coho salmon returned to central California rivers last season—up 10x from an average of 3,000 over the last decade—and double the total of last season. Running up the rivers which empty into the Mendocino
Science Wins
Episode Description: Arielle and Karissa are reunited after a few weeks apart, covering a wide range of solutions this episode: a new telescope that survived two White House cancellation attempts, the decade-long trial t
Good News
In New York City, something magical has happened along the sidewalk in Washington Heights that can best be described in a metaphor. In the East, the lotus is not only a food source, an ornamental, and a religious symbol,
Good News
A very English story of peril and rescue comes to us now from Nottinghamshire, where a man’s terrier was stuck underground for 2 days after getting lost in a badger warren. Cello is a 6-year-old parson Russell terrier, a
Good News
Early on a Monday morning in early August, a train rumbled across a thawed out Arctic landscape in Finland before screeching to a halt at its final destination at a border crossing with Sweden. It may sound ordinary for
Community
Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly celebration of how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice. Sign up to Reasons to be Cheerf
Good News
Happy 64th Birthday to the Japanese Nobel laureate, Sinya Yamanaka, whose pioneering work in the science of stem cells led him to identify the “Yamanaka Factors”— 4 different genetic transcription factors that he used to
The Planet
A ‘superhuman’ tool to spot heart disease, France slows fast fashion, and a species comes back from the brink, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Ask any organization whether they invest in coaching, and you’ll almost certainly get a yes. It’s a stated priority, a line item in leadership development budgets, a topic in manageme
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A decade-long clinical trial of nearly 10,000 adults aged 70 and over has found that daily statins reduce the risk of a first major cardiac event by 30 percent, with no significant in
Good News
Every summer it seems there’s a part of the world experiencing record temperatures, so perhaps it’s time for architects to design buildings designed to resist heat as easily as possible. GNN has reported, mostly in Asia,
Good News
The next time you hear a blackbird singing in the dead of night, know that you’re listening to the most pleasant song in the world. What the bird lacks in dressage it makes up for in repertoire, a new survey and study fr
Good News
On Governor’s Island in New York City, a nonprofit is turning wasted oyster shells into new oyster reefs that filter pollutants from the harbor, absorb wave energy, and supply the city’s restaurant industry. Called the B
Good News
A combination of omega-3 and low-dose aspirin performed about as well as antibiotics in a yearlong study of people with severe gum disease, or periodontitis. It raises the possibility of an alternative treatment for some
The Planet
The actor is helping launch Oxfam’s annual secondhand fashion campaign, as research finds 57% of UK adults tried to buy less clothing in the past year The post Richard E. Grant fronts Second Hand September as Britons try
Community
Sunday Abiodun can often tell an animal is nearby before he sees it — from a broken twig or the way birds suddenly stop singing. For 15 years, he used those instincts to hunt wildlife to feed his family or to sell as bus
Good News
Happy Birthday to Shaun White, the three-time Olympic gold medalist in half-pipe snowboarding, who turns 40 today. He was a champion skateboarder in his teens after undergoing two open-heart surgeries as an infant. He be
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A space telescope with 100 times the sky coverage of Hubble lifted off from Florida this past Sunday. Astronomers have been waiting nearly a decade for this. The Nancy Grace Roman Spa
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s a lot tangled up in choosing a fertility clinic. Some of it is practical: where is it, what does it cost, what are their numbers. Some of it is harder to put into words, like
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A civil war, military standoff, and a state experiencing double-government are all hopefully set to end after Libya’s rival factions agreed to hold elections. The breakthrough occurred in a signing ceremony Sunday at the
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Japan is nothing if not a servant to tradition; even if the tradition is a little strange. Admittedly a little less strange than the annual Kanamara Matsuri festival in Kawasaki (parental guidance suggested) the custom o
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Whether it’s cleaning out an attic or a Wisconsin apartment, in one landlord’s case, finding an original Pablo Picasso work might seem like an unbelievable stroke of luck. GNN knows slightly better—every year pieces by t
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More than 900 students and 16 faculty members escaped before the tragic flood on the border with China and Nepal destroyed a school. They are alive today because of a truly last-minute warning by the school’s accountant,
Community
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Call and response In Baltimor
The Planet
While tech-moguls pour billions into trying to live longer, the answer might well be in the simple life The post What Brazil’s supercentenarians can teach us about living to 120 appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
Happy 62nd Birthday to Keanu Reeves, the actor who might be called one of the nicest guys in show business. The Canadian started his career with humor and light-hearted films like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, befo
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Scientists can now draw a straight line from a single oil company’s emissions to a specific disaster. Not a rough estimate of the industry’s overall contribution, but a specific compa
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most spice jars get rinsed and recycled. A few get left on the counter until someone throws them away. Almost none get a second life, and professional organizers say that’s worth reco
Good News
A heartwarming story of a community putting values above value comes from the convention floor of Pokémon XP. At the August 29th event in San Francisco, venture capitalist Eric Bahn shared that his son was scammed while
Good News
Even as their Congolese neighbors battle the worst Ebola outbreak in its history, Uganda has registered 42 days without any new cases. The achievement was marked by the WHO, heavily involved in supporting the two countri
The Planet
Seven years after London introduced its Ultra Low Emission Zone, researchers are measuring the impact on children's health The post London’s Ulez linked to healthier lung growth in children appeared first on Positive New
Good News
From the Bronx comes the story of a Good Samaritan who donated what he could spare to help a woman he’d seen on the news newly-impoverished at the hands of a house fire. Months later, and history now shows that it was th
Community
This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation. In Los Angeles, in Mumbai, in Kuala Lumpur and in several other cities around the planet, autonomous plastic-eating robots are takin
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881 years ago today, Ibn Jubayir was born in Moorish Spain. This pilgrim and talented writer went on the Hajj to Mecca in 1183, and penned a valuable, beautiful, first-hand account of the places and people he saw, which
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Balloons have always been made from natural latex, a material derived from rubber tree sap. Natural latex is biodegradable. The rubber tree has been producing it since before the firs
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most to-do lists have two kinds of items on them: the real work you’re managing, and the small things that keep getting moved to tomorrow. Reply to that email. File that paper. RSVP t
Good News
In April, millions of readers came to GNN for the scoop on Maryland’s first-in-the-nation ban on “surveillance pricing” in retail grocery stores. Now, municipal governments around the country are ending their association
Good News
A visceral reminder of the dangers of air pollution comes now via an uplifting study which found lung development in children was faster in London’s ultra low-emissions zone (ULEZ). It compared children between the ages
Good News
Two South Florida teens with a penchant for volunteering have used their IT skills to build an app that facilitates the donation of pizzas from local restaurants to local charities. It streamlines the donation process, a
Good News
Reprinted with permission from World at Large. 9 months ahead of schedule, and surviving attempts in both Trump Administrations to cut its budget in half, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope soared into space on Sunday
The Planet
Sea shanties became an online craze, but these old working songs are doing more than filling dancefloors: they're connecting communities too The post The unlikely rise of the sea shanty band appeared first on Positive Ne
Community
This article was originally published by Shelterforce, an independent newsroom reporting on affordable housing. When it came time for college student Eric Gil to choose a career, the Dominican Republic native opted for o
Good News
And, on this day 29 years ago, the Good News Network made positive news available on the web for the first time. Geri Weis-Corbley, the founder, worked in TV news, freelancing for CNN and other media companies, until the
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For 16 weeks, an AI-generated variation of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” sat in Australia’s top 20 singles chart. At its peak, it hit number two. Listeners streamed it, and the chart coun
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM September is a transition month for the sky. The Milky Way‘s core is still visible in the Northern Hemisphere, but not for much longer. The nights are getting longer, Venus is at its
Good News
It’s a tale two years in the making, including a helicopter ride from Wales to London and a transatlantic flight to Houston for a long-awaited homecoming for a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle—one of the most endangered species
Good News
A rare vintage Swiss watch discovered hidden away in a late mother’s jewelry box while the family was cleaning out her home has sold for £59,000 at a British auction—$80,000 in US dollars. The 1930s Patek Philippe wristw
Good News
A million-dollar fund has been launched to provide dental treatment to the most vulnerable members of Britain. The mydentist Foundation announced it is supporting charitable organizations assisting underserved communitie
Good News
Happy 96th Birthday to Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha.” He rose from working in his father’s store and delivering newspapers to becoming a multi-billionaire and the most successful American investor of the 20th cen
Good News
An artist is carving out a living by making amazingly-realistic wooden sculptures—after teaching himself how to use a chainsaw. The 53-year-old started carving with chainsaws 30 years ago and now makes thousands, selling
Good News
Poor sleep quality has been linked to cognitive decline, neuro-degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease in seniors—but it may be possible to counteract certain risks. A new study shows that specific sleep brain waves provide
Good News
London’s Waterloo station has become the first major train hub in Britain to employ dogs on regular patrols. Canine caretakers Riley, Buster and Flo are providing “additional reassurance” to passengers as part of a three
Good News
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
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On this day, 79 years ago, Dr. Bhimrao R. Ambedkar was appointed to chair the Indian constitutional drafting committee. This national hero is responsible for the constitution being one that is largely considered one of t
Good News
The world’s oldest person as acknowledged by the Guinness World Records turned 117 last Friday Ethel Caterham was born in the United Kingdom on August 21st, 1909, when the great-great grandfather of the current king was
Science Wins
Episode Description: Karissa hosts solo this week while Arielle recovers, covering ten solutions including the world’s first wild bird flu vaccination program for Phillip Island’s little penguins, France making unsolicit
Good News
He’s no poison-arrow frog, but that doesn’t mean the American bullfrog doesn’t understand poison—far from it, according to scientists. Hidden within the humble bullfrog’s genetics is the equipment to produce an antidote
Good News
An Arab entrepreneur has turned her country’s national crop into creative new ice cream recipes. It needed several years of experimentation, and she broke several ice cream machines before perfecting her soft-serve blend
Good News
Landlords get a bad rap, often unfairly, but now from Melbourne comes the story of one who gave a long-term tenant the home she was renting. The magnanimous gesture is typical, 9 News reports, of the late self-made milli
Community
“In Galicia, we have lots of rain and strong sun, so vegetation grows quickly and it’s hard to control,” shouts José Taboada, as we hurtle up a steep, rocky path in his rickety Land Rover. “In summer, when it dries, fire
Good News
118 years ago today, Roger Tory Peterson, the inventor of the modern field guide, was born. The American naturalist, ornithologist, artist, and educator published his groundbreaking Guide to the Birds in 1934, at age 25,
The Planet
A ‘historic’ fall in US violent crime, Europe’s right to repair law, and a conservation triumph for Kazakhstan, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Back-to-school season is a great time to donate. Kids have outgrown things. Backpacks didn’t survive the year. Notebooks never got opened. Most of it ends up in the trash, and a small
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Little penguins are the world’s smallest species of penguin, standing about the height of a ruler, found only in southern Australia and New Zealand. Every night on Phillip Island in V
Good News
Citizens across the nation have reported strange figures on city sidewalks. They’re white, short, and inhuman. But this unidentified rolling object comes in peace. His name is Dax, and he’s here to help. This summer saw
Good News
It takes a village to raise a child they say. Well a story comes to us now from Alert Bay in British Columbia, where it took a village to save one. It was a retired logger and fisherman named Gordon Mellish who first res
Good News
Pakistan has created a wildlife sanctuary along 123 miles of the Indus River where it’s estimated 440 of these extraordinary freshwater cetaceans live. The endangered Indus River Dolphin has seen large declines in the am
Good News
The University of British Columbia has taken low value timber waste and turned it into “wood foam” to replace plastic in packaging. With one of the largest timber industries in the world, the innovation clears two hurdle
Community
It is dawn in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Most of the tourists waiting to start their safari have come to see a tiger. Instead, another sight catches their attention: women in
The Planet
Former oil executive Samantha Cooper once helped power the industry. Now she’s fighting to end its hold on our future The post Life after: oil appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
Happy 87th Birthday to Osage-American travel writer William Least Heat-Moon. His debut novel, Blue Highways, (1982) is a chronicle of a three-month-long road trip that Least Heat-Moon took throughout the United States in
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s a specific kind of health advice that asks a lot of you: meal prep, supplements with confusing ingredient lists, routines that cost more than they should. Blueberries aren’t t
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In March, mental health clinician Michala Williams met a 38-year-old woman sobbing in the front seat of her car in a McDonald’s parking lot. The woman had called 911. She had children
Good News
There are many orchids at risk of extinction in Australia alone, few more than this rosella spider orchid. Thanks to a dedicated team of volunteers however, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Victoria actually possess a nurser
Good News
A new ‘fridge free’ production method for vaccines could create far more reliable immunizations for low and middle income countries, as well as cut back on waste. Currently, it’s estimated that a large percentage of all
Good News
Dolly Parton passed away yesterday at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer. She leaves behind a legacy captured in many GNN stories; one of championing childhood literacy, uplifting Americans of every gender, colo
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The Asiatic lion populations living in western India have increased 70% over the last decade, while their rangeland has also increased 15%. In a large protected area called the Greater Gir Landscape in Gujurat state, the
Community
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Rolling vistas Utah’s Zion Na
The Planet
A new mapping tool pinpoints where slugs are likely to strike, helping farmers cut pesticide use while protecting crops The post Putting slugs on the map: farmers pioneer precision crop protection appeared first on Posit
Good News
235 years ago today, John Fitch was granted a US patent for a boat propelled by steam power which used mechanical paddles to propel it atop lakes and rivers—an invention that revolutionized commercial transportation of b
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For years, researchers knew that air pollution stunts lung development in children. What they hadn’t been able to show was whether cleaning up the air could actually change that traje
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Ninety-seven percent of French people find telemarketing calls annoying. A 2025 parliamentary report called it “one of those rare issues that unites people in France.” The government
Good News
From Turin comes a surgical world-first: the simultaneous transplant of a complete human macula, along with the cornea, sclera, and connective tissue, from one of the patient’s eyes to the other. It allowed a woman blind
Good News
A Japanese pharma company has developed a drug that treats the root cause of a leading form of narcolepsy, and is celebrating as it becomes the first of its kind to receive American FDA approval. Narcolepsy type-1 afflic
Community
It’s a sight that stops Florida boaters and beachgoers in their tracks: a thick green sludge coating the water, smelling of rotten eggs and dead fish. Ashley Smyth, a coastal biogeochemist at the University of Florida, l
Good News
American amphibian lovers will be jumping for joy at the news of 3,000 frogs and tadpoles from an endangered species bred and released into their former mountain homes. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has been breeding a
Good News
Jack Gardner couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the behemoth hooked on his fishing line. If he and his crew aboard Dominator reeled it in, he knew it would be the greatest catch of his life and provide the equivalent
The Planet
Here are five simple ways to reconnect with your artistic side and make art part of everyday life The post Art attack: five habits to help you get (back) into art appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
110 years ago today, the National Park Service was created in the US. Guardians of 64 extraordinary places which documentarian Ken Burns called “America’s best idea” the NPS is among the most identifiable and appreciated
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The first terawatt of global solar capacity took nearly 68 years to reach. The second arrived in roughly two years. The third came in 19 months. The world crossed the 3-terawatt mark
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For parents of tweens and teens, August often brings the same showdown: a wish list brimming with the latest must-have styles and a budget that’s not budging. That water bottle your k
Good News
School initiation rituals can be embarrassing, crude, and even disturbing, but for a 14-year-old, nothing could be worse than what is demanded of them, day 1, at Bishop Kelly High School in Tulsa. If initiation is about
Good News
Like any pair of baby boomers in America, Liu Peijin and his wife dreamed as newly-weds of a grand tour around their native China. Marrying out of high school, they had a normal enough life—with Mr. Liu embarking on a lo
Good News
An inventor and serial entrepreneur has created a non-flushing, waterless toilet that’s already making sanitation safer and accessible for some 20,000 households, Deployed in Uganda, Panama, and the United States, the ‘i
Good News
Out in the wild waters of Indonesia, zebra sharks are extremely rare. Overhunted, these striped bottom dwellers were at risk of going extinct. After 3 years of foundational work, an international consortium of 60 aquariu
The Planet
Why rewilding is one of the best solutions we have to the concerning rise of wildfires The post How rewilding could help stop the spread of Britain’s wildfires appeared first on Positive News .
Community
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Visitors to the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, captivated by gliding birds overhead and golden hills across the Bay waters, c
Good News
10 years ago today, the European Southern Observatory confirmed the existence of Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. It’s just ove
Good News
Farmers in Ethiopia are slashing their growing costs, increasing food production, and protecting the environment thanks to solar-powered irrigation systems introduced through the Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable an
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In 2022, a group of high schoolers designed 150 LEGO-inspired airplane kits, 3D-printed them one by one, assembled them by hand, and shipped them to a school in Kenya. How is that for
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In 1983, an Australian agricultural adviser named Tony Rinaudo was working in the Sahel when he noticed something that didn’t fit the picture everyone had of the region. The land look
Good News
A dog missing for nearly three weeks on a mountain in rural England’s Lake District has been rescued—and it was a real team effort. Tiny Teddy vanished on August 2nd while hiking with her owner on Helvellyn, the third-hi
Good News
California will be helping teens mold their futures as early as possible, by requiring every high schooler to pass a financial literacy course. Legislation now being implemented after its passage in 2024 made California
Good News
Desperate times call for desperate measures. With traditional funding sources facing cuts, The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, which has spent the last 65 years studying yellow-bellied marmots, had to get creative.
Good News
3 years ago today, the chief of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) exclaimed “India is on the Moon!” after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Lunar lander. In doing so India became the fourth
Good News
Hidden secrets of the narwhal’s twisted tusk have been revealed using the latest X-ray technology. Tusks of the species of whale native to the Arctic have long been the subject of myths—even being sold as ‘unicorn horns’
Good News
A New York gas station encouraged patrons to “pump it up” last month, and they weren’t talking about fuel. Instead, the Halfmoon Sunoco 25 minutes outside of Albany was helping customers move past the pain of skyrocketin
Good News
A breeding program at England’s Chester Zoo has restored hundreds of tiny mollusks to their native land after they had grown so rare, they could collectively fit inside a petri dish. The zoo, which participates in many g
Good News
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
Good News
76 years ago today, Althea Gibson became the first black competitor in international tennis, after US officials, bowing to pressure, invited the 23-year-old to play in the National Championships (now the US Open). Born i
Good News
French energy supermajor TotalEnergies recently inaugurated the largest hybrid renewable energy project in Africa that will generate 400 gigawatt-hours of electricity in South Africa. Located in the Northern Cape provinc
Good News
A sisters-owned pizza institution in Minnesota which recently closed after fire damage has received a big slice of help from the community. In the early morning hours of July 11th, firefighters responded to a call as smo
Good News
It was June 23rd when a furry brown arrow shot past a motion-activated camera along the Bronx River and sent conservationists mad with excitement. It was the first time in approximately 100 years that an otter was observ
Good News
It’s estimated that over 110 million Chinese live and work abroad, which for the family members they leave behind can be heart-wrenching and difficult, above all for the elderly. But thanks to a generous soul born to the
Science Wins
Episode Description: Many of the long-time listeners of The Optimist Daily’s podcast will recognize Kristy Jansen’s voice. She’s the former co-host and Executive Director of this show, and she’s back, joining Arielle and
Community
In the town of Gateshead in North East England, coal mining runs thick in the blood. Up to the final coup de grâce delivered by Margaret Thatcher’s coal purge in the 1980s, Gateshead had been tapping its dark subterranea
Good News
Happy 40th birthday to the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt. The Jamaican superstar sprinter who retired in 2017 is a world record holder in the 100-meters, 200m and 4 × 100m relay. RE-LIVE Bolt’s career below… (1986) Whe
The Planet
A ‘pivotal moment’ for cancer treatment, resurgent whales, and the city that made public transport free, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Good news! In the UK, only 63 infants were admitted to intensive care with RSV infection last winter, which is down from 131 the year before. Same 20 hospitals, same surveillance syst
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM If you’ve ever driven away from school while your kid was still crying at the door, you know the horrible feeling. The half-formed urge to turn the car around. The uncertainty about w
Good News
Researchers at Johns Hopkins report that an experimental drug targeting one of the most common genetic drivers of pancreatic cancer was safe in humans, and generated durable immune responses aimed at preventing the cance
Good News
Hundreds of geometric earthworks were recently found in the southwestern Amazon, evidence that a monument-building, precolonial civilization was so much larger than previously thought. The scale of this hidden world of m
Good News
When a local resident found out that her schools in an extremely wealthy Northern California county was at the bottom for state funding, she stepped up to make the difference. Maja Kristin asked the Ross Valley School Di
Good News
A harrowing story of survival and perseverance comes to us from Mexico, where a fisherman was rescued after spending 15 days in a pitch black cave. The man, Erasto Crisanto Valdez, said he trusted in god to deliver him f
Community
There are all kinds of enormous, impressive and, frankly, noisy machines at work across the 20,000 square meters of industrial warehouses at the headquarters of Fagor Arrasate, a manufacturing company in Spain’s northern
Good News
Happy 91th birthday to the former Congressman from Texas, Dr. Ron Paul. Before serving three terms as representative of the 22nd and 14th Congressional districts, the country doctor delivered an average of 1 baby per day
The Planet
A brightly painted bus is bringing books, puppets and art workshops to children who have grown up with war The post The mobile library bringing books to rural Syria appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Eight months after a shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach killed 15 people, Australia is following through. New South Wales starts a gun buyback on November 2, Prime Mini
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s a pattern in the supplement industry that tends to repeat itself. Researchers find that people who eat foods rich in a particular nutrient have better health outcomes. Compani
Good News
When a TikTok influencer and NYT bestselling author received her DoorDash meal in early August, a hand-scrawled note in the bag caught her eye. The words were from the delivery driver: “Your tip is helping make our weddi
Good News
The last time a white stork nested in Derbyshire in the English Midlands region, the country’s King Henry VI was declaring war against the Duchy of Brittany and the Kingdom of France, while an independent Venice won a wa
Good News
From the Italian police’s crack art crimes team comes the news that 3 stolen paintings by famous French artists were recovered and returned to their owners. The Carabinieri, or military police, report that the paintings
Good News
The world renowned Zion National Park has become the first to offer an all-terrain wheelchair for disabled visitors who want to enjoy the canyon system’s trails. The equipment was made available thanks to a charitable no
Community
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. On track Do you really need t
The Planet
We asked: how do you forge meaningful human connections in a busy, disconnected world? This is what you said The post How to forge meaningful human connections – according to you appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Slamming tires with a sledgehammer, pummeling a punching bag, running yourself into the ground when you’re furious: the premise behind rage workouts is that intense physical exertion
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There is a disease that kills more than one million people a year, nearly half of them children under five, and it rarely breaks through in global health coverage. Researchers have a
Good News
Expected to see 10 to 18 inches of sea level rise over the next 25 years, the city of Boston and the US Army Corps of Engineers have released a feasibility study for 20 separate infrastructure projects to protect the his
Good News
Police in Belgium recently made a most remarkable discovery while digging under the foundations of an old brewery. While using a jackhammer on the property in the city of Dendermonde, about 19 miles outside of Brussels,
Community
When she was 21, Gabriela Nathania H dove underwater with a cohort of four strangers off the coast of Gili Air. The tiny island is one of three that make up the Gili Islands, an archipelago that divers the world over adm
Good News
A bird that was hit by a car is undergoing a rather curious rehabilitation procedure. The animal hospital it was taken do designed a pair of specially-built casts made of cardboard and tape. It’s a bit makeshift, but the
Good News
Former Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Zhu Rongji, passed away on last week at the age of 97, with the country raising its flags to half-mast in commemoration of one of its wisest custodians. His term as the h
The Planet
How music festivals are putting land restoration, community action and environmental change on the bill The post Can festivals leave the land better than they found it? appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
88 years ago today, the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the US with Canada over the Saint Lawrence Seaway was dedicated by F.D. Roosevelt. The complex contains 5 bridges spanning 8.5 miles, with each bridge section an
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You spend the first few years of your kid’s life repeating words back to them, hoping one will stick. “Mama.” “Dada.” “Ball.” And then suddenly you’re coaching them through “please” a
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Air conditioning is making cities hotter, and that’s not incidental. It’s the physics. Every AC unit pulls heat from inside a building and dumps it into the street, which raises outdo
Good News
The production of cement ranks as one of the world’s largest industrial sources of CO2, but now a new study shows how in the future it could be used to remove, rather than produce the greenhouse gas. Every year, around 4
Good News
From the Wall Street Journal comes the story of a goldilocks discovery: a potential replacement for wood fiber that goes into making tissues, toilet paper, and paper towels. It’s called hesperaloe, and like the namesake
Good News
As one of the most isolated landmasses on Earth, residents of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, rely on the bounty of the ocean more than most. It’s as good a place as any to institute marine environment protections, and indee
Good News
After winning a million euros, a woman mistakenly tossed the lucky lottery ticket into a trash bin. But the local sanitation company in southern Italy launched an hours-long search through an entire truck of trash. Waste
Community
At the end of 2020, Dr. Jean-Luc Bernard, a family doctor who had been caring for the community in Ajain, France, for over 40 years, finally hung up his stethoscope and retired. It was not easy to convince a new general
The Planet
An Italian farm is using biomimicry and agroecological technology to ensure their crops can handle the heat The post ‘We like breaking the rules’: the radical farm that yields results appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
81 years ago today, Animal Farm was published by George Orwell. Though most famous for his seminal dystopian fiction work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, this satirical novella carries similar socio-political allegorical heft. Ce
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM If you’ve put real time into growing and grooming your beard, discovering a film of flakes underneath it can feel so unfair. All that trimming, all those oils, and somehow your skin i
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Cleared tropical rainforests can recover 90 percent of their species diversity within a single human generation, according to new research from Ecuador’s Chocó region, one of the most
Good News
As Emma Kessler headed to her first half marathon, her boyfriend’s running shoes were in the trunk, and a surprise was in the works. Kessler, a 22-year-old, had been anxious for weeks. Running 13 miles is no easy task—es
Good News
[By Christian Honce | UK College of Medicine] Picture this: You find a small fire isolated in your kitchen. If you had the right tool, you might be able to put it out. But before you can, the sprinklers turn on and soak
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A powerful portion of ‘the American dream’ was served by a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to help out one of its own. Thalles DeSouza’s story may have started in a treacherous neighborhood near
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110 years ago today, the Migratory Bird Treaty was signed by the US and Canada. setting rules to protect birds that fly between both countries. This agreement stopped unregulated hunting and saved many bird species from
Good News
The video starts normal enough, but a surprise is waiting somewhere near the chorus. Mikayla Khramov is strumming guitar strings on Instagram and singing the lyrics to the famous Dolly Parton song 9-to-5. Then, a moment
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The month of August heralded the return of 14 acres of golden sunflowers topping the landscape in Scotland. Open to visitors through August 23, the Balgone Estate has once again opened its vibrant Sunflower Trail located
Good News
Along California’s redwood coast, conservationists have been working for more than a decade to give a damaged creek something surprisingly simple: room to behave like a creek again. Prairie Creek is one of the last refug
Good News
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
Good News
108 years ago today, American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the first long-form animation film, the Sinking of the Lusitania, showing what pure conviction looks like. Far from being funny, the 12-minute film depicted
Good News
97-year-old Westel Creager became determined to keep a promise he made years ago. When his great-granddaughter Haiden was going off to college, Westel told her that if she got into medical school, he’d be there when she
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For caregivers of children living with chronic or rare lung diseases, monitoring their condition presents an uncomfortable tradeoff: Repeated scans can be valuable, but they can also expose patients to radiation. Now, a
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Fifteen years ago, conservationists began releasing rescued orangutans into a protected forest in Sumatra where no others from their species were living. Some arrived had been in human care after being orphaned. Others h
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England’s Chester Zoo reported last week they successfully bred the stunning secretarybird for the first time in its 95-year history—producing five chicks. The endangered African birds are part of an international conser
Science Wins
Episode Description: Arielle checks in solo to explain why the Kristy guest episode is getting a little more time. Both she and Karissa have been doing what they always say matters most: showing up, fully present, for th
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This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox. A.J. Johnson’s oldest son was born in 2019, the year before res
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85 years ago today, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the joint declaration of peace and progress that later became known as the Atlantic Charter. The statement was issue
The Planet
Plummeting deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon, hurricane-predicting sharks and a courtroom reckoning on the cards for tech giants, plus mor The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on P
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM People who carry a Neanderthal version of the growth hormone receptor have, on average, 271 additional grams of muscle compared with those who don’t. People who inherited the variant
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s something slightly odd about the fact that we’ve had solar telescopes for more than a century and still couldn’t quite see the sun’s surface. We’re already aware of the big st
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One of California’s most famous surfers has four legs and a tail. They call her Rippin’ Rosie. She’s a lovable 5-year-old Labrador Retriever with golden fur and almost 340,000 followers on Instagram. “Everyone knows Rosi
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Communities have recognized a fundamental truth about challenging systems of power: You can't do it alone.
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Ospreys are recovering in Britain thanks to “pioneering pairs” who prefer to nest away from the main population, according to new research. It could be key to increasing the proliferation of the raptors, which first beca
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A mechanical issue started a fire in a Utah apartment building last week that sent the entire five-story structure ablaze in a matter of minutes. Residents in the Salt Lake City suburb—and their pets—were evacuated from
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The mini-statue of a warrior rhino was birthed in a guessing game. After graduating from Virginia Tech, Bryan Newton kept cultivating his school spirit and connections to campus by working for Rhino Sports and Entertainm
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On a humid summer afternoon, Gagan Das mixes groundnut and mustard meal in water in a large drum. On either side of him, large ponds reflect the sun. Mango trees laden with fruit, palms heavy with their payload of yellow
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166 years ago today, Annie Oakley, who became the first American woman ‘superstar,’ was born in a cabin in rural Ohio. To support her five siblings and widowed mother, Phoebe Annie Mosey took up hunting and trapping at a
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Luke Holdsworth was born deaf and is now one of the UK’s most respected BSL interpreters at live concerts The post Bringing the thrill of live music to deaf audiences – with the help of air guitar appeared first on Posit
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Cervical spine surgeon K. Daniel Riew at Och Spine at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center has started seeing patients in their 20s. That age group rarely appeared in hi
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A bioengineered chewing gum cut HPV levels by 93 percent in oral samples from head and neck cancer patients, in new research from the University of Pennsylvania. The same formulation,
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Research from the University of Pennsylvania shows that antiviral and antibacterial chewing gums reduce the levels of three microbes known to be associated with oral cancer, paving the way for more effective and affordab
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Early farmers achieved an “engineering wonder of the world” by building a giant irrigation system in South America thousands of years ago. Communities living in what is now Colombia created the remarkable network based o
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It was just what the duck-ter ordered… Tori and her husband, Justin Cannarelli, who own a garden center, volunteered to adopt Louie the Duck after he hatched at a Long Island elementary school. It was supposed to be temp
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A manatee is swimming free again thanks to a fishing guide who reported the animal tangled in crab trap lines, and the Georgia and Florida wildlife experts who raced to the scene. The drama played out over two days last
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Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Hearing things What does New
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At 50 years old and with the release of his new book The Midnight Train, Matt Haig explains why acceptance has descended on him The post Back on track: Matt Haig on finding acceptance appeared first on Positive News .
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45 years ago today, the first IBM PC, one of the early personal computers, was released. The development team broke all the rules within IBM and went to outside vendors for most of the parts and software, acting as an in
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For a group of teenagers learning English in Providence, Rhode Island, summer school this year looked a little different. There were vocabulary games and journal entries, but also trips into the community where students
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Electric aircraft startups have been promising a lot for a long time. Two of them are now close enough to matter. Battery-electric and hybrid planes with a range of up to 500 kilomete
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Paralytic shellfish poisoning, a severe and potentially fatal foodborne illness, has no specific antidote. The neurotoxin responsible, saxitoxin, is classified as a chemical weapon un
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The world’s largest coral system, the Great Barrier Reef, suffered six mass ‘bleaching events’ between 2016 and 2025, due in part to warming oceans. Before the 1990s, any bleaching events were “exceptionally rare” along
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Almost eight decades after she last played baseball, Maybelle Blair returned to the diamond—in a wheelchair—to inaugurate the new women’s US baseball league. It brought Blair’s uniquely American story full circle—and she
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A ten-year-old plant has finally burst into flower for the first time after a decade of care by professional horticulturists—and the stalk was so tall greenhouse had to remove the Roof. Staff at the Birmingham Botanical
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These three groups are using sport and movement to create connection, purpose and community The post Three sports groups using movement to tackle isolation appeared first on Positive News .
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70 years ago today, Elvis Presley released his first double-sided mega-hit record. With Don’t Be Cruel on one side and Hound Dog on the other, the singles went to No.1 and No.2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, where they st
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You probably already know the feeling, even if you’ve never had a name for it. The way your shoulders drop and relax the moment you step under a canopy of trees. How the breath comes
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Sweden announced on July 23 that it will ban per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances from consumer products by January 1, 2028. The list covers clothing, shoes, waterproofing agents, kitc
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NASA engineers found a way to free up power aboard Voyager 2, helping the nearly 50-year-old spacecraft continue its scientific work. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory team decided to simultaneously shut down certain powered
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New research shows that elephants develop successful coping mechanisms when returning to the wild from human captivity. In fact, the team found that “rewilded” elephants can fit quite well within wildlife systems and rea
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Scientists studying one of the world’s most serious inherited muscle diseases have found encouraging evidence that treating children much earlier—potentially before obvious symptoms develop—could make a significant diffe
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When you see these photos from the Toronto Zoo of their newest resident, you’ll know why we had to share. A pregnant pygmy Hippopotamus gave birth a week ago—tiny feet appearing after 1.5 hours of active labor. The calf
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This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation. If you line up to get coffee at one of Aarhus University’s many cafeterias, you won’t see a stack of disposable cups as you do at mo
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A new wave of young birders is helping to turn one of Britain’s oldest pastimes into one of its fastest-growing hobbies The post How birdwatching has become an unexpected hit with Gen Z appeared first on Positive News .
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180 years ago today, the Smithsonian Institution was first chartered, and named after the British scientist, James Smithson, who bequeathed $500,000 to create a great museum in Washington, DC—even though he had never vis
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM New Mexico just became the first state to hold Meta financially liable for harms to children’s mental health. The total bill is now $942m. The new ruling, handed down last week on Thu
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There is something that makes adults uneasy about a child playing alone. A kid absorbed in something private at a playground edge, a bedroom door closed for an afternoon. These scenes
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A University of Toronto study is offering new evidence in support of full-fat dairy consumption. The findings from a 12-week study demonstrate that three daily servings of full-fat dairy can be incorporated into a person
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Dating back more than 60,000 years ago, humans in southern Africa were engraving ostrich eggshells with intricate geometric patterns that—the longer we study them—look more organized than we previously realized. A new an
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In 2021, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Bezos Earth Fund, and nine other conservation philanthropies launched the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, focused on protecting at least 30% of the most important land, freshwater, and ma
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Despite going blind, a remarkable horse is still on his way to becoming a dressage champion after adopting an extraordinary form of equine “braille”. The 15-year-old Appaloosa named Milo, has awed spectators since return
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90 years ago today, track and field star Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics—a first for any American athlete. Owens was cheered enthusiastically by 110,000 people in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium—and
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More than a century after the country’s largest bird of prey disappeared entirely from Ireland, a white-tailed sea eagle has been delivered—and the young fledgling became another success for conservationists to celebrate
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Loggerhead sea turtle nests along the Atlantic coast in the US have set a new 37-year record, topping every annual count for beaches in the state of Georgia, going back to 1989. The state’s Department of Natural Resource
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A bride and groom were forced to find someone with a metal detector during their own wedding—after the engagement ring flew off her finger mid-ceremony. Abi and Tony Clark were tying the knot on the beach at St. Brelade’
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Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
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450 years ago today, the keystone of Europe’s first modern astronomical observatory—the Uraniborg designed by Tycho Brahe, was laid. It was also the last to be built without a telescope as its primary instrument. It was
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Kazakhstan has taken a massive step towards its long-held goal of re-establishing the tiger in the country by releasing a female Amur tiger into the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve. Established in 2018 for this exact purpose
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National Geographic calls it the ocean dweller who struts about more like a rock &roll frontman than a fish.
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Scientists using Earth’s most powerful solar telescope have snapped a picture of the Sun’s surface that helped explain—for the first time—foundational physics about our dear star. Situated atop the summit of Haleakalā, a
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SeaWorld San Antonio recently welcomed 7 rescued beluga whales, following a nearly 2,000 mile journey, as part of an urgent, unprecedented international effort to relocate 30 belugas from a closed marine park in Canada t
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Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly celebration of how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice. Sign up to Reasons to be Cheerf
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10 years ago today, Ichiro Suzuki joined the “3,000 Club” of collecting 3,000 hits across an MLB career in style, hitting a triple off the right-field wall of Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies. In doing so he also
The Planet
A reality check for ‘AI slop’, the US’s plummeting murder rate, and a victory for an uncontacted tribe, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Did you know that every time the brain learns something, it changes physically? A study in PLoS Biology is the first to track exactly what those changes are, and found two separate pr
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Here’s some food for thought: for students, free lunch ends when school does. For the millions of children who rely on subsidized cafeteria meals during the year, nothing automaticall
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When a man who loves things that go ‘boom’ met a men who loves things that go ‘bloom,’ they realized there was much to gain from an alliance. Hence, Ryukoku University professor Takahiko Nakaoki and president of Kakinoki
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From Turkiye’s Mediterranean shore comes the remarkable story of how a group of unsupported conservationists and fishermen received a helping hand from an NGO and restored 300 miles of coastline into a biodiverse marine
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A man who dresses up every year as Santa Claus to spread Christmas cheer has just delivered a very special present. Though central Virginia is far too hot for Santa’s reindeer to flyover, the gift couldn’t wait until Dec
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A company which learned that Singapore’s recycling rates have “plateaued” around 11% is deploying over 100 refill machines for cleaning products around the city. Reducing the cost of packaging has allowed the household p
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Robert Lindemann is a 32-year-old accountant from Germany. He’s also had a heart transplant, a life-changing experience shared by just a few hundred people each year in his country. But at the Transplant Games, he doesn’
The Planet
The British singer-songwriter and frontman of alt-J on capturing creative sparks and the rise of the far-right The post Life lessons: Joe Newman on what life so far has taught him appeared first on Positive News .
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100 years ago today, American Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Called “The Queen of the Waves,” she was an Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder in 5 events for w
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The U.S. Indian boarding school system spent decades trying to remove Native American languages from Native children. Kids were separated from their families and punished, sometimes v
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Picture yourself running late to a dreaded appointment. Your shoulders climb toward your ears, your jaw tightens, and every red light feels like a targeted attack. Now picture driving
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Two famously toxic plants—known also to treat pain, malaria, cancer, and pests—may have had those medicinal properties synthesized in a lab for the first time. The researchers behind the discovery believe “plants are the
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New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are at their lowest levels in more than 30 years, a special report released by UNAIDS shows. Released in time for the 26th International AIDS Conference taking place in Rio de J
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Grady-White Boats market their vessels as the “finest boats ever crafted” which is quite the statement. GNN can’t comment on boat quality, but they certainly don’t make humans like Grady-White’s ex-CEO much anymore. For
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In what must rank as one of the rarer fossil assemblages ever discovered, an incredible moment where the whole top-third of the Cretaceous era marine food chain was being sorted out has been presented by scientists. Foll
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Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Crossing to safety Habitat lo
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The government is overhauling school food standards in England for the first time in more than a decade The post How schools are winning children over to healthier lunches appeared first on Positive News .
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120 years ago today, American actor, director, and screenwriter John Huston, was born. He also wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 film classics he directed, like The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Czech researchers at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague are building titanium joint implants with a porous internal structure designed to hold medication and release
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A study published in Nature provides the first experimental evidence that inherited genetics shape not just whether cancer starts, but how it evolves once it does. Researchers led by
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A major, early-stage advancement in vision technology comes to us now from South Korea, where researchers created a contact lens that repairs scratches automatically when exposed to sunlight. A scratched lens can mean an
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This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here. Since most homicides in the U.S. are committed with guns, gun violence and the na
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In 2022, the longest “predator exclusion fence” anywhere in the Pacific was completed on Kauai, encircling 168 acres of prime seabird nesting habitat. The nesting birds include endangered species that were under constant
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In a story that shows how it’s never too late to learn, a man in the UK has graduated from nursing school at 64. His education actually saw the Nigerian immigrant, who is a father of 5, studying alongside his son, who wa
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Newly released camera trap footage from a recent study captures the oldest Sunda clouded leopard ever recorded in the wild. This 8.5-year-old female in Borneo’s rainforests offers a new and exciting glimpse into the life
The Planet
At Groundswell, experts debated how to get more nature-friendly foods on shelves. Here are three key takeaways The post Will regeneratively grown food become mainstream? appeared first on Positive News .
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125 years ago today, the beloved American jazz trumpeter, composer, and singer Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans. Nicknamed Satchmo, or Pops, Armstrong was one of the most influential figures in jazz, with a trail-
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Rivers are how plastic gets to the ocean. Stop it there, and you stop it for good. The Great Bubble Barrier, a Dutch company, built a technology to do exactly that. A perforated tube
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s nothing quite like wandering around your garden with scissors in hand, ready to cut fresh herbs to season your meals. The aromatic scents and flavors are unparalleled. However
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Invasive species of Asian mussels have met their match in Alberta’s riverine sniffer dogs. These K9 conservationists have been employed by the provincial government for over a decade to help catch zebra and golden mussel
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From Colorado comes the story of a child prodigy pianist whose career was kick-started by a jaw-dropping donation from a complete stranger. Brought to us via CBS News “On the Road” with Steve Hartman, the story began on
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On July 31st, mine developer Canada Nickel Company announced it had received final permitting approval from the Ontario government for its gargantuan nickel mining/carbon capture project The approval is the first issued
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A new album made from the echolocation calls of bats is inviting listeners to hear the misunderstood mammals differently The post The musicians turning bat calls into club music appeared first on Positive News .
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Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp is the latest wild wonder of the USA to make UNESCO’s hallowed World Heritage Site list. It joins the Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Everglades, and Yellowstone national Parks on the same list, and ref
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One day in late June, a forest patrol deep in the jungles of Central India came across a distressing sight. Twelve spotted deer and two sambar deer lay dead around a poisoned pond. This was among the biggest cases of sus
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On this day 100 years ago, Tony Bennett, the famed jazz and pop singer, who passed away just last year, was born. Winner of 19 Grammys, he grew up in a poor family of Italian immigrants, but his uncle was a vaudeville ta
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A dog owner says her pooch saved her life, by repeatedly pawing at her armpit, which eventually alerted her to breast cancer. The 61-year-old says her chihuahua Flag started the odd behavior years ago, constantly hitting
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Six years ago, fewer than one in six rural homes in India had a tap water connection. As of mid-July, more than four in five do, and the difference adds up to 124 million additional h
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The sustainable fashion industry has spent years trying to reduce harm: less water, fewer synthetic chemicals, more recycled material. A research team at the Shenzhen Institutes of Ad
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The rookie lifeguard didn’t flinch. A giant wave slammed into the California shore and a 10-year-old boy was instantly swept up. Luckily, a 16-year-old lifeguard ran to help, rushing toward a rescue that would go viral o
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A touring heavy metal band almost met disaster in the middle of nowhere, until a 60-year-old stranger reminded them that there’s still a magical thing called ‘Midwest Nice’. The Autumn Kings trio had just finished perfor
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An Englishman says he lives with the world’s oldest cat—a tortoiseshell born in 1995, making her 31 years-old. The puss named Millie was first owned by Leslie Greenhough’s late wife, who took her in as a 3-month-old kitt
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83 years ago today, in combat with the Japanese during the Solomon Islands Campaign in World War II, Patrol torpedo boat PT-109 was rammed by the Japanese Destroyer Amagiri. Its commanding officer, a certain Lieutenant J
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As NASA’s Curiosity rover ascended the Martian valley named Valle Grande back in June, it sent back images of a landscape covered in honeycomb-like textures. “We’ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity’
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A Eurasian lynx rescued from misery in Ukraine took her first steps on grass —and soon rolled over onto her back—after being rescued by a UK animal sanctuary. The big cat named Ursa was found seriously ill in January aft
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New research shows that blowing bubbles helps sperm whales to sleep soundly, hidden beneath the waves. It actually stops them from floating to the surface during nap time. While little is known about how sperm whales sle
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Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
Good News
61 years ago today, Frank Herbert’s epic science-fiction novel Dune was published. Set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which various noble houses control planetary fiefdoms, it tells the sto
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An inspiring story of solidarity between pet owners comes from Japan, recently rattled by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. In the wake of the disaster that destroyed homes and claimed over 3 dozen lives, an organization that
Science Wins
Episode Description: Dolphins fatally swim into fishing nets because the nylon is acoustically too similar to water for their echolocation to pick up. A researcher at Newcastle University wondered if attaching something
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Arizona State University researchers are testing ways to neutralize mining’s biggest environmental liabilities. At present the mining sector is experiencing a surge in interest and investment, as America has seemingly wo
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Miraculously, all 11 souls walked away with their lives after a seaplane both crashed and caught fire in the Puget Sound. Operator Kenmore Air said in a statement that one of its planes, a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter, was o
Good News
The rapid adoption of heat pumps in the United States is becoming little short of a revolution, such that these clever HVAC devices in a few years will effectively replace previous systems. Indeed of all new homes built
The Planet
From knife-crime prevention to mental health support, grassroots football is being taken seriously as a tool for social change The post How community football is helping youth stay out of trouble appeared first on Positi
The Planet
Scientists flew into the heart of 'fire clouds', Finland cut emissions with a sand battery, and food banks turned waste into millions of meals, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters app
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Up until a few years ago, Jodi Whitt’s trips to the Shawnee County jail in Topeka, Kansas, began with an arrest and an anxious wait in a bare intake cell for up to 72 hours. Her incarcerations lasted 30 days or so, until
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240 years ago today, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect by Robert Burns, the National Poet of Scotland, was published in Kilmarnock. It was a hit, and catapulted him to Scottish Stardom. Among the collection is one o
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Youth sports in the United States now cost the average family about $1,016 a year per child, up 46 percent since 2019, according to the Aspen Institute’s 2025 State of Play report. In
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Summer has a way of sneaking up on you. In May, you were excited about everything: the outdoor concert, the friend’s rooftop birthday, the weekend trip to the coast. Now it’s the end
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It’s been almost 20 years since Argentina launched what was at the time the world’s first attempt at reintroducing the giant anteater to a landscape it had disappeared from. 19 years later, and the initiative has been no
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A woman was able to help a partially disabled airport worker retire after she witnessed him hobbling across the tarmac on a flight out of Los Angeles. Heartbroken watching him limp up to the plane she was sitting on, she
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For the 3rd consecutive year, global hunger as measured by malnourishment among continental populations has fallen. It’s also the first time that the malnourished as a share of global population has fallen below 8% since
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A sprinkle of crushed basalt rock has turned out to be the fairy dust that newly planted forests need to develop faster and absorb more carbon. That’s what scientists from Imperial College London are reporting in a new s
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A guy goes into a bar, and leaves with one less kidney. That’s a joke Mark Scotch tells about his life. It’s only a slight exaggeration: A chance encounter in 2020 did lead to him donating a kidney — although not quite i
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On this day 96 years ago, at the conclusion of the inaugural FIFA World Cup, La Celeste, or Uruguay, won the trophy. Rarely considered as favorites in the tournament’s editions these days, Uruguay was on a tear by the ti
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As Edinburgh introduces a visitor levy this week, we look at what a decade of tourist tax-funded investment has done for one of Europe’s resorts The post Did a tourist tax save Magaluf? appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM India launched its first hydrogen-powered train earlier this month. It was built domestically and is now operating in Haryana. Two hydrogen-powered driving cars, eight passenger coach
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Gillnets catch dolphins by accident. The nylon mesh hangs nearly invisible in the water, and dolphins’ echolocation, the system they rely on to navigate and hunt, can fail to detect i
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From Big Sky Country comes a rescue story so cliche that even Hollywood scriptwriters would pass it over. A 14-year-old obsessed with roping cattle rescued a man who’d fallen into a river Indiana Jones-style, catching hi
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A changing climate seems to be shortening Africa’s dry season, resulting in less land scorched during the wildfire season according to new science. For all the column inches devoted to the record wildfire seasons in Fran
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Once upon a time, in a little town called Atlanta, there was a dad who decided on a lark to take his 4-month-old baby girl to the library. He didn’t know it at the time, but the Georgia native had planted the magic bean
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A hospital in Trinidad and Tobago was the site of an incredible, 12-day surgical marathon. When the scrubs were finally hung up, 3,000 people had regained vision free of charge thanks to the Church of the 7th Day Adventi
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In east Africa, Maasai men are redefining what it means to be brave by helping people and lions co-exist The post A new measure of courage: how Maasai warriors became lion guardians appeared first on Positive News .
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Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Homeward bound As the U.S. po
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On this day in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created. The US Congress was spurred to create the federal agency by the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik, the first orbital satellite. Tw
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM It’s usually around this time of the summer season when you find out which plants you’ve been taking for granted. You stroll through your garden, and there it is: your favorite leafy
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Every time you stream something, pay a bill, or ask an AI a question, a server somewhere is putting in the work. Those servers live in data centers: large, unglamorous buildings full
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Last year, GNN reported on the toolkit of patience and garden rakes needed to get through the 100 million-strong crab migration season on Christmas Island. Taiwan, itself also an island, has found that a healthy dose of
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Internet access has increased 20-fold and broadband costs have fallen by 99% on the archipelago of Micronesia thanks to the ending of government monopoly in the sector. Market liberalization has dropped the cost of inter
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Protection and conservation programs have recorded a banner year for the eastern imperial eagle, as majestic a bird as you’re likely to see in Europe, and the national bird of Serbia. Emblazoned on the flag of the Balkan
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High schools funded and/or managed by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) have achieved the highest average graduation rates yet recorded in its history. 8 high schools saw every senior in the 2025/26 class graduate, wh
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133 years ago today, the Vizcaya Bridge, Spain’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site of industrial heritage was completed. Spanning the two banks situated at the mouth of the Nervion River, connecting the towns of Portugalet
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Researchers have planted 9,000 milkweed plants along roads in six North Florida counties, with 6,000 more going in before 2029. Monarchs are already showing up at the sites. The work
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Holding in a sneeze carries more risk than most people assume. The injuries it can cause include ruptured eardrums, damage to the tissue lining the throat, and in rarer cases, air tra
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Submitted By Jeff G. Rottman About 80 miles east of San Angelo, Texas, a young astrophotographer named Bray Falls is running one of the largest ‘telescope ranches’ on Earth. Stargazers from around the world ship their te
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As soon as Aleksander Wolszczan confirmed the observation of the first planet outside of our solar system, he immediately reasoned that thousands more would be discovered in the coming decades. On that prediction the ast
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From China’s Anhui Province comes a story that reminds us it’s never too late to learn. 71-year-old Liu Defang remembers chatting with her friends while out one day near a bridge in her hometown in Suixi County. She sudd
The Planet
Replacing real leopard skins with synthetic furs has helped leopards recover in western Zambia, researchers say The post Leopards recover in Zambia as communities swap skins for synthetics appeared first on Positive News
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For the 4th year in a row, Indian grey hornbills have successfully bred in Gujarat state where they’d been absent for more than 50 years. Despite being listed as a species of “Least Concern” by the IUCN, the animal has h
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Only knee-deep in parts yet relatively wide, the Bièvre gently flows with transparent waters that shimmer in the afternoon sun. A shoal of fish lazily linger beside a large stone in one section. Further along, birds and
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86 years ago today, Bugs Bunny, the wisecracking Warner Bros cartoon character, first debuted in an animated short entitled A Wild Hare. Supervised by Fred ‘Tex’ Avery, it featured a hunter named Elmer Fudd pursuing a wi
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You know the feeling: you walk toward the hall closet with good intentions, reach for the handle, and stop. The coats are in there, somewhere. So are the shoes that were trendy two se
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s something strange about where the clean energy transition has gotten stuck. Generating power from the sun and wind? Mostly figured out. Storing it? That’s the part nobody has
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Off the coast of Catalina Island for 15 years, the fishing vessel Midnight Hour has sat on the ocean floor—its sunken wreckage becoming a tangle of abandoned fishing nets, the kind that drift in the current while trappin
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Air quality continues to improve across Europe, with emissions from most of the major pollutants declining by significant amounts. “The overall picture remains positive,” according to the annual Assessment Report on Euro
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A lazy retirement was bestowed upon the last circus elephant in Portugal who just became a resident of the country’s first sanctuary dedicated to working pachyderms. After 40 years of performing, Julie was transported on
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134 years ago today, Dadabhai Naoroji was elected as the first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain. A merchant, scholar, writer, and political leader who served as a founding member of the Indian National Congress, Na
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The outline of a ‘lost’ 17th century garden has been revealed at a stately British home following the record heatwave and long drought. Beneath the parched grass was an ornate garden design being rediscovered after more
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The elusive vaquita porpoise swims in the wild only in shallow northern waters of Mexico’s Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez)—and it’s one of the rarest and most endangered marine mammals on Earth. With
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Conservationists were holding their breaths this Spring as the last remaining colony of puffins was in danger of being lost altogether, but relief turned to joy as, not only did the adult puffins return, a baby was born.
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Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
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61 years ago today, the 60s folk singer Bob Dylan walked onstage at the Newport Folk Festival, plugged in his Fender Stratocaster and “went electric,” tearing into the song “Maggie’s Farm.” Although many folkie-loving ti
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Dozens of Beatles fans were left stunned after Paul McCartney pulled up alongside their Fab Four-themed tour bus. The Beatle-maniacs spotted the musical legend while aboard the Magical Mystery Tour bus that guides touris
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Episode Description: Watching a tense soccer match nearly doubles cardiac event risk, and cortisol could start rising fourteen hours before kickoff. With Spain just taking the World Cup, a fair portion of the world’s pop
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As the AI infrastructure build-out continues to meet headwinds from concerned citizens, three states recently signed laws ending what had been the largely-standard practice of exempting data center operators from paying
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A British bee scientist recently explained that setting up ‘hydration stations’ for bees doesn’t work, as the commonly-proffered mixture of sugar in water doesn’t revive tired bees at all. Bees need our help, says Dr. Ri
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As Karolina Urbanova broke the log of white pine she was standing on in half with her axe, she notched the 2nd world record for women’s speed lumberjack events she set that day. The 11 inches of white pine was severed in
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This article was originally published by the Daily Yonder, which is dedicated to uplifting the stories of rural people. Holly Warren was recently leafing through one of her old medical school textbooks, trying to recall
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51 years ago today, Giorgio Armani and Sergio Galeotti founded Giorgio Armani SpA (joint stock company) in Milan, Italy. Armani had no education in design, and instead studied medicine in advance of a two-year stint in t
The Planet
The world’s roads got much safer, global hunger levels eased, and Brazil set a welcome record for deforestation, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Great news! The (adorable) numbat is no longer endangered. The IUCN has moved Western Australia’s animal emblem from Endangered to Near Threatened on its Red List, after more than 40
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Do eight weeks of salsa classes sound like an intervention to you? Show up, learn the footwork, rotate partners, move to music with a room full of people you probably don’t know. And
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When GNN reported last week that Canadian and US authorities approved the emergency transfer of some 30 beluga whales from a closed theme park in Ontario, little had been released about how one goes about moving a severa
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In 2022, India beat long-time spacefarers Russia to become the 3rd nation to see a privately designed and built rocket successfully reach space. Now just 4 years later, and the Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace has outdo
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In what is being described as an “important first step,” for marine protections in the island nation of New Zealand, 5 new marine preserves will enter into force next month. Surrounding a district called Otago near the s
The Planet
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has brought renewed urgency to the climate solutions campaigners have been pushing for years The post The upside of the energy crisis appeared first on Positive News .
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Two cubes of pale wood sit on either side of a small, accessible lounge. Inside each, a bed folds down from the wall, a desk swings out and shelves hold books, plants and family photos. But nobody lives here — at least,
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Scientists trudging through Nicaragua’s rainforest have identified a “hotbed” of avocado species diversity. The fruit was first transported hundreds of miles to Central America from South America around 5,000 years ago,
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Happy 55th Birthday to the amazing musician and singer Alison Krauss, who has won more Grammys than almost anyone. A teenage prodigy in Decatur, Illinois, she was attracted to bluegrass music and was winning contests at
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Large fashion companies in the EU can no longer destroy unsold clothing, shoes, or accessories. As of this week, that’s illegal. The change is part of the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainab
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most people treat sleep debt as a tiredness problem. Get some extra rest on the weekend, recover, move on. The reality is messier. Missing sleep for several nights triggers a cascade
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A man who was paralyzed from the chest down is now regaining hand and arm control thanks to a double neural bypass surgery—by using a computer to connect his brain with the nerves in his hand and arms. Hardly doomed to b
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According to current predictions, Mexico may be free from a multi-year drought at the end of its current rainy season. Running from May to October, a wetter-than-normal El Niño phenomenon has led to rich rains across Mex
The Planet
As Premier League prices rise, growing numbers of supporters are seeking out something closer, cheaper and more human in non-league football The post The rise of community-led football appeared first on Positive News .
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In some of those really old countries: Greece, Turkey, China, history has a funny way of piling up and losing some of its intrigue. Take this kitchen table for example—it’s actually a kind of diploma issued in the Qing D
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From Arizona comes the story of a young man helping an elderly woman whose dementia had left her disoriented, wandering about in 103°F heat. 14-year-old Royal Cothrun was riding his bike down empty sidewalks through his
Community
Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Uprooted When trees are in th
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30 years ago today, The Daily Show began satirizing and skewering politicians and broadcasters on cable TV’s Comedy Central. “Nobody had done it before,” said former head writer and co-creator Lizz Winstead. “We became t
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A brush swab of the mouth. Four genes. Results in under an hour. Researchers from Queen Mary University of London, working with partners in India, have shown that this simple approach
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most people treat happiness as something that arrives when conditions are right. The last decade of psychological science tells a different story. Happiness isn’t mainly a mood or a s
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From the Dallas Morning News comes the story of a firefighter who went above and beyond the call of duty, even though he was off duty. Out in the family boat on the 4th of July, Jason Horne rescued 3 drowning children tr
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When news reaches the public that a new species has been identified, the chances really are 9 times out of 10 that it’s some deep sea slug or a spider. From the Congo comes the story of the exception—a new species of col
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Scottish runner Josh Kerr just put in the fastest mile time in human history, breaking a record that had stood for 27 years after clocking 3:42.66. Set at the recent London Diamond League athletics meet, Kerr finished a
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A coral reef long presumed dead has been rediscovered “teeming with life” off the coast of West Africa. Surveys conducted in the 1960s that were focused on identifying promising fishing areas, flagged a possible deep-wat
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This story has been co-published by Reasons to be Cheerful and the Outrider Foundation. At the turn of the century Beijing had one million vehicles. By 2010, just a decade later, the Chinese capital had registered five t
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36 years ago today, Roger Waters performed The Wall in Berlin for 350,000 fans to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall eight months earlier. Staged on a vacant lot between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, the
The Planet
A bold new building in the Netherlands promises to showcase solutions to global problems – and encourage positive action The post ‘A place of hope and solutions’: the building promising a better future appeared first on
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Cuba has long been known for its vintage cars — the American ones that kept rolling through decades of embargo and scarcity, repaired with ingenuity and improvised parts. That ingenui
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM It’s hard to believe it’s almost August; if you’re anything like us, you’re probably wondering where June and July went. It happens every year: the long days, the plans you made back
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From Salt Lake City comes the touching story of a 5-year-old girl saved thanks to a bone marrow transplant from none other than her 2-year-old sister. Emma Meline was diagnosed with an extremely rare bone disease after h
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At the intersection of big data, forestry, and genomics, a biotech startup has birthed a generation of “elite” blight-resistant American chestnut trees without deep genetic tinkering. The company is inspired by saving Am
The Planet
Inspired by olden days ice houses, this underground fridge uses the earth’s stable temperature to keep food cool The post The underground fridge that keeps food cool – even in a heatwave appeared first on Positive News .
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Tom McKievick says his job is challenging yet entertaining, a good combination for a perspective career. Yet when he saw the newspaper ad for the job at Fredericka Manor senior living community in Chula Vista, California
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1,000 feet below the North Sea, blast after blast brings Norwegian engineers closer and closer to completion of the longest undersea road tunnel on Earth. No one better to do it than Norway either, given that their citiz
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Swiss architect Barbara Buser has spent decades proving that the greenest building is often the one already standing. When one unscrews a section of the bright red sheet metal façade from K.118, a former carpentry factor
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57 years ago today, men first stepped on the moon during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission; Neil Armstrong first, at 10:56pm EST, because he was closest to the door and Buzz Aldrin second. WATCH a look back from the 50th annivers
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Forty-eight teams. Sixty-four matches. A final played yesterday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The 2026 World Cup was the most expansive in the tournament’s history, and for US, Canadian, and Mexican fans, the first p
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Cancer immunotherapy has transformed treatment for some patients. For the 60 to 80 percent who don’t respond, the problem often isn’t the killer T cells at the end of the immune chain. It’s the cells responsible for trai
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Video footage of a fireman giving oxygen to a pigeon following a fire has gone viral on social media. After attending to a vehicle fire on Wednesday evening, the E29 crew of Oakland Firefighters noticed a pigeon in distr
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On May 10, when someone stole the e-bike that this cancer survivor needed to get to her oncology appointments, Officer JP Young of the Kansas City Police Department told her he would do everything he could to find it. Ev
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For decades, experts have disputed whether weapons found in ancient burial chambers of Egyptian princesses were actually their tools or placed there in a purely symbolic way. Now, a reassessment of five royal women who l
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50 years ago today, Sagarmatha National Park was established in Nepal as the country’s first National Park. Enshrining the summit and breadth of the mountain known in the west as Everest, its total area encompasses 443 s
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Although everyone urged the giant man to pursue a basketball career as a 7-foot-3-inch athlete, but that was never his dream. Jordan Wilmore would rather help others, so he trained to become a Texas policeman. He was one
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A daughter helped save her father’s vintage Italian shoe shop by posting about a pair of Y2K kitten heels on TikTok—and now it has lines outside the door. For over 30 years Rachid Lazraq has owned Rich Collection Italia,
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A drug, that has previously been shown to be safe and tolerated by humans, reduces multiple disease-linked features of Alzheimer’s in a lab model of the disease, say neuroscientists in London. The team from King’s Colleg
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Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
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58 years ago today, the Intel Corporation was founded in Mountain View, California. One of the largest manufacturers of computer hardware, Intel was a key component of the rise of Silicon Valley as a high-tech center, as
Community
Collective action is the product of individuals leading the way, showing what’s possible, and shifting our understanding of what ought to be accepted as normal.
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Homegrown catnip plants have proven to be as effective as DEET for repelling mosquitoes in rural Uganda. Presented at an international science conference in Florence, Italy, a collaborative team of Welsh and Ugandan rese
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Episode Description: Greece just launched the world’s first satellite constellation built specifically for wildfire detection. It can spot a fire measuring only a few feet across, a huge improvement on conventional satel
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There’s an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child. That was true for this lonely 4-year-old in North Carolina. What his neighborhood didn’t know, however, was that it sometimes takes a child to raise a villa
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During the recent heat dome over Europe, multiple regions of Spain were scorched by wildfires. But in the idyllic Iberian ecosystem of Doñana National Park, things were calm and lush. There hasn’t been a wildfire in the
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When the BBC visited China’s frigid northeastern province of Heilongjiang (Black Dragon River) in 2008 hoping to catch a glimpse of the river’s famous giant sturgeon, the English documentarians learned that there were no
The Planet
Advances in forensic science are disrupting the illegal wildlife trade – and are documented in a new photo series The post In pictures: How forensic science is helping tackle wildlife poaching appeared first on Positive
Community
Sometimes the most consequential innovations are fueled by frustration. When she was in her early thirties, Ridhi Tariyal asked her gynecologist for a fertility test. Her doctor dismissed the request, saying such a test
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70 years ago today, the MGM musical comedy High Society was released. Starring Bing Crosby and a young Frank Sinatra, it was the first time the pair ever collaborated. It was a musical remake of Philadelphia Story, and w
The Planet
Heath wins for El Salvador and Cambodia, a ‘step forward for ocean protection’, and an elusive new species, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A lotion made from catnip oil matched DEET in field trials in Uganda, according to research presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Florence last week. Catnip
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In 2025, researchers publishing in Nature Medicine found microplastics in human brain tissue at concentrations considerably higher than in the liver or kidneys. The year before, scien
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The US and Canadian governments recently approved a plan for the transfer of captive beluga whales which have been stranded for years at a closed theme park. Shuttered years ago when the captivity for intelligent marine
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For the most train-dependent transportation system in the world, the debut of its first high-speed or “bullet” train, is now tantalizingly close. It’s set to begin phased passenger operations starting from August 15th, 2
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Scientists have detected a simple sugar found in raspberries within the gas and dust at the center of the Milky Way. It’s the first time a sugar molecule has been identified in interstellar media, having previously been
The Planet
An empowering initiative teaches people with limb loss how to farm sustainably, enabling many to start businesses The post How a farming programme in Sierra Leone helps amputees rebuild lives appeared first on Positive N
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A beloved local fish staple that was illegal to harvest as recently as 2012 has seen an incredible recovery in Maine’s rivers following the removal of several large dams. Particularly on the Penobscot River, the removal
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This article was originally published by Stateline. About a dozen states offer “medically tailored meals” to people with conditions such as diabetes and heart disease who get their insurance through Medicaid. Such progra
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1404 years ago today, the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (PBUH), journeyed with his followers from Mecca to Medina. As an event it’s known as the Hijrah, and the start of the Islamic calendar. The whole departure spanned abo
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Nearly one billion people across Africa cook over charcoal or firewood every day. $3.1 billion in commitments is what it’s going to take to change that, and the number keeps climbing.
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Think about the last time you ate lunch without also doing something else. Not at your desk, not in the car, not scrolling. Just sitting with food and letting it be the thing. For a l
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The population of humpback whales around the world continues to climb ever higher, as do the records for numbers of sightings in single whale-watching seasons. In Brazil’s renowned Guanabara Bay, whale watching trips are
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Another month, another big discovery in Luxor—this time of a tomb with preserved interior frescoes dating back around 3,200 years. The T-shaped tomb was discovered by a team of Dutch-Egypt archaeologists in the middle of
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A restauranteur who found $12,000 in cash got in touch with the rightful owner live on the news to explain he wanted to turn it over. Sak Yiengjuntuek knew as soon as he saw the stack of $100 bills that they belonged to
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These two incredible animals are bobkittens, and they’re lucky to be alive. They are 2 of 4 baby bobcats rescued within days of each other, from as many as 3 different mothers—all of whom either died, or lost or abandone
The Planet
Shut out of the sport for generations, women, disabled players and minority groups are flooding into grassroots clubs The post The marginalised groups finding community through football appeared first on Positive News .
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Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. From high waists to low waste
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71 years ago today, 18 Nobel laureate scientists signed the Mainau Declaration publicly decrying nuclear weapons. Within one year, 34 others—mostly chemists and physicists—joined the German nuclear scientists Otto Hahn a
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM If you’re a parent, you’ve had these moments. Not the big, dramatic parenting failures, the ones easy to identify and easier to learn from. The small ones. You held it together throug
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Every air conditioner does the same thing: pull heat from inside a building and dump it outside. On a hot day, millions of units doing that together push street temperatures up, which
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GNN has reported on studies that have found coffee to improve health outcomes in a variety of disease realms, including heart disease, dementia, and even cancer in an observational finding. Now, a new study of hundreds o
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Bloomberg Philanthropies has identified a funding shortfall in the implementation of many countries’ ocean protection plans, and has attempted to fill it with a quarter-billion dollar donation. The aim writ small is to t
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The chronic disease schistosomiasis wreaks havoc on more than 220 million people around the world, with the vast majority of cases being in sub-Saharan Africa. New research published in Nature Sustainability by scientist
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Share the stories of change you’ve witnessed that took patience, persistence and time The post What positive change have you seen unfold over many years? appeared first on Positive News .
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11 years ago today, Earth’s scientists completed the first survey of our solar system as the New Horizons spacecraft completed a flyby of distant Pluto. It took ten years for the little space probe to arrive at our most
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton set up a series of financial wellness conversations with women around the state. She expected to hear about rent, wages, and the cost of groceries.
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You might already have eucalyptus oil at home, maybe for the diffuser or a bundle you hang in the shower. It also happens to be something pests avoid. The scent is sharp and herbal, n
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A 15-year-old in the Indian capital of New Delhi created an AI-powered app that allows citizens to report potholes, grade their severity, and instantly report them to the authorities. What’s more, the AI gives the citize
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A nuclear energy firm has broke ground on the first advanced nuclear reactor plant in the country, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Set to come online in 2030, it will help stymy the growth in energy costs from several large dat
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A protein associated with longevity in humans has recently been found at high concentrations in an extraordinarily long-living mouse. The discovery makes the case for more research into a poorly-understood, potentially g
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A decade ago, a young American began recording interviews with World War II combat veterans to satisfy his curiosity about the war. That curiosity became something of an obsession, and 3,000 veterans later, his hard driv
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“There used to be a massive block of concrete here, there was an advertising column, it wasn’t so beautiful,” says Gilles Namur, waving his hand along the length of Cours Lafontaine, a street that runs through the histor
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Happy Birthday to Sir Patrick Stewart who turns 86 years old today. The English actor of stage and film grew up poor, yet not only excels in Shakespeare, but plays the lead in his own science fiction series—Captain Jean-
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A research team in Colorado has developed a suite of new therapies that prompt aging or damaged joints to repair themselves within weeks, according to animal studies. The new osteo-arthritis treatments include a single,
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The story of women in art history is mostly a story of not getting seen. Not because women weren’t making art —they were—but because the structures that decided which art got shown, b
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Conventional satellites can’t detect a wildfire until it’s roughly the size of a cruise ship. Greece just launched four that catch them when they’re four meters (about 13 feet) across
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A perfectly preserved Roman statue which was deliberately buried 1,600 years ago has been unearthed near Hadrian’s Wall. The 1.5 ft-high figure carved from sandstone is a ‘protective spirit’, also known as a ‘genius’, wh
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An Indiana man accomplished the unimaginable after setting an audacious goal fourteen years ago: to walk the Earth’s circumference—24,901 miles. It took dedication and consistency over the course of thousands of days, bu
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Japanese scientists have discovered a naturally-occurring bacteria in a frog species with remarkably-potent anticancer activity—in fact, it destroyed cancer tumors in one dose. Led by Professor Eijiro Miyako, the team at
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131 years ago, the architect, visionary, and writer Buckminster Fuller was born. Fuller developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, and popularized the widely known geodesic dome structural shape, which
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Two new rapid tests, EndoSure and Endotest, can drastically reduce the wait time for a proper diagnosis of endometriosis—from an average nine-year wait to just days. The saliva test just approved for use by the UK’s nati
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A London artist has created a series of amazing artworks—including a scene from Wimbledon’s centre court—using just keystrokes from a vintage typewriter. From his studio in Canning Town, East London, James Cook says he t
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Britain’s most unique hospital is now open—where the “patients” are houseplants. Some are “put on drips” and some may go into quarantine, but all get the same loving care from Rosanna Costello, who started the business t
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Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
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90 years ago today, the RFK Bridge, also known as the Triborough Bridge, opened to traffic in New York City. Together, the series of bridges and viaducts span over 5,000 feet and link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, a
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From South Florida comes the story of an intrepid teenager who’s developed a mini curriculum on hurricane preparedness to fit into school lessons. Having suffered (or perhaps been enriched) from the impact of Hurricane I
Science Wins
Episode Description: Every player at this year’s World Cup is wearing the end result of 500 years of iteration on a single piece of equipment. It started with factory workers hammering hardware store nails into their boo
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A Quebec chemical firm has developed a cyanide-free, and generally non-toxic method to extract gold from mineral ores—an option that could potentially relieve companies from a significant portion of current environmental
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This year will see the Sagrada Familia basilica finally finished in Barcelona, on the 100th anniversary of the death of its charismatic architect, no less. It will also mark the release of LEGO’s largest entry in its arc
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There’s been a lot of reminiscing about the founding of the nation this year—a year which also saw the first edition of the Pittsburgh Gazette printed 240 years ago. Now the Post-Gazette, it was set to become the latest
The Planet
Young people are not just optimistic about the world, but full of ideas for making it kinder, fairer and greener, research finds The post Children are overwhelmingly positive for the future, says survey appeared first on
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Happy Birthday to the gospel and blues singer Mavis Staples, who turns 86 years old today. Born in Chicago, she started singing with her family’s band The Staple Singers as a young girl, and her deep-throated voice catap
The Planet
The world’s ‘greatest forest recovery’, a new test for womb cancer, and Europe’s environmental progress, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s something almost absurd about how we’ve always measured wildlife. Two trained ecologists visit the same river, spend days cataloguing what they can see, and come back with com
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s a specific kind of “off” that’s difficult to capture or express in words. No, you’re not feeling sick or sad. You’re not stressed exactly. Just… off. A little irritable, a lit
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A Colorado town’s new electric school bus fleet also doubles as a backup battery to help out during peak power demand. Charging at night, using power to pick up, drop off, and then drop off children again, the buses woul
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Respect cardiologist Dr. Benjamin Levine said last year in an interview that exercise “needs to be part of your personal hygiene, like brushing your teeth or taking a shower.” That’s because it prevents our muscular repa
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According to an inaugural report on the health of bees in Oregon, scientists at Oregon State University have found no incidences of pesticide-related bee deaths since 2021. This significant achievement underscores the ca
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Renovators recently washing an arch high up on the ceiling of St. Mary’s Basilica in Minneapolis were left stunned when a sheen of gold suddenly began to gleam from beneath a paint layer. Below the dull, tannish mauve, g
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Asian cities have shot up the latest Global Liveability Index, which has just been released. Where does your city rank? The post Revealed: the world’s most liveable cities in 2026 appeared first on Positive News .
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Happy 70th Birthday to actor Tom Hanks. Known for both his dramatic and comedic roles (Big, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail), he is one of the most popular film stars in the world—and in
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM California just closed a gap that’s been undermining its clean energy numbers for years. Governor Newsom signed SB 1350 into law, qualifying green hydrogen electricity as a renewable
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Nobody watches the World Cup to think about footwear. But the shoes on the pitch at the 2026 tournament are the end result of about 500 years of iteration, and the story is stranger t
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An England fan who used his life savings to take his grandad to the World Cup has been left stunned after a company inspired by their story gifted him the entire $13,000 back. Jacob Allmendinger sacrificed the cash he ha
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Reprinted with permission from World at Large Scientists in Canada have discovered that ancient underground rocks are naturally producing hydrogen gas—and lots of it, and it may be everywhere—and it may be cheap. The roc
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There’s an old saying: cut a man’s hair, and he’s fresh for a month. Teach a man to cut hair, and he’s fresh for a lifetime. Er, wait—wasn’t it something about fish? For Queensland barber Jon James, stepping off a small
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An 11-year old in Kentucky is credited with saving a man who fell unconscious in an apartment swimming pool last week. Seeing that nobody was doing anything about the situation, Avory Woolery took the burden of action up
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Editor Tom Pattinson introduces the new issue of Positive News magazine, which is out now The post Reclaiming the game. What to expect in the new issue of Positive News magazine appeared first on Positive News .
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A man from Murcia in Spain couldn’t believe his luck when a gallery told him the painting he found propped up against a wall in Sevilla was an original by 19th century Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla. Yet as soon as he s
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A man from Murcia in Spain couldn’t believe his luck when a gallery told him the painting he found propped up against a wall in Sevilla was an original by 19th century Spanish painter Joaquin Sorolla. Yet as soon as he s
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250 years ago, the Liberty Bell was rung in Philadelphia to call citizens to hear the newly-signed Declaration of Independence, or at least that’s what is said to have happened. No contemporary account of the ringing is
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You know that thing where you sit down to find one photo from last summer, and somehow it’s thirty minutes later, and you’re in 2019? Digital clutter does that. A chaotic phone or a l
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BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most Alzheimer’s research goes after the toxic proteins directly. This study asks a different question: what if the brain’s own clearing system could be fixed instead? Research from M
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It’s an early-summer’s night and you left your truck at the bar because you chose not to drive drunk—well someone’s noticed. That someone is the Montana Barfairies, a volunteer effort that is going viral for tucking $5 g
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As America celebrated its 250th Birthday, Kelsey Pflendler celebrated her own significant milestone—becoming the first American woman to row a boat from California to Hawaii alone. As she pulled into Ala Wai Boat Harbor
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Among the rolling hills of Uganda’s Masaka region, robusta coffee plants are producing larger, tastier yields thanks to a pilot program utilizing regenerative agriculture to battle droughts or erratic rainfall. A catch-a
The Planet
In the US, refugees are being hired to make candles, helping them earn money, practise English and build a CV The post How the ancient art of candle making is creating a brighter future for refugees appeared first on Pos
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36 years ago today, The Three Tenors performed live for the first time at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. The recording made from the show became the best-selling classical album of all time, while an astonishing 800 mil
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Kaitlin Jeffrey was 18 when her face and hair caught fire at a fraternity party at Western University last December. She ended up at the burn unit at Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontar
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Men’s grooming has always occupied a strange middle ground. Too much and you’re vain. Too little and people notice. For most men, the default settled around soap, a razor, and deodora
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Battered by energy shocks, private Pakistani investment in rooftop solar panels has skyrocketed to the point that they now contribute one-fifth of the total national power supply. The Guardian reviewed data on Pakistan’s
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Shell have unveiled an all-electric concept car to inspire the next generation of European-made mass-market EVs by focusing on lighter weights and better charging technology. Known as the “Triple 10 Challenge Car,” its d
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Blind people have been offered fresh hope of seeing again after lab-grown cells restored retinal function in mice. When injected into mice with retinal disease, the special retinal blood cells integrated into the damaged
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A police raid on suspected drug dealers turned up a stolen painting by Pablo Picasso worth tens of millions of dollars. That’s because it is reported to depict Picasso’s “golden muse” Marie-Therese Walter, a French model
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Happy 91st birthday to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Born in Taktser, China, and named at a young age to be the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, he also became a spiritual guide for non-Buddhists—especially as the author of seve
The Planet
A national youth dance programme is bringing together 16–24-year-olds from across England to perform on major stages The post The national dance company opening doors for young performers appeared first on Positive News
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Shade from solar panels installed above two California irrigation canals reduced water evaporation by up to 70 percent and cut aquatic weed and algae growth by up to 85 percent over a
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For years, the go-to response to career difficulty was optimization. If work felt stagnant, or a job wasn’t coming through, the prescription was the same: update your resume, sharpen
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The surprise was waiting at the wedding reception. Max Creamer and Jordan Rosenberg met at a Halloween party about ten years ago when they were in college at San Diego State University. They got engaged on a California b
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Hero neighbors raced into a burning home to save an 87-year-old grandma after her daughter watched the terrifying fire on a doorbell camera. Phyllis Day, who has Alzheimer’s, was asleep when a blaze broke out in the util
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A starving baby crow with barely any feathers is being nursed back to health—and another older bird has taken him under his wing. The tiny English crow known as the jackdaw was found in a “sorry state” and close to death
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A rare 1776 printing of the US Declaration of Independence — one of just 11 known to survive and the only copy outside the United States — has been discovered by a volunteer sorting historical letters and papers at The N
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32 years ago today, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in the garage of his home in Bellevue, Washington. Originally founded as “Cadabra,” it was famously limited to book sales, the nearby distribution chains for which was why Be
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One of Britain’s biggest mazes is celebrating Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday by creating a spectacular design in the shape of a mountain gorilla. Wistow Maze in Leicestershire, England, came up with the design t
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Voice changes measured with a mobile phone can detect an oncoming potentially-deadly asthma attack up to three days in advance, according to new research. Scientists from Maastricht University in the Netherlands say thei
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From purple mountain majesties to amber waves of grain, America’s 4 million square miles of jaw-dropping landscapes is matched only by the audacity of its founding premise: 250 years ago, British colonists looking for in
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Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
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Happy Birthday to the United States of America. On this day 250 years ago, the leaders of the Continental Congress of the 13 American colonies voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, breaking with the King of Eng
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A representative for America’s favorite showgirl said that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have made donations totaling $26 million to over a dozen nonprofit organizations and charities. Though it’s not entirely clear when
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In one of Australia’s premier wine regions, a woody tourist icon closed for 3 years has reopened to the relief of locals. The second-tallest “fire-lookout tree” in the world, climbing the Gloucester Tree is something of
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You can reduce your diesel engine’s emissions by 60% with THIS surprisingly simple solution—just add water. In all seriousness, according to a review of studies from around the world published by a research team from Nig
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More insights into Classical literature have been recovered from the burned papyrus scrolls destroyed in the same eruption that buried Pompeii. They include ruminations on Stoic philosophy by an unknown author, and the t
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As the United States celebrates its 250th birthday this weekend, many of its residents can sense the big, ideologically divided elephant in the room. But while the country reckons with its national identity, on a local l
Good News
251 years ago today, George Washington assumed command as “General and Commander in Chief of the army of the United Colonies,” having been nominated for the post by John Adams the previous month. Following the engagement
The Planet
Europeans breathed easier, silenced US scientists hit back, and a healthy diet was linked to lower dementia risk, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
A team of materials scientists in China have developed a solar-powered device that can produce freshwater from seawater with better economics than bottled water. By creating a weave of nanomaterials and organic polymers
Science Wins
Episode Description: Stanford researchers took cartilage from patients already getting knee replacements (about as degraded as joint tissue gets) and discovered how it could regenerate itself. The cells weren’t replaced
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Early in June, international experts joined leaders from Southeast Asia for a summit in Laos, where they discussed the “last mile” of malaria elimination from the eastern-most sector of the region. Burgeoning economicall
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A week after two magnitude 7 earthquakes struck Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, search and rescue teams from around the world are still rescuing people from the jaws of death. This includes Aaron Levi Cantillo, who was t
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With plenty to see across the firmament this month, one event surely stands out for stargazers: when 2 meteor showers bombard the sky over the last nights of July. The first is the Southern Delta Aquariids, and though th
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Welcome back to The Spark, our monthly celebration of how people just like you are creating positive change, one meaningful step at a time. The Spark is generously supported by Laura Rice. Sign up to Reasons to be Cheerf
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On this day, 250 years ago, a dying man rode all night through a storm so America could be born. Caesar Rodney, a delegate to the Continental Congress from Delaware, was tending to loyalist activity on the night of July
The Planet
Why a climate narrator is using OnlyFans to help climate messages reach new audiences The post Can provocative climate messaging on OnlyFans cut through social media’s noise? appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
Deaths linked to air pollution in London fell an estimated 40 percent between 2019 and 2024, according to a new Imperial College London study. That’s the good news. The more complicated part: the same research revised th
Science Wins
You brought them home, stuck them in a vase, and two days later they were drooping. Happens to everyone, and it’s frustrating when you paid good money at the farmers’ market. The thing is, sunflowers aren’t that demandin
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A sophisticated AI-powered examination of coral reef resistance extrapolated into the future found that there’re about 64,000 square miles of coral reefs on Earth that could still be resisting climate change by 2050. The
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It was 7 years ago that the heavy wooden doors of transport crates slid open, and 12 European bison who had grown up in zoos suddenly were looking around, blinking at an unfamiliar wild landscape. They were standing on t
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In Michigan, a prospective law would eliminate virtually all regulations on that ole’ chestnut: the childhood lemonade stand. If it can be believed, state house Representative Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan), had the issue brou
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It took a new and special space telescope to parse out each one of these individual stars gleaming in a dizzying mass at the center of our own dear Milky Way galaxy. The European Space Agency’s Euclid Telescope, orbiting
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Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Not easy being green The saga
The Planet
Burnt out by the apps, Angela Garwood has taken her quest for love offline, and embarked on a series of ‘in real life’ dating events. Here's how she got on The post Love unplugged, IRL dating, without the apps appeared f
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123 years ago today, the starting pistol rang out for the first Tour de France, the most prestigious cycling competition today. Set up and sponsored by the newspaper L’Auto, ancestor of the current daily, L’Équipe, it ra
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM More than 1,300 people die from extreme heat in the United States each year. The events behind the worst of those deaths usually share the same explanation: a heat dome, a ridge of hi
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A Stanford Medicine study has identified a protein that roughly doubles in aging joints and blocks cartilage from repairing itself. Blocking that protein in older mice regenerated hya
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9 female white rhino have been reintroduced to one of Mozambique’s southern national parks as part of a mammoth undertaking to bring back species the country has lost. Mozambique was the victim of one of Africa’s worst p
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It was a 1969 Mustang Mach 1, Daniel Allen would tell his boys; the best car he’d ever owned. And he traded it away to make room for his growing family. Every time Mr. Allen told the story, one of his six sons was listen
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The Great Smokey Mountains is set to get just a little bit greater thanks to a 600-acre donation from a south-focused nature nonprofit. Foothills Land Conservancy (FLC) recently completed the acquisition of the Oliver Tr
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In Queensland, a father of 2 is alive to see his daughters again thanks to a horde of Good Samaritans who rushed to his side after he was pinned under a car during a collision. Lifting with “all their might,” the bystand
Community
Bruce Devlin’s tech career is flourishing. He’s been promoted twice in the past four years, most recently to the role of senior quality engineer at 2i, a software testing company. Devlin, 26, has even built his own syste
The Planet
These five simple steps can help you respond more effectively to a child’s anxiety The post Five ways to support a child’s anxiety appeared first on Positive News .
Good News
On this day 71 years ago, The Johnny Carson Show debuted on CBS television. The prime-time variety show was a traditional potpourri of monologue, comedy, music, dance, and skits. The series was short-lived, but planted t
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Finally, Nepal has marriage equality. On June 18, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a binding directive ordering the government to guarantee equal marriage rights for gender and sexual m
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Mosquitoes don’t pick targets randomly. They run a multi-stage sensory scan, and new research is beginning to explain what that scan detects and why it favors some people over others.
Good News
From the halls of Westminster comes the news that English farmers may finally be covered under a national agriculture policy that extends beyond the next harvest. In what it described as “the most significant moment for
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Across Asia, children are living past their 1st birthday at record rates that underscore just how successful the region has been at raising the standards of living. In India, China, and Indonesia—the world’s 3 most popul
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This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Most Americans loathe data centers. Recent polling found that Democrats and Republicans alike would oppose having one in their nei
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A Critically-Endangered and critically important vulture species has been sighted in a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary for the first time in 10 years. After a poisoning incident decimated the local population of white-rumpe
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50 million Africans living in 40 countries now have access to electricity for the first time thanks to a $15 billion development initiative by the World Bank and African Development Bank Group (ADB). Called Mission 300,
The environment usually takes a backseat in times of conflict. But in Ukraine a rewilding project is sowing seeds for a greener, more peaceful future The post Why Ukraine is rewilding in the heat of war appeared first on
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70 years ago today, the Interstate Highway System was established in the US to create a national road grid that today totals 48,440 miles across all 50 states (78,000 km). It ushered in the first national road numbering
Science Wins
You know the skincare aisle. You’ve stood there long enough to know that the options are overwhelming and the prices are humbling: serums, creams, collagen-boosting masks, each one promising the same thing in a slightly
Science Wins
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources have developed a plasma-based process that converts wet coffee grounds into coal-grade biochar in under 90 seconds, with no pre-drying required. The
Good News
A new high tech jacket developed by engineers at the University of Texas can pull drinking water from thin air. With the advance in fabric technology, the jacket can collect up to one-and-a-half pints of drinkable water
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Two ‘super-puff’ planets lighter than candy candy have been discovered by scientists—and they’re bigger than Jupiter. They are among the lowest-density giant planets ever detected, according to a new study. The two plane
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A 48-year-old woman who won a million in the lottery immediately gave her neighbors a gift of five thousand, so they can travel on their first family vacation abroad. Honorata Jamrozik scooped up the life-changing tax-fr
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A shipwreck off the British coast, including a treasure of hundreds of gold coins, has finally been identified after 30 years. The 400-year-old ship discovered off the coast of Devon, England, has now been identified as
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Happy 100th Birthday to Mel Brooks, the comic and writer who became the legendary director of comedies like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers. One of the most successful film directors of the 1970s,
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Two “worthless” garden statues thought to be made of cheap concrete were discovered to be rare 18th-century Italian marble masterpieces, earning the homeowner a nice payday after their sale. An estate-sale expert spotted
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A Bavarian wildlife rescue organization is using thermal imaging drones to locate and rescue vulnerable fawns hidden in tall meadow grass ahead of the annual mowing season. Every spring, thousands of fawns are killed by
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A hospital in south London opened a garden on its rooftop where Critical Care patients can spend hours in the fresh air and sunlight. ICU patients visiting the rooftop garden receive “full life support” while experiencin
Good News
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicat
Good News
176 years ago today, a hero of the Japanese nation was born on the Greek island of Lefkada. Scarcely could one find a life as strange and colorful as that lived by Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, who was the first Westerner to w
Good News
As part of new wildlands protection law, the French Government has announced the creation of a new nature reserve in French Guiana spanning 370,000 acres. Called the Rocky Peaks of Armontabo, the reserve includes giant,
Science Wins
Episode Description: A study of more than 100,000 people across 125 countries found that people cooperate far more than they assume other people will. Hopeful news to receive in a world that feels so divided. This week A
Good News
In what is believed to be the first surgical program of its kind in Australia, a pair of profoundly deaf twins have received cochlear implants at the same time. The marathon 8-hour surgery involved 4 implants on 4 ears a
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A 5-year-old who had her fingertips sliced off in a freak merry-go-round accident recently visited the station of the firefighters who saved them. As Olive was rushed to the hospital, a group of 8 “Red Watch” volunteers
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For the first time since the Middle Ages, Italy has more woodland than agricultural land. Forests now stretch across 60,000 square miles of the Italian Peninsula, overly concentrated in mountain areas, but which neverthe
The Planet
A London council was facing a big bill to solve a flooding problem – until beavers came along and fixed it for free The post ‘Step aside, humans’: how beavers solved a flooding problem in west London appeared first on Po
Community
When Chef Erin Wade learned that most of her staff had experienced sexual harassment at her restaurant Homeroom in Oakland, California, she was stunned. The inciting incident back in 2015 involved a father of four who re
Good News
29 years ago today, the first installment of the Harry Potter book series – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in the UK under Bloomsbury. It won most of the British book awards that were judged by c
The Planet
A vaccine ‘almost eliminated’ a cancer, the green economy surged, and London’s beavers solved a flooding problem, plus more The post What went right this week: the good news that matters appeared first on Positive News .
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Up to 40 percent of food produced in Africa is lost between harvest and market. Not from drought or pest damage, but from the absence of one thing: refrigeration. The early numbers fr
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most people training for strength are working toward the wrong goal. The standard template of heavy loads, eight to ten reps, and cardio at the end (if there’s time) builds muscle. It
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GNN has previously reported on heritage American architecture finding new life as hospitality and entertainment centers. On the Kansas River, a 120-year-old railroad bridge has been infused with the labor and love of bot
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The world-famous Musée d’Orsay has opened the doors to a very unique gallery—its dream would be to get rid of all the paintings inside. That’s because it exhibits a rotating selection of 225 works that were stolen when t
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The largest renewable energy infrastructure project in US history is fully operational. The SunZia project is expected to generate and deliver more power than the Hoover Dam and be a reliable energy to the western United
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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover just completed a special milestone as it recently marked 5 years on the Red Planet. The robotic science lab has put 26.2 miles under its wheels: in other words, a marathon. Having conducted
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In 2023, a stroke transformed Naresh Shanbhag, a 53-year-old smooth-talking sales professional in Bengaluru, into someone who was unable to speak words, let alone sentences. “I began physical therapy to regain strength i
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70 years ago today, the renegade travel host and chef Anthony Bourdain, was born. With his food and culture show, No Reservations, and the groundbreaking book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,
The Planet
From an instant camera to a pocket microscope, here are six examples of low-tech hardware with a touch of nostalgia for your own childhood The post Six nostalgic gadgets to spark kids’ curiosity this summer appeared firs
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You’ve probably spent more time than you’d like to admit wondering if something is off with your gut. Not dramatically wrong, just persistently uncomfortable. Bloated after meals for
Science Wins
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Two lawyers filed a court case. Thousands signed a petition. Pakistan just agreed to scrap its sales tax on period products. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced the move thi
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A group in Los Angeles is ensuring that the city’s famous beaches retain enough nature to protect wildlife and the city from harsher storms. “Your beach is still your beach, only better.” That was Tom Ford’s message to a