2020 Has Good News Too, And I Illustrate The 30 Best Stories

"I couldn't think of protecting myself, because the babies were under my protection. I was okay, so I needed to help." Pamela Zeinoun, a nurse at Saint George Hospital in Beirut, was in charge of five babies suffering from various health issues who needed to be kept in incubators when the port explosion hit, decimating the building. She passed out on the floor. “When I woke up, I did not know where I was. I tried to go back through the door, but the door was closed shut.” Zeinoun managed to get inside with the help of a father and another nurse and was able to find the babies. Two were saved by the father and the nurse, and Pamela scooped up the remaining three. “We started running down the stairs. There was no electricity. Blood everywhere, people screaming.” In the frenzy, Zeinoun got separated from the others. Her heart raced because she knew she had to get the babies to another hospital quickly. Their survival depended on incubators. She walked for 40 minutes in the dark with the three babies in her arms. When she reached the next hospital, she found the injured staff in a damaged building with no incubators. So she started to walk again, as no cars could get by because of the debris. Surprisingly, the babies weren't crying and she feared they were no longer alive. "I checked their color—are they blue or are they pink? They weren't crying. They were just sleeping, you know?" In the end, after 5 kilometers walked through chaos and debris, Pamela found a car that took her to a functioning hospital just outside Beirut, where she fit all three babies in an incubator to keep them warm and safe. When the parents got to St. George Hospital, they realized the babies weren't there anymore. Then the staff told them "Do not worry, your children are with Pamela. This is her phone number, you can contact her and see your babies." And so they did.

The Scottish Parliament passed a bill that will make pads and tampons free across the board, making Scotland the first country on the globe to end "period poverty." This is a huge victory for the civic groups that supported the bill, considering that nearly 10 percent of Britain's girls have been unable to afford period products, and 19 percent have resorted to using substitutes. The provision of free products is also aimed at combating the culture of silence and stigma surrounding menstruation, which can pose physical, sexual, and mental health risks for young women.

Last week, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution that will force tech companies to use just one charger type for a range of devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and e-book readers.

Rhino poaching in South Africa has decreased by almost 53% in the first six months of 2020, which continued a dramatic downward trend over the last five years. “After a decade of implementing various strategies… efforts are paying off,” said the Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries, Ms. Barbara Creecy this week. “We have been able to arrest the escalation of rhino losses.” The Minister said the nationwide Covid-19-associated law enforcement measures to restrict movement have powered the ongoing decline in rhino poaching compared to the same period last year, calling it "striking." An astonishing reprieve was celebrated in the Kruger National Park where, during April, no rhinos were killed in the Intensive Protection Zone for the first time in almost ten years.

Brazil's football governing body has announced that it's adopting an equal pay policy for both women's and men's football, becoming one of the first countries in the world to do so. "The CBF has equaled the prize money and allowances between men's and women's football, which means the women players will earn the same as the men," said Rogerio Caboclo, president of Brazil’s football association CBF. "There is no more gender difference because CBF is treating men and women equally," he said. This means Marta, the record owner for the most goals scored in World Cups—in both men's and women's competitions—will earn the same as Neymar Jr., the current playmaker of the Cariocas. While the Brazilian men’s team is known for having won the World Cup a record five times, the lesser-known women's team is also one of the best in the game, with a World Cup final appearance in 2007. The team also reached the Olympic finals in 2004 and 2008. Brazil joined a small number of countries, among Norway, New Zealand, and Australia, to pay its men's and women's national teams the same, and just a day after the announcement, England took the same decision.

Women escaping domestic abuse are usually advised to seek refuge services far away from their perpetrator, but raising the cash to pay for a train ticket can be very difficult for many women. This is especially true for women experiencing economic abuse, who may have no access to cash. Rail to Refuge is a scheme launched by Women's Aid in partnership with two UK rail operators and aims to provide a safe passage for women in need. The scheme starts when a woman secures a place in an emergency refuge, and if that refuge can be accessed by railway, the ticket cost will be supported by the train operator. The program works across England, Scotland, and Wales, and more info can be found on womensaid.org.uk

One of the few pieces of good news from Australia comes from Bindi Irwin—the daughter of Steve Irwin—who, along with her family, rescued and treated a huge number of animals at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. They call themselves the Wildlife Warriors, and if you wish to help their work, you can access wildlifewarriors.org.au to make a donation.

When Melbourne’s Yarra Plenty regional libraries first went into lockdown in March, shut their doors, and left the remaining unborrowed books on their shelves, staff were sent home with a phone. “One of the hardest things about lockdown was people being separated from their community,” said Lisa Dempster, Yarra Plenty’s executive manager of public participation. “The library is often a hub for the community, and we identified the most vulnerable cohort of our community would be the elderly.” So the library staff pulled from their database the phone number of every library member over the age of 70—a total of 8,000 records. Then the librarians started calling those members. All of them. “We called them to say hi, see how they were doing, and then see if there was anything they needed help with, such as access to services, counseling support, tech help, that kind of thing. We would then refer them to a service that would help them,” said Dempster. “What we’ve found mostly is that people are really up for the chat and love getting that call from the librarian. Some calls go for five minutes and some go for half an hour or more.” The phone-banking librarians at Yarra Plenty got through to all of their elderly members during the first lockdown. Now, with Melbourne in its second lockdown and its harshest level yet, they’re moving through the whole list again—making a total of 16,000 calls. Librarians tend to be very engaged with their community over the long term, Dempster said, with patrons often getting to know their librarians quite well, which means the extra outreach effort is often very welcome. “We’ve got librarians who speak different languages, such as Greek, Italian, and Chinese. So we’re really trying to reach the people who might not be connected to other modes of support,” she said. “Our librarians have been really enjoying it. They just embraced it.”

Better late than never. Pangolins—the world's most trafficked endangered species—can now breathe a sigh of relief as they will no longer be included in Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the official compendium of traditional medical products that are widely used within China. The decision comes after the small mammal was identified as a potential intermediary for Covid-19 between bats and humans. As many as 200,000 pangolins are consumed each year in Asia for their scales and meat. Chinese authorities had already outlawed the poaching of pangolins in 2007. They banned the commercial import of pangolin-related products in 2018, but the moves did little to stem the trade, thanks in part to loopholes in the ban and lenient treatment of those involved. The heightened protections were greeted with praise by several environmental groups, calling them "a significant milestone" in protecting the endangered species.

"I now have two machines and I want to make more." Meet Stephen Wamukota, a nine-year-old boy from Kenya who invented the wooden hand-washing machine that uses foot pedals to avoid touching surfaces and curb the spread of coronavirus. One foot tips a bucket of water, and the other foot tips a liquid soap bottle. Stephen came up with the idea after learning on TV about ways to prevent catching the virus. Not much later, his father found him taking action. "I had bought some pieces of wood to make a window frame, but I when I came back home after work one day, I found that Stephen had made the machine," Mr. Wamukota told the BBC. "The concept was his and I helped tighten the machine. I'm very proud," he said. He posted his son's invention on Facebook and was surprised how quickly it was shared, he said. Stephen was among 68 Kenyans given the Presidential Order of Service, Uzalendo (Patriotic) Award on Monday. Stephen said that he wants to be an engineer when he grows up and the county government has promised to give him a scholarship, Mr. Wamukota said.

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday in favor of equal rights for women in the Indian Army, ordering the government to grant permanent commission and command positions to women officers on par with men. The decision means that all women will now be eligible for the same promotions, ranks, benefits, and pensions as their male counterparts, irrespective of their years of service and whether they had retired.

A lab study conducted at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada found that a group of 60 waxworms could devour more than 30 square centimeters of a plastic bag in less than a week. It shows that waxworms, which normally live in beehives and eat wax, also feast on polyethylene. They owe this ability to their intestinal microbes and excrete glycol, a form of alcohol, after a meal of plastics. While this doesn't mean that a bunch of caterpillars will end plastic pollution, researchers are more interested in a species of intestinal bacteria in the worms that can survive on plastic for more than a year as its only source of nutrients. Thus, they called the worms "plastivores."

On Monday morning, in lockdown at Hong Kong zoo, with nobody to watch, cheer, or whistle at them, Ying Ying and Le Le—two resident pandas living together for a decade now—decided to go with the flow and have some sexy time. The zoo says the pandas have been making attempts since 2010 with little success, but managed through "years of trial and learning." Zookeepers are extremely happy with the event, after paying close attention to the pandas' hormone levels. They began flirting in March—Le Le left his scent markings and sniffed for Ying Ying's scent, while Ying Ying began playing in the water. It took a pandemic for this to happen, but Hong Kongers could meet a baby panda in the next 10 months.

George Ahearn, who grew up in Othello, a Washington farming town, co-founded a non-profit after learning that Covid-19 cost local farmers so much business that they were willing to destroy their crops. His non-profit has since moved nearly 8 million pounds of produce from farms in eastern Washington to the western part of the state for distribution to hundreds of food banks and meal programs. "I know these people that I grew up with on the one hand, and on the other hand, I know there is a need here," Ahearn, 45, told CNN. "I'm just going to connect the two dots." He started by calling food banks that were interested in taking some of the produce that would otherwise go to waste. But when he called the farmers, they wanted to give him truckloads of potatoes and onions—way more than Ahearn's car could handle. He also had another problem: Food banks needed the potatoes and onions to be cleaned and bagged before donation. "What I didn't realize was the logistical nightmare, because I thought I could just show up with potatoes harvested straight from the ground and give them right to the food bank," said Ahearn, who also runs a nursing business. "I couldn't believe it." So Ahearn asked for help and he connected with his two co-founders, Nancy Balin and Zsofia Pasztor. While Balin helped organize convoys to drive across Washington to pick up the produce, Pasztor assembled volunteers to clean and bag the food. A week after they started, they hauled more than 60 tons of produce across the state and handed it to food banks. After two convoys and some 70 tons of donated food, Ahearn thought they had accomplished their mission. But his co-founders pointed out that the food was going fast, and their job was just getting started. "That's 140,000 pounds," Ahearn said. "Surely, we have flooded the market, and we should be proud of ourselves, and that's it. Three days later and there was not a potato or onion here. I realized that we need to do this again, and we got to do this for months."

Germany is planning to ban floodlights after dusk for much of the year as part of its bid to fight a dramatic decline in insect populations. The country's environment ministry has drawn up a number of new measures to protect insects, ranging from partially outlawing spotlights to increased protection of natural habitats. "Insects play an important role in the ecosystem... but in Germany, their numbers and their diversity has severely declined in recent years," reads the draft law, for which the ministry hopes to get cabinet approval by October. The changes put forward in the law include stricter controls on both lighting and the use of insecticides. Light traps for insects are to be banned outdoors, while searchlights and sky spotlights would be outlawed from dusk to dawn for ten months of the year. The draft also demands that any new streetlights and other outdoor lights be installed in such a way as to minimize the effect on plants, insects, and other animals. The use of weed killers and insecticides would also be banned in national parks and within five to ten meters of major bodies of water, while orchards and dry-stone walls are to be protected as natural habitats for insects.

Every day, up to 5,600 trucks, 20 ships, and 92 planes are on the move, delivering food and assistance in some of the most remote and challenging parts of the world. They're all part of the WFP, the world's largest humanitarian agency, assisting 100 million people in 88 countries. So in 2020, the agency was given the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace. The WFP, the 101st winner of a prize now worth 10m Swedish krona, said it was "deeply humbled" to have won. "I was literally for the first time in my life without words," said David Beasley, the WFP head. "To receive this award is a recognition to the men and women at the World Food Programme who put their lives on the line every day for the struggling, suffering people around the world. So I hope this is a signal and a message that the World Food Programme is a role model and that we all have got to do more." If you want to make a small contribution to the program, you can follow the link in its bio. The minimum amount is $1.50, which could make up for almost 5 food rations, given the strong ties between WFP and food suppliers.

The most annoying things on the internet have their days numbered. Engineers from Google confirmed that Chrome will stop showing three of the most frustrating ad types, starting in August. Long preroll ads or clusters of ads, as well as midroll ads and images or text ads that appear in the middle of a video, will be gone. The decision comes after a survey conducted by Google on 45,000 people, in which the types of ads mentioned above were seen as the most annoying and intrusive. It is believed that Firefox, Safari, and other browser engines will soon follow in its steps.

After he raised £30 million for the NHS and set the Guinness record with his charity walk, Captain Tom Moore (as of today Colonel) waved his hand to an RAF aerial salute to mark his 100th birthday. Even though jet fighters were supposed to take off for the flypast, Cpt. Tom saw his wish come true in the form of a Spitfire and Hurricane in the skies of Bedfordshire—the planes he remembers so well from his days in WW2. He also received more than 125,000 birthday cards from people all over the world and he promises to be back with new ways of helping people because "Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day!" We salute you, Sir!

Thanks to a new set of state laws, the LA county district attorney decided to drop charges on 62,000 felony convictions for cases involving marijuana sales and cultivation dating back to 1961 and about 4,000 misdemeanor possession cases. The decision means conviction relief for over 53,000 people. About 45% are Latino, 32% are black, and 20% are white. "The dismissal of tens of thousands of old cannabis-related convictions in Los Angeles County will bring much-needed relief to communities of color that disproportionately suffered the unjust consequences of our nation's drug laws," district attorney Jackie Lacey said.

The European Union wants to ban facial recognition in public spaces such as train stations, sport stadiums, and shopping centers for at least three years over fears about creeping surveillance of European citizens.