Good News Friday

Editor OGN Daily
2 hours ago
3 min read

Ensuring the week ends on an upbeat note with todays global collection of positive news stories.

Marine Lion

It is an incredibly striking photo: a lioness gazes into the distance on a pebbled beach in Namibia as tempestuous waves crash in the background. She guards her prey, just out of view - the carcass of a Cape fur seal. Belgian photographer Griet Van Malderen captured this dramatic shot of Gamma, one of Namibia's desert lions who has learned to hunt seals to survive in the harsh environment of the Skeleton Coast. There are just 12 desert lions living along the Skeleton Coast, out of a total population of around 80. They have moved from the arid Namib Desert to the Atlantic Ocean in search of food, drastically changing their diet and behaviour in 2017 to adapt to this new habitat - and appearing to thrive from the change. Griet Van Malderen's photo was highly commended at the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, run by the Natural History Museum in London.

FIFA Ticket Sales

More than 1 million tickets have already been sold for next year’s World Cup, FIFA announced in its first update on numbers since the official start of sales began earlier this month. The highest demand, as would be expected, were from buyers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico - the three nations that will play host to the tournament. FIFA said people from 212 different countries and territories have already purchased tickets.

Sheila Irvine with her new bionic eye — Sheila Irvine | BBC

"Astounding"

A group of blind patients can now read again after being fitted with a life-changing implant at the back of the eye. A surgeon who inserted the microchips in five patients at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London says the results of the international trial are "astounding". Sheila Irvine, 70, who is registered blind, told the BBC it was "out of this world" to be able to read and do crosswords again. "It's beautiful, wonderful. It gives me such pleasure." The technology offers hope to people with an advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), called geographic atrophy (GA), which affects more than 250,000 people in the UK and five million worldwide.

Homes For Ukrainians

A US developer is building housing for 2,000 Ukrainians who are mostly displaced from occupied territories. Hansen Village is the creation of Dell Loy Hansen, a Utah real estate developer who has spent over $140 million building and repairing homes across Ukraine since 2022. At 72, he’s eager to do more.

streetlamps with an EV charger added — Credit: XB Hu | Penn State

Streetlamp EV Charger

Imagine walking down a quiet urban street at dusk. The lamps flicker on, casting pools of warm light on the pavement. But these aren't just streetlights, they're power outlets for charging your electric vehicle. In a world racing toward electrified transportation, one stubborn roadblock remains - limited charging infrastructure. Not everyone has a garage, a driveway, or the luxury of installing a home EV charger. So how do we make clean mobility truly equitable? Penn State researchers have proposed a clever, street-level solution. Turn everyday streetlamps into EV chargers. It's a simple solution and already available in, for example, London.

Largest UK Solar Farm

The British government approved the country’s largest solar farm, covering around 3,000 acres. When complete, the Tillbridge Solar project will be able to power about 300,000 homes, and marks the 17th nationally-significant clean energy project approved by the new government since July 2024.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Albert Einstein