Thursday's global round up of good news nuggets.
Weighing around 100kg and sporting long straight horns, white spots on its face and large facial scent glands, the saola does not sound like an animal that would be hard to spot. But it was not until 1992 that this elusive creature was discovered in Vietnam, becoming the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years. The discovery was hailed as one of the most spectacular zoological discoveries of the 20th century. Nicknamed the “Asian unicorn”, the saola continues to be elusive. They have never been seen by a biologist in the wild and have been camera-trapped only a handful of times. Sadly, it's believed that the saola population has declined massively due to commercial wildlife poaching. However, the good news is that several wildlife conservation charities are now ramping up efforts to keep a track on numbers and preserve their territories.
Maya Angelou has become the first black woman ever featured on the US quarter. The poet and activist, who died in 2014 at the age of 86, was also the first black woman to write and perform a poem at a presidential inauguration. Coins are planned for other pioneering women - including an astronaut, a tribal chief and an actor - as part of the American Women Quarters programme.
There’s a new law in Tennessee that harnesses the unique position of beauty professionals and hairstylists to help identify victims of domestic abuse. The new law, which came into force on the first day of 2022, requires them to go through a free training program that teaches them how to look for signs that their clients might be suffering domestic violence, and where to send them for support. Salons are often seen as places where people are more inclined to talk about their personal lives, and hairstylists in particular “have a unique position to help identify domestic violence and assist victims,” says Tennessee’s cosmetology board director.
The ruling party members of the Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan has announced the appointment of their first female Supreme Court judge. The decision to make 55-year-old Justice Ayesha Malik the first female judge on the Supreme Court since the country’s independence and is seen as a positive step towards closing the gender gap.
Amid the chaos of last year's evacuation in Kabul, you may recall that a two-month-old child, Sohail Ahmadi, was passed to a soldier - whom his father believed to be an American - to protect him from the crush of fleeing people. Despite desperate search attempts, baby Sohail was then lost, prompting months of investigation. Thankfully, a sigh of relief is in order: the infant has now been found and has been reunited with his family.
A hungry badger is thought to have unearthed the largest collection of Roman coins ever to have been discovered in northern Spain. The treasure trove was discovered close to the den of an animal in Asturias. The animal is thought to have uncovered the treasure as it desperately searched for food last winter, a harsh one. But it found no use for the old coins and abandoned some of the pieces in front of its den. The collection of rough coins turned out to be an "exceptional find" dating from between the 3rd and 5th Centuries AD.
Cardiff University in Wales has been trialling the use of dolls for patients suffering from dementia in hospitals and care homes. The results of the research? That these specially-made hugging dolls "can dramatically improve cognitive scores for people with advanced dementia and even boost their overall health".
Quote of the Day
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." Mark Twain
On this Day
13 January 1785: John Walter publishes the first issue of The Times of London.
Dive in Deeper
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Angel Falls, Venezuela
Enjoy an exhilarating trip to the world's highest waterfall.