Mid-week global round up of positive news stories.
US Wetland Funding Boost
Over $157 million in funding, made available via the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, has been approved for the conservation and restoration of 91,425 acres of wetlands and associated upland habitats in 17 states for waterfowl, shorebirds, and other birds (including 11 endangered species), reports FWS. The photo of Rashida Ferdinand at Sankofa Wetland Park in Florida shows what can be achived. "Looking at the ambling paths and thriving cypress trees winding around the park’s central pond, it’s hard to believe the area was an overgrown lot filled with trash not even 10 years ago."
Illegal Mining
Brazilian officials say they have nearly rid Indigenous Yanomami territory in the northern Amazon of the thousands of miners who had been operating illegally in the region. They have dynamited 42 clandestine airstrips, set fire to 18 aircraft, seized 92,000 liters of diesel, sunk 45 dredging barges, destroyed 700 pumps, and dismantled 90 Starlink dishes.
Big Win in Ecuador
Los Cedros Protected Forest, a 480 sq.km (185 sq.miles) reserve of cloud forest in the Ecuadorian Andes, recently notched a major victory against the oil and gas industry via the rights-of-nature movement, arguing that mining would violate the forest’s constitutional rights, and they demanded the protection of its “right to exist, survive, and regenerate.” The courts agreed.
Surreal Price?
A rare painting from René Magritte’s famous L’empire des lumières series is estimated to sell for more than $95 million at Christie’s New York this fall, a sum that would break the Surrealist artist’s record at auction. L’empire des lumières, from 1954, is one of the 27 paintings in which Magritte explored light by painting a sunlit sky above a darkened street scene. In 2022, another one of the works from the series nearly tripled the Belgian artist’s previous record when it sold for £59.4 million (then $79.7 million) at Sotheby’s in London.
Striking Gold?
Amazon is set to debut a competition show that allows players to pitch their products to company execs and celebrity judges for a chance at startup stardom - top billing on the e-commerce giant’s site. Finding a seamless way to mix commerce and entertainment has become the Holy Grail of the tech industry, and by mixing a tried-and-tested format (think Shark Tank or 'Dragon's Den') with a novel approach to platforming promising products, Amazon may have struck gold. WSJ describes Amazon’s new show, Buy It Now, as Shark Tank meets the Home Shopping Network. It debuts on Prime on 30 October.
Kylie's World Tour
Popstar Kylie Minogue has announced her biggest world tour in more than a decade, and a sequel to her comeback album Tension. The 13 tracks on Tension II will be released on 18 October, with the global tour kicking off in her home country Australia in February, before swinging through Asia and the UK. Twenty dates have been announced so far, but Minogue said more are coming. The 56-year-old is in the middle of a career renaissance. Since popping up as plucky car mechanic Charlene on soap opera Neighbours in 1986, she's racked up dozens of hit singles and a trophy cabinet full of awards.
"Reputation is what others think about you. What’s far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself." Billie Jean King
On This Day
25 September 1513: On this day (or two days later), Spanish conquistador and explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, standing “silent, upon a peak in Darién,” on the Isthmus of Panama, became the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean.
Today's Articles
Book Shop Airbnb: This unique Scottish bolthole gives residents the chance to live their book selling dreams.
Mood Boosting Video
Tree Climbing Skills: Squirrel shows leopard who’s boss.