Today's bundle of positive news snippets.
Good news for Meghan Markle, and for common decency, as court rules that The Mail on Sunday must publish a front-page statement declaring the Duchess of Sussex’s victory in her copyright claim against the newspaper over its publication of a letter to her estranged father. Furthermore, it must also print a notice on page three of the newspaper, stating it “infringed her copyright”. Meanwhile, Mail Online has also been ordered to publish the statement on its homepage for one week, with a hyperlink to the full judgment. That's all probably way more important to her than the £450,000 interim damages payment she's set to receive any day now.
Joe Biden recently announced plans to transition all federal fleet vehicles to electric models and what better place to start than the country’s most valuable natural spaces: National Parks. Utah's Zion National Park has received a grant to upgrade all of its shuttle buses to electric models, making Zion one of the first in the nation to get an EV makeover.
Create Escape: Suspicion that the globally renowned graffiti artist was behind the mural that materialised on the high red-brick perimeter wall of Reading Jail last week was just confirmed via a secretive short video entitled “The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross and Banksy”.
In good news for poorer countries and, ultimately everybody, the normal rules of business that protect the profits of vaccine manufacturers will have to be set aside if that's what it takes to ensure everyone is immunised against the coronavirus, according to the director general of WHO. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Before a key meeting of the World Trade Organization next week, he supports a patent waiver that would allow countries to make and sell cheap copies of vaccines that were invented elsewhere.
Giant tanker hovers above the sea: Walker encounters rare optical illusion known as superior mirage while out on coastal stroll in Cornwall.
A social enterprise in Scotland announces it will open eight zero-waste supermarkets across the country. Locavore, which grows its own organic food and has two shops in Glasgow, said the forthcoming openings were part of a plan to build a more sustainable food system and will, hopefully, apply pressure on traditional supermarkets everywhere to join the race to zero-waste.
While the EU is bringing in legislation to prolong the life of electronics, the UK government is grappling with what to do with the stuff when it reaches the end of its life. Its proposal? Kerbside e-waste recycling. The UK government is now consulting on rolling out the initiative nationally. It's also considering making online retailers take back unwanted electronics from consumers, as physical retailers have had to do since January.
Boldly Going: The Biden administration has spent its first few weeks in office busily dismantling much of Donald Trump’s legacy, except in one area: Space.
Green Bay Packers quarterback and reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers has donated $1 million to help 80 locally owned business in or around his hometown of Chico, California. “Small, locally owned businesses are the heart and soul of a community,” Rodgers said in a statement.
Feel like some exotic bird spotting? Try out the Panama fruit feeder cam. It's a collaboration between the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Canopy Lodge and is exactly what it sounds like: a fruit feeder set out near an ecolodge in Panama where guests (and virtual guests) can view Prothonotary Warblers, Thick-Billed Euphonias, as well as any number of other colorful, interesting species with colorful, interesting names. Armchair escapism!
It started as a joke: Friends find out they're biological sisters years after they met working at the same restaurant.
94-year-olds find love in the time of coronavirus: This may have been the worst year for dating, but along the banks of the Hudson River in upstate New York, there's a couple making it work despite the pandemic. John Shults and his girlfriend, Joy Morrow-Nulton, have each been widowed twice but were determined to find love yet again. The couple is now vaccinated but had to be in a bubble most of the year. "She was worth it. It was a pain in the neck, though," Shults said of maintaining the relationship through the pandemic. Shults' son Pete said the two would call each other every day. "They'd find a way to get together. They did whatever it took." What it took, they say, was a return to simple pleasures, like long drives to nowhere, batting balloons around the house and a lot of selflessness. Happily, they're getting married in the Spring.
Remember this? One of the most unforgettable auditions in Britain's Got Talent history, Susan Boyle shocked the judges, the audience (and, frankly, everyone) when she gave the performance of a lifetime, singing I Dreamed A Dream from Les Misérables. Everyone can, and should, dream!