Midweek collection of good news snippets.
A new neon work by acclaimed British artist Martin Creed, ‘Work No. 3485 EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT’, is now lighting up the façade of the Gstaad Palace in Switzerland.
Preserving one third of the planet for nature: A coalition of 50 countries has pledged to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030 to halt the destruction of the natural world and slow extinctions of wildlife.
The Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, often called “the world’s most beautiful avenue.” Parisians fear it has lost some of its splendour over the years, partly due to relentless traffic and air pollution. The decision has now been made to turn the area into a large community garden. This will involve reducing road space by half and turning it into green space. Work will commence after Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics.
A photograph of two widowed penguins comforting each other in Australia has won a photography contest. In a year that has produced many poignant and heartbreaking images, the photograph of the two penguins received an outpouring of love on social media.
Twitter has said it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts since Friday that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon conspiracy content as the social media site continued to crack down on content after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol.
Britain's four biggest supermarkets to ban shoppers who refuse to wear a mask, unless they are exempt for medical reasons.
Good news for Neil Young as he becomes the latest rock superstar to make a mint from selling the rights to his songs. Hipgnosis, a music-investment company, paid a reported $150m for a 50 percent stake in the Young catalogue. There's no news about what may happen After the Goldrush.
It's a struggle that many spectacle-wearers face on a daily basis, but the good news is that the days of fumbling around for your reading glasses could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a new pair of 'tunable' glasses.
Under the radar: The annual festival run by the Public theatre in New York runs online until 17 January with a lineup of innovative international artists. It offers a chance to catch Javaad Alipoor’s 2019 Edinburgh fringe hit Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, as well as Whitney White and Peter Mark Kendall’s new work, Capsule, which revisits how it felt to be “caught up in the maelstrom of 2020”. All performances are free.
In Cornwall, the UK’s first ever geothermal power plant has just signed a 10 year contract to sell its supply of electricity to 10,000 local homes.
R&A has informed Trump that his celebrated links at Turnberry has as much chance of hosting an Open Championship as he does of joining Little Mix. “People close to Trump say he’s angry about impeachment. But the reaction to the PGA decision has been a different order of magnitude,” says Maggie Haberman of the New York Times.
Act of kindness: Dr. Omar Atiq opened the Arkansas Cancer Clinic 29 years ago to provide cancer care to an underserved community in Pine Bluff. When he decided to close the clinic last March, he hired another company to collect outstanding payments from patients. That's when he realized how many people were making small monthly payments to cover their bills. "Patients wanted to pay, but they just didn't have the ability to pay. And at the same time, the country was in the grip, and still is in the grip, of the COVID-19 pandemic that has devastated lives in more ways than one," the doctor told CBS. Atiq spoke to his wife and kids about it, and they decided they didn't need the money - his patients did. "Luckily, we were blessed to have the opportunity to just forego the debt. Just cancel it. So we did," he said. He therefore kindly canceled about $650,000 in debt for his cancer patients.
Remember: this is only the second year in history that we can save the world by lying in front of the TV and doing nothing. Let's not screw it up this time!
Arnie gets serious: Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most recent Republican governor of California. Here's his heartfelt message to America, to both Republicans and Democrats.
If you're enjoying OGN Daily, please spread the good news by telling friends and family.