Good News Tuesday

6 hours ago
4 min read

Today's eclectic selection of upbeat news nuggets from around the world.

a giant wood-carved figure of Gaia, or Mother Nature, sleeping among the tall grass and wildflowers — Credit: RHS | Neil Hepworth

Garden of the Year

Those lucky enough to visit this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London discovered the award-winning Garden of the Year by Sarah Eberle. The enchanting display, titled On the Edge, featured a giant figure of Gaia, or Mother Nature, sleeping among the tall grass and wildflowers. The stunning sculpture was a collaborative effort, created by artists Tom Hare and Tim Wood. Hare crafted the figure’s flowing hair from more than 600 willow branches, while Wood carved the face, leafy crown, and tattooed shoulders from a fallen mature tree. At the torso, a winding path passes through an archway built in the tradition of dry stone walls by the sibling-run team at Noble Stonework, merging the tranquil figure with the lush landscape. Eberle is one of only three women to have won best in show at Chelsea as solo designers in its 100-year history. Her remarkable garden was designed for the Campaign to Protect Rural England and represents the often overlooked countryside at the edge of towns and cities in the UK.

Exterior of Pennsylvania Hospital Museum — Pennsylvania Hospital Museum

Philly Hospital Museum

A quick history lesson: In 1751, decades before the Declaration of Independence was signed, Pennsylvania Hospital was established. Founded by Dr. Thomas Bond and his friend Benjamin Franklin, the facility’s mission was to provide free care to those who couldn’t afford it - no matter if they were white or Black, free or enslaved. As the hospital celebrates 275 years, one of the buildings was recently transformed into a unique museum to honor the facility’s status as the nation’s first chartered hospital and its many contributions to surgery, research, and mental health care.

Wine cellar housing a collection of rarities from the 19th and 20th centuries, once owned by Stalin | Credit: Reuters

Secret Wine Cellar

Deep within a vault, a remarkable wine collection once owned by Josef Stalin has been unsealed for the first time. The Georgian government, now the custodian of this extraordinary repository in Tbilisi, plans to auction off the roughly 40,000 French and Georgian rarities. Some bottles in the collection date back to the early 19th century. Proceeds from the sale are earmarked to establish a new wine education school in Georgia. Irakli Gilauri, owner of Gilauri Wines, who collaborated with the country's agriculture ministry on the initiative, said that the auction would help to "put Georgia on the collectors' map".

Mon Dieu: For the first time in France’s recorded history, beer has overtaken wine as the drink of choice.

the sun precisely aligned with the street grid in NYC — Social media's favourite sunset

Manhattanhenge

Thousands of New Yorkers just gathered near Times Square to see the 'Manhattanhenge' - a phenomenon wherein the sun precisely aligns with the street grid so it can be seen right between the city’s skyscrapers. While it happens about four nights a year, it never ceases to amaze. Manhattanhenge was named by astrophysicist and National Geographic Explorer Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was inspired by England's Stonehenge - one of the wonders of the world and the best-known prehistoric monument in Europe.

Effective Solution

To block illegal bottom trawlers, Cambodia is building concrete towers. It’s very clever: three-tonne underwater concrete towers disable trawl nets while creating shelter and nursery space for fish. An NGO has now deployed 1,250 of these ‘Fishery Productivity Structures’ across its southern coast, protecting 80 square miles of habitat. Early monitoring found fish abundance six times higher at protected sites than control areas. Local fishing communities have been involved at every stage of the project to date, from site selection and block construction through to the deployment and ongoing monitoring of the FPS. This approach is designed to give coastal communities a direct stake in protecting the ecosystems their livelihoods depend on, building the kind of long-term stewardship that conservation projects imposed from above rarely achieve.

African children enjoying lunch at school — Investing in their future

East Africa School Meals

The largest ever private sector school meals commitment will feed 366,000 children across East Africa. The World Food Programme and two Danish foundations just launched an $80.85 million programme across Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. The initiative will provide 366,000 children with nutritious, locally sourced meals, while creating stable and predictable markets for more than 57,500 smallholder farmers over the next 5 years. "School meals are one of the best investments a government can make in a nation’s future - and the results speak for themselves," said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. "We know school meals keep children learning. We know buying food locally strengthens livelihoods for farmers, as well as the markets and communities around them. And we know this can be done in ways that are good for people and good for the planet. This record contribution shows what is possible when partners come together."

"Fatigue, discomfort, discouragement are merely symptoms of effort." Morgan Freeman

On This Day

Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi wearing a dark suit

2 June 1896: Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi applied for a patent for his system of wireless telegraphy in the United Kingdom. Submitted as provisional specification and later granted as British Patent No. 12039, it became the first patent for a communication system based on radio waves. Marconi’s groundbreaking application, titled Improvements in Transmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefor, laid the foundation for global radio communication.