Tuesday's Positive News
- Editor OGN Daily
- 11 hours ago
- 4 min read
An eclectic selection of positive news stories to perk up the day.
Care For a Dance?
Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner traded their tennis whites for some very sharp cocktail wear on Sunday night as the two new Wimbledon singles champions starred at the Champions Dinner - even enjoying a dance together. Swiatek won the women's tournament in just 57 minutes, double-bageling American Amanda Anisimova in emphatic fashion on Saturday, to become the first Polish singles champion. Then on Sunday, Sinner took on double defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second installment of a growing rivalry at the top of men's tennis, avenging his defeat from the French Open just over a month ago.
Fairytale Castles
The World Heritage Commission has elevated the German Neuschwanstein Castle, Herrenchiemsee, Linderhof and the royal house at Schachen to World Heritage status. The magnificent castles in Upper Bavaria have been attracting numerous tourists for over 140 years. The buildings of King Ludwig II (1845-1886) attracted over 1.7 million visitors last year alone - including many international guests. "The inclusion of the palaces on the World Heritage List is an outstanding honour for these impressive places," said the President of the German UNESCO Commission, Maria Böhmer. "They are all architectural masterpieces and bear witness to the artistic imagination, but also the eccentricity of the fairytale king."
Cleaner Air
EU air pollution is plummeting, smashing clean-air pledges early. A new report shows that since 1990, the EU-27 has slashed sulphur dioxide by 95 percent, nitrogen oxides by 66 percent, ammonia by 36 percent, and fine-particle pollution by 41 percent, overshooting all targets agreed in 2016.
Lights On
The number of people without access to electricity has been cut by 292 million in the last decade - despite the global population increasing by around 760 million during the same period, says the latest SDG 7 Progress Report. That means 92 percent of humanity now has electricity.
Matching Pair
Paleontologist Victor Beccari was looking through the fossilized reptiles housed at London’s Natural History Museum when he came across a specimen that stopped him in his tracks. The fossilized skeleton of a lizard-like reptile looked oddly similar to the preserved impression of a similar creature at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. Upon further investigation, Beccari realized the two specimens were not just similar - they were two halves of the same whole. Nearly a century ago, someone had split open the flat fossil slab, leaving the skeleton in one half and the skeleton’s outline in the other. “It seems that someone in the 1930s decided to double their profit by selling both halves separately,” says Beccari. “As they didn’t tell either buyer that there was another half, the connection between the two fossils had been lost until now.” Beyond reuniting the fossils, Beccari and his colleagues made another stunning revelation: The 145-million-year-old creature belongs to a new species that was previously unknown to scientists. They describe the animal, which they named Sphenodraco scandentis.
Jaguar Type 00 EV
Jaguar dropped its Type 00 concept car off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in southern England last weekend. Jag’s new era created quite a stir when it landed on the Internet in late 2024, but in the flesh it’s a properly imposing piece of design, says TopGear. "With supremely clean surfaces and ultra matte paints it’s clearly a concept car. It won’t make production looking like this, but if the proportions are similar when it transforms into a four-door road car then it’ll be quite something. So, we guess the only question that remains is what colour are you speccing yours in - grey, blue or that pink from the initial launch images? Because we know you all loved the pink…"
Polish Record
According to the Forum Energii think tank, in June, renewable energy sources surpassed coal in electricity production in Poland for the first time ever. In addition, in the entire second quarter of 2025, coal’s share fell below half for the first time in history.
"The greatest pleasure I know, is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident." Charles Lamb
On This Day
15 July 1799: The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign. The stone stele from 196 BC is famous for being inscribed with three versions of a decree: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic (the cursive Egyptian script used for daily purposes, meaning ‘language of the people’), and the Ancient Greek script. The latter was translated into English in 1803, allowing for the hieroglyphics to be deciphered for the first time in 1822.
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