Monday's Upbeat News

Editor OGN Daily
15 minutes ago
4 min read

Ensuring the week gets off to a bright start with today's global collection of upbeat news nuggets.

Double Winner

Australian photographer Ross Gudgeon’s image of the inside of a cauliflower soft coral is now a two-time photography contest champion. Not only did Fractal Forest claim the top spot in the 2025 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition, but it also just won the seventh annual Close-up Photographer of the Year contest. The photographer said: “Named for its cauliflower-like form, this soft coral is made up of countless small, rounded polyps that give it a puffy texture. I wanted to explore a perspective that isn’t possible with conventional lenses, and an underwater probe lens allowed me to do that. By carefully threading the lens through the coral’s branches without disturbing them, I was able to photograph the subject from the inside looking out, offering a different view of a common marine organism.” Check out the rest of the winning images.

The 11 cast members of the new UK Saturday Night Live — Credit: SNL UK

SNL UK

Saturday Night Live is one of America’s most successful comedy formats, having launched countless huge stars in the US - such as Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, and Adam Sandler - and at long last, a new edition is coming to UK screens on 21 March, with British performers on this side of the pond hoping to emulate that same trajectory. The UK version will retain everything viewers know and love about the Stateside original, with celebrity hosts and musical guests stopping by for late-night laughs in the all-new London studio. SNL UK’s initial six-week run will see 11 new players bringing the laughs in topical sketches, and a British version of the popular satirical news segment Weekend Update.

Pictish Ring Unearthed

A "remarkable" Pictish ring thought to be at least 1,000 years old has been discovered by a 68-year-old volunteer on a dig in Moray, Scotland. It is thought the settlement was a significant seat of power within the Pictish kingdom between AD500 and AD1000. The Picts, called Picti by the Romans from the Latin for “Painted Ones,” were northern tribes who made up the largest kingdom in Dark Age Scotland. Noteworthy warriors, the Picts held back invasion attempts by not just the Romans, but also the Angles, the latter during the famous Battle of Dun Nechtain in 685AD. “If the Picts had lost,” the BBC wrote of the ferocious fight against the Northumbrian Angle invaders, “Scotland might never have existed.” However, in spite of their military might, the Picts would “disappear from history by the end of the first millennium,” with the BBC noting that they were “swallowed whole by the history of another group, the Gaels.”

Main street at twilight in Fredericksburg, Texas — Fredericksburg

And The Winner is...

If you’re looking for some extra-friendly hospitality on your next vacation, consider heading to this lesser-known destination: Fredericksburg, Texas. Taking 370 million verified reviews of destinations across the world into consideration, Booking.com just released its 2026 Traveler Review Awards, naming the small town the most hospitable city in the U.S. and the fifth most welcoming in the world. Why Fredericksburg? The travel company credited the locale’s blend of “small-town hospitality with a rich cultural heritage” and its mix of “history, adventure, and Southern hospitality.”

Solar Panel Longevity

Currently, solar panels come with a 25- to 30-year performance promise, and while a manufacturer’s warranty might have expired at that point, the panels may still be working extremely well. A new analysis out of Switzerland looked at six solar arrays that have been running since between 1987 and 1993 and found that most of the panels were still producing more than 80 percent of their power - even after three decades.

Switzerland Turns Train Tracks Into Solar Power Plants: The idea struck Joseph Scuderi one day while he was waiting for a train. Why not do something with the unused space between railroad tracks?

River lined on both sides by forest — Accelerating capture of CO2

Older Forests

A new analysis shows that for the past two decades, U.S. forests have been absorbing carbon dioxide at a historic rate, increasing storage by about 66 million metric tons per year from 2005 to 2022. Rather than being driven by a single cause, earth.com reports that a mix of shifting climate conditions and human decisions about forest management helped contribute to the increase. One of the most significant factors, though, was forest age: as forests got older, they entered peak growth stages and stored enormous amounts of carbon.

Demographic Shift

For the first time in history, the number of middle-class Mexicans outnumbers the number in poverty. The Mexican government also said that, based on World Bank data, the Mexican middle class grew by more than 12 percentage points between 2018 and 2024.

“Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.” Jesse Owens