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The Best Positive News We’re Celebrating This Week —

To address food insecurity, a group of Baltimore women is building a community fridge network

Recognizing the difficulty some folks have in being able to travel to and access local food pantries where and when they’re open, a group of four women in Baltimore wanted to bring the food to them.

The Bmore Community Fridge Network is a map of community fridges and neighborhood pantries across the city, and it’s hoping to connect nearby residents with free food.

Not only will the map help those in need of food — it will also serve those looking for places to donate food. Right now, the map has four community fridges featured, and the women are working quickly to add more.

Why is this good news? Maryland Food Bank data shows more than 90,000 city residents are food insecure, and 1 in 3 Marylanders face food insecurity. While the number of residents experiencing food insecurity is down from last year, the region’s rate is nearly twice as high as the national average.

This network is essential in making it easier to collect donations and connect people in need with fresh food that’s nearby.

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Runner attempts 50 ultramarathons in 50 days for the homeless: ‘If I’ve got to run across Australia to hit $2.2M, then that's what I'll do’

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In recent years, four countries have successfully stopped and reversed the erosion of their democracies

When looking at key aspects of democracy, like the fairness of elections and checks on government power — in the past 20 years, Thailand, Zambia, Brazil, and Poland all saw declines in democracy … some faster than others.

But all four countries have also been able to stop, and even reverse autocratization successfully. In all these instances, people resisted growing authoritarianism and were able to either partially or fully restore previous levels of democracy.

This illustrates how even when democracy deteriorates, that decline is not a permanent fixture — t​​hose losses can be recovered.

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Undue Medical Debt is paying off $30 billion worth of medical debt for 20 million people

In a single transaction with a debt trading company, the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt (formerly RIP Medical Debt) announced it would be paying off $30 billion worth of unpaid medical debt.

The sale will impact an estimated 20 million people, mostly in Texas and Florida, with an average patient debt of $1,100 — though some debt was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

With the massive transaction, millions of people will be protected from being targeted by collectors.

What’s the nuance? It’s important to note that the medical debt crisis in the U.S. now touches an estimated 100 million people nationwide. So while it’s incredibly good news (and so worth celebrating!) that 20 million people will have this burden lifted, so many others still need help.

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Shelters across the U.S. are celebrating ‘kitten season’ with foster workshops, rescue tips, and ‘kitten baby showers’

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After 10,000 years of extinction, scientists genetically engineered a dire wolf — the breakthrough could help save threatened species

From Venezuela to Canada, dire wolves roamed across the continent ​​until they went extinct 10,000 years ago. Now, using ancient DNA, scientists have genetically engineered the first dire wolf to live since their extinction.

While Colossal Biosciences has other species, like the wooly mammoth and the dodo, on its de-extinction wish list — their efforts are helping inform how we can protect endangered and other at-risk species right now, like the red wolf.

Experts estimate that 30% of Earth’s genetic diversity will be lost by 2050, and Colossal scientists say that genetic engineering is a vital tool to reverse this, helping humans undo “some of the bad things that we’ve done to the world already.”

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Utah expanded its free school meal program to include 40,000 more students

Utah’s governor approved a bill to eliminate the state’s reduced-cost lunch program — instead, families will get those meals for free.

Starting July 1, the state is expanding the free school meals program to an additional 40,000 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Next school year, even more students will be eligible.

The new legislation also prevents schools from “stigmatizing students who cannot afford meals” by eliminating practices like using different colored lunch trays for those on the free meals program.

Why is this good news? A reduced-price school meal in Utah costs 40 cents, but many families still struggle to afford meals, and schools in the state still have around $2.8 million in lunch debt.

Lunch debt is a huge burden for families all across the country — and this is important progress toward ensuring all kids can learn on a full stomach.

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Animal charity gives free vet checkups to unhoused neighbors, whose pets are ‘arguably better cared for than some housed animals’

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Fossil fuels made up less than half of the U.S. electricity mix in March for the first month on record

In March 2025, fossil fuels accounted for 49.2% of electricity generated in the U.S. — beating the previous monthly record low of 51% set last year in April.

This also means that renewable sources reached all-time highs — accounting for 50.8% of U.S. electricity for the first month on record. Nearly half of that came from wind and solar alone, which have been seeing (and will continue to see) exponential growth.

Just a decade ago, fossil fuels provided 65% of U.S. electricity generation, while wind and solar just 5.7% — that share has since more than quadrupled.

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Clean energy powered over 40% of global electricity in 2024 for the first time since the 1940s

In the 1940s, the power system was about 50 times smaller than it is today. That was the last time clean energy surpassed 40% of global electricity — like it just did in 2024.

Similar to the 1940s, though, that milestone was made up largely by hydropower, one of the oldest renewable energy technologies, which made up 14% of global electricity.

And while solar only made up 7% of global electricity, it had a significant hand in the benchmark, too, since its capacity has doubled in the last three years and it’s been the world’s fastest-growing source of energy for the last 20 years.

What’s the nuance? Experts had hoped that global energy use would peak in 2023, but the global power sector grew by 1.6% last year, and that may continue as a result of increased use of artificial intelligence, data centers, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and more.

Still, experts and the data show that renewables are up for the challenge, and fossil fuels are not a part of that future.

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Lucasfilm on AI: ‘We need to use these tools thoughtfully and with the full permission of the talent’

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A man went viral after nobody showed up to his community beach cleanup — a week later, over 30 neighbors came to help

On March 30, a teacher in Vancouver posted a video holding a bucket and trash pickup sticks, waiting for people to arrive at a beach cleanup he’d organized. Nobody showed — and a heart-wrenching false alarm was even caught on camera.

But instead of calling it quits, Michael Harvey stuck it out, documenting his slow-and-steady approach to cleaning up litter along the driftwood-dotted sands of Kitsilano.

Videos of his solo endeavor went viral on social media, with many praising his efforts to make a difference. Harvey organized another pickup one week later, and this time, more than 30 neighbors showed up in the pouring rain to join him.

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An architecture firm in Hawaii is building more sustainable homes out of surfboard waste

While Hawaii is seeing a shortage of housing and space for new landfills, one plentiful thing it has is surfboards. But making surfboards results in a lot of waste — so an architecture firm is using it to build homes.

Hawaii Off Grid is turning polystyrene foam offcuts from surfboard building into cinder block-style forms for building homes. The first home to use the “Surf Blocks” is nearing completion, and it could set a new precedent for home-building on the island.

The state has looked into a number of options to solve its housing issues while also keeping climate change in mind, which has devastated the island with weather events like the Maui wildfires.

Why is this good news? For a lot of reasons! This solution helps solve several issues at once: Hawaii’s chronic housing crisis, increased costs of building materials, which is partly due to them shipped to and sold at a premium in Hawaii, lack of landfill space for waste, and an abundance of surfboard waste.

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Ms. Rachel adds voice to interactive art exhibit designed to comfort people on their ‘roughest day’

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More good news of the week —

​A plan to study “social housing” passed the Portland City Council with unanimous support. Housing developed, owned, and operated by the government would help keep the units affordable for people living in the city and address severe housing shortages that the private sector is not meeting.

​A study found that shingles vaccination cut older adults’ risk of developing dementia over seven years by 20%. While it’s not clear how Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia form, certain viruses, especially those in the herpes family, have long been suspected of adding to genetic and other factors that make people more vulnerable.

​Home builder Lennar is constructing 1,500 new Colorado homes with heat pumps. Ground-source heat pumps, which tap into the stable temperatures hundreds of feet beneath the Earth’s surface, are a super-efficient way to heat and cool homes — but expensive to install, unless it’s built in from the start.

​There are now almost 50 rhinos living at a ranch in Uganda, part of an initiative to bring the animals back to the country. Rhinos went extinct in Uganda in the early 1980s due to poaching, trafficking, and political turmoil. Six rhinos were introduced to the former cattle ranch in 2006, and their numbers have since multiplied.

​In a landmark trial, Chevron was ordered to pay more than $740 million to restore coastal wetlands in Louisiana. In the first of dozens of pending lawsuits in the state, a jury made a precedent-setting ruling that the company was accelerating land loss across the state’s rapidly disappearing coast.

​An all-time record 736,000 sandhill cranes arrived in Nebraska during the peak of spring migration. The cranes all appear to be healthy, too, after wildlife biologists were on high alert after bird flu led to the death of more than 1,500 birds in Indiana.

​Thailand became the 68th country in the world to ban corporal punishment of minors. UNICEF Thailand stressed the importance of the government also backing the ban with educational campaigns aimed especially at families, where using force as a teaching method is widely accepted and practiced.

​A startup in Mexico is tackling a coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into fuel. Petgas collects especially hard-to-recycle plastics like bottle caps and Styrofoam, and for every ton it collects and converts, it mitigates 1.5 tons of carbon. (Video)

​Twenty-one animals, including some critically endangered, were rescued from an attempted smuggling at the Thailand airport. Officials were particularly concerned with the illegal transportation of six juvenile freshwater crocodiles, which are critically endangered in Thailand due to wetland degradation and overhunting.

​A “pro bono bootcamp” is helping lawyers and legal professionals learn how to donate their time and skills to advance climate solutions. Beyond the high-profile climate lawsuits, the climate movement needs other kinds of legal support, like writing contracts, forming a business or nonprofit, or legal defense — the first bootcamp had 700 attendees.

​Europe just launched a continent-wide research project to study the impacts of “social prescribing” on health outcomes. Social prescribing is a healthcare approach that connects patients with non-medical support services, linking patients to trained professionals who help them access community activities and services such as art and gym classes, befriending sessions, and financial advice.

​New data shows the New England Aquarium’s rehabilitation program is helping injured sea turtles survive — and thrive — in the wild. The aquarium’s hospital has admitted over 500 turtles in just the past three years, and its efforts are especially important for loggerhead sea turtle populations, which are in decline.

​Japan’s groundbreaking stem cell treatment helped paralyzed patients regain movement, and it could forever change paralysis treatment. The treatment specifically looked at spinal cord injuries, which pose significant challenges because the spinal cord is responsible for transmitting messages between the brain and body.

​Trans-led organizations are helping build better, safer housing solutions for trans people in the U.S. Nearly one in three trans people have experienced homelessness in their lifetime, and data indicates that both homelessness and housing instability have dramatically risen in recent years among trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people.

​A federal judge blocked an offshore oil and gas lease sale for not considering the impact on an endangered whale. The ruling could set a precedent for new offshore drilling activity so that it accounts for the highly endangered Rice’s whale, of which there are only an estimated 51 left in the wild.

​The U.K.’s controversial first drug injection room is saving lives and connecting people in need with resources. Following similar programs in other countries, the service seeks to reduce drug-related harm in a hardcore population of injecting users, allow medical staff to prevent overdose deaths, reduce blood-borne viruses, and clean up the local area of drug debris.

​The world’s first “Pangolarium” is covertly rehabilitating the most trafficked animal in the world. The exact location of the center is highly classified, since the pangolin’s global decline has been hurried along by overhunting with poachers targeting the “walking pinecones” for their meat and scales.

​The Ocean Cleanup says it can clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years. Also focused on preventing new plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place, the organization’s new-and-improved ocean cleanup technology now measures about 1.5 miles in length, and it cleans up an area of the ocean the size of a football field every five seconds.

​Google demoed Android XR, the ‘Tony Stark’ glasses that translate languages in real time. Impressively, the glasses can detect, translate, and transcribe languages in real time into pop-up subtitles as well as use a “Memory” tool to help users remember where they’d misplaced forgotten items.

​A Lucasfilm executive looked at “Star Wars” innovations to show how AI should be used as an artist tool, not as a replacement. Rob Bredow admitted that it’s natural for artists to be anxious about AI replacing human jobs — and it’s up to leaders in the industry to quell that anxiety, lead by example, and “use these tools thoughtfully and with the full permission of the talent.”

​The creator of the world’s first clinically trained therapeutic AI shared how AI therapy can fill gaps in access and meet critical needs. Called Woebot, the service is currently covered by a network of health services, privacy is integral to the company, and the data is built on cognitive behavioral therapy practices built by trained professionals.