50 good news stories from 2021 so far

To have fun our fiftieth subject of Happiful, we’ve put collectively an inventory of fifty uplifting, amusing, and heartwarming headlines to place a smile in your face

1. Music followers rejoiced as festivals resembling Studying & Leeds, Creamfields, and Rewind plan to go forward this summer season.

2. The city of Tankerton, in Kent, got here up with a novel strategy to elevate spirits throughout lockdown. In February it turned the city’s Christmas lights again on to brighten up the darkish evenings.

3. Dr Alex George has formally been appointed as Youth Mental Health Ambassador to the federal government.

4. As a part of its efforts to develop into a carbon impartial firm, Swedish furnishings retailer IKEA has purchased 11,000 acres of woodland in Georgia, USA, to protect the forest after it appeared more likely to be land used for improvement.

5. Sporting legend Michael Jordan donated $10 million to open well being clinics in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. His beneficiant contribution means people who find themselves both uninsured or underinsured, can afford important medical care.

6. French nun Lucile Randon turned the oldest particular person to recuperate from Covid-19 in February, simply in time for her 117th birthday!

7. The Financial institution of England revealed the brand new face of £50 notes, which can characteristic pioneer mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing. His work to decipher Enigma machine messages throughout World Conflict II saved numerous lives and helped carry the warfare to an finish sooner.

8. Free psychological well being textual content service SHOUT (85258) launched a report revealing it has had greater than 500,000 conversations with these in want. Whereas the very fact so many individuals are in disaster is troubling, having a service be there for individuals is welcome information.

9. In March, Nomadland director Chloé Zhao made historical past by turning into the primary Asian lady to win a Golden Globe for greatest director. And in April she did it once more – turning into the primary lady of color and solely the second lady ever to win an Oscar for greatest director.

10. The ‘tampon tax’ was formally scrapped within the UK as of 1 January.

11. It’s been revealed that not one single rhino was killed by poachers in Kenya in 2020 – one thing that hasn’t been achieved since 1999.

12. New Zealand has raised the minimal dwelling wage, and elevated taxes for the wealthy, in an effort to assist probably the most susceptible in society.

13. Moreover, in what’s believed to be a world-first, laws was unanimously authorized in New Zealand to permit pregnant individuals and their companions paid bereavement go away following a miscarriage at any level in the course of the being pregnant. At present, most employers solely present paid go away for a stillbirth or miscarriage after 20 weeks, whereas within the UK it’s really 24 weeks.

14. A pupil from Leeds created an revolutionary bin bag dispenser to deal with the trash epidemic as revellers began returning to parks and public areas.

15. As of April, footballer and activist Marcus Rashford and his followers have formally given out greater than 21 million meals because the first UK lockdown. Meals redistribution charity, FareShare, who Marcus partnered up with, additionally revealed that it’s given out 128.5 million meals since 23 March 2020.

16. Two dolphins had been noticed swimming in Venice’s well-known Grand Canal – a particularly uncommon sight, probably due to the calmer waters as a result of social restrictions due to the pandemic.

17. Los Angeles has formally develop into a ‘no-kill’ metropolis after attaining a pet rescue price of greater than 90%.

18. In an effort to scale back carbon emissions, France lately voted to ban short-haul home flights the place the identical journey may very well be taken by prepare in lower than 2.5 hours.

19. Nameless artist Banksy has raised greater than £16 million for an NHS charity by the sale of a portray depicting a bit boy taking part in with a nurse doll carrying a superhero cape.

20. A monumental new legislation handed on 1 March, which means it’s now unlawful for anybody to threaten to share intimate photographs of one other particular person with out their permission. After relentless campaigning by the charity Refuge, the present revenge porn legislation, which prosecuted those that shared these photographs, has expanded to guard victims from the specter of releasing photographs as properly.

21. Europe formally generated extra electrical energy by renewable sources than fossil fuels for the primary time in 2020!

22. The United Nations formally declared 2021 the ‘12 months of Worldwide Peace and Belief’.

23. The general public was given free reign to submit names for Scottish snow ploughs in February, with some very punny outcomes. Our favourites embrace ‘You’re a Blizzard Harry’, ‘Spready Mercury’ and ‘Sleetwood Mac’.

24. An autistic teen from Scotland despatched tons of of playing cards to NHS Covid employees after turning into overwhelmed by statistics associated to the pandemic. Paddy Joyce despatched 663 individually-named playing cards to front-line employees on the Glasgow Royal Infirmary to thank them for all their exhausting work.

25. The primary human trial of a vaccine for HIV is wanting actually promising, with 97% of volunteers seeing an immune response.

26. 95-year-old Dick Van Dyke was seen handing out wads of money to struggling job-seekers at a non-profit in Malibu, which seems to search out individuals native jobs.

27. Analysis by the Psychological Well being Basis revealed that 62% of UK adults discovered aid from the stresses of the pandemic by taking a walk in nature.

28. On the digital local weather summit for Earth Day in April, President Joe Biden pledged to chop carbon emissions from the US by 50–52% by 2030.

29. 59-year-old Don Muchow, who was recognized with type 1 diabetes within the Nineteen Seventies, ran 2,800 miles from Disneyland in California to Disney World in Florida to lift consciousness for diabetes.

30. England’s largest ocean rewilding scheme started in April, with the intention to plant eight hectares of seagrass meadows – that are unbelievable habitats for marine creatures, in addition to absorbing carbon 35 instances quicker than a rainforest.

31. Misogyny is now to be thought of a hate crime in England and Wales, which means police will examine the place a sufferer believes a criminal offense was as a result of “hostility primarily based on their intercourse”.

32. Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical raised $1 million for The Actors Fund, to assist out-of-work entertainers in the course of the pandemic.

33. A espresso store in Kent goes ‘cup free’, solely serving those that carry their very own cups to the store. Otto’s Espresso Home and Kitchen, in Sevenoaks, promoted its new transfer by filling the shop with disposable cups to display the significance of its resolution, given 9 out of 10 of those don’t get recycled.

34. A thriller knitter has been leaving crafted hearts and flowers round Alcester, Warwickshire, with constructive reminders hooked up to them resembling “You’re cherished” and “You’re vital”.

35. New information has revealed that in 2020 Norway turned the primary nation on the earth to promote extra electrical automobiles than petrol or diesel automobiles.

36. After spending 9 months dwelling in a caravan on her driveway whereas isolating to guard her 84-year-old mom, nurse Sarah Hyperlink has lastly been in a position to transfer again dwelling.

37. GCSE pupils at Frome School, in Somerset, recreated well-known photographs out of beans and toast in a charitable fundraiser. The winner was Gil Privett with a recreation of Swan Lake, with the varsity donating the winner’s peak in baked beans (15 tins) to a local food bank.

38. Kamala Harris turned the primary feminine, first Black, and first Asian-American Vice President in US historical past.

39. A colony of dormice, a protected species, that has been dwelling subsequent to the M1 in Buckinghamshire for 5 years, is to be given its personal particular avenue crossing to assist the animals thrive.

40. 100-year-old Vera Sak, from Grimsby, has revealed her secrets and techniques to lengthy life in celebration of her milestone birthday, along with her favorite ideas being to “preserve your mind lively and eat numerous toast”.

41. Primark proprietor, Related British Meals, has pledged to return £121 million in furlough funds it acquired in the course of the previous 12 months.

42. With 129 billion single-use face masks used globally every month, Waterhaul (a social enterprise in Cornwall) have a mission to take waste plastic and switch it into one thing good – each 45 face masks make a litter picker!

43. Gloucestershire-based Forest Inexperienced Rovers soccer membership has develop into the primary sports activities workforce on the earth to go vegan and carbon impartial!

44. Tesco managed to completely take away one billion bits of plastic from its shops in 2020. This was completed by working with suppliers to scale back plastic shrink wrap, eradicating double lids, and eliminating plastic luggage for unfastened fruit and veg.

45. A current research by the Harbor Department Oceanographic Institute of Florida Atlantic College has discovered {that a} frequent antibiotic, amoxicillin, has a 95% success price at therapeutic a coral illness which has unfold by Florida’s coral reef since 2014.

46. It’s been reported that US suicide charges had the largest annual decline in 40 years with a 6% drop, believed to be partly due to elevated neighborhood engagement in the course of the pandemic.

47. Riz Ahmed and Steve Yeun have made historical past within the Greatest Actor class at this 12 months’s Oscars, with Riz being the primary Muslim actor to be nominated, and Steve as the primary Asian-American actor.

48. Junior physician Kishan Bodalia (aka DJ Bodalia) has been hitting the decks to elevate spirits all through lockdown, after testing constructive for Covid-19 whereas engaged on a respiratory ward. Internet hosting his #NHSessions on Instagram, Kishan began doing a DJ set in his scrubs after a shift to spice up morale.

49. Teenager Darius Brown, from New Jersey, hit the headlines for his good deed of creating bow ties for rescue canine to assist them get adopted. He’s been making the paw-some apparel since 2017, and in March revealed he’s made almost 1,000 ties for canine!

50. Kids at Sibsey Main Faculty, in Lincolnshire, stunned employees one morning in January, by placing up a particular show of art work thanking academics for his or her assist in the course of the pandemic.