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Inspiring News Articles
Excerpts of Highly Inspiring News Articles in Major Media


Below are one-paragraph excerpts of highly inspiring news articles from the major media. Links are provided to the original inspiring news articles on their media websites. If any link fails, read this webpage. The most inspiring news articles are listed first. You can also explore the news articles listed by order of the date posted. For an abundance of other highly inspiring material, see our Inspiring Resources page. May these inspiring news articles inspire us to find ever more ways to love and support each other and all around us to be the very best we can be.



U.S. cancer death rate sees largest-ever single-year drop
2020-01-08, CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cancer-death-rate-sees-largest-ever-single-year-...

The death rate from cancer in the United States saw the largest ever single-year decline between 2016 and 2017 since rates began declining in 1992, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society. [A] deceleration in lung cancer deaths spurred an overall drop in cancer mortality of 2.2% from 2016 to 2017, according to the report. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in the United States, accounting for about 27% of all cancer deaths — more than breast, prostate, colorectal, and brain cancers combined. Lung cancer is also the most common cause of death due to cancer among men age 40 and older and women age 60 and older. The decline in mortality from melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, was also dramatic. Dr. William Cance, chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, attributed [decreased] mortality from lung cancer and melanoma to treatment advances made in the past 10 years. "They are a profound reminder of how rapidly this area of research is expanding, and now leading to real hope for cancer patients," Cance said. As of 2017, cancer deaths have dropped 29% from 1992 numbers — meaning an estimated 2,902,200 fewer cancer deaths, according to the ACS report. "This steady progress is largely due to reductions in smoking and subsequent declines in lung cancer mortality, which have accelerated in recent years," reads the report.

Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.


Partnership With Farms Reinvents Kentucky School Lunches, Ending Days of Pan Pizza and Fruit Cups
2026-01-21, Good News Network
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/partnership-with-farms-reinvents-kentucky-sch...

At Boyle County High School, locally-raised beef marinated in cumin is heaped onto corn tortillas with queso, guacamole, sharp red tomatoes, and vibrant lettuce. It's just one of many meals the teens at Boyle get to enjoy, and a far cry from the days of fruit cups, pan pizza, and skim milk, days which everyone involved are happy to see gone. According to Lex 18 News, some 150 Kentucky farms sell their produce to around 90 state school districts thanks to a pandemic-era grant that supplied the state with $3.2 million for the purpose. It's clear from the attitude of Boyle County School District Food Service Director Cheyenne Barsotti that the move-to-local has affected far more than just the hungry teens' excitement for lunch hour: it's changed the whole way the school approaches food. Barsotti's cafeteria staff may just cook from scratch at times depending on what produce is available. The cooks feel safe trying out new recipes. Several students told the NBC-affiliate that the fajitas were a 9.5 out of 10. Under the new direction of American health policy, the USDA Dietary Guidelines have featured, for the first time in their history, a focus on protein over carbs–and real food, that is to say, food which spoils and doesn't come out of a box, over all others. Even though [the initial] grant money has been halted, the program has enlivened so many that school districts are trying to maintain the new direction, the new attitudes, and the new menus.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and reimagining education.


Do you live in a ‘lonelygenic environment'? Being in nature may help.
2025-06-17, Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2025/06/17/nature-reduces-loneliness/

Loneliness has become a global public health concern. Countries including Britain and Japan have appointed "ministers of loneliness" to help tackle the problem. In the United States, then-Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory on loneliness, stating that the risk for premature death from loneliness is akin to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. What if, instead of trying to "fix" the individual, strategies focused on shaping the environment in a way that facilitates social connection? Recently, researchers have been trying to leverage nature as a way to bring people together and reduce negative feelings about social isolation. They say living in what is known as a "lonelygenic environment" – one dominated by cars and concrete instead of grass and trees – can cause or aggravate loneliness. Even if you live in a lonelygenic environment, experts say, spending just an hour or two in nature per week ... may help people feel less isolated. One proposed approach for tackling loneliness as a public health issue is through social prescribing, where physicians connect their patients with non-medical services in the community similar to how they prescribe medication. Nature comes in many forms. An ongoing study by [Matthew] Browning and his colleagues investigates the amount of time a representative sample of Americans spends outdoors in nature. "What we find is that nature is, for most people ... watching their kids play soccer outside or grilling in the backyard."

Note: What if the negative news overload on America's chronic illness crisis isn't the full story? Check out our Substacks to learn more about the inspiring remedies to the chronic illness and loneliness crisis! Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and mental health.


Bob's Red Mill is owned by its 700 employees. Its CEO says that is key to its success.
2024-11-14, Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/bobs-red-mill-ceo-employee-owned-esop-benefit...

When 94-year-old Bob Moore died in February, Bob's Red Mill not only lost its founder but also the face of the company, literally – he's on every package. But in 2010, the natural foods company initiated a process that would help prepare it for Moore's eventual passing. Moore, who founded the whole-grain food company in 1978 and turned it into a global empire, decided to transfer ownership to its more than 700 employees. By 2020, Bob's Red Mill was entirely employee-owned. "By becoming 100% employee-owned, we knew that when Bob passed that we would control our future," Trey Winthrop, the company's CEO since 2022, [said]. Moore said he frequently fended off large corporations that wanted to buy them out. But because of the employee-ownership program, Winthrop, who has worked at Bob's Red Mill for 19 years, said he did not have to worry about an external threat coming in and trying to buy up shares. Bob's Red Mill is one of about 6,500 American companies that operate with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP. The largest majority employee-owned company in the US as of November is Publix, a Florida-based supermarket chain. Winthrop ... said being employee-owned boosts employee engagement and retention. He said it creates a two-way street of communication, where the company can share financials with employees and workers are given a voice, in part through being active in committees.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in on reimagining the economy.


'It was a pie-in-the-sky ridiculous idea': The US homes made from waste materials
2024-10-07, BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20241002-the-us-homes-made-from-waste-mate...

Venture into New Mexico's beautifully stark high desert and you may well stumble across some fantastical and unconventional homes – some palatial and sculpturally rounded; others with an ancient temple-like form – that look like they're from a Star Wars movie. Set in and around the town of Taos where they were invented almost 40 years ago, these are Earthships: net-zero, sustainably designed homes built mostly from both natural and waste materials, such as old tyres, empty wine bottles and wood and mud. Earthship construction requires less in the way of toxic or carbon-emitting construction materials like concrete and plastics, and doesn't require precious woodland and other natural resources. An earth berm (a purposefully built bank of soil) surrounds the Earthship on three sides, providing insulating mass that controls temperature. Each has a greenhouse ... either on the north or south side depending on location. Most Earthships are purely solar powered; some also have wind turbines to supplement or a wood-burning stove as back up. Taos has cold snowy winters and often dry, hot summers, but in an Earthship, the internal temperature remains close to 72F (21C) year-round, regardless of outside weather conditions. What does it feel like to stay inside an Earthship? "It feels like you're inside the womb," says Earthship construction manager Deborah Binder. "You feel constantly hugged and snuggled. The temperature is always comfortable."

Note: Don't miss the great Earthship pictures at the link above. Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.


From dinosaurs to dolphins, what gaze following reveals about the evolution of empathy
2024-09-13, Salon
https://www.salon.com/2024/09/13/from-dinosaurs-to-dolphins-what-gaze-followi...

Following someone's gaze may seem like a simple act, but it has profound implications for the evolution of intelligence. And humans are far from the only animals that do it. A recent study of bottlenose dolphins in the journal Heliyon adds to previous research identifying the ability to follow the gazes of members of other species – a visual and cognitive trick that may relate to the development of empathy – across a wide range of mammals, not just humans and our fellow primates. What's even more interesting is to trace this ability through not just the mammal family but beyond, to reptiles and birds – and perhaps back as far as the Jurassic period. In general, by identifying important objects in their environment, an animal's ability to follow the gaze of another, including another species, may form a basis for advanced social cognition, paving the way for cooperation and empathy. One such high level type, "geometrical gaze following," occurs if you block the thing that the other is looking at so the subject can't see it, so that they will physically reposition themself to see what others are seeing. Geometrical gaze following isn't even seen in human children before eighteen months of age – and yet wolves, apes and monkeys, and birds of the crow (corvid) and starling genuses have all been found to engage in it. Looking at which living species show evidence of advanced gaze following and which don't suggests that even the more advanced type ... evolved back in the time of dinosaurs.

Note: Read about the world's biggest eye contact experiment and explore a powerful social experiment in Australia where people rekindle human connection through a minute of silent eye contact. For more inspiring news related to this article, check out our news archive on animal wonders.


A prize for repairing riven societies
2024-06-07, Christian Science Monitor
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2024/0607/A-prize-for-...

This year's winner of the Templeton Prize, which highlights discoveries that yield "new insights about religion" ... was given to Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a South African scholar who has explored ways to nurture deep empathy between victims and perpetrators of conflict. Her particular focus is on the power of forgiveness to expunge hatred and historical harms. Such an approach is now widely acknowledged as essential because of wars – from Ukraine and Gaza to Myanmar and Sudan – that have resulted in extensive harm to innocent civilians. Serving on South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s, Dr. Gobodo-Madikizela gained insights into both the needs of those who suffered under decades of apartheid and the motivations of those who upheld racial separation through violence. Her life work, she said following the award announcement Tuesday, involves understanding "the conditions necessary to restore the values of what it means to be human." "There's no better time to shove away prejudices, pull up a chair with a supporter of that party you can't stand, and talk with them about how we can work together for a brighter future," wrote Ian Siebörger, a senior lecturer of linguistics at Rhodes University. Dr. Gobodo-Madikizela offers ways to avoid "the passing on of grievance and a sense of victimhood from one generation to the next." The "reparative quest," she told Time magazine this week, is "a constant journey to repair and to heal" through atonement and forgiveness. It is not a singular moment. Victims and perpetrators move each other beyond the boundaries of their own experiences.

Note: To explore more stories of forgiveness and healing in the face of atrocities, check out our powerful interview with Marina Cantacuzino, journalist and founder of The Forgiveness Project. Explore more positive stories like this about healing the war machine.


How time in nature builds happier, healthier and more social children
2024-08-04, Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/08/04/outdoor-nature-children-co...

The average American today spends nearly 90 percent of their time indoors. Yet research indicates that children benefit greatly from time spent in nature; that not only does it improve their cognition, mood, self-esteem and social skills, but it can also make them physically healthier and less anxious. "Outdoor time for children is beneficial not just for physical health but also mental health for a multitude of reasons," says Janine Domingues, a senior psychologist in the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute. "It fosters curiosity and independence. It helps kids get creative about what they can do … and then just moving around and expending energy has a lot of physical health benefits." [A] 2022 systematic review found that time outdoors can improve prosocial behaviors, including sharing, cooperating and comforting others. Research has found that nature can be particularly helpful for those who've had adverse childhood experiences. Such experiences can include growing up with poverty, abuse or violence. One 2023 study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology looked at how making art in nature affected about 100 children in a low-income neighborhood in England. Their confidence, self-esteem and agency all improved. For all these reasons, it's important for even very young children to have access to nature where they already are, says Nilda Cosco, a research professor.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this about reimagining education.


The bid to ensure that no one dies alone
2024-07-16, Positive News
https://www.positive.news/society/the-bid-to-ensure-that-no-one-dies-alone/

The No One Dies Alone (NODA) movement ... trains and supports volunteers to act as companions to people in the last hours of their lives. Award-winning Scottish nurse Alison Bunce was among the first to pioneer the concept in the UK, but as her team kept bedside vigils in homes, hospitals and hospices she began to ask herself: might they help people have good lives, too? "Being present and accompanying someone as they're dying is such a privilege – it's a profound, unique moment," says Bunce. "But over the years, people were speaking to me about social isolation and loneliness, and I realised this was about life as well as death." She set up Compassionate Inverclyde (CI) as a project funded by Ardgowan Hospice – where she worked as director of care – and recruited an initial 20 volunteers who could sit with people who were dying alone, initially in the hospice and a local hospital, but eventually in their own homes. Bunce soon realised her volunteers could do more and began curating a range of community care services which operate alongside healthcare professionals and support people at various stages of life. "Our very ethos is about being kind, and how ordinary people can make a difference together," she says. Volunteers might lend a hand and a friendly ear to new mums, create ‘back home parcels' for hospital leavers, visit socially isolated neighbours or keep the tea flowing out at CI's bereavement cafe.

Note: Explore more positive stories about human interest topics.


‘I've waited a long time for this': woman earns Stanford master's degree at 105
2024-06-19, The Guardian (One of the UK's Leading Newspapers)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/19/ive-waited-a-long-tim...

Virginia Hislop took 83 years to get her master's degree from Stanford University. Now, at 105 years old, she's finally graduated. "My goodness, I've waited a long time for this," she said, walking across the stage on Sunday to receive her diploma. She was cheered on by her family, grandchildren and the 2024 graduating class. Hislop had to leave Stanford early in 1941 when her fiance, George, was called to serve in the second world war. Unable to complete her thesis, she put her degree on hold and her university days behind her, later moving to Washington to raise their family. When her son-in-law contacted the university recently, though, he discovered that the final thesis was no longer required to obtain the degree. Hislop was eligible to graduate decades later. "I've been doing this work for years, and it's nice to be recognized," she [said]. Hislop's educational journey at Stanford began in 1936 when she enrolled to study for her bachelor's degree in education. A few years later, she completed this milestone and immediately transitioned to her postgraduate studies, driven by her ambition to teach after university. In 1941, Hislop, like many other women across the US, was forced to trade her career for marriage in support of the broader war mobilization. Focusing on the family was seen as the pinnacle of American sacrifice in that period, and she left Stanford to marry George before his deployment.

Note: Explore more positive stories about human interest topics and amazing seniors.


Penguin Becomes ‘Guide Bird' Companion For Zoo Pal Suffering with Cataracts: Waddle I do Without You?
2024-02-10, Good News Network
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/penguin-becomes-guide-bird-companion-for-his-...

A penguin has become a ‘guide-bird' for a fellow African Penguin with poor eyesight, escorting her around their enclosure to get food and build confidence. The animal helper named ‘Penguin' has bonded with ‘Squid' the three-year-old that suffers from cataracts, a debilitating condition that clouds the lens of the eye. Squid is often disoriented during busy feeding times and relies on Penguin's "unwavering calmness". Penguin has become Squid's beacon, guiding her around the enclosure and acting as her ‘eyes'. The hand-reared birds are now inseparable–to the delight of their human keepers at Birdworld who are sharing their remarkable relationship. "The intuitive behavior observed between Penguin and Squid has revealed a remarkable level of empathy and understanding, showcasing the profound connections that can form within the animal kingdom," said Polly Branham a spokesperson for the aviary in Surrey, England. Having been nurtured within the colony, Squid honed her skills alongside her peers–learning the essence of being a penguin–but she used to be quite anxious about approaching the fish bucket at feeding time. "The excitement of the other penguins created a more unpredictable environment, and she would shy away from this for fear of getting caught in the crossfire of beaks," explained Branham. "That is how Penguin has been such an enormous help to her. "His stability was something she could rely on."

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.


Need to track animals around the world? Tap into the 'spider-verse,' scientists say
2024-02-01, NPR
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228141523/track-animals-edna-spiderweb

The rich tapestry of life on Earth is fraying, due in large part to human-caused habitat loss and climate change. As more species disappear, researchers are racing to track this global decline in biodiversity to understand its consequences and counteract it through conservation initiatives. Those efforts rely on accurate animal monitoring, which can be difficult, time-consuming and costly. Now, in new research published in the journal iScience, researchers present evidence for a new low-cost, noninvasive tool that can be used to monitor animals: spiderwebs. They're using environmental DNA, or eDNA, which is simply different creatures' DNA just lying around in the environment. Previous work showed that webs are good sources of insect DNA, including what spiders are gorging on. But [evolutionary biologist Morton] Allentoft and [student Josh] Newton wanted to see whether the webs were also trapping DNA from vertebrate animals. So Newton ... collected spiderwebs. Back in the lab, Newton amplified the small amounts of DNA from the webs. They were filled with genetic material from animals. "It was wonderful," says Allentoft. "We could see these kangaroos [and] wallabies." There were nine other mammals, 13 species of birds, the motorbike frog and the snake-eyed skink. In other words, the technique worked. It represents a new way of tracking animal biodiversity and alerting us when we should intervene to conserve native species.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.


Cells of people living in greener areas age more slowly, research finds
2023-12-02, The Guardian (One of the UK's Leading Newspapers)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/02/green-space-ageing-neighborhood

Many studies have shown that people living in greener neighborhoods have several health benefits, including lower levels of stress and cardiovascular disease. But new research indicates that exposure to parks, trees and other green spaces can slow the rates at which our cells age. The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, found that people who lived in neighborhoods with more green space had longer telomeres, which are associated with longer lives and slower ageing. Telomeres are structures that sit on the ends of each cell's 46 chromosomes, like the plastic caps on shoelaces, and keep DNA from unraveling. The longer a cell's telomeres, the more times it can replicate. When telomeres become so short that cells can't divide, the cells die. [Study co-author Aaron] Hipp and his colleagues looked at the medical records (that included measures of telomere lengths from biological samples) and survey responses from more than 7,800 people who participated in a national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey conducted between 1999 and 2002. The researchers connected that information with census data to estimate the amount of green space in each person's neighborhood. They found that a 5% increase in a neighborhood's green space was associated with a 1% reduction in the ageing of cells. "The more green the area, the slower the cell ageing," said Hipp.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.


‘A treasure beneath our feet': How the Dutch went down the toilet looking for heat
2023-11-08, The Guardian (One of the UK's Leading Newspapers)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/how-the-dutch-went-down-t...

Dutch sewage waste is being seen as a reliable heat source for millions of homes that the government wants to be unhooked from the country's gas system by 2050. Lieven de Key, a housing corporation in Amsterdam, is planning what is believed to be the first sewer warmth project that will tap into a main district sewage pipe to warm 1,600 existing social and student homes. "We have a photo of the street covered with snow, and the manhole covers all without snow," says Jeroen Rademaker, the project leader. "Even when there's snow in the winter, the sewer is warm. Warm sewage water flows 24 hours a day and we should capture it. This can happen wherever there is a big sewage pipe." "The warmth comes from showers, the toilet, wastewater from washing, from the dishwasher, from the washing machine," says Postuma. "Together it all gives, throughout the year, a temperature between 15 and 18 degrees. And we are going to make a bypass around the main sewer, put a heat exchanger around it and bring it to the houses in insulated pipes. We place it in an electric heat pump, and the water is heated up to 60 or 70C – medium temperature." The heat exchanger transfers that source heat from the drain to a working fluid that can be transported to the buildings without needing to circulate the actual sewage waste. Then the blocks' heat pumps, fired by solar energy, can amplify that heat in the opposite way to the workings of a refrigerator.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.


The Prison-to-Hollywood Pipeline Is the Stuff of Cinematic Dreams
2023-10-26, Reasons to be Cheerful
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/hollywood-jobs-film-tv-manifestworks/

ManifestWorks [is] a unique program that guides people from homelessness, incarceration and foster care directly into entry-level jobs in film and TV. "When I started the ManifestWorks program, it was more than just learning the steps. It was really therapeutic for me," says Leslie. "It was uplifting during a time when I was really not in a good place." By the third week of classes, Leslie had secured her first gig as a production assistant. The same person who hired her brought her back for the next two years and seeded additional relationships that led to more work. Today, Leslie works in a sound department as a union member, has consistent work at a living wage and has been able to upgrade both her housing and her car. The nonprofit ManifestWorks has more than 270 alumni currently working in the film industry, and purposely recruits its students from populations that face barriers to success. According to ManifestWorks, 25 percent of foster care youth end up incarcerated within two years of turning 18, and unemployment impacts the formerly incarcerated at a rate 12 times higher than the national average. Some 71 percent of ManifestWorks' trainees are on welfare when they start the program – after a year, that number drops to seven percent on average. And 92 percent of ManifestWorks alumni are employed full time with an average annual income of $62,000, up from the average of $12,500 when trainees first start.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.


Building bridges in the midst of conflict: 12 organizations working for Israel-Palestine peace
2023-10-25, Optimist Daily
https://www.optimistdaily.com/2023/10/building-bridges-in-the-midst-of-confli...

While the sad reality of violence and division dominates the media, countless grassroots organizations are working tirelessly to bring peace and reconciliation to the Israel-Palestine conflict. As the region continues to be ravaged by violence, Standing Together, Israel's largest Arab-Jewish grassroots organization, brings together Jewish and Palestinian volunteers. They labor relentlessly to assist victims of continuous violence while also campaigning for peace, equality, social justice, and climate justice. Their message is clear: the future they envision is one of peace, Israeli and Palestinian independence, full equality, and environmental justice. The Parents Circle – Families Forum, which includes over 600 families who have lost loved ones in the conflict, is a symbol of reconciliation. This joint Israeli-Palestinian organization encourages conversation and reconciliation through education, public gatherings, and media participation, presenting a ray of hope for a future of coexistence. Integrated schools in Israel, where Jewish and Palestinian children attend classes together, serve as an example of a more inclusive future. Hand in Hand promotes understanding by bringing parents together for debate and shared study of Hebrew and Arabic. They are sowing seeds of oneness. Jerusalem Peacebuilders brings together Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans with the goal of developing tomorrow's leaders. Their work highlights the futility of violent war and the critical need for nonviolence.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.


The scientists coaxing back nature with sound
2023-05-19, BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230519-the-sound-recordings-used-to-coax...

Beyond human hearing, a cacophony of natural clicks, whistles and hums pass all around us, linking billions of living beings in networks of sound. Mother whales whisper to their young so predators can't hear them. Bees emit unique buzzing signals to distinguish threats from specific predators. Turtle embryos synchronise their collective moment of birth by making sounds through their shells. And unknown fish species buzz to one another in the depths – their very identities one of nature's countless sonic mysteries. What if tapping into these sounds could allow us to not only to learn more about the natural world, but actually help to begin healing it? An emerging appreciation for the biological importance of sound has led to new strategies for environmental conservation. From microscopic larvae lost at sea to birds that travel hundreds of miles from home, conservationists are now starting to use the sounds of nature to guide them back to where they belong. "Sound is so important," says Cheryl Tipp, curator of wildlife and environmental sound at the British Library. "In the natural world, it's used in mating displays, in territorial disputes, as alarm signals." For humans trying to support nature, meanwhile, sound can be used to identify new species, monitor populations and assess the health of ecosystems, she says. There is now a growing interest in the use of sound to accelerate habitat restoration itself, by coaxing certain species to certain locations using their very own sounds.

Note: Listen to a fascinating interview with biologist and innovation consultant Janine Benyus, who explores the power of biomimicry, a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies used by natural systems and species alive today. Benyus proposes that biomimicry can solve some of the gravest of societal and environmental problems by discovering how nature has already solved some of these challenges.


Pope Francis gives women right to vote in bishops' meeting for first time
2023-04-26, The Guardian (One of the UK's Leading Newspapers)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/27/pope-francis-gives-women-right-...

Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an unprecedented change that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities. Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world's bishops together for periodic meetings, following decades of demands by women to have the right to vote. The Vatican on Wednesday published the modifications he approved, which emphasise his vision for the lay faithful taking on a greater role in church affairs that have long been left to clerics, bishops and cardinals. Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church, popes have summoned the world's bishops to Rome for a few weeks at a time to debate particular topics. At the end of the meetings, the bishops vote on specific proposals and put them to the pope, who then produces a document taking their views into account. Until now, the only people who could vote were men. But under the new changes, five religious sisters will join five priests as voting representatives for religious orders. In addition, Francis has decided to appoint 70 non-bishop members of the synod and has asked that half of them be women. They too will have a vote. The aim is also to include young people among these 70 non-bishop members, who will be proposed to the pope by regional blocs, with Francis making a final decision.

Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.


Could bartering become the new buying in a changed world?
2020-08-26, BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200821-the-rise-of-bartering-in-a-chan...

Around the world, people have been turning to swapping, trading and bartering during the coronavirus pandemic, whether to do their bit for the local community, save money or simply source hard-to-find baking ingredients. With economic uncertainty looming and anxiety levels soaring, barter is becoming an emerging alternative solution to getting by – and staying busy. The increase in bartering is nowhere better exemplified than in Fiji. The country has a long tradition of barter, known as ‘veisa' ... and Fijians have harnessed modern technology to connect even more people. "I knew that money would be tight to stretch out and even harder to come by. I asked myself what happens when there's no more money? Barter was a natural solution to that," says Marlene Dutta, who started the Barter for a Better Fiji group on 21 April. Its membership is just under 190,000 – more than 20% of Fiji's population. Items changing hands have run the gamut – pigs for kayaks, a violin for a leather satchel and doughnuts for building bricks – but the most commonly requested items have been groceries and food. Bartering isn't just for individuals looking for baking items or help with grocery shopping, however. Businesses are increasingly interested in joining barter exchanges, which have "doctors, lawyers, service companies, retailers – you name it", says Ron Whitney, President of the US-based International Reciprocal Trade Association, a non-profit organisation founded in 1979 that promotes and advances modern trade and barter systems.

Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.


These Black and White churches began worshiping together during the pandemic and haven't stopped
2023-02-11, Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/02/11/maryland-deal-island-churc...

Since 2020, three pastors who lead a combined seven churches on the Deal Island Peninsula have been worshiping together at a small beach on Maryland's lower Eastern Shore. The pastors, two White and one Black, are part of the United Methodist Church. A spur-of-the-moment idea to bring the faithful together during the pandemic has become a once-a-month gathering where hundreds of worshipers honk along to a boisterous service that offers a mix of polemics, politics and preaching. "There isn't a better church than this one right here," said Cathy Sikos, a retired Walmart worker who lives in nearby Dames Quarter. "It's a true depiction of what a church should be. No fancy building. Just pure worship. It's God's place. I wouldn't want to go anywhere else." Martin Luther King Jr. famously called 11 o'clock on Sunday morning "America's most segregated hour." In many places, it still is. The three Church by the Bay pastors say they never set out to be an example of integration. They simply wanted to offer Communion to parishioners starved of that opportunity. After three months of virtual worships, the trio decided to offer a joint Communion at the beach for 30 minutes. The joint worship has introduced the parishioners to different styles and messages. The three pastors have no plans to stop the once-a-month service, showing unity even as the United Methodist Church is splitting over the national organization's decision to allow same-sex marriages and ordain gay and lesbian clergy.

Note: Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.


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