Good News Headlines 5/20/2024
Photo courtesy Free Gaza Circus
Gaza’s Children: Play In A Time Of Crisis
by Sally Howard, Positive News
It’s Eid al-Fitr in Gaza, a holiday period when – in happier years – Palestinians gather to celebrate the end of Ramadan in cheerfully patterned ‘Eid outfits’. The freshly bought clothes signify hope and renewal. This, however, is a very different Eid. In a shelter in a school in Deir Al-Balah, a city in the centre of the Gaza Strip, the animated film SpongeBob SquarePants plays on the wall. The watching children nod and smile along to the antics of a sea sponge projected from a laptop onto a makeshift sheet drawn across the wall. This is a school where lessons have been paused for the past five months.
US Military Begins Delivering Gaza Aid Via Floating Pier Built With ‘Herculean’ Effort
by Good News Network
Trucks have begun moving aid into Gaza using a giant temporary pier constructed by the U.S. Central Command, with help from the Israel Defense Forces. Vehicles began moving humanitarian assistance ashore early Friday morning (Gaza time), with the United Nations taking charge once it left the pier—transporting it to World Food Program warehouses where it was readied for distribution. “This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature,” said the military announcement.
NAACP Celebrates Declassification Of Marijuana, Calls For More Substantive Reform
by NAACP
This week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the Justice Department will formally reclassify marijuana, making the drug ‘lower-risk’ and taking a pivotal first step toward unraveling the disproportionate harms inflicted by the ‘War on Drugs.’ For over half a decade, the NAACP has supported the decriminalization of marijuana, an issue that has contributed to the unjust incarceration of millions of Black Americans. “The war on drugs has been a war on Black America. The facts speak for themselves. Black Americans are 4 times more likely to be incarcerated on marijuana-related charges than white Americans.
Locals Finally Save ‘The Yosemite Of South America’ After Decade Long Battle With Industrialist Who Owned It
by Andy Corbley, Good News Network
A wonderful story comes to us now from Patagonia where a valley of towering granite cliffs and rare species was saved from development by activists. It’s a story that North America saw many times during the birth of the conservation movement with groups like the Sierra Club in Yosemite, but this story regards Cochamó Valley, also known as the ‘Yosemite of South America.’ Roberto Hagemann owns 325,000 acres, or roughly 508 square miles, of this valley and its surrounding lands, which sit near the southern tip of South America where the Andes meet the Pacific Ocean.
Good Guy Built A Tiny House For One Stray Cat In His Backyard. It Quickly Became A Kitty Village.
by Jacalyn Wetzel, Upworthy
Tiny houses are still a popular choice for people trying to downsize but tiny houses for cats are springing up in one man’s backyard. Barna, thought he was doing a good deed for a stray cat that decided that he kinda liked hanging out in this human’s backyard. The cat would show up but at first wouldn’t eat the food set out for him. The man continued to set food out for the cat. Taking note of the changing weather, Barna decided to take one of his hobbies and build the cat, now named Domino a cozy little house. Building things is a hobby for the man, so he made sure to equip Domino’s tiny abode with a heating pad, light and camera.
