People Around the World Help Buy Royal Estate for Wildlife Conservation

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Nov 6, 2026

The curlew, mountain bumblebee, lapwing, and other wading birds are just some of the animals calling a one-of-a-kind noble estate home.

Now, people around the world have come together to donate millions to buy this critical piece of biodiverse land which had been in the hands of a British noble family for 800 years.

Sir David Attenborough celebrated the achievement, saying that “together, we’ve achieved something amazing.”

Attenborough is referring to the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland, described by the UK’s Wildlife Trusts as “a place of rare beauty… rolling moorlands, woodlands, and wide-open starry skies.”

Owned since the 13th century by the Dukes of Northumberland, it was recently acquired by the Wildlife Trusts following a remarkable funding call that saw £30 million be donated from over 25,000 supporters from 50 countries.

The plan for the estate, which covers 9,400 acres of the Scottish-English border, is to incorporate it into a 40-mile nature corridor across Northern England, stretching from Druridge Bay on the coastline to the east to an existing nature reserve to the west, and the estate, which had divided this key “moor to mar” ecosystem, right in the middle.

Simonside Hills, Rothbury Estate – credit, Duncan Hutt ©

The curlew, mountain bumblebee, lapwing, and other wading birds live along the estate’s moors, while the woods provide a refuge for endangered red squirrels, cuckoos, and the UK’s smallest falcon, the merlin. A Critically-Endangered species of eel lives in the estate’s rivers along with salmon, while a variety of other songbirds, like the skylark, fly overhead.

“With the communities who live and work on and around the estate, we are developing a vision for the future management of this remarkable landscape,” the Wildlife Trusts wrote on their website.

ROYAL CONSERVATION: Irish Metalhead Turns His Ancestral Estate into Model of Rewilding: It Naturally Grew Into Biodiverse Eden

“With nature-friendly, regenerative farming, we will place nature’s recovery at the heart of the estate, while respecting the rural traditions of this region. We will show how nature, community and the rural economy can work together, with people and wildlife thriving side-by-side.”

Multiple partners, including the UK’s National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and the Esmée Fairburn Foundation contributed to the fundraiser which was launched 2 years ago.

“The Wildlife Trusts called for your support and you answered in your thousands,” said Sir Attenborough, President Emeritus at the Wildlife Trusts.

“The appeal to secure the future of the Rothbury Estate in Northumberland has been successful and now the opportunity to bring the vision of a landscape where nature and people thrive side by side can become a reality. This will be a place where nature, community, farming and heritage can combine to create something very special for generations to come. ”

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Man Spends 12 Days Returning Lost Cash a Laborer Needed for His Daughter

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Andy Corbley

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Nov 6, 2026

Pedro Moro shakes hands with Matheus Reginaldo Celestino, whose money Moro returned - credit, Pedro Moro supplied to the media

A man in southern Brazil was surprised to find a wad of cash on the ground in a public plaza with no one around looking for it.

Pedro Moro didn’t know it at the time, but he was holding a young construction worker’s entire monthly salary, which he had withdrawn from the bank in order to pay for the needs of his daughter.

Maybe Moro was inspired by the gigantic statue of Lord Buddha in the city, but he felt compelled to ensure the money was returned to its rightful owner.

Moro wrote to GNN that he found around US$219 worth of Brazilian reais in the plaza on August 28th in the city of Ibiraçu.

24-year-old Matheus Reginaldo Celestino was crossing the square on his way to a barbeque, but only realized the money was gone after he’d arrived.

Meanwhile, Moro found the money and waited to see if anyone came back looking for it. When nobody did, he took the money home and began posting on social media and other community channels asking if anyone had lost the money.

By September 3rd, no one had claimed it, so Moro returned to the plaza to visit local businesses and see if anyone had security camera footage of the moment the money had fallen there.

One such business had excellent footage in which Moro was able to see who dropped the money, which he shared again through socials asking if anyone knew the young man’s identity.

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By then, Moro’s efforts had created quite the buzz in town.

“Everywhere I went [people would say] ‘Pedro, where’s the owner? Pedro, where’s the owner?’ I’m happy that I found the person and that I fulfilled my duty to return the money,” Moro told the Brazilian media outlet UOL.

Eventually, Celestino saw the post on Instagram and reached out to Moro, who in turn concluded a quick identity check, by asking him how many 10s, 20s, and 100s there were in the stack of cash.

“I had already taken that money for lost. But, thank God, everything worked out,” Celestino also told UOL.

WATCH the moment Moro decided to do the right thing below…

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Venomous Primate Believed Extinct for 100 Years Was Hiding in Plain Sight All Along

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Andy Corbley

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Nov 6, 2026

The Bangka slow loris - credit Gunay M.E. CC 4.0. BY-SA

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A post shared by Re:wild (@rewild)

This big-eyed furball is the Bangka slow loris, a creature that in 2015 was believed to potentially be extinct.

As the video demonstrates, the Bangka slow loris (N. bancanus) is still very much with us—thanks to a local wildlife organization on the island of Bangka that had been rescuing and returning them to the wild for years.

The last documented sighting of a Bangka slow loris in Western science occurred in the 1930s, and in 2015 it was considered “possibly extinct.” The organization’s years of work protecting these animals seems to have gone completely under the radar.

A paper published by Austrian scientists with international colleagues on the “rediscovery” details how their first notion that this species of slow loris still existed was a 2022 field guide to the primates of Indonesia.

The author, named Supriatna, mentioned the Gunung Maras National Park, a small forest near the city of Muntok on Bangka Island, as a habitat of the species.

Supriatna also cited another scientist’s unpublished thesis concerning Bangka slow lorises held at the Alobi Wildlife Rescue Center. From there it was a rather straightforward task of learning a bit more about the Alobi Center to determine that the animal had never gone extinct.

“By presenting the data collected by the Alobi Wildlife Rescue Center on N. bancanus since 2015, we demonstrate that the Bangka Slow Loris still exists and is probably more widely distributed across Bangka Island than previously documented,” the authors wrote.

Between 2015 and 2025, the center rescued more than 90 Bangka slow lorises, 86 of which were subsequently released, Smithsonian Magazine wrote. In almost all cases, the rescues were necessary because the animals had strayed too close to civilization and ended up in people’s gardens, plantations, or on roads.

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The study is “another reminder that conservation depends on the knowledge of local communities, Indigenous peoples and others who know these species and landscapes intimately,” wrote Benji Barca, program manager for the global conservation organization Re:wild, in a statement. “A species can disappear from the scientific record without disappearing from the lives of the people who share its home.”

The Bangka slow loris is one of the world’s only venomous primates. Though omnivorous, this slow loris can secrete a toxin from glands located on its upper arms which it will lick and mix with its saliva to transform its defensive bite into a cytotoxic surprise.

This kind of venom rapidly damages and kills cells and can lead to necrosis and impaired wound healing. They are the only primates, aside from the pygmy slow loris, that have this capability, making them not only a truly remarkable animal, but one which undoubtedly merits enhanced conservation protection.

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Geothermal Utilities Power Wave of US Affordable Housing with 40% Energy Savings

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Andy Corbley

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Nov 6, 2026

Geothermal boring at Riggs Meadow Housing Development - credit, Dandelion Energy, released

A natural gas utility in Vermont struck a first-in-the-nation deal that will soon be saving customers money by turning to geothermal energy.

Vermont Gas launched the state’s “first community-scale geothermal project,” something the company’s CEO called one of the best solutions for lowering energy costs and one that many homeowners across the country hope to see in other areas.

These systems can indeed provide serious savings. A case study published by the DoE on an apartment complex in New York found that its geothermal heat pumps helped reduce energy costs by 40.7% across the 72-unit site.

Opened back in 2016, residents have seen average annual cost savings of approximately $24,000 per year, by now reaching a staggering quarter-million dollars in savings.

To that end, Vermont Gas has partnered with geothermal developer Dandelion Energy to install super efficient geothermal heating and cooling to the 44-unit Riggs Meadow affordable housing development in Hinesburg.

Drilling down into heated pockets of water below the Earth will begin in early 2027, while residents will be able to move in by year’s end.

Autumn Gardens in New York, where residents saved an average of 40% on their utility bills with geothermal – credit, Autumn Gardens Apartments provided to the DoE

The more high-profile geothermal installations in the US typically power large infrastructure, like Fervo Energy’s Corsac Station that ultimately serves Google-owned data centers. Yet others see the technology as ideal for utilities in modest-income housing.

In Detroit’s Virginia Park, the 27-unit Merrill Place II housing development for low and middle-income earners was designed with a geothermal heating and cooling system that, according to a release from the Mayor’s office, will make these utilities “free.”

“Our tenants are not billed separately for heating and cooling, which removes one of the most unpredictable and burdensome household expenses,” explained Sauda Ahmad-Green, lead developer on the project.

“That stability matters. It allows families to plan, to breathe a little easier, and to focus on building their futures instead of worrying about utility spikes.”

According to Dandelion Energy’s CEO Dan Yates, the Riggs Meadow development will be the first in the country where a utility—in this case natural gas—will directly own the geothermal installations, which they will operate as if they were gas lines.

GEOTHERMAL DEVELOPMENTS: UK’s First Geothermal Power Plant Begins Using Underground Heat to Power 10K Homes

This not only saves the builder the cost of putting the gas lines in, but allows Dandelion to leverage Vermont Gas’ much more favorable financing conditions to fund the project.

On a more technical level, the project will also provide individual loops—that is, a network of buried pipes that transfers heat between a building and the ground—to each individual house rather than together as a single system.

It will allow more frugal residents to take their energy savings to the next level, rather than being on the hook for their neighbors’ energy consumption. Single-system installations apparently dominated the early geothermal utility landscape, but are often far too expensive for community-level projects.

“Vermont Gas is really breaking ground here in taking a different approach to implementation of these systems,” Yates said in an interview with Engineering News Record.

GEOTHERMAL POWER: Giant 2-GW Geothermal Project in Utah Gains Federal Approval

Unlike geothermal electricity, geothermal heating and cooling require much shallower boreholes which can be managed in residential areas without much trouble. For instance, the New York apartment complex needed holes a mere 250 feet down.

“As Vermont looks to rapidly build housing to meet demand, our teams are eager to incorporate geothermal into our product portfolio to give more choices to home builders and customers,” said Neale Lunderville, president and CEO of Vermont Gas.

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“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” – Marcel Pagnol

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Nov 6, 2026

Quote of the Day: “The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” – Marcel Pagnol

Photo by: © GWC

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Good News in History, November 6

This Day In History

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Good News Network

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Nov 6, 2026

The Forest Charter pubdomain — The Forest Charter

809 years ago today, the Charter of the Forest was signed in England by King Henry III. This law document is sometimes described as the sister of the Magna Carta, and granted rights of free men to use the forests of England once reserved for King William I and his descendants. Many today learn from Robin Hood productions that the “kingswood” was a place where people couldn’t hunt or gather. The Charter of the Forest changed that and remained in force for centuries. HEAR what legal scholars have to say… (1217)

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Got Bad Breath? Get Free Dental Care at This Store

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 5, 2026

The Breath Boutique - credit, The Humble Co., released

At a small store in Stockholm, there’s a discount if you pay with bad breath.

In fact, they’ll give you everything you need: toothpaste, a toothbrush, flossers, and more all for free—provided your breath is sufficiently rancid.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Humble Co. (@thehumble.co)

Jokes aside, the Swedish oral care company The Humble Co. commissioned a survey that found 1 in 3 people experience bad breath at least weekly, while 50% have avoided telling someone else their breath stinks.

To help clear the air, Humble Co. opened the Breath Boutique in the Hornstull neighborhood of Sweden.

“Your breath usually pays the price for a poor oral care routine. With this campaign, we turned that around and let people literally pay for a better one,” say Martin Noreby and Simon Lublin, creative directors behind the idea.

Anyone can come to the Breath Boutique and use a handheld analyzer to measure sulfur compounds in their breath.

Rated on a scale of 1 – 4, sufficiently stinky breath is an acceptable payment method for The Humble Company’s line of oral care products.

“By turning bad breath into a payment method, we wanted to make the subject less awkward, challenge the taboo, and inspire more people to take care of their oral health,” says Louise Lehmann, Marketing Manager at The Humble Co.

Story tip from Lucas

GIVE Your Friends A Whiff Of This Generous Offer On Social Media…

400-yo Shipwreck Puzzle Finally Cracked After More Than 20 Years of Mystery

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 5, 2026

With the help of a hospital CT scanner, scientists have cracked the code to a 400-year-old padlock discovered in a treasure-laden shipwreck on a beach in Wales.

A metal detector found the padlock buried in the sand, but it could just as easily have been pulled from the pages of the Da Vinci Code, and has foiled all who had tried to guess the correct combination.

“There are four different rings, and because there are six different letters on each of the rings, there are 1,296 different combinations, and you have to make sure they’re aligned with the loop at the top,” said senior curator Alastair Willis at the Swansea Waterfront Museum, which received the padlock and the rest of the treasure on loan in July of 2026.

“Also, confusingly, there are other letters on the ends which don’t move, which are unrelated, and it’s like they were to mislead any potential burglar.”

The padlock was discovered along with other relics and treasures under the sand on a beach near Port Talbot in southern Wales. The metal detector, named Peter Hughes happened to pass over its location, which led to this nationally-significant discovery.

It was later determined to have been part of the cargo of the ship Ann Francis, which was wrecked in a storm in December, 1583, on her way back from Spain.

The first indication to Hughes that he had found something big was the presence of a Spanish silver coin. Additional artifacts, gold and silver coins, standardized coin weights, and the brass padlock were all found during subsequent visits by Hughes.

“I tried to unlock it for about 20 years, I tried moving the dials, finding the right combinations, and I failed,” Hughes told the BBC. “But with the aid of modern technology, we’ve been able to crack what’s like the Da Vinci code, really.”

The unyielding padlock eventually found a home, along with the rest of the treasure, in the Amgueddfa Cymru, or the Museum of Wales, as part of an exhibit called Tides of Treasure after Hughes turned them all over in 2017.

Eventually, Amgueddfa Cymru and Cardiff University decided to use a micro-CT scanning device to find the correct combination. Dr. David Williams, a research associate based at Cardiff University’s School of Engineering, wasn’t convinced CT scanning would work, but took up the project nonetheless.

CURIOUS TREASURES: Indian Governor Offers $1 Million to Anyone Who Can Decipher This 5,300-year-old Writing System

After two inconclusive scans, the third one allowed them to crack the code: ANCE.

“There are four different rings, and because there are six different letters on each of the rings, there are 1,296 different combinations, and you have to make sure they’re aligned with the loop at the top,” said senior curator Alastair Willis at the Swansea Waterfront Museum, which received the padlock and the rest of the treasure on loan in July of 2026.

“Also, confusingly, there are other letters on the ends which don’t move, which are unrelated, and it’s like they were to mislead any potential burglar.”

Researchers suppose that the padlock would have locked a chest that perhaps contained the coins, or other valuables that perished in the intervening centuries like documents or textiles.

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Seabirds See Miracle Recovery After Avian Flu Wiped Them Out

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 5, 2026

- credit, David Kinchin Smith RSPB — - credit, David Kinchin / Smith RSPB

Thanks to dedicated conservation efforts, sandwich terns have reclaimed a colony England’s south coast 3 years after they were wiped out by avian flu.

Today, in what seems like a miracle, the birds have multiplied from 0 to 756.

In addition to the sandwich terns, little terns, ringed plovers, black-headed gulls, and oystercatchers have all increased in number thanks to the same conservation work from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds that helped encourage the sandwich terns to repopulate the area.

“In 2022, sandwich terns, black-headed gulls, and Mediterranean gulls were hit severely by HPAI/bird flu, leading to the abandonment of their breeding colony at Pagham harbor,” said Wez Smith, senior project manager for the RSPB.

“It’s taken several years of dedicated conservation action, but the situation began to ‘tern’ around last year, and the site is now thriving with record-breaking populations using it.”

Located between Brighton and Southampton on Britain’s Channel coastline, the Pagham colony was only the keystone in a 128,000-acre stretch of coastal habitat that has been the focus of conservation efforts by RSPB and other volunteers.

The Guardian reported that such efforts involve the establishment of predator-proof fencing to protect ground-nesting birds, monitoring for the presence of rats, and the selective removal of vegetation to encourage nesting behavior.

BRITISH BIRDLIFE: First Puffin Chick in 30 Years Spotted Emerging From Cliffs Along England’s South Coast

“Volunteers and rangers have also carried out patrols to raise awareness among visitors and local people of the vulnerability of ground-nesting birds to disturbance, with dog-friendly exercise areas provided away from the nesting birds,” the outlet added.

All of these areas and exercises are part of the Solent Seascape project—which works to restore multiple habitats across the Solent, a diverse estuarine system between the Isle of Wight and mainland England.

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Next Week’s New Moon Is Perfect Backdrop to the Blazing Tails of the Taurid Meteor Shower

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 5, 2026

Northern Taurid bolide photographed from Skibotn, Norway - credit, Medisilvanus CC 4.0. BY-SA

A meteor shower famous for its fireballs will be visible around the world next week.

Though the Northern Taurid Meteor Shower doesn’t peak until 3 days later, the best chance to catch its renowned shooting stars is Monday the 9th, when the New Moon guarantees the least amount of light pollution.

That will be key to enjoying the N. Taurids and their famously long, luminescent tails that streak across the sky. This meteor shower produces around 8-12 shooting stars per hour.

Tuesday the 10th would be likely just as good a time, as a 1-day-old moon isn’t likely to create much of a glare.

If you’ve ever fancied trying celestial photography, the long Taurus tails make for excellent subject matter. Amateurs can simply place their camera’s mode setting on shutter priority and slow the speed down for a 20 or 30-second exposure.

Place the camera on a tripod with the widest field of view and aim it at the constellation of Taurus, where it will appear the meteors emanate from. Taurus is located just northeast of Orion and contains the Pleiades.

Again, the peak of the meteor shower will be closer to the 12th, so any night next week could well produce a great show.

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“Run my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings.” – Hafiz

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Nov 5, 2026

Quote of the Day: “Run my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings.” – Hafiz

Photo by: Carl Izbicki

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Discover LA mural by Matt Marriott – Photo credit: Carl Izbicki

Good News in History, November 5

This Day In History

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Good News Network

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Nov 5, 2026

The State Opera Vienna from the rear - credit, Markus Leupold-Löwenthal CC 3.0.

71 years ago, the Vienna State Opera reopened having been destroyed during World War II. Few cities have contributed more to classical music than the capital of Austria, and the State Opera hall has sourced many musicians to the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra, and hosted Gustav Mahler as its artistic director for many years. READ more about its design, destruction, and rebirth… (1955)

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The Grandfather Puzzle Pieces Together a Family History One Man Wouldn’t Talk About

By

Gabriel Kinder

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Nov 4, 2026

JoyDrops champions awards-eligible documentary shorts about joy, a counterweight to a category often dominated by tragedy. Good News Network has partnered with JoyDrops to spotlight these films and talk with the filmmakers behind them.

“When he turned 99, I was like, okay, it’s really now or never,” Ora DeKornfeld told GNN.

For years, her grandfather had turned down every request she made to record his story. He was formal and private, and he never talked about the life he left behind in Hungary. “So I need to get a little more creative about this endeavor,” she said.

Her creative solution became The Grandfather Puzzle, the latest film in GNN’s JoyDrops series.

The film

DeKornfeld’s grandfather left behind a castle, a baronial title and a life in Hungary that he would never discuss. What he loved was jigsaw puzzles. So she traveled to the castle where he grew up, photographed it and turned the image into a puzzle. Then she brought it home to Baltimore, hoping it would “unlock the silence that has defined their relationship.”

The trip held surprises. When she arrived, the whole town turned out to welcome the returning baroness with gifts and speeches. “It was so absurd and overwhelming, and also humorous,” she said.

But no one mentioned why her family had left in the first place. DeKornfeld wanted the film to hold space for the weight of the Holocaust and what it cost her grandfather, without letting that loss define him. She felt it was important not to “reduce the Holocaust narrative to just victimhood.”

No regrets

The puzzle didn’t unlock his memories. He died in August, months after the film premiered, without ever agreeing to watch it.

Still, DeKornfeld says, making the film brought her closer to him. “I had to go very far away to feel close to him, which is kind of ironic,” she said. “But when he passed away, I realized I had no regrets about our relationship.”

That’s the lesson she hopes viewers take with them. “Everyone can relate to having a loved one who they want to be closer to but can’t for some reason,” she said. “All we can do is try our hardest and put in the effort to be close. And then it’s up to them.”

Room for surprise

DeKornfeld came to documentary through video journalism, where she told much heavier stories. The Grandfather Puzzle is her first personal film, and she also co-directed the documentary short Stalin’s Boys.

She thinks humor can be the riskier choice. “Humor is one of the scariest sort of public acts of art, and so it makes sense that people avoid it,” she told GNN. “I wish documentaries held more space for surprise.”

That’s what draws her to JoyDrops. She loves films that explore real issues “with a realistic dose of how absurd and funny life is in general,” she said. “I’m excited that JoyDrops is pushing that kind of work out there.”

Watch The Grandfather Puzzle above. JoyDrops is a partnership between GNN and Switchboard Magazine featuring five documentary shorts that lean into hope. A new film and director interview arrives every Wednesday. Learn more about JoyDrops.

Brazil Expands Protected Area for ‘One of the Richest and Most Sensitive Biomes on the Planet’

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 4, 2026

The Pantanal landscape - credit, Filipe Frazao, CC 3.0 BY-SA

Brazilian environmental authorities have increased the size of a key national park by more than 25% of its original size.

That might not sound like much on paper, but Pantanal Matogrossense National Park was 523 square miles, and it was just expanded by 185 square miles—almost the equivalent of adding America’s Redwoods National Park to it.

The expansion will protect “one of the richest and most sensitive biomes on the planet” in the form of the Pantanal, the world’s largest flooded grasslands. Here live 463 species of birds, 269 species of fish, over 100 species of reptiles and amphibians, and more than 236 species of mammals: including the tapir, the giant otter, the giant armadillo, the giant anteater, and the largest concentration of jaguars on Earth.

According to Brazilian outlet Fato Paulista, the expansion “meets a long-standing demand from experts and environmentalists, who have highlighted the need for greater protection for critical breeding areas” for many of these animals.

The administration of the territory is under the responsibility of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) which identified key biological corridors used by the park’s wildlife to move in and out of the protected area.

These corridors are crucial to maintaining genetic diversity, particularly of endangered species inside the park, and maintaining them requires consultation and cooperation with local landowners.

BRAZILIAN BIODIVERSITY: Flagship Restoration Project in Brazil’s Cerrado Savannah Working to Restore 4.4 Million Acres

Pantanal Matogrossense was designated a wetland of international importance under the United Nation’s Ramsar Convention 33 years ago, and it is according to the spirit of that convention that more and more of the Pantanal biome is being protected as it faces continued threats to its landscape integrity.

Among these are fires and droughts, but ensuring the Pantanal and the rivers which feed it remain free from harm can help the land retain its characteristic sponginess key to its resiliency.

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Student-run Automotive Shop Opens to the Public in Houston Where Every Oil Change Helps the Next Generation

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 4, 2026

YouTube Screengrab, Houston Independent School District

From the Houston Chronicle comes the story of high schoolers getting down and dirty with their education.

Having lately opened an auto shop in the city’s Fifth Ward, students in automotive engineering are ready to change your oil, rotate your tires, or tinker with whatever’s making *that sound.

The shop was opened through the Houston Independent School District’s (ISD) Barbara Jordan Career Center, which seeks well-paying, hands-on job and internship opportunities in northeast Houston for students training in high-demand professions and trades.

Serving 12 school campuses and over 1,200 students, the Barbara Jordan Center has been committed to expanding these sorts of opportunities after a “local education group” found that less than 20% of Houston ISD grads were earning a “living wage” 6 years after graduating, the Chronicle reported.

The career center had been working to open the auto shop since the summer. The ISD’s automotive education program has long been seeking more opportunities for students to build “both soft skills and technical know-how” in order to make graduates more hirable.

“Starting every Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, trained automotive pathway students will perform vehicle maintenance services for the public, including oil changes, tire rotations, and multi-point inspections. Customers provide all required parts and fluids and pay for student labor,” the career center wrote in a social media post announcing the opening.

Appointments can be made here.

It may not be the most convenient commercial option to bring one’s own parts and fluids, but at least customers will be supporting the next generation of auto mechanics when they pull their car into the career center’s shop.

The ISD isn’t just focusing on auto shops. Its technical education programs cover the trades, culinary arts and industries, engineering and robotics, and human services.

WATCH the students in action below…

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Italy Sees Collapse in its Homicide Rate to 3rd Lowest in the EU

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 4, 2026

2023 saw Italy register the lowest homicide rate in the EU, and the 3rd lowest age-standardized homicide rate.

These milestones in the dual quest of combatting organized crime and improving internal security mark an incredible turnaround from the height of recent mafia-related violence experienced by the country between the 1980s and 1990s.

Around the world and certainly in Europe, young men are much more likely to be both the victim and the perpetrator of a homicide. Italy, with the largest population of senior citizens in the EU, had the lowest intentional homicide rate—0.57 per 100,000 inhabitants, against a European average of 0.91 in 2023, according to national data sources.

A responsible way to measure the homicide rate in such circumstances would be to adjust it to reflect the smaller proportion of younger men in the population, but even this method produces a homicide rate of 0.4 deaths per 100,000, compared with an EU average of almost 0.7.

It places Italy behind only Malta and Germany in this metric, and cements the country as one of the least ultra-violent in the union.

The data was presented in a report by Eurispes, a private institution providing political, economic, and social research in Italy, based on statistics collected by the national bureau, called Istat.

“The country, which in 1991 experienced one of the most dramatic moments in its recent history in terms of mafia and criminal violence, is today firmly placed in the most favorable part of the European homicide mortality rankings,” the authors of the Eurispes report write in their conclusion.

For those who relate the mafia only to stories of Al Capone, Whitey Bulger, or the Gambino family in New York City, the Eurispes report includes a brief retrospective of the impacts of these organizations in the land of their birth.

Between 1985 and 1991, homicides rose in Italy by 992, of which 522—a little more than half—had been crimes committed by Cosa Nostra, the Camorra, and the ’Ndrangheta, the criminal organizations active in Sicily, Campania, and Calabria respectively.

In 1991, Italy recorded 1,916 homicides, equal to 3.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. Eurispes reports that over a third of these were attributable to mafia-type organizations.

However, between 1985 and 2024, that number fell by 80%, largely because of the state’s multifaceted response to the mafioso violence, inter-mafia conflicts diminishing, and a greater and greater reluctance by these criminal groups to resort to extreme violence given the inevitable reaction from the government.

ITALIAN INSIGHT: Vines Produce Bigger, Healthier Wine Grapes When Grown Under Solar Panels

Italy is still a large and densely populated country, and hundreds of homicides are committed every year. One of the most dramatic statistics that demonstrates the success of this overall fall in violent crime is the loss of continuity between the industrialized and richer north, and the poorer, agricultural south.

Indeed the 2 highest homicide rates are found in the rural southern region of Sardinia, and the mountainous, ski-loving Aosta Valley on the border with France. When Sardinia is excluded, the homicide rates in the south, center, and the north of Italy almost equalize.

Lastly, other measures of homicide have shown that this decline in mafia-related violence isn’t the only driving force. Though witnessing a more modest decrease over the same period of time, “femicide” has also fallen to among the lowest in the EU.

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In 2022, with 0.42 women killed per 100,000, Italy was very close to the lowest value among EU countries with available data: which was 0.39 per 100,000 recorded in Ireland.

Italy can suffer at times from a reputation of being slightly backward with regard to the rest of Europe, and though other forms of unsocial conduct such as car theft and burglary are higher than many other European countries, there is a reluctance to resort to violence across the population regardless of age, sex, and regional background, that is very avant-garde indeed.

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Woman Becomes First Person to Swim the Entire California Coastline

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 4, 2026

Catherine Breed swims in the open ocean south of the Golden Gate Bridge - credit, Catherine Breed press photo

Long-distance swimmer Catherine Breed has become the first person to swim the length of the entire Californian coastline after cross 900 miles in 111 days.

Her journey took her through extreme weather events, 8 separate shark encounters, and currents that at times were totally against her.

She claims that in addition to being the first person to complete this incredible feat, she’s the first swimmer who’s ever even attempted it.

Breed has a catalogue of remarkable endurance swims under her wetsuit, including the English Channel and North Channel crossings. In 2022, at age 29, Breed became the first person to swim from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay, a 25-mile swim.

Last year, she finished a swim from Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands, a notorious breeding and hunting ground for sharks.

Yet these are mere kiddy pool distances compared to the effort she recently finished putting in, one which started all the way back on July 1st when she waded out into the waters at the Oregon-California border.

It had taken 3 years of preparation and planning, with the idea being to swim 10 miles a day for 90 days. Yet all that planning couldn’t have anticipated the Super El Niño weather event that California has been witnessing this year.

It manifested in multiple tropical storms, punishing waves 7-feet high that made Breed feel she was swimming through “a washing machine,” and a huge surge of warm coastal water moving northward as Breed was moving south.

This current created days when progress was minimal. The proud Californian ocean lover spoke to radio station KQED about such experiences.

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“You cannot bring hubris or expectations into the ocean—whether you’re surfing, spearfishing, sailing or swimming. You can’t,” she said. “When I get in the ocean, it’s a full surrender. You’re completely present. Your only job is to put one arm in front of the other and be at peace with whatever the ocean gives you that day.”

Yet it wasn’t all perils. She swam with sea lions, dolphins, and whales, experienced incredible sunrises and sunsets, and paused every so often to jump on land for a quick lecture on the importance of marine conservation.

On October 19th, she completed the more-than-a-marathon swim, landing on a pier with her support vessel, having passed the California-Mexico border more than 3 miles out to sea to avoid the pollution of the Tijuana River.

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“It is a little bit of an out-of-body experience,” she told the Guardian in an interview after she had completed the swim. “Like, I know I’m the one who did it, but there are parts of me where I feel like I’m along with the audience, watching this thing happen. I think I’m still trying to grasp what I’ve done.”

She has repeatedly been quoted as saying that her resolve to accomplish this never-before-accomplished feat of endurance swimming came from a desire to inspire. She hopes others, particularly women and girls, will be inspired to pursue the unlikely and even the impossible off the back of her remarkable swim.

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“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.” – Henry Ford

Quote of the Day

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Good News Network

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Nov 4, 2026

Quote of the Day: “Don’t find fault, find a remedy.” – Henry Ford

Photo by: NPS

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Good News in History, November 4

This Day In History

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Good News Network

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Nov 4, 2026

Coolidge, seated in the middle, along with his 1925 cabinet

102 years ago today, “Silent” Calvin Coolidge was elected to serve as the 30th President of the United States. Undoubtedly the greatest domestic/peacetime President in the 20th century, Coolidge embodied not only the Founders’ vision of the Executive, but many of the most quintessentially American qualities we struggle to find today in our political caste. LEARN more about our 30th President… (1924)

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Loch Ness Is About to Welcome a New Monster Not Seen There in 500 Years–the Beaver!

By

Andy Corbley

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Nov 3, 2026

Loch Ness is about to welcome a new monster.

This beastie is not to be trifled with: it has razor-sharp teeth and can easily knock down a fully-grown tree.

Beavers were last sighted in the area around Scotland’s most famous lake between 1526 and 1527. Now, literally 500 years later, these key ecosystem engineers will be reintroduced to the local environment.

The news came on October 30th, when the national conservation authority NatureScot granted a license to a pair of nonprofits, Trees for Life and the Beaver Trust, to release up to 15 beaver families over 3 years in the River Ness catchment area, which includes the lake.

The application was assessed in line with the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations, which considers a range of issues including site suitability, animal welfare, and potential impacts on neighboring and community interests.

NatureScot’s statement detailed that the assessment concluded beavers could significantly boost biodiversity in the catchment, with the landscape at low risk of negative impacts from beaver activity.

Responses to the consultation process between the nonprofits and the community were positive, with more than 73% of respondents expressing support afterwards.

“Beavers can bring many benefits for nature and people, creating habitats such as ponds and wetlands where other species thrive, as well as moderating water flows in times of flood and water scarcity,” said Robbie Kernahan, NatureScot Director for Wildlife Management.

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“Some concerns have been raised by land managers and residents through the consultation process and we take these seriously. We have assessed the monitoring and mitigation plans set out by the applicants and believe that, along with our existing Beaver Mitigation Scheme, any potential conflicts that may arise can be resolved.”

Beavers have again lived wild in Scotland since they were reintroduced in 2009. Since then, they have gradually reclaimed various ancestral waterways.

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The nonprofits have said that translocations could begin in the following weeks. Qualifying animals will typically be taken from other locations in Scotland where they are having a deleterious impact on prime agricultural land, or are not settling well into the area they were released.

The next time you see a long, thin object moving over the lake and assume its Nessie, make sure to double check it isn’t a log in the jaws of the new kid on the loch.

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