New HIV prevention drug lenacapavir has shown 100% success rate in trials
New HIV prevention drug lenacapavir has shown 100% success rate in trials
New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are at their lowest levels in more than 30 years, a special report released by UNAIDS shows.
Released in time for the 26th International AIDS Conference taking place in Rio de Janeiro, it also showed that 7 countries: Benin, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Nepal, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe, achieved an almost 80% reduction in new infections since 2010.
It further showed that 11 countries achieved the “95-95-95” treatment targets, meaning that 95% of all people living with HIV know their status, 95% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART), 95% of all people accessing ART are virally suppressed.
“The world is on the cusp of an HIV prevention revolution in prevention medicines which offer close to vaccine like protection against HIV,” UNAIDS wrote in a statement.
“Monthly and six-month injections are slowly trickling into the market, and monthly pills are in late-stage trials. What is coming to market and in the pipeline is extraordinary.”
Other positive news in the report shows that Brazil has increased the number of people accessing HIV prevention medicines at least once in the past year by 41%. Ethiopia and Uganda also took action to expand access through domestic and other funding, and South Africa is continuing to negotiate pricing deals for the twice-yearly prevention injections lenacapavir.
In June, GNN reported on the results of the Purpose 1 trial for lenacapavir, which showed 0 HIV infections among 3,200 young female participants, an unthinkable success rate.
UNITAID, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and partners have pulled money together to start rolling out lenacapavir to reach 3 million 2028.
“Despite enormous challenges ending AIDS is still within reach. At AIDS 2026 UNAIDS is urging all partners and governments to remobilize and push forward to achieve the ambitious targets in the Political Declaration,” said Ms. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAID, referring to the UN’s Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS adopted this year.
SHARE This Inspiring Progress Towards Defeating This Insidious Infection…
Eddie Smith Jr on a Grady-White boat - credit, released as a courtesy of Grady-White Boats to Fortune
Eddie Smith Jr on a Grady-White boat – credit, released as a courtesy of Grady-White Boats to Fortune
Grady-White Boats market their vessels as the “finest boats ever crafted” which is quite the statement.
GNN can’t comment on boat quality, but they certainly don’t make humans like Grady-White’s ex-CEO much anymore.
For 58 years, Eddie Smith Jr. worked 80-100 hour workweeks to salvage the near-bankrupt boat builder and turn it into a 9-figure revenue generator that will now power philanthropy in perpetuity.
That’s because Smith turned down multiple offers around half a billion dollars in order to pass controlling stakes in Grady-White Boats to a “purpose trust” that will operate it according to his values and convert its bottom line into community service, conservation, and other philanthropic causes.
Profiled by Preston Foore at Fortune Magazine, Smith said he was inspired by entrepreneurs like Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, who also turned the brand into a financial engine for conservation and climate change prevention.
“I just think that those of us that are fortunate enough to be in a position to help others…It’s really a gift to me to be able to do what I do,” Smith told Fortune.
Born to a father who was orphaned at age 10 during the Great Depression, Smith Jr. grew up near the poverty line. The first break was when his father worked enough odd jobs to start a mail order business. The son, who remembers eating SPAM 3 times a week, then lied about his age to get a job on a paper route, before becoming the first in his family to graduation from college (U of North Carolina) in 1965.
Finding Grady-White Boats in a near-bankrupt state, Smith Jr., who described himself as having an “entrepreneurial itch” to prove himself, borrowed some money and took over the business, forsaking golf, his favorite pastime, for over 30 years.
He proceeded to pour his heart and soul into the project before successfully turning it around to the state it’s in today—where revenues average over $100 million per annum.
After he lost his wife and then his son to ALS, his golden years seemed abruptly grey, and suddenly the big offers he was receiving to sell the company—and potentially destroy the culture of self-betterment and hard work he tailor-made over the decades—became easy to turn down.
He looked around at his other CEO friends, and saw that those who sold their businesses had “lost their way.”
“All of them were really disappointed in what happened to their companies after the sale. They lost their way,” Smith told Fortune. “They lost their culture that they had built, and I just couldn’t bear the thought of that happening.”
Instead, Smith signed Grady-White Boats over to a perpetual purpose trust, who collected his controlling state as voting shares in the company under conditions that they never be sold. The trust will continue to operate the business under Smith’s values, including profit sharing and spending big on employee education resources.
The rest of the non-voting shares will be placed in a 501(c)4—a social welfare organization—that will donate all profits to charitable causes.
SHARE The Incredible Life And Legacy Of Eddie Smith Jr. On Social Media…
An artist's illustration of the event, (right) Dr. White and Kevin Petersen holding the pterosaur remians - credit, Kronosaurus Korner Museum, released
An artist’s illustration of the event, (right) Dr. White and Kevin Petersen holding the pterosaur remians – credit, Kronosaurus Korner Museum, released
In what must rank as one of the rarer fossil assemblages ever discovered, an incredible moment where the whole top-third of the Cretaceous era marine food chain was being sorted out has been presented by scientists.
Following 7 years of study, the jumble of bones is nothing less than the remains of a flying reptile known as a pterosaur lodged inside the stomach of an ichthyosaur—a large and widely-dispersed, versatile marine predator.
The ichthyosaur’s body was determined to have been mangled by something even larger—likely a pliosaur, and perhaps even Kronosaurus queenslandicus, the largest pliosaurid known to have lived, and as the species name suggests, was first discovered in the Australian state of Queensland, where the fossil jumble was found.
“[It is] a marine reptile crime scene, and it did take a bit of working out to tell that story,” Dr. Matt White, a paleontologist at the University of New England in Australia and lead author of the study presenting the discovery, tells ABC News Down Under.
The story of said discovery begins in 2019 when recreational fossil hunters were out for a day’s “fossicking,” an Aussie term for prospecting for minerals, gems, and fossils on a recreational or amateur basis, but with a license.
Two couples, Mike and Cathy Freeman and Gary and Barb Flewelling, found several large bones, jotted down their location, and donated them to a local paleontological museum dedicated to the research of the prehistoric sea which used to cover Queensland.
Unsure of what to make of the assemblage of fossils, the museum curators respectfully labeled them as “Bob” short for “bag o’ bones.”
3 years later, the curator at Kronosaurus Korner museum Kevin Petersen returned to the site and uncovered the rest of what proved to be a large, partially articulated ichthyosaur skeleton stretching almost 21 feet across the excavation.
The remains bore the signs of a brutal attack, with missing ribs, bones punctured by teeth, and disfigured vertebrae. At roughly 18-20 feet in length the ichthyosaur, like a cross between a crocodile and a dolphin, was a formidable and versatile hunter and large to boot. Petersen and the rest of the staff knew that only one thing could have wrapped its jaws around the body of the creature—a pilosaur.
Pliosaurs were aquatic carnivorous reptiles, not dinosaurs, that lived between 220 and 70 million years ago. Their short necks have seen them depicted like fish with the mouth of a crocodile, or something awfully similar to a seal, but they were enormous hunters, capable of reaching an impressive 10 meters in body length.
Dr. White and his co-authors wrote in their study that, up until now, very little evidence of pliosaur bites have been documented—their mouths were so large they left little behind to fossilize. The evidence on the torso of the ichthyosaur is one of an initial crushing bite, followed by several repositioning or tearing bites—notably similar to how crocodilians take prey still to this day.
This was a novel interaction of pliosaur-ichthyosaur food chain relations, but it would get stranger not long after.
More than 600 volunteer and staff hours were invested preparing the ichthyosaur specimen for examination before several unusual rock nodules behind the skull prompted scientists to investigate further. Rather than breaking the rocks apart and risking damage, researchers sent them to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), where advanced synchrotron CT scanning allowed scientists to look inside without destroying the fossil.
There, they found the remains of fish, squid, and the jawbone of a pterosaur—a family of flying reptiles that ruled the skies during the age of the dinosaurs. Whether the ichthyosaur had snatched a pterosaur from the sky or fed upon it in a scavenging event is impossible to know, and the researchers believe the partially-digested remains were catapulted up towards the animal’s head from the force of the pilosaur’s bite, though they admit there’s a very small chance it could also have simply fallen atop the ichthyosaur’s remains from the ocean above.
More likely, they wrote, it’s the first confirmed evidence that ichthyosaurs ate pterosaurs.
“It’s one of the clearest examples ever discovered of a three-tier predator interaction and offers an unprecedented snapshot of behavior in Australia’s Cretaceous seas,” stated Dr. Dean Lomax, a renowned paleontologist who recently visited Australia for the first time during Queensland Dinosaur Week.
Speaking further with ABC, Dr. White said that the exact sequence of predation is unknown, but that’s the “exciting thing.”
“[We just know] this is what’s happened to the fossil, and what happened in the exact term of events we don’t know, but that’s half the exciting thing of paleontology.”
“But did the actual kronosaurus leap out of the water and smash the ichthyosaur? Or was the ichthyosaur breaching the water and snatching a pterosaur out of mid-air to eat?” he added.
SHARE This Incredible Discovery With Your Friends Who Love Fossils…
Quote of the Day: “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill
Photo by: Daniel Intodawoj
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?
A major, early-stage advancement in vision technology comes to us now from South Korea, where researchers created a contact lens that repairs scratches automatically when exposed to sunlight.
A scratched lens can mean an expensive replacement, but the UV light-activated hydrogel can repair these small imperfections in under an hour.
The technology also offers greater durability and an antibacterial coating to create a robust and resistant, superior contact lens.
Researchers Jung-Hyun Choi and Byung-Ki Cho used the already widely-employed hydrogel to create their new prototype contact lenses while redesigning the complex polymer structure. Through a process known as disulfide exchange, UV light at a wavelength of 365 nanometers causes sulfur bonds in the gel to temporarily break apart and reconnect with neighboring atoms.
Before and after photos released in a study presenting their invention show how these new connections equate to a repaired scar on the surface of the lens.
Choi and Cho explain that eventually, the lenses could be repaired at home as well—through UV light from devices used to cure nail polish, or indoor grow lamps for houseplants.
Atop the hydrogel structure, an additional layer of polymer was applied that resists bacterial buildup and abrasion, even after repeated contact with sandpaper. It retained moisture better than commercially-available contact lenses too, and the repaired scratches had a mere 2% perceptibility score, suggesting that multiple scratches could be repaired and tolerated before a replacement was needed due to transparency issues.
Additional testing for South Korean regulatory approval is needed, the authors explain, before the product can undergo market testing. The technology could reduce waste and lower replacement costs for millions of contact lens users.
The study, funded in part by the National Research Foundation of RoK, was published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials.
SHARE This Brilliant Invention With Your Friends On Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.” – Josh Billings
Photo by: Unsplash
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?
Predator Exclusion Fence - credit, Laurel Smith USFWS, Public Domain
Predator Exclusion Fence – credit, Laurel Smith USFWS, Public Domain
In 2022, the longest “predator exclusion fence” anywhere in the Pacific was completed on Kauai, encircling 168 acres of prime seabird nesting habitat.
The nesting birds include endangered species that were under constant threat of ravaging feral cats and pig before the 11,200-foot-long fence was raised.
Now, 4 years later, these seabirds are following their ancestral instincts and raising their chicks just meters away from nest sites that, 5 years before, would have double as their grave sites.
Originally developed on New Zealand, a predator exclusion fence (PEF) is no mean fence. It was designed to block passage of the 4 most deadly invasive mammalian predators across the Pacific.
It’s too high for a cat or fox to jump over, is capped with a slick, claw-proof hood to prevent cats from climbing over, includes a combination rubber mat and skirt multiple inches below the ground to prevent pigs burrowing under, and boasts a metal mesh no teeth can chew through, yet also so fine that no rat can slide through it. The fence cost $1.7 million.
A similar fence on Oahu saw the number of Newell’s shearwater chicks quadruple in the first several years after it was completed. This is the kind of progress that the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in concert with local partners on Kauai, wanted to bring to Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.
A camera trap recording the unhappy destiny of most nesting birds before the fence was built – credit, Pacific Rim Conservation / USFWS
Therewithin, the hills and pinnacles of Nihokū and Mokolea Point present as ideal, and ancestrally conserved nesting habitat for a variety of birds, including Newellʻs shearwater, red-footed boobies, red-tailed and white-tailed tropicbirds, great frigatebirds, the endangered Hawaiian petrel, and the Laysan albatross. The PEF also shelters the Critically-Endangered Hawaiian hoary bat, and the Critically-Endangered nēnē or Hawaiian goose—the state bird.
Nihokū and Mokolea are located on the northern shore where little artificial light pollution exists to disorient the birds, like petrels, which navigate by the stars and Moon. Neither are there any powerlines or other elevated obstructions that the birds could collide with.
Until such a time as when the island can appropriately contain, remove, or otherwise deal with invasive animals, this special fence will help create a sanctuary—a veritable seabird factory—that will keep these iconic aviators of the Hawaiian skies alive in the long term.
SQUAWK About This Brilliant Helping Hand To Hawaii’s Birds…
John Adesoye at his graduation ceremony - credit, UWE Bristol
John Adesoye at his graduation ceremony – credit, UWE Bristol
In a story that shows how it’s never too late to learn, a man in the UK has graduated from nursing school at 64.
His education actually saw the Nigerian immigrant, who is a father of 5, studying alongside his son, who was attending the very same university.
John Adesoye graduated with a degree in nursing from the University of West England after completing a 2-year nurse associate program, and a 2 year nurse apprenticeship program, at the National Health Services Foundation Trust in Bristol.
John grew up in a poor farming family in Nigeria and developed a keen interest in electronics, having been fascinated as a child with how his family’s radio worked. He later lived in Greece, working as an electronics technician and servicing electronic equipment, and then moved to the UK.
The father-of-5, who now lives in Bristol, has secured a nursing role at Southmead Hospital where he had completed his apprenticeship.
“I didn’t think I’d ever go to university, to be honest. But I have passion for learning,” Mr. Adesoye said in a press release. “Even when I was small, I was so curious. When I got the chance to go to university, I didn’t take it for granted—I followed it with my heart.”
Though most of his degree was completed at the local Southmead Hospital, a strange production of fate saw him spend 1 day of every week studying on campus alongside none other than his very own son Daniel, who was studying for a degree in creative music technology.
He remarked that working among a cohort of young students in turn made him feel young again, whether seeing his own son at university had the same effect, however, he didn’t say.
“Don’t listen to people who say you’re too old for university,” said Adesoye. “If I can do it, others can too. People are more brilliant than they think and they’re stronger than they think.”
John isn’t the first to graduate in his golden years; GNN has reported on the topic often enough to know that the maxim “it’s never too late to learn” is true at 65, or 105.
SHARE This Man’s Determination To Keep Age As Only A Number…
The oldest known wild clouded leopard - a female - captured on camera trap in Malaysian Borneo. This individual is estimated to have been 8.5 years old - Credit: Panthera, Sabah Forestry Department, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
The oldest known wild clouded leopard – a female – captured on camera trap in Malaysian Borneo. This individual is estimated to have been 8.5 years old – Credit: Panthera, Sabah Forestry Department, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
Newly released camera trap footage from a recent study captures the oldest Sunda clouded leopard ever recorded in the wild.
This 8.5-year-old female in Borneo’s rainforests offers a new and exciting glimpse into the life of one of the world’s most elusive wild cats. (See the video below…)
The research is the first to document a female’s lifespan in the wild, and the data also confirmed that these leopards are far more mobile than previously assumed, with some individuals traveling up to 19 miles between forest reserves.
It also found that females were 68% harder to detect than males. Camera trap data demonstrates why: females spend far more time in the trees, and their slender bodies and fluffier tails help them balance there.
Males, by contrast, spend much of their time on the ground patrolling and re-marking territory, which is why they turn up on camera more often.
Found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the Sunda clouded leopard is known as a ghost of the forest, is rarely seen, and also carries the largest canine teeth of any wild cat relative to body size, drawing comparisons to saber-toothed cats.
Panthera / Sabah Forestry Department / Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
The study’s dataset was made possible by the indigenous communities of Sabah, in partnership with the forestry and wildlife departments of Sabah state, who serve as wildlife rangers and community engagement officers for Panthera, the wild cat-dedicated conservation organization who conducted the study.
Patrolling dense terrain, running camera trap networks, and acting as frontline guardians against poachers. That partnership began in 2020 through work on human-elephant conflict, and grew into community reporting of illegal logging and, eventually, government-funded ranger stipends.
SHARE This Amazing Research With Your Friends Who Love Wild Cats…
125 years ago today, the beloved American jazz trumpeter, composer, and singer Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans. Nicknamed Satchmo, or Pops, Armstrong was one of the most influential figures in jazz, with a trail-blazing career that spanned more than five decades. Take a moment to listen to “What a Wonderful World”… (1901)
Conservation K-9s Winnie, Hilo and Jane – Credit: Province of Alberta
Conservation K-9s Winnie, Hilo and Jane – Credit: Province of Alberta
Invasive species of Asian mussels have met their match in Alberta’s riverine sniffer dogs.
These K9 conservationists have been employed by the provincial government for over a decade to help catch zebra and golden mussels from colonizing the rivers and lakes of Alberta.
Hilo, Jane, and Winnie, 2 black labs and a black-lab cross, are part of the paws-on-the-ground response at boat inspection stations across the province. It’s now Alberta law that any watercraft must stop at an inspection station whether they are coming or going, and these patrol pooches are trained to smell the odor of developing mussel larvae which can be so small as to be detectable only by the faint feeling like sandpaper on the sides of boats or docks.
“The dogs are really complementing that human inspection and giving us kind of a better idea about what could be on that boat,” said Cindy Sawchuk, the leader for the province’s Aquatic Invasive Species Operations and Conservation Canine Program.
Sawchuk told the Canadian Press that golden mussels recently established themselves in California, posing another potential point of invasion through BC to the west.
“These mussels really like to hide in damp, dark places (and) a lot of them are hard to see,” said Sawchuk.
The mussels are filter feeders native to Southeast Asia. Their effect in Canada is outcompeting other bottom-dweller or filter-feeding fish that rely on the same food source.
Dogs are rewarded with special toys for every mussel patch they find. It’s a very enriching line of work for the animals, who receive a spark of dopamine while looking for the mussels.
While a fun activity for the dogs—it’s deadly serious for people like Sawchuck and her colleagues. In similar provinces, a mussel infestation might cost $75 million a year to manage and be virtually un-uprootable.
In addition to staffing the inspection stations, the dogs are also being trained to scour shorelines for signs of the mussels, as seen in the video below…
SHARE The Story Of These Mussel-Bound, K9 Conservationists And Their Important Work…
From Colorado comes the story of a child prodigy pianist whose career was kick-started by a jaw-dropping donation from a complete stranger.
Brought to us via CBS News “On the Road” with Steve Hartman, the story began on the mock ebony and ivory of an unused electric keyboard forgotten in a basement 5 years ago.
It was found, one fateful day, but Jude Kofie, then a tender 9 years old and son of Ghanaian immigrant and father of 4, Isiah. This autistic boy put his hands on the keys and was changed forever; a Mozart-savant style talent had lain hidden his whole life.
As Jude began to express his “miracle” talent, he made the headlines of the local paper in Aurora, which is where Bill Magnuson, a local piano tuner, first read about the boy. Intrigued, the piano lover came to a talent show and saw first hand what Jude could do.
“He’s beyond special,” Magnuson told Hartman in an interview. “He’s Mozart level. It’s coming from somewhere beyond.”
Hearing of his father Isiah’s life story as an immigrant who raises 4 children and routinely sends remittances to family in Ghana was all Magnuson needed to convince himself to make a big decision—a $15,000 decision.
One day, without warning, a truck pulled up to the Kofie household, followed by a knock on the door.
Magnuson had spent a good chunk of his family inheritance to buy a brand new grand piano for Jude.
“[For] somebody to just love your son like that by making sure that his future is secured, we are super thankful,” Isiah said, wiping tears from his eyes.
The piano also came with a lifetime of tuning services provided by theirs truly, and a program of professional lessons, which have transformed Jude from a 9-year-old prodigy to a 14-year-old touring maestro with his own album, Introducing: Jude Kofie.
None of it would have been possible, one can’t help feeling, without the costly intervention of a total stranger; someone who, as Hartman concluded “isn’t a stranger anymore.”
WATCH the story below…
SHARE This Boy’s Incredible Talent With Your Friends…
The Nickel Rim Mine in Ontario, the only other Western source for Nickel - credit, P199 via Wikimedia, CC 3.0.
The Nickel Rim Mine in Ontario, the only other Western source for Nickel – credit, P199 via Wikimedia, CC 3.0.
On July 31st, mine developer Canada Nickel Company announced it had received final permitting approval from the Ontario government for its gargantuan nickel mining/carbon capture project
The approval is the first issued under Canada’s amended Impact Assessment Act, a reform of extractive industry regulations designed to allow the highest-quality projects to be permitted fast.
Financing for the project will come in part through the sale of carbon credits, as Canada Nickel develop what is now a proprietary carbon storage method that allows it to store atmospheric carbon within the milled stone out of which the nickel is separated.
Needed for stainless steel, plating, high-quality allows, and emerging as a must-have for next-generation EV batteries, the market for nickel as a globally-traded commodity is sequestered almost entirely within Indonesia, where poor tropical soils make mining nickel easy.
Some 67% of nickel is mined in the country, a greater share of market control than OPEC has over global oil production. Additionally, in 2024, nickel mining was identified as a primary national cause of deforestation on the islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera.
Yet for decades there has been just one Western-based source of nickel. Many manufacturers have had to source from Indonesia, the Philippines, and China, where environmental and social effects of rural nickel mining can rarely be scrutinized, and even more rarely influenced.
Canada Nickel’s Crawford Project aims to be not only the largest nickel source accessible to Western markets, but one of the largest in the world; one where deforestation, erosion, and pollution can be properly prevented.
Indeed the Prime Minister of Canada himself believes that Crawford will set a new a worldwide standard for responsible mining.
Located in Ontario’s legendary Timmins mining district, the Crawford Project is estimated to contain 3.8 million tons of nickel, set within a total land package that could contain as much as 12 million tons according to published resource estimates. It holds a byproduct credit of chromium, and will be the only significant Western source of this metal as well.
Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby alerted shareholders to the news of permitting success on the last trading day of the week.
“Today’s decision recognizes the strategic importance of responsibly developing Canada’s critical mineral resources in partnership with all levels of government and Indigenous Nations while maintaining rigorous environmental standards,” said Selby.
“We look forward to continuing to advance Crawford towards a construction decision in 2027.”
Building the Crawford operation will require some $1.9 billion. The projected return on this capital is expected to benefit from the company receiving as much as 50% in tax credits for incentivizing carbon storage.
Canada Nickel’s In-Process Tailings (IPT) Carbonization technology involves injecting a concentrated source of CO2 into tailings generated by milling for a brief period, fixing the carbon geologically while the material is still in the processing circuit rather than after final deposition.
Lab-scale tests have demonstrated that this method is 8 to 12-times faster than passive carbon capture approaches, achieving net-zero carbon capture targets in less than 36 hours and gross capture rates of at least 26 tons of CO2 per ton of nickel in 6 days.
That translates to an expected storage of 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year of operations.
To put this into perspective, that equates, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency to removing 350,000 gas-powered cars from the roads for a whole year, or around 200,000 average family homes’ electricity use, or, perhaps the most eye-opening equivalent, the carbon-savings from a whopping 450 wind turbines running for a year.
Given the quantity of mine tailings that will be generated by the 48,000 tons of material running through the mill every day, Canada Nickel estimates that the carbon storage potential across the 41-year mine life of Crawford could extend to 15 million tons per annum. At that point one is talking about a generational opportunity to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
SHARE This Story Of A Mine Becoming A Carbon Storage Powerhouse…
Editor’s Note: This story should not be construed as investment advice, always perform due diligence and consult with your financial advisor before making any investment decision.
Okefenokee terrain - credit, public domain, via UNESCO
Okefenokee terrain – credit, public domain, via UNESCO
Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp is the latest wild wonder of the USA to make UNESCO’s hallowed World Heritage Site list.
It joins the Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Everglades, and Yellowstone national Parks on the same list, and reflects the stunning biodiversity of American “blackwater” swamps.
Most of the Okefenokee Swamp is included in the 403,000-acre (163,000 hectare) Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the most-visited NWR east of the Mississippi.
Conservation in the swamp dates all the way back to 1918, by which time 1 million cubic meters of timber had already been logged. The federal government acquired most of the swamp for refuge purposes in 1936, and designated it an NWR a year later.
It would go on to collect the designations of Federal Wilderness and Wetland of International Importance under RAMSAR, before the Georgia organ of the National Parks Service announced in 2023 it would be nominated to be the state’s first ever prospective entry on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Okefenokee Swamp is the largest, lowland, freshwater peatland in the subtropical zone worldwide, and one of the largest and most intact ecosystems within the North American Coastal Plain global biodiversity hotspot.
The UNESCO Natural Heritage Site area comprises a diverse mosaic of wetlands, savannahs, and forests, including significant areas of endangered longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) of which less than 3% remains, supporting high concentrations of plant species endemic to the region.
An American alligator in Okefenokee – credit, public domain, via UNESCO
Its extensive peat deposits provide an important archive of paleo-environmental history and critical carbon storage. The property supports exceptional biodiversity as well, including at least 856 plant species, 48 mammal species, 238 bird species, 39 fish species, and 90 reptile and amphibian species, and provides important habitat for migratory birds, threatened species, a significant population of American alligators, and a truly noteworthy diversity of carnivorous plants.
Shaped by the ongoing interaction of water, fire, vegetation, and wildlife, with alternating fire and rainfall processes driving peat formation, vegetation structure, and biodiversity, a 20-to-30-year cycle of drought and fire has allowed the Okefenokee to exist as the unique wetland it is.
SHARE This International Recognition Of America’s Beautiful Swamps…
Quote of the Day: “Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.” – Franz Schubert, who remained a bachelor his entire life.
Photo by: Getty Images for Unsplash+
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?
On this day 100 years ago, Tony Bennett, the famed jazz and pop singer, who passed away just last year, was born. Winner of 19 Grammys, he grew up in a poor family of Italian immigrants, but his uncle was a vaudeville tap dancer, giving Tony an early window into show business.
After singing in restaurants for money at age 13, he had three No.1 pop hits in the 50s—Because of You, Cold, Cold Heart, and Rags to Riches—but moved on to jazz and became the first male pop vocalist to sing with Count Basie. His 1962 cover, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, won two Grammys and became Bennett’s signature song—along with If I Ruled the World. WATCHa spine-tingling song recorded in his home during lockdowns… (1926)
A dog owner says her pooch saved her life, by repeatedly pawing at her armpit, which eventually alerted her to breast cancer.
The 61-year-old says her chihuahua Flag started the odd behavior years ago, constantly hitting the underside of her arm with his paw.
She originally dismissed the behavior, until she spotted a small lump under her breast and started to suspect her pup was trying to tell her something.
Kristine Richards, the retiree from Wellington, Somerset, went to an oncologist and was diagnosed with an aggressive form of hormone sensitive lobular breast cancer, which had already spread to her lymph nodes.
But, after a year of intense treatments, Kristine is now cancer free, and says that this is down to Flag’s detecting skills – because there were no other symptoms, even though the disease was advanced at the time.
“It was very annoying, I must say, at the time, but then I started to wonder… I had heard that dogs could tell if there was cancer.
Kristine finally went to the oncologist, who said it is quite common for dogs to sniff these issues out.
“You can’t underestimate the shock. I couldn’t take it in. I just started crying.”
“He saved my life. I owe my dog everything.”
Kristine Richards / SWNS
Following her diagnosis, Kristine underwent surgical, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and drug therapy treatment.
But, one year later she heard the news that the cancer was in remission. Best of all, it has not come back in the years since.
Kristine reports that Flag stopped pawing at her arm after her first round of chemotherapy—and hasn’t done it again since.
“I am now in remission. I cried with relief when they told me. It was like getting to the end of a very long journey where you don’t quite know where you are going.”
Flag is now her trained assistance dog, and gets lots of hugs and treats – especially the lamb ones which are his favorite.
Flag is a local celebrity, and was once even named the honorary town mayor of St Marychurch, in Torquay (the charming coast located in Devon, England).
Kristine recalled, “When I got him, he wanted to chew everything. My sister said he was useless and trouble—little did she know.“
Lifeguard rescue in Santa Cruz surf - Courtesy of Scott Vander Dussen / @santacruznow on Instagram
Lifeguard rescue in Santa Cruz surf – Courtesy of Scott Vander Dussen / @santacruznow on Instagram
The rookie lifeguard didn’t flinch.
A giant wave slammed into the California shore and a 10-year-old boy was instantly swept up.
Luckily, a 16-year-old lifeguard ran to help, rushing toward a rescue that would go viral on social media, earning Ryder Williams praise across the internet.
It’s Ryder’s first summer working as a lifeguard, scanning the shores at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz, California, where the surf often pounds.
Last week, a sudden sneaker wave surged up the shore, knocking over the little boy and pulling him into the surprising surf. But, Ryder arrived in seconds.
“That’s when I turned the camera on and started to document it,” California photographer Scott Vander Dussen, who happened to be nearby, told the Los Angeles Times. “I had no idea it was going to be that intense…I’ve seen lots of interventions and rescues. I have never seen something like this.”
Tropical cyclones in the eastern Pacific Ocean were producing unpredictable powerful waves and dangerous currents all over the California coast. The massive 8-10 foot wave that knocked the boy over was soon followed by another.
And another.
“After the first wave, I was unable to pull him out because he was limp and the waves were pushing so hard,” Ryder said in a statement sent to the L.A. Times.
But Ryder has been comfortable and courageous in the water his entire life—through boogie boarding, surfing, and water polo (usually playing the center forward position that requires fending off defenders while treading water and trying to score).
The rookie lifeguard calmly ducked underneath the wave and simply tightened his grip even more.
The boy was not going to drown on Ryder’s watch.
“He told me: ‘I just was not going to let that happen,’” Ryder’s dad, Shane Williams said in an interview with The Guardian. “I almost started crying because how determined he was to save that boy’s life makes me so proud.”
The waves continued. Other adults ran to help, but even they were scattered by the surf. Ryder held strong, ducking under the onslaught and re-emerging every time.
Finally, another lifeguard arrived to help and the pair pulled the boy to safety. In the end, no one sustained any serious injuries—and beachgoers gave them all a round of applause.
Ryder, however, remained humble.
“This is my job and I love what I do. I’m thankful to my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day.”
Credit: Michele Kaunitz via Autumn Kings Facebook Page
Credit: Michele Kaunitz via Autumn Kings Facebook Page
A touring rock band almost met disaster in the middle of nowhere, until a 60-year-old stranger reminded them that there’s still a magical thing called ‘Midwest Nice’.
The Autumn Kings trio had just finished performing at the annual Rock Fest Wisconsin in Chippewa Valley when their van broke down on a rural highway.
They called every mechanic in the area but it required two days to fix the engine—yet they only had ten hours to make it to their next gig, the Upheaval Festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 500 miles away.
Just then, the band witnessed “one of the biggest acts of kindness of their lives,” according to their agent, Brandy Robidoux.
A complete stranger, Ernie, stopped to see if he could help, and ended up giving the band the keys to his Ford Explorer to use for several days—to drive over a thousand miles—so they could finish out their tour.
“With all the things you hear, about how the world is always going to hell, there are truly generous human beings—beyond comprehension,” exclaimed Jake Diab, guitarist and vocalist of the Detroit-based band.
“If it weren’t for Ernie, we wouldn’t have been able to get to Upheaval Festival.
“And Heaven was looking down on us (because) we had what I believe to be the greatest show of our career.”
Ernie talks to Autumn Kings (from video below)
“Without you (Ernie), it would NOT have been possible!”
When the Autumn Kings returned the red truck to Ernie’s house, they asked him why he wanted to help. It wasn’t just because he had a spare vehicle at home.
“I’ve never met a live band before,” quipped the Wisconsin man in his 60s, “but I just (did it) to help three strangers on the side of the road.”
A fan of the band, Brooke Murray, summed up the Ernie encounter perfectly: “This is the best and most Midwest story I’ve ever heard!”
WATCH the band tell the story below—and learn more about the Autumn Kings’ four LPs on Hopeless Records.
