Quote of the Day: “Our stories heal us, connect us, and enrich our lives.” – Erin Springer
Photo by: Johannes Plenio
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?
57 years ago today, men first stepped on the moon during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission; Neil Armstrong first, at 10:56pm EST, because he was closest to the door and Buzz Aldrin second. WATCH a look back from the 50th anniversary… (1969)
Video footage of a fireman giving oxygen to a pigeon following a fire has gone viral on social media.
After attending to a vehicle fire on Wednesday evening, the E29 crew of Oakland Firefighters noticed a pigeon in distress.
“The crew reported, the pigeon came up to them seeking help.
The bird seemed to have suffered some smoke inhalation during the East Oakland vehicle fire, so the crew administered some oxygen.
“The bird soon flew away after clearing out its lungs,” said the Facebook page for Oakland Firefighters Local 55.
Many people don’t realize pigeons are domesticated, and they’re used to being around humans, said some of the post’s commenters.
PIGEON HELPING HUMANITY: Rare WWII Pigeon Parachute Used to Carry Messages to French Resistance Ahead of D-Day Found in Old Shoebox
“We domesticated pigeons—they come to us for help because we trained them to,” wrote Katherine Linville. “Sweet little birds.”
“The trust that pigeon has for him… It knows the man is a life saver,” wrote Taj-Ma R. Carter. “They watch us closely and know us well.”
“Humans and pigeons had bonds,” added Mai Caroline. “They’re ridiculously smart creatures.”
SHARE THE PIGEON LOVE WITH BIRD-LOVERS On Social Media…
On May 10, when someone stole the e-bike that this cancer survivor needed to get to her oncology appointments, Officer JP Young of the Kansas City Police Department told her he would do everything he could to find it.
Ever since it went missing on Mother’s Day, Officer Young had never stopped looking for Olivia’s 3-wheeled electric bike.
One month later, he delivered.
Young and his partner saw a man riding an e-bike that looked spray-painted. With a glimpse of the old paint showing through, Young texted a picture to Olivia, who confirmed it was her bike.
JP even surprised himself when he found it.
And, when they met again, Olivia said he wore the biggest smile on his face when he returned it.
“Officer Young went way beyond the call of duty to help me get my trike back. Not only did he keep a steadfast eye out for it, he patiently tolerated all of my texts (sending clues to where it might be),” wrote Olivia on the KCPD Facebook post.
“The best part for me was seeing how big of a smile he had on his face when he was able to return it. Just like he had found the ‘Golden Goose!’ I loved it.”
MORE GOOD COPS: Detective Spends Months Searching for Stolen Dementia Patient’s Ring–Finds it in a Pawnshop Miles Away
Friends had purchased a new bike for Olivia, who has Stage 4 breast cancer, but it wasn’t assembled correctly, so she hadn’t used it. Now, her plan was to sell the old bike that was stolen so that she can afford to have the new one repaired and be mobile again.
However, a local volunteer with the Urban Trail Co. saw the post about the bike being returned, and announced that they were “happy to fix her bike at no cost”.
“Bikes are part of our lives, and myself and some other volunteers would be happy to help her get rolling again!”
“Thank you so much!” Olivia replied. “I would absolutely love that! (It) would be a huge help.” ❤️
One commenter exclaimed, “Your generosity has brought tears to my eyes!”
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“Stories like this, which rarely get told, are the best part of policing,” wrote another supporter.
SHARE THE POLICING SUCCESS With Friends On Social Media…
For decades, experts have disputed whether weapons found in ancient burial chambers of Egyptian princesses were actually their tools or placed there in a purely symbolic way.
Now, a reassessment of five royal women who lived 4,000 years ago showed they were skilled at archery.
Strong muscle attachments and healed fractures were observed in multiple scans of the mummies, showing that the pharaoh’s daughters could use the weapons they were buried with.
“Members of the royal family, especially the women, were active participants in skilled, physically demanding activities such as archery and hunting,” said Professor Zeinab Hashesh, lead author of the study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.
“This conclusion is supported by the way their bones developed to sustain heavy muscle use, which corresponds directly to the weapons discovered in their tombs.”
The research team studied six royal mummies found in the 1890s at Dahshur, a funerary complex of pyramids and tombs about 40 kilometers south of Cairo.
Four of the six were sisters, daughters of the pharaoh Amenemhat II, buried in matching underground chambers: Princess Ita next to Princess Khenmet, and Princess Itaweret alongside an anonymous woman provisionally identified as Princess Sathathormeryt.
They were buried with items including bows and arrows which are traditionally associated with men—and Princess Ita’s coffin contained a beautiful dagger.
“Similar regalia was buried with the other two royals evaluated—Princess Noub-Hotep and King Hor.”
The bones were overall in good condition, which allowed archeologists to estimate individuals’ age at death, height, and sex, as well as to uncover evidence of illnesses or injuries.
“Princess Ita was a young woman (28-34) with strong upper-body muscle attachments, suggesting she habitually used weapons like maces or daggers,” said Prof. Hashesh.
“Princess Itaweret was a young woman aged between 20 and 34 who survived broken ribs and foot fractures; her skeleton shows she was a skilled archer.”
She says the “robust” muscle attachments on the sisters’ bones indicate that they were “highly physically active” in ways that align with the use of the weapons in their burials.
“These were not just symbolic gifts but tools they actively used.”
WHAT’S NEW IN EGYPT?
• Papyrus Fragment of Homer’s Iliad Found in 1600–yo Mummy is First Ever Literature Discovered in a Burial
• Colossal Statues of Ancient Pharoah Stand Again in Luxor After 30 Years of Work
“What is remarkable is that the injuries healed well, which suggests they had access to advanced medical care for their time.”
The research team said they haven’t yet been able to conduct all the analyses they intended to, including stable isotope analysis which could shed more light on possible nutritional deficiencies.
Beyond the science, they hope to preserve the remains, create 3D prints for teaching and virtual exhibitions, and display them alongside their jewelry, weapons, and funerary objects.
“All of this would be done with respect, ensuring the remains are presented ethically, just as they were originally buried,” she insisted.
“Their objects and jewelry are truly fascinating—breathtaking in their craftsmanship.
SHARE THE RESEARCH With Gal Pals on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” – Jean de La Fontaine
Photo by: Johannes Plenio
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?
50 years ago today, Sagarmatha National Park was established in Nepal as the country’s first National Park. Enshrining the summit and breadth of the mountain known in the west as Everest, its total area encompasses 443 square miles, or 1,148 square km. In the north, it shares the international border with Qomolangma National Nature Preserve of Tibet. In the east, it is adjacent to Makalu Barun National Park, and is part of a mosaic of protected areas called the Sacred Himalayan Landscape. Sagarmatha was inscribed as a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site in 2002. READ more about this special, special place…
Although everyone urged the giant man to pursue a basketball career as a 7-foot-3-inch athlete, but that was never his dream.
Jordan Wilmore would rather help others, so he trained to become a Texas policeman.
He was one of the tallest players in college basketball, but now, he’s going to be one of the tallest police officers, thanks to some encouragement from Shaq. (Watch the two of them in the video below…)
He was sworn in recently, joining the force in Kemah, a waterfront community 35 miles southeast of Houston.
Steve Hartman visited, and shared the heartwarming story with viewers on CBS News: WATCH the video below…
ANOTHER BASKETBALL GREAT: Michael Jordan Donates $10 Million to Make-A-Wish for his 60th Birthday, Setting a Record
SHARE THE CAREER ADVICE With Young People On Social Media…
A daughter helped save her father’s vintage Italian shoe shop by posting about a pair of Y2K kitten heels on TikTok—and now it has lines outside the door.
For over 30 years Rachid Lazraq has owned Rich Collection Italia, but the emergence of online shopping practices, and an aging clientele, left the store in East London struggling.
Then his 25-year-old daughter noticed that a French influencer had posted about her dad’s shop as a “hidden gem”—and it gave her the idea to do the same.
She posted about the Y2K sandals in her first video on July 7, which got 300,000 views overnight on TikTok—and within days there were two-hour-long lines outside the door.
“My dad has been running this shop since before I was born, so we were all sad to see it suffering,” said Ms. Lazraq, a London journalist.
“He usually had older, regular clients, but they’d been petering out over the years.
“Now he has a whole new set of clientele, with streams of young people coming to the shop every day.”
She remembers her dad sending a message to the family group chat saying some ‘young French girls’ had come into the shop, which was unusual.
“That’s when we realized a French influencer had posted a video showcasing the Y2K kitten heels—which I didn’t even know he sold!”
“It was amazing to see.”
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“By highlighting the shoes that would appeal to people my age, we had lines out of the shop in no time.”
The climax of the shop’s turnaround was Mr. Lazraq’s ripping down his ‘Closing Sale’ sign while surrounded by applauding customers.
“It’s so small inside, we have to limit the amount of customers in the shop at any given time, but that doesn’t seem to deter people!”
Being close to retirement age, Rachid is keen to ‘go out with a bang’ at some point—and move back to his hometown.
In the meantime, the shop at 7 Hackney Road in Shoreditch may start moving into online sales to take advantage of future sales from the new, younger customer base.
SHARE THE INSPIRATION With Small Businesses on Social Media….
A drug, that has previously been shown to be safe and tolerated by humans, reduces multiple disease-linked features of Alzheimer’s in a lab model of the disease, say neuroscientists in London.
The team from King’s College has developed an approach that targets a key protein to tackle several features of Alzheimer’s disease at the same time.
They found that KCL-286, a drug that has previously passed Phase 1 safety trials—after originally being developed for spinal cord injury—was able to lessen many disease-linked features of Alzheimer’s.
Some of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease have been characterized by toxic build-up of proteins called amyloid-beta and tau, and these have been the main targets for drug development—but these have had limited clinical success.
Other features of the disease, such as DNA strand breaks and inflammation, have only recently been investigated as potential disease-modifying targets. DNA damage and inflammation occur in the earliest stages of the disease, suggesting they may be important targets for treatment.
The new drug, KCL-286—which is a “first-in-class, orally bioavailable small molecule”—was found to repair DNA breaks and reduce inflammation in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, providing a broader therapeutic strategy than approaches focused on disease hallmarks such as amyloid and tau.
“Our findings demonstrate that KCL-286 not only targets DNA damage but also reduces inflammation, two processes that occur very early in Alzheimer’s disease progression,” said Dr Maria Goncalves, a project manager of the drug development.
“This highlights its potential as a disease-modifying therapy, rather than simply addressing symptoms.”
ANOTHER ALZHEIMER’S BREAKTHROUGH: Tiny Protein Confirmed to Dismantle the Toxic Clumps Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease
The drug activates a specific protein in the retinoic acid pathway, a series of chemical reactions in the body used to process vitamin A. Previous studies have linked the deficits in this molecular pathway to amyloid-beta deposits forming in rat brains, similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s disease.
KCL-286 has previously been shown to help repair DNA double-strand breaks in neuropathic pain, leading researchers to hypothesize that it might be a suitable candidate for targeting the same type of DNA damage in Alzheimer’s.
“DNA double-strand breaks are like a rope snapping completely in two, rather than just fraying at the edges,”explained Professor Jonathan Corcoran, Professor of Neuroscience at King’s College London. “We found that KCL-286 promotes repair of these breaks, allowing us to target a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Natasha Hill, one of the first authors on the recently-published paper, said: “To develop an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, we need to tackle multiple aspects of the disease. KCL-286 was able to target multiple disease-relevant cellular pathways, some of which are initiated very early in the disease course.”
And, because it has already cleared Phase 1 human safety and tolerability trials, this will dramatically cut down the normal multi-year timeline required for new drug development.
Our partner Rob Brezsny, whose latest book is Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the author of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How All of Creation Is Conspiring To Shower You with Blessings. (A free preview of the book is available here.)
Here is your weekly horoscope…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of July 18, 2026
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Make a list of your five greatest pleasures. These are experiences that stir your senses, steady your pulse, and remind you why you love being alive. Write them down as if they were sacred prayers. Sing a spontaneous song of praise of them. Then set out on a quest to discover pleasure number six. This is a delight you have never tasted, touched, or imagined before. Maybe it will come from saying yes to a possibility you usually decline. Treat this experiment as a form of worship and a way to boost your devotion to your healing life force.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
According to neuroscientists, the “default mode network” is the area of your brain that lights up when you’re daydreaming, drifting through thoughts and feelings, and letting your imagination roam around. This is when your deep self does crucial work: weaving memories into stories, making creative connections, rehearsing possible futures, and forging your sense of identity. I mention this, Leo, because the coming days will be prime time for you to indulge lavishly in this healing and restorative activity. Don’t let a task-obsessed world shame you out of your reveries. Your genius will bloom from their slowly swirling flow.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
Here are three gentle nudges: 1. One of your trusty tools or assets still seems to be working fine, but I suggest you look into the possibility that it will soon need repair. 2. Unless you act proactively to ease the strain on your system, a mini-breakdown could be on the horizon. 3. The monster hiding in your closet is hibernating, which makes this the perfect time to summon an exorcist before it rouses. Here’s the very good news, dear Virgo: Because you are reading this oracle, you are now armed with all you need to stave off turmoil and head in the direction of an exciting renaissance.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
Researchers who study improvisational jazz have found that master musicians often anticipate each other’s ideas milliseconds before anyone actually plays the notes. Their brains become exquisitely synchronized through deep listening rather than rigid planning. Maybe more than any other sign, you Libras possess a similar aptitude in managing your intimate alliances and social connections. In the coming weeks, this superpower will be even more necessary and available than usual. I’ll provide a reminder: Pay less attention to what people claim to mean and more attention to the rhythms beneath their words. Let your intuition guide you. The subtly shared timing will generate elegant cooperation.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
“It’s bad luck to be superstitious!” is a delightful paradox that I enjoy playing with. It makes fun of our tendency to believe that invisible forces are constantly keeping score on our behavior. On one level, the phrase pokes at the way superstition multiplies anxiety instead of easing it. If you really believed it’s bad luck to be superstitious, then your belief about bad luck would itself be a superstition. So you’d have to avoid the very thinking pattern you’re using to feel safer. It exposes how easily the mind can tie itself in knots trying to control the uncontrollable. On another level, “it’s bad luck to be superstitious” is an invitation to examine which of your little rituals are entertaining and nourishing and which are cages. Keeping a lucky stone in your pocket is fine if it amuses you, but believing you’re doomed if you don’t carry the stone isn’t so fine. My advice: Notice when your charm or taboo is no longer a quirky companion, but starts being a tyrant that shrinks your freedom.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Are you the type of Sagittarius who pushes open doors with “pull” signs on them? Do you get a secret kick out of opening boxes from the end that says “open other side”? Maybe you even yack on your phone in designated quiet zones. If so, I’d like to suggest channeling your rebellious spark into grander acts. In the weeks ahead, you will be carrying some potent renegade energy. Used wisely, your radiant defiance could topple a stagnant situation that’s overdue for change.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Many healers favor the slow-and-steady path. They often meet with people once a week, trusting that even stubborn issues must be unwoven with patience and gentleness. But there are also bold experimenters who work differently. I know an acupuncturist who invites clients to live at her clinic for six days straight, offering a new treatment every two hours during the waking hours. She creates a healing immersion chamber. That’s the spirit I recommend for you in the coming weeks, Capricorn. You’re at the threshold of resolving a long-standing imbalance. What will serve you best isn’t dabbling at it but offering it focused, sustained, wholehearted attention until the shift activates.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
You can refresh and boost your ambition if you give it a firm, precise adjustment sometime soon. Your raw vitality will surge back if you refrain from indulging in a careless habit that has been draining it. Your willpower and determination have been weakened by the fallout from an old misstep, but you now have the clarity needed to repair that error. Your libidinous energy is not as clear and potent as it could be, but it will become so once you get more honest about what truly excites you.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
You’re like an arrow that has been shot from a bow and is three-quarters of the way to the target. You’re a delicious meal still simmering on the stove, or a pregnancy at seven months, or the last two weeks before a major election. When I tuned my inner vision to you, I glimpsed a honeybee wriggling a dance to show its coworkers where a stand of blooming lilac awaits. Have you ever been on the verge of speaking a new language with ease? That’s where you are now, Pisces: just before true fluency clicks.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In honor of the intensive homecoming phase of your astrological cycle, I have homework for you. 1. Make a prediction about how old you will be when you know precisely who you are. 2. Forecast the day when you will look in the mirror and recognize your face as an intricate portrait of every experience you have ever loved. 3. Imagine the dawn when the boundary between your own longing and life’s longing will dissolve, revealing they’ve always been the same current. 4. Predict when your heart will be as wild and free and brave as you have always wanted it to be.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Ornithologists studying migration know that some birds don’t fly directly to their destination. They follow “leading lines.” These are geographical features like coastlines and mountain ranges that provide orientation. Even when this means taking a longer route, the certainty of having a guiding landmark outweighs the efficiency of a straight line across nondescript terrain. I recommend the birds’ approach to you in the coming weeks, Taurus. Follow your own leading lines: practices and intuitions that provide lucid orientation even when they don’t offer shortcuts. The indirect path offers the surety you need.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
What’s an important truth you keep forgetting about? Maybe it’s a promise you once made to yourself, or an understanding that your younger self knew, or a wisdom your body keeps trying to communicate while your mind ignores it. What truth returns again and again in different guises: through synchronicities, seemingly random comments from friends, recurring dreams, or the same lesson repeating in new situations? What crucial insights about life do you remember during crisis or ecstasy, only to abandon them once normalcy returns? Now is a favorable time to fully recover this lesson and install it firmly at the heart of your life.
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
SHARE The Wisdom With Friends Who Are Stars in Your Life on Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease.” – Dalai Lama
Photo by: Joseph Pearson
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?
58 years ago today, the Intel Corporation was founded in Mountain View, California. One of the largest manufacturers of computer hardware, Intel was a key component of the rise of Silicon Valley as a high-tech center, as well as a pioneer of random access memory and microprocessors. It was one of the first companies listed on Nasdaq, and is today the third largest semiconductor producer in the world by revenue. READ more about this American tech powerhouse… (1968)
Homegrown catnip plants have proven to be as effective as DEET for repelling mosquitoes in rural Uganda.
Presented at an international science conference in Florence, Italy, a collaborative team of Welsh and Ugandan researchers believe they’ve found a lower cost solution to mosquito control that can reduce reliance on malaria medication, which the parasite is beginning to develop resistance to.
Nepetalactone is a chemical found in the essential oil of catnip, Nepeta cataria. It’s known for causing euphoric feelings in cats, but also seems to interfere with the olfactory sense of various mosquito species.
In laboratory tests, a 6% nepetalactone skin lotion proved as good as DEET for repelling mosquitoes from landing on a human arm. 2% nepetalactone proved only slightly less effective.
“DEET is out of the price bracket for most rural Ugandan subsistence farmers, so buying commercially available mosquito repellents is just not practicable,” says Dr. Simon Scofield, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University. “We wanted to make a repellent that is highly efficacious, but also allows local people to be involved in the production cycle so that it costs a minimal amount of money.”
Nepeta cataria is easy to grow, and the essential oil is easy to distil. It smells better than DEET, and besides all this it’s been used as a mosquito repellent traditionally for centuries.
“There is a real need to reduce the reliance on malaria medicines because malaria can develop resistance to drugs,” Scofield said. “Mosquito repellents represent one of the primary measures used to reduce the risk of malaria by reducing mosquito landing and biting events.”
Scofield worked with locals to develop a lotion product that could eventually be sold in order to apply market forces to what previously was created only through grant money. Even still, the resulting DSK lotion product cannot be patented, because it’s just essential oil and various stabilizers and other cosmetic bases.
“Once we know that we can sell and distribute the repellent at a low cost, that should generate a self-sustaining system where the money is flowing back to everybody at each stage in the development,” says Scofield.
SHARE This Quick, Easy, And Effective Mozy Repellent With Your Friends…
There’s an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child. That was true for this lonely 4-year-old in North Carolina.
What his neighborhood didn’t know, however, was that it sometimes takes a child to raise a village.
Roman, from Concord, was a happy enough child who loves sports and athletics. But that changed when his parents got divorced, and his father moved away.
His grandparents live out of state, and though like all young boys his mom means the world to him, Roman developed into an inner loneliness.
Before all that, though, Roman woke up every morning looking for someone to say hello to. He’d stay by the door and wave at anyone who passed by the house; garbage man, Amazon driver, or one of the many neighbors that his mother, Anna Butzloff, said she didn’t know personally.
This story started with an old adage, and now here’s another one: people just don’t know their neighbors anymore. That was Butzloff’s case, so she was at a loss for what to do when all those people her son had been waving to started to come over and say hello.
It started with Wade Folger, a retired man who lived next door and the subject of many a “hey” from Roman. One day, he came over to talk. Soon after, he started to ask Roman if he wanted to come over and do stuff.
Eventually, Steve Hartman reports from his “On the Road” segment, other neighbors started to follow up on all those heys and handwaving, and before long, Roman had made some friends.
“I didn’t really know how to take it,” said Butzloff. “I just saw that my son was happy.”
That son of hers, like the Sun in the sky, soon became the light of their neighborhood. Inviting his senior citizen neighbors to his swim meets, basketball, soccer, and baseball practices, his preschool open house, and his frequent pastime of drag racing his bike down the block. When his birthday rolled around, his mother knew exactly who to call.
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He stitched together the neighborhood like a quilt, curing his loneliness, and changing his little world besides.
Hartman got the neighbors together and asked them what it was all like, and even though most of them came from an earlier generation to Roman’s mom, most of them didn’t know each other either. Now, they wave at each other, just like Roman did.
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“Look at what this little kid has built,” said one.
“It does,” another says, pausing, “it does a world of good.”
“If the world was like this child, what an awesome, awesome place it would be,” said the eldest among them.
WATCH the story below from Steve Hartman…
SHARE This Inspiring Story With Your Neighbors On Social Media…
During the recent heat dome over Europe, multiple regions of Spain were scorched by wildfires.
But in the idyllic Iberian ecosystem of Doñana National Park, things were calm and lush. There hasn’t been a wildfire in the park for 9 years, in fact.
And it’s down to a very slow, very sweet team of hard workers: donkeys.
The “happy little donkeys” of Doñana have a simple job of each grazing freely across a 130 to 150 foot-long fire break, turning potential fuel in shrubs and grasses into food. From March to November, team members like Leonor, Ainoa, and Ume work 7 hours a day and drink some 8 gallons of water.
It might seem almost embarrassingly low-tech, but it works better than sheep and goats, and for Doñana, which acts as a vital refuge for Iberian lynx and migrating birds from Europe and Africa, it’s suitably low-impact.
The donkey fire brigade concept is being replicated in other areas of Spain that seem to be at ever greater risks of fires in their naturally-dry forests of pine. It is in fact the absence of donkeys that some researchers studying the increase in wildfires attribute for the greater and greater severity in burns.
Donkeys have worked in the field with Man thousands of years longer than horses. As faithful and sympathetic draft animals, they have plied the furrows, field, fells, and forests of Spain for millennia, but the onset of the major industrial revolutions and rural depopulation has removed these eating machines from the natural side of Spain, while the pre-domestic gazing wildlife which preceded them were long-since displaced or extirpated.
This has left the landscape vulnerable to explosive growth in understory vegetation and woody shrubs, which dry out in the more intense summers, and act as tinder and kindling for any spark.
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Nat Geo reports that Galicia, Catalonia, Ourense, Navarre, and the Basque Country have all enlisted “donkey brigades,” following Andalusia’s lead.
“A donkey weighs three times as much as a goat, so when it moves, it breaks up vegetation more effectively,” Joan Cedó, who launched Catalonia’s Tivissa Donkeys Firefighters in 2020, told the magazine. “A donkey also eats roughly 10 times more than a goat. That means its daily impact is much greater.”
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: California Developer Builds First Neighborhood Where All the Homes Are Resistant to Wildfires
“Since we introduced donkeys in our municipality, there have been no wildfires,” says Cedó.
Sheep and goats are also used in Spain to control fires. In 2016 the Fire Flocks Project started by figuring out where the fires most often started and became the fiercest, before creating a line of premium brand meat and dairy products produced by 22 shepherds, half of them new to the job, who graze sheep, goats, and bovines in 600 fire-prone areas.
SHARE These Donkeys Helping To Protect Spain’s National Parks…
When the BBC visited China’s frigid northeastern province of Heilongjiang (Black Dragon River) in 2008 hoping to catch a glimpse of the river’s famous giant sturgeon, the English documentarians learned that there were no more giant sturgeon—that the Black Dragon River had been chronically overfished.
Yet as China’s economic advancements led to greater and greater concern over the environment, special effort was dedicated to saving the Heilongjiang sturgeon.
China shares the Heilongjiang with the Russians, who call it the Amur River, and environmental authorities from the two nations recently gathered in Tongjiang city to release some 5 million juvenile fish into the river.
Global Times reports that 200 juvenile Amur sturgeon, and 485,000 juvenile kaluga (another sturgeon species that inhabits the river) were dumped into the Amur in a mass-release ceremony on the first Tuesday in July.
“Another 5.2 million fry of commercially valuable fish species, including silver carp and grass carp,” were also released, the Times reported.
The outlet claimed that many of the sturgeons received injections of a fluorescent marker that would allow them to be tracked and identified throughout their lifespan, offering critical information about distribution and reproduction patterns. Though this year’s release is significant, similar efforts to try and recover sturgeon populations haven’t always translated into success.
Both Russia and China have maintained captive breeding and artificial propagation programs for years, resulting in 8.45 million Amur sturgeon fry alone being released into the Amur river by 2005. This didn’t translate into increased populations or number of mature individuals. China had initially wanted to protect the industry for sturgeon caviar through the captive breeding, but realized it wasn’t going to save the fish, and so legal commercial harvesting ended in 2007.
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Most data in English shows the population to have been assessed as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN by 2006, and again in 2019, albeit with little additional data.
However Chen Huaifa, director of the Heilongjiang Aquatic Animal Resources Conservation Center, told the Global Times that in very recent times, monitored kaluga and Amur sturgeon are living to 5 years and older, something that was not recorded as little as 8 years ago. In 2025, the center recorded a sturgeon having lived 8 years, the age at which male sturgeons will contribute to spawning for the first time.
SAVING FISH: Maine Counts Over 20 Million River Herring During Annual Run, the Highest in Decades
“I have been fishing for decades. Now we have fish release activities every year, and seeing bags of fry being released into the river makes me truly happy,” fisherman Li Changyou told the Global Times.
“Stock enhancement is not only about protecting resources, but also about preserving a way of livelihood for fishermen like us and future generations. When there are more fish in the river, fishermen can have a more secure future,” he said.
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Quote of the Day: “The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo can last a great deal longer.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
Photo by: Akbar Nemati
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70 years ago today, the MGM musical comedy High Society was released. Starring Bing Crosby and a young Frank Sinatra, it was the first time the pair ever collaborated. It was a musical remake of Philadelphia Story, and was the last role for leading lady Grace Kelly before she left Hollywood to become Princess of Monaco, having married Prince Rainier. WATCH the trailer… (1956)
The US and Canadian governments recently approved a plan for the transfer of captive beluga whales which have been stranded for years at a closed theme park.
Shuttered years ago when the captivity for intelligent marine mammals became too controversial, Ontario’s Marineland still contained 30 beluga whales in need of new, more ethical homes.
Located near Niagara Falls, Marineland had no more money to care and feed for the belugas, and even threatened to euthanize them if Canada didn’t approve permits to move the creatures to other aquariums, after a previous attempt to send them to China was rejected.
As a species listed in appendix II of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species, movement of a beluga whale across borders requires a CITES permit for nations to remain in compliance with the treaty pursuant to that convention.
Now, both NOAA (the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and have approved plans and issued correct permits to move 28 animals to 4 different American aquariums, while Spanish authorities are pending permit issuance for the final 2 to be sent to Oceanogràfic València in Spain, which already houses belugas.
The Georgia Aquarium, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and two SeaWorld facilities in San Diego and San Antonio, are now preparing for the animals arrival.
All that’s left is for accredited veterinarians to now clear the whales for travel, and the special whale-transportation to be finalized.
“Once the belugas are cleared for travel by Canadian veterinarians, aquarium experts will accompany the animals to their new homes, where they will be met with diverse seafood to meet their nutritional needs, high quality environments with guaranteed water quality, and onsite medical care should they require it at any time,” the four American aquariums said in a statement.
“This rescue effort will take several weeks to mobilize and complete, and the comfort and safety of the whales remains of the utmost importance. Details will continue to change as this process moves forward, but the aquariums are committed to providing accurate updates along the way.”
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Two Beluga Whales Are Free for the First Time Since 2011 With a New Life On The Icelandic Coast
Known as the “white whale,” the beluga, a relative of the narwhal, is the only cetacean that naturally produces white skin pigmentation. They’re one of those animals whose skull forms their mouth into a smile, and coupled with their gentle demeanor and graceful swimming skills, they’re an aquarium favorite.
Male belugas in captivity can apparently mimic the pattern of human speech, several octaves lower than typical whale calls.
BEST OF BELUGAS: Kayaker Singing in Hopes of Attracting Beluga Whales Never Imagined They Were Actually Listening
One captive male beluga named No-see caused a diver in a tank with him to surface by imitating orders to get out of the water. Subsequent recordings confirmed that No-see had become skilled at imitating the patterns and frequency of human speech, and intentionally altered his normal methods of vocalization to achieve these sounds.
An animal this intelligent requires dignified and specialized habitat, something Marineland failed to provide, but soon will be awarded to all thirty animals for the rest of their days.
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