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Croatia Declared Landmine-free After More Than 2 Decades of Demining Efforts

By
Andy Corbley
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A landmine warning sign in Croatia - credit, Modzzak, CC BY-SA 3.0
A landmine warning sign in Croatia – credit, Modzzak, CC BY-SA 3.0

In an incredible, bittersweet success story, Croatia has announced it has freed itself from the scourge of landmines, 31 years after the country’s civil war.

During the breakup of Yugoslavia, 1.5 million landmines were estimated to have been used by all sides of the conflict, spread across an area of 453 square miles, twice the size of Zion National Park in Utah.

Suspected locations of minefields in Croatia marked in red.

Originally, some 5,000 square miles was believed to be contaminated by mines, but for obvious safety reasons it was difficult to get more accurate estimates.

Now, with more than one billion euros spent, the country has eliminated all known minefields using a combination of metal detectors, heavy machinery, and detection dogs.

“Croatia is free of land mines. After nearly 30 years, we have completed demining in accordance with the Ottawa Convention,” Interior Minister Davor Božinović said during an event in Zagreb, referencing the UN convention on the banning of anti-personnel mines, to which Croatia is a party to.

“Almost 107,000 mines and 407,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance have been removed. This is not just a technical success—it is the fulfillment of a moral obligation to the victims of mines and their families. A mine-free Croatia means safer families, better development of rural areas, more farmland, and stronger tourism.”

It’s difficult to ascertain an exact number, but likely tens of thousands of square miles of ground worldwide still contain minefields or areas contaminated by bombs and shells which failed to explode when they were first used.

DEMINING IN THE NEWS: 

Recently, Mozambique was declared mine-free in 2015, after clearing nearly 171,000 mines over 20 years.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance are significant impediments to rural development. Often appearing as shiny curiosities half-buried in the grass, children are at especially high risk of death and maiming from these weapons. Demining charities like HALO often pair their mine-clearance work with awareness raising and educational campaigns in school to help children to learn how to identify and stay away from mines and unexploded bombs.

The triumph in Croatia required hundreds of millions of euros in donations from other countries, and tragically claimed the lives of between 40 and 60 demining personnel who worked to make their country a safe place for generations to come.

CELEBRATE Croatia Freeing Itself From The Scourge Of Landmines On Social Media…

Kazakhstan Plants 37,000 Seedlings to Prepare for Imminent Return of Tigers

By
Andy Corbley
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A Siberian tiger, closely related to the extinct population from Kazakhstan - Credit: Bastak State Nature Reserve, CC 4.0. BY-SA
A Siberian tiger, closely related to the extinct population from Kazakhstan – Credit: Bastak State Nature Reserve, CC 4.0. BY-SA

Kazakhstan is preparing to reintroduce the tiger to a special habitat in the country’s south, one of the most ambitious rewilding programs anywhere on Earth.

Arm-in-arm with this has been reforestation efforts of riparian woodland around the Ile River and its delta at Lake Balkhash, which last year amounted to 37,000 young trees.

Between 2021 and 2024, 50,000 trees were planted in the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve, which last year also become the temporary haunts of a breeding tiger pair from the Netherlands.

“The results of 2025 are the outcome of many years of painstaking work. We are not simply planting trees, we are laying the foundation for resilient ecosystems capable of sustaining themselves,” said Aibek Baibulov, WWF Central Asia Project Manager for Forest Restoration in Kazakhstan.

“Today, we already see that plantings from previous years have reached heights of up to 2.5 meters, their root systems have reached groundwater, and they are forming natural communities. Restoring tugai forests is the basis for the return of wildlife to the region. Without healthy ecosystems, it is impossible to speak of stable animal populations, including the return of the tiger. We are grateful to all our partners and local residents who are contributing to this work.”

The program is being led by the government of Kazakhstan with support from WWF Central Asia and the UN Development Program.

If successful, it would be the first time that tigers were reintroduced to a range country where they are currently extinct. Genetic studies on bones and furs held in national collections revealed that the population of tigers living between Iran, southern Russia, Central Asia, and the areas around the Caspian Sea was extremely similar to Siberian tigers.

To that end, and with cooperation from the Netherlands, Bodhana and Kuma, a male and female Amur tiger pair, were transported from their sanctuary in the Low Countries to a semi-natural holding facility in Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve where they’ve been growing accustomed to the climate. It’s hoped, but not known, that they will breed.

Their offspring, once fully grown, will be the second-group of tigers released into the reserve, but as Baibulov said, that will be the final mile of a long journey that started years ago when the country had to begin to secure and grow populations of prey species.

Decades of work have seen populations of the saiga antelope bounce back from a perilously low 48,000 individuals in 2005 to a new high of over 1.9 million. Additionally, in 2019, several Bukhara deer were released into the reserve with hopes of reestablishing a healthy population that can sustain tigers, with another 200, give or take a dozen, released over the following years.

The species of tree seedlings planted over the last two years reflect these animals’ feeding habits, and include 5,000 willow seedlings, 30,000 long-leaved oleasters, and 2,000 native popular trees sacred to Kazakhs called turangas, along a 2.4 mile stretch of the banks of Lake Balkhash, the largest lake in Central Asia after the Aral Sea disappeared.

CENTRAL ASIAN NEWS: Kazakhstan Sees Incredible Progress Scaling Back World’s Worst Environmental Disaster

“Already, wild ungulates have been seen foraging on the restored sites, indicating that the ecosystem is beginning to function,” a spokesperson for WWF Central Asia told Live Science in an email. “Each planted seedling is therefore a direct contribution to the future of the tiger in Kazakhstan.”

The stage is set, (or you could maybe say the dinner table) for the return of the protagonist, and the Astana Times wrote just recently that the first wild Amur tigers would be arriving in Kazakhstan from Russia in the coming months, according to Chairman of the Committee for Forestry and Wildlife of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Daniyar Turgambayev.

MORE CENTRAL ASIAN WILDS: Kazakhstan Efforts to Restore Last Wild Equine Species Receive Huge Boost of 150 Horses

Kazakhstan is expecting 3 to 4 tigers before June, and a working group will be formed to develop a program for minimizing human-wildlife conflict.

“The Russian side will train Kazakh specialists to manage conflicts between humans and predators,” Turgambayev noted.

SHARE This Herculean Effort To Return The King Of The Jungle To Kazakhstan…

“The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.” – Norman Cousins

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Good News Network
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Credit: Tony Detroit

Quote of the Day: “The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.” – Norman Cousins

Photo by: Tony Detroit

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

Credit: Tony Detroit

Good News in History, March 3

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Good News Network
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Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza - credit, CC 4.0. BY-SA via Wiki Didier Descouens

441 years ago today, the Teatro Olimpico, considered by many to be the first modern covered theater in Europe, was inaugurated in the city of Vicenza, northern Italy, with a production of Oedipus Rex. Designed by Andrea Palladio and finished by Vincenzo Scamozzi, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of only three Renaissance theatres remaining in existence, and a venue that’s still used several times a year. READ about this famous Italian monument and venue… (1585)

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Stanford Cures Type-1 Diabetes in Mice Without Insulin or Immune Suppression

By
Andy Corbley
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Study team members Stephan Ramos, Seung Kim, and Preksha Bhagchandani - credit, Steve Fisch, Stanford University
Study team members Stephan Ramos, Seung Kim, and Preksha Bhagchandani – credit, Steve Fisch, Stanford University

In an experiment that exceeded scientists’ expectations, mice had their type-1 diabetes cured through a double-transplant method.

Additionally, there was no host rejection of one one of the two types of transplanted cells, and the immune system didn’t attack the other, resulting in a diabetes cure without any side-effects.

Obviously caveats must be drawn from a mouse model such as this, but the results have supercharged the team’s determination to try and see if they can replicate the success in humans.

“The possibility of translating these findings into humans is very exciting,” said Seung Kim, MD, PhD, and multidisciplinary professor at Stanford University.

“The key steps in our study—which result in animals with a hybrid immune system containing cells from both the donor and the recipient—are already being used in the clinic for other conditions. We believe this approach will be transformative for people with type 1 diabetes or other autoimmune diseases, as well as for those who need solid organ transplants.”

Unlike onset, or type-2 diabetes, type-1 is an autoimmune disorder that manifests in the patient’s immune system attacking their own islet cells, located in the pancreas and responsible for producing the hormone insulin, which helps control blood-glucose levels.

This new study from Stanford Medicine saw type-1 diabetic mice receive a transplant of islet cells and blood stem cell from a healthy mouse.

This combination proved to be virtually magical, and for 6 months, the treated mice needed no insulin injection, nor medication to suppress graft-versus-host disease, an immune-system response to transplantation that can be debilitating.

Stanford University described the results of the trial as particularly exciting because the pancreatic islet cells from the healthy donor have “two targets on their backs.” The first is that they’re transplanted cells from a different organism, and the second is that they are the type of cell that the autoimmune disorder spontaneously destroys.

“Just like in human type 1 diabetes, the diabetes that occurs in these mice results from an immune system that spontaneously attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in pancreatic islets,” Kim said. “We need to not only replace the islets that have been lost but also reset the recipient’s immune system to prevent ongoing islet cell destruction. Creating a hybrid immune system accomplishes both goals.”

Using a pre-transplant preparatory drug, used in a previous study of the same kind published by the team in 2022, the mixture of transplanted islet cells and hematopoietic stem cells created an immune system of mixed origin that suddenly snapped back into good working order and prevented type-1 diabetes in 19 out of 19 mice, while another 9 out of 9 mice who had suffered from long-term type-1 diabetes had their disease cured.

For the full six-month follow-up, none of the 9 needed an insulin injection or immuno-suppressant drugs to stop their immune system attacking the transplanted islet cells.

As a side-discovery of the experiment, Dr. Judith Shizuru, a member of the study team, had been working to devise a gentler and more benign, pre-treatment approach to blood stem cell transplantation. This procedure has been used to seemingly cure some cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, but it requires intense, sometimes life-threatening radiation therapy to wipe out the immune cell population in the patient’s bone marrow.

MORE DIABETIC TREATMENTS: Type 1 Diabetic Produces His Own Insulin After Gene-Edited Cell Transplant

This allows the time and space for the properly-functioning donated stem cells to take hold, and is being hypothesized as a potential treatment for autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

Dr. Shizuru applied a method to the mice that was far less vigorous, “knocking back” the bone marrow just enough, which was shown to be successful.

In regards to those other currently-incurable autoimmune diseases, the research holds much promise, but for type-1 diabetes, two factors mean the mouse model doesn’t immediately translate to humans.

IMMUNO-ADVANCEMENTS: First Patient to Receive Gene Therapy ‘Cure’ for Beta-Thalassemia Living Pain-Free

The first is that pancreatic islet cells can only be obtained from a deceased donor, while the blood stem cell transplant must come from the same person. Because of the size difference between the animals, it’s unclear how many millions of islet cells would be needed to see the same effect in humans.

Future work will include discovering a way of cultivating pancreatic islet cells in a lab through pluripotent stem cells, or perhaps finding a way to increase their survivability.

SHARE This Exciting Research With Your Friends On Social Media… 

NFL Delivers Net-Zero Super Bowl with Substantial Recycling of Trash and Other Materials

By
Andy Corbley
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Levi's Stadium, which hosted the 2026 Super Bowl, in 2016 - credit, US CBP
Levi’s Stadium, which hosted the 2026 Super Bowl, in 2016 – credit, US CBP

While Bad Bunny may have remained the highlight of Super Bowl LX’s post-mortem, GNN got in touch with the event organizers to unwrap a little of the full-time good behind half-time’s Bad.

The National Football League’s environmental program, NFL Green, contracted ENGIE Impact, a sustainable resource management company, to work with national and local partners in the Bay Area to ensure that carbon emissions from the event were offset, all stadium waste was recycled, and stadium power was green and renewable.

ENGIE Impact also helped organize the NFL Green’s sustainability operations during the last Super Bowl in New Orleans, and a case study on the efforts shows how one of the biggest commercial events in the country can actually have a very small footprint.

250 tons of materials, including trash but also reusable items, were recovered, representing a 5-fold increase from the previous Super Bowl. ENGIE Impact also delivered a carbon-neutral Super Bowl, with funding from the NFL going to purchase offsets for approximately 3,000 additional tons of CO2.

While such precise figures aren’t yet available for this year’s event at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, early indications are that similar successes were achieved.

Levi’s Stadium already possess a 3-color waste bin system for the entire complex, and ENGIE Impact ensured that staff would be on hand to answer any questions attending fans might have about where to throw their trash.

ENGIE Impact also organized a fantastic material collection drive far beyond just paper/metal/plastic waste, and GNN got in touch with Ryan Schlar, Director of Sustainable Mobile Operations at ENGIE Impact, to hear what was going on behind the scenes.

“This year, we donated fence mesh that lined the stadium to parks and recreation departments; leftover carpets from tailgate parties were given to schools to repurpose as carpet squares in classrooms; and wayfinding signage with blank back sides was given to artists, as it provides a great canvas for new projects,” he told GNN via email.

“In addition, sometimes materials that are not branded or unique to the event, like scaffolding, can be left and reused for future events. Some banner holders will stay in place at Levi’s Stadium to support FIFA signage for the World Cup this summer.”

Schlar said that this effort was also ongoing in New Orleans last year, and that donations look different for each event depending on what community organizations are in need of.

“We always try to work with and prioritize organizations that can offer a large communal benefit.”

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Soccer Team from George Clooney’s Holiday Town Donates Tournament Winnings to Flood Relief

Schlar said that Levi’s Stadium is almost entirely solar powered, while the diesel generators that handle the climate control for the stadium complex use biodiesel which has lower emission rates.

“Success looks different every year because we set the bar based on the stadium’s preexisting baseline,” Schlar said.

ALSO TWO YEARS AGO: NFL Scores Touchdown for Renewables: The Super Bowl Was 100% Solar Powered

ENGIE Impact again organized the purchase of additional carbon offsets—which can come in various forms, such as tree-planting or direct-air capture plants like this one in Iceland—to balance out the carbon emissions generated by the power consumed in the stadium, but being that it’s mostly solar-powered already, the event may have actually been a net-negative emitter.

SHARE This Responsible Event Management Efforts On The Sport’s Biggest Day…

90 Million Year-old ‘Missing Link’ Fossil of Tiny Bird-like Dinosaur Discovered

By
Andy Corbley
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- credit, Gabriel Díaz Yantén / SWNS
– credit, Gabriel Díaz Yantén / SWNS

As it often tends to, the fossilized remains of a tiny bird-like dinosaur are rewriting history.

A team of North and South American scientists described Alnashetri cerropoliciensis as the “missing link”—not from dinosaurs to birds, as the phrase has often been used to describe—but for finally understanding a mysterious group of small, widespread prehistoric animals.

Yet further, they team likened the discovery of the dino’s near-complete skeleton to a “paleontological Rosetta Stone.”

Alnashetri belongs to a group of bird-like dinosaurs, known as Alvarezsaurs, that are famous for their tiny teeth and stubby arms ending in a single large thumb claw.

But, for decades, they have remained a mystery because most of the well-preserved fossils were found in Asia, while records from South America were fragmented and difficult to interpret.

In 2014, the almost complete fossil of Alnashetri was discovered in the northern part of Patagonia, Argentina, by an international team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researcher Professor Peter Makovicky and his Argentinean colleague Dr. Sebastian Apesteguía.

The newer, more complete specimen allowed the team to finally map the group’s strange anatomy, and they’ve spent the last decade carefully preparing and piecing together the fossils to avoid damaging the small bones.

“Going from fragmentary skeletons that are hard to interpret, to having a near complete and articulated animal is like finding a paleontological Rosetta Stone,” said Dr. Makovicky. “We now have a reference point that allows us to accurately identify more scrappy finds and map out evolutionary transitions in anatomy and body size.”

He says the discovery of the nearly complete skeleton opens up a new understanding of how its lineage evolved, shrank, and spread across the ancient world.

“We have already found the next chapter of the Alvarezsaurid story there, and it’s in the lab being prepared right now,” said Dr. Makovicky.

MORE BIRD-LIKE DINOS: Bizarre Creature From China Had a Dinosaur Head on Bird’s Body – a Missing Link From 120 Million Years Ago

Microscopic analysis of the bones confirmed the animal was an adult at least four years of age. The largest species are the size of an average human, very small for dinosaurs, and Alnashetri itself weighed less than 2 lbs. making it one of the smallest dinosaurs known from South America.

Unlike its later relatives, Alnashetri had long arms and larger teeth, which the corresponding published research says proves that some Alvarezsaurs evolved to be tiny long before they developed the specialized features thought to be adaptations for an “ant-eating” diet.

MISSING LINKS: Newly Unveiled T-Rex Relative Was Sitting in Museum Drawer for 50 Years and ‘Rewrites’ Family Tree

The researchers said their worldwide distribution was caused by the breakup of the Pangea supercontinent.

“After more than 20 years of work, the La Buitrera fossil area has given us a unique insight into small dinosaurs and other vertebrates like no other site in South America,” said Dr. Apesteguía, a researcher at Universidad Maimónides in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

SHARE The Deep Insights Gleaned Into This Little Dino On Social Media… 

Total Lunar Eclipse Tuesday Morning Will Unveil Blood Moon for N. America, Australia and East Asia

By
Andy Corbley
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Lunar Eclipse with Full Blood Moon Credit: Dejan Zakic For Unsplash+
Lunar Eclipse with Full Blood Moon Credit: Dejan Zakic For Unsplash+

The full Moon in March will appear orange-red in the early morning sky as a result of a total Lunar eclipse, and North Americans are positioned almost perfectly to see it.

Sometimes called a Blood Moon in the media for the coloration, it should probably be called a coral or a jasper moon, because it doesn’t look like any blood you’ve ever seen.

The eclipse peaks in the early morning hours on Tuesday, March 3rd, with totality occurring around 6:04–7:02 a.m. US Eastern Time (3:04–4:02 a.m. Pacific Time).

The explanation for why the Moon turns orange-red comes from how the light from the Sun breaches the atmosphere. Sunlight contains a full color spectrum, and different wavelengths possess not only different colors, but different properties. Blue light scatters easily, NASA writes, when it comes in contact with the atmosphere, which is why the sky appears blue during the daytime.

As the Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, red light from our star, which moves at a more direct and lower velocity, penetrates Earth’s atmosphere at a shallow angle and is cast on the Moon in red.

The difference between a ‘total’ and ‘partial’ Lunar eclipse is that in the former case, the Moon will pass into the deepest part of Earth’s shadow, known in eclipse jargon as the umbra, and the moment of totality. The Sun, Earth, and Moon will be in perfect alignment, with the shadow from the light of the former falling over the latter.

32 minutes either side of totality, the Moon will still be in Earth’s shadow, but not perfectly centered, and while still appearing orange-red the deepest red coloration won’t be seen. Sometimes that’s as close as the Moon will get to the umbra, and in this case it’s known as a partial Lunar eclipse.

This eclipse will be best viewed across western North America, Central America, and the western part of South America. Australia, New Zealand, and eastern Asia, can see it too.

SHARE This Great Moment To Get Out And Enjoy Nature With Your Friends…

“No man is above the law and no man is below it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

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Good News Network
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Credit: Planet Volumes for Unsplash+

Quote of the Day: “No man is above the law and no man is below it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Photo by: Planet Volumes for Unsplash+

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

Credit: Planet Volumes for Unsplash+

 

Good News in History, March 2

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Good News Network
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Vladimir Remek - credit, Frank Leuband CC BY-SA 2.0 de,

48 years ago today, Vladimir Remek became the first person not of Soviet or American citizenry to enter space, when we wore the patch of his native Czechoslovakia up to the Salyut 6 space station onboard the Soyuz 28 mission. He is considered today the first astronaut of the European Union, some 30 years before its existence. Upon his return, he was widely celebrated across his native Czechoslovakia. Remek was only able to travel to space alongside a Russian cosmonaut, which prompted the popular joke: “Why didn’t the Soviets send up two Czechoslovak cosmonauts? Because they would’ve landed in West Germany.” READ about the mission and wider program… (1978)

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Ultra-Rare Pokemon Card That Cost $2 Sells for $40,000 at Auction, as Prices Soar

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Good News Network
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Rare, mint condition 1st Edition, Charizard Pokémon card from Shadowless Base Set – Hansons Auctioneers / SWNS
Rare, mint condition 1st Edition, Charizard Pokémon card from Shadowless Base Set – Hansons Auctioneers / SWNS

An ultra-rare Pokémon card that cost $2 in 1999 just sold for a whopping $40,000 at auction.

The 1st edition Shadowless Base Set Charizard card is known as the “holy grail” to collectors and enthusiasts, according to Hansons Auctioneers.

The “mint condition” card went under the hammer as part of the UK’s largest ever sale of Pokemon cards, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Japanese multi-media franchise that captured the imagination of children and adults around the world.

Back in 1999, you could buy a pack of 11 Pokémon cards at any Woolworths for between $1.50 and $2.

“A Charizard was the rarest holographic in Base Set, so pulling one from a pack was like winning a mini lottery,” said Hansons’ Pokemon specialist David Wilson-Turner, who said 30 years on, Pokémon is undergoing a huge resurgence.

“Only 4,000 to 10,000 cards were produced, most of which were played with and are now dogeared – so to find one in mint condition like this one, which has a grading of 9 (out of 10), makes it all the rarer.”

Rare 1st Edition Charizard Pokémon Card sells for $40k -Hansons Auctioneers SWNS

Prices of rare and sealed products continue to skyrocket, with some cards and booster sets being resold at huge premiums.

“Pokémon is a market that has grown rapidly in recent years,” said auctioneer Charles Hanson, star of TV’s Bargain Hunt.

“It is the strongest it has ever been right now and will only continue to grow.

“Wealthy young people in their 20s and 30s who got into Pokémon when they were children are buying rare cards and prices began to spike a few years ago.”

GOOD TO KNOW: Pokémon GO May Alleviate Some Depression, Says Study

So, everyone should dig out their toy boxes and attic collections. Y might be surprised—and thousands of dollars richer.

ALERT FELLOW PLAYERS TO CHECK the ATTIC–Share This on Social Media…

Rare Fossils in Amber Raise Questions About Secret Lives of Cretaceous Insects

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Good News Network
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Amber in Case 6 – Credit: Dr Jose de la Fuente / Institute for Game and Wildlife Research
Amber in Case 6 – Credit: Dr Jose de la Fuente / Institute for Game and Wildlife Research

Insects play a critical role in ecosystems but, because they are so rarely preserved as fossils, it’s hard to study their roles from habitats millions of years old.

But fossilized tree resin can occasionally preserve an insect within its amber, freezing a moment in time.

Most rare of all is when the moment in amber contains multiple insects that were living in close proximity to each other–providing a priceless opportunity to learn more about their ecosystems in bygone geological eras.

The biggest question is: Were they pollinators, parasites, predators, or prey—or were they just ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’?

In a new study, researchers in Spain analyzed six pieces of amber containing fossilized ants that lived alongside dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period.

The samples include several different organisms of different species, a rare phenomenon called ‘syninclusion’.

“Amber inclusions are representative of possible interactions between different organisms shaping the environment,” said study lead author Dr. Jose de la Fuente, of the Institute for Game and Wildlife Research in the city of Ciudad Real. “(They) provide a snapshot of life on Earth millions of years ago.”

Ants are considered particularly important to ecosystems. The earliest ants, which were first found in the Upper Cretaceous period 66 to 100 million years ago, are known as Stem ants and didn’t leave modern descendants. All ants alive today evolved from Crown ants.

Both species are found in the amber samples studied by the scientists, as well as Hell ants, which evolved from Stem ants.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, included four pieces of Cretaceous amber around 99 million years old, one piece of Eocene amber from around 34 to 56 million years ago, and one piece of Oligocene amber from around 23 to 34 million years ago.

The scientists used powerful microscopes to examine the amber, and found three of the six pieces of amber contained ants in close proximity to mites.

In one piece of amber the scientists found a Crown ant, wasp, and two mites, so close to the ant that they may have been traveling on it. Another (known as Case 4) contained a Stem ant and a mite, about four millimeters apart (around 1/10 inch).

AMAZING AMBER:
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• 112-Million-Year-Old Amber Samples Preserve a Snapshot of an Ancient Forest

A further piece also contained three different species of ant close to a mite and some termites, as well as mosquitoes and a winged insect.

In another piece of amber, known as Case 6, the research team found a Stem ant, which seems to have been feeding on something, alongside a probable parasitic wasp and a spider. Another piece contains a Stem ant and a spider, while the other contained a Hell ant, a snail, a millipede, and some unidentifiable insects.

Dr. de la Fuente said the ant-mite interactions in Case 4 may reflect two possible scenarios: First, a relationship where mites attach to ants for free rides to new habitats, or second, one where mites feed on the ant host during transport.

But some evidence points to their relationship being mutually beneficial.

WHAT’S UNDER A MICROSCOPE? ‘Once-in-a generation’ Fossil Discovery Reveals New Species in 16-Million-Year-old Amber

Future research could help clarify that by using micro-CT scanning to look for attachment structures on mites which would have allowed them to clamber onboard ants to travel.

He said the spider in Case 6 could camouflage itself as an ant and may have benefited from proximity to real ants.

It makes a person wonder what Charles Darwin would have perceived—and conceived of—had he been included in this fascinating research project.

Forget Yankee Candle, This Company has Hired Disabled Americans for 20 Years to Produce Superior Scents

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Good News Network
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Credit: A Cheerful Giver candles
Credit: A Cheerful Giver candles

We may need to allow our ‘flame’ for Yankee Candles to burn out, now that we’ve learned about this New Jersey small business that gives back to their community in life-changing ways.

For over 20 years, the family-owned candle company has provided meaningful employment for adults with special needs, hiring them to place the wicks inside their delicious-smelling candles.

Founded in 1991, ‘A Cheerful Giver’ now sells to thousands of retail stores nationwide and has built a loyal following on Amazon.com—and for decades their commitment to inclusive employment has never wavered.

“These team members place the wicks in every candle we pour,” said the owners, Tony and Susan Gross. “They’re the heart of our operation.”

“How much they work is entirely up to them. There’s no pressure, no quotas—just purposeful employment and the pride that comes with being part of something real.”

The employees arrive through a partnership with Career Opportunity Development Inc (CODI), a New Jersey nonprofit founded by a group of loving parents 55 years ago to develop ways for young adults with disabilities to find work, vocational training, and housing.

Located outside of Atlantic City in Egg Harbor, CODI workers are employed in a number of different fields and get competitive wages that support their independence.

Courtesy of A Cheerful Giver

Each day, they work for as little as a few minutes, or as long as 6 hours.

“All of our wickers bring home a paycheck each day for all they’ve accomplished, building a sense of pride and purpose,” wrote Tony and Susan on their website.

ANOTHER AMAZING BUSINESS: Car Wash Hires All-Autistic Staff to Wash Away Barriers: 10 Years Later, There’s Now 4 Florida Locations

“When you buy an A Cheerful Giver candle, you’re supporting a workplace that has given differently-abled individuals the opportunity to contribute, earn, and belong.”

Available in three sizes, every candle is hand-poured with premium paraffin wax, delivering a “powerful scent throw” that has made A Cheerful Giver so popular—and, they ship their products all over the world.

“I was a Yankee Candle zealot until I tried A Cheerful Giver,” said one fan. “The scent throw is unmatched… I can smell it throughout my entire house.”

But what makes the company stand out isn’t just how the candles perform. It’s who makes them.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GLOW? Glow-in-the-Dark Petunias Emit Bioluminescence Like Fireflies–Now For Sale in 48 States Online

“At Cheerful Giver, we are more than just another candle we; We are a proud American Company that makes our own products and gives back to ensure we are making a difference in the lives of others.”

RECOMMEND THE CANDLES: Share Their Flaming Good on Social Media…

Treacherous 43-Day Mountain Search Finally Reunites Dog With Owner After it Bolted During Road Trip: ‘It was amazing’

By
Nathan Frederick
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Rocky with Summit Lost Pet Rescue volunteer Ashley Goldberg – Photo courtesy of Brandon Ciullo
Rocky with Summit Lost Pet Rescue volunteer Ashley Goldberg – Photo courtesy of Brandon Ciullo

Steven Maa was worried his beloved dog wouldn’t survive the night in the Rocky Mountains.

He was driving cross-country to California from New Jersey to start a new job on the West Coast when he stopped for some skiing in Montezuma, Colorado on Dec. 28.

He left his dog Rocky with a local pet sitter, but, instead of relaxing, the mottled brown-and-black pooch soon bolted into the mountains—and a blizzard was rolling into the region which has a local elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (3,000m).

Steven was panicked. He reached out to the town’s mayor, who recommended Summit Lost Pet Rescue, a nonprofit with a near-perfect record of locating lost pets—with more than 200 recoveries in the last year alone.

For Rocky’s challenging case, the Summit search team set up trail cameras and a scent station, which usually includes the owner’s clothes and a comfy dog bed that can draw the animal out of hiding. They also launched a social media campaign that shared Rocky’s pictures.

A few days passed without any sign and temperatures plunged below zero. Steven feared the worst, but then Rocky appeared on one of the trail cams, stirring hope that the duo might be able to soon continue their road trip.

No luck. After spending multiple 16-hour days searching for him, Steven had to make the heartbreaking decision to leave Rocky behind and move ahead to his new job in California.

“I was a little clogged with emotion,” the founder of Summit Lost Pet Rescue, Brandon Ciullo, told PennLive. “I just couldn’t believe we couldn’t find him, and I was disappointed.”

Several weeks went by with no reported sightings and hope was dwindling. How long could a domesticated dog even survive in the wilds of a Rocky Mountain winter? A few weeks? A month?

But then on February 9th, a resident saw an unidentified dog on a household Ring camera. It was Rocky.

Steven confirmed the appearance after recognizing his collar. Then, Brandon and his co-founder Melissa Davis quickly set up a trap with scent trails using Steven’s clothes leading to a cage.

Within three hours, Rocky entered the trap.

Rocky after 43 days missing – Photo courtesy of Brandon Ciullo

Rocky was finally secured—a champion for surviving 43 days—and would soon be reunited with Steven. (Watch the joyous reunion below…)

The dog had lost almost half his body weight, dropping from 50 pounds to just 26. But when he was reunited with Steven, who arrived from California, the dog’s energy rebounded—and tears fell around the room when everyone saw how excited he was to see his family.

“We were just so overjoyed,” Steven said. “And in disbelief that he could survive for that long; (I’m) just extremely proud of him.”

And, after so many weeks fearing they had lost him, Brandon, too, was overcome with emotion: “He’s the only dog I’ve ever cried over.

“It was amazing. It’s what we put hundreds and hundreds of hours into. These reunions are why we do what we do.”

Rocky’s rescue marked the longest number of days a dog had been missing, before being found by the nonprofit Summit Lost Pet Rescue.

The group has a 99% success rate, recovering 213 of 214 lost dogs last year.

MORE MIRACLE DOGS:
• Tiny Chihuahua Helps Rescue Owner Who Fell into Swiss Glacier
• Dog Sits Down in Middle of Road Unmoving–Until Officer Follows to Save Her Owner
• Dog Named Hero Saves Owner’s Life for Days–Fighting Off Cold and Coyotes and Getting Help

LET’S KEEP ROCKY’S RESCUE PARTY GOING By Sharing This on Social Media…

“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.” – Leo Tolstoy

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Pakistani boy saluting – Credit: Assad Tanoli

Quote of the Day: “The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.” – Leo Tolstoy

Photo by: Assad Tanoli

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

Pakistani boy saluting – Credit: Assad Tanoli

 

Good News in History, March 1

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Page one of Articles of Confederation - public domain

245 years ago today, the Articles of Confederation were officially adopted by the Continental Congress after ratification by all 13 states as the supreme law of the land in post-Revolutionary America. Calling into existence the most limited and constrained form of government ever achieved by modern man, affording it only those powers the former colonies had recognized as belonging to the King of England. There was no president, no executive agencies, no judiciary, and no tax base. READ More… (1781)

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Older Male Whales More Successful at Mating Because They’re Better Singers, Shows Study

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Humpack whale breaching Credit: Opération Cétacés / Claire Bonneville (via SWNS)
Humpack whale breaching Credit: Opération Cétacés / Claire Bonneville (via SWNS)

Older male whales are more successful at mating than their younger rivals because they are better singers, suggests new research.

The older singing whales are increasingly successful at birthing offspring compared to younger males, with the findings suggesting that the humpbacks may need time to learn and refine their singing and competitive tactics—giving experienced males a clear advantage.

Researchers believe that as the whale population recovers after centuries of being hunted, females may also have become more selective, which could lead to greater success among males with favorable traits or the strongest performance.

The international study, led by the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, showed that the role of age in male humpback whale reproduction has changed as their numbers grow.

Whaling drove many species to the brink of extinction, but scientists say its legacy runs deeper than just a drastic decline in numbers.

Decades after commercial whaling ended, researchers found its impacts continue to shape whale populations—influencing which males most often reproduce.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, assessed two decades of data from humpback whales breeding in New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

They found that during the early years of recovery, the population was dominated by young males. But, over time, as the overall population increased, the age structure shifted: When older individuals became more common, they became increasingly successful at siring offspring, compared to younger males.

Group of humpback whales in breeding ground – Credit: Opération Cétacés / Claire Bonneville (via SWNS)

Humpback whales have never been observed mating in the wild, and so ‘who’ is fathering a calf remained largely unknown, until now.

Drawing on long-term monitoring conducted by the NGO Opération Cétacés, the research team analyzed changes in age structure, behavior, and paternity in male whales.

The team applied genetic analysis to identify paternity—and used an ‘epigenetic molecular clock’ to estimate the age of individual whales—all from just a small piece of whale skin.

Humpback whales have undergone a remarkable comeback in recent years, and, in fact, populations are now well above pre-whaling levels in Australia. It now seems behavior is also evolving.

The most elaborate songs in the animal kingdom

Male humpback whales are famous for producing some of the most elaborate songs in the animal kingdom. Their powerful vocal displays can often be heard far across breeding grounds.

AMAZING: Humpbacks Are Singing More: Number of Songs Has Doubled as Food Sources Became More Abundant

Males may also escort females or engage in intense physical competition with rival males.

“As the population recovered, there were more older males than expected singing, escorting females, and successfully fathering calves compared to younger animals,” said senior author Dr. Ellen Garland, of the Sea Mammal Research Unit.

The study’s lead author, Dr. Franca Eichenberger, also from the Sea Mammal Research Unit, said new technology is allowing new insights.

“It is only now, as whale populations recover and new analytical tools become available, that we are beginning to understand how far-reaching the consequences of whaling truly are.”

MORE WHALE TALES:
• In World First, Scientists Share What Was Almost Certainly a Conversation with a Humpback Whale
• Kayaker Singing in Hopes of Attracting Beluga Whales Never Imagined They Were Actually Listening (WATCH)

“The impacts extend beyond population size—they shape behavior, competition, and reproduction. Virtually all populations of whales have changed due to whaling; our work shows that they continue to change as they recover.

“Now is the time we can learn so much more about their behavior and life history. We just need to keep looking.”

CHEER ON OLDER MALES By Sharing The Surprising Research on Social Media…

Dozens of Strangers Form Parade for Man with Cancer, Driving Classic Cars Passed his Home for One Last Surprise (WATCH)

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Photo by Matthew Hillar
Photo by Matthew Hillar

A Colorado man was given a heartwarming surprise last week, after his granddaughter reached out to strangers who provided one last look at his favorite thing—a classic car show.

“I just wanted to do something special for him,” his granddaughter, Annaliesse Garcia, told KDVR News.

And ‘special’ it was, as dozens of car owners paraded past their grandfather’s home in Lakewood.

After posting the request on social media, the family only expected a handful of autos, but around 50 showed off their curvy bumpers and round mirrors for 80-year-old Max Archuleta, a lifelong fan of vintage vehicles.

Since being diagnosed with terminal cancer, he no longer has the energy to attend his beloved car shows.

“I had seen him at a show last summer, and I was like, that’s something that you do for your community,” said Butch Souza, who even taped a poster of Max’s photo to his 1951 Ford Shoebox.

The historical cars in every color lined up in single file and drove slowly past the home, some with American flags, and every driver waving and honking their horn.

“I couldn’t believe everybody,” Max said. “Just all this for me.”

WATCH the local news video below, from KDVR-TV in Denver…

MORE KINDNESS SURPRISES:
• 1,500 Bikers Show Up to Escort Bullied Teen to Prom in Spectacular British Convoy: ‘I don’t feel alone anymore’
• When 5-year-old Missed Graduation, Plane Passengers Give Special Midair Ceremony – (WATCH)
• High School Teens Swoop in to Support 6th Grade Stranger When No One Would Sign His Yearbook

GIVE FRIENDS A PARADE OF GOOD NEWS: Share This on Social Media…

Monopoly World Champion Reveals His Secrets for Always Beating Your Family, as the Game Celebrates 90 Years

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Jason Bunn, World Monopoly Champion, at his home near Leeds, England – SWNS
Jason Bunn, World Monopoly Champion, at his home near Leeds, England – SWNS

A Monopoly World Champion has shared his top tips for winning your next game—and his first piece of advice is to always buy the ‘orange’ properties.

As the iconic board game celebrates its 90th birthday this year, Jason Bunn, who once won the world title, talked to SWNS news agency about his successful strategies.

His first secret to victory is building upon orange properties because they offer the best return on investment—St. James Place, Tennessee Avenue, and New York Avenue in American editions. (In the UK, the orange locations are Bow Street, Marlborough Street and Vine Street.)

The passionate Monopoly-playing grandfather says you should try to buy everything you land on—even if you don’t want it—because stockpiling properties gives you the upper hand in negotiations.

The 65-year-old has eight more expert tips to help players bankrupt their rivals.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of Parker Brothers buying the rights to Monopoly on March 19, 1935. It should be noted that the game’s concepts were earlier invented—and patented in the U.S.— by an anti-monopolist Quaker named Lizzie Magie who called it The Landlord’s Game and used it to teach the dangers of land monopolization.

“I won the World Championships in the 50th anniversary year—and that seems like a long time ago now,” said Jason, who scooped the titled in 1985.

Jason’s journey to glory began after spotting an advertisement in a local paper calling for entrants to a regional contest. Out of 50 contestants, four were sent to London for the British Championships, but the man from Leeds won, earning him a ticket to New York where he was crowned the World Champion.

From then, his childhood hobby snowballed into a lifelong obsession.

Jason Bunn with his Monopoly game collection – SWNS

He’s spent more than four decades amassing one of England’s most impressive collections of the board game, and today he owns around 500 boards. Among his treasures is a handmade Welsh edition featuring wooden inlay and solid silver pieces worth $800.

“Whenever I went on holiday, I’d buy the local Monopoly edition like other people buy postcards.” His collection includes themed boards inspired by Star Wars, Game of Thrones, X-Men, Coca-Cola, and even Elvis.

And, new releases are hard to resist: “When I see something new, I just have to have it. I must be the easiest in the world to buy presents for.”

He still plays Monopoly during family gatherings—and insists that the game does not need to drag on for hours. Jason once finished two games in a one-hour lunch break.

Credit: Maria Lin Kim

In fact, he believes the optimum game time is just 30 minutes, and says that family fights will only erupt because people ignore the official rulebook.

In his opinion, the popularity of the game is stunningly enduring. “What other trademark has been going for so long?”

Jason’s top tips for winning at Monopoly

1. Snap up the orange set
The orange properties offer the best return on investment, especially because players frequently land on them after leaving jail.

2. Build three houses quickly
Getting up to three houses on a set as fast as possible dramatically increases your earning power.

3. Buy everything you land on
Even if you don’t want it, it could be valuable later in negotiations. The real skill in Monopoly is deal-making.

4. Master the art of negotiation
The more properties you hold, the stronger your bargaining position with other players.

5. Use jail strategically
Late in the game, when the board is full of danger spots, staying in jail can actually be a safe haven.

6. Don’t put money on Free Parking
That’s a made-up house rule and not in the official game – it just slows everything down.

7. Stick to the proper rules
Playing correctly makes the game quicker and less argumentative.

8. Use the house shortage to your advantage
There are only 32 houses in the game – building up to four houses on each property can block opponents from developing theirs.

9. Think long-term, not short-term
Every purchase and deal should be about strengthening your overall position on the board.

SHARE THE TIPS With Board Gamers on Social Media…

Your Weekly Horoscope – ‘Free Will Astrology’ by Rob Brezsny

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Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, 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 February 28, 2026
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Sufi mystics tell us that the heart has “seven levels of depth,” each one bearing progressively more profound wisdom. You access these depths by feeling deeper, not thinking harder. Let’s apply this perspective to you, Pisces. Right now, you’re being called to descend past surface emotions (irritation, worry, mild contentment) into the layers beneath: primal wonder, the wild joy you’re sometimes too cautious to express, and the sacred longing that can lead you to glory. This dive might feel risky. That’s good! It means you’re going deep enough. What you discover down there will reorganize everything above it for the better.

ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In woodworking, “spalting” occurs when fungi colonize wood, creating dark lines and patterns that make the wood more valuable, not less. The decay creates beauty as long as it isn’t allowed to progress too far. Here’s the metaphorical moral of the story for you, Aries: What feels like a deteriorating situation might actually be spalting, Aries. Are you experiencing the breakdown of a routine, a certainty, or a plan? It could be creating a pattern that makes your story even more interesting and heroic. So keep in mind that an apparent decomposition may be transforming ordinary into extraordinary beauty. My advice is to play along with the spalting.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
I suspect you will soon be invited to explore novel feelings and unfamiliar states of awareness. As you wander in the psychological frontiers, you might experience mysterious phenomena like the following. 1. An overflow of reverence and awe. 2. Blissful surprise in the face of the sublime. 3. Sudden glimmers of eternity in fleeting moments. 4. A soft, golden resonance that arises when you hear arousing truths. 5. Amazingly useful questions that could tantalize and feed your imagination for months and even years to come.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
If I were your mentor, I’d lead you up an ascending trail to a high peak where your vision is clear and vast. If I were your leader, I’d give you a medal for all the ways you’ve been brave when no one was looking, then send you on an all-expenses-paid sabbatical to a beautiful sanctuary to rest and remember yourself. If I were your therapist, I’d guide you through a 90-minute meditation on your entire life story up until now. But since I’m just your companion for this brief oracle, I will instead advise you to slip out of any silken snares of comfort that dull your spirit, cast off perks and privileges that keep you small, and commune with influences that remind you of how deeply you treasure being alive.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Biologist Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize by developing what she called “a feeling for the organism.” She cultivated an intimate, almost empathic relationship with the corn plants she studied. She didn’t impose theories on her subjects. She listened to them until she could sense their hidden patterns from the inside. When you’re not lost in self-protection, you Cancerians excel at this quality of attention. Here’s what I see as your task in the coming weeks: Transfer your empathic genius away from people who drain you and toward projects, places, or problems that deserve your devotion and give you blessings in return.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
Sufi writers describe heartbreak, grief, and longing as portals through which divine love enters. They say that a highly defended ego and a hardened heart can’t engage with such profound and potent love. In this view, suffering that makes the heart ache strips away illusions and fixations, allowing greater receptivity, humility, and tenderness toward all beings.​ I’m not expecting you to get blasted by an influx of poignancy in the near future, Leo, but I’m very sure you have experienced such blasts in the past. And now is an excellent time to process those old breakthroughs disguised as breakdowns. You are likely to finally be able to harvest the full power they offered you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
In traditional Balinese culture, Tri Hita Karana is a concept that means there are three causes of well-being: harmony with God, harmony with people, and harmony with nature. When one is out of balance, all suffer. I’m wondering if you would benefit from meditating on this theme now, Virgo. Have you been focused on one dimension at the expense of the others? Are you, perhaps, spiritually nourished but socially isolated? Or maybe you’re maintaining relationships but ignoring your body’s connection to the earth? Here’s your assignment: Do a Tri Hita Karana audit. Which harmony is most neglected? Add to your altar, call a friend, or go walk in the great outdoors—whichever one you’ve been shortchanging.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
You are a diplomat in the struggle between beauty and inelegance. Your aptitude for creating harmony is a great asset that others might underestimate or miss completely. I hope you will always trust your hunger for classiness even if others dismiss it as superficial. One of your key reasons for being here on earth is to keep insisting on loveliness in a world too quick to settle for ugliness. These qualities of yours are especially needed right now. Please be gracefully insistent on expressing them wherever you go.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
The bad news: You underestimate how much joy and pleasure you deserve—and how much you’re capable of experiencing. This artificially low expectation has sometimes cheated you out of your rightful share of bliss and fulfillment. The good news: Life is now ready to conspire with you to raise your happiness levels. I hope you will cooperate eagerly. The more intensely you insist on feeling good, the more cosmic assistance you will garner. Here’s a smart way to launch this holy campaign: Renounce a certain lackluster thrill that diverts you from more lavish excitements.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
In classical music, a “rest” isn’t the absence of music. It’s a specific notation that creates space, tension, and meaning. The silence is as much a part of the composition as the sound. I suggest you think of your current pause this way, Sagittarius. You’re not waiting for your real life to resume. You’re in a rest, and the rest is an essential part of the process you’re following. It’s creating the conditions for what comes next. So instead of anxiously filling every moment with productivity or distraction, try honoring the pause. Be deliberately quiet. Let the silence accumulate. When the next movement begins, you’ll understand exactly why the rest was necessary.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
Interesting temptations are wandering into your orbit. You may be surprised to find yourself drawn toward entertaining gambles and tricky adventures. How should you respond? Should you say “Yes! Now! I’m ready!”? Or is open-minded caution a wiser approach? Conditions are too slippery for me to arrive at definitive conclusions. What I can tell you is this: Merely considering and ruminating on these invitations will awaken uplifting and inspiring lessons. PS: To get the fullness of the blessings you want from other people, you must first give them to yourself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
The engineer Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) said he envisioned his inventions in intricate detail before building them. He didn’t need literal prototypes because his mental pictures were so vivid. I suspect you Aquarians now have extra access to this power. What scenarios are you dreaming of? What are you incubating in your imagination? I urge you to boldly trust your thought experiments. Your mental prototypes may be unusually accurate. The visions you’re testing internally are reconnaissance missions to futures that you have the power to build. Regard your imagination as a laboratory.

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

(Zodiac images by Numerologysign.com, CC license)

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