Uplifting News

After her mother was vaccinated against Covid-19, a baby girl was born with antibodies that fight the coronavirus in Florida in the eastern United States.

The girl's mother was 36 weeks pregnant when she received the first dose of the antidote developed by the Moderna laboratory, to which she agreed because she was on the front line of the fight against the pandemic. The baby girl was born three weeks later, in late January.

"As far as we know, this is the world's first reported case of a baby born with covid-19 antibodies after her mother's vaccination," said Paul Gilbert, a pediatrician. Gilbert and Chad Rudnick, also a pediatrician, will publish a scientific paper on the matter, they said in an interview with Palm Beach television station WBPF.

A 40-year-old man from London is believed to have become the second person in the world to be cured of HIV.

Adam Castillejo remains free of the virus 30 months after he stopped anti-retroviral therapy, doctors said. A stem-cell treatment he underwent for cancer also cured him of HIV, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet.

Lead researcher Professor Ravindra Kumar Gupta of the University of Cambridge told BBC News: "This represents HIV cure with almost certainty. "Our findings show that the success of stem-cell transplantation as a cure for HIV, first reported nine years ago in the Berlin patient, can be replicated."

Members of European Parliament are set to vote on declaring the European Union a LGBTIQ Freedom Zone in support of the community. The move comes two years after the first Polish county officially discriminated against persons based on sexual preference or identity.

Netflix has announced it will commit $5 million worldwide to programs that promote female talent in the entertainment industry.

“If you have women behind the camera, you see more women in front of the camera,” says Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s head of global TV. “If you have more people of color and underrepresented groups being creators, you absolutely see that reflected—and see those stories—in front of the camera.”

Researchers at the University of Pretoria in South Africa report that they have found substances that could prevent tmalaria ransmission. They write in the journal Nature Communications that two substances that have been studied for their effectiveness against tuberculosis and cancer can kill malaria parasites - even when it is infectious. For the past year, the WHO fears even more victims because many prevention measures could not be implemented due to the Corona pandemic.

New electricity from Hamburg's roofs: Hamburg will be the first German state to introduce mandatory photovoltaics from 2023. Starting in two years, corresponding systems must be installed on new buildings or roofs that are being fundamentally renovated. The generated solar power is expected to save over 60,000 tons of CO2 by 2030.

The Israeli Health Minister Juli Edelstein announced that around 1.8 million Israelis had received the first vaccination dose. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also received his second vaccination against the coronavirus on Saturday evening. Israel is currently in its third Corona lockdown, as infection numbers had risen significantly again by the end of the year.

The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has signed parliamentary ratification and with this committed the country to abolish the death penalty. This follows a freeze on capital punishment for nearly 20-years.

Over 370 religious leaders from around the world are calling for an end to the criminalisation of LGBT+ people and a ban on gay conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practise of trying to change an individual's sexual orientation. The leaders stated that "certain religious teachings have often, throughout the ages, caused and continue to cause deep pain and offence" to LGBTQ+ people and further have "created, and continue to create, oppressive systems that fuel intolerance, perpetuate injustice and result in violence."

Among those who signed are eight archbishops, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu; over 60 rabbis, including former Chief Rabbi of Ireland David Rosen; the Catholic former president of Ireland Mary McAleese and various senior Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus.

Airbnb has launched Airbnb.org, a nonprofit platform designed to proved housing and shelter for people in emergency situations. After Airbnb hosts have opened up their homes for people in need for years, Airbnb.org will now formally "hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. "

"The program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and most recently, frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19," so Airbnb in a statement.

Employees of a forestry authority in India have built a bridge made of jute ropes and bamboo planks over a road in the jungle. This should make the way to the other side safe for small animals.

Further large green bridges are being planned - the first is to be built over the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. A total of five such green bridges are to be built by 2024.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first First Minister of Scotland, has announced that "initial supplies of the Covid vaccine have now arrived safely in Scotland and are being stored securely" adding that "the first vaccinations are on track to be administered on Tuesday".

A United States federal judge has ruled on Friday that the Trump administration must accept new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as Daca, which protects some young immigrants from deportation. During the 2016 election, Trump promised to rip up Daca immediately, triggering a legal battle that continued throughout his presidency, winding up in the supreme court this year. The supreme court in June blocked Trump's bid to end Daca, calling it "arbitrary and capricious" and saying that it violated federal law.

Scotland is the first country in the world to vote for free access to menstrual products. The law, which was unanimously passed in parliament in Edinburgh on Tuesday, obliges the administrations of public buildings to provide hygiene products for women free of charge.

Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, Monica Lennon, has stated that: "This will make a massive difference to the lives of women and girls and everyone who menstruates. There has already been great progress at a community level and through local authorities in giving everyone the chance of period dignity."

The British South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha has created the world's fourth-largest marine reserve and has banned deep-sea mining and fishing with beam trawls over an area of 627,000 km². This created the largest protected area in the Atlantic Ocean and the fourth largest in the world.

The protected area is part of the so-called blue belt, a protection program for British overseas territories, which the British government is funding with 27 million pounds (approx. 30 million euros). So far, a total of 11.1 million square kilometers have been protected - that is one percent of the world's ocean area.

Worldwide 38 million people are infected with HIV and despite the long fight against the virus and education about it, there are still 1.7 million newly infected people every year. With drugs for HIV prevention, attempts are being made to reduce this number. In clinical studies, the new drug Cabotegravir has now proven to be particularly effective.

It only needs to be injected every eight weeks instead of having to be taken daily in pills as before. Especially for women, the drug is more effective than the previously available pill Truvada, but the new drug is also more effective for men and transwomen

The population of the Falkland Islands has been celebrating the removal of an estimated 13,000 mines that were planted by Argentine forces in the 1982 military conflict.

Barry Elsby, a member of the island's legislative assembly, has stated that "This will be another good bit of closure for people who were here when the invasion happened and lived through the horrors of that time" and added that "All the mine signposts were a constant reminder of what happened but now they are all away, it's another return to normality".

It has been seven days since Australia last recorded a local coronavirus case.

With the last recorded case originating in New South Wales a week ago, the country is on track to open most borders by Christmas.

Comparatively, it has been 224 days since the Northern Territory last had an active local case.

In Bangladesh the first Islamic school, where 150 trans people can attend courses free of charge, opens. This is a further step to support the queer community. In 2018, a new law was passed that gave trans people of the "third gender" named there the right to vote and to take up political positions.

Chris Nikic wrote sports history in the early hours of German time on Sunday morning. In Florida, the 21-year-old American was the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman.

After two years of training, Nikic completed the 3.86 km swim, 180 km bike ride and a marathon on Saturday in Florida within 16:46:09 hours.

Manila's mayor Francisco Domagoso signs a decree making discrimination based on sexual identity or sexual orientation a criminal offence. In addition, the capital of the Philippines is working to establish gender-neutral toilets and will soon decide on same-sex marriages. The Philippines is the largest Catholic-influenced region in Asia, so these decisions are expected to have a pulling effect.

In the famous Great Barrier Reef in Australia, researchers of the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) have discovered a new coral reef. It is the first new discovery after 120 years. The reef is 500 meters deep - and thus larger than the Empire State Building in New York City. The research team came across the reef by chance when they were making a 3D map of the seabed with the help of the underwater robot SuBastian.

In a new decree, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to try to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change.

However, all measures need to ensure that Russia can show strong economic development. but stressed that any action must be balanced with the need to ensure strong economic development.

Taiwan has not reported a domestically transmitted Covid-19 infection since April 12, marking 200 days without any new cases. The country has only recorded 553 Covid-19 cases and seven deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Strand Bookstore, one of New York's oldest bookstores, recently asked its customers for help on social media after sales have gone down during the pandemic, writing "for the first time in The Strand’s 93 year history, we need to mobilize the community to buy from us so we can keep our doors open until there is a vaccine."

After Strand's call for help, the store received over 25,000 online orders over the weekend and made a total of $170,550 in in-store sales on Saturday and Sunday.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently had to undergo a pulmonary valve replacement at the Cleveland Clinic, has told fans he was feeling "fantastic."

"Thanks to the team at the Cleveland Clinic, I have a new aortic valve to go along with my new pulmonary valve from my last surgery. I feel fantastic and have already been walking the streets of Cleveland enjoying your amazing statues. Thank you to every doc and nurse on my team," so Schwarzenegger on Ttwitter.

International Energy Agency has reported that solar is now the cheapest form of electricity for utility companies to build.

In their report, they claim that risk-reducing financial policies around the world have benefited this development and underlines the importance of these for the future development of renewable energy sources.

In a plenary session the Spanish Congress unanimously approved a bill that seeks to reform the penal code to outlaw non-consensual sterilizations of judicially incapacitated persons. All the parliamentarians present in the House stood up and applauded the unanimous support for this initiative that will now return to the Senate for its final ratification.

With 348 votes in favor, it seeks to eliminate the second paragraph of Article 156, which currently decriminalizes non-consensual sterilizations of persons whose legal capacity has been modified when authorized by a judicial body.

The Japanese Jesse Katayama was the first visitor on Machu Picchu, after months of Covid-19 closure.

Katayama had a entry ticket and permit to enter the UNESCO World Heritage site on March 16, the same day the Peruvian government opted to close the site. His original plan was to spend three days in the area, but with flights cancelled and movement limited by the virus, Katayama was stuck there for months.

"I thought that I wouldn’t be able to go, but thanks to all of you who pleaded with the mayor and the government, I was given this super special opportunity," he wrote on his Instagram account.

The state of Hamburg decided that cruise ships may now donate their leftover food to the Hamburger Tafel. For customs and import law reasons, cruise ships were not allowed to donate food until now, as cruise ships are legally considered "third countries".

While surplus food had to be disposed of in the past, it is now possible both to reduce food waste and to support the distribution of food to those in need.