Today (2017 C.E. - 2025 C.E.)

Marie-Louise Eta Union Berlin first female Bundesliga head coach

Marie-Louise Eta becomes the first female head coach in men’s top-flight European football

By / / Good News For Humankind

Marie-Louise Eta, 34, was appointed head coach of Bundesliga side Union Berlin on April 12, 2026, becoming the first woman to hold the top coaching position at a men’s club in any of Europe’s Big Five leagues — the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and Bundesliga. A Champions League winner as a player with Turbine Potsdam in 2010, Eta had already broken barriers as the first female assistant coach in the Bundesliga in 2023. She takes charge for the final five matches of the season as Union Berlin fights to secure top-flight survival, after which she was already contracted to become head coach of the club’s women’s Bundesliga side.

Aerial view of solar array

Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity

By / / Good News For Humankind

Renewable energy reached 49.4% of total global installed power capacity by end of 2025, up from 46.3% in 2024, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026. The world added 692 gigawatts of new renewable capacity last year — the largest annual addition ever recorded — with solar alone contributing 511 gigawatts. Africa recorded its highest renewable expansion on record, and the Middle East its fastest-ever growth. IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera noted that countries investing in renewables are absorbing the current Middle East energy crisis with measurably less economic damage than fossil-fuel-dependent economies.

Global suicide rate has fallen by 40% since 1995

By / / Good News For Humankind

A landmark study published in The Lancet Public Health by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington found that the global age-standardized suicide mortality rate fell nearly 40% between 1990 and 2021 — from 15 deaths per 100,000 people to nine. The decline was driven by measurable interventions including restrictions on toxic pesticides, expanded mental health services, and national prevention strategies. Female suicide rates fell more than 50% globally over the period. Roughly 740,000 people still die by suicide each year, and rates have risen in parts of Latin America and North America, underscoring that progress is real but uneven — and that further investment in evidence-based prevention can save more lives.

Rhino

Rhinos are reintroduced back into Uganda’s wild after 43 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

The Uganda Wildlife Authority havetranslocated the first southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park — 43 years after the last rhino in the park was killed by poachers in 1983. The animals came from Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, a breeding program established in 2005 with just six individuals that has grown Uganda’s total rhino population to 61. Four more rhinos will follow by May, with a separate group already relocated to Ajai Wildlife Reserve in January 2026. The reintroduction restores a key grazing species to one of Africa’s most remote savannah ecosystems and makes Kidepo the only national park in Uganda where visitors can see all of the Big Five in a single landscape.

Researcher in a lab

U.K. cancer death rates down to their lowest level on record

By / / Good News For Humankind

Cancer Research UK data published in March 2026 confirms that UK cancer death rates have reached their lowest level on record — around 247 deaths per 100,000 people annually between 2022 and 2024, down 29% from the 1989 peak of 355 per 100,000. The rate fell 11% in just the past decade, with stomach cancer deaths down 34%, lung cancer down 22%, and ovarian cancer down 19%. Cervical cancer death rates have dropped 75% since the 1970s, driven by NHS screening programs and the HPV vaccine introduced in 2008. Researchers caution that liver, womb, and gallbladder cancer death rates are rising, and that NHS capacity pressures could slow future progress.

California condor

California condors nesting in Pacific Northwest for first time in a century

By / / Good News For Humankind

A pair of California condors reintroduced by the Yurok Tribe appear to be incubating the first egg in the Pacific Northwest in more than a century, nesting inside a hollow old-growth redwood in Redwood National Park in early February 2026. The female, named Ney-gem’ Ne-chween-kah — Yurok for “She carries our prayers” — and her mate were among the first cohort released in 2022 as part of the Northern California Condor Restoration Program. The species fell to just 22 individuals in 1982 and has since recovered to 607. The Yurok Tribe began working toward this moment in 2003, driven by the condor’s sacred role in Yurok World Renewal ceremonies and a two-decade commitment to restoring ecological and cultural balance to their ancestral territory.

Canada wilderness

Canada commits $3.8 billion to protect 30% of the country’s land and water by 2030

By / / Good News For Humankind

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada’s $3.8 billion nature conservation strategy on March 31, 2026, committing the world’s second-largest country to protect 30% of its land and 28% of its marine territory by 2030. Two sites launched immediately: the Wiinipaawk Indigenous Protected Area in eastern James Bay and the Seal River Watershed National Park in Manitoba, one of the world’s largest intact watersheds at 50,000 square kilometers. The plan expands the Indigenous Guardians Program by $230 million. Conservation experts say implementation accountability, not the dollar figure, will determine whether Canada’s biodiversity commitments hold this time.

Snowy owl flying

The U.N. grants international protection to 40 new migratory species

By / / Good News For Humankind

At the CMS COP15 summit in Campo Grande, Brazil, 132 nations expanded UN migratory species protections on March 29, 2026, adding 40 animals — including the snowy owl, giant otter, striped hyena, and great hammerhead shark — to the treaty’s legally binding protection lists. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species now covers more than 1,200 unique species. A new UN interim report released at the summit found that 49% of already-protected species populations are declining and 24% face extinction. The decisions set binding conservation obligations for member nations and signal that coordinated international action remains the strongest tool available to slow wildlife loss.

Pile of American money

Washington state enacts historic millionaires’ tax

By / / Good News For Humankind

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the Millionaires’ Tax into law on March 30, 2026, creating the state’s first-ever tax on income above $1 million. Less than half of 1% of residents will pay it — but millions will benefit. The revenue funds free K-12 school meals, expands the Working Families Tax Credit to 460,000 additional households, cuts taxes for 138,000 small businesses, and invests more than $320 million in affordable childcare. After nearly a century of one of the most regressive tax structures in the country, Washington is rewriting the rules.

Mother and newborn in hospital

Detroit cash aid program for mothers distributes $1.4 million in its first month

By / / Good News For Humankind

Detroit’s Rx Kids cash aid program for mothers enrolled more than 1,100 families and distributed $1.4 million within its first month after launching Feb. 9, 2026 — making Detroit the largest U.S. city to offer universal prenatal cash support. Led by Michigan State University and administered by GiveDirectly, the program provides $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 monthly for six months post-birth, with no income restrictions. Research from Flint, where Rx Kids launched in 2024, found evictions among eligible mothers dropped 91% and postpartum depression fell significantly. Detroit’s participation could reach every family among the city’s roughly 8,000 annual births.