Today's Good News | OGN Daily

An eclectic collection of upbeat news nuggets to brighten the day.

Cover of Springsteen's Tracks II: The Lost Albums — Bruce Springsteen

The Boss

In good news for his legions of fans around the globe, Bruce Springsteen has announced the upcoming release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, a box set featuring seven previously unreleased albums, including 83 songs - 74 of them never heard before. Spanning recordings from 1983 to 2018, the collection includes material that was fully recorded but ultimately shelved. The album, a follow-up to his 1998 Tracks box set, is set for release June 27. Springsteen, often called "The Boss," rose to fame with the 1975 breakthrough album Born to Run and has since released 21 studio albums.

MF Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra) depicting 13 vivid snapshots of Indian village life — Credit: Christie's

Indian Record Breaker

A forgotten oil-on-canvas masterpiece by Indian painter MF Husain, rediscovered decades later, has rewritten the record books for Indian art. Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra), a sprawling 14-foot-wide mural, sold for an unprecedented $13.8m (£10.6m) at a Christie's auction in New York last week. It shattered the previous high for Indian art of $7.4m (£5.7m), fetched by Amrita Sher-Gil's The Story Teller in 2023. Husain, who died in 2011, aged 95, was a pioneer of Indian modernism and remains a lasting inspiration for Indian artists. For nearly five decades, the record-breaking painting unassumingly adorned the walls of a Norwegian hospital, overlooked and undervalued. Now, it stands as a defining work of modern South Asian art. Its 13 vignettes - vivid snapshots of Indian village life - reflect his distinctive blend of Indian folk traditions and modernist influences. They are reminiscent of narrative paintings in India's miniature tradition, in which small pictures weave a story.

Classic Mercedes sports car — Credit: Mercedes-Benz AG

No Tariff Classics

Classic car collectors can breathe a sigh of relief. President Trump’s new automotive tariffs will not apply to cars 25 years or older, according to Hemmings Motor News. Classics will still face duty fees upon entering the U.S., but they won’t be anything like those that will hit new cars imported into the country. Last week, Trump announced placing a 25 percent tariff on all vehicles and some automotive parts assembled outside of the U.S. and imported into the country. Unless, of course, buyers have their eye on older vehicles. Maybe it could even lead to a growth in people looking for classic cars - or even just old cars.

Conservation Success

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has announced that breeding pairs of one of England’s rarest birds, the Stone-curlew, have more than doubled since 1985. Partnerships with landowners and farmers have made the difference in protecting this googly-eyed bird, whose nesting sites were disappearing.

Winds of Change

Uruguay has revolutionised its energy system, slashing imported oil dependency from 50 percent in 2008 to just 9 percent today while building one of the world's cleanest electricity grids, reports Prism. Following drought and oil price shocks, the nation pivoted to wind power that delivers electricity at one-third the cost of oil generation. This shift created 50,000 jobs and turned Uruguay from an electricity importer into an exporter.

Europe's Gargantuan Wind Turbine: Offshore wind turbine farms are where we see some of the largest machines on the planet.

Greenwashing

Companies that make misleading claims about their green credentials face huge fines in the UK, where regulators have been given additional powers to crack down on greenwashing. From this week, the Competition and Markets Authority have the power to hand out fines of up to 10 percent of global turnover on firms caught greenwashing. Until now, fines for greenwashing have rarely exceeded £1m.

“Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.” Maya Angelou

On This Day

Drawing of The Great Western steamship from 1938

8 April 1938: The Great Western, the earliest regular transatlantic steamer, embarked on its maiden voyage from Bristol, England, to New York City. It was designed by British civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.