Today's Good News | OGN Daily

Ensuring the weekend gets off to a great start with today's global round up of positive news stories.

Still from Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — Credit: Jay Maidment | Universal Pictures

Bigger Than Barbie?

As the Oscars loom, cinemas are bracing themselves for a particular surge of interest in one hotly anticipated title. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the fourth instalment in the misadventures of Helen Fielding’s hapless romantic, may be unlikely to dominate the Academy Awards, but it is set to clean up at screens across Britain over the Valentine’s Day period - and beyond. “We’re anticipating it to be one of the biggest titles of the year in the UK, the biggest British film of the year, and the biggest box office for the first half of 2025,” says Robert Mitchell of Gower Street Analytics. “Pre-sales are even higher than for blockbusters like Barbie,” says Eduardo Leal of the Vue cinema chain.

Lagos de San Pedro conservation area — Credit: Conservacion Amazonica

Quiet Conservation

The Andes Amazon Fund is possibly the world's most effective conservation initiative almost nobody has ever heard about. In the past month, it's posted nine stories about new protected areas in Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia, totalling almost 3,860 sq. miles (10,000 sq. km). Some of these areas are crucial biodiversity hotspots, home to hundreds of species of unique fauna and flora - including the 772 sq. mile (2,000 sq. km) Lagos de San Pedro municipal conservation area in Bolivia, pictured, a vital ecosystem in the region and a refuge for a huge diversity of Amazonian wildlife.

Map showing the Kivu to Kinshasa green corridor — The Kivu to Kinshasa green corridor

Huge Initiative

The Democratic Republic of Congo is to create Earth's largest protected rainforest - a 208,500 sq. mile (540,000 sq. km) green corridor safeguarding Earth's largest tropical carbon sink. The initiative combines conservation with sustainable development, aiming to create half a million jobs while protecting the world's largest intact rainforest.

End of Opioids?

America's FDA has approved the first non-addictive pain drug that matches opioids. Journavx is the first pain medication that works as effectively as opioids without addiction risks, reports the New York Times. The drug blocks pain signals before they reach the brain, showing strong results in two large trials with 2,000 surgery patients. The breakthrough provides a new option for treating acute pain from surgery and injuries.

Three Already

Niger just became the first African country to eliminate river blindness, a tropical disease that once afflicted 8.5 million people in the country, Georgia has become the 46th country worldwide to eliminate malaria, bringing Europe close to becoming the world's first malaria free region, and Guinea has eliminated sleeping sickness, joining 15 other African countries that have achieved this milestone.

Cheapest Yet

This is the new Volkswagen… ID.One, at least that's what experts think it will be called. While VW hasn’t confirmed the name, it has confirmed the price, and in Germany this chonky little citymobile will cost around €20,000 ($20,700) - making it VW's cheapest EV to date. Which looks like a good price. Looks like a good face, too - determined, focused, possibly silently judging your life choices. We’ll see the rest of this so-called ‘ID.One’ at the beginning of March as a ‘show car’: read, ‘cute little concept that you’ll no doubt want immediately’. VW boss Thomas Schäfer said: “An affordable, high-quality, profitable electric Volkswagen from Europe for Europe. This is the Champions League of automobile manufacturing.”

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on ... you're wasting your life." Jackie Robinson