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🏳️‍🌈 The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a call to overturn same-sex marriage rights, denying an appeal from a former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.

🌎 COP30 is off to a hopeful start, with $5.5 billion in initial pledges for a global forest fund that’s designed to generate predictable, long-term payouts to reward countries and frontline communities for the verified conservation of standing forests and forest restoration.

Veterans

‘Forrest Gump’ actor Gary Sinise donated $1 million to build a ‘creative lab’ for veterans to heal through art

Founded by Marine Corps veteran and Purple Heart recipient Richard Casper, CreatiVets is a nonprofit helping veterans with service-related trauma heal through creative expression.

It’s latest project: transforming a long-abandoned Nashville church into a “creative lab” for veterans to pursue songwriting, sculpting, scriptwriting, and other art forms.

And “Forrest Gump” actor Gary Sinise donated $1 million toward purchasing that building, further expanding on his longtime commitment to supporting veterans.

Why is this good news? The veteran suicide rate is 20 suicides per day, with 14 of them not seeking support from the VA, and veterans account for 20% of all suicides in the country.

Creative expression has been proven effective at reducing both PTS symptoms and the severity of depression that often accompanies it ​​— this new center will be “a place to go when the PTSD hits.”

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More Good News

​Scientists created a breakthrough test that could detect endometriosis biomarkers in period blood. Current methods of diagnosing endometriosis often require invasive blood tests, laboratory analyses, imaging studies, and extensive patient history collection, which can delay endometriosis diagnosis by up to 12 years.

​A nonprofit is preventing $11 billion in unopened medicine from going to waste every year by redirecting it to people in need. Sirum is a nonprofit social enterprise that takes unopened, unexpired prescription medication and redistributes it to low-income communities across the country.

​Denmark passed a law that will ban kids under 15 years old from social media platforms. It’s among the most sweeping steps yet by a European Union government to limit use of social media among teens and younger children, which has drawn concerns surrounding mental health.

​Boston’s century-old steam heat system is being transformed into a first-of-its-kind clean “district energy” system. The new system will be capable of delivering warmth during the frigid New England winters, without releasing damaging carbon emissions — it’s already installed an electric boiler, and is now working on installing a heat pump.

​Albania passed a new, stronger gender equality law to eliminate gender-based discrimination. The new law identifies measures to eliminate gender discrimination in critical areas such as labor, health and social protection, the media, agriculture and rural development, while recognizing and valuing unpaid care.

U.S. Politics

Republican governor addresses SNAP cuts, directs people to 900+ resources: ‘How do we help the most vulnerable in our state?’

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good Data

Stronger democracies tend to have lower levels of corruption

Even when it feels tough or you don’t like your options, it’s important to exercise your right to vote. New data shows another reason why it’s so important: it reduces corruption.

While levels of democracy and corruption are difficult to measure, experts agree on certain standards and metrics that indicate how democratic a country is — free and fair elections, equal voting rights, fundamental freedoms — and how frequent corruption is — fairly enforced laws, bribery, etc.

When looking at the data, research on the causal link suggests that democratic systems can help both expose and reduce corruption. And the opposite may also be true: corruption can weaken democracies.

→ Read more​

More Good bits

🎤 Justin Bieber’s producer battled AI: bet you can guess who won.

🧠 If your brain can’t take yet another “historic event.”

🪦 Here lies Okjökull glacier.

☀️ You’ve never seen rooftop solar like this before. (Reels)

🤞 We are all collectively crossing our fingers for Kizzy! (TikTok)

What’s good?

We’ve been longtime fans of the good work Richard Casper and CreatiVets are doing in the world — it was so thrilling to see them working on a dedicated space!

Which good news story made you most excited today?

Reply and tell me!

— Megan