This week’s good news roundup brings you updates from around the world on breakthroughs in medicine, environmental progress and Indigenous peoples’ rights.
In Brazil, Indigenous communities are celebrating after Brazil’s highest court voted against the agribusiness-backed ‘time limit trick’. The strategy had attempted to limit Indigenous peoples’ land claims, arguing that they could only claim territories they physically occupied in 1988 when Brazil’s constitution was signed. The ruling paves the way for scores of land claims from communities that were previously driven from ancestral homelands during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Advocates hail the decision as “a massive defeat for the agribusiness lobby”.
In Manchester, buses became state-run for the first time in England after 40 years. Announced as a “coming of age moment for devolution” by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, the Bee Network hopes to restore declining bus travel seen since services were privatised outside of London in the 1980s. The new system includes 50 electric buses and cuts the cost of joint bus and tram journeys by 20%, according to those behind it. The project supports low-cost, integrated public transportation, including the UK’s biggest walking and cycling network. The project aims to reverse the failed bus deregulation experiment and may be a trailblazer for other city-regions to follow suit.
In Argentina, cartoonists have designed posters for refugee children that previously experienced trauma from their homes. During their journey, they travelled across the border and have arrived at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) shelter in San Salvador. UNICEF arranged for the children to experience a positive environment, where they could express their emotions. The designers said they aim to “replace images of horror with hope” to help the children feel warm and welcome.
Scientists have made a breakthrough in detecting long Covid. The Yale School of Medicine and Mount Sinai in the US found key differences in the blood of those with the condition. This yielded definitive proof that long Covid is a biological illness. The research paves the way for a blood test for the sometimes-debilitating condition, which can cause chronic fatigue, headaches, and brain fog. The scientists examined blood samples from 268 people, some who had had Covid-19 but recovered, some who had never been infected and others with ongoing symptoms. They discovered that in people with long Covid, immune system cells acted irregularly, and dormant viruses were reactivated. Patients were also found to have lower levels of cortisol hormone, which could explain their fatigue
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