Today’s Solutions: May 20, 2026

Business

Looking for positive and inspiring business stories? From green operations to employee rights, from innovative corporate structures to diversity and inclusion, the Business section at The Optimist Daily has got the latest innovative solutions from the corporate sector.

Minnesota just banned the apps

Minnesota just banned the apps that make deepfake nudes

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Two years ago, Molly Kelley found out that a close family friend had used a nudification website to make nonconsensual deepfake images of her and dozens of other women. About 80 women in Minnesota were affected by the same person. When she tried to figure out Read More...

The Big Catch-Up vaccinated 18

The Big Catch-Up vaccinated 18 million children in two years

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Before any vaccine can protect a child, someone has to reach them. Around 12.3 million of the children covered by the Big Catch-Up had never received a single dose of anything: not measles, not polio, not diphtheria. They are known as zero-dose children, and Read More...

How Paraguay cut its poverty r

How Paraguay cut its poverty rate from over 50 to 16 percent in two decades

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In 2005, more than half of Paraguay’s population lived in poverty. By 2025, that share had fallen to 16 percent. A third of the country’s population crossed that threshold over two decades; around 300,000 more did so in just the last two years. A World Read More...

Gaza sisters turn rubble into

Gaza sisters turn rubble into bricks to rebuild their community

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The house Tala and Farah Mousa were living in was bombed. So they looked at the rubble and started asking what it could become. Their answer is Build Hope, Palestine: a way to turn debris from damaged buildings into reusable blocks. Crushed and sieved Read More...

Brighton is building Europe’

Brighton is building Europe’s first stadium designed entirely for women’s football

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For most of its history, women’s football has played in spaces that weren’t built for it: men’s training grounds, borrowed pitches, stadiums designed for crowds three times the size. Brighton and Hove Albion is changing that. The club has announced Read More...

Chicago public school IDs now

Chicago public school IDs now double as library cards

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Getting a library card should be easy. For many children, it isn’t. The process can require documentation that not every family has: a fixed address, proof of residency, or a guardian’s signature. For students who are unhoused, in foster care, or Read More...

A 58-day protest campaign just

A 58-day protest campaign just convinced Etsy to ban fur

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade did not simply write a letter. For 58 days, CAFT ran protests at Etsy offices and affiliates across 17 cities, including a disruption of Etsy’s own presentation at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Read More...

Earth Day at 56: why the 2026

Earth Day at 56: why the 2026 theme carries more weight than usual

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM On April 22, 1970, roughly 20 million Americans took to the streets, campuses, and parks to demand that the government treat the environment as something worth protecting. At the time, rivers in the United States were catching fire. Lead was still in Read More...

UK startup turns festival urin

UK startup turns festival urine into forest-grade fertilizer

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Only seven percent of Britain's native woodlands are in good condition. Pests, pathogens, and invasive species have worked through the rest. And rising fertilizer costs, driven by ongoing conflict, have not helped. A Bristol-based startup thinks part of the Read More...

Manchester’s ‘dress rehear

Manchester’s ‘dress rehearsal’ for life is getting homeless men back to work

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Chris, 57, a former painter and decorator from the north-east, spent most of his life “travelling from town to town with a tent.” Now he has his own front door, a view of the Bridgewater canal, and a German kitchen fitted with Bosch appliances. His main Read More...