Today’s Solutions: March 29, 2024

Good Governance

What does good governance look like? In this good news section, we share international examples of good governance, from efforts directed at the protection of civil rights to initiatives aimed at the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment.

Éléonore Laloux changes live

Éléonore Laloux changes lives as first French public official with Down syndrome

In Arras, France, a city council member is making history as the city’s public official in charge of inclusion and happiness. Éléonore Laloux is the first and only person with Down syndrome to be elected to public office in the country. Laloux was recently awarded membership in the National Read More...

Nobel prize awarded for work d

Nobel prize awarded for work demonstrating benefits of raising minimum wage

US-based economist David Card is one of this year’s recipients of the Nobel prize for economics, awarded for his work which helps answer one of the field’s most contested ideas surrounding minimum wage. ​​Card is Canadian born but based at the University of California, Berkeley. So what Read More...

Cal State Los Angeles prison e

Cal State Los Angeles prison education program celebrates first graduates

Pitzer was the first college in the US to establish a bachelor’s degree program for incarcerated individuals, but while Pitzer allows students to participate in classes virtually from prison, Cal State Los Angeles' Prison B.A. Graduation Initiative is California’s first in-person bachelor’s Read More...

UN votes to make a clean and h

UN votes to make a clean and healthy environment a human right

The U.N. Human Rights Council has finally recognized access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental human right, adding it to others─like food, shelter, and freedom from slavery─laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The resolution was first discussed in the Read More...

Ireland agrees to join interna

Ireland agrees to join international agreement on minimum corporate tax rate

We recently shared how 130 countries signed on to a global minimum tax rate proposed by G7 finance ministers. This agreement, establishing a 15 percent minimum corporate tax rate, aims to dismantle tax shelters and reduce tax evasion by increasing accountability, but it will only reach its full Read More...

Germany to offer Holocaust rep

Germany to offer Holocaust reparations pensions to more survivors

World War Ⅱ ended 76 years ago, but survivors of the Holocaust continue to experience negative health consequences as a result of the devastating persecution of Jewish people in Europe. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference, has Read More...

What is COP26 and why does it

What is COP26 and why does it matter?

Leaders from around the world are preparing for COP26, and we at The Optimist Daily are gearing up to report on the latest climate action surrounding the conference, but today we’re here to share some basic details on what COP26 is and what outcomes it hopes to achieve in terms of curbing global Read More...

Canada celebrates first Nation

Canada celebrates first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Canada celebrated the country’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30. The day, which honors the lost children and survivors of Indigenous schools, comes after more than 1,000 unmarked graves were discovered at former schools this year. Governor General Mary May Read More...

US restores protections for mi

US restores protections for migratory birds

The US government has restored protections for migratory birds, reviving an old environmental law that prohibits hunting, killing, capturing, selling, or otherwise hurting these avian species. A rule from the previous administration rolled back protections for migratory birds, relaxing legal Read More...

The case for eliminating jaywa

The case for eliminating jaywalking laws

Most of us have probably looked both ways quickly before darting across the street outside of a sidewalk. Whether traffic was light or the crosswalk was simply too far away, jaywalking is a fairly common offense, but data from the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) shows that Black Read More...