196 articles
United Way of Greater Kansas City honored three CommUNITY Volunteers of the Year — two adults and one youth. One adult winner contributed more than 1,000 volunteer hours and helped open seven transitional housing homes.
A study published April 30 in Science by Harvard, Beth Israel Deaconess and Stanford researchers found OpenAI's o1 reasoning model received perfect clinical-reasoning scores on 98% of cases, versus 35% for attending physicians.
NOAA Fisheries confirmed that 23 North Atlantic right whale calves were born during the 2026 calving season — the highest number since 2009. Twenty of the 23 mothers were returning moms, and many calved on shorter, healthier intervals, offering hope for one of the planet's most endangered whales.
On April 30, 2026, Google DeepMind announced a research initiative for an AI co-clinician designed to work alongside physicians, who keep clinical authority, with early evaluations under way in diverse health systems across six countries.
New satellite data from the University of Maryland and World Resources Institute, released April 29, show tropical primary forest loss fell 36% in 2025 from 2024's record — Brazil cut non-fire primary loss 41% to its lowest level on record.
The 2025–2026 North Atlantic right whale calving season produced 23 mother-calf pairs, the highest count in 17 years. With only about 380 of these whales left, researchers say the strong season and shorter intervals between births are hopeful signs that the population’s reproductive health is improving.
In a São Paulo State University trial, 43% of women taking 2,000 IU vitamin D daily alongside neoadjuvant chemotherapy saw their breast cancer disappear, versus 24% on placebo — an inexpensive boost worth larger trials.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument finished its five-year survey ahead of schedule, charting more than 47 million galaxies and quasars to build the largest high-resolution 3D map of the cosmos to date.
Before Game 5 of an NHL playoff series in Buffalo, anthem singer Cami Clune microphone cut out during O Canada, and nearly 19,000 fans spontaneously sang the Canadian anthem in full, creating one of the most moving moments of the 2026 playoffs.
After running his first London Marathon in memory of his young niece, Liam Williams took a wrong train and found an entire Tube platform of strangers spontaneously applauding him, in a moment he called magical.
At the 2026 London Marathon, Kenya Sabastian Sawe became the first athlete to run under two hours in a record-eligible race, finishing in 1:59:30, with Ethiopia Yomif Kejelcha also breaking the barrier in second.
On 26 April 2026, the TCS London Marathon set a Guinness World Records title for the largest number of finishers in a marathon, with 59,830 runners completing the course, surpassing the New York record set in 2025.
A University of Glasgow-led team used multispectral imaging to recover 42 long-lost pages of Codex H, a sixth-century manuscript of the Letters of Saint Paul, and published the results in a free digital edition.
Hours before being selected number one overall in the 2026 NFL Draft, quarterback Fernando Mendoza pledged 500,000 dollars to the National MS Society and launched a family fund honouring his mother Elsa, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for 18 years.
Britain's Vertical Aerospace completed a piloted transition flight of its VX4 electric air taxi, switching from hover to wingborne cruise and back under regulatory oversight, a milestone toward quiet, zero-emission urban flight.
In April 2026, the FDA approved Otarmeni, the first gene therapy for inherited hearing loss caused by OTOF gene variants. In the CHORD trial, 16 of 20 patients met the hearing-improvement endpoint, and Regeneron will offer it free in the US.
The WHO’s Big Catch-Up initiative delivered more than 100 million vaccine doses to 18.3 million children across 36 countries between 2023 and 2025, including 12.3 million who had never received any vaccine.
At the 2026 Boston Marathon, Aaron Beggs of Northern Ireland and Robson De Oliveira of Brazil stopped near the line to help a collapsed Ajay Haridasse, and the three strangers crossed the finish together in a moment that went viral worldwide.
Jenny Joyner of Memphis saw a Facebook post about living kidney donation, felt an unshakable urge to help, and ended up donating a kidney to a complete stranger, Stacy Hobson. The two women did not even meet until months after the life-saving surgery.
University of Alberta chemist Steve Bergens developed an electrolyzer that splits seawater into hydrogen using a low-cost conductive adhesive, licensed by Cipher Neutron, that improves durability and cuts the electricity needed.
The mountain gorilla, down to as few as 480 in 2010, now numbers an estimated 1,063 across Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. A ranger tool called SMART, used by 1,400 rangers, is helping rangers stay ahead of poaching threats in one of conservation’s great success stories.
After hiker Jessica Johnston survived a fall near an 18-story waterfall in New Zealand, her border collie Molly was left alone in the mountains for a week. Strangers crowdfunded $11,500 in eight hours for a helicopter search that brought her home.
Researchers at McMaster University built a generative AI called SyntheMol-RL that designed a structurally new antibiotic, synthecin, which controlled drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus wound infections in mouse tests.
On 23 April 2026, the WHO announced that Algeria has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, becoming the 10th country in WHO’s African Region and the 29th worldwide to defeat the leading infectious cause of blindness.
A UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital study found that the gene therapy Luxturna can strengthen the visual pathways of young children with inherited blindness, with the greatest gains when treatment comes early in brain development.
Researchers reported that madecassic acid — derived from the long-used herb Centella asiatica (gotu kola) — disrupts drug-resistant bacterial infections in lab studies, suggesting a new lead against the antimicrobial-resistance crisis.
After half a century of global protection, the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) has been moved on the IUCN Red List from Endangered to Least Concern, with the global population up about 28% since the 1970s.
In 2026, the U.S. National Gallery of Art received a $116 million endowment to permanently fund its nationwide loan program — the largest gift in the institution's history dedicated to programming, supporting exhibitions in museums across all 50 states.
On Earth Day 2026, the Cayman Islands government designated six new protected areas under the National Conservation (Protected Areas) Order 2026, safeguarding wetlands, mangroves, coastal cays and forest. The package also includes a move to ban eight single-use plastic items, part of broad environmental commitments.
On Earth Day 2026, the non-profit search engine Ecosia announced it had planted 250 million trees worldwide since 2009. Working with 125 reforestation partners and over 200,000 planters, it has put 1,600 native species into the ground — including 144 that are endangered or vulnerable — and invested more than 100 million euros in climate action.
The James Webb Space Telescope detected unexpected water-ice clouds in the atmosphere of Epsilon Indi Ab, a giant planet several times the mass of Jupiter, offering a rare close look at weather on a distant world.
On its ninth annual giving day in April 2026, the Great Community Give in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Virginia, raised $2,876,148 from 7,803 donors for 156 local nonprofits — beating its $2.5 million goal and pushing the event's nine-year total past $11.4 million.
A wave of young readers fueled by BookTok is reviving physical bookstores, helping print sales hold steady and prompting Barnes & Noble to plan dozens of new store openings in 2026.
For nearly 40 years, the all-volunteer Tusen Tack in Braham, Minnesota has run a thrift store, food shelf, library, community kitchen and event center that anchors the region. In 2026, its 200-plus volunteers were named Good Neighbor Honorees by the Initiative Foundation.
When a former student walked into Pauls Valley High School in Oklahoma with a handgun, principal Kirk Moore rushed from his office and tackled him to the ground—taking a gunshot wound but stopping the attack. Weeks later, his students crowned him prom king.
After being ransacked by the Islamic State and shuttered for some two decades, Iraq’s Mosul Cultural Museum is heading toward a 2026 reopening, rebuilt by an international consortium led by Iraqi authorities with the Louvre, Smithsonian, World Monuments Fund and ALIPH.
William Alvarez, who lost both legs to a Vietnam land mine in 1972, finished his fourth Boston Marathon on April 20, 2026, running with Achilles International — proof that purpose can outpace pain.
In a historic first, all six 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize laureates are women. Yuvelis Morales Blanco, an Afro-Colombian organizer from Puerto Wilches, helped block Ecopetrol's Kalé and Platero fracking pilots and protect the Magdalena River.
Before their high school prom in Chandler, Arizona, five teens paused to say a prayer over dinner. A stranger noticed, paid their entire bill, and left a note referencing Matthew 5:16 along with stamped pennies.
NASA astronaut and Navy veteran Suni Williams, who ran a marathon aboard the International Space Station in 2007, ran the 2026 Boston Marathon on 21 April and was named the Boston Athletic Association Patriots Award recipient.
For more than 20 years, Rebuilding Together North Central Florida has fixed the homes of low-income residents so they can age in place safely. With about 300 volunteers a year and a 25-point healthy-housing checklist, the nonprofit builds ramps, mends roofs and treats neighbors like family.
Kenya's Sharon Lokedi won the 130th Boston Marathon on April 20 in 2:18:51 — the fourth-fastest women's time in race history — leading an all-Kenyan top-three with Loice Chemnung second and Mary Ngugi-Cooper third.
A new WHO/Europe report released on April 20, 2026 — the first cross-EU snapshot — finds all 27 EU countries deploying AI in health care, with 74% using it for diagnostics, 63% for patient-engagement chatbots and 81% engaging stakeholders in AI governance.
Fútbol Más, a non-governmental organisation founded in Chile in 2008 that uses football to support children in vulnerable communities across eleven countries, was named winner of the Laureus Sport for Good Award at the 2026 ceremony in Madrid.
Rugby For Good, a Hong Kong programme founded in 2013, uses play-based rugby sessions to build inclusivity and emotional skills, reaching more than 30,000 children across 225 schools, and was shortlisted for the 2026 Laureus Sport for Good Award.
In the Affric Highlands rewilding landscape, neighbouring landowners have come together to rewet and restore 1,000 hectares of degraded peatland. Peatlands store more carbon than all the world's forests combined, and the restored bogs will lock away carbon, store water and revive habitat for rare birds, dragonflies and plants.
A five-year vaccination project at Elanora on the Gold Coast has immunized more than 500 koalas against chlamydia, cutting disease-related hospital admissions by 75 percent. Once-devastated koalas are now thriving, with 41 joeys and 13 “grand-joeys” born.
At the 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid on 20 April, Rory McIlroy was named Comeback of the Year, honouring his 2025 Masters victory that ended an 11-year major drought and completed the career Grand Slam.
During National Volunteer Week (April 19–25), the American Red Cross celebrated its workforce — 90% of which is unpaid volunteers — with the Los Angeles region alone hosting more than 6,000 volunteers and a regional Volunteer Excellence Awards on April 11.
On April 19, 2026, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened its long-awaited David Geffen Galleries — a 900-foot, single-level building by Peter Zumthor that displays the museum's permanent collection without hierarchy.
At the 2026 AACR meeting, Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers reported that a personalized mRNA pancreatic-cancer vaccine triggered immune responses lasting up to six years, with most responders still alive — a hopeful sign against one of the deadliest cancers.
A meta-analysis of over 4 million people, published in Nature Mental Health in April 2026, found that higher cardiorespiratory fitness was linked to a 36% lower risk of depression and a 39% lower risk of dementia — with even small gains helping.
Bald eagles have staged a striking comeback in the Connecticut River Valley, with New Hampshire reaching 128 nesting pairs and Vermont 38 by 2025. Once driven to near-extinction by DDT and habitat loss, the national bird is now a familiar sight over New England rivers.
At the Charlotte Convention Center in April 2026, 6,500 volunteers assembled 10,027 bunk beds in a single day for the charity Sleep in Heavenly Peace. The beds were distributed to children in 36 states — part of a mission to reach the roughly 140,000 American kids who sleep without a bed of their own.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened its new David Geffen Galleries, a 900-foot elevated building by Peter Zumthor that displays the permanent collection on a single level without hierarchy.
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation awarded six $3 million prizes on April 18, 2026, recognizing pioneers who restored sight through gene therapy, cured sickle cell disease and mapped the genetic roots of ALS.
The 2026 Sidemen Charity Match drew 90,000 fans to Wembley and a peak of 2.26 million live viewers, raising a record 6.2 million pounds for the charities Brightside and M7 Education in a 10-10 thriller decided on penalties.
The Victoria and Albert Museum opened V&A East in east London, with two free permanent "Why We Make" galleries showcasing more than 500 objects from its global collections.
California reopened its commercial salmon fishery in spring 2026 for the first time in three years after fall-run Chinook forecasts more than doubled. The rebound follows the 2024 removal of four Klamath River dams — the largest such project in U.S. history — which let salmon recolonize tributaries unseen for over a century.
Actor and filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg donated one of his kidneys to a person he had never met, a rare act known as a nondirected donation, at NYU Langone Health on December 30, 2025.
A landmark study published in Nature Mental Health in April 2026 drew on 122 experts across 11 disciplines to reach the first international consensus on positive mental wellbeing, identifying six essential elements.
Seattle-based Mast Reforestation sold out all 4,277 credits in its first biomass-burial carbon removal batch, priced through Puro.earth, with buyers including Bain & Company, BMO and RBC — a boost for forest-fire restoration finance.
A study published April 15 in Nature Nanotechnology shows printed neurons made from molybdenum disulfide and graphene that can trigger lifelike spike, burst and continuous firing patterns in mouse brain slices — a step toward better neural prosthetics.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science and Japan's NIMS reported a 200-fold deviation from the Wiedemann–Franz law: electrons in ultraclean graphene at the Dirac point behave as a near-perfect Dirac fluid.
A Pinoleville Pomo Nation water specialist confirmed juvenile coho salmon in Ackerman Creek — the first natural reproduction documented in the Russian River's upper basin since 1991, after parents swam more than 90 miles upstream.
The High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement) entered into force on January 17, 2026 after Morocco's ratification last September pushed it past the 60-country threshold. By April 2026, 145 countries have signed and 88 have ratified.
The National Ignition Facility produced a record 8.6 megajoules of fusion energy, more than four times the laser energy delivered, thanks to a refined fuel-capsule design.
A joint WHO–Gavi analysis released in April 2026 found that measles vaccination averted nearly 20 million deaths in Africa between 2000 and 2024, as coverage rose from 5% to 55% across the region.
France’s parliament unanimously adopted a landmark law creating a clearer framework to return cultural property looted during the colonial era, fulfilling a pledge President Macron made in 2017.
Scientists in India and Japan watched electrons in ultraclean graphene flow collectively like a nearly frictionless liquid, breaking a century-old physics law by a factor of over 200 and opening a new window onto exotic quantum matter.
FarmerChat, a generative-AI assistant built by Digital Green and Gooey.AI, has passed a million downloads and over 830,000 users across Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, India and Brazil, giving free farming advice in 15-plus local languages by voice, text or crop image.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic and AI interpretability startup Goodfire used the Evo 2 genomic foundation model to predict which DNA mutations cause disease — and to explain why — in work reported by TIME on April 14, 2026.
A £1bn UK government investment through Great British Energy aims to help communities build and own clean energy projects, targeting 8GW of locally owned power by 2030. Community schemes deliver 12 times more local economic value than commercial ones — yet still make up just 0.5 percent of UK electricity.
Dying of cancer, Frank Ozimek’s final wish was to feed the hospice nurses who cared for him. When his brother called a local pizzeria, owner Tommy Milani shelved his Easter plans to make it happen.
A chest of old film reels sealed for over a century turned out to contain a long-lost work by cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, "Gugusse et l’automate," now restored and identified by archivists at the Library of Congress.
On a snowy December day in 1975, Carl Sagan personally invited a 17-year-old aspiring astronomer to Cornell. That afternoon shaped Neil deGrasse Tyson's life — and sparked a chain reaction of science inspiration that continues today through the Carl Sagan Institute.
The four-member Artemis II crew safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, becoming the first humans to travel toward the Moon in over 50 years.
Astronomers confirmed GJ 887 d, a super-Earth with about 6 Earth masses orbiting in the habitable zone of a nearby red dwarf star, making it the second-nearest known habitable-zone exoplanet.
Cornell researchers demonstrated that targeting a natural checkpoint in meiosis can safely and reversibly halt sperm production, achieving 100% effectiveness in mice with full fertility recovery within six weeks.
Scientists at Great Ormond Street Hospital created the first lab-grown oesophagus and successfully transplanted it into minipigs, restoring swallowing function without immune suppression.
Rose Lavelle recorded a goal and an assist in her 100th international appearance, leading the USWNT to a 2-1 victory over Japan and extending the team's winning streak to 10 matches.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the first hosted by three nations, will feature 48 teams across 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, marking the largest World Cup in history.
The monarch butterfly overwintering population in Mexico increased by 64%, occupying 7.24 acres of forest — the largest population recovery since 2018, with forest degradation also declining.
The world's largest stoat eradication on an inhabited landscape is delivering results in Orkney, with the endemic Orkney vole reaching its highest recorded activity levels and hen harrier breeding at a decade-high.
AirJoule Technologies won the 2026 CleanTech Breakthrough Award for its system that extracts pure distilled water from air, functioning at humidity as low as 20% and using waste heat from data centers.
Eavor Technologies won the top prize at the 2026 CleanTech Breakthrough Awards for Eavor-Loop, the world's first scalable closed-loop geothermal system that provides baseload power without water resupply.
The America250 initiative "America Gives" surpassed 2.5 million volunteer service hours by mid-March 2026, mobilizing nonprofits across all 50 states as the U.S. prepares for its 250th anniversary.
On a Southwest Airlines flight, crew announced that 2-year-old passenger Cruz had beaten stage 4 neuroblastoma, prompting the entire cabin to erupt in cheers and write messages of encouragement on napkins.
Six-year-old Tlotlo Tsheka from Gauteng, South Africa, has published her first books including "Remember When" and "Mommy's Secret," turning bedtime storytelling into a literacy mission for children.
Mbalenhle Mkhatshwa, a 20-year-old psychology student, teaches ballet to young aspiring dancers in Tembisa township, creating access to formal dance training for children who would otherwise have none.
The Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest continuously performing dance company in America, celebrates its centennial with "Graham 100" at New York City Center, featuring masterworks and a new piece set to undiscovered Leonard Bernstein music.
Boulder Arts Week 2026 featured over 115 events and marked the unveiling of the Boulder Arts Blueprint, a new ten-year roadmap for supporting artists and strengthening the city's creative ecosystem.
The IUCN announced that 10.01% of the global ocean is now designated within protected areas, with approximately 5 million square kilometers added in just two years — an area larger than the European Union.
For the first time on record, renewable energy generated more electricity globally than coal, contributing 34.3% of all electricity versus coal's 33.1%, with solar alone covering 83% of the rise in demand.
University of Michigan researchers developed "Prima," an AI that interprets brain MRI scans in seconds, identifying over 50 neurological conditions with up to 97.5% accuracy after training on 200,000+ studies.
Italian researchers used AI to design "Apt1," a novel molecule that disrupts DNA repair in pancreatic cancer cells, making tumors significantly more responsive to chemotherapy while sparing healthy cells.
Chester Zoo in the UK has welcomed three giant otter pups — two males and one female — born to first-time parents Bonita and Manu. It is the first time the endangered species, of which fewer than 6,000 survive in the wild, has bred at the zoo in seven years.
All Kids Can Play, a Phoenix-area nonprofit, covers registration fees and equipment costs so children from underserved communities can join recreational leagues in flag football, soccer and volleyball.
The Manx Wildlife Trust planted 30,000 native trees at Creg y Cowin on the Isle of Man, expanding from an original 70-acre goal to 100 acres of restored temperate rainforest in one of Britain's rarest habitats.
After more than a year and a half on dialysis, seven-year-old Waylon Skaggs of the Kansas City area found a kidney donor in a stranger who got tested after his mother’s public appeal and turned out to be a perfect match.
In April 2026, the 40th National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass, Colorado, brought together disabled veterans of every generation, from a 23-year-old to an 84-year-old, to rediscover movement and community through adaptive winter sports.
On April 11, 2026, an Indian-born female cheetah gave birth to four cubs in the wild at Kuno National Park — the first time a cheetah born in India has reproduced in a natural setting since the species was reintroduced in 2022. A Namibian female also had five cubs in March, lifting India’s cheetah count to 53.
Laureus Sport for Good unveiled its 2026 shortlist of six standout programs — from rugby in Hong Kong to tennis in Brooklyn — that use sport to tackle poverty, trauma and inequality on three continents.
Chinese solar manufacturer LONGi reached 34.85% conversion efficiency on a perovskite-silicon tandem cell, certified by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory — a milestone underscored by the IEA's State of Energy Innovation 2026.
The critically endangered kakapo, a flightless nocturnal parrot, has had its best breeding season on record, with at least 95 chicks hatching in 2026 and surpassing the previous high. Triggered by a bumper crop of rimu berries, the success brings new hope for a bird saved from the brink.
NOAA Fisheries built GAIA, a cloud-based system that pairs very high-resolution satellite imagery with machine learning to detect endangered whales such as North Atlantic right whales and Cook Inlet belugas, with an open-source annotation tool from Microsoft AI for Good.
When 12-year-old Macy Johnson stepped off her school bus in Georgia and saw flames at her family’s home, she ran inside screaming to warn her two older brothers—one in the shower, one asleep over the garage—getting them out in time.
Vincent van Gogh’s "The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring," stolen in 2020 and recovered in 2023 by art detective Arthur Brand, has been restored and is back on view at the Groninger Museum.
German startup Tozero opened an industrial demonstration plant that recovers lithium, graphite and a nickel-cobalt mix from end-of-life batteries using an acid-free process, with lithium recovery rates above 80%.
AirJoule Technologies (NASDAQ: AIRJ) was named Water Technology Innovation of 2026 by CleanTech Breakthrough Awards for a device that captures clean drinking water from humid air using metal-organic frameworks.
In a part of San Diego where fast food outnumbers fresh produce, the nonprofit Project New Village is growing food and community wealth at once. Through a neighborhood garden and a planned $10m food hub opening in 2027, residents are turning food access into a source of dignity and local ownership.
When a tornado bore down on an Applebee’s in Three Rivers, Michigan, worker Aubrey McKenzie spotted the funnel cloud, rushed 50 guests and staff into a windowless prep kitchen, and even pulled a man, his dog and a boy in from outside.
Researchers at the University of Chicago developed an AI tool, published in Annals of Oncology, that classifies rare thymic epithelial tumors with high accuracy — helping non-expert pathologists diagnose 100% of aggressive thymic carcinomas in testing.
Rescued from the brink after the last wild individual was shot in 1927, the European bison now numbers roughly 7,000 free-roaming animals across at least seven countries. Beyond their comeback, the giant herbivores boost biodiversity and even help capture carbon.
A century after being hunted to extinction in the wild, the European bison now numbers around 7,000 free-roaming animals, up from 2,579 a decade ago. New research shows rewilded herds also act as climate allies, with a Romanian herd helping lock away carbon equal to tens of thousands of cars.
Chemists at Australia's Flinders University built molecular nano-cages that trap up to 98% of PFAS in water, including the short-chain "forever chemicals" that slip through most conventional filters.
When a Domino’s in Idaho ran out of Diet Coke, 70-year-old driver Dan stopped at a store to buy one himself so a customer’s order would be complete. A Ring video of the small kindness went viral and strangers tipped him more than $129,000.
Houston Food Bank — the largest in the Feeding America network — aims to engage 100,000 volunteers in 2026 after a record 94,000 helped pack and distribute meals in 2025, as demand stays high across southeast Texas.
After decades in storage, sacred Cheyenne and Arapaho artifacts — including ceremonial pipes — are being returned by the University of Denver under NAGPRA, a step tribal leaders welcome as a long-overdue act of justice.
NASA's Artemis II mission launched on April 1, 2026, sending four astronauts on a flyby around the Moon — the first crewed voyage beyond low Earth orbit in over 50 years.
Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka reflects on 20 years of iPSC research as the technology now enables corneal cell transplants to treat blindness, eliminating the need for embryonic stem cells.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet treated ten patients with a single injection delivering a working OTOF gene to the inner ear, with all showing clear hearing improvement within six months.
Led by Samuel I. Stupp, the Northwestern team created a bioactive scaffold that regenerated high-quality hyaline cartilage in sheep in under six months, offering hope to over 500 million people with knee damage.
As the largest World Cup in history approaches with 48 teams across Mexico, Canada, and the US, the Play Collective initiative will fund community sports organizations reaching 3.6 million youth annually.
The TCS London Marathon on April 26 aims to build on last year's world record of 87.3 million pounds raised for charity, with Marie Curie as the 2026 official charity partner.
At COP15 in Brazil, over 130 governments agreed on expanded protections for threatened migratory species, including blue corridors for sea turtles and flyways for birds.
Analysis of over 100 rewilding sites across Scotland reveals dramatic biodiversity gains, with bird species up 261%, breeding territories up 546%, and bumblebee and butterfly varieties doubled.
Japanese researchers have achieved 130% effective efficiency in solar panels by harvesting heat energy that traditional panels waste, potentially transforming renewable energy economics.
QuiX Quantum, NASA, and the University of Twente demonstrated a photon distillation technique that reduced quantum computing errors by 2.2 times, a key step toward practical quantum computers.
The first continental road safety charter has become legally binding after 15 African nations ratified it, with the WHO calling it "a milestone for Africa" in the effort to halve road fatalities and serious injuries.
Yancey County's Double Island Volunteer Fire Department installed a solar-powered microgrid with battery storage, creating a resilience hub that operates during power outages and reduces energy costs.
Japan's revised civil code now allows divorced parents to seek joint custody, ending a system where one in three children of divorced parents lost all contact with the non-custodial parent.
The America250 initiative and nonprofit partners are mobilizing communities across the United States for National Volunteer Month in April, with Idealist hosting 53 community meet-ups on a single day.
The 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist features six novels translated from Mandarin, German, Farsi, Bulgarian, French, and Portuguese, with the 50,000-pound prize shared equally between authors and translators.
Communities across the US are celebrating April as Arts, Culture & Creativity Month with free events, performances, and workshops that highlight the arts as an economic catalyst and social anchor.
Wind and solar produced 30% of EU electricity in 2025, overtaking coal, oil, and gas at 29%, while Norway achieved 97% electric vehicle sales in a landmark year for clean energy.
France has implemented a ban on PFAS — persistent "forever chemicals" linked to cancer and immune damage — in cosmetics, clothing, and ski wax, while mandating expanded drinking water testing.
Machine learning algorithms have successfully predicted the effectiveness of drug compounds for Alzheimer's and cancer, drastically compressing the traditionally years-long drug discovery process.
The University of North Texas is introducing a dedicated undergraduate major in Artificial Intelligence covering machine learning, NLP, and AI ethics, responding to heavy employer demand for specialized AI talent.
Researchers have taken lasers beyond light into the realm of sound, creating a breakthrough phonon laser that manipulates tiny vibrations at the quantum level, potentially transforming gravity measurement and smartphone technology.
In a world first, researchers have used generative AI to design synthetic DNA molecules capable of controlling gene expression in healthy mammalian cells, opening new frontiers for precision cancer therapy.
The FDA has approved suzetrigine (Journavx), a groundbreaking non-opioid pain medication that works by blocking sodium channels in pain-sensing nerves, offering millions of patients effective pain relief without addiction risk.
FDA approval of elinzanetant (Lynkuet) marks a breakthrough in menopause care, offering women effective relief from hot flashes and night sweats without the risks of hormone replacement therapy.
Basketball icon Candace Parker has been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2026, capping a legendary career that transformed women's basketball and inspired a new generation of athletes.
2026 is shaping up as an unprecedented year in global sports with the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, the World Baseball Classic, and the first expanded FIFA World Cup hosted across North America all bringing nations together through athletic competition.
Chamilandu, an elephant orphaned by poaching at just 18 months old, has given birth to her first calf born entirely in the wild in Zambia's Kafue National Park, surrounded by a herd of released and wild elephants — a powerful testament to conservation.
In a major victory against wildlife trafficking, 94 African grey parrots were rescued from illegal international trade in the DRC in 2025, highlighting growing global enforcement against the billion-dollar wildlife crime industry.
Neuromorphic computers modeled after the human brain can now solve complex physics simulation equations, a feat once thought possible only with energy-hungry supercomputers, marking a new era of sustainable computing.
The world added a record 814 gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity in 2025, up 17% from 2024, as the renewable energy transition accelerates far faster than most experts predicted.
The United Nations has designated 2026 as the International Year of Volunteers, sparking a worldwide surge in community service as organizations and governments recognize the vital role volunteers play in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
A coordinated multi-state operation in 2025 rescued nearly 200 dogs from suspected dog fighting rings across Florida, South Carolina, and Indiana, with local authorities and animal welfare organizations working together in one of the year's largest animal rescue efforts.
British Nigerian artist Nnena Kalu has become the first person with a learning disability to win the Turner Prize, one of contemporary art's most prestigious awards, with her striking draped sculptures and vortex-like circular drawings.
Ireland's pandemic-era basic income pilot for artists has been made permanent in 2026 after an independent study found it generated over €100 million in social and economic benefits, offering a weekly stipend of €325 to over 2,000 artists.
Bad Bunny's album 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' has been named the top album of 2025 by Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Complex, transcending music to become a cultural statement about identity, gentrification, and the preservation of Puerto Rican heritage.
Veteran broadcaster Sean McDonough has won the 2025 National Sportscaster of the Year award, recognizing decades of versatile, authoritative broadcasting across multiple sports in an era where great storytelling elevates athletic competition.
A landmark Breathe Cities report reveals that 19 of the world's biggest metropolises — including Beijing, London, and Paris — have slashed air pollution by 20% to 40% in just 15 years through cycling infrastructure, clean air zones, and electric vehicles.
Despite rising emissions, 2025 delivered tangible environmental victories: renewable energy capacity surged to record levels, endangered green sea turtles hit milestone recovery numbers, and tiger populations grew across Asia, reports the BBC.
Google's 2025 AI research produced significant breakthroughs including Gemini 3 and Gemma 3 models with dramatically improved reasoning, multimodal understanding, and energy efficiency, advancing AI capabilities while making them more accessible.
Scientists have used AI to design smart DNA-based drugs that can identify and target cancer cells with extreme precision while leaving healthy cells untouched, potentially transforming cancer treatment by minimizing the devastating side effects of conventional chemotherapy.
Students at St. Peter School in Cambridge formed a human chain to pass donated parcels hand to hand for an annual generosity initiative — a tradition that grows in donations every year.
At Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, anonymous donors gave nearly $1.6 million to be split among the 154 graduating students—$10,000 each—in a surprise the student bar president called life-changing.
Physicists at CERN's LHCb experiment have identified a never-before-seen pentaquark configuration, providing crucial evidence for how quarks bind together in exotic combinations beyond ordinary protons and neutrons.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor in the atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1e, marking the first confirmed detection of water on a rocky planet in a star's habitable zone outside our solar system.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science reports that coral cover in the Great Barrier Reef's northern third has reached 39%, the highest in 12 years, driven by successful water quality programs and favorable ocean conditions.
Costa Rica has set a new national record of 300 consecutive days generating all its electricity from renewable sources, primarily hydropower, wind, and geothermal, surpassing its previous record by over two months.
Detroit's community land trust model has reached a milestone of 500 permanently affordable homes across 12 neighborhoods, keeping families housed while preventing displacement from rising property values.
A Tokyo government program pairing elderly residents with university students in shared housing has expanded to 2,000 participants, with studies showing significant reductions in loneliness and improved well-being for both groups.
An mRNA-based malaria vaccine developed by Oxford and BioNTech has demonstrated 95% efficacy in a Phase 3 trial involving 22,000 children across six African nations, far surpassing existing vaccines and offering hope for eliminating the disease.
Portugal's nationwide program placing mental health professionals in every public school has reported a 35% decrease in teen anxiety and a 40% reduction in crisis interventions after its first full year of operation.
The British Museum has signed a precedent-setting agreement to return 200 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria while establishing a joint research center and rotating exhibition program that both institutions hailed as a new model for cultural restitution.
Buenos Aires' free youth orchestra program, which provides instruments, training, and mentorship to children in underserved neighborhoods, celebrated its 10,000th graduate with a sold-out concert at the iconic Teatro Colón.
The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation has launched professional leagues in eight Asian countries, backed by a $120 million sponsorship deal that will fund player salaries, accessible training facilities, and youth development programs.
Marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge's foundation has completed its 150th school running track in Kenya, providing 50,000 young athletes with professional training surfaces and coaching programs that are producing the next generation of distance runners.
The California condor population has reached 1,000 individuals — a remarkable recovery from just 22 birds in 1982, making it one of the most successful endangered species recovery programs in history.
Thailand has completed a 120-kilometer protected wildlife corridor linking five national parks in the Western Forest Complex, enabling wild elephant herds to migrate safely between fragmented habitats for the first time in decades.
A Dutch biotech startup has demonstrated an engineered enzyme that breaks down PET plastic bottles into reusable raw materials within 48 hours, operating at industrial scale and producing material of equal quality to virgin plastic.
A Singapore-based agritech company has achieved the first commercially viable indoor rice cultivation, producing yields comparable to traditional paddies while using 95% less water and no pesticides in a controlled vertical farm environment.
Dr. Ahmad Nasser, who fled Syria in 2015 and requalified as a physician in Germany, has opened a free clinic in Berlin that has served 10,000 uninsured patients — many of them refugees — earning him Germany's Federal Cross of Merit.
Doña Carmen Rodríguez, 92, has graduated from the University of Antioquia with a degree in social work, becoming Colombia's oldest university graduate and inspiring 11 family members across three generations to enroll in higher education.
MIT researchers have developed an AI system that can detect Parkinson's disease up to seven years before clinical symptoms appear by analyzing subtle voice changes captured through a standard smartphone, with 94% accuracy in a validation study of 50,000 participants.
A consortium of tech companies and universities has released an open-source AI translation model supporting 250 low-resource languages, enabling 1.5 billion people to access online content, healthcare information, and educational materials in their native tongues.
At the South King Tool Library near Seattle, volunteers repaired 187 items in a single day with a 90 percent success rate, serving 87 community members for free. The Repair Café keeps usable goods out of landfills, saves families money and builds neighborly connection.
At a UN migratory species conference in Brazil, more than 130 governments agreed to stronger protections for manta rays, jaguars and migratory birds. New measures to cut bycatch and build “blue corridors” for turtles and “flyways” for birds were hailed by BirdLife and WWF as a major step for nature.
Philadelphia's LandCare program, run by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, has cleared and greened 12,000 vacant lots — a third of the city's vacant land. Research links the greened sites to a 29 percent drop in gun violence, a 21 percent drop in burglary and a 41.5 percent drop in nearby depression.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and partners in China restored hearing in all ten patients with a rare genetic deafness using a single gene-therapy injection, with much of the improvement appearing within a month.
Engineers at South Korea's POSTECH built a spinal cord stimulator that stays stiff for safe insertion, then softens on contact with body fluids and uses liquid metal to keep stable signals as the body moves.
A new study in Science shows that a rare group of "gifted word learner" dogs can pick up the names of new toys just by overhearing humans play with them — no direct training required.
Founded in February 2025 with four fridges, the Bmore Community Fridge Network now stocks more than 20 free, around-the-clock fridges across Baltimore, coordinated by over 10,000 volunteers. The principle is simple: food should be free, and dignity is part of the work.
At the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, conservators have turned an exhibition hall into a living laboratory, restoring a 15th-century Giovanni Bellini altarpiece in full public view over a two-year project.
The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation's Dream Team youth program will reach 17,000 children across 156 locations in 2026, a 13% jump over last year, with a new scholarship fund and expanded coaching network.
The Government of Canada announced a $2.5 million investment in the new Kahnawà:ke Cultural Arts Center and roughly $700,000 over five years to support the Kanien'kéha Mohawk language program, a half-century of revitalization work.
Vietnam's largest city announced on April 1 a "principle agreement" to make 135 intra-city bus routes free for all residents starting as soon as May 2026, backed by a roughly $280 million annual budget.
On 1 April 2026, the FDA approved Eli Lilly’s Foundayo (orforglipron), a once-daily oral GLP-1 for adults with obesity — a needle-free option that, in the ATTAIN-1 trial, helped people lose an average of 12.4% of their body weight.
In April 2026, UNEP-WCMC and IUCN announced that 10.01% of the global ocean is now within protected and conserved areas, up from 8.6% in 2024. About 5 million square kilometres — an area larger than the European Union — were protected over the past two years, marking real progress toward the 30x30 goal.
A New England Journal of Medicine study reported in 2026 found that reni-cel, a one-time CRISPR-Cas12a gene-editing therapy, ended painful vaso-occlusive crises in 27 of 28 patients with severe sickle cell disease and normalized their hemoglobin.
In Vancouver, Ruth Hasman has repaired hundreds of cherished stuffed animals—reattaching limbs, grafting fur, fixing voice boxes—including a 115-year-old bear loved across five generations. For her, the stories behind the toys are the real reward.
