Paintings Saved From the Notre Dame Fire Are Now Restored and Back on View

A stunning collection of historical artworks saved from the Notre-Dame fire will be exhibited together for the first time in over 160 years as the cathedral prepares to reopen this December. Known as the Mays of Notre-Dame, these 76 works were mostly from the 17th century and were rescued from destruction during the blaze. Despite being hidden away for so long due to a famous architect's disapproval, these paintings have now been restored and will be displayed in their original order.

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Volunteers Mobilize To Save Migrating Toads From Traffic In Lincolnshire

A team of volunteers in Lincolnshire is gearing up for what they’re calling “toadmageddon” — the annual migration of toads across a busy road, and the potentially deadly traffic that awaits them. Led by 52-year-old Emma Hallewell, the group, known informally as the Toad Patrol, is preparing to help hundreds of toads make it safely across Five Gates Lane in Belton, near Grantham. Last year, Hallewell counted more than 700 crushed toads on the same stretch of road. “They’ll get a helping hand across the road to their breeding pond this year,” she said. The toads’ journey takes place during their breeding season, typically in mid-February, and usually at twilight when temperatures are mild. If it's too cold, they tend to stay put. To coordinate the rescue effort, the group uses a colour-coded alert system on its website: toad green, toad amber, and toad red. When the alert hits red, volunteers grab their high-vis jackets, torches, and buckets, and head out for what they’ve dubbed “toadmageddon.” “We have a rota, and then we'll assess each night as it comes,” Hallewell said. “When it's full migration and peak, we call it toadmageddon.” The volunteers don’t just show up and scatter. They’ve got a plan, a group chat, and a sense of camaraderie that keeps things running smoothly. “We all chat to each other and make sure we have cover to make sure those toads are safe,” Hallewell said. “Knowing you are helping wildlife is just the best.” She credits her inspiration to Froglife’s “Toads on the Roads” project, a national conservation effort aimed at protecting the UK’s declining common toad population. The species, known for its bumpy skin and slow waddling gait, often falls victim to cars while crossing roads at night, en route to ancestral breeding ponds. According to Froglife, road traffic remains one of the biggest threats to toads during breeding season — especially since the animals tend to return to the same pond year after year, regardless of what urban development might have changed around them. This year, the team hopes their efforts will make a difference — and that far fewer toads will meet an untimely end under car tires.

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In Ukraine, One Veterinarian Has Helped Over 1,000 Animals — And Says Locals Are the Real Heroes

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the country was already struggling with a large stray animal population. Then came the mass exodus — 6.8 million people forced to flee — and more than a million pets left behind. Two years later, the number of strays had exploded, and Ukraine was teetering on the edge of a rabies crisis. That’s the situation Dr. Colleen Lambo walked into in 2024. The U.S.-based veterinarian traveled to Ukraine with support from Roo, a veterinary relief organization. What she found was a country holding onto normal life in extraordinary circumstances. “The Ukrainians we met were carrying on with their lives despite the war,” Lambo said. “They were considerate, generous, and tolerant.” In the small western city of Brody, Lambo met Oleg and Oksana, a married couple who had turned their home into an informal shelter for strays. While they offered her “endless pots of borscht and bread,” she and her team focused on the animals — sterilizing over 600 dogs and cats, treating illnesses, and helping keep disease at bay. In total, Lambo estimates she’s helped more than 1,000 animals across Ukraine since the war began. But she says the true credit belongs to people like Oleg and Oksana. “The most meaningful aspect of my work in Ukraine has been the gratitude we feel from the community,” she told Nice News. “It feels like we’ve accomplished so little … but every person we’ve met has been so kind and so generous. Our work is a drop in a bucket, but no one has treated it as such.” The war’s impact on Ukraine’s animals is still ongoing. Shelters remain overcrowded. The threat of rabies hasn’t disappeared. But thanks to local volunteers and international support, countless animals are surviving, and even thriving, amid unimaginable conditions.

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Local Therapist Delivers Unexpected Aid To Stranded Memphis Family During Winter Storm

A Memphis family sheltering from last week’s brutal winter storm is back on their feet, thanks to an unexpected act of generosity from a complete stranger. Gerald Driver, his wife, and their three kids had no choice but to seek refuge at the Ed Rice Community Center after freezing temperatures and icy roads made it impossible to stay in their home. For days, they slept on the floor, bundled up in whatever blankets volunteers could find. “We slept on the floor from Friday till today,” Driver told reporters. “Me and my wife, a 12-year-old, a 9-year-old, and a 1-year-old. The people here, the staff, they rallied with other people from other centers to bring us hot meals when they could and provide blankets.” It might have ended there — one family among many enduring tough conditions during the storm — if not for a local TV news segment that aired their story. One viewer, a therapist who asked not to be named, saw the broadcast and couldn’t let it go. “They hadn’t had anything hot for several days,” she said. “Beef jerky and fruit cups were all they’d had to eat. Three children and an older woman, and they’re all sleeping on the floor.” She immediately opened a delivery app and searched for any restaurants still operating. “They were hungry, and I thought, I can’t tolerate that,” she said. “So I went on DoorDash and looked around for places that were still delivering. I found a station that was still open. They made things like pizza and fried chicken.” She sent hot meals to the family that same night. But she didn’t stop there. Knowing they were still sleeping on the floor, she also sent over air mattresses, wipes, and other essential supplies. She kept in touch with them throughout the weekend, checking in and offering support. “She reminded us that someone cared,” said Driver. “It wasn’t just the food. It was knowing we weren’t alone.” The woman said she didn’t want recognition. “This wasn’t about me,” she said. “It was about doing the right thing. Sometimes people just need to know someone’s thinking about them.” The gesture offered relief during a week when thousands in the region faced power outages, limited shelter access, and dangerous road conditions. For the Driver family, the help was more than a warm meal — it was a sign that someone out there was paying attention.

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A Lost Horse Survived 6 Months in the Wyoming Mountains — Then it Got Rescued by a River Raft

When a horse named Mouse vanished during a fishing trip in Wyoming last July, his owners assumed the worst. The Wind River mountains are remote and unforgiving, especially in winter. As the months passed and snow began to fall, Mouse’s chances of survival seemed almost impossible. Then, in late January, nearly six months later, a group of snowmobilers spotted something incredible: Mouse, alive and alone, deep in the backcountry — about 10 miles from the nearest easy access point. “I was pretty worried because it's a horse that me and my friends are partners on, and I didn't want to lose that,” co-owner Preston Jorgenson told MTN News. Even after all that time, he hadn’t entirely lost hope. “I never completely gave up on him.” Finding Mouse was one thing. Getting him out was something else entirely. Horses don’t move well through snow. As one rescuer explained, “They have no ground pressure, and the horse was probably four miles off any groomed trail in backcountry terrain. We needed specialized equipment to get in there.” Volunteers quickly mobilized. They brought in snowmobiles, a snow groomer, and even a Snow Cat — a massive tracked vehicle designed for deep snow. But one major problem remained: how do you move a full-sized horse across miles of powder? That’s when someone floated a truly unusual idea. “Hey, we’ll get a river raft,” said volunteer Buster Campbell. He approached a local rafting company with the strange request. When they asked why he needed a raft in the dead of winter, he joked, “You wouldn't believe me if I told you.” Surprisingly, the plan worked. The team guided Mouse into the raft. “He walked right up in there,” Jorgenson said. “So we let him stand there for a little bit and let him know everything’s okay.” Mouse seemed to understand. At one point during the rescue, the exhausted horse even lay down inside the raft as the team carefully hauled him across the snow. Snowmobiles and the Snow Cat pulled the makeshift sled mile by mile until they finally reached safety. By Sunday afternoon, Mouse was back home — hungry but healthy. “Oh yeah, he's doing great,” Jorgenson said. “He's eating and drinking water just fine. I actually seen him trotting around in a field today.” For those involved, the operation wasn’t just a rescue. It was a reminder of what’s possible when people come together. “That's what makes it so amazing,” Campbell said. “People on different fronts of life and everybody just able to sit down and come down together on a situation, with one thing in mind. We're going to get him out of there.”

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Two-Month-Old Babies Are Already Making Sense Of The World, According to This Study

New research out of Dublin has found that babies begin organizing the world around them much earlier than scientists previously thought — as early as two months old. A team of neuroscientists at Trinity College Dublin discovered that even at this young age, infants can group what they see into distinct visual categories, such as animals, objects, and natural scenes. The finding suggests that the building blocks of visual cognition are present almost from the start of life. “Although at two months, infants’ communication is limited by a lack of language and fine motor control, their minds were already not only representing how things look, but figuring out to which category they belonged,” said Dr. Cliona O’Doherty, the study’s lead author. “This shows that the foundations of visual cognition are already in place from very early on and much earlier than expected.” The study was published in Nature Neuroscience by researchers from the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and the School of Psychology. To conduct the study, the team recruited 130 two-month-old babies from Coombe and Rotunda Hospitals in Dublin. Each baby lay on a soft beanbag, wearing noise-canceling headphones, while viewing a series of bright, colorful images from 12 different categories — including birds, cats, shopping carts, rubber ducks, and trees. The viewing sessions lasted about 15 to 20 minutes. During that time, researchers used functional MRI (fMRI) to monitor activity in the babies’ brains while they looked at the images. The setup allowed the team to gather real-time data from awake, non-sedated infants — something that’s been difficult to do until recently. Once the data was collected, the team used artificial intelligence to help decode it. AI models trained to recognize visual patterns were compared against the babies’ brain activity to better understand how infants process and sort the images they saw. “This study represents the largest longitudinal study with functional magnetic resonance imaging of awake infants,” said Professor Rhodri Cusack, who led the research. “The rich dataset capturing brain activity opens up a whole new way to measure what babies are thinking at a very early age.” Cusack, who holds the Thomas Mitchell Professorship of Cognitive Neuroscience at Trinity, added that this kind of research could help improve how we build future AI models. “Babies learn much more quickly than today’s AI models,” he said. “By studying how they do this, we hope to inspire a new generation of AI models that learn more efficiently, so reducing their economic and environmental costs.” Dr. Anna Truzzi, a co-author now based at Queen’s University Belfast, said the work was only made possible by recent advances in brain imaging and computational modeling. “Until recently, we could not reliably measure how specific areas of the infant brain interpreted visual information,” she said. “By combining AI and neuroimaging, our study offers a very unique insight, which helps us to understand much more about how babies learn in their first year of life.” The implications extend beyond neuroscience. The researchers say this foundational knowledge could help guide early-years education, support early diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders, and even inspire more human-like learning in AI systems. “There is a pressing need for greater understanding of how neurodevelopmental disorders change early brain development,” said Professor Eleanor Molloy, a neonatologist at Children’s Health Ireland and a co-author on the paper. “Awake fMRI has considerable potential to address this.” The research was also supported by a creative component. Irish artist Cian McLoughlin, who served as artist-in-residence at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience in 2024, created a series of artworks inspired by the study. His work accompanied an exhibition and essay exploring the themes of early brain development and perception. As for Dr. O’Doherty, she’s now based at Stanford University. But her work in Dublin is leaving a lasting impression on how scientists view the infant mind — not as a blank slate, but as a brain already hard at work making sense of the world.

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John Leonard Trades 7 Million Pepsi Points For Lifetime Frontier Flights In Super Bowl Ad

In 1996, John Leonard became famous for attempting what sounded like a joke: trading 7 million Pepsi Points for a military-grade fighter jet. Nearly three decades later, he’s finally getting something out of it — just not a Harrier. Leonard, now in his 50s, is the face of a cheeky new Super Bowl campaign by Frontier Airlines, which has given him 7 million frequent flyer miles — one for every Pepsi Point he once tried to redeem. That’s enough to fly free for life. The stunt rewrites the ending of a story that began with a Pepsi ad showing a teenager scoring prizes with points from soda purchases. In the commercial’s punchline, the kid lands a Harrier jet — with on-screen text declaring it could be his for 7 million points. Leonard took that literally. “I was a scrappy kid,” Leonard recalled. He tried to collect the points, even finding a legal loophole to buy most of them outright. But when he submitted his claim, Pepsi said the jet wasn’t a real offer. A legal battle followed, eventually ending in court, where a judge ruled that no reasonable person would expect a soda company to hand over a fighter jet. Leonard never got his plane. But his story lived on — eventually becoming the subject of a 2022 Netflix documentary titled Pepsi, Where’s My Jet? Now, 30 years after his failed soda scheme, he’s back in the spotlight — this time with a win. Frontier Airlines approached Leonard with an idea: What if they gave him the “jet” he deserved — in the form of flight rewards? “The first conversation was, ‘Hey, we want to get you the jet we think you should have got 30 years ago,’” Leonard said. “I was like, ‘Well, I’ve been down this route before. No thank you.’” But Frontier kept pushing. Eventually, Leonard bought in. “They just had this creative cleverness and mischievousness that I really enjoy,” he said. “Frontier is super serious in how they take care of their planes, how they treat their customers… but at the same time, they can make it fun while doing it.” In the airline’s Super Bowl commercial, Leonard receives the keys to a Frontier Airbus A320neo and makes himself comfortable — lounging across seats and claiming it as his own. The ad highlights both the absurdity of his original quest and the modern-day payoff. For Leonard, the 7 million miles are a meaningful reward. “I’m an avid traveler,” he said. “We travel all the time with three kids. It’s not cheap to travel.” He admitted the fighter jet fantasy was never realistic. “I couldn’t fly a jet. I couldn’t have maintained it. It’s even a little bit more laughable when I look back.” Frontier is using the partnership to promote its own loyalty program. From February 5 to 22, customers can convert unused points from other brands into Frontier miles — up to 5,000. “When someone goes the distance on loyalty, they should actually feel rewarded,” said Bobby Schroeter, Frontier’s chief commercial officer. “Giving John seven million miles is simply a bold example of how we believe loyalty should work: straightforward, meaningful, and genuinely fun.” Reflecting on the long arc of his story, Leonard said he has no regrets. “If you asked me 25 years ago if I’d do it again, I’d tell you ‘No way,’” he said. “But after this last experience with Frontier, I would do it again in a heartbeat. It’s been fun.”

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This School Tried a New Approach to Cut Teen Vaping — and It’s Working

At Granville Academy, a comprehensive school in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, vape detectors are as common as classroom clocks. But after months of trying the usual tactics—detentions, bathroom redesigns, and warnings—staff realized they needed a new strategy. Despite tightening rules, students were still vaping in toilets, using e-cigarettes on the walk home, and even stealing them from local shops. So Granville Academy decided to flip the script: instead of punishing students, it would empower them. Now, the school is part of a pilot project led by Derbyshire County Council aimed at creating vape-free campuses through education, not enforcement. It’s one of dozens of schools in the county trying a fresh, peer-driven approach. “We can only control what we can control,” said head teacher Gemma Lowe. “And we weren’t seeing an improvement from detentions alone.” That’s when the school leaned into a student-led model. Year 11 pupils were trained to run educational sessions for their younger peers, sharing personal stories, showing student-produced videos, and holding open conversations about vaping’s impact. During one of the sessions observed by the BBC, Year 10 student Daniils—who used to vape—said the approach was already making a difference. “It’s making kids be better, not aspiring to be bad people,” he said. Alicia, also a former vaper, admitted it had felt like “a big thing that everyone needed to do,” even though it made her feel “gross.” Another student, Jayden, said he’d vaped for three years and always felt guilty. “I felt like I was letting my mum down,” he said, adding, “It’s not easy to come off by yourself.” Head girl Ocean, who helped lead the session, said younger pupils, especially Year 7 students, seemed particularly vulnerable to peer pressure. “I know [vapes] are being passed about in school,” she said. Alex, another student leader, felt the issue wasn’t being taken seriously enough at the national level. “I think [politicians] are more bothered about immigration. They’re not focusing on the youth.” George, also part of the team, agreed: “It’s scary because it’s impacting us.” Ocean added, “I feel like it’s just been tucked under the rug.” A recent BBC survey found more than half of secondary school teachers across England say vaping is a problem at their schools. About one in five schools has gone as far as installing vape detectors. The NASUWT teaching union wants vapes added to the list of banned items that allow school staff to search students. Derbyshire County Council says an estimated 3,000 students in the county vape regularly. Until now, there’s been no specific cessation service for young people. That could soon change. The council is in the process of launching a school-based smoking and vaping support service that would provide 12 weeks of help for students trying to quit. Granville Academy says it has already seen a drop in vaping since the pilot began. The UK government’s recent ban on disposable vapes has also helped, but Lowe said more targeted support would be a “massive difference.” “At the moment, there’s an over-reliance on school staff to refer [students] into any services that we can use, like our school nursing team,” she said. “And the wait might be an extended wait that they wouldn’t get with an external service they can tap into themselves.” A government spokesperson said, “We have always been clear that children should never vape,” and pointed to recent legislation banning single-use vapes and introducing new restrictions on advertising, flavours, and packaging. For now, Granville’s student leaders are taking matters into their own hands. With a mix of honesty, peer support, and practical advice, they’re building something that detention couldn’t—real momentum toward change.

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Indian Teacher Wins $1M Global Teacher Prize For Creating Hundreds Of Learning Centers

Rouble Nagi, an Indian teacher and activist who’s spent years turning slum walls into classrooms and building learning centers across India, has won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize. The award was announced Thursday at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, where Nagi accepted the prize in front of global leaders and education advocates. Nagi is best known for founding the Rouble Nagi Art Foundation, which has created more than 800 learning centers throughout India. Many of them serve children who have never attended school. The centers provide a pathway into structured education and support kids already enrolled in schools. But Nagi’s impact isn’t limited to classrooms. She’s also known for painting vibrant murals across slum neighborhoods—artworks that double as lessons in literacy, math, science, and history. Her approach blends public art with accessible education, bringing learning directly to communities that are often overlooked. “Rouble Nagi is an example of what’s possible when education and creativity come together to serve those most in need,” said representatives from the Varkey Foundation, which oversees the Global Teacher Prize. The foundation, established by Sunny Varkey, also runs GEMS Education, one of the largest private school operators in the world. The $1 million prize is awarded annually to a teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession and to the lives of students. Nagi said she plans to use the funds to build a free vocational training institute, expanding her foundation’s efforts to help young people develop practical skills alongside traditional learning. She becomes the 10th recipient of the Global Teacher Prize since it began in 2015. Previous winners have included educators from Kenya, Palestine, Canada, and Saudi Arabia, many of whom were recognized for their work in remote or underserved communities. Nagi’s award highlights a growing recognition that teaching can take many forms—and sometimes, it starts with a paintbrush.

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This 8-Year-Old from Salford Spends His Pocket Money on Strangers in Need — And He Loves It

Most kids save their pocket money for toys or sweets. Not Rowan. The eight-year-old from Salford prefers to spend his on gloves, flowers, aftershave, and tents—for complete strangers. “I love it. I just love to see their happiness and it brightens my day up as well,” he told BBC Radio Manchester. Rowan has quickly become a viral sensation for his feel-good video series showcasing the "random acts of kindness" he performs across his community. The premise is simple: he takes his own money—saved from birthdays and Christmas—and uses it to help people who need a lift. That could mean giving out chocolates and flowers to elderly neighbours. Or buying an umbrella, chair, and water for someone experiencing homelessness. He’s even purchased tents to help people sleeping rough. His motivation? "I want to make the world a better place," he said. Rowan said he started helping others when he was just three years old, handing out food with a local church collection. Since then, his efforts have grown more ambitious—and more personal. “I save money from my birthday or Christmas and buy homeless people things that they need,” he explained. “Then the elderly I just give chocolates and flowers, and the men just maybe sometimes chocolates and just aftershave.” He also hopes other kids will follow his lead. “I want to encourage more people to do this, people my age as well,” he said. His kindness hasn’t gone unnoticed at school either. Rowan proudly recalled winning an award after helping a younger child down from a climbing frame. His mum, Toni, 28, says she’s been proud of him from the beginning. “He was three years old when this came about,” she said. “Rowan had watched a Christmas advert showing a family that didn't have a lot of money and he got really upset by it.” That moment stuck with him. He asked if he could save his pocket money to buy presents for people in need. It’s now grown into a quiet online campaign of goodwill. Toni said they sometimes use social media to ask if anyone is in need. “He ended up helping a lot of people… like a lady who had just had a fire,” she said. “She was really down and he delivered gifts to her children. It was amazing.” The kindness is all Rowan’s. He comes up with the ideas, picks out the gifts, and delivers them himself—one stranger at a time.

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These 'Kindness Angels' are Uniting to Support the Homeless with Care Bags

Every week inside a chilly pavilion at King Edward Park in Nottingham, a group of volunteers huddles together—not to escape the cold, but to do something about it. They call themselves the Kindness Angels. Some of them have slept on the streets. Now, they’re spending their time making sure others don’t feel forgotten. The group, led by 42-year-old Kerry Warwick, has been packing what they call “care and snack bags” filled with essentials—warm clothing, hygiene items, food, and handwritten notes. They distribute them to people sleeping rough throughout the city, especially during freezing temperatures. "A random act of kindness can improve anyone's day," said Warwick. "That's what life is all about, making people smile." The effort began six years ago with a simple gesture. Warwick was with her daughter at a Santa’s grotto event when they saw a man sleeping outside. “My daughter said she wanted to buy the man a scarf, a hat and gloves,” Warwick recalled. “Since then, I have always helped the homeless.” That impulse has since grown into a community-driven operation. Kindness Angels now packs around 100 drawstring bags at a time. Each one contains hats, gloves, scarves, socks, jumpers, and hygiene products—menstrual pads included. Everything is donated by local residents and businesses from Sneinton, Bakersfield, Colwick, and Carlton. But the bags are just part of it. The group also takes time to speak with the people they meet. "As well as taking bags, we talk to them because they are human," Warwick said. "People walk by them all the time thinking they only want money; they want conversations, too. Even asking them 'how are you' can change their day." On 9 January, the homeless charity Framework recorded 44 individuals sleeping rough in Nottingham’s city centre, with another 21 using emergency shelters set up through the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol. Kindness Angels meet that reality head-on, wearing high-vis jackets and pushing trolleys full of care bags around the city. For many of the volunteers, the work is personal. Paula Cope, who joined the group, was once homeless herself. "I was homeless and I understand how it feels when you have no self esteem," she said. "I just want to show them that they are worth something and are worth caring about." Her partner, Annmarie, has also experienced life on the streets. She sees their work as a way to help others feel seen. “We hope Kindness Angels turns homeless people from being invisible to being visible,” she said. “Unity commands a blessing. We can bless those on the streets who have gone through all the trials and tribulations of life and we want to make that period easier for them.” She didn’t shy away from sharing her past. “I was homeless, I've been a drug addict, I've been an alcoholic, I've been the person that they are,” she said. “I want to give back what I felt when my life went back on the up.” It’s not a charity with big offices or fancy slogans. It’s a group of people, many of them once in the same situation, now standing in the gap for others—offering not just warmth, but dignity. In a city where it’s easy to look away, the Kindness Angels are reminding everyone to look closer. Sometimes, all it takes is a bag of socks, a warm jumper, and the simple act of asking someone how they’re doing.

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