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A 'joyful' scene: More than 550,000 Gazan children have received the polio vaccine
More than half a million children in Gaza have received their first dose of the polio vaccine, thanks to a successful campaign by the World Health Organization. Despite challenges, over 550,000 kids were vaccinated during brief pauses in conflict. Families actively sought out vaccinations, bringing hope to war-torn communities. NGOs also played a crucial role in reaching thousands of children with this vital protection against polio.
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Teen's Viral Instagram Plea Spurs Creation of Community Center for Fire-Affected Girls in California
When wildfires scorched nearly 10,000 buildings across Altadena, California, last January, 14-year-old Avery Colvert did something that few teens would think to do in the middle of a disaster: she posted on Instagram asking for help — not for herself, but for her classmates. “Clothes, personal items, beauty and hair care — stuff WE need,” she wrote. “To help my friends feel confident and like themselves again!” The plea went viral within days, racking up over 28,000 likes and support from celebrities like Paris Hilton, Charli XCX, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. But it didn’t stop at Instagram. That post became the foundation for Altadena Girls, a nonprofit that has now supported more than 5,000 girls recovering from wildfire trauma and displacement. It wasn’t Avery’s first time losing everything. Just three years earlier, her family’s home in Nashville, Tennessee, was destroyed in a flash flood. They moved west to start over. When the Eaton Fire hit in 2025, her house was spared, but her school was reduced to ash. “I don’t even know what I was thinking,” Avery said. “I was going through so many emotions… it was like, ‘I’m just going to do this, and this needs to be done right now.’” Altadena Girls, which Avery co-founded with her mom Lauren Sandidge, has since grown into a full-scale community operation. In just one year, it distributed over 1 million items — from makeup and hygiene kits to school supplies and back-to-school outfits. They even hosted a prom for 300 girls. In October, the organization opened an 11,000-square-foot community center in nearby Pasadena, timed to the International Day of the Girl. It features music and podcast studios (sponsored by Fender), quiet study rooms, a boutique for free clothes and hygiene products, and a glittery pink hangout space called the Sliving Lounge, backed by Hilton’s 11:11 Media. “It’s definitely our most popular thing,” Avery said. “Everyone ends up there.” What sets Altadena Girls apart isn’t just the scope of the support — it’s the philosophy behind it. From day one, Avery wanted girls to feel safe asking for what they actually wanted, not just what others thought they needed. “Girls are allowed to have opinions,” she said. “It’s OK to say, ‘I like this sweater instead of that one.’” After the Eaton Fire, many teens felt ashamed to ask for help, Avery explained. The nonprofit was her way of dismantling that stigma — and giving girls permission to reclaim their dignity. “She wanted to give something that wasn’t just socks and T-shirts,” said Pamela Price, executive producer of the Hollywood Beauty Awards, which honored Avery with the Beauty Impact Award. “People might think it’s superficial, but it’s not. Hair, makeup, skincare — those things affect how you feel. Avery was thinking about mental health.” The mental health impacts of wildfires are well documented. A 2021 study following California’s Camp Fire found direct exposure significantly increased the risk of PTSD and depression. For Avery, that impact was personal. She still remembers the discomfort of receiving public donations after the Nashville flood. “I felt embarrassed. Guilty,” she said. That memory helped shape Altadena Girls’ focus on privacy, respect, and personal choice. Inside the new community center, there’s no pressure to participate in anything. “You can come in and learn guitar,” Sandidge said. “But the priority is that their basic needs are met — they’re fed, they’re safe, they’re relaxed. That’s when people can make good decisions.” For Journey Christine, a 12-year-old actress who lives nearby, the space has become “a blessing” — a way to reconnect with classmates displaced by the fire and rediscover joy. “It’s like my new home away from home,” she said. “It shows other kids that just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference.” Avery, now 15, has become the youngest-ever recipient of the TIME100 Impact Award, and her organization was named California Nonprofit of the Year for Senate District 25. Still, she and her mom are focused on what’s next. “We want to keep it free,” Sandidge said. “And it’s not free to run.” They’re forming a teen advisory board to guide future programming. For Avery, it’s crucial that the space stays grounded in the people it serves. “It has to be for girls, by girls,” she said. “We need their feedback.” For Sandidge, the long-term goal is simple: help girls plan their futures based on who they are, not on what they’ve lost. “There are emotional needs that don’t go away just because the headlines do,” she said. “This gives them something to build on.”
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Argentinian Teen Donates 5,000 Pairs Of Shin Guards To Kids In Need
At just 16 years old, Tomás Machuca needed a pair of shin guards. What he didn’t have was money to buy new ones — so he improvised. He took an old plastic bucket from the backyard, cut it with a saw, heated it with his grandmother’s hairdryer, and shaped his own. Eight years later, that DIY solution has evolved into Fenikks, an award-winning Argentinian organization that recycles plastic waste into high-quality shin guards for kids who might otherwise go without. Now 24, Machuca is the founder and CEO of Fenikks, which distributes recycled shin guards to 56 underserved communities across Argentina. “In Argentina, 57% of children and adolescents live below the poverty line,” Machuca told Beyond Sports after being recognized by the International Olympic Committee for his contributions to sports sustainability. “It is difficult for their families to put food on the table and, even more so, to be able to provide them with the necessary elements to practice sports.” That reality was personal for Machuca. Growing up as a young football player, he knew what it felt like to go without. “I decided to find a way to make my own,” he recalled. That first pair, rough and homemade, even included a design created in Microsoft Paint — decorated with images of his family. What started as a fix born of necessity turned into a bigger vision: using plastic waste to fuel opportunity. In the past five years, Fenikks has recycled more than 2,000 kilograms of plastic and produced over 5,000 pairs of shin guards, all distributed free of charge to young athletes. But the project goes beyond just gear. Each delivery comes with a message about sustainability and the environment. “We work so that in every neighborhood where a child plays barefoot, we can share the importance of caring for and maintaining the cleanliness of living spaces,” Machuca said. “And provide sports equipment of all kinds.” The work earned him recognition not just from the IOC, but from global sports and sustainability leaders. Yet for Machuca, the mission stays grounded: give kids the tools they need to play, grow, and dream — all while keeping waste out of landfills. It all started with a broken pair of shin guards, a plastic bucket, and a burned-out hairdryer. Now it’s changing lives.
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13kg Deer Chases Off 1.7-Ton Rhino at Polish Zoo
At Wroclaw Zoo in Poland, one of the smallest animals on the grounds just stood up to one of the largest — and won. In footage captured on January 8, a 13-kilogram Reeves’s muntjac deer can be seen squaring off with a southern white rhinoceros weighing an estimated 1.7 tons. The deer, undeterred by the size mismatch, charges directly at the rhino and chases it across the enclosure. The video shows the rhino backing off and eventually fleeing, conceding defeat to his pint-sized challenger. “His partner is in heat, and the bachelor is pumping with testosterone,” a zoo spokesperson said. “He needs to release his energy and show who's boss — even if his sparring partner weighs 1.7 tons.” Zookeepers say the behavior isn’t typical, but it’s not entirely surprising either. Reeves’s muntjac are known for their boldness despite their size, and this one was clearly feeling feisty. “Who would have thought that such a warrior could be hidden in that tiny body?” the spokesperson added. Muntjac deer are native to Asia and are often called “barking deer” for the sounds they make. At just over half a metre tall, they’re a fraction of the size of a rhino — but apparently not lacking in confidence.
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Rescued Orangutan Thrives After Returning To The Wild Following Years Of Rehabilitation
After four years of learning how to be wild again, Charlotte the orangutan is finally home. She was just a juvenile when she was rescued from a wooden cabin in Borneo, where she had been found chained to the rafters. Her life was headed for captivity, but instead, it took a very different turn — one that ended with her swinging freely through the forests of East Borneo. Charlotte's release is the result of years of work by the Borneo Orangutan Rescue Alliance (BORA), along with Indonesia’s environment and forestry ministry and the Orangutan Project, which runs a rehabilitation centre known as Jungle School. The facility trains rescued orangutans in all the skills they would’ve learned in the wild — skills Charlotte never had a chance to pick up from her mother. “Orangutans have one of the longest childhoods of any species on earth,” the Orangutan Project explained in a post about Charlotte’s arrival at Jungle School. “Babies are born knowing nothing; they learn everything from their mothers: what to eat, how to avoid predators, how to make nests for safe sleeping, even how to climb and swing through the trees.” Without that guidance, young orangutans are at a huge disadvantage. But over four years, Charlotte gradually transformed from a frightened, isolated orphan into a confident and curious young adult. She learned how to forage, use tools, and build nests — often with the help of human carers who acted as stand-ins for orangutan parents. Those skills were tested on a predator-free forest island, part of her final phase of rehabilitation. There, she practiced living independently in the wild. When she was finally ready, she was released into the Busang Ecosystem in East Borneo, an area where several of her fellow Jungle School alumni have also been reintroduced. “Our team is confident that Charlotte will thrive in her new home, and settle into her wild life with ease,” the Orangutan Project wrote. “Her forest skills are excellent, and have only grown stronger during her time on the pre-release island.” There’s even a chance she might encounter some familiar faces — orangutans like Mary, Jojo, Bonti, and Popi, who have already been released into the same region. Charlotte's return to the wild is not just a win for one animal, but a small victory in the broader fight to restore what poaching and habitat loss have taken away. Her second chance wouldn’t have been possible without the years of quiet, dedicated work behind the scenes — and the belief that even a scared, chained-up orangutan could one day live freely again.
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Loveable Giant Dog Brody Finds His Forever Home in England
Brody, a 66-kilogram Pyrenean mountain dog described as a “loveable giant,” has officially found his forever home — and it’s as perfect a match as Animal Concern Cumbria could have hoped for. The six-year-old dog became an unexpected celebrity when the Egremont-based charity first posted about him in December. They were flooded with adoption requests from across Europe and even the United States. But in the end, it was a family in the south of England who made the trip, took Brody for a long walk and a pub lunch, and sealed the deal. Lauren Pickthall, the charity’s animal rehoming manager, said the viral attention brought both opportunities and challenges. “It made life easy but also difficult because we had a lot of really solid matches,” she said. “We had people from all over Europe and even America offering him a home.” Brody is no small commitment — literally. Standing at around 1.8 metres tall on his hind legs and eating over 1 kilogram of food a day, he’s the size of a small adult. But his new family, Pickthall said, is well-prepared. “His new home has lots of breed experience, he has a dog friend, land to roam around and they’re the loveliest people,” she said. “We’ve had loads of updates and pictures of him enjoying the snow.” Pyrenean mountain dogs, also known as Great Pyrenees, were originally bred to guard livestock in the mountains, often against wolves and bears. They’re known for their loyalty, independence, and thick coats — which require plenty of grooming. Because of the breed’s size and temperament, Brody needed experienced owners. That criteria helped narrow the field, but not by much. The volume of interest meant the charity never had to formally advertise him. His outgoing nature didn’t hurt either. “He was a lovely boy, but we’re always glad to see the back of them and get that happy ending — it’s what you work for from the minute they come in,” Pickthall said. Now Brody has what he needs most — space to roam, companionship, and a family who understands him. And for Animal Concern Cumbria, it's one more happy ending in the books.
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Baby Seal Surprises Hotel Guests, Rescued by Marine Life Experts
A baby seal made a surprise visit to The Quay Hotel and Spa in Conwy, Wales, delighting staff and guests. The young pup was found relaxing in the parking lot, seemingly unfazed by the surroundings. The hotel quickly contacted the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), who arrived promptly to ensure the seal's safety. After a thorough check-up, the pup was transported to a specialist facility for care. Thanks to BDMLR's swift response, this unexpected guest had a happy ending and is now back where it belongs, in the water.
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NASA Partners With Seven Companies To Search For Alien Life
NASA is taking a big step forward in the search for extraterrestrial life, and it’s calling in help from the private sector to do it. Seven companies—Astroscale, BAE Systems, Busek, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Zecoat—have been awarded three-year contracts to begin developing key technologies for the space agency’s next major mission: the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The goal? Build one of the most advanced space telescopes ever conceived, capable of spotting signs of life by analyzing the atmospheres of distant exoplanets. That means detecting the faint chemical fingerprints left in starlight as it filters through a planet’s air—potentially hundreds or even thousands of light-years away. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the HWO represents "exactly the kind of bold, forward-leaning science that only NASA can undertake.” In a statement announcing the contracts, he added, “Humanity is waiting for the breakthroughs this mission is capable of achieving and the questions it could help us answer about life in the universe.” The telescope isn’t expected to launch until the late 2030s or early 2040s, but NASA wants development to move fast. That’s why each company is being asked to tackle different engineering challenges now, including components that don’t yet exist. Among the toughest: keeping the telescope’s optical system so stable it doesn’t shift more than the width of a single atom. It also needs a coronagraph—a kind of super-precise shade to block out starlight and allow faint planets to be seen—that is “thousands of times more capable than any space coronagraph ever built,” according to NASA. Engineers are also being asked to make HWO serviceable. That way, if the telescope is hit by a micrometeoroid or runs into technical problems, NASA could launch future repair missions to fix or upgrade it, extending its lifetime the same way it did with the Hubble Space Telescope. “Contracts like these are a critical component of our incubator program for future missions,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, who heads NASA’s Astrophysics Division. “They combine government leadership with commercial innovation to make what is impossible today rapidly implementable in the future.” HWO is designed to build on the legacy of other groundbreaking observatories: Hubble, which launched in 1990 and is still in operation; the James Webb Space Telescope, which continues to deliver jaw-dropping deep space images; and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled for launch later this year. If it works, HWO could do what no telescope has done before—capture and analyze the chemical makeup of a potentially habitable planet’s atmosphere and, just maybe, find evidence that we’re not alone.
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Scientists Discover Brain-Based Biomarker to Predict Alzheimer's Progression
A new tool developed by scientists at Brown University may bring doctors closer to predicting who will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease—years before symptoms become severe. The technology doesn’t rely on blood tests or brain scans. Instead, it measures electrical activity in the brain to find a hidden signal that could flag early signs of decline. And for patients with mild cognitive impairment, it could mark a turning point. “We've detected a pattern in electrical signals of brain activity that predicts which patients are most likely to develop the disease within two and a half years,” said Stephanie Jones, a neuroscience professor at Brown and co-lead of the study. “Being able to noninvasively observe a new early marker of Alzheimer's disease progression in the brain for the first time is a very exciting step.” The study, published in Imaging Neuroscience, analyzed brain recordings from 85 people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. Researchers tracked each person’s cognitive health over several years to see who eventually developed Alzheimer’s. The key difference? Their brainwaves. Participants underwent a brain scan using magnetoencephalography, or MEG—a painless, noninvasive tool that picks up on faint electrical signals in the brain. During each session, the person simply sat still with their eyes closed. Most MEG analyses average out these signals, which can hide subtle but important patterns. But the Brown team used a new technique they created called the Spectral Events Toolbox. This tool breaks down brain activity into individual bursts—tracking how often they happen, how strong they are, and how long they last. This approach helped the team spot a significant difference in brainwave patterns between two groups: those whose memory remained stable, and those who developed Alzheimer’s within the next two and a half years. They focused on the brain’s beta frequency range—waves commonly linked to memory and cognitive processing. Patients who developed Alzheimer’s had fewer beta bursts. Those bursts were also shorter and weaker. “Two and a half years prior to their Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, patients were producing beta events at a lower rate, shorter in duration and at a weaker power,” said Danylyna Shpakivska, the study’s lead author based at the Complutense University of Madrid. “To our knowledge, this is the first time scientists have looked at beta events in relation to Alzheimer's disease.” Unlike spinal fluid or blood-based biomarkers that detect proteins like beta-amyloid or tau, this method gives a direct look at how brain cells are functioning. That distinction matters, said David Zhou, a postdoctoral researcher in Jones’ lab who is helping lead the next stage of the project. “Those other biomarkers can tell you what might be causing damage,” Zhou said, “but they don’t show how the brain is actually responding to it.” Jones believes their approach could eventually help diagnose Alzheimer’s much earlier, and more accurately. “The signal we’ve discovered can aid early detection,” she said. “Once our finding is replicated, clinicians could use our toolkit for early diagnosis and also to check whether their interventions are working.” The team is now using computational neural models to better understand what’s going wrong in the brain when these beta signals weaken. If they can simulate that disruption, they may be able to identify treatments that fix it. “Now that we've uncovered beta event features that predict Alzheimer's disease progression, our next step is to study the mechanisms of generation,” Jones said. “Then we can work with our collaborators to test therapeutics that might be able to correct the problem.” The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health, including the BRAIN Initiative, and by science funding bodies in Spain. Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science also backed the next phase through a Zimmerman Innovation Award. While more research is still needed, the findings offer a promising lead: a new way to peer directly into the brain’s electrical signals—and possibly into the future of Alzheimer’s.
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He Ran Six Half Marathons on New Year's Day to Fund Brain Tumour Research
At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day, Jack Syder-Mills set off into the cold streets of Norwich. While most people were ringing in 2026 with fireworks or sleep, the 27-year-old was beginning an extraordinary challenge: six back-to-back runs, each just under a half-marathon, totalling more than 120km over the course of the day. Nineteen hours and 52 minutes later, Jack crossed the final imaginary finish line on the Norfolk coast in Cromer. “I wanted to do something sufficiently insane to inspire others that you can push yourself and go further than you think,” he said. Each of Jack’s runs was 20.26 kilometres long — a nod to the new year — slightly shorter than a traditional half-marathon (21.1km). He rested and refuelled between legs, supported throughout by his mother Jane Syder, who helped with logistics and joined him for a short coastal walk near the end. But the challenge wasn’t just about distance. It was personal. Jack’s sister Ella was diagnosed with a brain tumour at age 22 while studying neuroscience at Keele University. Remarkably, she recognised the symptoms herself and sought help early — something Jack knows is a rare privilege. “She was able to self-diagnose and get treatment early, but for a lot of people, that isn’t possible,” he said. “Brain tumours kill more adults and young people under 40 than any other cancer, but only receive 1% of national research funding.” His run was in support of Brain Tumour Research, a UK charity that raises money to study what remains one of the deadliest and least understood forms of cancer. Jack described the overnight hours of the run as the hardest, physically and mentally. The dark, the cold, and the silence made every step heavier. But things improved after sunrise, and support along the route kept him going. “The pain I’m experiencing is very much temporary… but the pain for people with a brain tumour diagnosis, or their family, can last a lifetime,” he told the BBC during one of the runs. “I feel like the thing I’m doing is very much a minor thing.” The final leg brought highs and lows. Jack admitted he felt emotional and exhausted but also overwhelmed by the support he received from friends, family, and strangers. Donations poured in throughout the day, along with messages of encouragement. “It hasn’t really settled in yet, the scale of it,” he said after finishing. “But I have been really heart-warmed by messages and donations. I have no idea what is next, but I don’t think it will be the last challenge.” His mother, Jane, recalled the wait for Ella’s diagnosis as the “worst time” of their lives. In the end, the tumour turned out to be benign — a relief, but not one they take for granted. “This is a disease that can happen to anybody’s child at any time, and it’s devastating for the family,” she said. “Ella is very emotional and proud of Jack, but we are equally proud of her. Her journey over the past few years has been significantly harder.” As for Ella, her brother’s New Year’s Day run was more than just a gesture. It was a show of solidarity, strength, and hope — and a reminder that even in the coldest, darkest hours, someone is still out there running for you.
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U.S. Cancer Survival Rates Reach Historic High, Surpassing 70% Mark
The U.S. has hit a milestone in the fight against cancer: 70% of people now survive at least five years after a cancer diagnosis. That’s according to the latest annual report from the American Cancer Society, which shows steady progress after decades of investment in research, early detection, and treatment. In the 1970s, that number was closer to 50%. By the mid-1990s, it had climbed to 63%. The new 70% figure, based on diagnoses from 2015 to 2021, marks the best outlook yet for cancer patients — and reflects how once-deadly diseases are increasingly being managed as chronic conditions. “It takes decades for research to understand and develop these more effective treatments, and now we’re seeing the fruits of those investments,” said Rebecca Siegel, the report’s lead author and senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society. Five-year survival is a standard benchmark in oncology. While not a guarantee of cure, it generally indicates that a cancer hasn’t returned and that the patient’s long-term outlook is significantly improved. The report estimates that 4.8 million cancer deaths have been prevented in the U.S. since 1991, driven by advances in treatment, earlier detection, and lower smoking rates. One of the biggest breakthroughs has come from immunotherapy, which trains the body’s own immune system to detect and attack cancer cells. Siegel described the impact as “game changing” — particularly for myeloma, a type of blood cancer that disproportionately affects Black Americans. The five-year survival rate for myeloma has nearly doubled, from 32% in the mid-1990s to 62% today. Targeted therapies have also transformed treatment. These drugs home in on specific genes or proteins that help cancer cells grow, reducing harm to healthy cells and causing fewer side effects. “Staying on treatment longer allows patients to live longer, and these less toxic treatments allow more sequences of therapy,” said Dr. Christopher Flowers, chair of cancer medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved in the report. Lung cancer, the deadliest cancer in the U.S., has also seen survival gains. The five-year survival rate for regional lung cancer — meaning it has spread to nearby structures or lymph nodes — is now 37%, up from just 20% three decades ago. Despite the progress, researchers say there’s still work to do. “Our country has an epidemic of obesity, and cancers follow that,” said Dr. Clark Gamblin, chief of surgical oncology at the University of Utah. Gamblin, who was not involved in the report, pointed to rising colorectal cancer rates in people under 50 and increasing breast cancer cases among women — both of which can be linked to obesity. Access to care remains a major hurdle, especially for communities of color. Siegel noted that Native American and Black populations still carry a disproportionate share of the cancer burden, with gaps in screening, treatment access, and outcomes. She also warned of potential setbacks due to cuts in cancer research funding. An analysis by Senate Democrats found a 31% drop in federal cancer research grants in the first quarter of 2025, compared to the same period a year earlier. Siegel said these cuts — initiated during the Trump administration — could slow or stall momentum on new treatments and prevention strategies. And while the pandemic may be over, its effects on cancer care are still playing out. “The screening for [asymptomatic] cancer largely stopped during that time period, and I don’t know that we’ve seen the tail of that yet,” said Gamblin. The American Cancer Society projects over 2.1 million new cancer cases in the U.S. this year, and more than 626,000 deaths. Still, the growing survival rate is a reminder that progress is possible — and that research, early diagnosis, and equitable access to care can change lives.