Good News Roundup: Four Women Win the "Alternative Nobel," a Unanimous UN Deal, and a Baby Gorilla Steals the Week

This week delivered the kind of good news we rarely get to write about. The Right Livelihood Award, often called the alternative Nobel Prize, went to four women and female-led organizations working to fight authoritarian rule, gender-based violence, and the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence. Among the winners: Timnit Gebru, founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and Jalila Haider, a Pakistani lawyer advocating for women’s rights. All of this year’s honorees are women or female-led, a first worth noting.

On the global stage, every United Nations member state unanimously agreed that low-lying island nations will keep their sovereignty even if rising seas submerge their land. Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr. put it simply: sea level rise threatens coasts and homes, but not legal rights or statehood. Other wins this week include Norway’s largest marine reserve, a UN report showing age-discrimination laws now cover 57.7% of countries, record UK wind and solar output at 41% of electricity, and new research on electric car reliability and seabird-saving fishing gear.

But the story melting hearts is Lulingu, a rescued eastern lowland gorilla who gave birth in the wild in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Conservationists call it a milestone for one of the world’s most critically endangered species. Which of these stories hit you hardest this week?