Search Results for: pandemic

Covid transformed cities, jobs, even entertainment in ways that seem to be ever more permanent — and in some cases, made the world a better place.

In Borneo and Madagascar, communities committed to protecting trees instead of logging — and people got healthier.

As the world reels through uncharted economic territory, the co-op model has become more popular than ever.

When vendors in Queens started self-governing during Covid, the city got a glimpse of how public spaces can truly flourish.

Some universities are offering college credits as industry-recognized certificates instead, allowing students to use them in the job market long before they graduate.

The coronavirus is creating an explosion of quarantined online performance that is unscripted, unshowered and surprisingly uplifting.

With its monthly repair cafes and nearly 5,000 items to lend, Buffalo’s Tool Library is chipping away at throwaway consumerism.

Ten years after the launch of My Brother’s Keeper, these “model communities” have become proving grounds for the collaboration-based formula’s success.

With interest in vocational training on the rise in the US and elsewhere, a German program promising “no graduation without connection” could provide a model.

Communities across the US are finding clever ways to crack down on the short-term housing market, making more homes available for residents.

When the pandemic hit, Fishermen Feeding Mainers found a way to bring new life to the state’s groundfish industry – and feed those in need.

Amid the rise of remote work, “body doubling” has been helping those with ADHD — and those who just want more support — get things done.

Over half of Stockton, California’s residents are diabetic or prediabetic. A prescribed meal program aims to change that.

Amid the ongoing mental health crisis among young people, telehealth can offer a lifeline.

Lots of kids feel socially isolated — especially at lunchtime. A national movement is working to change that.

Recreation makes rural communities more resilient. And it’s not just about tourists — it makes life better for locals, too.

When senior citizens are paired with elementary-aged pupils, the benefits go both ways.

Millions of children in the US grow up without books at home. A book bank aims to change that.

In a “time bank,” members accumulate bankable hours, for instance by babysitting or doing repairs, and get “repaid” with assistance when they need it, usually later in life.

Naloxone, the pocket-sized drug that can save the life of someone overdosing on opioids, is within arm’s reach in bars, libraries and vending machines.

177 ways the world got better in 2023.

Deep in the mountains of North Carolina, internet access is helping workers get care — and keep in touch with loved ones.

At the end of this busy year, Reasons to be Cheerful’s editors are taking a moment to reflect.

A new city-wide program puts mental health support at teenagers’ fingertips.

With an emphasis on mindfulness and human connection, New York’s legendary theater is using culture to cultivate well-being.

A phony ad campaign. A forgotten transit graveyard. The story of how this Texas city resurrected its streetcar system takes an unusual track.

People of color are half as likely as white people to get a diagnosis or treatment for an eating disorder — but that’s changing.

A concept that spread to meet an urgent need amid the pandemic remains a low-key yet efficient way to feed people and prevent food waste.

As offices across the US sit vacant, a slate of federal measures aims to convert them into much-needed housing units.

When one woman pasted her father’s brief biography on the walls, his caregivers became his champions. Now, more patients are sharing their stories.

A childcare cooperative in Ahmedabad has become a lifeline for women working in the informal sector.

The messaging app enables activists to swiftly stop illegal weddings, helping kids to stay in school — and stay kids.

Investing just one percent of food and beverage sales in regenerative agriculture could be key to changing the food system.

California students are becoming more environmentally aware while lowering their high school’s carbon footprint.

For those who lack access to formal financial institutions, peer-to-peer lending can be a ticket out of years of debt.

Every student in the city will engage in two to five minutes of daily mindfulness, a tactic that has shown positive effects in schools around the world.

Workplaces are getting deeply involved with their employees’ mental health, in ways both positive and dubious.

Stigma and affordability have long been obstacles to mental health care in vulnerable communities. What happens when both are removed?

“Indigenous worldviews look at the land as an extension of the self, so can you argue that land is body?”

To prevent a mental health crisis, a multinational effort is bringing therapy to the war-torn country from thousands of miles away.

In an unusual approach, a land trust and a co-op collaborated to save a mobile-home park from corporate buyout.

For families with neurodiverse children, travel can be tough. In Mesa, locals have learned how to make it much easier.

The Catalan city is making big moves to get visitation and its impacts under control — and other European destinations are taking action, too.

With one dam down, the biggest dam removal project ever undertaken in the US. has begun along the Klamath River.

Wastewater recycling is gathering steam. If you’ve been to Disneyland lately, you’ve already tried the clean water it can produce.

At peer respite facilities, patients who don’t need immediate medical care can get help without feeling judged.

Through one-on-one, non-judgmental sessions, Tulsa residents achieve financial goals, sending positive ripples across the community.

Higher pay is on the horizon for the app-based workers who zip around the city.

As the city gets pricier, a health system custom-built for musicians makes sure the “Live Music Capital of the World” keeps its title.

A new book explores how a global shift toward long-term thinking can solve the problems caused by our here-and-now mindsets.

From “forest bathing” to clinically prescribed time in national parks, a growing medical movement is sending patients back to nature, with remarkable results.

Pushing past the conventional food aid model, a regenerative farming system offers a recipe for success — and self-reliance.

With their heightened sense of touch, visually impaired women are detecting breast cancer in communities where access to health care is sparse.

Paskho’s new manufacturing model disperses good-paying jobs among marginalized communities.

In Khonoma, traditional knowledge has led to a boom in ecotourism and sustainable cultivation practices.

What started as a restaurant has become a path to entrepreneurship, turning formerly incarcerated folks into lawyers and soul food impresarios.

“Recovery schools” blend typical high school curriculums with addiction treatment, leading to higher rates of attendance, graduation and sobriety.

Three years ago, The Body Shop adopted “open hiring,” in which the most basic skills automatically get you the job. A new analysis suggests it’s working.

Once a year, as amphibians scramble across America’s roads to spawn, a devoted army of volunteers emerges to shepherd them pond-ward unscathed.

The tenants come from diverse generations and cultures — and commit to socializing with each other at least two hours a week.

With “gratitude necklaces” and “gardens of emotions,” mental wellbeing classes help young people with anxiety and confidence.

Participatory budgeting in Rhode Island began with handing $10,000 to teens. Now this form of direct democracy is spreading across the state.

Now-dormant medical surveillance spaces are being repurposed as everything from food stalls to pharmacies to places where you can borrow a book.

Teacher burnout from remote learning has left many schools struggling to retain faculty. One Florida principal’s solution? Convert students into staff.

Advocates shining a light on ecologically responsible bouquets want to do for the floral industry what locavorism did for food.

Long dismissed as hippie havens, off-grid communities are getting a fresh look as wasteful construction practices come under scrutiny.

Since Greenville, South Carolina started offering “career education” for its youngest students, the number of graduates earning industry certifications has soared.

As housing for senior citizens moves onto college campuses, two generations separated by 50 years are connecting in profound ways that benefit both.

The ‘Venice of the North’ has thousands of new bike parking spots at the city’s busiest transit hub.

By collecting the seeds that grow best in their own plots, a movement of gardeners is boosting biodiversity in a way that more closely mimics nature.

In conservative parts of Oregon, one protest group is betting that a celebration of Black culture will capture more hearts than anger.

In a largely unseen system, abandoned bikes are repaired and shipped to people across the US — and around the world — who can use them to travel to school or work.

Research shows that “social infrastructure” saves lives in extreme weather events. Now some groups are working to actively build it.

183 ways the world got better in 2022.

At Seattle’s Refugee Artisan Initiative, immigrant and refugee women find good-paying jobs and start their own businesses.

Cars? In this economy? Here’s how four cities kept miles of pavement traffic-free, turning a popular pandemic solution into a permanent fixture.

In a country where half of all citizens visit the library every month, Oodi Library provides a blueprint for fostering human convergence.

An Indigenous-run business is using regenerative ocean farming to clean up a New York bay and create local jobs.

At the UN’s annual climate conference, a groundbreaking — if not-yet-binding — promise from the US and EU “offers hope to vulnerable communities.”

Abuse survivors can call helplines to stop the violence. Now abusers can, too.

In St. Louis, a pay-what-you-can grocery store stays in business thanks to some customers voluntarily paying more than the price on the sticker.

Hop on the ‘bicibús,’ a highly replicable model that makes getting to school fun, safe and sustainable.

From hotlines to home visits, these organizations offer a helping hand when overwhelmed parents need it most.

A new analysis shows that when the pandemic closed streets to traffic, bars and restaurants made more money.

An array of options exist, and a landfill doesn’t need to be its final resting place.

It could have been a food-waste debacle. Instead, a nimble network turned it into a bounty for all — and inadvertently reinvented a food system.

It’s billed as the country’s only master-planned development for people coming out of homelessness. Residents call it the best neighborhood they’ve ever lived in.

In Madison, Wisconsin, library patrons borrow electric bicycles for a week at a time, saving them thousands on buying their own.

Burnout, low pay and high-cost housing have driven teachers away from rural schools. One town gave them a reason to come back.

The $92 million park will span a former bridge — and send real estate prices soaring. A home buyers club is helping residents cash in rather than get displaced.

No other country’s green transition approaches the scale of China’s, where a world powered by the sun is quickly taking shape.

The share of journeys made by car in the city has fallen by nearly half, and the trend is only accelerating.

Hospitals sell their patients’ debt to collection agencies for pennies on the dollar. RIP Medical Debt buys it up — just to forget all about it.

Hundreds of prisoners across eight states are helping a threatened species thrive while growing a little bit themselves.

The US climate bill helps landowners access the carbon market, where eco-conscious companies reward regular folks for managing their land sustainably.

Insect hotels. Rooftop gardens. “Honey highways.” With its National Pollinator Strategy, one country is showing the world how to save pollinators.

Eliminating fares was meant to give straphangers “the right to the city.” It ended up giving them a safer ride, too.

Criss-crossing the globe, one man has secured pledges from 74 countries to preserve their soil through more sustainable farming.

Tramways were once a staple of European cities. Now, a new generation is enhancing urban life once again.

A new local music venue proves that when communities invest in themselves they don’t need to settle for Walgreens and Applebees.

As a travel editor, my job is to hopscotch across the globe. When I decided to keep my feet on the ground, I saw it in a whole new way.

In India, a new way of identifying where people live is changing the lives of thousands whose homes never officially existed — until now.

After decades of war, an artisanal product that sustained a region for generations is bringing new life to a nearly forgotten town.

When Covid hit, Alexandria, Virginia saw an opportunity to make its residents fall in love with the least-loved transit option of all.

Health care employees face higher rates of violence than any other type of worker. Now, a wearable button that summons help is stopping attacks before they happen.

Thousands of British workers are about to start clocking out a little earlier.

Once a staple of communal dining, food trays are disappearing — along with a harmful human impulse.

In Düsseldorf, revenues from sales of works by famous artists are used to buy apartments for those who need them most.

In the Bavarian village where I was raised, guns are a part of life. Mass shootings are not.

Inside the incredible science of using music to restore the memories of people with dementia.

As California begins statewide composting, the place that pioneered it in the ’90s shows how dramatically it can benefit a city.

As the pandemic pummeled the industry, some restaurateurs bucked trends by paying their employees even more. Now it’s paying off.

Most Californians have never heard of the CalEnviroScreen — even those whose communities it has shielded from ecological disaster.

The Land of Enchantment just launched the closest thing the U.S. has to universal child care.

A cutting-edge form of urban energy independence could make cities more resilient to blackouts — and greener in the process.

Covid put a multi-year gap in millions of resumés. Now some companies are offering a supportive path back.

A new kind of cash crop is turning gusty Iowa into a renewable energy juggernaut — and preserving a rural way of life.

A school in San Francisco lets unhoused students and their families sleep on site. The students who stay there are improving scholastically.

Sophie Howe has one job: make sure her country’s policies benefit citizens who haven’t been born yet.

As alcohol consumption surges, groundbreaking new experiments are showing the vast potential of psilocybin to treat addiction.

When markets closed, some Pacific Islands returned to traditional farming practices — and found more people had enough to eat.

By planting crops and trees together, farmers are making a living while forests thrive.

Taking the “right to repair” one step further, a Viennese repair bonus is going national — and keeping thousands of items out of the junkyard

The Grubhub model is here to stay. But community-based delivery services could be lifelines for small restaurants battling huge commission fees.

A Berlin catering and food truck company is turning invasive species into haute cuisine. Will “invasivorism” be the next step in the sustainable food movement?

Austrians now have access to every form of public transit in the country through a single affordable ticket. Is it enough to make a dent in carbon emissions?

In a country where being gay can be dangerous, one church promises: “There is no judgment.”

As cities and countries ban single-use plastics, sustainable alternatives are emerging.

In South Bend, Indiana, a unique development model is putting ownership into the hands of hundreds of local residents — and giving big developers a run for their money.

Tired of delays, they cobbled together a software program that could change the way billions of dollars are spent on homelessness.

A partnership between America’s largest supermarket chain and a reusable packaging company is the latest sign that no-waste shopping is catching on.

Brazil’s largest retailer takes extraordinary steps to help employees impacted by domestic violence.

A study showed that consumers cut way back on pop — and didn’t buy other sugary products as a substitute.

For people coming out of prison, training for a job as a fitness coach can start before they’re even released.

192 ways the world got better in 2021

In Portugal, the human need to log off and relax is now protected by law.

As interest in worker-owned businesses spreads across the U.S., one city is way ahead of the game.

For drought-stricken places, pulling drinkable water from the atmosphere could become one of the easiest ways to stay hydrated.

Erected in the 1950s, they’re riddled with exactly the kinds of inaccuracies you might expect.

Political, economic and technological stars are aligning to make a stubbornly carbon-intensive industry sustainable.

In Baltimore, a more immersive method of violence interruption is putting clinical psychology at its forefront.

If you have a phone, you can be one of the 5.4 million volunteers who help the visually impaired with their daily tasks.

On the last Saturday of each month, everyone stops what they’re doing and works together to improve their communities. It’s called Umuganda.

Repairable, upgradable computers are here, and could make your next laptop something you own for a very long time.

In a country where sexual harassment is common, gatherings where women can cut loose without fear are a welcome respite.

By fixing up homes in Black neighborhoods, one group is slowing down harmful gentrification and keeping communities intact.

In a divided country, experiencing another state can expand your worldview as much as studying abroad.

In the U.K., a government program holds onto deposits to make sure renters get back what they’re owed.

As the world’s biggest climate conference comes to a close, we see reasons for hope on the horizon.

A support system pairs people who are unhoused with housed volunteers to offer phone support on the spot.

The city’s groundbreaking “zero waste” strategy aims to leave no meal behind.

“The gentle art,” which involves no punching or kicking, teaches how to restrain one’s opponent without injuring them.

High vaccination rates, broad health coverage and bipartisan cooperation protected a city that initially looked vulnerable.

Three U.S. states have legalized “natural organic reduction,” in which the dead are returned to the earth to help nourish its growth. 

To control rodents, the vast majority of Napa Valley winemakers have turned to birds of prey.

Kristine Tompkins has conserved more land than any other single individual, calling it “capitalist jiujitsu” for the planet.

As the U.S. considers universal preschool, Alabama’s free pre-K stands out as a model for long-term, bipartisan success.

A simple letter-grading system in the U.K. has led to a significant shift towards ecologically greener foods.

When forests are managed by the people who live in them, conservation tends to follow.

As the U.S. phases out hydrofluorocarbons, the next generation of fridges is adopting low-emissions technology that’s nearly a century old.

The city has spent the last decade making its public housing better for the planet — and for people.

Legal systems around the world are beginning to confront an existential question: What rights does an animal have?

A new generation of sleeper cars and short-haul routes are helping railways compete against discount airlines.

A steelworkers organization is embracing workers of all stripes, from nurses to coders.

In places where bus service has vanished, dirt-cheap taxis are keeping people mobile.

At 15 years old, Gitanjali Rao has half a dozen inventions to her name. Now she wants to reinvent the world of science itself.

An app that helps employers pay for babysitting — even when those babysitters are friends and family — is changing child care economics.

Holes in the ground that once chugged out fossil fuels now provide clean, green energy.

With elections approaching, the stakes are high. One organization is making sure journalists listen to women.

A locally owned startup’s devices are powering hundreds of homes and over a dozen schools.

In the Bolivian Andes, the low-water growing practices used by Mayans and Aztecs are making a comeback.

For nearly a decade, a German contest has given hundreds of people 12 months of no-strings cash to see how it might change their lives.

The city is giving non-car commuters a tax exemption normally meant for drivers.

One year ago an explosion decimated Beirut. Today, the city is picking up the pieces — and using them to rebuild.

A program pioneered in the little city of Eugene is improving policing in Harlem.

Amid rows of snap peas and summer squash, incarcerated gardeners cultivate job skills, inner peace and fresh produce for the cafeteria.

A digitization project will ensure that a series of 20th century guides for LGBTQ travelers aren’t lost to history.

The more easily a product’s packaging can be recycled, the lower the fees.

“I call it a ‘do-what-you-can day’ — stay at home, take it easy, cancel all your appointments, or come in and work as usual.”

When musician Yoko Sen ended up in the hospital, she was overwhelmed by the cacophony of noise. What if all those beeps and alarms could sound like music instead?

The most popular voice assistants don’t recognize a single native African language. Now thousands across the continent are donating their voices to change that.

To reduce incarceration, some counties and cities have stopped automatically prosecuting minor nonviolent crimes — and crime overall has gone down. A wave of policy and policing reform has followed.

As waste collection gets professionalized, the people who keep Bogotá clean and green are making sure they’re not left behind.

There are only 21 left. A movement is taking shape to preserve them.

With user-generated data, the My Safetipin app helps women and kids avoid streets that are dark, desolate or dominated by men.

By minimizing wasted time, companies are increasing productivity — and workers are going home before lunch.

They’re regular folks who share the lived experience of those yet to be vaccinated.

How has the pandemic changed your life? What’s an average day like in Lagos? What is your favorite Beyoncé song? You asked, Tolu answered.

It’s a system modeled on the loyalty clubs used by many retailers — but for an entire city.

Before being zoned out of existence, boarding houses gave less privileged city dwellers a place to live. Some places are bringing them back.

In India, an elegantly simple system ensures pills don’t get flushed when others can use them.

“When a woman places an ‘order’ and gives us her address, that’s the signal for us to send the police.”

Rather than fighting anti-gay faith leaders, a group in Kenya spends years cultivating relationships with them — and converts them into allies.

A mining technique that damaged the environment for decades is now being used to protect it.

“Transit to trails” is opening up breathtaking natural spaces to an outdoorsy crowd that is more urban-based than ever.

And now a lot of cities are making their “open streets” permanent.

An experiment in shuffling kids from school to school saw more families stick with the public system.

Residents of Stockton, California who received $500 a month disproved the notion that handouts make people lazy.

When an affluent California city erected temporary shelters in a public parking lot, angry residents revolted — and then they got involved.

Most experiments with four-day weeks have been motivated by corporate self-interest. That could be changing.

Where isolation is an official policy, alleviating it is becoming one, too.

A full-service facility run by the people who need it offers hot water, laundry, medical care — and legitimization.

A credit-for-clunkers program offers drivers thousands of euros to switch to two wheels.

Allowing randomly selected people to influence government policies has promise — and limitations.

From veterinarian vaccinators to pop-up sites at mosques, here are some of the methods making the vaccine campaign more effective and equitable.

It grows everywhere and could help save the planet with every serving.

A grassroots movement enlists Africans to write their own story on one of the world’s biggest websites.

For those who don’t have the time or computer savvy to scour the internet, a volunteer movement is emerging.

An experiment started during the pandemic to reduce jail populations will continue indefinitely.

In a city-state that imports 90% of its food, rooftop gardens are a matter of national food security.

A complaint filed by a student group argues the venerated university’s investments in fossil fuels are illegal.

When an Indiana school district ran short on student case managers, it looked to its road warriors for help.

In Bath, England, even the smallest investors can support – and profit from – the city’s green energy boom.

The self-proclaimed boondocking capital of the world is going green.

Elaborate, over-programmed playgrounds increasingly dictate how kids should use them. Can a new type of playscape unwrite the script?

A partnership to pool energy produced by smaller turbines could circumvent opposition to large wind farms.

As the lockdowns began one year ago, Lenore Estrada discovered a customer base that would save dozens of businesses like hers.

Meet the marine geographer teaching Chennai urbanites how to buy seafood the traditional way.

With only 2,000 fluent speakers left, the tribe wants those who love the culture to help preserve it.

The English National Opera has partnered with a hospital to turn lung recovery exercises into song.

In Philadelphia, face-to-face mediated chats help both parties get what they need.

Founded at a time when the government offered little, the Merchants Fund continues to keep tiny businesses afloat.

A seed banking cooperative is making sure age-old agricultural practices don’t get lost.

Arturo Pratticò saw young people working for the mob. What if he could make them chefs instead?

Facing racial violence and Covid-19, some congregations are putting their faith in psychology.

Journeying to the state’s remote mountain hamlets, these mobile clinics are taking house calls to new heights.

As fees for overdue items are forgiven, bookworms are flocking back.

By squeezing in more housing, the city is giving new life to spaces that were once for throwing trash and parking cars.

Some companies that reduced employee hours during the pandemic are keeping the shorter work week in place — even as they reinstate full pay.

A no-waste, no-cost solution — endorsed by everyone from hunters to PETA — is finally going mainstream.

Defying harsh weather and roadless terrain, America’s most undeveloped state has achieved one of the country’s highest vaccination rates.

112 bits of good news that kept us sane in 2020.

The pandemic has finally busted the outdated myth that so-called developing countries are less resilient than their wealthier peers.

Community refrigerators are showing up on city streets, full stocked with food that’s free for the taking. Care for a snack?

In “small house” elder-care facilities, family-sized groups of residents are thriving. The virus is not.

Youth involved in gun violence would rather be working than shooting. One group decided to give them what they want.

To reach those in need who don’t want to visit in person, one food bank is embracing Amazon-style shipping.

Nimble, culturally nuanced and collaborative, this Māori-led response gets to the roots of family violence.

When war broke out, a group of intrepid scientists hustled Syria’s chickpea and lentil stash to a vault deep in the Arctic Circle.

Buying used goods is trendier than ever, and the capital’s retailers are responding.

Defining access to food as a human right, a city in Brazil is making sure everyone can afford a trip to the market.

The Bay Area is walking back a proposal that would have forced residents to work remotely.

An industry that often celebrates pushing through the pain is turning its focus to mental health.

The key is forest management processes that mimic what nature would do.

By sharing everything from services to accessibility renovations, co-housing strikes a balance between autonomy and affordability.

As the pandemic makes supermarkets a no-go zone for some, cities are writing prescriptions for free fruits and vegetables, delivered right to residents’ doors.

Registration caravans on wheels are making sure Latino communities don’t get missed.

“Trans-competent” health care services — often staffed with trans doctors and nurses — are enhancing a medical system that has been slow to change its ways.

“Lifers” face a daunting re-entry after decades in prison. One California program recruits their formerly incarcerated peers to help them navigate.

Rockstar candidates, get-out-the-vote drives and mosques with polling stations are changing the political fortunes for a long-underrepresented faith group.

By going back to the land, Black farmers are resuming a journey toward “food sovereignty” that began centuries ago.

From bicycle parking spaces to a citywide registry for stolen bikes, the Colombian capital is creating a full-fledged cycling ecosystem.

Millions of Europeans now commute by e-bike, a mobility revolution carefully cultivated by governments and employers.

The city is pinpointing residents who are on the verge of losing their homes and getting them help before it happens.

The devices could help close the language gap between kids from wealthy and low-income families.

Sixteen congregations of Dominican nuns are collaborating with Morgan Stanley to invest in marginalized communities impacted by global warming.

In the city’s Mission District, renters are collectively buying their buildings before they get priced out.

The African nation’s Premier League football club will become the first in the world to fund its men’s and women’s teams equally.

New research shows that sprinkling rock dust on fields where crops are grown could have a huge effect.

Populated by seasonal laborers, Oregon’s Willamette Valley could have been devastated by the coronavirus. Instead, it’s become a model for how to keep workers safe.

Intergenerational homesharing has taken off. The pandemic has complicated the calculus, but some say it’s more vital than ever.

In North Carolina, teens who were once at risk of being locked up have created a place where good things grow.

The remnants of a destructive form of mining have inadvertently helped the elk return to coal country for the first time since the Civil War.

A food hub known as the Redd solves the business and logistical challenges of local food — and helps small farmers become a big deal.

Neuroscientists have determined that creation can keep you from going Covid crazy, so we asked you to send us the art you’ve made under lockdown. It’s amazing.

At a police-free zone in Seattle, “sentinels” are keeping the peace in peaceful fashion.

Shelters and hotel rooms are expensive and temporary. Are tiny houses a homelessness solution that can outlast the crisis?

As awareness about their ecological importance grows, a movement to grant insects the same protections as more majestic creatures is gaining steam.

After we featured a list of places beating the coronavirus, many of you wrote in with your own countries’ success stories. Here are five you said we shouldn’t miss.

Money from friends and family is what helps many startups survive during tough times. One organization is playing that role for black entrepreneurs.

So that everyone can worship safely, the walls that separate churches and mosques are coming down.

When correctly designed, housing that gives people personal space can make them feel closer.

While success stories like Germany and South Korea are rightly hailed, some of the most effective responses are in countries that haven’t been making the news.

How one country is using its economic rescue to clean up a polluting industry.

A heroic effort is underway to record the global lockdown’s ripple effects — before they disappear.

As Europe’s biggest economy reboots, it — and many others — are planning to transition away from fossil fuels.

With the fewest infections of any state, Alaska proves contact tracing can work — even in America.

Hundreds of cities have handed over their streets to pedestrians and cyclists during the pandemic. Some of them plan to keep it that way.

In this week’s briefing: Reviving a woodland refuge for honeybees and partnering with poachers to bring back buffalo to a national park.

Covid-19 is showing us what ending mass incarceration could look like. Some judges and prosecutors like what they see.

In a new series, we explore how the Covid-19 pandemic is making changes once dismissed as pipe dreams happen seemingly overnight.

As farms and restaurants close, organizers are mobilizing to make sure the food left behind gets to where it’s needed most.

Benches that become stoves and manholes hiding emergency toilets reflect the survival instincts of a country that has learned to live with peril.

In this week’s briefing: Kiwis crush the curve, a Brazilian school exceeds all expectations and transit projects leverage car-free streets to hurry forward.

Americans may find themselves following the state’s stay-at-home playbook in this year’s presidential election.

As fake meat floods the market, some fast-food joints are insisting that their ultra-sustainably raised beef is better for the planet.

In this week’s briefing: Australian tour operators repair the Great Barrier Reef and a city keeps its restaurants afloat by hiring them to cook for the homeless.

In this week’s news briefing: Governments help companies pay their workers, France uses its bullet train for high-speed triage and Indigenous graduation rates soar.

The pandemic is revealing the many ways our lives intersect. Is this an opportunity for us to reimagine what we can be?

In this week’s news briefing: social media data is tracking COVID-19 and schools begin to open with anti-viral measures in place.

As people’s homes become bulwarks against the pandemic, funding for health care is being spent on housing. Maybe they were the same thing all along.

If the press can learn from the mistakes it made during the Ebola outbreak, it could become one of our best assets in fighting the current pandemic.