What a good news

Sentence examples for what a good news from inspiring English sources

«I knew what a good news story was; I knew how to sell it,» he said in a recent prison interview as his sentencing approached.

I’d say to him: » What makes a good news story?» He’d say: «Anything that gets Labour into power».’ In 1987, Andrew Neil hired him to work as a general reporter on the Sunday Times.

After the tragedies of the past two years, this was definitely what you call a good news story.

It ended what had been a good news week for the Bombers after 34 current and former players were cleared by the league’s anti-doping tribunal of taking banned substances.

The inaccuracies masked what should actually be a good news story for the conservation of the hen harrier.

The minister had effectively made an international scandal out of what could have been a good news story for the government.

It’s odd, as Maclean’s Kate Lunau blogged, that the Prime Minister’s Office would go to such lengths to block journalists from what is more or less a good news story.

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What went right in 2021: the top 26 good news stories of the year

Even as the pandemic rumbled on and the climate crisis intensified, there was much progress to report on. Here are the big good news stories of 2021

Even as the pandemic rumbled on and the climate crisis intensified, there was much progress to report on. Here are the big good news stories of 2021

It was a massive year for the climate, and reminders about what’s at stake came thick and fast: the IPCC’s ‘code red’ report, Siberian wildfires, heat domes, floods. Alarm bells became deafening, but there were beacons of hope, too.

In January, the US – the world’s second largest emitter after China – rejoined the Paris agreement, injecting fresh urgency into the climate conversation.

Then there was COP26. Though dismissed (not entirely unfairly) by Greta Thunberg as a load of “blah, blah, blah”, the climate summit offered signs of progress that can’t just be written off as greenwash. It didn’t go far enough, but analysis suggests it may have been enough to keep the climate stable – if countries stick to their commitments.

There were signs of breakthroughs elsewhere, too…

Image: Cassie Matias

In January a report revealed that, for the first time, renewables generated more electricity than fossil fuels in Europe for the whole of 2020 – a sign of how quickly wind and solar are scaling up.

Records also tumbled in the UK, which recorded its “greenest day ever” in April. Meanwhile, another report revealed that wind and solar are now outperforming fossil fuels financially, as the smart money shifts towards renewable energy. All good news for the climate.

Image: Zbynek Burival

The scope of the retreat from coal was revealed in a report in September. It found that three-quarters of planned coal power plants had been cancelled since the Paris agreement – not enough, but a start.

Then there was the landmark court ruling against Shell in the Netherlands. The oil giant was ordered to slash emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. It’s appealing, but the case is likely to set a precedent.

Image: Arvind Vallabh

Once again we find ourselves in uncertain times going into the new year, with a surge in Covid cases driven by the new Omicron variant.

However, many counties are in a stronger position than this time last year thanks to the development and rollout of Covid vaccines, which have significantly weakened the link between contracting the disease and death.

That’s the good news. A major concern is that many poorer nations have not yet had sufficient access to the vaccines. Not only has this created an unjust gulf, but it has stymied global efforts to contain Covid. Much progress has been made, but there remains a long way to go.

An Ebola outbreak that erupted in Guinea in February was declared over by June. It claimed 12 lives. While each death is a tragedy, the toll highlights the progress that has been made tackling the virus in West Africa: by comparison, more than 11,000 people died during the 2013-16 epidemic.

Meanwhile, China’s 70-year campaign to combat malaria paid off in July, as the World Health Organization confirmed that the country had defeated the disease.

Image: Annie Spratt

Researchers examining whether psychedelics can treat depression and other mental health conditions continued to break new ground in 2021.

In March, a potent hallucinogen used in shamanic rituals – DMT – was mooted as a potential cure for depression. A trial launched to find out more.

Other clinical trials showed promise, including one that used talking therapy and psilocybin – the psychoactive ingredient found in magic mushrooms – to treat depression. It concluded in November and was found to have reduced depressive symptoms in participants. More research is needed, but early data looks encouraging.

While Covid dominated health news, there were many other medical developments in 2021. A malaria vaccine was approved, with the potential to save thousands of lives in Africa; a breast cancer vaccine trial launched in the US; and brain-reading computer software allowed a paralysed man to compose sentences on a computer for the first time.

Image: Angiola Harry

Despite the culture wars, creeping nationalism and rise of authoritarianism, the world has become more socially progressive.

That’s according to the latest Social Progress Index. Since 2011, it has charted the progress of 167 nations, assessing them on things like rights, access to education, quality of healthcare, personal safety and quality of environment.

The result? Good news, largely: 147 nations recorded a better score in 2021 than they did a decade ago, with just four countries (the US, Brazil, Syria and South Sudan) regressing. “Social progress is advancing across the world,” the report concluded.

And in 2021, you didn’t have to look far for proof…

The year saw more nations introduce legislation to tackle discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, although there’s much work to do.

Elsewhere, members of the LGBTQ+ community rose to prominence in politics. Tessa Ganserer and Nyke Slawik became the first transgender women to win parliamentary seats in Germany; Eduardo Leite became Brazil’s first openly gay governor; and Sarah McBride was sworn in as the first transgender US state senator.

Image: Brian Kyed

Indigenous people continued to face persecution in many parts of the world in 2021, but there were some signs of progress.

Australia finally pledged to pay reparations to Indigenous Australians who had been forcibly removed from their parents as children. More than 100,000 indigenous children – known as the Stolen Generation – were taken from their families between 1900 and 1970. The reparations won’t make up for what happened, but they mark a shift in tone.

Elsewhere, indigenous politicians rose to prominent leadership roles. Deb Haaland became the first indigenous US cabinet secretary; Canada appointed its first indigenous governor general (Mary Simon); and so did New Zealand (Dame Cindy Kiro).

Image: Andrew James

Female politicians were chosen to lead Estonia, Honduras, Samoa, Sweden, Tanzania and Tunisia for the first time in 2021. Meanwhile, Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the first female and first African leader of the World Trade Organization.

In the corporate world, efforts to boost female leadership in UK boardrooms bore some fruit. A report revealed that the number of female FTSE100 directors has doubled in five years.

In March, the most diverse Oscars nominee list in history was unveiled – a sign that the Academy Awards is finally shedding its reputation for being pale and male.

The UK’s Royal Society of Literature also had some good news: in December, it appointed Booker prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo (pictured) as its new president. She is the first writer of colour to hold the position.

Image: J enny Scott

You’ve heard of the gender pay gap, but what about the socio-economic pay gap? Well, you may hear more about it soon, after KPMG, an accounting firm, became the first major business in the UK to publish one.

The result? An 8.6 per cent median pay gap between employees from working-class backgrounds and those from middle-class families.

The good news is that KPMG promised to address that. It also called on other firms to publish socio-economic pay gaps to help tackle class inequality.

Image: Leon Oalh

The UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada and the US reached a “historic” deal in June to make multinationals pay more tax. The seven nations agreed to tackle tax avoidance by making companies pay more in the countries where they do business. They also agreed to a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent.

The rules will only apply in the G7, and 15 per cent is on the low side compared to existing tax rates. Nevertheless, the move is considered a progressive step towards a global agreement on tax reform, which once seemed unlikely.

Image: Jason Leung

In September, the UK introduced pioneering legislation to make the digital world safer for children. The Age Appropriate Design Code is the first of its kind in the world and represents a significant taming of big tech.

Among other things, it requires online firms – including social media platforms and search engines – to respect children’s privacy and personal data. Campaigners described the introduction of the law as “a great day for children”.

Image: Carlos Magno

With furlough schemes making the idea of a guaranteed, state-backed salary seem less radical, the concept of a universal basic income moved from the realm of utopian thinkers into mainstream discourse in 2021.

Basic income trials were pledged for Wales, for a South Korean province and for some cities in the US, a country that has not traditionally been a bastion of progressive welfare initiatives. Meanwhile, Ireland announced a basic income for artists to help them recover from the pandemic.

The preliminary results of a basic income trial in Stockton, California, were also published. And there was good news: far from disincentivising work, as naysayers warned it would, people on the income found full-time work at more than twice the rate of non-recipients. They also reported significant improvements in mental health.

Scotland is also mulling a pilot after some businesses there adopted the model and reported no drop-off in productivity, but a significant decrease in stress among employees.

Other companies, such as Unilever, also trialled a shorter working week. Expect more on this in 2022 and beyond.

Image: Fredrik Ohlander

The list of endangered species continues to grow at an alarming rate, but some creatures stepped back from the brink in 2021. Tuna, Siberian tigers, European bison (pictured) and the critically endangered saiga antelope all proved that extinction is not inevitable, and that conservation can be effective.

Encouragingly, species also returned to places they’d long since left: sharks were seen in the River Thames, half a century after the waterway was declared “biologically dead”; sprat returned to Glasgow’s River Clyde; and golden eagles were spotted in Loch Lomond after a 100-year absence. Twitchers were justifiably aflutter.

Image: Šimon Slávik

The global rewilding movement gathered pace in 2021, with a series of headline-grabbing reintroduction programmes.

Image: Prashant Saini

In May, a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature revealed that an area of land greater than the size of Russia has fallen under some sort of protection in the last decade.

Among the new conservation areas announced in 2021 was a ‘shark superhighway’ in the South Pacific, which will help protect marine life in an area currently plagued by overfishing.

Another report, in May, brought more good news: the world has gained an area of forest the size of France since 2000. It doesn’t come close to offsetting losses over the same period, but it shows that deforestation need not be a one-way street.

Image: Hendrik Cornelissen

Efforts to tackle plastic waste were stepped up in 2021. In July, 10 single-use plastic items that have long blighted Europe’s beaches were outlawed by the EU – good news for bathers and marine life.

The French government went further. It said ‘au revoir’ to plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables, giving retailers until the new year to find alternatives. Spain did the same, with a slightly more lenient 2023 deadline. The UK also mooted a ban on some single-use plastics, although not enough for campaigners.

There was also progress in tackling the plastic that’s already out there. A mission to clean up the Great Pacific garbage patch launched in October, and brought its first haul back to land. And in July, researchers discovered that bacteria living inside a cow’s gut can break down several types of plastic.

Image: Brian Yurasits

Meat, without the guilt: that’s what the founders of the world’s first no-kill, lab-grown meat factory promised in July, as they cut the ribbon on the facility in Israel.

The opening of the factory represented a big leap forward for a technology that could help feed a growing population without slaughtering animals or clearing forests.

Future Meat Technologies, the firm behind the facility, was not the only company breaking new ground in the cultured meat industry. In December, another Israeli outfit, MeaTech, 3-D printed the largest lab-grown steak.

Image: Sander Dalhuisen

The movement to make electronic goods easier to repair advanced in 2021. The EU led the way, introducing pioneering right to repair legislation in March. It obliges makers of washing machines, televisions and other electronic goods to ensure that their products can be easily repaired – and that spare parts are available.

The UK followed suit in July with its own right to repair law. Meanwhile, Apple bowed to pressure and agreed to make parts and tools available for people to fix their own phones. (For some models only, mind).

All of which could be good news for the economy. A report in August estimated that 450,000 jobs could be supported by the repair industry in the UK alone.

Image: Clint Bustrillos

Cargo bikes continued to wheel their way into big cities over the last 12 months. A study in August found them to be the cleanest and quickest way to transport goods across London, which got its first on-demand, e-cargo bike-sharing scheme in September. The same month, one of the city’s busiest streets went car-free.

Paris was among the other major cities embracing the velo. After winning a second term in October, its mayor Anne Hidalgo announced plans to turn the French capital into a “cycle city”.

Image: Hackney council

Beachside pina coladas could soon taste that bit sweeter for climate-conscious holidaymakers, thanks to advances in low-carbon air travel – but don’t pack your suitcases just yet.

Incarceration has long been the answer to crime for many countries, but there were signs that attitudes are shifting – with encouraging results.

The US, which locks up a greater share of its people than any other nation, saw its prison population fall to its lowest level since 1995. Changes in criminal law and shorter sentences for some offences helped reduce the incarceration rate. There was also less crime to punish.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands has put a greater emphasis on youth intervention schemes to head off crime in the first place. It has also focused on rehabilitation rather than jail sentences. The prison population there has subsequently slumped to such a degree that Dutch jails are now closing down and being turned into schools, refugee centres and hotels.

Image: Prison Escape
Main illustration: Spencer Wilson

What went right in 2020: the top 20 good news stories of the year

It’s been a year like no other. As challenging as 2020 has been, the past 12 months have also seen big wins for the environment, society and culture, human rights – and even health. Read on for 20 stories of progress that got hidden behind the headlines in 2020

It’s been a year like no other. As challenging as 2020 has been, the past 12 months have also seen big wins for the environment, society and culture, human rights – and even health. Read on for 20 stories of progress that got hidden behind the headlines in 2020

Demand for renewables was growing before the pandemic and has held steady during 2020. Advancements in green tech have rapidly brought down the costs of wind and solar, making them highly competitive with fossil fuels. Renewable energy made up almost half of Britain’s electricity generation in the first three months of 2020, for example, with a surge in wind power helping set a new record for clean energy. Then in April, Britain broke records for going without coal-fired power generation for the longest stretch since the Industrial Revolution.

What’s more, demand for oil likely peaked in 2019 and is now in terminal decline, according to a report released by BP in September. It acknowledged that the pandemic and policies to curb the climate crisis have hastened the demise of fossil fuels. Also in 2020, the EU’s largest oil producer promised to stop drilling: In a move described by Greenpeace as a “watershed moment”, Denmark announced in December that it will cancel all future permits for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, and phase out existing production by 2050.

Image: Andrew Schultz

Efforts to improve access to electricity in developing nations are bearing fruit, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), published in October. It found that the number of people without electricity dropped from almost 860 million in 2018 to 770 million in 2019, which the IEA claimed was a record low. Electricity projects in India and some African nations have hooked millions up to the grid, with progress needing to be maintained throughout the pandemic and post-pandemic too, experts noted.

As the concept becomes more widely embraced, there was positive news when it came to rewilding and various species reintroductions in 2020. They haven’t roamed the country for thousands of years, but bison are poised to return to English woodland as part of a £1m rewilding project in Blean Woods, Kent, in was revealedin July. A herd of European bison will be in their new home by spring 2022, say conservationists. The breed is the closest living relative to the ancient steppe bison and is attributed with engineering woodland habitats for butterflies, beetles and other species by felling trees and disrupting earth.

Elsewhere in the UK, projects to reintroduce beavers, white-tailed eagles, red kites and the enormous Dalmatian pelican made for exciting updates; volunteers stepped in to look after young trees as part of a rewilding project in the Highlands of Scotland; river restoration projects noted successes; hen harriers enjoyed their best breeding year in England for nearly two decades; Rewilding Britain published a reforesting roadmap, and a new project to launch a Rewilding Network is one to watch in 2021. Further afield, the Iberian lynx is recovering after efforts to save it – the world’s most endangered feline – and the European bison – the same species coming to Kent – stepped back from the brink of extinction.

Image: Dalmatian pelicans, by Birger Strahl

The World Health Organization’s African Region was declared free from wild polio in August following decades of work by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, governments and partners. The announcement came as the virus was finally eliminated in Nigeria. The Africa Regional Certification Commission, a task group appointed by the WHO to eradicate the disease, certified the continent free of wild polio in the summer, four years after the last recorded case.

Polio typically affects children under five and can lead to paralysis and sometimes even death. There is no cure, but the polio vaccine offers lifelong immunisation. In 1996, an estimated 75,000 children in Africa were paralysed by wild polio, prompting a vaccination programme launched by Nelson Mandela. The virus, however, clung on in Nigeria, which less than a decade ago accounted for around half of all global polio deaths. Speaking in 2020, the director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described the eradication of wild polio in Africa as a “public health triumph”.

Image: child in Abuja, Nigeria, by Muhammadtaha Ibrahim Ma’aji

There was also positive news when it came to hope for cleaner air in cities. Private vehicles are being designed out of urban areas with encouraging results for communities and businesses. Announced in January, the draft Birmingham Transport Plan paints a picture of a cleaner, greener city with car-free streets, better public transport, more cycle lanes and a ban on through traffic. Supporters say the plan will address the twin perils of toxic air and obesity – both a major concern in Birmingham – and help the city meet its admittedly ambitious target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Brighton, York, Ghent, Oslo, Copenhagen, Madrid, Barcelona, Bogotá are among the other cities doing exciting things in this realm, from a ‘superblocks’ car-free scheme in Barcelona and a cycle lane-drive in Paris, to work to get even more people moving by bike in Copenhagen, which is already a world-leader when it comes to two-wheeled travel. During the pandemic, many cities around the world saw dwindling numbers of fossil-fuel powered cars on their streets during lockdowns, and some plan to try to keep it that way.

Image: cyclist in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Darth Liu

“No-one wants to save throughout their life to retire into a world devastated by climate change.” So said Mark Fawcett, chief investment officer of the UK’s largest pension fund, Nest, which announced in July that it was to divest from firms involved in coal extraction, tar sands and Arctic drilling. It was just one of many pieces of positive news when it comes to divestment from fossil fuels. While co-hosting the Climate Ambition Summit in December, the UK vowed to stop funding foreign fossil fuel development. The move comes after the UK government was accused of hypocrisy, having funnelled £21bn of taxpayers’ money into overseas fossil fuel projects, while preparing to host the Cop26 climate summit.

Days later, Lloyds, the world’s biggest insurance market, announced that it would stop new insurance cover for coal, oil sands and Arctic energy projects by 2022. And when the Bank of America announced in December that it will no longer fund oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, it became the final major US bank to make such a commitment, joining Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Chase, Wells Fargo and CitiBank.

Efforts to improve diversity went up a notch in 2020, from the Oscars to the Booker prize, though much more remains to be done. In September, the Oscars introduced new guidelines that are designed to improve diversity and inclusion for its most prestigious award: best picture. Campaigners have highlighted a stark lack of representation at the awards and in recent years the Academy has broadened its membership in a tentative bid to fix the problem. Under the new regulations, which are set to come into effect for the 2024 Oscars, entries for best picture must satisfy two of four criteria in order to be eligible. They include having storylines that focus on one of more underrepresented group, and having actors from underrepresented groups, including women, people from racial or ethnic minority groups, LGBTI or disabled people.

Also in September, the six-strong shortlist for the 2020 Booker prize – one of the most prestigious literary awards in the English speaking world – included four women and four people of colour. And in December, Netflix – the world’s largest streaming service – pledged to diversify its programming to better reflect audiences in the UK. It announced a host of new shows featuring diverse talent.

With many people confined to their local areas in 2020, nature’s intrinsic importance and role in boosting our wellbeing was noticed like never before. A silver lining of lockdown life was renewed enthusiasm for gardening, among many in the UK at least. And, gardening that takes wildlife’s needs into account seems to have been specifically popular in 2020. Inspired by the likes of Kate Bradbury and her latest book, Wildlife Gardening, mini meadows and verges across the UK have been left unmown, ponds created, log piles left alone to provide insect accommodation, and plants in window boxes, borders and community gardens selected in terms of their value to insects.

The movement has been dubbed ‘ungardening’ and it could have a huge impact: after all, the land taken up by gardens in the UK is greater than the area of all our national nature reserves. Local authorities have also been tentatively getting involved, encouraged by the likes of plant charity PlantLife. Will the momentum be maintained into 2021?

Lockdown also spurred a movement of ‘rebel botanists’. Led by French botanist Sophie Leguil, the #MoreThanWeeds campaign encouraged people to embrace urban nature by naming and learning about the plants that poke up through cracks in pavements and on grass verges in towns and cities.

Image: Keith Davey

Scotland made history in November by becoming the first nation in the world to guarantee free and universal access to period products. Campaigners welcomed the move, claiming Scotland was setting a “bloody great example” for other nations to follow. “Scotland’s decision is a major win for menstrual equity, recognising that the needs of women and people who menstruate matter, and providing products accordingly, for everyone who needs them,” said the charity, Bloody Good Period. “We now need the same kind of decisive leadership and action that we’ve just seen in Scotland, throughout the UK.”

Friends of the Earth said Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election in November “offers a glimmer of hope” for addressing the climate crisis. “Campaigning on the strongest climate change platform in presidential history, president-elect Biden now has a mandate to take bold action on climate change,” said the charity’s Erich Pica. Biden’s win means that the US – the world’s second biggest CO2 emitter – is now set to rejoin the Paris agreement.

US climate leaders who were re-elected include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress – and Senator Ed Markey. Together, they introduced the 2019 resolution on a Green New Deal. With action needed like never before, many eyes will be watching what happens in the States in 2021.

Image: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, by Jesse Korman

New diagnoses of HIV among gay and bisexual men in England have dropped to their lowest level in 20 years, according to a Public Health England update in November. A PHE report revealed that overall, across all genders and sexualities, the number of people with a new HIV diagnosis dropped by 10 per cent, from 4,580 cases in 2018 to 4,139 in 2019.

Since 2010, new HIV infections have fallen globally by 23 per cent. At the end of 2019, approximately 25.4 million people were accessing antiretrovirals – a figure that has more than tripled since 2010, according to research by UNAids.

There were also major breakthroughs in the development of HIV prevention methods in 2020: Cabotegravir, developed by ViiV, was recognised as a drug that could prevent HIV infection with only six injections per year. “This is a major, major advance,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert.

The dapivirine vaginal ring, which needs to be replaced only once a month, received a positive opinion from regulatory authorities. And starting in 2021, a new drug developed by Merck, islatravir, will be evaluated in clinical trials as an oral pill to be taken once a month.

Despite the progress on many fronts, concerns have been raised that coronavirus has blocked access to drugs and that various missed targets threaten to derail progress on HIV.

Kenya reported in August that its elephant population has more than doubled from 16,000 in 1989 to 34,000 today. The number of elephants being killed by poachers is also down significantly on previous years – just seven were reported in 2020, compared to 34 in 2019 and 80 in 2018. The number of lions living in Kenya has increased by 25 per cent too, from 2,000 in 2010 to 2,489 in 2020.

Meanwhile, Uganda reported a gorilla baby boom. Mountain gorillas in the country have been breeding in “unprecedented” numbers, according to conservationists at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. They announced in September that seven infants had been born there to date in 2020 – more than double the number for all of 2019.

“This flourish of deliveries is unprecedented,” Simplicious Gessa, from the Uganda Wildlife Authority, told The Times. Mountain gorillas are found in only three countries – Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo – and have been the subject of prolonged conservation efforts, which saw the great apes moved off the critically endangered species list in 2018.

Image: baby elephant, by Sarah Kilian

More than one million people have given up smoking since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, a survey for charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) released in July suggested. Just under half of people who had ditched the habit in the previous four months said the pandemic had played a role in their decision to stop. A range of factors were suggested, including health concerns, access to tobacco while isolating or no longer smoking socially.

Separately, University College London found more people quit smoking in the year to June 2020 than in any year since its survey began in 2007.

Image: fresh air on the beach, by Frank McKenna

The Global Terrorism Index reported that deaths from terrorism fell for the fifth consecutive year in 2020. The number of deaths caused by terrorism has now decreased by 59 per cent since 2014, to 13,826. Researchers also found that the terrorism situation had improved in 103 countries – the highest number of nations to record a year-on-year improvement since the index began.

Terrorism remains a significant and serious threat in many countries, but the news was cautiously welcomed as a positive development. The largest decreases in deaths were in Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Image: children playing in Kabul, Afghanistan, by Sohaib Ghyasi

The World Health Organization revealed in November that malaria deaths have reached the lowest level ever recorded, a drop of almost 60 per cent in the last 20 years. It means that between 2000 and 2019, 1.5 billion malaria cases and 7.6 million malaria deaths were averted globally. However the WHO warned that Covid-19 threatened global progress against the disease, urging countries to better target interventions, roll out new tools and increase funding.

The WHO also published its annual tuberculosis report in November, showing that between 2015 and 2019, global deaths fell by 14 per cent. Since 2000, treatments have averted more than 60 million deaths: a staggering number.

Image: children in Tanzania, by Toby Wong

Kazakhstan joined an international protocol on the abolition of the death penalty in September, becoming the 88th signatory nation. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for eastern Europe and central Asia, said it was encouraging news – describing the “ever-growing family of nations that have left this shameful punishment behind.”

Amnesty International’s 2019 annual Global Report on Death Sentences and Executions reported that more than two-thirds of the world’s countries had abolished the death penalty, either in law or in practice. Some 142 nations had either abolished the death penalty under the country’s constitution or laws or had not carried out an execution in more than a decade. Some 56 nations retain capital punishment.

In 2019 the number of confirmed executions was the lowest recorded in at least 10 year. And the number of states voting for UN resolutions on halting executions worldwide continues to grow, suggesting that consensus is building towards ending the death penalty once and for all, Amnesty International said in December.

Image: a flower in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanon was among the nations to support the UN General Assembly’s resolution on a moratorium on executions for the first time this year. Photograph by Rashid Khreiss

Saudi Arabia banned child marriage in 2020, making 18 the minimum age to be married. In 2019, the government banned marriages for children under the age of 15. Before that, there were no age limits on marriage for boys or girls. The new ban has a loophole: teenagers under the age of 18 can still get married if they are granted approval by a special court. But it is still seen as positive news in such conservative countries, both of which have deep historical, religious and cultural roots.

Palestine also banned child marriage in 2020, while Bangladesh reported progress on child marriage too. The proportion of girls being married there before the age of 18 has dropped from 64 per cent in 2010 to just over 50 per cent today, according to research by Unicef. In actual numbers, that means 10 million girls in Bangladesh have been saved from child marriage in the past decade.

Image: Loren Joseph

Costa Rica legalised same-sex marriage in May, becoming the 28th country to do so. In June, the US Supreme Court passed a landmark ruling protecting LGBTI citizens from workplace discrimination. It was described as a “long sought and unexpected victory”.

Later the same month, lawmakers in Gabon voted to decriminalise homosexuality, reversing a law that was drafted in 2019. In July, Montenegro became the first country in the Balkans to allow same-sex civil partnerships. It made Montenegro the first European country outside of both western Europe and the EU to legalise same-sex civil partnerships. And then in Taiwan in October, two same-sex couples joined a mass wedding hosted by the military for the first time, another gay rights landmark in Asia.

In December, Bhutan became the second Asian country after Taiwan to legalise same-sex relationships and in Nepal, authorities said they would count LGBTI people for the first time in the national census in order to help people from ‘sexual minorities’ gain better access to education and health schemes.

Image: Alice Donovan Rouse

More countries made net-zero pledges in 2020. South Korea became the first Asian country to set a 2050 net-zero emissions goal, followed by Japan, and China, which committed to reaching net zero by 2060. China is the world’s biggest emitter and had previously committed only to aim for peak emissions in about 2030.

“Xi’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 is a gamechanger,” Thom Woodroofe, a former climate diplomat and senior adviser at the Asia Society told the Guardian.

Argentina also pledged to aim for net zero by 2050, while Finland, Austria and Sweden brought their net zero-dates forward. The UK pledged to reduce emissions by 68 per cent in the next decade, and the EU set a new goal of reducing emissions by 55 per cent within a decade. What does all this add up to? Countries that together represent around 42 per cent of global carbon emissions now have ‘somewhat credible’ net-zero targets, according to Future Crunch.

Image: the Great Wall of China, by Robert Nyman

The emergence of Covid-19 has led to loss and heartbreak all over the world, but it also prompted a wave of unprecedented global collaboration. Within the space of a year, several vaccines have not only been developed, but authorised for use, and have begun to be administered. As one scientist put it: “In the last 11 months, probably 10 years’ work has been done.”

Francis Collins, the director of the US National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world told the Guardian it has been a phenomenal effort. “I have never seen anything like this,” he said. “It has been all hands on deck.”

Image: Markus Spiske
Main illustration: Spencer Wilson

What makes a good news story?

The Freshfield team is made up of a number of former journalists with years of experience working on local, regional and national newspapers and we are often asked by clients ‘what makes a good news story?’

Here, senior PR executive Laura Wild, who joined the team from a regional daily newspaper, gives her top tips on the subject.

Hook

As a starting point, there needs to be a reason for the story. That might sound obvious – but think about it, if your story is an advert without a genuine news hook a journalist won’t be interested. They’ll delete it.

For example, a news story on a new innovative product is more likely to make the headlines if it’s a world first, using ground-breaking technology and creating 50 jobs. It’s unlikely to make it if it’s a blatant advert. Or, a business holding a golf day for charity which raises £10,000 towards building a new community centre will make the news, a business holding a golf day for fun for its staff won’t.

The key information, or the hook, needs to be at the start of the story too. The who, what, where, when and why need to be covered in the first few paragraphs.

Photographs

Good photographs make a huge difference to the type of coverage a story will receive. Many newspaper pages are on a template and in some cases there’s little room for manoeuvre when it comes to redrawing a page – and all these pages have a space for a photo with them. A story without a photo is less likely to receive such prominence. Even if you only have a head and shoulders photograph there’s still a good chance it could be used.

At local newspapers in particular there are fewer staff photographers, so it won’t always be the case that a photographer from the publication can come to your event. However, speaking from experience, if good photographs are sent, within a good time frame, they have a better chance at making the cut. Plus any photos you take for that purpose can be used on your own media channels.

Timing

The clue is in the word news, it needs to be something new. Journalists don’t want to receive ‘news’ on something which happened ‘last week’ or ‘recently’. Timing is key. Strike while the iron is hot so to speak.

Also keep in mind the media landscape is changing so if you have a great story to tell but you’re posting it on social media for a week before you contact the press they might have already picked it up and done something on a much smaller scale, or be less interested because it’s been doing the rounds on the internet for so long.

Timing comments within hours of a breaking story will always be welcomed by journalists, as will case studies. But comment on the day it happens, not two days later.

Facts

Well-founded statistics or survey results which are of genuine interest can really grab the headlines. They can also help create a hook when you don’t always have one.

The key here is coming up with something unique. Good statistics combined with case studies have the potential to make front page news and be picked up by the wider media.

The trick to getting it right is being able to flesh out the story after the headline figure.

Human interest

Everybody has a story to tell. They might not think it, but they do. A person can help bring any story to life, case studies can turn something that might be quite dry and straight-forward into a story that gets everybody talking. Putting a face to an issue can help draw the reader in and help them understand the topic more.

Case studies are crucial to so many stories and could be the difference between coverage of a few paragraphs on page 76 and a full page feature nearer the front of the paper. A good case study is less time sensitive too.

Relevance

Make sure the story you are telling has relevance to the publication and its readers. Significance also plays a huge part. The more people affected by this news or issue the better the chances of it being covered.

Of course the very nature of news might mean that there’s a better story than yours with bigger impact or of more relevance to people, but if you can tick most of the boxes above you’ve got a better chance than most.