What went right this week: the good news that matters

While countries clamour to ban smartphones in schools, fresh research from the Netherlands – one of the first to do so – suggests that its ban has made students more sociable, improved their focus and boosted academic performance. 

According to a study commissioned by the Dutch government, three-quarters of the 317 surveyed high schools said that the ban had boosted students’ concentration, while nearly two-thirds noted an improvement in the social climate. One-third reported better academic performance. 

“Less distraction, more attention to the lesson, and more social students – no more mobile phones in the classroom is having wonderful positive effects,” Marielle Paul, state secretary for primary and secondary education, told Reuters.

The Dutch ban of digital devices in schools came into effect on 1 January 2024, inspiring other nations to follow suit, notably France, Hungary and Finland. Many UK schools have implemented their own bans, thanks partly to the fast-growing Smartphone Free Childhood movement, as featured in the new issue of Positive News magazine. 

Image: iStock

“Kids are logging off to live it up.” So concludes a new report into the lifestyles of 12-15 year olds, with researchers observing “a noticeable rebound in IRL (in-real-life) fun” among ‘Gen Alpha’.

“There’s a lot of evidence that excessive use of tech can cause kids to disconnect from the real world,” the research noted. “But for a generation raised on screens, Gen Alpha are flipping the narrative: they’re turning them off (at least sometimes) in favour of more hands-on, real-world fun.”

The study, carried out by research platform GWI, drew on a survey of 20,000 young people and their parents across 18 nations. It noted that the number of 12-15 year olds consciously taking breaks from digital devices has risen to 40%, up from 22% in 2022. 

GWI described the trend as “not a full-scale unplugging, but a recalibration”. It also noted a 44% increase in the number of 12- to 15-year-olds preferring to watch films in the cinema instead of streaming since 2021; a 16% rise in kids with a physical toy on their wish lists since 2023; and an 8% rise in those saying they play board games over the same period.

“Gen Alpha are making the offline cool again,” the report concluded. 

Image: Kateryna Kamenieva

Bikinis and ‘budgie smugglers’ are in vogue in Paris again after the River Seine reopened to swimmers for the first time in more than a century. 

Parisians have been prohibited from taking a dip in the waterway since 1923 due to high levels of pollution. However, a €1.4bn (£1.2bn) clean-up of the river and improvements to the city’s sewage system saw it reopen to swimmers on Saturday.  

Under the watchful gaze of lifeguards, bathers plunged into three designated areas – one near Notre Dame Cathedral, another near the Eiffel Tower and a third in eastern Paris – only to be kept out of the water again on Sunday due to heavy rain.

Paris is not alone in making its river swimmable again. From Oslo to Berlin, Amsterdam to Copenhagen, a clutch of European cities have cleaned up their waterways enough to allow for safe bathing. 

Image: Jenny Frost

A “gamechanging” device that preserves donor organs by replicating conditions inside the human body has won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s MacRobert Award. 

The gong, which honours engineering feats, marks a departure from from the traditional way of preserving donor organs on ice. Instead, it mimics life inside the body, allowing donor organs to be preserved for longer, which can be a matter of life and death in emergencies. 

The device was invented by Prof Constantin Coussios, co-founder of UK-based OrganOx and director of the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering. It has been used in some 6,000 liver transplants already.

“OrganOx has developed a truly gamechanging and life-saving innovation that is at the forefront of efforts to increase the number of donor organs available for transplantation,” said Dr Alison Vincent, chair of the judging panel.

Image: OrganOx

For the first time, Poland – Europe’s fourth largest carbon emitter – has sourced more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels.

Preliminary analysis from the Energy Forum, a think tank, suggests that renewables met 44.1% of Poland’s electricity needs in June, compared to 43.7% for coal and oil. 

It’s a milestone for Poland, which has struggled to kick its coal habit. However, there’s much work to be done. The country’s creaking energy infrastructure plus legislative barriers to onshore wind are holding back the country’s green ambitions, the Energy Forum said. 

Poland’s renewables milestone comes a week after Ireland became the latest nation to quit coal for electricity generation. 

Image: Victor Malyushev

Lead ammunition is to be banned in England, Scotland and Wales, the UK government announced this week – a move campaigners said was an overdue win for wildlife.

According to the government, the ban will prevent the release of around 7,000 tonnes of toxic metal into fields, forests and wetlands each year. Some 100,000 wildfowl die from lead poisoning annually, with birds often confusing the scattered shot for grit and eating it.

The ban will come into effect in 2026, with a three-year transition period to allow hunters time to shift to more environmentally friendly alternatives – a timescale that some campaigners say is too generous. 

Still, the move was praised by Dr Ruth Tingay, head of campaign group Raptor Persecution UK. “This announcement has been a long, long time coming,” she said. “This is an historic decision and is very welcome indeed.”

Image: Drazen Nesic

In a coup for animal rights campaigners, no hens are being kept in cages anymore in Sweden – a milestone achieved without an official ban. 

That’s according to campaign group Project 1882, which has been instrumental in ending the practice of caging hens. Through political advocacy, corporate dialogue and public awareness campaigns, it has managed to persuade the nation that caging hens is unacceptable. 

“Sweden being free from cages is hugely significant for the hens and a victory for everyone who has stood by their side,” said Benny Andersson, CEO of Project 1882. “The fact that cages are now history in Sweden sets a powerful example for the rest of the EU – but without a legal ban on cages in egg production, there is a risk they could return. 

“Sweden must take the next step – an immediate legal ban on the keeping of hens in cages. There’s no reason to wait.” 

Image: Zachariah Smith

As Europe sears in a heatwave, timely research reveals that we may have underestimated the ability of trees to keep our cities cool. 

As well as providing shade, urban trees keep surrounding areas cool through a process known as transpiration – whereby plants lose water through evaporation. 

While it’s long been assumed that transpiration slows in extreme heat, Swiss scientists now believe that the opposite is true in plane trees (pictured). Rather than slowing, transpiration continued in Geneva’s planes at temperatures above 39C, a study found.  

“Current models may severely underestimate urban cooling [provided by trees],” researchers concluded. “To optimise tree planting strategies in cities, further research on a wider range of tree species is needed to understand their cooling provided by transpiration during heatwaves.”

Image: iStock

What if theatre could rewrite the narrative around violent crime? Enter stage a new play that aims to flip the script for vulnerable young people across the UK.

The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return is a play based on a true story about a stabbing at a house party. It will tour the UK from next week with an accompanying outreach programme led by a drama therapist, who will encourage young audiences to interrogate the themes of the production, including mistakes made by the protagonists. Audiences will also get the chance to rewrite the play’s ending. 

The production, which starts its tour at Southwark Playhouse in London, is the work of playwright Sam Edmunds, who witnessed knife crime growing up in Luton. 

“It’s about empowering the young people, rather than lecturing them,” he told the Guardian. “It’s giving them a space to explore the events, so that if they ever experience something similar in real life, they can identify what’s happening and try to avoid it.” 

Image: Harry Elletson

“Be the change you want to see in the world,” Mahatma Gandhi is famously reported to have said. In the new issue, we set foot in that territory, sharing the stories of people who are planting seeds of positive change. 

We meet the parents behind the fast-growing Smartphone Free Childhood movement, who refused to accept the status quo for their kids and are now helping the nation reimagine what childhood could look like in the digital age.

Then there’s the woman who rescues swarms of honey bees and nurtures them to produce award- winning jars of gold; The Green Runners, who show that sport and sustainability can coexist; and the arts project putting the voices of fishers and farmers centre stage.

Enjoy inspiring stories like these in print, free from digital distractions, by buying a copy here.

Image: Positive News
Main image: SolStock/iStock