7 good news stories from this week: one a day, 2 to 8 November
From Barbados, where mother-to-child HIV transmission is no longer a public health problem, to the fall of extreme poverty in India: the standout story from each day of the week, verified at the original source.
Every Sunday we pick the standout story from each day of the week. Each one links to its original source in the full story.
Monday 2 · Barbados protects its babies from HIV
Health workers in Barbados, in a PAHO/WHO image marking the certification. Photo: PAHO/WHO.
WHO certified that Barbados has eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV: from 2022 to 2024, no baby on the island was infected this way. Keeping the status means sustained investment and wider HIV and syphilis testing in pregnancy. Read the story
Tuesday 3 · Off-grid solar reaches 149 million people
Installing a solar panel on a home in Kenya. Photo: GOGLA.
Lamps, kits and solar home systems that do not depend on the grid now serve 149 million people, 26% more than in 2023, according to the 2026 report by ESMAP (World Bank) and GOGLA. For at least 398 million people without power, it is still the cheapest option. Read the story
Wednesday 4 · UN honours the revival of an Ethiopian forest
The Desa’a forest on the Great Rift Valley escarpment in northern Ethiopia. Photo: © WeForest.
The work of WeForest and local communities in the Desa’a forest is now a UN World Restoration Flagship: more than 23,000 hectares under restoration and nearly 16,000 job opportunities, 60% of them for women. The forest once covered about 154,000 hectares. Read the story
Thursday 5 · A Spanish study finds a back-up route for blood vessel growth
Blood vessels in a retina, in a microscopy image from the study. Image courtesy of CNIC.
Rui Benedito’s team at Spain’s CNIC and Germany’s Max Planck Institute shows in Nature that blood vessels can keep growing without VEGF-VEGFR2 signalling, long thought essential. It may help explain why some tumours stop responding to certain drugs. This is basic research in animal models: there is no treatment or patient trial yet. Read the story
Friday 6 · A Basque village grill is the world’s best restaurant
Víctor Arguinzoniz (left) collects the award for Asador Etxebarri in Lima. Photo: The 50 Best Restaurants.
Asador Etxebarri, in Axpe (Atxondo, Basque Country), is No.1 on The 50 Best Restaurants 2026; it was No.2 in 2025. The list is a vote by more than 1,100 chefs, critics and industry experts, not an objective measure of quality. Read the story
Saturday 7 · Beavers return to Loch Ness
One of the kits at the Dundreggan lochan after the release. Photo: © Beaver Trust.
A family of six beavers has been swimming at Dundreggan, in the Loch Ness catchment, Scotland, since 4 November. Trees for Life and Beaver Trust plan to return at least 15 families over three years; beavers were last recorded beside the loch about 500 years ago. Read the story
Sunday 8 · India cuts extreme poverty to 2.6%
Women from a rural area of India at a meeting, in a file photo. Photo: McKay Savage (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0).
According to the World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Brief on India (October 2026), extreme poverty in the country, meaning living on less than $3 a day (2021 PPP), fell from 27.1% in 2011 to 2.6% in 2023. Using the $4.20 line, it fell from 57.7% to 16.1%: some 496 million fewer people below that line. Read the story
