Hope Is A Verb - NewsFix - Sea of Possibility. Aid Entering Gaza. Beavers.

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

This week's roundup of good news includes – Gaza aid; Amazon deforestation; Ukraine energy; new blood test for cancer; world's largest marine reserve in Canada; Bonobo imagination study. NewsFix is brought to you by ⁠Fix The News⁠. Hosted by Anthony Badolato, ⁠Hear That! ⁠To get in touch with the team, email [e-mail]

Hi and welcome to NewsFix, your weekly drop of good news brought to you by Fix the News. As you've probably already noticed, we've shifted these updates to the start of your week, so hopefully this will make your Mondays a little easier. Whether you're listening on your bus ride to work or settling into the classroom, I'm Anthony Vado Lato and here's what's going right in the world this week. International aid is finally flowing into Gaza, sea of possibility for Canada. More good news for the Amazon rainforest, the new blood test for cancer, and what if humans aren't the only species to have imaginary friends? Okay, here we go.

Since the ceasefire in October last year, aid has started moving into Gaza. The United Nations says around 750 tonnes of food are now entering every single day, and soap, a basic but critical supply is being delivered again. For frontline groups, this predictability is everything. Safer routes and more reliable access means that UNICEF teams can provide trauma counselling to children and the World Central Kitchen, the non-profit organisation that provides meals in crisis zones, has reached a major milestone serving one million hot meals in Gaza every single day. Here's what founder Chef Jose Andreas had to say on NBC. For us, more than a celebration is to remind the world that we need to do more.

More food needs to go in. More baby formula needs to go in. The need in Gaza is still very much in need of America, the Arab countries, Israel, everybody, to make sure that the people of Gaza are taking care of. And here's another bright spot to emerge from last year's grim headlines about USAID. Its formerly successful innovation arm, Development Innovation Ventures, has relaunched as an independent fund, backed by philanthropy. Before it was shut down in 2025, this program punched well above its weight, testing and backing practical ideas that delivered real results in lower-income

countries. But after being fed into the wood chipper last year, it's now re-emerged, leaner, smaller, but very much alive. Moving on to conservation, the Brazilian Amazon is on track for a historic milestone. Deforestation has fallen to its lowest level in 11 years, and if current policies hold, 2026 could mark the lowest rate ever recorded. Over in China, more than 1 million hectares of wetlands has been restored or protected since 2012, and not to be outdone, Bolivia has added nearly 1 million hectares to its protected areas, linking indigenous lands with national parks. And beavers have been released into the wild in Cornwall,

becoming the first little fluff butts to swim in these waters in a very long time. The last official records of beavers in the wild in England date back to the 1300s. And there's now an ocean of possibility around Canada after the world's largest indigenous-led marine protected area, the Great Bear Sea that tracks along the north coast of British Columbia, has officially moved from Promise to Practice. A decade after the landmark 2014 agreement,

17 First Nations are now negotiating site-by-site protections, rolling out Ranger programs, and directing funding into stewardship and local enterprise. But that's not all making the headlines in Canada this week. The country is also seen. a decline in cancer deaths thanks to earlier detection and better treatment. 64% of people diagnosed today are expected to live for more than five years, with the biggest gains in lung and colorectal cancer. Meanwhile, Chinese scientists have built a highly sensitive blood test that can detect tiny traces of lung cancer long before a tumour shows up on a scan, opening the door to earlier diagnosis and faster treatment decisions.

decisions. This is definitely a story we'll keep our eyes on. And incredible progress out of Ukraine. After Russian strikes knocked out large centralized power plants, the country has pivoted to distributed solar, wind and battery systems, which are harder to hit, quicker to repair, and less reliant on imported fuel. What began as a wartime survival has become a clean energy revolution, turning reconstruction into transition. even in the middle of a war. And finally, scientists have long claimed that imagination is a uniquely human superpower, but a bonobo named Kansi may have just blown that idea apart.

In a new study published in science, researchers watched the 43-year-old bonobo take part in a pretend tea party, tracking imaginary juice, imaginary grapes, and clearly distinguishing what was real and make-believe. Now, if bonobos can do this, it pushes the evolutionary roots of imagination back 6 to 9 million years and changes it from something that makes us distinctly human to something we inherited. I think I'll need a week or two to process that one. That's it from me. Don't forget to check out the full roundup of stories at fixthenews.com. It's a bumper edition.

Now, the team are having a break next week, probably to do a little bit of. more research on Kansi the Bonobo but I'll be back in a fortnight.