The Good News Report: From a crowdsourced forgiveness emoji to a Lady Hale-inspired brooch T-shirt, this week’s positive news stories

The Good News Report: Forgiveness emoji crowdfunded by a group in Finland

Credit: Getty

Life


The Good News Report: From a crowdsourced forgiveness emoji to a Lady Hale-inspired brooch T-shirt, this week’s positive news stories

By Lauren Geall

6 years ago

Dropping every Sunday, The Good News Report brings you nothing but positive news about wonderful people to uplift and inspire you. 

A campaign group in Finland is crowdsourcing for the first forgiveness emoji

There are 3,019 emojis available for us to use on a day-to-day basis, but there’s one important icon missing: forgiveness.

But thanks to a new campaign by a coalition of charitable and peace-building organisations in Finland, we may soon see a forgiveness emoji making its way on to our keyboards. 

“In our modern digital communication culture, emojis are an essential way of expressing human feelings beyond words,” Tuomo Pesonen, a representative for the Evangelical Lutheran church of Finland, one of the founding organisations of the campaign, told The Guardian.

“We were surprised to realise that the official emoji selection has dozens of different cats and even two designs of zombies, but there isn’t an emoji for forgiveness.”

Current ideas for a forgiveness emoji include two hands clasping in front of a heart, a heart with vines across the front of it, and a love heart covered with a plaster.

The campaign is welcoming people to share their submissions via the website, or simply vote for their favourite from the emojis already submitted. 


Abortion has officially been decriminalised across Australia

The Good News Report: NSW's Parliament votes to decriminalise abortion, making it legal across Australia

Credit: Getty

MP’s Jenny Leong and Mehreen Faruqi are shown embracing in the above photo after New South Wales’ (NSW) parliament voted to decriminalise abortion after two weeks of debate. 

The decision means that abortion has now been decriminalised across Australia, with NSW being the last remaining state where abortion was illegal except in cases of “serious danger”. 

And in another moment of progress this week, the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca also decriminalised abortion, but only during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. 


This puppy just went viral for his serious ‘snoozing’ skills

In a classic example of “the dog ate my homework” excuse, this woman’s partner blamed their new puppy Winston when he was nearly late for work two days in a row, claiming that the couple’s new dog had literally snoozed his alarm.

“Obviously I didn’t believe him,” Melissa Robertson writes in a now viral tweet, “so he showed me.”

What happens next is quite extraordinary – after the alarm goes off, Winston sits and stares at the sound in pure disbelief, before hitting at the phone at his paws, pressing the snooze button and silencing the alarm in the process. 

And while we sit and gush over the cuteness of little Winston, we’ve got even more good news for you: he’s got his very own Instagram account.


This teacher carried a girl with spina bifida on his back so she didn’t have to miss a school trip

When Ryan King brought home a permission slip to go on a hike with her school class, her mum realised there was a problem. The 10-year-old, who has spina bifida, uses a wheelchair, and a hike isn’t the most accessible activity. Searching for a solution, Ryan’s mum even prepared to carry her daughter on the hike herself with a purpose-made backpack. 

That was, however, until a teacher named Jim Freeman — who is not even Ryan’s teacher — offered to carry her instead. “He was like ‘Hey, I’ll carry her, no big deal,’” King told CBS News.

The kind gesture meant Ryan was able to attend the school trip without her mum — a detail very much appreciated by the independent 10-year-old. Ryan’s mum took to Facebook to share the story, saying Ryan was “soooooo excited” to do something without her mum’s help.


The UK’s Supreme Court president inspired a T-Shirt design which raised over £18,000 for charity

Lady Hale brooch T-shirt

Credit: Balcony Shirts

The UK’s Supreme Court president Lady Hale went viral this week for wearing a standout spider brooch during her reading of the court’s prorogation verdict — but what happened next was even better.

Because following the announcement that the UK’s supreme court had ruled Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament as unlawful, a T-shirt exclusively designed to mimic the black shirt/spider brooch combo modeled by our newest national treasure – supreme court president Lady Hale – went viral.

Selling out within 24 hours, the shirt company – who pledged to donate 30% of profits to homelessness charity Shelter – announced they had raised over £18,000 for their donation.

Images: Getty/Balcony Shirts

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