Good News: Here’s our pick of all the positive accomplishments of 2022 Access to the commentsCOMMENTS
By Camille Bello • Updated: 31/12/2022 – 18:30

Best Good news stories of 2022
Best Good news stories of 2022 – Copyright euronews
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2022 was a big year, with a huge amount of bad news but also plenty of good news and things to smile about.

For starters, life began to return to normal after the pandemic. And that’s something to be grateful for.

And there’s much more: here’s our pick of all the positive accomplishments of 2022. Click the video above to get the full digest, or read on below.
January
For the first time, scientists were able to explain what triggered the specific formation of stars in the Milky Way.

February
In February a groundbreaking spinal implant was key to helping paralysed patients walk, cycle and even swim again.

Plus, a team of researchers in the US said they had potentially cured HIV in a woman, which would make her the first female to be cured of the virus.

First woman reportedly cured of HIV after stem cell transplant using umbilical cord blood
Groundbreaking spinal implant could be the key to helping paralysed patients to walk again
March
In March, scientists decoded the entire human genome, filling in millions of missing pieces of DNA. The breakthrough was so momentous that many people in the field thought it would never happen.

There was also a milestone for women’s football when a crowd of more than 91,000 broke the attendance record for a women’s club match when Barcelona played Real Madrid at Barça’s Camp Nou stadium – the first time the women’s team has played on the iconic pitch in front of a crowd.

JOSEP LAGO/AFP or licensors
Barcelona’s players celebrate at the end of the women’s UEFA Champions League quarter final second leg football match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF at Camp Nou.JOSEP LAGO/AFP or licensors
The fifth of March was a historical day for Egyptian women, as the country made history with its first female judge to sit on the bench of a top court in Cairo.

Also, by March the world had installed enough solar panels to generate 1TW of electricity – enough to power the whole of Europe.

Good News: Mysterious return of Darwin’s notebooks and a new record for women’s football
Good News: A malaria cure, a solar-powered hospital and how Spanish could boost your mental health
April
In April, two notebooks that had belonged to Charles Darwin, filled with his notes and sketches, including the famous “tree of life” drawing, were anonymously returned, 22 years after they mysteriously disappeared.

‘B’ notebook containing Darwin’s Tree of Life sketch.
University of Cambridge’B’ notebook containing Darwin’s Tree of Life sketch.
Plant-based foods also broke records with billions in sales, according to figures released by the Plant-Based Foods Association, with most plant-based categories outpacing their conventional counterparts.

Good News: Scientists turn back the clock on skin cells and plant-based foods make billions
May
In May scientists managed to grow plants in lunar soil, which could make longer stays on the moon a reality.

Good news: Proof that laughter is the best medicine and scientists grow plants in lunar soil
June
In June, a miracle drug trial eradicated cancer tumours for more than a dozen US rectal cancer patients.

And it was hailed as a first in cancer treatment.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Four people who were successfully treated for rectal cancer in the Memorial Sloan Kettering trial join the trial’s two principal investigators.Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
This breakthrough drug trial saw cancer vanish in every patient
July
In July, the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States, made what was called the most ambitious potential action ever taken by the country to address global warming, by investing billions in clean energy.

Surprise climate deal could be the ‘most significant’ in US history, says Joe Biden
And for the first time, three women were appointed to a Vatican committee that advises Pope Francis on candidates for bishops around the world, a move to give women a bigger voice in the Catholic Church’s operations.

Pope Francis names women to bishops advisory committee for the first time
August
In August Scotland became the first country to make access to free period products a legal right, at a time when around one in 10 girls in the United Kingdom were unable to afford sanitary towels and tampons.

Scotland becomes the first country to make access to free period products a legal right
September
In September the latest technology from the Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch project developing systems to clean up the floating plastic from the oceans, was shown to have the potential to remove 90 per cent of this plastic by 2040.

The Ocean Cleanup
SYSTEM 03 by the Ocean Cleanup is said to have the potential to remove 90 per cent of the Ocean’s plastic by 2040.The Ocean Cleanup
The ozone layer was also announced to be recovering; researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict it will close in the next fifty years.

The biggest ever four-day week trial that started in the UK was hailed a success, and supported by 86 per cent of the companies who tried it.

And in Egypt, the Al Azhar Mosque named a woman as an adviser to the grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, for the first time in 1,000 years.

Good News: 90 per cent of plastic in oceans could be gone by 2040 and a breakthrough for Alzheimer’s
Good News | More people surviving cancer than ever and positive feedback on the four-day work week
October
In October, a successful lawsuit by three NGOs meant that the UK government conceded that its plan to cut carbon emissions was inadequate and that it needed to come up with a better one.

‘Embarrassing but welcome’: Green lawyers triumph as UK admits its net zero strategy is unlawful
Founders of German firm BioNTech, which – along with Pfizer – manufactured the revolutionary mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, told the BBC they had made recent breakthroughs that could see a cure for cancer before the end of the decade.

There was also a ‘historic moment’ in the fight against Alzheimer’s as an experimental drug significantly slowed the progression of the disease in a major trial.

Good News: Cancer vaccine likely before 2030 and number of people under poverty line in India halved
November
In November, the sustainability section of Euronews had its most popular story of the year when a type of giant tortoise that everyone thought was extinct was found to be alive, spurring biologists to search harder for the remaining individuals.

Extinct ‘fantastic giant tortoise’ found alive on the Galápagos Islands
Scientists in Switzerland reached a new efficiency record for transparent solar cells, paving the way for electricity-generating windows that could help power our homes and devices.

Electricity-generating windows? Swiss scientists design more efficient transparent solar panels
Researchers injected lab-created blood into people for the first time, marking a key first step towards making lab-grown red blood cells available for patients who frequently need transfusions, or who have rare blood types.

Camera-equipped sharks mapped out the world’s largest carbon reservoir when they showed researchers the biggest seagrass meadow yet discovered.

Beneath the Waves
Camera-equipped sharks mapped out the world’s largest carbon reservoir when they showed researchers the biggest seagrass meadow yet discovered.Beneath the Waves
And new sunglasses that let deaf people ‘see’ conversations, by adding subtitles to nearby speech, were launched worldwide.

A world-first trial of lab-grown blood could revolutionise transfusions for sickle cell patients
Good News: science’s solution to end nightmares and the largest seagrass meadow yet discovered
December
In December, Stéphanie Frappart from France made history as the first woman to take charge of a men’s World Cup match.

Off the pitch, Japan fans quietly reminded the world of one of the most basic lessons of being a guest – always leave things as you find them.

A 95-year-old woman, Angela Álvarez, became the oldest person not only to be nominated but to win in the category of best new artist at the Latin Grammys.

RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP or licensors
Cuban-US singer Angela Alvarez poses with the award for Best New Artist during the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy awards.RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP or licensors
And after decades of research, scientists carried out a nuclear fusion reaction that produced more energy than went into it, imitating the process that powers stars to produce energy on Earth.

Five Good News stories to make you feel better about the state of the world
US scientists announce major nuclear fusion breakthrough that could ‘revolutionise the world’
**And best of all, in 2022 the Good News round-up was created, to bring you stories of hope.
**

If you have been with us for a while, we hope you have enjoyed a year’s worth of good news, but if you’re new, you can dig deeper into each one of the good news stories of 2022 by heading to the Good News playlist on the Euronews YouTube channel.

From the team of Good News and Euronews, we wish you the happiest new year. Until soon, and never forget, some news can be good news.

Video editor • Mert Can Yilmaz