Look on the bright side

TicToc Tonight

The news isn't all gloom and doom. Treat yourself to some positivity with these 10 uplifting stories from the past week.

1. The U.S. named its first Native American poet laureate.
Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, was appointed as "the nation's official poet" by the Library of Congress.

2. Half of the world's electricity will soon be renewable.
By 2050, 50% of the power grid will be sourced from wind, solar and batteries, effectively eliminating oil-powered plants.

3. Divers set a world record for biggest ocean cleanup.
Guinness officials counted 633 scuba divers who scooped up trash from the seafloor in South Florida.

4. New York banned "gay panic."
Perpetrators in LGBTQ homicide cases can no longer claim temporary insanity, ending a discriminatory legal strategy, advocates say.

5. Boaty McBoatface is having the last laugh.
The internet-named submarine on its first mission made a significant climate change discovery about the threat of rising sea levels.

6. Scientists got the first-ever recording of a rare whale singing.
NOAA marine biologists documented calls from the North Pacific right whale. Only a few dozen of the animals remain.

7. A 10-year-old rock climber put adults to shame at Yosemite.
Selah Schneiter became the youngest-ever person to scale El Capitan, the most fearsome peak in the California park.

8. Slovakia swore in its first female president.
Liberal environmental activist and lawyer Zuzana Caputova vowed to fight corruption and champion justice at her inauguration.

9. An Ohio hospital performed its first-ever fetal surgery.
Cleveland Clinic surgeons said a baby girl was born healthy after a spina bifida operation while she was still in her mother's womb.

10. Bolivians injected some color into their community.
Guided by street artists, dozens of La Paz residents revitalized their neighborhood with vivid, splashy murals.