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A new pygmy hippo in Toronto, ‘Glastonbury on wheels’ and more uplifting stories
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Good morning.
Within 15 minutes of being born, Toronto zoo’s newest arrival was already trying to stand. A few hours later, the tiny female pygmy hippo was confidently finding her way around – and happily nursing from her mother, Kindia.
Her arrival is particularly welcome news for a species in trouble. Pygmy hippos are endangered, with only an estimated 3,000 remaining in the wild, where habitat loss from logging, mining, farming and human settlement has put populations under growing pressure.
The zoo says the calf – Kindia’s third – is doing well, although keepers are monitoring mother and baby around the clock during the crucial first days. As Toronto zoo’s CEO, Dolf DeJong, put it, the birth is “far more than a celebration of new life” – it also offers hope for the long-term survival of the species.
Read on for more uplifting stories.
The Guardian newsletters team
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‘Glastonbury on wheels’: Welsh eisteddfod cultural event celebrates 850th year
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 Welsh wonder … Lord Rhys puppet at Eisteddfod y Garreg Las. Photograph: Joann Randles/The Guardian
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One of the oldest cultural events in Europe is celebrating its 850th birthday by going back to its roots at the Welsh castle where it was founded in 1176. The eisteddfod moves between north and south Wales each year, prompting this year’s creative director to describe it as “Glastonbury on wheels”.
Beyond its musical offerings, the event – running until Saturday – also celebrates the Welsh language, culture and creativity. The more than 1,000 events represent, for some revellers, not only pageantry but a kind of homecoming. As Naomi Chiffi, from Tenby, explains: “My kids are all in Welsh-medium education; the first Welsh school in Tenby opened a decade ago. Events like this on our doorstep show them that the language is a living, fun thing.”
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The Feast app: your most useful kitchen utensil
Get inspired with more than 7,000 recipes from our world-class cooks and smart, exclusive features to make cooking a breeze.
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‘I learned to love my arms – after decades of hiding and hating them’
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‘I’m still figuring out this new version of myself’ … Amy Annette. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
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When she was a teenager, Amy Annette spent summers wrapped in a black cardigan and was often asked: “Aren’t you hot in that?” She wasn’t hiding from the heat, but from years of feeling ashamed and insecure about her arms. Last month, after decades of avoiding sleeveless tops, the heatwave pushed Annette to bare her arms in public for the first time, at 37 – prompting her to rethink the body standards that had shaped her wardrobe, and her confidence, for decades. “And if it gets any hotter,” she says, “I’m wondering what other internalised standards I can sweat out.”
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Acrobatic, goofy and super-fast: the biama battles redefining Ivorian dance culture
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Move makers … a biama dancer in Abidjan. Photograph: Miléquêm Diarassouba
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Once the soundtrack to postwar optimism and excess, Côte d’Ivoire’s dance music scene is evolving, thanks to TikTok and street dance battles.
Seven years after the death of its biggest star, DJ Arafat, a new generation of artists and dancers are reinventing the coupé-décalé genre, with the new high-energy biama movement winning over young fans and social media users alike. Eromo Egbejule visits a 400-strong neighbourhood dance arena in Abidjan, where a local rapper calls the craze “a dance for the immature”.
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Meet the photojournalist documenting the lives of women in Ghana who choose to fight
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Fighting spirit … Ghanian boxer Elizabeth Boakye. Photograph: Olaoluwa Olowu
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Olaoluwa Olowu photographed amateur boxer Elizabeth Boakye in Accra after noticing that the city’s visual culture of boxing overwhelmingly celebrated men. Wanting to place a woman within that public archive, she returned with Elizabeth and positioned her beneath a mural of a male fighter. The portrait reflects the visibility of male boxers and the absence of women, while acknowledging Elizabeth’s work with the national team, the Black Hitters. The image forms part of Women Who Fight, Olowu’s project documenting Ghana’s female boxers and ensuring they enter the sport’s visual record.
Olowu says: “Elizabeth’s presence speaks to the women who are also part of the sport but are rarely represented in the same way.”
This piece is part of our Women behind the lens series.
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How Latin America’s city of cycling is breaking gender barriers
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Breaking the cycle … Eliana Gónzalez rides around her neighbourhood in Bogotá, Colombia. Photograph: Al Colegio en Bici
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Bogotá, Colombia, is a city celebrated as a cycling success story – nearly 900,000 bicycle trips are made daily across the city of 10 million people. Yet women account for only 28% of those trips, a 2023 survey found – a statistic that city officials are looking to address as part of their bid to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Schemes such as the Mamacitas en Bici, set up in 2018 by Eliana González, are encouraging and empowering mothers and caregivers to see cycling as a viable option.
“I realised how important it is to have safe spaces where we can move through the world as women, in a body that is treated differently by society and subjected to violence,” she says.
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| When my teenage son was struggling, my partner reached him in ways I couldn’t |
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After a catastrophic falling out with university friends, Lola’s 19-year-old son was struggling to see the light. Enter Lola’s boyfriend, who made all the difference – connecting with her son and helping turn things around. It was a learning experience for the whole family, Lola included: “Watching you step in taught me that I didn’t always have to be the one to fix things,” she says. Here, she thanks her boyfriend from the bottom of her heart.
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