Another week, another news cycle that feels impossible to keep up with. Wars, elections, inflation, and now countries scrambling to keep kids off their phones. It’s a lot. That is why, from now on, every Monday, we’ll look for the wins that prove people are still showing up for each other.

After all, what better way to start your week than with good news?

Here’s what we found.

Macklemore just donated his entire $1 million Ed Sheeran tour salary to Palestinian relief groups

After Macklemore was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage at MetLife Stadium, he responded by pledging his entire net earnings from the tour, $1 million, to six organizations supporting the Palestinian people, according to the Associated Press. He wrote in a Wednesday post that the goal was to “bring the conversation back to where it belongs,” the Palestinian people, after four supporting acts quit the tour in solidarity with him.

The recipients include Medical Aid for Palestinians, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, UNRWA USA, and Anera, the AP reported. “Even if you don’t see bombs falling every night, the rubble is still there,” said Alicia Phillips Mandaville, Anera’s acting CEO. “And the traumatized children are still traumatized.” Tareq Hailat, director of strategic engagement at Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, said his phone rings constantly with people in Gaza “bleeding and asking for help.” For him, the gift lets his team direct money based on what’s actually needed on the ground.

However, this wasn’t Macklemore’s first contribution. Royalties from his protest songs “Hind’s Hall” and “Hind’s Hall 2” have already raised more than $509,000 for UNRWA USA, according to CEO Mara Kronenfeld, who said he has already been “contributing to saving probably hundreds of thousands of lives in Gaza.”

The gift is inspiring more of the same.

Ms. Rachel, the children’s entertainer known for her YouTube and Netflix videos, announced she would donate $1 million to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund to match Macklemore’s gift. She also called on other celebrities to do the same, according to the AP and Variety. “I invite every wealthy white celebrity to match it and speak out against the genocide in Gaza,” she wrote. “We have a moral obligation to use our privilege and platforms to protect children and human rights.” New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Sheeran each pledged an additional $2 million for aid “in the region,” though neither specified which organizations would receive it.

Online, the ripple effect is measurable. Progressive influencers have helped raise more than $72,000 for Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. And Anera said the donations it received through social media that Wednesday were more than triple its monthly average. At the same time, the organization gained more than 8,000 new followers after Macklemore tagged its account. UNRWA USA has gained 203,000 donors since October 2023, raising more than $117 million. “The contributions keep coming in because Americans care,” Kronenfeld said. “It will increase that much more with Macklemore’s extremely humane gesture.”

New York City just repaired its 200,000th pothole of the year

Mayor Zohran Mamdani filled the city’s 200,000th pothole of the year on Troutman Street in Bushwick last week. He did so while working alongside Department of Transportation crews and Ra-mel, a 311 worker who fields pothole complaints, according to the city. The milestone follows the 100,000th repair back in April, the highest total logged in a year’s first 100 days in more than a decade.

NYC DOT crews have paved 757 lane miles of city streets so far this year, the same distance as a drive from New York City to Nashville, while continuing to repair an average of 3,000 potholes a week, according to the city. “It’s the little things that say a lot about whether government is delivering for New Yorkers,” Mamdani said. “Today, we are marking 200,000 pothole repairs — a testament to the dedicated City workers who show up every day to solve New Yorkers’ problems and get the job done.” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn added that the city is “winning the war on potholes.”

Nashville just voted to rename its airport after Dolly Parton

A board of commissioners has voted unanimously to rename the city’s airport after Dolly Parton, according to the Guardian. Parton is credited with drawing an estimated $1.8 billion a year to Tennessee through her Dollywood theme park alone.

Parton herself doubted the idea would ever happen. “I think that’s probably more of a joke than anything,” she told the Tennessean before her death. “It does sound like a lot of fun to say: ‘Your flight is departin’ from Nashville’s D Parton.’”

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who championed the change alongside Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, called it a fitting tribute. “Dolly Parton’s extraordinary life is forever woven into the fabric of our state,” Lee said. He added that the airport would now “greet travelers with the enduring legacy of Dolly’s music, generosity, faith and kindness.” The renaming process, which will require new signage across the airport’s 4,500-acre property, will take time to complete, the Guardian reported. A final name has not yet been chosen. The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority said in a statement that it is “working closely with the appropriate parties to thoughtfully determine how Dolly Parton’s name and legacy will be incorporated.”

Tennessean columnist Alejandro Ramos argued the honor is bigger than music. “Her deepest legacy may be what she did with the success that followed,” he wrote. “She accumulated the kind of fame, wealth and influence few people ever experience. Then she repeatedly turned those resources outward,” pointing to her contributions to international literacy through her Imagination Library charity.

Incarcerated people at a Kansas prison paid off more than $4,000 in student lunch debt

Norton Community Schools in Kansas ended last school year with nearly $6,000 in unpaid student meal debt. When incarcerated people at Norton Correctional Facility heard about it, they began raising money through Members Reaching Out From Within, a rehabilitation program for people seeking lasting behavioral change, according to NewsOne. Organizers said many participants remembered going hungry growing up in financially unstable homes.

Over the spring and summer, residents donated $3,810 of their personal funds. And Kansas Department of Corrections staff added another $457, bringing the total to $4,267, according to a Facebook post from Lisa Pasilas on ROFW’s page. A group of 30 incarcerated people presented the donation to USD 211 Superintendent Corey Roy last month. “I was moved at how the men I spoke with wanted to make a positive impact to help others in the community,” Roy said. “I wanted them to know that they made a difference in a positive way.”

The donation comes as states nationwide grapple with new SNAP restrictions that have pushed more families into food insecurity, according to NewsOne.

Also this week: a South African vineyard is using 1,000 ducks instead of pesticides

At Vergenoegd Löw Wine Estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa, long-necked Indian Runner ducks patrol the vineyard’s raised, trellised vines, eating pests and fertilizing the soil with their droppings, a practice the farm has used since 1984, according to Good Good Good. The breed was originally developed in Indonesia more than 2,000 years ago to control pests in rice paddies. And the estate now keeps close to 1,000 ducks in its “fleet,” selling extras to ten neighboring farms that have adopted the same practice.

“Using the ducks instead of pesticides is obviously better for the ecology,” estate and farm manager Christiaan Cloete told Enca. “When you use chemicals, you sometimes kill a lot of beneficial insects. We are trying to create a more biodiverse ecology in the vineyards.” The estate’s commercial manager, Tessa Kleynhans, said the goal is bigger than one farm. “We’re trying to set the precedent for regenerative farming,” she said.

The European Union just proposed banning social media for kids under 13

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the ban on September 17, which would also require online platforms to design safe accounts for children. The ban could bring fines of up to 6% of a company’s global annual sales for noncompliance, according to Reuters. It’s the latest move in a fast-growing global trend. Australia became the first country to bar social media for under-16s last December. And California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law on September 11 restricting children’s exposure to addictive platform features and banning AI companion toys for kids under 16.

In the U.S. Senate, the Kids Online Safety Act cleared a key hurdle in May after Republican Senator Ted Cruz said he would back it. More than a dozen other countries, from Greece to Malaysia to New Zealand, have passed or proposed similar age restrictions in recent months.

Finally, Chile just became the first country in South America to eliminate dog-transmitted rabies

The World Health Organization validated Chile’s elimination of dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem on September 14, recognizing more than 50 years without a single human case, the first such validation in South America. Chile’s last case was recorded in 1972, the result of decades of free mass vaccination campaigns for dogs and cats, epidemiological surveillance, and reliable access to post-exposure treatment, according to WHO.

“I congratulate the government and people of Chile on this historic achievement,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “This validation reflects decades of commitment to protecting communities from rabies and demonstrates the impact of sustained investment in public health.” Since 1983, human cases of dog-mediated rabies across the Americas have fallen by more than 98%, according to WHO. And Chile’s win is its second disease elimination milestone this year, following its validation for eliminating leprosy earlier in 2026, when it also became the first country in the Americas to reach that milestone.

Chile’s Minister of Health, Dr. May Chomalí, credited more than her own agency. “This achievement would not have been possible without the joint efforts of municipalities, their zoonosis teams and communities,” she said. “Without communities, without municipalities and without public policy, a certification such as this cannot be achieved.”

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