Here are this week’s inspiring headlines! If you missed last week and want more positive news, click here!

• Canadian food scientists develop an eco-friendly substitute for palm oil. The result is a healthier and more sustainable substitute for palm oil that could be used in prepared foods as well as cosmetics.

• Amazon driver rescues man from burning home in New Smyrna Beach. The 23-year-old driver heard women screaming, dropped his packages, and ran to the scene.

• The “world’s loneliest elephant” starts a new life in a Cambodian sanctuary. The Asian elephant had previously spent his days at a dilapidated zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, since 1985.

• A Toronto bar facing closure is saved by customers buying up their entire beer stock. The money from the beer sales — and Canadian government funding — will keep the bar afloat until it can safely reopen.

The good news doesn’t stop there!

• Starbucks is offering free coffee to health care workers and first responders for the entire month of December. Through New Year’s Eve, any person who identifies as a frontline responder to the coronavirus pandemic will be served a tall brewed iced or hot coffee at no cost.

• Physicist creates N95-type respirators using cotton candy machine. The technique involves heating ordinary plastics, such as bottles or shopping bags, and then putting them into an ordinary cotton candy machine.

• California prisoners raised $30,000 for a high school student in need. The inmates, who the program calls “brothers in blue,” raised more than $30,000 from inside the prison to create a scholarship for student Sy Green.

• Man uses a drone to rescue a dog lost in the woods for 10 days. Brian James travels a few miles away to Andes, New York, where he uses the drone to canvass the trees around the area the pooch disappeared.

• A “self-destructive” plastic is setting a new standard for biodegradability in the U.K. Polymateria has developed a process to manufacture plastic which decomposes harmlessly in the natural environment.

And now, a few interesting tidbits from around the web:

• Your interesting read of the week is Portraits of Matriarchy: The Mosuo villages in the Chinese Himalayas are trying to hold on to their ancient, complex social structures that value female power and decision-making.

• And finally, check out this breathtaking video of Reindeer under the Northern Lights.

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s inspiring headlines! Check back next week for more positive news!