In today’s Good News, two fast-acting tests that are reshaping how quickly and efficiently patients are screened for tuberculosis could have the potential to end the disease once and for all. And in Japan, social media star Punch the monkey is lonely no longer, thanks to his budding friendship with a fellow macaque.

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

Widespread use of new diagnostic tests could help end tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization. Tongue swabs and nucleic acid amplification tests that swiftly check for the infection could be used in homes, clinics and ambulances. By offering “fast, accurate diagnosis closer to people,” these “transformative” tools could save lives and curb transmission, said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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Kids at 400 children’s hospitals can experience the joys of visiting the zoo through the Wildlife Explorers Channel. The San Diego Zoo’s 24-hour streaming service allows the young patients to watch animal encounters, live feeds from zoo enclosures and educational programming. Because many of them have weakened immune systems, they are “unable to go to places like the zoo, and the channel has brought the zoo to them,” Margaret Fitzgerald of Rady Children’s Hospital told Good News Network.

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A bronze sculpture was recently unveiled in Almaty, Kazakhstan, honoring five bystanders who saw a dog in distress and stopped to help. The incident occurred in 2016, when a man spotted a dog struggling to get out of a reservoir. He climbed down the steep walls to get him, and four other people formed a human chain to safely pull them both back up. Another passerby recorded the rescue and shared the video online, where it immediately went viral.

Punch, the monkey that gained millions of fans through a viral video of him cuddling a stuffed orangutan, has traded in his stuffed animal for a real friend. The 7-month-old macaque was lonely after being rejected by his mother and the rest of his troop at Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo. But in recent weeks, Punch has become more confident and befriended a female macaque named Moe, and the pair have been observed playing together and hugging.

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