In today's Good News, Jordan celebrates the elimination of leprosy from the country — a massive milestone more than 20 years in the making. And in Kazakhstan, conservationists are hopeful that an ambitious new plan to bring tigers to a nature reserve, decades after the animals disappeared from the wild, will be a roaring success.

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

Exercise is good for muscles, bones, blood vessels and the immune system, but there are also benefits for the brain, MIT researchers recently discovered. Exercise can significantly boost neuron growth by causing muscles to release myokines, biochemical signals that enhance neural development by up to four times. This study suggests that targeted muscle stimulation could aid nerve repair and restore mobility in neurodegenerative diseases, reinforcing the powerful, multi-faceted benefits of exercise on nerve health.

Jordan has become the first country to be recognized by the World Health Organization for having eliminated leprosy, a historic milestone for a disease that has affected humanity for millennia. The WHO praised Jordan for its dedicated efforts, having gone more than 20 years without any local cases being reported. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he hopes it will inspire other nations to redouble their efforts to eradicate neglected diseases.

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Tigers have been reintroduced to Kazakhstan's Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve, more than 70 years after they vanished from the area. In September, two Amur tigers, Bodhana and Kuma, were relocated from a Dutch sanctuary and released into a semi-natural enclosure. This was the first international rewilding of tigers, a move that has been supported by the WWF and Kazakh government. The project aims to rewild 50 tigers by 2035, offering hope that the species may see a resurgence.

Scientists exploring the Solomon Islands discovered the largest coral ever recorded in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Estimated to be over 300 years old and "longer than a blue whale," it was formed by "nearly a billion genetically identical coral polyps" that functioned as one organism, National Geographic said. Researchers were studying the effects of climate change when they spotted the "mega coral," videographer Manu San Felix told the BBC, and it was like seeing a "cathedral underwater."

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