Watch Street Musicians Turning Pro

There’s literally a world of soul out there on the streets. And here is the proof.

Orchestrated by professionals in a group called Playing for Change, 19 street musicians around the world play together from remote locations using headphones, to produce a work of inspiration.

From five American cities and four other countries – Italy, Brazil, Cuba and Japan – comes this most diverse and soulful version of “Dock of the Bay”.

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Roger Ridley and Grandpa Elliott handle the vocals, singing in Santa Monica, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Playing for Change created the video as part of it’s ongoing mission to “inspire and connect the world through music.” It’s foundation raises money to build music and art schools for children around the world.

Of all their videos, produced using the same method, our favorite is Stand By Me, which was recorded in diverse places like Israel, South Africa and Venezuela, and tallied 80 million views on YouTube alone.

Helps People Giving Up Pets to Find Families Avoid Shelters

Having to give up a beloved pet is an incredibly difficult decision.

Fortunately, a new app makes that process a little easier—and keeps animal shelters nationwide from becoming even more over crowded.

Nearly 70% of pets throughout the United States are “re-homed” at least once in their lifetime–when a family gives them up to a shelter or another household.

Designed to help pet parents meet prospective adopters, and avoid shelters altogether, the PawsLikeMe platform matches adopters with prospective forever four-legged friends. It was also engineered as a way to match people and their animals, by facilitating a match based on what each person is looking for in a pet. This can give people some assurance that their specific cat or dog is wanted by another family—a feature that’s missing from the adoption marketplace.

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Keith Becher of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, loved his 4-year-old Golden Lab mix, Nico, to pieces. But after realizing that working two jobs just wasn’t fair to the pup, who often waited for him at home alone, he set out looking for an alternative to dropping her off at a shelter.

“I adopted her as a puppy because she was abandoned at the location of my former job, and I couldn’t fathom bringing her to the shelter. So I kept her,” he told Good News Network. “She is an active dog and it was hard on her with me working long hours. I couldn’t afford to send her to doggy daycare.”

After coming across an advertisement for PawsLikeMe on Facebook earlier this month, he filled out a pet profile for Nico, reviewed applications from prospective adopters, and arranged an at-home visit with the family.

Fortunately, it was a match; Nico now lives with a stay-at-home mother, has lots of room to run around, and enjoys playing with other neighborhood dogs.

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“It was extremely difficult to give Nico up, but I am happy knowing that she will be well taken care of and loved in her new home.,” he said.

In the case of “re-homing,” the option is cost-free to the poster, and the prospective adopter pays $75, half of which goes to a local shelter or rescue. For shelters and rescues posting their pets directly, the entire adoption fee goes directly to that organization.

PawsLikeMe was created by Elizabeth Holmes, who has a background in finance and technology, and Marianna Benko, a social worker. Using their combined expertise, the women worked to develop an algorithm which matches people with pets based on lifestyle and compatibility, beyond just appearance or breed.

The result is a “personality test” that helps adopters get to know their potential pets a bit better, increasing their chances of making a perfect match.

Since the national launch last month, more than 75,000 people and 200 organizations have registered on the site. PawsLikeMe already has shelter pets listed for adoption in every state, and pets are being re-homed in 26 states.

An Amazing Thank You Sent to Blood Donors is Just Perfect

A simple gesture is having a huge charitable impact, causing more people to sign up to give blood in Stockholm,Sweden. And everyone is wondering why no one thought of it before.

Every time a donor’s blood has saved a life, they get a thank you text.

Blodcentralen, the Swedish blood service in Stockholm, started sending the messages to remind donors how important their contributions are.

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Donors get their first “thank you” when they give blood, and later, they receive a follow-up text telling them when their blood has been used.

Blodcentralen also updates donors when blood supplies are running low so they can donate more.

“It’s a great feeling to know you made such a big difference and maybe even saved someone else’s life,” Karolina Blom Wiberg, a spokesperson for Blodcentralen, told The Independent.

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The initiative came as a solution to the problem of declining blood donations throughout the country; Blodcentralen thought the service would be a good way to keep regular donors coming back more often.

It turns out, the texts have drawn in new donors, too.

People have been posting on social media their stories about the “thank you” texts they receive, and that’s encouraged their friends to think about donating, too.

When Landscaper Needed New Truck

This dedicated handyman is basking in the generosity of his very satisfied customers.

John Joyce has mowed lawns for years around the Pinellas Park, Florida area.

His 1995 truck broke down, but the 83-year-old man didn’t want to leave his clients in the weeds—he began pushing the lawnmower for miles on foot, with other yard tools stacked on top.

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Longtime customers Robert and Nikki Norton wanted to help, but couldn’t afford to buy John a new truck all by themselves.

So, they rallied community support, started a GoFundMe page, and chipped in some of their wedding money to get the ball rolling.

“He is one of the kindest people Nikki and I have ever met, and we need to help him,” they wrote on the page.

The Nortons hoped to raise $4,000 toward a used truck, but nearly 350 people contributed more than $13,000 before the campaign was finished.

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A local used car dealership sold them a 2004 Nissan pick-up at cost, so there was enough money left over for license plates, insurance, and even a new lawnmower.

Joyce had a hard time holding back the tears as he took the wheel.

“I feel like a millionaire,” he told WTSP News. “I feel like a millionaire.”

Joyce drove off the lot and got straight back to work.

Turkey is headed to the polls for the second time this year.

Back in June, when the country’s most recent general elections were held, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party (AKP) didn’t win an outright majority for the first time since 2002. Afterward, he wasn’t able to form a coalition with the opposition partiesbefore an August deadline and called for new elections.Sunday’s election comes at a bleak time for Turkey, BuzzFeed News’ Borzou Daragahi writes. A more than 30-year-old conflict between armed forces and the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has flared up. The country has seen at least three suicide bombingsin the past three months. And earlier this month, twin suicide blasts in Turkey’s capital —the country’s deadliest attack on civilians in recent history — killed more than 100 people at a peace rally.

Additionally, more than 2 million refugees fleeing a civil war in Syria, which is now in its fifth year, have entered Turkey. And “the Turkish lira is skidding just slightly above an all-time low,” Daragahi writes.

Johnny Hallyday impersonator and Marine Le Pen's far-Right party recruits

Jean-Claude Bader brings showbiz sparkle to regional elections in December, when the Front National hopes to capitalise on refugee crisis

He is the Gallic equivalent of an Elvis impersonator, a dead ringer for the ageing French rocker, Johnny Hallyday.

Jean-Claude Bader’s gravel-voiced renditions of Hallyday classics are renowned in his home region of Alsace, eastern France, and now the guitar-plucking 63-year-old has become nationally famous as an election candidate of the far-Right Front National (FN).

When Mr Bader, a former restaurateur known as “Alsace Johnny”, is not wearing leather and belting out rock anthems with his band Tennessee at concerts or corporate events, he works as a local councillor in the small town of Erstein.

Until last week his allegiance was to the centre-Right party led by Nicolas Sarkozy, The Republicans. He previously served as a deputy mayor of Strasbourg. In defecting to Marine Le Pen’s FN, he has set his sights on a bigger political stage as a candidate for a seat on one of France’s 18 powerful regional councils in December's elections.

The far-Right party hopes he will bring a touch of showbiz sparkle that could attract voters who have never have been tempted by the FN in the past.

Already his recruitment by Ms Le Pen’s number two, Florian Philippot, has made headlines across France.

Openly gay, Mr Philippot, 34, has done much to moderate and rejuvenate the party’s image since Ms Le Pen became leader in 2011.

A huge Hallyday fan, he launched the FN’s campaign in the eastern region of Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine by appearing alongside another of the many impersonators of the star, who has been the biggest name in French rock since the 1960s.

Days later, Mr Philippot announced that “Alsace Johnny” - Mr Bader - was one of the party’s candidates in the region, which borders Germany.

“We had been in discussion for several weeks,” Mr Philippot said. “He explained that he had gradually moved away from the ideas of The Republicans and became closer to the FN.”

Mr Philippot added that Mr Bader’s experience in local politics had given him a good grasp of national and regional issues: “He knows his stuff.”

Mr Bader said one reason he switched parties was because he was “no longer happy with the soft and crazy way local governments are being run” under The Republicans.

He added that he had been “shocked” by Mr Sarkozy’s “brutal eviction” of his former minister for families, Nadine Morano, as a candidate in the regional elections because she described France as a country “of the white race”.

Her remark on television in September provoked an outcry from mainstream politicians. However, Mr Bader deplored that in Mr Sarkozy’s party, “it is centrists who are laying down the law”. He condemned what he said was the absence of “rightists of conviction”.

Marine Le Pen initially defended Ms Morano, pointing out that she was, after all, only quoting General De Gaulle. However, she later acknowledged that the former minister’s comment could be “interpreted in a hurtful manner, especially by our compatriots from overseas”.

Mr Bader said the FN offered “a political programme that breaks with the conventional parties”.

An increasing number of French voters are disillusioned with the failure of the current Socialist president, François Hollande, to revive the stagnant economy, but were also disheartened by the failure of his centre-Right predecessor, Mr Sarkozy, to carry out the sweeping reforms he had promised.

The FN is capitalising on Europe’s migration crisis and the European Union’s failure to find a solution. Opinion polls show that the anti-immigration, anti-EU party is set to take power next month in two regions. One is in the north, where many people resent the presence of migrants’ camps in the Calais area, and the other is in the south, on the Riviera.

It remains to be seen if “Alsace Johnny” can boost the party’s chances in the east, but he has already generated enormous publicity for the FN.

Johnny Hallyday himself, whose real name is Jean-Philippe Smet, was once a prominent backer of Mr Sarkozy, but last year he said he had become disappointed in the former president and no longer had much faith in him or any other French politician.

Champs-Elysees to get New York-style makeover

Paris plans to give the Champs-Elysées a makeover including New York-style roof terrace cafes, pedestrianised areas and fountains, amid complaints the "world's most beautiful avenue" has lost its soul to big brands and bling.

Paris officials have been warning for years that Les Champs-Elysées' transformation from "the world's most beautiful avenue" into a characterless "shopping arcade" is imminent.

Now, they intend to act to retain its still-massive pull that sees it attract 20 million tourists each year.

Under plans leaked to La Parisien, the capital’s daily newspaper, the prestigious avenue is about to see its first serious makeover in 25 years when then mayor Jacques Chirac widened and spruced up the 1.9km-long street.

Paris town hall asked an urban planning body to run a task force on changes that will be conducted over the next decade. Among its suggestions are to part pedestrianise the avenue and its side streets and create proper bike lanes. There are plans to open fountains around the Arc de Triomphe and a massive green area from the Arc to the Place de la Concorde.

Given the sky-high real estate prices along the avenue, the world’s third most expensive, architects have proposed taking inspiration from New York, London and Tokyo to create rooftop bars and restaurants. They also suggest adding theatres, art galleries and cinemas.

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor, has reportedly expressed a wish to ban cars that choke the avenue several times per year in a bid to lure Parisians back to an area almost exclusively visited by tourists.

“The torrent of cars makes its hard to breath along the avenue,” said Jean-Noel Reinhard, president of the Champs-Elysée committee, which represents 170 stores along the avenue.

He said it was essential to cater to more than mere shoppers. "Three quarters of people who come to the Champs-Elysées come to stroll, have a drink go to the cinema," he said.