Important Sunday Update!! Major Good News!! Spread the word!!
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Good morning, everyone! As promised, our Sunday tradition continues with another weekly good news update. Share one piece of good news from your week in the comments, and pass this along so someone else can join in.
My good news this week: our election coverage online surpassed major media companies across the country. Millions of you watched, we reached hundreds of millions of impressions in a single week, and so many of you have messaged me or stopped me in person to say you voted because of this community. Many of you told me you don’t usually follow the news, but you follow it here. We are building something massive, and it’s a testament to all of you. I can’t overstate the impact we are making together.
Every time I watch this community grow, I’m reminded how proud I am of what we’re building together.
Through all of it, I’m proud to remain fully independent. No advertiser dictates my coverage. No political office shapes my reporting. I answer only to you. Now the real work begins, and the reporting continues.
This is the moment that matters most. If you believe in independent journalism that reaches millions with clarity and honesty, become a paid subscriber today. It’s the single most powerful way to make sure this work keeps reaching the people who need it.
Here’s some good news!!
Karl Bushby embraced his weeping mother as he finished a 28-year, 31,000-mile walk around the world. The former British paratrooper set out from Punta Arenas, Chile, on Nov. 1, 1998, and crossed four continents and 30 countries on foot, vowing never to take a boat, plane or any other transport. He crossed the frozen Bering Strait in 2006, surviving a standoff with a polar bear and plunges into freezing water, and swam across both the Caspian Sea and the English Channel. The journey was meant to take about five years, but jungles, deserts, the 2008 financial crash, the COVID-19 pandemic and years of visa battles stretched it to 28, including nearly a decade making his way through Russia. “Where have you been?” his mother, Angela, asked as he arrived at the home he left at age 29, which was decorated with a banner reading “Welcome Home Son.” “They say it takes a village but literally it took a world to get me here,” Bushby, now 57, told the hundreds of people who cheered him at Hull’s City Hall, adding, “I didn’t do this alone. There was a big team. The biggest team. Earth.”
This Thursday, Nov. 12, is the first National Day of Connection, and organizers are asking every American to spend 12 minutes at noon connecting with someone. The idea is simple: at noon local time, stop what you’re doing and spend 12 intentional minutes with a friend, family member, neighbor, coworker, or someone you’ve been meaning to call. The day was created by The Cost of Loneliness Project, whose founder, Lucy Rose, has spent the past two months on a “Walk With Me” journey through more than 45 communities in 17 states, collecting stories about loneliness and belonging on her way to New York City. A 2023 advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General found that about one in two American adults experiences measurable loneliness, which research has linked to higher risks of heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression and early death. Rose, a former FDA official, started the organization after admitting to her daughter during a walk through Central Park that, despite years surrounded by people, she was chronically lonely. “Decide who is getting those 12 minutes, and let those 12 minutes become the beginning of something much bigger,” Rose said.
Students at New Jersey’s Howell High School filled their entire football field with more than a quarter million pounds of food for families in need. The donations, collected for the nonprofit Dermer Dreams’ annual 100-Yard Food Drive Challenge, will help stock food banks across New Jersey, as David Muir reported on ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
Nature is being restored at a record pace, with an area the size of Kazakhstan now being revived. A new UN Environment Programme report estimates that 623 million acres of land, ocean and freshwater habitat across 149 countries are under active restoration, according to Positive News. The effort is also supporting more than a million green jobs. UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said the world is “witnessing the makings of one of the largest movements for nature in recorded history,” though she warned progress is still too slow. Land restoration is on track to meet the 2030 goal, but only 23% of degraded coastal and marine areas and just 5% of freshwater ecosystems are being revived. The report says annual investment needs to grow more than fourfold, from $64 billion to $296 billion, by 2030. In a hopeful sign, the Green Climate Fund just announced a record year, with $3.3 billion going to climate projects in developing countries.
Barbados has eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The World Health Organization confirmed the milestone after years of work between the Barbadian government, WHO and other partners, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Barbados offers universal health care, and HIV testing and treatment are free for every pregnant woman. From 2022 to 2024, 98% of expectant mothers were tested for HIV, and 98% of those with the virus received treatment. Barbados now joins 26 countries recognized by WHO for eliminating, or being on track to eliminate, mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis or hepatitis B. “In Barbados, a diagnosis of HIV during pregnancy no longer has to mean transmission to a child,” said Robert Benes of UNICEF.
Climate groups say the midterm results are a mandate for clean energy. Environmental organizations welcomed the results, saying voters rejected Trumpism and endorsed climate action and making polluters pay, according to Positive News. The Sierra Club sent a memo to the incoming Congress calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and protection for the Arctic from drilling. “The people have spoken, and the new Congress should waste no time in responding by fighting to reverse the damage Trump has caused these past two years,” said Sierra Club legislative director Melinda Pierce. Evergreen Action urged Democrats to use their new power to lower energy costs and expand clean power. “Democrats ran on lowering energy bills, holding big tech accountable, and building out clean energy infrastructure,” said executive director Lena Moffitt. She added that “voters have given them a mandate to fight back.”
A woman cried after tasting pumpkin muffins at the restaurant where her mom’s beloved recipe started. Kate McClearen and her husband, Jason, posted a video on Oct. 27 of Kate tasting a pumpkin muffin at The Trustees Table, the restaurant at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Her mother had baked the muffins from the restaurant’s recipe every fall when Kate was growing up, and Kate still makes them herself, but she had never tasted them at the place they came from. As soon as she took a bite, she teared up and said, “Tastes like my childhood,” adding, “I cry at everything and I hate it.” The recipe comes from Elizabeth C. Kremer, who ran Shaker Village’s dining from 1967 to 1986 and published it in her cookbook “We Make You Kindly Welcome,” and it’s still on the menu today. Viewers were just as moved, with one commenter noting that she “got ratatouille-d,” a reference to the Pixar movie’s famous scene connecting food and memory. “That was an instant, amazing memory rushing back just from food,” Jason said.
A woman became the first person to swim the entire California coastline. Long-distance swimmer Catherine Breed covered about 900 miles in 111 days, starting at the Oregon-California border on July 1 and finishing on Oct. 19. She had spent three years planning to swim 10 miles a day for 90 days, but the super El Niño brought tropical storms, 7-foot waves and strong currents that sometimes pushed against her. Along the way she had eight separate shark encounters, but she also swam with sea lions, dolphins and whales and stopped on land to give talks about marine conservation. “When I get in the ocean, it’s a full surrender,” she said. “Your only job is to put one arm in front of the other and be at peace with whatever the ocean gives you that day.” Breed says she did it to inspire others, especially women and girls, to chase what seems impossible.
An Australian police officer donated his ultra-rare blood 545 times and visited every blood bank in the country. Trevor Bergman, 59, is one of about 150 Australians known to carry the anti-D antibody, which is used to protect babies whose mothers’ immune systems could attack their blood during pregnancy. He came up with the idea while on vacation in Perth and decided that donating at every center would be “a good way to see Australia.” Over the years he gave blood at all 85 of the country’s donation centers, traveling from the east coast to Western Australia and up to Darwin. He said his most memorable visit was in Albany, where he was turned away for having “a sniffle.” For his final donation in Canberra, Australia’s Governor-General Sam Mostyn joined him and gave blood alongside him. Australia’s blood service says one in three Australians will need donated blood at some point in their lives.
Firefighters dressed as superheroes surprised young patients at a Texas children’s hospital by rappelling down the building. Corpus Christi firefighters made their way down the glass exterior of Driscoll Children’s Hospital as kids inside waved from their windows.
Brazil expanded a national park that protects the world’s largest tropical wetland. Pantanal Matogrossense National Park grew from 523 square miles to more than 700, an expansion of about a third. The Pantanal is the world’s largest flooded grassland and is home to 463 bird species, more than 236 mammal species, and the largest concentration of jaguars on Earth. It also shelters giant otters, giant anteaters, giant armadillos and tapirs. Experts and environmentalists had long called for more protection for the region’s critical breeding areas. Brazil’s conservation agency mapped key wildlife corridors that animals use to move in and out of the park, which helps protect the genetic diversity of endangered species. Protecting the land and the rivers that feed it can also help the wetland withstand the fires and droughts that threaten it.
A field of 1,000 American flags is honoring veterans, service members and first responders in Utica, New York. The Good News Foundation’s 12th annual Flags for Heroes Healing Field lines Memorial Parkway and will stay up through Veterans Day. The flags honor active-duty military, fallen service members, veterans and first responders. The foundation marked the occasion with a ceremony at the Parkway Recreation Center that included a presentation of colors, patriotic songs, a salute to each branch of the armed services and special recognition for Gold Star families. The keynote speaker was Roger Parrino, a Marine Corps veteran who received the NYPD Medal of Valor for his actions on Sept. 11. Money raised goes to Sitrin’s military program, which Good News Foundation CEO Brian Saville said does “wonderful work” rehabilitating veterans in the community.
A mechanic in Australia caught a fish worth $1 million in a fishing contest. ABC News’ Danny New spoke with the lucky angler about how a single catch changed his life.
Houston high schoolers opened an auto shop where every oil change helps train the next generation of mechanics. Students at the Houston Independent School District’s Barbara Jordan Career Center are now servicing cars for the public every Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the city’s Fifth Ward. Trained automotive students handle oil changes, tire rotations and multi-point inspections, with customers bringing their own parts and fluids and paying for the students’ labor. The center serves 12 campuses and more than 1,200 students and focuses on hands-on training for well-paying, in-demand jobs. It expanded these programs after a local education group found that fewer than 20% of Houston ISD graduates were earning a living wage six years after graduation. The shop gives students both the technical skills and the people skills that make graduates more hirable. The district’s career programs also cover the trades, culinary arts, engineering, robotics and human services.
A family Doberman picked up on a baby’s dangerously racing heart and likely saved his life. Kim Reynolds of Somerset, England, noticed her Doberman, Saraya, acting unusually “needy,” refusing to leave her 6-month-old son Alexander’s side and crying whenever he was taken away. When Alexander became upset and looked unwell, Reynolds took him to the hospital, where doctors found his heart racing at 280 beats per minute. He was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a condition that is manageable with treatment but can be deadly if it isn’t caught. “She sensed it. I had no idea,” Reynolds said, adding, “I dread to think what would have happened if I just put him in the cot and walked away.” Saraya did it again this month, acting strangely around Alexander until Reynolds took him in and doctors found bacterial tonsillitis. “Now, I 100% trust Saraya,” Reynolds said, and she hopes the story raises awareness of a condition that wasn’t caught at birth.
An English councillor used an AirTag to catch a thief stealing 300-year-old stones. About 30 capstones disappeared over several months from an 18th-century stone wall along the road into Rufford, Lancashire, and police said they couldn’t help because there was no CCTV in the area. So local councillor Matt Smith, a landscaper by trade, hid an Apple AirTag inside one of the loose stones that remained, hoping the thief would take it. Within weeks, his phone alerted him that the stone had moved overnight, and he passed its location to police. Officers found the stones in a 41-year-old Manchester man’s backyard, and he was arrested and sentenced. Smith says dozens of stones from walls across the country were also recovered, worth as much as £40,000 in total. “It was a great feeling to know we had found the man responsible,” he said, adding, “I’m glad we stood up, and didn’t just tolerate it.”
A venomous primate thought to be extinct for a century was hiding in plain sight. Western scientists hadn’t documented a Bangka slow loris since the 1930s, and the species was listed as “possibly extinct” in 2015. But a new paper shows that a local wildlife rescue center on Indonesia’s Bangka Island had been quietly saving them all along. Between 2015 and 2025, the Alobi Wildlife Rescue Center rescued more than 90 of the animals and released 86 back into the wild, usually after they wandered into gardens, plantations or roads. Researchers say the species probably lives across more of the island than anyone realized. It’s also one of the world’s only venomous primates, mixing a toxin from glands on its arms with its saliva to deliver a cell-damaging bite. “A species can disappear from the scientific record without disappearing from the lives of the people who share its home,” said Benji Barca of the conservation group Re:wild.
Geothermal heating is cutting energy bills in affordable housing, and a Vermont utility is trying something new. Vermont Gas is partnering with Dandelion Energy to install geothermal heating and cooling at Riggs Meadow, a 44-unit affordable housing development in Hinesburg. It will be the first project in the country where a utility directly owns the geothermal system and runs it like a gas line, which saves the builder money and lets the project use the utility’s better financing. Each home will get its own loop of underground pipes, so residents who use less energy keep their own savings instead of paying for their neighbors. Drilling begins in early 2027, and residents are expected to move in by the end of that year. The savings can be big: a Department of Energy case study found geothermal heat pumps cut energy costs by 40.7% at a 72-unit apartment complex in New York. In Detroit, a 27-unit affordable housing development built with geothermal doesn’t bill tenants separately for heating and cooling at all, which its developer says lets families “breathe a little easier.”
Scientists used a CT scanner to crack a 400-year-old padlock from a shipwreck. Metal detectorist Peter Hughes found a brass combination padlock on a beach near Port Talbot, Wales, along with gold and silver coins from the Ann Francis, a ship that wrecked in a storm in December 1583. The lock has four rings with six letters each, for 1,296 possible combinations, plus extra fixed letters that curators believe were meant to fool burglars. “I tried to unlock it for about 20 years,” Hughes said, “and I failed.” Researchers at Cardiff University eventually used a micro-CT scanner, and on the third scan they found the answer: ANCE. They think the lock probably secured a chest of coins or other valuables, like documents or textiles, that didn’t survive. Hughes said modern technology helped them crack “what’s like the Da Vinci code, really.”
Seabirds wiped out by bird flu have made a remarkable comeback on England’s south coast. In 2022, avian flu devastated sandwich terns and gulls at Pagham Harbour, and the birds abandoned their breeding colony entirely. Three years later, thanks to conservation work by the RSPB, the number of sandwich terns there has grown from zero to 756. Little terns, ringed plovers, black-headed gulls and oystercatchers have also increased. The work includes predator-proof fencing, monitoring for rats, clearing vegetation to encourage nesting, and patrols to keep people and dogs from disturbing ground-nesting birds. “It’s taken several years of dedicated conservation action, but the situation began to ‘tern’ around last year,” said the RSPB’s Wez Smith, adding that the site now has record-breaking populations. The colony is part of the Solent Seascape project, which is restoring habitats across the waters between the Isle of Wight and mainland England.
Look up this week: a meteor shower known for its fireballs is lighting up the sky. The Northern Taurid meteor shower, famous for bright fireballs with long glowing tails, will be visible around the world this week. The best viewing should be Monday night, when the new moon makes for the darkest skies, and Tuesday should be nearly as good. The shower peaks around Thursday, Nov. 12, with about 8 to 12 shooting stars an hour. Look toward the constellation Taurus, just northeast of Orion and home to the Pleiades, where the meteors appear to come from. If you want to try photographing them, Good News Network suggests a tripod, your widest field of view and a 20- to 30-second exposure. Any night this week could bring a great show, so it’s a perfect excuse to get outside and look up.
A rare beetle has returned to Wales after 60 years. Surveyors found larvae of the short-necked oil beetle at Castlemartin Range in Pembrokeshire after spotting adults there in 2025, according to Positive News. The beetle gets its name from the yellow-orange goo it releases from its knees when threatened. Its larvae hitch rides on solitary bees and then live in their nests, feeding on pollen until adulthood. Habitat loss pushed the species to the brink of extinction in the 20th century, leaving only a few isolated populations in England and Scotland. It needs a very specific mix of bare ground, thick vegetation and dense flowers to survive. “The short-necked oil beetle is an amazing creature,” said Anna Hobb of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, who said she looks forward to the site being managed so the species can thrive.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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