Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree celebrates milestone while sharing stories of rescued animals, veteran achievements, and global progress.
By Aaron Parnas•December 7, 2025•8 min read
Good News
Good morning everyone, and Happy Sunday! As always, we begin with good news—because real, meaningful good is out there, and it deserves to be lifted up. That’s the heart of this community. We gather to remind ourselves, and each other, that hope is still alive, that truth still matters, and that good news still belongs in this world.
So share one bright moment from your week in the comments—big or small, we want to celebrate it with you.
As for me, I’ve got two: First: I was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 this week… and it happened because of you. Second: I’m running my first half marathon today!
Together, we are proving the doubters wrong. We are refusing to be silenced. We are breaking barriers and reaching millions. This momentum, this movement, this impact—you made it possible. You’ve given me the greatest job in the world, and I am endlessly grateful.
Let’s keep going. The world needs this. And we’re just getting started.
A severely underweight, deaf, and half-blind terrier puppy found injured in a dumpster was rescued by Blue Cross, gently rehabilitated with specialized cues for his disabilities, gained confidence in foster care, and was ultimately adopted into a loving home just in time for his first Christmas
After hearing what he believed was a divine nudge to “ask them about their laundry,” retired Maryland police officer Wade Milyard converted a bus into a free mobile laundromat—Fresh Step Laundry—now traveling his community to wash clothes for homeless residents, helping restore dignity, serving thousands of pounds of laundry, and aiming to expand with a second vehicle.
Marine Corps veteran and longtime trucker Stacy Batiste—who has driven over 5 million accident-free miles across 34 years—was named the 2025 Road Warrior Champion, surprising him with a custom red semi-truck and $50,000 for his exceptional safety record, mentorship, and dedication to the profession.
After Portland widower Tony James became homeless with his dog and 250-pound pet pig Roscoe, the city’s fire department homeless outreach team arranged his travel home to family in Chicago and secured Roscoe a place at Oregon’s largest farm animal sanctuary, where staff said the emotional farewell showed the deep bond between man and pig and pledged to reunite them once James is back on his feet.
Researchers developed a 360° underwater acoustic camera that can match reef sounds to specific fish, enabling identification of 46 species—over half never known to make sound—and creating a growing public sound library that could power future AI tools for monitoring reef health and marine biodiversity.
A new scientist-led roadmap warns plastic pollution will double by 2040 but says scaling up proven solutions—especially refill and reuse systems—could cut pollution by 83%, slash emissions and health harms, and create millions of jobs if investment shifts away from single-use plastics.
A WHO report says measles vaccination has saved 59 million children since 2000 and driven cases and deaths to historic lows, but warns rising infections—due to falling immunisation rates below the 95% threshold—threaten progress, urging countries to boost vaccine coverage to prevent deadly outbreaks.
Scientists report that Antarctica’s ozone hole was the smallest and shortest-lived since 2019, closing earlier than usual and reflecting steady recovery driven by the Montreal Protocol—an encouraging reminder of the power of global environmental cooperation.
A World Bank report says Bangladesh lifted 34 million people out of poverty between 2010 and 2022, sharply reducing extreme and moderate poverty, though progress has slowed and one-third of the population remains vulnerable—highlighting the need for better-targeted social programs to sustain gains.
The Kelly Clarkson Show turned emotional when a mother unexpectedly met the Cake4Kids volunteer who had baked her daughter’s custom Toy Story birthday cake during a period of family hardship, highlighting the nonprofit’s nationwide network of volunteers who provide personalized cakes to children facing homelessness, foster care or financial struggle, and prompting Clarkson and the audience to tear up as the organization received a $5,000 donation.
London cleaning-company owner Ben Saunders completely cleared and restored 63-year-old Army veteran Nick Joyce’s severely overgrown backyard for free, then raised more than $14,000 from viewers and surprised Joyce with both the funds and a fully insured car, aiming to lift him out of isolation and hardship caused by health issues and the loss of transportation.
A viral encounter between TikToker Samuel Weidenhofer and 88-year-old Detroit Army veteran Ed Bambas—who has been working full-time in a grocery store after failing to receive his pension—led to a GoFundMe that shattered its $1 million goal and raised $1.5 million in days, fueled by tens of thousands of donors including a $10,000 gift from William Ackman, with funds being placed into a trust to allow Bambas to retire and a surprise celebration planned as supporters nationwide expressed gratitude and solidarity with the veteran.
Scientists have deployed a network of acoustic sensors across rainforests in Gabon, Congo, and Cameroon and developed a lightweight AI system capable of distinguishing true gunshots from ambient jungle noise, enabling real-time alerts that can pinpoint poachers’ locations so rangers can intervene, with researchers planning to expand the model to identify gun types and other human activity as they work toward a low-cost, open-source global anti-poaching tool.
A Portland nonprofit called Pile of Puppies brings entire litters of puppies to visit chronically or terminally ill children, offering joyful “puppy pile” sessions that temporarily lift spirits; the volunteer-run group has delivered 2,000 visits so far, funded by donations that allow families to gift these moments of comfort and connection.
Romania has achieved a remarkable 94% return rate for plastic, glass, and metal beverage containers just two years after launching its nationwide deposit-return system with RetuRO, transforming one of Europe’s weakest recycling records into one of its best through retailer incentives, consumer deposits, and large-scale reverse-vending infrastructure.
A new Gemini South Telescope image captures the Butterfly Nebula’s spectacular “wings” of glowing hydrogen and oxygen gas—shed by an ultra-hot white dwarf whose 450,000°F surface is sculpting one of the most striking planetary nebula shapes in the sky, chosen by Chilean students for the observatory’s anniversary contest.
A Canadian man who suffered a stroke and major neurological setbacks recovered far more movement and speech in six months using the PoNS tongue-stimulating neuro-modulation device, which boosts the effectiveness of traditional rehab, than he did in four years of standard therapy alone.
A Syrian refugee in Ohio, Hazaa Alabdullah, has gone viral for bringing homemade food every week to his volunteer-run English class, sharing the hospitality he grew up with and uplifting fellow students from around the world with his generosity and warmth.
A large Korean study found that people with restless legs syndrome have roughly double the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, but those treated with dopamine-based therapy show sharply lower and delayed Parkinson’s incidence, highlighting RLS as both a potential early marker and a promising target for early intervention.
Young griffon vultures will soon be reintroduced to Romania’s Carpathian Mountains a century after all native vulture species disappeared, a key step in building a “European Yellowstone” in the Făgăraș range, where conservationists aim to restore a fully functioning ecosystem by returning keystone species like bison, beavers, and vultures, whose scavenging and nutrient cycling roles are essential for ecological balance.
A new study finds that growing up with a pet dog can boost adolescents’ mental health by altering their microbiome, with dog-owning teens showing fewer social problems and possessing oral bacteria linked to prosocial behavior; experiments in mice using microbiota from these teens also increased social and empathetic behaviors, suggesting dogs may influence well-being partly through gut–brain microbial pathways.
Nearly 900 acres bordering Yosemite were returned to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation after 175 years, restoring stewardship of culturally significant Henness Ridge and enabling the tribe to revive traditional ecological practices, strengthen biodiversity, and advance its pursuit of federal recognition while continuing restoration work on land previously damaged by wildfire.
14-year-old Miles Wu won the $25,000 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge after designing an award-winning Miura-ori origami structure that can support more than 10,000 times its own weight, inspired by deployable disaster shelters and tested across dozens of paper types and fold variations, with his work now fueling plans for further innovation and supporting his future education.
The UK has launched a large national trial of a fast, non-invasive breath test designed to detect pancreatic cancer by analyzing volatile organic compounds linked to the disease, a major step toward earlier diagnosis for a cancer usually found at stage 4, with researchers calling it the most significant advance toward a lifesaving breakthrough in 50 years and aiming to refine the technology with data from 6,000 patients across 40 sites.
