California farmworkers rescued 20+ children from burning school bus, preventing tragedy before vehicle exploded.
By Aaron Parnas•November 9, 2025•7 min read
Good News
Good morning, everyone. As tradition holds, we start every Sunday with one rule: good news only. In a world drowning in chaos and static, it can be easy to forget that light still cuts through. But it does. Real, solid, encouraging good still exists, and it deserves our full attention. That is why we gather here. To remind ourselves that hope is not a myth, that truth still carries weight, and that good news still has a home.
Here is mine: This week I spoke with a woman who runs focus groups across the country. She recently held one in Chicago with 100 people spanning every age, party, and profession. They disagreed on nearly everything except one thing: every single one of them watches our coverage and appreciates it. One hundred strangers, one point of agreement. That is how far our work is reaching. And yes, meeting President Obama this week was a pretty great moment too.
Two farmworkers in Madera County, California — Angel Zarco and Carlos Perea — were hailed as heroes after rescuing more than 20 children from a burning school bus, quickly alerting the driver, helping evacuate all the students to safety before the bus exploded, and being honored by local officials for their bravery and swift action.
A college student surprised his Iranian friend by baking her a beloved pastry from home after she mentioned missing it once, leading to an emotional reunion with a childhood flavor, a viral video, and a wave of praise for the simple, thoughtful act of friendship.
After seeing more people eating from his restaurant’s dumpster, a Minnesota pizzeria owner publicly offered free hot meals to anyone in need, sparking community support, donations, and help for nearly 100 people, driven by his belief that no one should have to choose between hunger and digging through trash.
New WHO data shows global polio cases have fallen by more than 99 percent since the 1990s, dropping from 350,000 children paralyzed each year to about 50, thanks to widespread vaccination, though experts warn that slipping immunization rates and access barriers in places like Afghanistan threaten progress and call for a final push to eradicate the disease.
A new global study shows maternal deaths have dropped by 41 percent since 2000 thanks to major improvements in maternity care and wider access to contraception, though the WHO says far more must be done to ensure every woman has the ability to plan her family and receive safe, high-quality care during pregnancy and childbirth.
Eleanor and Lyle Gittens of Miami, now 107 and 108, were confirmed as the world’s longest-married couple after 83 years together, a bond they say endures simply because they genuinely love one another, a devotion that carried them through wartime separation, early hardships, long careers, and a lifetime of shared adventures from New York to the Caribbean.
Madrid has begun real-world testing of a small, fully autonomous electric bus that glides around Casa de Campo park on a fixed loop, offering a glimpse of how cities might ease driver shortages and reduce congestion with compact, carefully engineered vehicles that can detect everything from cyclists to wandering dogs while a human safety officer rides along as backup.
A new 450-foot French cargo vessel, the Neoliner Origin, completed its first transatlantic voyage using modernized sails and retractable carbon-fiber masts, cutting emissions by about 80 percent while carrying cars and luxury goods, showing that large-scale, low-carbon, wind-powered shipping is now a practical and scalable alternative to fuel-heavy cargo ships.
An English woman who spent decades searching for her biological father finally located him after placing a small ad in a local newspaper, which led to an emotional reunion more than 40 years later and the unexpected revelation that he had fathered 12 children, giving her 11 previously unknown siblings spread across multiple countries with whom she is now building relationships.
A major study of more than 10,800 adults over 70 found that regularly listening to or playing music is tied to a dramatic drop in dementia risk, with frequent listeners showing a 39 percent lower chance of developing the disease and instrument players showing a 35 percent reduction; the research also links music habits to better memory, stronger overall cognition, and a reduced likelihood of cognitive impairment.
A polar bear named Henry at the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat in Ontario delighted staff and viewers after cautiously investigating and then joyfully devouring a donated 1,400-pound pumpkin, a surprise gift discovered by chance on a highway and delivered to the sanctuary, where the enormous treat left him happily stuffed and snoozing.
A long-missing 1906 painting by Danish artist Bertha Wegmann, stolen during World War II from what is now Wroclaw, Poland, resurfaced at a Danish auction after 70 years and was generously returned by the unsuspecting inheritors, allowing Poland to reclaim and prepare the artwork for display as part of its ongoing effort to recover thousands of looted cultural treasures.
Once the world’s rarest deer with only 39 surviving animals, China’s Père David’s deer has made a stunning comeback to more than 8,200 after being reintroduced in the 1980s from a British aristocrat’s private herd, and now roams multiple protected reserves as conservationists prepare for future releases into truly wild habitats.
A phase 3 clinical trial found that a simple skin patch delivering tiny doses of peanut protein helped toddlers steadily build tolerance over three years, with more than 70 percent eventually able to handle the equivalent of several peanut kernels and with no treatment-related anaphylaxis.
Finland is expanding a successful daycare “rewilding” experiment nationwide after research showed that replacing sterile play yards with forest soil, plants, and natural materials strengthens children’s immune systems by diversifying their microbiomes, prompting a major 43-daycare study that could reduce allergies and immune-related diseases across the country.
Once hunted to extinction in the wild, China’s Père David’s deer has made a stunning comeback after reintroduction efforts began in 1985 with just 39 animals donated from the UK; today, the population has grown to more than 8,200 across multiple protected reserves, marking one of the world’s most successful wildlife recovery stories.
A photographer in Shropshire, England captured vivid autumn photos of great tits and greenfinches plucking sunflower seeds straight from fading sunflowers outside his kitchen window, creating a striking, natural scene filled with rich seasonal color and lively bird activity.
The European Southern Observatory’s new 4-meter Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) in Chile has captured its first data, using over 2,400 optical fibers to analyze 2,400 celestial objects every 20 minutes and break their light into 18,000 color components—allowing scientists to determine the composition, temperature, and motion of millions of stars and galaxies across the southern sky.
A deep-sea expedition near Antarctica has identified 30 previously unknown species — including a striking new carnivorous “death-ball sponge” covered in microscopic hooks — thanks to a fast-track species-verification system that allowed scientists to confirm discoveries within months and highlighted how much of the Southern Ocean’s biodiversity remains unexplored.
Archaeologists working at Murayghat in Jordan have uncovered a 5,500-year-old ritual landscape—featuring standing stones, more than 95 dolmens, and roofless megalithic structures—suggesting that after a period of environmental and social crisis, early communities abandoned household-based symbolism and began gathering at this hilltop site for communal ceremonies, feasting, and new forms of social and spiritual organization.
