Good morning everyone, and happy Sunday. As always, this is your Sunday morning good news update. This is the second update this week, following a special edition on New Years Day, because there is simply too much good news not to share. As always, I invite you to comment with one piece of good news from your own week and to share this so others can do the same.
On a personal note, one piece of good news I am incredibly grateful for is that we are nearing the one year anniversary of when I decided to do journalism full-time. At the time, making the decision was terrifying. Today, it has been the most rewarding decision I have ever made.
At a time when some media moves closer to the White House, I am proud to remain fully independent. No one dictates what I report or how I report it. I answer only to you. If you value truly independent journalism, I encourage you to subscribe and help us keep building in the new year. I have big plans ahead, and subscribers will be the first to know. Your support makes this possible.
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Here’s some good news:
At age 80, retired Michigan schoolteacher Betty Kellenberger fulfilled a lifelong dream by completing the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail after years of preparation and multiple failed attempts caused by dehydration, Lyme disease, concussions, serious falls, knee replacement surgery, and hurricane damage to the trail. Returning again and again—often hiking alone and training daily despite limited terrain at home—she ultimately finished the northern and southern sections in 2025, becoming the oldest woman ever to thru-hike the trail and demonstrating that perseverance, adaptability, and determination can overcome age, loss, and repeated setbacks.
An abandoned dog named Aloka, believed to be an Indian Pariah, joined a group of Buddhist monks during a 112-day peace walk across India and remained devoted despite being hit by a car and suffering illness, repeatedly choosing to rejoin the journey even when given rides to rest. Now living with 19 monks from a Buddhist center in Fort Worth, Texas, Aloka is leading a 2,300-mile, 110-day Walk for Peace across 10 U.S. states toward Washington, D.C.
@walkforpeace.usa
Walk for Peace on Instagram: "Day 1 – The First Steps Toward Pe…
Scientists using artificial intelligence have identified two previously unknown biological subtypes of multiple sclerosis, a breakthrough that could transform how the disease is diagnosed and treated by moving beyond symptom-based categories toward personalized care. By analyzing blood biomarkers and MRI scans from hundreds of patients, researchers found one more aggressive form with early nerve damage and another slower-progressing form, raising hopes that doctors can better predict risk, tailor treatments earlier, and improve long-term outcomes for millions of people living with MS worldwide.
While free-diving near a massive sardine bait ball in Mexico’s Magdalena Bay, instructor Emily Marzilli and four other divers experienced a rare, two-minute encounter when a 20–30-ton Bryde’s whale suddenly emerged from cloudy waters during a fish-feeding frenzy, took a huge mouthful of sardines, and vanished just as quickly. Surrounded by circling striped marlin and obscured by foaming water, the divers were left stunned by the unexpected appearance of the baleen whale—an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime wildlife moment that Marzilli described as the kind of interaction divers can only dream of.
Gabriel Golden, born at just 22 weeks gestation in September 2024 and weighing only one pound with hands smaller than his father’s fingertip, defied devastating medical odds by surviving nearly a year in the NICU at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital while battling chronic lung disease, repeated infections, and multiple life-threatening setbacks. After enduring countless emergencies, a tracheostomy, and several moments when his parents were told to say goodbye, Gabriel is now home, developmentally on track with no neurological damage, and thriving despite ongoing respiratory challenges—an outcome his family credits to faith, perseverance, and extraordinary medical care.
As 2026 began, thousands of handwritten wishes expressing hopes for kindness, peace, health, love, and personal growth were released over Times Square as part of the annual New Year’s Eve celebration, mixed into more than 3,000 pounds of confetti dropped at midnight. Collected throughout December via the Times Square Wishing Wall—both in person and online—the messages reflected voices from around the world and symbolized a shared moment of optimism as revelers welcomed the new year beneath a literal shower of collective dreams.
Facing severe drought and desertification across Hungary’s Great Plain, local farmers and volunteers known as the “Water Guardians” devised an innovative solution by redirecting outflow water from the country’s famous thermal baths onto low-lying grasslands to restore wetlands, raise groundwater levels, and revive biodiversity. By flooding a six-acre test field near Kiskunmajsa—water that would otherwise have drained away—the group has already seen measurable improvements in soil moisture, flora, fauna, and the surrounding water table, offering a scalable, nature-based model for combating climate-driven land degradation across the region.
In 1998, award-winning photojournalist Sebastião Salgado and his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado founded Instituto Terra after returning to his father’s cattle ranch and finding the land as devastated as he felt after documenting the Rwandan genocide. Starting with just 100,000 donated seedlings, they spent more than two decades planting over 2.5 million trees, transforming the once-barren landscape into a thriving forest so dense it is now visible from space—a powerful example of ecological restoration driven by perseverance and vision.
Growing international enthusiasm—especially from the US and Europe—for traditional Japanese tatami mats is helping sustain an industry that has been declining at home, where modern flooring and cheaper synthetic alternatives have pushed dozens of artisans out of business each year. Family workshops like Fumio Kuboki’s 280-year-old tatami business and Taro Mano’s Kobe-based shop are seeing renewed demand as Western buyers embrace tatami for its aesthetic, cultural symbolism, and child-friendly practicality.
A Norwegian startup has developed the world’s first full-arm exoskeleton for stroke survivors, a shoulder-mounted device that detects and amplifies tiny residual movements to restore functional use of the shoulder, elbow, and hand for people with partial paralysis. Created by Vilje Bionics and already trialed by 40 users—including stroke survivor Johanne Marie Hemnes, who says it “feels like me again”—the 3D-printed robotic arm is designed to give long-term patients everyday independence, such as cooking and opening bottles, with plans to launch commercially in Norway in early 2026.
After sitting vacant and severely deteriorated for more than 20 years, the modest childhood home of musician and civil rights icon Nina Simone in Tryon, North Carolina has been fully restored through a privately funded effort led by a collective of prominent Black artists and the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Completed in late 2025 after nearly $850,000 in renovations, the preserved home now stands as a living monument to Simone’s legacy and Black cultural history, with plans to open to the public as an arts, education, and community hub—demonstrating how grassroots preservation can safeguard important heritage amid declining public support for race-focused cultural programs.
After falling seriously ill and realizing she was about to miss her flight home due to a taxi mix-up and mental fog caused by a chronic health condition, an Australian woman was unexpectedly helped by a well-dressed stranger who gave up his own taxi, insisted on taking her to the airport first, paid the fare, and personally escorted her inside to ensure she was safe. The brief act of compassion—offered without hesitation or expectation—left a lasting impression, reminding her that empathy from strangers can make a profound difference, especially for people living with invisible illnesses.
Stingless bees in the Amazon rainforest have become the first insects in the world to be granted legal rights, recognizing their right to exist and flourish and setting a groundbreaking precedent for insect and pollinator protection globally. Cultivated by Indigenous peoples since pre-Columbian times and essential to rainforest biodiversity, these gentle, sting-free bees are critical pollinators now under severe threat from climate change, deforestation, pesticides, and competition—making their legal recognition a major step forward for conservation and ecosystem protection.
In the Dominican Republic, marine conservationists are using assisted coral fertilization—similar to in vitro fertilization—to help restore reefs devastated by climate change, creating millions of genetically diverse “coral babies” in laboratories before raising them in underwater nurseries and transplanting them back onto damaged reefs. Led by the nonprofit Fundemar, the program offers new hope in a region where roughly 70% of reefs now have less than 5% coral cover, strengthening biodiversity, coastal protection, fisheries, and tourism while buying time against warming oceans that continue to threaten coral survival worldwide.
See you soon.
— Aaron
