Good morning, everyone. I want to begin today with our good news update. This Sunday tradition matters. In a world that can feel overwhelming and loud, choosing to pause and recognize what is good is not naive, it is necessary. There is more light out there than we are often shown, and we are going to keep making space for it here. I will also have a full news update for you later this afternoon.
I would love for you to share one piece of good news from your own life in the comments. Big or small. Personal or professional. Let’s keep building a community that not only stays informed, but also lifts each other up.
As for me, my good news is simple and perfect. Snow is on the way to D.C., which I absolutely love, and today I am hosting a surprise party for my wife. Nothing extravagant, just something thoughtful and joyful. That counts as very good news in my book.
Thank you to everyone who supports this work with your time, your trust, and your heart. If you are able, please consider subscribing. Your support helps us grow a community rooted in truth, accountability, and optimism, and ensures we can keep showing up here together week after week.
Here’s some good news:
- A six month old Japanese macaque named Punch at Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan has gone viral for carrying an emotional support orangutan plush toy after being abandoned by his mother, with fans rallying behind him through the hashtag HangInTherePunch and Ikea donating additional toys to support his adjustment to the troop.
- Since 2022, Fort McMurray, Alberta has expanded a restorative justice program from youth to adults that requires offenders to admit fault and face their victims; among 115 participants only one reoffended, with cases like a teen avoiding a criminal record after assaulting his brother showing how accountability, forgiveness, and community involvement have significantly reduced recidivism and strengthened local healing.
- MIT researchers developed a multi-material 3D-printing platform that can fabricate a fully functional electric linear motor in about three hours using five materials costing roughly 50 cents, overcoming major engineering challenges to integrate conductive and magnetic materials in one seamless process—potentially enabling fast, low-cost, onsite production of customizable electronic components without relying on global supply chains.
- This good news item was submitted by one of you! For the 32nd year in a row, Tourette Syndrome Camp USA will host its one-week residential camp (June 21–27, 2026) at YMCA Camp Duncan in Ingleside, Illinois, for children ages 8–16 with Tourette Syndrome and/or OCD, providing a fun, supportive environment where kids can be themselves—no family is ever turned away for inability to pay.
- Rouble Nagi won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize for building more than 800 open air learning centers across over 100 slums and villages in India, designing flexible, art driven education programs that have helped bring over one million marginalized children into school, reduced dropout rates by more than 50 percent, trained 600 educators, and will now fund a free vocational and digital literacy institute to expand her impact.
- A chair volleyball program between Lake Belton High School athletes and seniors at Woodland Cottages in Texas has grown into an ongoing intergenerational friendship that boosts physical activity, social connection, school spirit, and mutual support, with students and residents regularly attending each other’s events, exchanging encouragement, and expanding the program to other teams in the community.
- A four week old giraffe calf named Eugene, born at the Toledo Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio to first time mother Lily, has become a social media favorite for his distinctive tuft of hair, charming visitors as he bonds with the herd and prepares for his outdoor debut in the spring.
- For the first time in more than 180 years, 158 juvenile Floreana lineage giant tortoises have been released on Floreana Island as part of a 15 year science driven restoration effort, aiming to rebuild ecosystems, restore lost ecological functions, and support both biodiversity and the local community in what is now the largest ecological restoration project ever undertaken in the Galápagos.
- Scientists have discovered and identified a new inland species of fish eating dinosaur, Spinosaurus mirabilis, in the Sahara Desert, a 95 million year old scimitar crested predator found more than 600 miles from the ancient sea, marking the first clear evidence of its kind in over a century and reshaping understanding of spinosaur evolution and habitat.
- A five year old spaniel named Aggie was rescued by the Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team after falling through a snow cornice near the summit of Fionn Bheinn in the Scottish Highlands, surviving a freezing night 3,000 feet up before being safely lowered to by rope in a dramatic reversal of the usual mountain rescue story.
- After weeks of surveillance following a burglary that netted about $81,000 worth of Buddhist artifacts, including two 12 inch Buddha statues, Bangkok police disguised themselves as traditional lion dancers during Lunar New Year festivities at a local temple, blending into the celebration before moving in under the costume to tackle and arrest a 33 year old repeat offender suspected of the theft.
- Inspired by Bob Gravedigger, a loyal orange dog who lived beside his owner’s grave in São Paulo for 10 years and comforted mourners until his death in 2021, Brazil’s São Paulo state passed the Bob Coveiro Law allowing cats and dogs to be buried in family cemetery plots alongside their owners, recognizing pets as family members and honoring the deep bond between people and their animals.
- On February 28, skywatchers can witness a rare planetary alignment as Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune cluster along the ecliptic plane shortly after sunset in the western sky, with four visible to the naked eye and the full grouping not appearing this close together again until 2040.
- A Renewable Energy Association report finds that under the government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, renewables will become cheaper than gas by 2028–29 even after system costs, while potentially creating nearly 145,000 jobs and delivering growing economic benefits.
- A comprehensive new archaeological survey in Armenia has shed light on the purpose of the 6,000 year old dragon stones known as vishaps, massive 3 to 8 ton Neolithic monuments carved with fish and cowhide imagery, concluding they were likely tied to an ancient water cult and early irrigation systems, marking springs and snowmelt channels that sustained mountain communities for millennia.
- A fashion graduate in England is helping a charity thrift shop that supports Derian House Children’s Hospice by redesigning piles of unsellable donated clothes into high value bespoke pieces, reducing landfill waste, attracting new customers, and turning excess “rags” into much needed funding for the hospice’s £6 million annual operating costs.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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