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Major Good News Update to Start 2026!!

Aaron Parnas Jan 1

Good morning everyone and happy New Year. This is our first update of 2026, and there is no better way to kick off a new year than with a feed full of good news. We are starting 2026 on a positive note, and that is exactly what you will find here. Stories of real heroism, meaningful medical breakthroughs, and reminders that progress is happening all around us.

I want this to be interactive. Please comment with one piece of good news that happened to you recently or share one New Year’s resolution you are setting for 2026. Then pass this along so others can do the same and help spread the momentum.

My resolution for this year is clear and ambitious. We are going to double our 2025 output, build a larger and stronger team in 2026, and continue pushing the boundaries of what independent media can be.

If you believe in that mission, subscribe today. Your support helps us start the year strong and keeps this journey moving forward. I am excited for what is ahead. See you soon.

Here’s some good news:

• In Atlanta, Crescent City Kitchen continued its community support beyond the government SNAP shutdown by hosting a Christmas “Santa’s Workshop” giveaway in which co-owner Crystal Drakes provided 100 handpicked families with free meals, cleaning and hygiene supplies, household necessities, and gifts for children—including toys, bikes, and electronics—reflecting her personal empathy as a single mother and her commitment to positively impact families facing hardship.

• A chance act of Christmas kindness in Cardiff turned into a lifelong bond when Rob and Dianne Parsons invited Ronnie Lockwood, an autistic and formerly homeless man, into their home, where he lived as part of the family for 45 years, contributed deeply to their children and community, and was later honored with a community wellbeing center named after him following his death.

• In Ohio, quick-thinking siblings Catrina and her older brother Charlie helped save their school bus driver during a medical emergency by calmly recognizing distress, using the bus radio to alert Crestview Local Schools, and coordinating help with another student who called 911—actions praised by Superintendent Jim Grubbs as outstanding examples of courage, clear communication, and teamwork.

• Researchers at University of British Columbia Okanagan identified the key plant enzymes that create mitraphylline, a rare anti-cancer compound found in trace amounts in tropical plants, a breakthrough led by Thu-Thuy Dang and Tuan-Anh Nguyen that could enable greener, scalable production of powerful new cancer and anti-inflammatory medicines.

• Young salmon have been recorded spawning again in England’s River Mersey, River Goyt, and River Bollin for the first time in a decade—an encouraging sign of ecological recovery after decades of industrial pollution—prompting environmental authorities to plan new studies, with experts from United Utilities telling the BBC that once-dead river stretches now support thriving ecosystems, particularly around the Mersey as it flows past Liverpool, which has become one of the UK’s cleanest and most biodiverse major rivers.

• Lifelong friends Pat DeReamer and Mary Wheaton have exchanged the same birthday card back and forth every year since 1944, a tradition now spanning 81 years that earned a Guinness World Record and continues to mark both women’s birthdays well into their 90s.

• A lost grey seal pup was rescued after swimming about 20 miles up the River Bure in Norfolk and becoming tangled in a fisherman’s net, after which the underweight pup, later named Sunshine, was taken to an RSPCA shelter and is now recovering, with rescuers believing it likely strayed from the major seal colony near Sea Palling and Horsey Gap.

• A Chinese university has begun installing the world’s most powerful gravity centrifuge, CHIEF1900, at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, enabling scientists to expose scale models weighing up to 20 tons to forces of up to 300 times Earth’s gravity to safely test dams, railways, spacecraft, and long-term environmental processes in days rather than centuries, while also fostering international research collaboration and the potential discovery of new physical phenomena.

• Restoration work at the Villa di Poppea near Pompeii has revealed vividly preserved frescoes—including peacocks and the comic theater figure Pappus—in a newly named “Hall of the Peacock,” along with evidence of an ornamental garden layout, shedding new light on the luxury residence believed to belong to Poppaea Sabina, wife of Nero, which was buried in Oplontis by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, according to researchers from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

• Following nearly a decade of invasive-species eradication on Floreana Island, conservation teams working with the Galapagos National Park Directorate confirmed the return of the Galapagos rail, unseen there for 200 years, alongside rebounds of other native wildlife—an outcome hailed by scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation and reported by the BBC as a powerful sign that restoring ecological balance can revive species once thought locally extinct, echoing the legacy of Charles Darwin.

• Graham Walker, CEO of family-owned Fibrebond, set aside 15% of the company’s $1.7 billion sale to Eaton to give roughly $240 million in bonuses to 540 employees, rewarding them for decades of shared success.

• A rare fisher, a native North American mammal not seen in the Cleveland area since the 1800s, was captured on a trail camera by Cleveland Metroparks, marking the species’ first recorded appearance in Cuyahoga County and highlighting the success of long-term conservation efforts in northeast Ohio.

• Sonia Lewis, whose college plans were once saved when administrators at Bodine International Affairs High School redirected scholarships to support her during a family medical crisis, returned 20 years later to repay the kindness by covering the full senior-year costs for the school’s graduating class, completing a full-circle act of gratitude.

• Travel writer Rick Steves bought the land beneath the Lynnwood Hygiene Center for $2.25 million, saving the center from closure and ensuring continued access to showers, laundry, meals, and basic medical care for people experiencing homelessness, with additional funds pledged for expansion.

See you this afternoon.

— Aaron