Every day the Good Good Good team collects the best good news in the world and shares it with our community. Here are the highlights for this week!
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The Best Positive News We’re Celebrating This Week —
In a medical breakthrough, researchers just got closer to a cure for HIV by finding a way to force the virus out of hiding inside cells
HIV’s ability to conceal itself inside certain white blood cells has been a key challenge in finding a cure. Now, researchers in Australia have found a way to make that “hidden” virus visible, so it can be fully cleared from the body.
The method is based on mRNA technology, which they found can be delivered into cells where HIV is hiding, and then tell the cells to reveal the virus.
“Previously thought impossible,” the results “overwhelmed” researchers, who initially thought they were too good to be true.
Why is this good news? There are nearly 40 million people living with HIV globally, who currently have to take medication for the rest of their lives to suppress the virus and ensure they don’t develop symptoms or transmit it to others. And the virus is still deadly; UNAIDS estimated that one person died of HIV every minute in 2023.
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Rare ‘buffalo bear’ species captured on trail cameras in national park, renewing conservation hopes
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A blind skateboarder created the world’s first adaptive skatepark
Dan Mancina has been a skateboarder since the age of seven, but when he was 13, he was diagnosed with rhinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that rendered him almost completely blind by 22.
After giving up skateboarding for a couple of years, he returned to the sport with a white cane to shred more confidently, learning to find his way with tactile markers like cracks in the asphalt and pre-mapped courses.
Wanting a better experience for fellow visually impaired skateboarders — and those wanting to try out the sport — he created the world’s first adaptive skatepark in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.
The 5,000-square-foot skatepark is completely accessible and welcoming for both seasoned skateboarding enthusiasts and newcomers alike.
A trio of teen scientists just won a $50k prize for the brain-controlled prosthetic leg they designed for their friend
When Texan high schoolers Samuel Skotnikov, Changyoung Kim, and Eeshaan Prashanth found out that their friend Aiden’s prosthetic leg was uncomfortable and difficult to use, they decided to make him a better one.
Their version of a prosthetic leg, NeuroFlex, is powered by the wearer’s brain, not limbs. And it works by translating the wearer’s brain signals through an EEG headband, telling NeuroFlex how the wearer wants to move, and the prosthetic uses its motors to support that movement.
And it’s gone on to both improve Aiden’s life and win them over $50,000 in scholarships.
Even better: Beyond its greater comfort and more precise joint control features, the NeuroFlex is also much more cost-effective compared to other bionic prosthetics on the market.
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CEO invites the world to invest in refugees: ‘Humanity flourishes when people have the tools to succeed’
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French Polynesia created the world’s largest marine protected area
At the U.N. Ocean Conference this week, French Polynesia announced the creation of the world’s largest marine protected area, covering nearly 5 million square kilometers, or over 1.9 million square miles. It also plans to add another 500,000 square kilometers by next World Ocean Day.
Of that area, 1.1 million square kilometers (424,712 square miles) will be designated as highly or fully protected, meaning only traditional coastal fishing, ecotourism, and scientific research are allowed.
Extractive practices like deep-sea mining and bottom trawling — a destructive type of fishing that drags large nets align the sea floor — will be restricted across the entire MPA.
Why is this good news? The ocean is critical to sustaining all life on Earth, and it’s extremely under-protected. Marine protected areas restrict these practices to keep marine ecosystems thriving — supporting all Earth’s ecosystems as a result.
New study finds 75% of people more likely to visit nature if under ‘park prescription’ orders from doctor
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Survival rates from the most common type of childhood cancer have risen dramatically
Before the 1970s, fewer than 10% of children who were diagnosed with leukemia survived for five years after diagnosis — now, in North America and Europe, around 85% survive that long.
In the 1960s, only around 14% of children diagnosed with a specific kind of leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, survived at least five years. The survival rate increased dramatically by the 2010s, with 94% of children surviving at least five years — and longer.
Progress in survival has come from many advances and improvements in treating the disease, with tailored chemotherapy treatments for each patient, targeted radiation, and more.
Eliminating a 200-year-old law, England and Wales are decriminalizing ‘rough sleeping’
Starting next year, rough sleeping — sleeping outside or in places that aren't designed for people to live in, including cars, doorways, and abandoned buildings — will be decriminalized as England and Wales scrap the Vagrancy Act.
The law was first introduced in 1824 to deal with rising homelessness. Calling it “cruel and outdated,” the government’s new plan is to target crimes like organized begging by gangs and trespassing.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said the move would end “nearly two centuries of injustice towards some of the most vulnerable in society.”
Why is this good news? Nobody should be deemed a criminal for sleeping on the street. The only role the government should play in addressing homelessness is improving systems to ensure everyone who wants to be housed can access it.
A ‘no-walls, no-doors’ resort in Bali doubles as a firefly conservatory
Jamaica had its lowest poverty rate on record in 2023
In 2023, Jamaica’s poverty rate fell to a record low of 8.2%, the lowest level since at least 1989, when the data started being recorded. That’s a 50.8% decrease from 2021’s 16.7% poverty rate.
A strong post-pandemic economic rebound is credited with the turnaround, due to factors like increased employment, an 85.7% rise in the national minimum wage, stronger social programs, and more.
Notably, there was also a reduction in “food poverty,” also called extreme poverty, which fell to 2.8% in 2023, down from 5.8% in 2021. Food poverty “refers to the inability of a household to afford the minimum daily caloric intake required for good health.”
A UK startup recycles pet ashes into artificial reefs to save marine life — and human remains are next
United Kingdom-based startup Resting Reef calls its alternative to traditional burial methods “a new tradition around death that truly honors life.”
It takes the ashes of a beloved pet — or soon, human — and combines them with crushed oyster shells and concrete, which is then molded into reef structures in which fish species can thrive.
Their first project placed 24 memorial reefs for pet owners in the United States and U.K. It was a huge success, attracting 84 fish species and achieving fish diversity “14 times greater than nearby degraded areas.”
Why is this good news? Human activity has led to the loss of 85% of oyster reefs, which help regenerate marine ecosystems, prevent coastal erosion, and more. Now, humans (and their beloved pets) can be a part of the solution: their ashes are primarily made up of calcium phosphate, “one of nature’s main fertilizers.”
A middle school student in Miami made it her mission to support teen moms
Mina Boomer overheard some of her classmates speaking judgmentally about teen mothers — and decided to do something about it.
Wanting teen moms “to know they are supported,” she started a donation drive for moms at the C.O.P.E. Center South, a public school in Miami-Dade County that was established in 1968 to help pregnant and parenting teenagers stay in school.
Rather than assuming what they needed, Boomer sent a survey to the students to ask them. Now, her donation drives collect items like diapers and bottles, as well as essentials any teenager would need, like toiletries and makeup.
More good news of the week —
Vatican City is now the eighth country in the world to be powered entirely by solar power. An effort spearheaded by Pope Francis, the world’s smallest country joins Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to generate 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.
The city of Tulsa announced a $105 million reparations plan for descendants of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, the city’s first Black mayor, announced the Greenwood Trust as part of the city’s multi-step “The Road to Repair” plan aimed at healing generational wounds.
In a conservation “success story,” he number of lynx in the Iberian Peninsula increased by 19% last year to over 2,400 total. Iberian lynx conservation projects have been running for over 20 years, helping increase the total number of animals from less than 100 in 2002 to more than 2,000 in 2023 and leading the species to no longer be classified as “at risk” but as “vulnerable” in 2024.
Gardeners in California are planting native species to help restore biodiversity and prevent wildfires. Native flora tends to tolerate drought, making it more resistant to wildfire, whereas many invasive species tend to dry up, becoming kindling during wildfires, which have become more frequent and severe as a result of the climate crisis.
The state of Washington just became the latest to pass a “right to repair” law for cell phones and other electronics. After a years-long effort, the newly signed House Bill 1483 will allow consumers to fix their devices instead of throwing them away and buying new ones.
Volunteers are helping save U.S. climate data that teachers rely on for lesson plans before it’s gone for good. Since President Trump took office in January, some essential climate-related data has been scrubbed from federal agency websites, which not only impacts scientists and farmers, it also disrupts teachers’ lesson planning.
Billionaire Mackenzie Scott has quietly given $181.7 million in grants to help people across the state of Louisiana. Since 2020, Scott has given 50 grants totaling $181.7 million to charities in Louisiana, where half of the state’s households fall above the federal poverty level but still can't afford basic expenses, such as health care and groceries — the highest rate of any state.
Countries in Europe dismantled a record 542 river barriers in 2024 alone, up 11% from the year before. A total of 23 countries removed a river barrier last year, some for the first time as part of a larger effort to honor Europe’s commitment to restoring degrading ecosystems across the continent.
Arizona State University is leading a new sustainable shade program to combat extreme heat. It’s part of a larger, $5 million statewide effort to provide the shade needed to take the edge off the Phoenix metropolitan area’s increasingly hot summers — which saw the hottest temperatures on record last year — while creating new jobs for residents.
🏳️🌈 Gina Ortiz Jones just made history as San Antonio, Texas’s first openly LGBTQ mayor. The Air Force veteran also made history as the first Asian-American female mayor of a major city in Texas and the first female mayor in Texas to have served in a war.
The UK government expanded its free school meals to 500k more of the country’s poorest children. The expansion to the former threshold for qualifying, which hadn’t changed since 2018, will lift 100,000 students out of poverty and give them “the nutrition they need to thrive”.
Maine just passed a bill allowing doctors to remove their names from abortion medication labels. In the state, some doctors were hesitant to prescribe medication in support of reproductive health care due to threats, harassment, and fears of out-of-state lawsuits.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ owner donated $50 million to support a new autism research initiative. The Lurie Autism Institute will work to improve understanding of the genetics and other processes underlying autism, study how behaviors on the spectrum grow and evolve across the lifespan, use AI to analyze data to identify new treatment targets and existing drugs that could be repurposed for autism, and more.
TikTok blocked the viral “skinnytok” hashtag and redirected searches to mental health support resources. The app acknowledged that the viral hashtag had become linked to “unhealthy weight loss content” and advocates celebrated the move, but acknowledged there was still more to do to protect vulnerable people.
Twenty-two young people filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its anti-environment executive orders. They allege that by intentionally boosting oil and gas production and stymying carbon-free energy, federal officials are violating their constitutional rights to life and liberty.
Canadian scientists developed a portable, rapid bedside test that can predict sepsis with over 90% accuracy. Sepsis is the body’s extreme reaction to an infection, causing the immune system to start attacking one’s own organs and tissues, which can lead to organ failure and death if not treated quickly. Current tests can take up to 18 hours and require specialized labs.
Spotify is working with Noah Kahan and Chappell Roan to provide free therapy to small artists. In a first-of-its-kind partnership, major streaming platform Spotify has partnered with Backline, a nonprofit that connects music industry professionals and their families with mental health resources.
In a naturalization ceremony at the Clinton Presidential Library, former President Bill Clinton welcomed 39 new American citizens. The former president told the group, who hailed from 18 different countries, “As a country, we welcome the heritage you bring. Together, we continue to form a more perfect union.”
Scientists discovered a firefly species that hadn’t been seen for 90 years. Making huge waves in the insect community, it was also the first-ever live sighting of the Gombak bent-winged firefly. Overall, climate change, habitat loss, and pesticide use have ushered in the global decline of fireflies, a critical “indicator species.”
The Samoan government established a marine spatial plan to sustainably manage 100% of its ocean by 2030. It also created nine new marine protected areas covering 30% of its ocean, prohibiting fishing and protecting a migration route for humpback whales.
