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 —
A new nature preserve in Ohio will protect 3,000 acres of Appalachian foothills
In one of the largest private land protection initiatives in state history, nearly 3,000 acres of forest in the foothills of Appalachian Ohio, and the wildlife that call it home, will be protected and open to the public.
The family that has owned the land for the last century donated it to a local landbank, which will manage it as a nature preserve, protecting wildlife and adding trail markings and parking to make it more accessible and safe for the public.
And with a conservation easement on the land, The Nature Conservancy will ensure the property is protected long-term.
Why is this good news? In Ohio specifically, public lands are limited compared to the rest of the country, with “only about 4.2% public land.” Nature preserves, especially large ones like this, not only protect critical species and ecosystems, but they keep public lands and nature available and accessible to the public — bringing its own wide range of benefits.
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A retired teacher sheltered 18 students fleeing the Colorado school shooting in his home
Last week, a 16-year-old male student opened fire at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, a mountain town near Denver, shooting and injuring two students and himself.
Don Cygan lives about 300 yards from the school and was finishing up lunch when he heard pounding at his door. About seven young men told him what was happening and asked if he’d let them in.
As a retired teacher who taught public school for 25 years, Cygan quickly welcomed them in — along with a second group that followed. His wife, a retired nurse, was also able to help calm the students down, treat them for shock, and comfort them.
Africa has provided school meals to 20 million more children in the past two years
Demonstrating both a shift away from dependence on foreign aid and toward a stronger commitment to education, a new report found that governments in sub-Saharan Africa have provided school meals to approximately 20 million more children over the past two years.
The largest rise in school feeding of any region in the world, 87 million children total received school meals in 2024. Countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda, Madagascar, and Chad all fed six times as many children.
The report also found that local farmers were benefiting from the additional school meals. In Benin, the government’s purchase of local food contributed over $23 million to the economy last year, and more than one-third of Sierra Leone’s school meals came from food from smallholder farmers.
Why is this good news? The entire African continent has been seeing rising numbers of hungry people due to climate change-related extreme weather, armed conflict, and food inflation. A recent report found that one in five Africans was chronically malnourished, news that comes amidst wealthy countries like the U.S. cutting foreign aid.
When kids are hungry, it’s harder for them to learn — all kids deserve to eat at school.
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New beekeeping program helps prison inmates heal through nature: ‘Already producing honey’
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Child poverty has declined globally, with nearly 100 million fewer children living in poverty in the last 10 years
For the past 10 years, child poverty has been steadily declining. In 2024, globally, an estimated 412 million children under the age of 17 lived in extreme poverty, down from an estimated 507 million children in 2014.
Some of the most significant reductions in child poverty have occurred in South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific. In South Asia, extreme poverty declined by more than half in the last decade, and India saw the largest reduction of children living in extreme poverty.
While that’s important progress, areas like sub-Saharan Africa have seen child poverty rates remain about the same over the course of the decade, and other regions have seen child poverty increase, due in part to war and conflict. Progress is possible, and we must continue to work to see fewer children living in poverty.
New York City is turning millions of pounds of food waste into ‘black gold’ to improve the city’s soil health
In many U.S. cities, waste items like watermelon rinds, greasy pizza boxes, and yard trimmings are bound for the landfill — in New York, they become “black gold,” a rich compost used throughout the city to improve soil health.
The Staten Island Compost Facility has long processed landscape waste, but it now also takes in residential organic waste — an average 100 to 150 tons of organic material every single day.
The end product is sold to some landscapers, but the rest is distributed free of charge to residents, schools, and community gardens. The city said it’s given out nearly 6 million pounds to residents so far this year.
Why is this good news? Food scraps and yard waste make up the most volume in household trash, and when they enter a landfill, they generate methane, a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide. When these waste items are composted, not only are those emissions prevented — they help improve soil health, manage stormwater, and keep city greenspaces thriving.
Plus, composting can be daunting for the average individual to manage, so a city-wide service allows people interested to benefit.
Boston is the first US city to plant green roofs on bus stops, and it’s already inspiring other cities to do the same
The Global Fund partnership has saved 70 million lives since 2002
A new report found that the Global Fund partnership has saved 70 million lives since 2002, reducing the combined death rate from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria by 63%.
Last year alone, 25.6 million people were on antiretroviral therapy for HIV, up from 17.5 million in 2017. The Global Fund also joined PEPFAR in committing to reaching 2 million people with the groundbreaking twice-yearly, long-acting injectable drug lenacapavir that showed up to a 100% success rate in preventing new HIV infections.
In 2024, 7.4 million people were treated for TB, with the Global Fund investing over $193 million between 2021 and 2024 in AI-powered TB screening tools in over 20 countries, helping beat TB and more effectively and efficiently use resources.
It also distributed 162 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets to protect families from malaria.
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For the first time, wind and solar power made up over one thirds of Brazil’s electricity generation in a single month
For the first month on record, wind and solar power generated more than a third of Brazil’s electricity in August, accounting for 34% of the country’s electricity generation.
The two clean energy sources produced a record 19 terawatt hours, enough to power 119 million average homes in the country for the month and surpassing the previous record of 18.6 TWh set in September of last year.
Another renewable energy source, hydropower, still generates the bulk of the country’s electricity, providing 48% of electricity in August — just the second month ever that it supplied less than half of Brazil’s power.
Why is this good news? Despite hydropower reaching somewhat historic lows in the country, the decline is not being made up by fossil fuels, but by other renewable energy sources. Wind and solar continue to prove their worth as a reliable, efficient source for countries to supply their power grids.
More than just bags: Vera Bradley pickleball, golf tournaments raise over $40M for breast cancer research
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An eight-time Grammy winner donated $1 million to a shop that repairs students’ instruments for free
The subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Last Repair Shop,” a facility in Los Angeles is one of the last publicly funded repair shops for musical instruments in the country. It provides free instruments and repairs to students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where 80% of students come from low-income backgrounds.
The facility just received a $1 million donation from eight-time Grammy winning musician, producer, and philanthropist Herb Alpert — who got his start playing trumpet in the LAUSD.
The facility helps ensure students have equitable access to high-quality instruments — and the costly repairs that often come with them. With so many facilities like it closing down around the country, Alpert wanted to make sure this essential part of the district’s music program could continue its vital work.
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One week after the Evergreen High School shooting, hundreds of Denver-area high school students protested to demand action against gun violence
One week after two students were wounded in a shooting at the Denver-area Evergreen High School, more than 200 students from schools around the city rallied at and marched around the Colorado State Capitol building to demand change.
Students wore “Students Demand Action” shirts and held signs with phrases like “we stand with Evergreen” and “no more silence, end gun violence.”
There were also multiple school walkouts planned at other schools across the state, including at Columbine High School, that occurred exactly one week, down to the minute, from the start of the shooting at Evergreen.
Why is this good news? Some of the students who participated in this protest said they’d been demanding action for years — they deserve to attend school and learn in safety. Their unwillingness to give up the fight for a better, safer future for themselves and future students is inspiring — and one we should all join in on.
This former Iraqi military site used to hold 45M tons of waste — now, it’s being transformed into a massive ‘urban forest’
In August, global electric vehicle sales increased 5% month-over-month and 15% year-over-year
In August 2025, 1.7 million electric vehicles were sold globally, including 1.16 million Battery Electric Vehicles and 0.57 million Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. That represents a 5% increase over sales in July 2025, and a 15% increase over August last year.
It also brings the total number of global EV sales to 12.5 million cars in the first eight months of the year, a 25% increase over the same time period last year.
Notably, the North American market — the U.S., Canada, and Mexico — reached a record monthly high with sales up 6% year to date. This comes as U.S. consumers take advantage of tax credits set to expire in September.
More good news of the week —
Researchers just discovered a new way to build an EV battery that makes it easy to break apart and recycle. As the demand for electric vehicles soars, there’s a looming concern for industry experts: figuring out the best way to repurpose the several-hundred-pound batteries that power these vehicles — and MIT researchers just had a breakthrough.
Handling large-scale cruelty cases, a nonprofit has rescued 10,000 neglected and abused animals. Recognizing that organizations and law enforcement agencies lacked the resources to address large-scale cruelty cases, Tim Woodward co-founded Animal Rescue Corps to make sure the animals affected weren’t left behind.
After years of work, researchers have bred the endangered red and yellow mountain frog for the first time. Seven of the tiny frogs were released into the wild in Australia, and more releases are expected in the future as scientists continue to monitor the frogs to determine the success of the release program.
To help tackle the state’s educator shortages, New Jersey is giving teachers student loan relief. Almost 170 public school teachers are currently participating in the New Jersey Teacher Loan Redemption Program that offers student loan redemption in exchange for up to four years of service.
Former Chicago Cubs player and cancer survivor Anthony Rizzo retired from baseball wearing a jersey signed by cancer patients. Rizzo is a Hodgkin lymphoma survivor and 2017 Roberto Clemente Award winner for community service, and the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation has raised funds for cancer research and support for patients’ families.
Lawmakers in California are working on a $23 billion plan to restore funding for scientific research. They want to create a state-level equivalent of the National Institutes of Health, but the plan would need to be approved by other state lawmakers and voters.
Researchers in Brazil presented a groundbreaking new drug that can reverse spinal cord injuries. During the experimental phase of the antidote, which is applied directly to the spine, patients experienced full recovery of their conditions, with no aftereffects and resuming a routine without restrictions.
Following negotiations between member states, the EU officially introduced binding 30% reduction targets on food waste. The EU wastes almost 60 million tons of food annually, at an estimated loss of $155 billion, which has a significant climate impact, generating about 16% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food system.
Trader Joe’s donates 100% of its unsold products everyday — it donated 98 million pounds of food last year alone. In 2024, the then-579 stores nationwide donated the tens of millions of pounds of products to more than 2,000 partners on a daily basis.
A privately funded national civil rights museum in Atlanta is expanding its exhibits at a critical time in history. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights’ nearly $60 million renovation adds six new galleries as well as classrooms and interactive experiences, creating a space where people are encouraged to take action supporting civil and human rights, racial justice, and the future of democracy.
Researchers created a miniaturized microscope for real-time, high-resolution, non-invasive imaging of brain activity in mice. The first-of-its-kind imaging system will advance insights into how the brain works, which is expected to benefit human health by empowering the development of new and improved therapeutic strategies for brain disorders.
Canada announced a new federal agency dedicated to building affordable housing. In an effort to help solve the country’s housing crisis, the agency will be supported by an an initial $9.39 billion investment and help reduce upfront costs and leverage public lands for housing.
A rare, endangered night parrot that was thought to be extinct was rediscovered after 100 years of no sightings. A focused effort in Australia also sought to assess the bird’s habitat for threats so that it could better protect the species.
A beneficial bacterial probiotic is helping mitigate disease spread in Florida’s coral reefs. Scientists have previously tested the bacterial probiotic on adult corals, but now have published research on how this probiotic could limit disease spread in young corals, too.
A new study found that an ultrasound “helmet” could provide non-invasive treatment for Parkinson’s. The device can target brain regions 1,000 times smaller than ultrasound can, and could replace existing approaches in treating Parkinson’s disease, and even have potential for conditions such as depression, Tourette syndrome, chronic pain, Alzheimer’s, and addiction.
A Pittsburgh-area animal rescue installed a 24/7 microchip scanner to make it easier for lost pets to reunite with their owners. The microchip reader has step-by-step instructions, and after scanning the pet and finding the microchip, you can search it in a nationwide registry, which connects you to the microchip company and ultimately the owners.
Google partnered with a U.K. nonprofit to detect and remove nonconsensual intimate images from Search. The massive search engine will start using StopNCII, which helps adults prevent their private images from being shared online by creating a unique identifier, or hash, representing their intimate imagery.
Tufts University announced it will start providing free tuition for U.S. families earning less than $150,000 annually. One of the few universities committed to meeting 100% of the demonstrated financial need for all students, the new policy aims to ensure that the university is accessible to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
Dozens of celebrities took the stage in London for a “Together for Palestine” fundraising concert. Held at Wembley Arena, the event included performances from Bastille, James Blake, and Palestinian artists, as well as appearances from actors like Florence Pugh and Nicola Coughlan, footballer Eric Cantona, and more.
A Boston church unveiled a monument to the more than 200 slaves once held by members of the congregation. The historic King’s Chapel is located along the city’s Freedom Trail, a red-brick path through the city that visits key sites in America’s revolutionary history.
