👋 Happy Friday, and happy almost-Fourth!

Tomorrow's the Fourth and the AAA says a record 72.2 million of us are on the road or in the air for the holiday this weekend – so if that's you, we're hoping for a smooth ride and a completely headache-free day.

This week, we’ve got:

Let’s jump right in👇

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It’s not all doom and gloom out there. Here’s some positive news items from publications around the world.

⛑️ Venezuela | Security Guard Pulled Alive From Rubble After Eight Days Trapped
Rescuers pulled security guard Hernán Gil alive from a collapsed Venezuela mall on Thursday, eight days after the country's twin earthquakes buried him under 140 tonnes of rubble. His concrete guard booth held just enough space for him to survive while teams from seven countries tunneled in and fed him water through a narrow shaft. He miraculously emerged with barely a scratch.
(Read more 👉 BBC)

Ways to Help
Search and rescue is still underway, and the need will stretch long after this week's headlines move on. If you'd like to help:

🐶 California | Teen Jumps Into Harbor to Save a Drowning Dog Named George
Fifteen-year-old Mateo Akerman was hanging out with friends on Balboa Island when he spotted a dog wandering too close to traffic – then watched him jump straight into the harbor. Akerman swam out, towed the exhausted pup back to shore, and stuck around with his friends until George's family showed up.
(Read more 👉 Happilynews.com)

💍 Hawaii | Ring Lost at Sea for 50 Years Returned to a Navy Widow by Five Kids
Five eighth graders on a camping trip stumbled onto a solid gold U.S. Naval Academy ring wedged in the reef rocks near Camp Naue – the same ring a Navy captain lost to a rogue wave back in the 1970s. A little internet sleuthing, an obituary, and a text later, the boys were on speakerphone with the captain's 84-year-old widow in New Hampshire, who remembered exactly how it happened. Peggy is now reunited with her late husband’s ring.
(Read more 👉 The Garden Island)

👗 France | Landmark Law Cracks Down on Ultra-Fast Fashion Giants Like Shein
French lawmakers gave final approval to a bill targeting "ultra-fast fashion" platforms like Shein and Temu, adding environmental fees on the cheapest, highest-volume items and banning influencer ads for the brands. France becomes the first major European country to pass this kind of law, aimed at slowing one of the most polluting corners of the textile industry.
(Read more 👉 France 24)

🐢 North Carolina | Endangered Leatherback Turtles Smash Nesting Record on the Outer Banks
Four leatherback sea turtle nests have shown up on Cape Hatteras beaches this year – the most since monitoring began in the 1980s, and more than the previous decade combined. Leatherbacks, the largest sea turtles alive, rarely nest this far north, which makes every single one a small miracle for the endangered species.
(Read more 👉 Island Free Press)

🐠 Worldwide | Scientists Discover Over 1,100 New Marine Species in a Single Year
The Ocean Census Alliance spent a year combing through 13 expeditions, museum backlogs, and old research collections to formally identify 1,121 brand-new marine species, a 54% jump from the year before. Highlights include a glass sponge that houses a bioluminescent worm inside it, and a striped worm scientists think could hold clues for treating Alzheimer's.
(Read more 👉 Scientific American)

💉 England | HPV Vaccine Drives Cervical Cancer Deaths to Zero for an Entire Generation
New research out of Queen Mary University of London found that women who got the HPV vaccine as kids have almost entirely stopped dying of cervical cancer. Health authorities in England recorded zero deaths in the 20-24 age group between 2020 and 2024 - a first. Researchers estimate the vaccine, which is also standard for adolescents here in the U.S., has already prevented around 200 deaths and counting.
(Read more 👉 Queen Mary University of London)

💛 USA | New Campaign Challenges Americans to Complete 250 Million Acts of Kindness
A new campaign called United States of Kindness is challenging every American to complete 250 acts of kindness in 2026 – one for each year since independence – with a goal of reaching 250 million acts nationwide by the country's 250th birthday. Big or small, thoughtful or spontaneous, they all count.
(Read more 👉 United States of Kindness)

🦏 Mozambique | National Park Rebuilds Rhino Population From Scratch After Decades of War
Nine female white rhinos arrived at Zinave National Park this month, capping off a decade-long effort to rebuild a breeding population in a park that lost virtually all its wildlife to civil war. Zinave now has more than 60 rhinos, two rhino calves born on-site, and grass short enough to keep wildfires from spreading.
(Read more 👉 Mongabay)

Feel good stories from Happilynews.com guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Sean Reavie has one rule that matters more than any other - never break a promise to a kid.

That rule got tested three days before summer break, when the funding for Greenway Middle School's end-of-summer field trip fell through. Without it, more than 100 students in the "After the Bell" program were about to lose their last big outing of the year – a trip to see "Toy Story 5."

Program coordinator Katie Jenkins made one phone call. And Reavie, the school's resource officer, didn't hesitate.

Greenway is a Title I school in Phoenix, where most families qualify as low-income, and Reavie has spent two decades learning what his students have to deal with that other people don't see. Some don't have a car at home. Some have parents working multiple jobs just to cover the basics. Plenty had never been inside a movie theater at all.

So he asked Jenkins how much she needed and handed it over on the spot – just under $2,000, enough to rent out all 144 seats at Harkins Scottsdale. On Wednesday afternoon, buses pulled up outside a theater reserved entirely for them, with popcorn, candy, and drinks all covered.

This wasn't the first time Reavie had quietly closed a gap nobody else could. Last year, he spent more than $3,000 of his own money taking students to Hurricane Harbor. He's since founded a charity, Put On The Cape, built around exactly that kind of showing up.

Before the lights dimmed and Woody and Buzz took the screen, Reavie asked his students for the only thing he wanted in return.

"As you get older in life, help other people, as a payback to me," he told them. "Would you do that? That's all I ask."

Nobody had to answer out loud. A theater full of kids who'd just gotten their first movieand proof that someone was paying attention – that's an answer that tends to outlast the credits.

A unique, sometimes quirky, but always eye-catching photo feature each week.

This lumpy leather sphere looks like something you'd trip over in a garage sale - and immediately ignore. But it’s actually the world's oldest soccer/football (delete as appropriate depending on your location!), pulled from behind a wall panel at Stirling Castle in Scotland during the late 1970s, hidden there sometime in the 1540s.

That's the same decade a young Mary, Queen of Scots was living in the rooms next door – and historical records confirm she loved sports, including soccer/football. Coincidence? Nobody's certain, but it's hard not to wonder.

Inside the ball is an inflated pig's bladder, topped up with air whenever it went soft. The leather panels were stitched together, then turned inside out for a smoother roll. You can still see repair stitching on the surface.

Smileworthy is free, ad-free, and reader-powered – and we'd love to keep it that way. We started this on a simple belief: there isn't a good news shortage, there's a good news discoverability problem. Every way you pitch in below helps us shine a light on the good stuff actually happening out there.

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The 30-Second Body Check

Before you make your next big decision, try this: pause, close your eyes, and scan your body for 30 seconds. Notice where you're tense, where you're relaxed, where something just feels "off."

A study in the European Journal of Psychology found that people who regularly practice this kind of self-connection – noticing their physical and emotional state and actually acting on it – report higher self-esteem, vitality, and overall wellbeing than people who just think their way through decisions.

It sounds too simple to matter. But your body usually knows what it thinks before your brain catches up.

The inventor of the can opener was born 48 years after the tin can was invented. For nearly half a century, people opened cans with knives, chisels, and brute force.

1937 The world’s first emergency call telephone service is launched in London using the number 999

1941 Howard Florey and Norman Heatley meet for the first time and successfully recreate penicillin

1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes the US Senate after a 60-working-day filibuster by Southern senators

2005 10 Live 8 concerts held around the world organised by Bob Geldof to raise awareness of poverty

Feel-good clips are scientifically linked to better mood - consier this your weekend prescription!

Before nap time, an Oklahoma daycare sat its kids down and asked one simple question: what does your mom or dad do all day? Turns out four-year-olds have some wildly confident, but also wildly wrong answers.

That’s it for this week. If you liked what you read, why not buy the team a coffee? We’re fuelled by caffeine and a thirst for sharing the most uplifting, positive stories with you, our beloved readers.

And don’t forget to share with your friends and family to brighten their day, too.

Have a great weekend!

~ Team Happily 😊