• The global rate of road traffic deaths declined by 21% between 2011 and 2025. WHO.
• 14 million less people were affected by hunger in 2025 than 2024. World Food Programme.
• Ghana pulled nearly a million people out of poverty in a single year. Citi Newsroom.
• Deaths due to ischemic heart disease — when coronary arteries are blocked — fell by more than half from 1990 to 2023 in the United States. STAT.
• After more than 40 years of planting trees, China has preserved a cumulative afforested area of 320,000 sq km — roughly equivalent to the size of Italy, increasing forest coverage from 5.05 percent in 1977 to 13.57 percent today. China Daily.
• Amazon deforestation falls to 10-year low in first half of 2026. Mongabay.
• Rooftop solar saved New England ratepayers more than $130 million in electricity costs during the July heat wave. Good Good Good.
• Once endangered, Australia’s numbat is making a hopeful recovery. Mongabay.
• For decades there were rumors of ghost elephants in Angola. This explorer found them. The Journal of African Elephants.

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• 51 million lives in Africa have been saved over the past five decades by vaccination. WHO.
• Since 1987, countries classified as low-income has declined from 30% to 11%. World Bank Blogs.
• The teen birth rate in the United States was 11.7 births per 1,000 girls in 2025. By contrast, the teen birth rate in 1991 was 61.8 births per 1,000. NPR.
• America’s teens are now drinking, smoking, and fighting less. An American teenager today is now about a third less likely than a 1990’s-era teenager to die. Vox.
• Heat pumps may soon outsell air conditioners in US. Canary Media.
• Solar is set to oust coal as the leading generator of electricity within six years. BloombergNEF.
• The humpback whale population in Rio has jumped from around 2,000 to around 35,000 in approximately 40 years, close to their population before whaling. AP.
• A new Gobi Desert plant keeps generating eight hours after sunset, without batteries. Tech Times.
• A scroll sealed since the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, has been virtually unwrapped and read from beginning to end. Vesuvius Challenge.
• A second grader wanted to know if his pet caterpillar would remember him. His experiment shocked scientists. Good Good Good.
• Astronomers directly detected an atmosphere around LHS 1140 b, a rocky planet 48 light-years away that sits squarely in its star’s habitable zone: the “Goldilocks” band where liquid water can exist. New York Times.

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• Opioid deaths in Canada dropped 23% in 2025. CBC.
• New Orleans man becomes first in Louisiana functionally cured of sickle cell disease. WAFB.
• Data collected from 132 countries reveal that global blood collections increased by nearly 19% between 2013 and 2023. Voluntary, unpaid donors accounted for over 85% of the estimated 120 million blood donations received in 2023. Mirage.
• By 1850, Massachusetts had been stripped to perhaps 10% forest; today it is 60% wooded. Perhaps the “greatest forest recovery in the history of the world.” Inside Climate News.
• 35 years ago, fewer than 800 alewives, a type of fish, were making this trip up the Sebasticook River. Last year, they numbered 9 million. Inside Climate News.
• Renewables covered record 58% of German electricity consumption in first half of 2026. Clean Energy Wire.
• This new reactor system converts plastic waste into sustainable jet fuel with promising economics. Tech Radar.

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• New tiny home village will house the homeless with $300 monthly rent and free healthcare. Good Good Good.
• In Brazil, nearly 656,000 teens gave birth in 1996. In 2025, that figure had plummeted to around 276,000—a 58 percent drop in under three decades. Rewire News Group.
• Scientists identify 64,000 sq miles of coral reef capable of surviving climate crisis. Reuters.
• Arizona’s 26 wildlife crossings have reduced collisions by 90%. Good Good Good.
• UK sales of electric vehicles just overtook petrol cars for the first time. CarbonBrief.
• Renewable energy is overtaking traditional power projects across Africa. AP.
• In a scientific first, researchers recovered ancient DNA that humans left behind on rock art and cave walls. Smithsonian Magazine.

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• In 2025, slightly fewer than 5.4 infants died for every 1,000 born in the US — down from the 7.5 of 30 years ago. CDC (PDF link).
• Experimental hepatitis B drug might offer ‘functional cure’ for a subset of patients. CNN.
• Young women in the UK now have ‘close to zero’ risk of cervical cancer death after HPV jab. BBC.
• Global rice production has nearly doubled over 50 years despite climate change. Phys.org.
• In 2019, EVs made up just 1% of new car sales globally. By May 2026, 63% of new cars sold were electric. DW.
• UK’s EV drivers are now saving £1,100 each a year. CarbonBrief.
• A brain implant is helping a man with paralysis to communicate with his family and friends and to use his personal computer at home. Nature.
• A Chinese expedition accidentally found a 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale graveyard. Nature.

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• Breakthrough pancreatic cancer drug nearly doubles survival in trial. USA Today.
• Over 90 per cent of countries have laws guaranteeing the rights of persons with disabilities. UN News.
• A chemo-free treatment was found effective in kids with an aggressive blood cancer. The trial’s survival rate was 99%. Medpage Today.
• The number of global deaths from enteric infectious diseases fell from 3.69 million in 1990 to 1.27 million in 2023. Rotavirus vaccine makes big impact. CIDRAP.
• A study in Italy found that remote work wiped out much of the “motherhood penalty,” the earnings loss that often follows having a child. CEPR.
• Solar overtakes gas power in Asia for first time ever. CarbonBrief.
• Used EVs are now the most affordable cars. The Wall Street Journal.
• Lost to science for more than 70 years, the black-lored waxbill was only recently rediscovered in a marshy region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yale Environment 360.
• While buildings in London or New York can take three years to complete, China built a 26-story tower in just five days with 100 workers. IDR.

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• The United States saw a 3.3% drop in homelessness, marking the first decrease since 2016. AP.
• After peaking in 2021, the combined age-adjusted rate of deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide declined by 16 percent in 2024. Trust for America’s Health.
• Electric vehicles cut pollution in China and prevent 260,000 premature deaths. Nature.
• Pakistan imported more Chinese solar panels than any other country on earth in 2025. No subsidy program drove it. No national rooftop scheme. No feed-in tariff. People just did it. Bright Spots.
• The New Zealand orange-fronted parakeet has twice been declared extinct, only to be rediscovered. Now, a pair of super breeders named Nacho and Trixie have produced 55 chicks, making them responsible for more than 10 percent of the total population. France 24.
• New solar desalination breakthrough makes fresh water without toxic brine. ScienceDaily.

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• A combination of vaccine and immunotherapy for skin cancer helped reduce risk of cancer spreading to another part of the body ​by 59% after five years of follow-up. Reuters.
• Experimental hepatitis B drug may offer functional cure for some patients. AP.
• Papua New Guinea has reduced its malaria death rate from 13 to one per 100,000 over 25 years. The National.
• 58% of the global population now has access to safe sanitation up from only 31% in 2000. Our World in Data.
• One of the world’s largest deep-sea coral reefs has been discovered off the coast of Argentina—and it’s home to dozens of species new to science. Mongabay.
• Once endangered, the IUCN has formally reclassified the green sea turtle as Least Concern. It skipped two classifications entirely, jumping straight from Endangered to Least Concern without pausing at Vulnerable or Near Threatened. Rolf Skeldon.
• West London’s Greenford Tube station used to flood whenever it rained heavily. After a family of beavers resettled nearby built a dam, the flooding stopped. NPR.

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• Global sales of combustion engine cars peaked in 2017. Our World in Data.
• Global wind and solar power outpace gas for first time in April. Reuters.
• How AI helped save the life of a newborn with an ultra rare disease. STAT.

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• New HIV infections fell by 40% between 2010 and 2024. WHO.
• Gambia reports 46% drop in malaria cases in a single year. The Voice.
• South Korea cut stroke deaths by more than 80%. The Formula.
• Oklahoma is now the 17th state in the United States to ban child marriage. Oklahoma Voice.
• South Africa’s share of people living below the food poverty line fell from 27.4% in 2006 to 17.6% in 2023. The Citizen.
• China’s transition away from oil has cut PM2.5 concentrations by 23.8% and carbon monoxide by 30.7% across 150 cities, preventing an estimated 262,000 deaths. Nature.
• China added a Germany-sized electricity grid last year. Almost all of it came from low-carbon sources. Our World in Data.
• A modified algae is a ‘little vacuum’ for microplastics. Nebraska Public Media.

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