Good News Friday

  • 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.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • 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.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • 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.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • 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.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • Colombia’s multidimensional poverty rate has dropped from 29.7% in 2010 to 9.9% last year. Colombia Reports.
  • Violent crime rates continue to plunge in America’s big cities. Axios.
  • Australia, the first ever country to roll out a national HPV vaccination program, is now seeing zero cervical cancer in women under 25. BBC.
  • Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation has successfully achieved rape kit reform in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. People.
  • Wind and solar have saved UK from gas imports worth £1.7bn since Iran war began. CarbonBrief.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • Maternal and neonatal tetanus eliminated in South Sudan and Sudan. Unicef.
  • Jamaica’s murder rate dropped 40% compared to the previous year. The Gleaner.
  • The worldwide teen pregnancy rate has fallen by over one-third since 2000. Our World in Data.
  • European Parliament backs EU-wide conversion therapy ban. Washington Blade.
  • India went from 15% to 70% Internet access in a decade, mostly through mobile phones. Our World in Data.
  • AI finds signs of pancreatic cancer up to three years before tumors develop. NBC News.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • Australia becomes the 30th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem. WHO.
  • In Burkina Faso between 2024 and 2025 malaria cases fell by 32% and malaria‑related deaths by 44% thanks to vaccines. Gavi.
  • The rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent thanks to new 988 hotline. The New York Times.
  • By reducing electricity prices, solar has saved Europe over €3 billion since March. Euronews.
  • CATL claims 6-minute charge and 1,500km range for new electric vehicle batteries. Financial Times.
  • High school student’s low-cost teabag solution for millions threatened by arsenic passes peer review. IFL Science.
  • New research finds pressurized iron-rich brine beneath Taylor Glacier powers Antarctica’s mysterious Blood Falls. The Science Times.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • The global suicide rate has fallen 40% since the 1990s. Our World in Data.
  • In a first, renewables beat natural gas on US grid last month. Canary Media.
  • Five “missing” bird species rediscovered in 2025. Mongabay.
  • Researchers have found that even a short break from your phone yields substantial benefits: improved attention equivalent to erasing a decade’s worth of age-related cognitive decline and a more significant effect on depression than that produced by antidepressants. The Washington Post.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.

Good News Friday

  • Argentina’s poverty rate dropped to just 28% at the end of 2025, down from 53% in early 2024. Semafor.
  • Pedestrian deaths in the United States fell 10.9% in the first half of 2025, the biggest recorded drop since national tracking began 15 years ago. GHSA.
  • Uruguay built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Forbes.
  • Battery costs have declined by 99% in the last three decades, making electrified transport a reality. Our World in Data.
  • The ampurta, a blond or brown guinea pig-sized marsupial, once endangered, has made a big comeback. Mongabay.

For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.