• $1 billion donation will provide free tuition at a Bronx medical school. The New York Times.
• Italy, home of the mafia, now one of Europe’s safest countries. Yahoo News.
• The Biden-Harris Administration has approved student debt cancellation for nearly 3.9 million Americans totaling almost $138 billion in relief. US Department of Education.
• Slovenia has seen cases of cervical cancer drop by almost half over the last 20 years, with the number of deaths from the disease also falling. WHO.
• Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape initiative restored 66,800 hectares of forest and significantly increased the Bengal tiger population in the region. Mongabay.
• How Finland halved its suicide rate. The Guardian.
• Electric car sales hit record with over 1 million sold in January. Warp News.

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• How Finland conquered homelessness. Spiegel.
• Critically endangered parrot bounces back in huge conservation victory. Science Alert.
• Mapping the world’s corals reveals more reefs than previously known. Bloomberg.
• Greece becomes first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex marriage. The Guardian.
• In the half-century before the covid-19 pandemic, the black unemployment rate was on average twice as high as the white one. At the end of last year the black unemployment rate was only 1.5% higher than the white one, the narrowest gap on record. The Economist.
• Polio eradication is within reach. Our World in Data.
• Cambodia on track to eradicate malaria by 2025. Khmer Times.

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• The United States has cut heart disease death rates by 70% since 1950 and stroke death rates by nearly a third since 1998. American Heart Association (PDF link).
• The poverty rate in Cambodia has declined from 36.7 percent in 2014 to 16.6 percent in 2022 and the number of poor people was halved from 5.6 million to 2.8 million. Khmer Times.
• Millennials have a real median household income that is 18 percent higher than that of the previous generation at the same age. Federal Reserve (PDF link).
• 95,000 Mauritanians supplied with clean drinking water thanks to decentralized cooperation. Afrik21.
• Agricultural growth key to accelerated poverty reduction in Bangladesh. The Financial Express.
• The Dominican Republic miracle: a fifth of the country regreened in 10 years. El Pais.
• European bison are no longer considered to be endangered. BBC.
• China’s carbon emissions are set to decline years earlier than expected. The Wall Street Journal.
• South Australia reached a record average of 82 per cent renewables in the December quarter. Renew Economy.
• In a first, a prosthetic limb can sense temperature like a living hand. Smithsonian.

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• Between 1989-2024, almost 6.2 million cancer deaths have been avoided in the EU and 1.3 million in the UK. Annals of Oncology.
• Homicides in Mexico dropped by 4.18% in 2023, marking the third consecutive year of decline. La Prensa Latina.
• In India, the number of women enrolling in higher education increased by 32% between 2015 and 2022, from 15.7 million to over 20 million. Economic Times.
• Rates of U.S. gun violence decreased in 2023. CAP 20.
• U.S. teen smoking rates have plummeted, with less than 1% now daily smokers. Health Day.
• In the EU, fossil fuels dropped by a record 19% to their lowest ever level at less than one third of the EU’s electricity generation and renewables rose to a record 44% share. Ember.
• Germany’s coal power production drops to lowest level in 60 years in 2023. Clean Energy Wire.
• Texas recently generated 80% of its power from renewable and nuclear power for more than six hours. Houston Chronicle.
• India electrified 45% of its railway network in just five years. Energy Monitor.
• 93.9% of all new vehicles sold in Norway are electric. Clean Technica.
• More than 1,000 new EV charging stations have come online in the US since last summer. Bloomberg.
• Two thousand years ago, a volcanic eruption buried an ancient library of papyrus scrolls now known as the Herculaneum Papyri. These lumps of carbonized ash cannot be opened without severely damaging them. However, thanks to the Vesuvius Challenge, these scrolls can now be read.

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• India on the verge of eliminating black fever. DW.
• Between 2000 and 2020, Lao’s maternal mortality rate fell by over 250 per cent. UNFPA.
• Wild panda population nearly doubles as China steps up conservation efforts. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has adjusted the status of giant pandas from “endangered” to “vulnerable”. The Straits Times.
• In England, forest coverage now is greater than at any time since the Black Death nearly 700 years ago. China’s forests have increased by about 607,000 square kilometers since 1992, a region the size of Ukraine. The European Union has added an area equivalent to Cambodia to its woodlands, while the US and India have together planted forests that would cover Bangladesh in an unbroken canopy of leaves. Bloomberg.
• EU fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit 60-year low. The Guardian.
• Clean energy was top driver of China’s economic growth, accounting for 40% of the expansion of GDP in 2023. Carbon Brief.
• China added more solar panels in 2023 than US did in its entire history. Bloomberg.
• Renewable technologies generated more electricity than Scotland used in 2022, new statistics show. Scottish Government.
• The world added 50% more renewable capacity in 2023 than in 2022. IEA.
• The best-selling car in the world last year was all-electric. Inside EVs.
• In the fourth quarter of 2023, electric vehicles made up 20% of all new passenger cars sold in the world. Bloomberg.
• There is now one fast-charging station for every 16 gas stations in the United States. Bloomberg.
• 250 million Indians came out of multidimensional poverty in the last nine years. India Today.
• In the US, poverty has fallen by 27 percentage points since 1980. Notre Dame News.
• In the US, the use of coal for electricity production decreased to the lowest level in half a century. Warp News.

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• Malaria vaccine rollout begins in Cameroon. The Guardian.
• Tobacco use declines with only 1 in 5 adults worldwide consuming tobacco compared to 1 in 3 in 2000. PAHO.
• Cancer mortality is down 33% in America in the past three decades, saving an estimated 4.1 million lives, and as many as two-thirds of all cancers can now be treated as chronic conditions or cured outright. American Cancer Society (PDF link).
• Thanks to the HPV vaccine, no cases of invasive cervical cancer were recorded in women immunized at 12 or 13 years of age in Scotland. JNCI.
• 248 million people in India have escaped multidimensional poverty in the last nine years. NITI Aayog (PDF link).
• 21 megacities improved their air pollution levels between 2017 and 2022. DW.
• During 2023, violent crime plummeted to its lowest level in the United States since the 1960s, and by the end of the year inflation had been tamed and unemployment was at historic lows. The Atlantic.

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• Cape Verde reaches malaria-free milestone. BBC.
• Eastern and Southern Africa have nearly achieved gender parity in primary education, with 25 million more girls enrolled in primary school today than in the early 2000s. The World Bank.
• Twenty-two states increased their minimum wages in January. The Washington Post.
• Hennepin County, Minnesota, has reduced its homeless population by almost 36% in just two years. Bloomberg.
• 2023 was one of aviation’s safest years on record with zero jet aircraft crashes. Simple Flying.
• The scimitar horned oryx has been brought back from the brink of extinction. ZSL.
• Deforestation rate of the Amazon rainforest halved in 2023. BBC.
• Global annual renewable capacity additions increased by almost 50% to nearly 510 gigawatts in 2023, the fastest growth rate in the past two decades. IEA.
• Renewables hit 55% of German electricity mix. ReNews.

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• Nearly 100,000 fewer people died in wars and armed conflicts during 2023 compared to 2022. Warp News.
• Renewable energy’s share on German power grids reaches 55% in 2023. Reuters.
• Uruguay now produces up to 98% of its electricity from renewables. The Guardian.
• Scientists hail new antibiotic that can kill drug-resistant bacteria. The Guardian.
• Wage growth is beating inflation. Axios.
• Ten inspiring signs of progress from the past year. Greater Good Magazine.

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• The minimum wage is going up in 22 states on Jan. 1. Axios.
• UK electricity from fossil fuels drops to lowest level since 1957. CarbonBrief.
• Good climate news in 2023. MIT Technology Review.
• The year in gun violence solutions. The Trace.
• What went right in 2023. The Wall Street Journal.
• In 1900, the average life expectancy of a newborn was 32 years. By 2021 this had more than doubled to 71 years. Our World in Data.

For more good news, check out Future Crunch and The Progress Network.

• 66 good news stories you didn’t hear about in 2023. Future Crunch.
• Something good happened every week of 2023. The Progress Network.

For more good news, check out Future Crunch and The Progress Network.