• In Tanzania, there has been a 27 percent decline in tuberculosis incidence and a 52 percent reduction in TB deaths. The Citizen.
• Brazil reports almost 28% decrease in malaria from 2017 to 2021. In the Americas overall between 2000 to 2020, malaria cases decreased by 58%. Outbreak News.
• In Kenya, child mortality is about half of what it was 20 years ago. Nation.
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces it will spend more than $7 billion over the next four years to support African countries and institutions working to confront hunger, disease, gender inequality, and poverty. Gates Foundation.
• Overall crime in the United Kingdom is now at its lowest level since the 1980s. ONS.
• The governor or Oregon grants pardon for marijuana offenses. Approximately 45,000 people will be impacted. More than $14,000,000 in fines and fees will be forgiven. State of Oregon.
• South Korea has almost zero food waste due to mandatory composting. Guardian.
• Efforts to save the endangered Fender’s blue butterfly in Oregon have quadrupled the population and saved its host plant from extinction as well. The butterfly is slated to be downlisted from endangered to threatened. High Country News.
• Electricity from snow? A Japanese city believes it can be done. Nikkei Asia.
• Promising universal flu vaccine could protect against 20 strains. NewScientist.
• A hundred UK companies sign up for four-day week with no loss of pay. The Guardian.

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• The proportion of European children classified as ‘severely deprived’ has decreased from 22.8% in 2009 to 14.6% in 2021. European Parliment (PDF link).
• In the last decade, global cases of visceral leishmaniasis have decreased from 64,223 in 2011 to 11,689 in 2021, the lowest since 1998. WHO (PDF link).
• Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has given away nearly $2 billion to 343 organizations over the past seven months. Medium.
• U.S. military suicides drop as leaders push mental health programs. PBS.
• Paris, one of the world’s priciest cities, turbocharges affordable housing. Bloomberg.
• The largest fish in the Amazon, the pirarucu, has been saved from extinction thanks to a community campaign to impose strict fishing regulations. ABC.

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• New data shows 11% decline in veteran homelessness since 2020—the biggest drop in more than 5 years. HUD.
• From 2020 to 2022, Hispanic people saw a 53 percent jump in health insurance coverage rates through the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace, Black people 49 percent and Native Americans 32 percent. Washington Post.
• Cigarette smoking in the United States has declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 12.5% in 2020. CDC.
• Between 2000 and 2016, the age-adjusted prevalence of dementia among the nation’s elderly fell by 30 percent. The Hill.
• Blindness and visual impairment in India reduced by 47.1% and 51.9% respectively in 2019 in overall population as compared to WHO’s figures of 2010. The Times of India.
• Minor police encounters plummet after LAPD put limits on stopping drivers and pedestrians. Los Angeles Times.
• Dilip Mahalanabis has died. He pioneered the use of oral rehydration therapy during a refugee crisis which helped save 54 million lives over the past half century. Financial Times.
• Samuel L. Katz, a developer of the measles vaccine, dies at 94. Worldwide, measles killed 2.6 million people a year before the availability of vaccines. The New York Times.
• Chile leads the way in solar energy, far exceeding its goal to reach 20% of energy production from renewable sources by 2025. El Pais.
• US wholesale inflation eases to 8%, 4th straight slowdown. AP.

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• Covid-19 vaccines saved an estimated 20 million lives during their first year. The Economist.
• Safety net programs in California moved nearly 1.7 million children out of poverty. PPIC.
• Europe’s improved air quality has saved millions of lives in the last few decades. In the early 1990s, nearly a million premature deaths a year were caused by fine particulate pollution. By 2005, that number had been more than halved, and in 2021 dropped to around 300,000. Euronews.
• Lab-grown blood given to people in world-first clinical trial. BBC.
• The movement to replace police with mental health providers for some 911 calls is gaining traction in rural America. Yes! Magazine.
• Voters in four states have approved ballot measures that will change their state constitutions to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. AP.
• This coral reef resurrected itself — and showed scientists how to replicate it. NPR.
• Coming soon: A $25,000 solar-powered electric SUV. Axios.
• Mixed-race neighborhoods are now the norm in America. Back in 1990, 78 percent of White people lived in predominantly White neighborhoods, where at least 4 of every 5 people were also White. In the 2020 Census, that’s plunged to 44 percent. The Washington Post.

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• Between 2000 and 2020, the global population with access to safely managed drinking water services has increased from 3.8 billion to 5.8 billion people. WHO.
• Although significant gaps remain, disparities between Black and White people continued to narrow at nearly every stage of the criminal justice process between 2016 and 2020. In some cases, the pace of the decline slowed; in others, the disparity gap closed entirely. Council on Criminal Justice.
• In 2011, 39 percent of Nepalis were multidimensionally poor. The percentage dipped to 17.5 in 2019. The Kathmandu Post.
• New vaccine to protect people in the EU and worldwide against dengue. European Medicines Agency.
• Pakistan reduced malaria cases by 45% from 2015-2020. Gavi.
• In 1993, more than one in four children in the US lived below the poverty threshold. 26 years later, that number has fallen to roughly one in 10. Child Trends.
• Pilot programs launched across the US and the rest of the world in the last few years have repeatedly shown that universal basic income pulls people out of poverty, improves health outcomes, and makes it easier for people to find jobs and take care of their children. Washington Post.
• Since 1990, the bipartisan Clean Air Act has reduced fine particulate matter pollution by 41 percent, preventing 370,000 premature deaths each year. NRDC.
• Clean energy has a tipping point, and 87 countries have reached it. Bloomberg.
• Same-sex marriage is now legal in all of Mexico’s states. ABC News.
• Ozone hole continues shrinking in 2022. NASA.

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• The wealth of America’s bottom 50 percent has doubled during the pandemic years. The Intercept.
• Despite COVID-19 Pandemic, record 96% of U.S. households were banked in 2021. FDIC.
• With Covid prompting more employers to consider remote arrangements, employment has soared among adults with disabilities. The New York Times.
• People born more recently have a lower risk of dying from influenza. Our World in Data.
• CO2 emissions rose more slowly in 2022. AP.
• EU produces record wind and solar energy as it shirks Russian gas. CNN.
• In race to end homelessness, San Antonio takes the lead. Bloomberg.
• U.S. military suicides drop as leaders push mental health programs. PBS.

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• Once devastated, these Pacific reefs have seen an amazing rebirth. National Geographic.
• Norway to slash pollution with the world’s first zero-emissions public transport network. Euronews.
• Home solar panel adoption continues to rise in the U.S. Pew Research Center.
• Researchers develop new technique that charges EV battery in just 10 minutes. PennState.
• Global extreme poverty declined substantially over the last generation. Our World in Data.

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• A program launched in the 1990s has eliminated river blindness completely in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Guatemala. WHO (PDF link)
• In the United States, the age-adjusted overall cancer death rate has been steadily declining since the 1990s, with the reductions between 1991 and 2019 translating into nearly 3.5 million cancer deaths avoided. AACR.
• Breast cancer death rates in the United States dropped by 43% between 1989 and 2020. American Cancer Society (PDF link).
• Malawi has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. WHO. Vanuatu has also eliminated trachoma. WHO.
• Nigeria has recorded a significant decrease in child marriage, with the proportion of girls married before their 18th birthday falling from 44% in 2016 to 30% in 2021. There has also been considerable progress in child mortality, which has decreased from one in eight children dying before their fifth birthday in 2016, to one in ten in 2021. UNICEF (PDF link).
• Between 2012 and 2021, the rate of violent crime in the United States declined from 26.1 to 16.5 incidents per 1,000 people. Department of Justice (PDF link).
• Major milestone for Greek energy as renewables power 100% of electricity demand. Euronews.
• Social Security boost will help millions of kids, too. AP.

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• Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014? It helped fund a new ALS drug that was approved by the FDA this week. NPR.
• This 100% solar community endured Hurricane Ian with no loss of power and minimal damage. CNN.
• In 2021, 40% of the electricity produced in the United States was derived from non-fossil fuel sources. US Department of Energy.
• Guaranteed income programs have been a lifeline across the US, new research shows — especially for parents of color. Bloomberg.
• Australia’s most-polluting coal plant to shut decade earlier than planned. BBC.
• California allows affordable housing on some commercial properties. Los Angeles Times.
• More than twice as many Americans support than oppose the #MeToo movement. Pew Research Center.
• U.S. jobless claims hit lowest level in five months. The Wall Street Journal.

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• AIDS-related deaths have decreased. In 2021, around 650,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses worldwide, compared to 2 million people in 2004 and 1.4 million people in 2010. UNAIDS (PDF link).
• Leprosy has decreased from over five million cases a year in the 1980s to just 133,802 in 2021. WHO (PDF link).
• Since 2008, the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, which supplies reproductive health services, has prevented 254,000 maternal deaths and saved 1.6 million children.
• In Tanzania, deaths due to malaria have decreased by 71% from 6,311 in 2015 to 1,811 in 2021. For children under 5, malaria-related mortalities declined by approximately 50% between 1999 and 2016. Global Citizen.
• By 2020, the number of violent crime arrests involving youth reached a new low, 78% below the 1994 peak, and half the number 10 years earlier. US Department of Justice (PDF link).
• A series of bipartisan bills has led to a 21% decline in prison populations in Oklahoma in the past five years. The Crime Report.
• Texas bail reform reduced jail time and crime, new study says. Bloomberg.
• Seven years ago, the homicide rate in El Salvador was 103 homicides per 100,000 people – the highest in the world. In 2021, that had dropped to 18 per 100,000, and the downward trend has continued into 2022. El Salvador Info.
• Aggregate global wealth grew by 12.7% in 2021, which is the fastest annual rate ever recorded. It’s not just the rich getting richer. Global wealth inequality has fallen this century because emerging economies are growing faster. Global median wealth has risen approximately twice as fast as global wealth per adult. Credit Suisse.
• All fifty states greenlit to move EV charging networks forward, covering 75,000 miles of highway. US Department of Transportation.
• In a bipartisan vote, US Senate ratifies pact to curb potent greenhouse gases. New York Times.
• Phoenix plans to build affordable housing on vacant city land. Axios.

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