Good news on global health, climate change, more
Our friends at Australia’s Fix the News are back from their summer vacation and resuming their work to offer a “correction to the distortion” of your news feed.
“The stories you’re about to read are just as important, if not more so, than the chaos currently dominating your feed, but they’re invisible because they don’t generate the emotional charge required to break through,” says Fix the News. “Progress doesn’t spike cortisol. Disease elimination doesn’t trigger shares. That doesn’t stop them from happening though.
“This week: Iraq offers a counterpoint in the Middle East, trachoma exposure falls below 100 million worldwide (down from 1.5 billion in 2002), coal power drops simultaneously in India and China for the first time since 1973, astonishing progress in the fight against cancer, and how conservationists saved one of the world’s most beautiful species of antelope.”
This edition contains about 20 items you can scroll through for a free dose of positivity.
Among the 30 or so items that are accessible only by subscribers:
— Brazil is the most populous country in the Americas to be validated by the World Health Organization for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
— New analysis from the nonprofit Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit shows that an expanding share of the world economy is cutting carbon dioxide emissions while continuing to grow.
Between 2015 and 2023, countries representing more than 46 percent of global GDP grew their economies while cutting carbon dioxide emissions in absolute terms. That share is up from just over 38 percent in the period between 2006 and 2015, the ECIU says.
— Last year was Britain’s first full year without the use of coal power since 1881, according to Carbon Brief.
Ukraine’s Zelensky blasts EU’s lack of ‘political will’ in countering Putin in fiery speech at Davos
NYTimes: Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ would have a global scope but one man in charge
House GOP narrowly defeats bid to block renewed military action against Venezuela without congressional approval
House approves final four spending bills as Democrats denounce ICE funding
House votes 427-0 to overturn payouts to senators if their electronic records were unknowingly collected
Takeaways from Jack Smith’s House testimony on his case against Trump, ‘so many witnesses,’ threats ahead
Health insurance CEOs grilled on high costs of care in 2 House hearings
FAA is making permanent the rules imposed after an airliner collided with an Army helicopter
Judge blocks FBI from accessing electronic devices it seized from a Washington Post reporter’s home
NYTimes: Forty-five current and former FBI employees on changes under Kash Patel that they say make America less safe
Homicide rate declines sharply in dozens of U.S. cities, report says
White House and China finalize deal to sell U.S. TikTok business to investors backed by Trump
WPost personal finance columnist: ‘Why sticking to your savings plan beats panic buying gold or crypto’
ProPublica tool lets consumers find factories where their generic drugs were made and the factories’ FDA inspection records
KFF: Why medication abortion is the top target for anti-abortion groups