Good news, verified.
Real, measurable progress in nature, health, science, climate, society and technology. We find it, check it against primary sources, and explain what it does and does not mean.
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Powered by ButtondownChild labour fell by 22 million children, reversing a four-year rise
The ILO and UNICEF count 138 million children in child labour in 2024, down from 160 million in 2020. The increase recorded between 2016 and 2020 has been reversed, and the total is a little over half what it was in 2000.
A new class of antibiotic clears gonorrhoea as well as the standard injection
Two doses of a tablet cleared gonorrhoea from 92.6 percent of patients in a 628-person trial, against 91.2 percent for the standard injection and tablet. US regulators approved it in December 2025.
AI-supported breast screening found 29 percent more cancers
In the first randomised trial of artificial intelligence inside a national screening programme, 105,934 Swedish women were assigned either to AI-supported reading or to the standard two radiologists. The AI-supported group turned up 6.4 cancers for every 1,000 women screened, against 5.0, and needed 44 percent less reading to do it.
Salmon spawned above the removed Klamath dams in numbers
One year after the last of four dams came out of the Klamath River, 11,722 adult Chinook spawned above the old Iron Gate site, against 1,494 the season before. The run has climbed back above the population line federal managers watch.
Global hunger has fallen for a third year running
Five United Nations agencies estimate that 645 million people went hungry in 2025, 14 million fewer than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than at the 2022 peak. In Africa, a rise that had run since 2017 has paused.
The first oral PCSK9 cholesterol drug wins FDA approval
A once-daily tablet has become the first swallowable version of one of the most effective cholesterol drugs, lowering LDL cholesterol by about 56 percent in the trials that won it approval.
Solar supplied a quarter of the EU's electricity in June
For the first time in a single month, solar generated 25 percent of the European Union's electricity, more than any other source.
A bendable solar cell has reached 33.6 percent efficiency, closing in on rigid panels
A flexible perovskite-on-silicon cell hit 33.6 percent certified efficiency in the lab, far above the 20 to 25 percent of today's rigid rooftop panels.
China's CO2 emissions dipped in 2025 as clean power kept expanding
China's carbon emissions dipped about 0.3% in 2025, extending a 21-month run of flat or falling emissions that, for the first time on record, is not tied to an economic slowdown.
Chile becomes the second country ever to eliminate leprosy
The WHO verified Chile's elimination of leprosy in March 2026, only the second country worldwide and the first in the Americas.
Brazilian Amazon deforestation fell to an 11-year low
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped 11% in the year to July 2025, the lowest annual clearance since 2014.
The first gene therapy for genetic deafness wins FDA approval
Otarmeni became the first FDA-approved gene therapy for hearing loss from OTOF mutations, with 16 of 20 evaluable trial patients gaining meaningful hearing.
A new kind of ADHD medicine is approved in the US, the first to act on three brain chemicals at once
US regulators have approved centanafadine, the first ADHD drug of its class. In four trials it beat a placebo on symptom scores at six weeks, and its label is candid about the risks that come with it.
Croatia declared mine-free, 31 years after its war
Croatia cleared the last of its landmines in March 2026, destroying nearly 107,000 mines across three decades.
Coal fell below half of China's electricity for the first time
Coal supplied 49.7 percent of China's electricity from January to June 2026, the first half year below half in the world's largest power system, with renewables at about 40 percent.
CRISPR delivered a functional cure for severe sickle cell in 27 of 28 patients
In a peer-reviewed trial, 27 of 28 people with severe sickle cell disease had no pain crises after a single gene-editing treatment.
A drug pair beats chemotherapy before bladder cancer surgery
In a trial of 808 people, 79.4 percent of those given two newer drugs before and after bladder surgery were alive with no return of their cancer two years later, against 66.2 percent on the standard chemotherapy.
Electric cars reached one in four new cars sold worldwide
Global electric car sales rose about 20% to more than 20 million in 2025, roughly a quarter of all new cars sold.
England recorded zero cervical cancer deaths in young HPV-vaccinated women
A Lancet analysis found no cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20 to 24 in England, among the generations offered the HPV vaccine at age 12 to 13.
The Iberian lynx reached a record 2,663, nearly doubling in four years
The wild Iberian lynx population hit 2,663 in the 2025 census, up about 95% since 2021, for a cat that was nearly extinct two decades ago.
A retinal implant restored reading vision in people blinded by dry AMD
In a pivotal trial, 26 of 32 patients with a central blind spot from geographic atrophy could read letters again a year after receiving a subretinal chip.
Suriname becomes the first Amazonian country certified malaria-free
A country that once had the highest malaria burden in the Americas has driven local transmission to zero.
El Salvador has eliminated trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness
The World Health Organization has validated El Salvador as free of trachoma as a public health problem, the first country in Central America to stop the world's leading infectious cause of blindness.
Quantum computers got much better at catching their own mistakes
A peer-reviewed result cut quantum computing errors by between 11 and 800 times using error-corrected logical qubits.
Australia's numbat has climbed off the endangered list
The IUCN has moved the numbat from Endangered to Near Threatened after four decades of recovery, one of conservation's rare genuine downlistings.
The ozone layer keeps healing, and 2025's hole was among the smallest in decades
The 2025 Antarctic ozone hole was the fifth smallest since 1992, confirming a recovery driven by a 1987 agreement.
A twice-a-year injection to prevent HIV wins WHO backing
Lenacapavir prevented HIV with near-total efficacy in trials, and in 2025 both the FDA and the WHO backed it for prevention.
Black rhinos are climbing, and poaching hit a 14-year low
Africa's black rhinos grew 5.2% in a year and continental poaching fell to its lowest rate since 2011.
A million medical drone deliveries later, Rwanda rewrote the last mile
The hard part of healthcare is often not the medicine but getting it there in time. Rwanda solved that with autonomous aircraft.
A fusion lab set a record, and quietly made ignition routine
The bigger news is not the record number. It is that a result once called impossible now happens again and again.
For the first time in a century, renewables out-generated coal
In 2025 the world crossed a line that had held since the age of steam: cleaner sources produced more of our electricity than coal did.
The malaria vaccine is working, and it is saving children's lives
Four years into the first real world rollout, the evidence is in, and it is measured in children who are still alive.
The green sea turtle is no longer endangered
After decades of protection, one of the ocean's most familiar animals has recovered enough to move two full steps back from the brink.
