US adult smoking rate hits record low, British Parliament ends hereditary peerage, robots take on ocean pollution
19 cities cut air pollution, Oman halves maternal mortality rate, Indian state sees 84% drop in child marriages
Paying villagers to protect the wild, Indigenous activists win fight against capitalism, Indiana’s microschools
UK landfill grows vegetables, tax on single-use packaging reduces waste, Martha’s rule may have saved 400 lives
Chile is the second country globally to end leprosy, shootings in Sweden drop by 63%, voluntary wildlife corridors
Croatia declared free of landmines, Denmark eliminates mother-to-child HIV transmission, former inmate buys prison
Greened desert becomes carbon sink, free HIV prevention shots in Kenya, pairing digital natives with seniors
Best of February: Homicides in England at record low, trade of plastic waste in steep decline, singing contest in prison
Bolivia expands Andean protection, free moving for domestic violence survivors, Mexico approves 40-hour workweek
Beijing cuts air pollution by 69%, theft in England and Wales drops by 80%, the secret Afghan women’s book club
EU launches plan against cyberbullying, Sierra Leone’s first-ever NICU, Norway to phase out “Frankenchickens”
Yangtze River recovers, global plastic waste trade dramatically down, plastic alternatives from horse dung
Ireland secures basic income for artists, Belgium expands eating disorder care for youth, Chile’s prison rugby team
India expands rural tap water access, US life expectancy hits record high, pancreatic tumours regress in mice
Guinea worm to be second disease ever eradicated, Japan’s stomach cancer rates fall by 70%, India’s chess clubs
Best of January: 25,000 tonnes of plastic removed, 10-minute mental health clinics, Ghana’s environment chiefs
Homicides in England and Wales drop to lowest rate ever, new therapy treats “untreatable” cancer, ring a Republican
Abandoned airport becomes green city, 25 million kilos of plastic removed from oceans, teen-run mental health hotline
Mexico’s poverty milestone, Bogotá sees crime drop, North Carolina erases medical debt for 2.5 million people
England’s 10-minute emergency mental health clinics, lung cancer deaths among women stabilise, AI ultrasounds
High seas treaty comes into force, Zurich gives free healthcare to undocumented residents, reviving oyster beds
Iraq sees major progress after years of conflict, first NHS leukemia patient gets CAR-T therapy, culture buddies
Coal power falls in China and India in first since 1970s, Vienna’s light pollution drops by 75%, street psychiatry
NYC sees lowest number of shootings ever, Norway’s car sales hit 96% electric, Chile’s 2,800km wildlife corridor
California’s 3D-printed neighbourhood, mother-to-child HIV transmission ends in Brazil, Arab women in comedy
Denver homicides drop by nearly 50%, Detroit reduces number of abandoned homes, comedy clubs for mums
UK announces biggest-ever animal welfare reforms, first insects granted legal rights, saving Mexico’s Galápagos
Congo’s 1-million-hectare wildlife corridor, landmark climate case accepted, light boxes from the library
133,000-hectare nature reserve in Chile, landmark UK employment rights bill, 30% fewer preterm births in Florida
North America’s largest wildlife overpass opens, EU parliament backs abortion care, fighting shark finning
Spain rolls out €60 transport pass, Erasmus set to reopen to UK students, the Grandma Stands for life advice
$20 trillion more through climate protection, solar breakthrough in Texas, $500 a month for homeless students
Latin America sees lowest ever poverty rate, India trials payments for household work, New York fashion week bans fur
New method to test and rescue soil, global deaths from measles down 88%, pioneering model for small-scale solar
Romania raises recycling rate to 94%, albatross foster families, the crying clubs fighting loneliness
Seventh HIV remission sparks hope, cervical cancer prevention accelerates, global south leads green energy shift
‘Historical win’ for sharks and rays, UK to ban oil and gas exploration, Los Angelenos paint guerrilla crosswalks
Best of November: Bank accounts for homeless people, first-ever treaty with Aboriginal peoples, graduating with $1000
Ethiopia to plant seven billion trees, Belgian town trials “lottery government”, Warsaw’s metro library
England plans new ‘forest city’, Iowa City free bus scheme carries on, ex-inmate builds 500 prison libraries
Korea to phase out coal, Colombia bans drilling and mining in Amazon, Australia bans social media for under-16s
Free electricity in Australia, Lithuania halves suicide rate, litter-picking becomes global competitive sport
Australia’s treaty with Aboriginal peoples, NYC elects first Muslim mayor, Europe’s landmark climate ruling
How Moldova is making orphanages obsolete, protecting Ecuador’s Amazon, building bridges from Gaza to Israel
The crowdfunding campaigns rebuilding Syria, stronger-than-steel superwood, “pay as you throw” waste disposal
First-ever greenwashing conviction in France, deforestation drops for third decade in a row, London’s scream clubs
Eye implants help blind patients read again, gourmet food for €1, feeding peanuts to babies big success
Global feelings of safety at record high, Spain declares six marine protected areas, Poland to ban fur farming
Ireland rolls out basic income for artists, new treatment for ADA-SCID sees 100% survival rate, California quits coal
New data shows global optimism about the future, Scotland to criminalise ecocide, the OR that fits in a backpack
Solar named world’s cheapest power source, agrivoltaics triples farmers’ income, first rewilded sharks thrive
Ultrasounds against cancer, sustainable air conditioning with “ice batteries”, saving orcas with dogs and drones
First female Archbishop of Canterbury, Switzerland opens solar furnaces for steel recycling, free therapy text line
Student develops app to treat childhood cancer, residents build bike lane, mountain gorillas make a comeback
Uzbekistan’s poverty rate plummets, Huntington’s disease treated in world first, the cafe run by deaf baristas
World’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve, 466 million fed by school meals, Pakistan’s first woman train driver
WTO global treaty tackles overfishing, ozone layer shows signs of repair, healing after life as a neo-Nazi leader
20 million more African children with school meals, EU law on food and textile waste, tiny forests in Scotland
First U.S. state to offer free universal child care, vaccine to curb koala disease, teaching philosophy in prison
Free public transport for Irish children, Mexico’s jaguar population grows by 30%, Sweden’s secondhand mall
Indonesian islanders take cement giant to court over climate, Nepal eliminates rubella, AI stethoscopes
Preventing suicides through pesticide bans, world’s tallest flying bird makes comeback, local disaster resilience
Best of August: New nature reserves, success against diseases, initiatives to improve the lives of children
Czech schools to provide free period products, Moldova restores its forests, EU approves HIV prevention jab
Second-largest nature reserve in the Americas, energy storage train, gardening in São Paolo’s favelas
Mexico lifts 13.4 million people out of poverty, Botswana slashes HIV rates in children, Denmark ends tax on books
Kenya eliminates sleeping sickness, Brazil’s homicide rate drops, alcohol consumption hits record low in US
Hawai’i eliminates imprisonment of girls, homophobia falls in EU and US, making Cairo’s streets safer
Low-cost incubators, China rolls out free pre-school education, Indigenous young people protect ancestral lands
Best of July: Landmark climate rulings, falling homicide rates, first malaria treatment for newborn babies
Nations can sue nations for climate harm, Pakistan’s breast cancer app, free cash for homeless people
Homicide rates hit record lows in 69 US cities, open-source plastic recycling, volunteer-run village stores
