In today’s edition of Squirrel News, US cities, both red and blue, have seen an unprecedented drop in gun violence; parents and schoolkids form an increasingly popular bike bus and tell how it’s done; and a non-profit tour group makes hiking in NY’s Catskills accessible to wheelchair users.
Gun violence is trending down in an unprecedented way across the US in both red and blue cities and states, according to data analysed from 2016 to 2025. The trendlines include people both injured and killed by gun violence.
The Tropical Forests Forever Fund, a Brazilian initiative, got 5.5 billion in pledges on the first day of the COP30 climate conference. Unlike carbon credit systems, the fund would directly pay countries to preserve forest land with the goal of making that the most lucrative option.
A small group of parents in Montclair, New Jersey, formed the ‘bike bus’ of kids and their grownups biking to school. Now the group numbers more than 350 and parents encourage folks in other towns to ‘just do it’. Non-profit Bike Bus World says the bike bus movement includes hundreds of such groups around the globe.
Boston’s steam heat plant, centuries old and running on gas, is converting to a renewable, electric-powered industrial heat pump using latent thermal energy from the Charles River. The pump is capable of heating through the bitter New England winter temperatures and will offer heat to Boston buildings at 1/2 to 1/5 the cost.
A small black cap being tested for the first time in a maternity hospital in Cambridge, UK, has significant advantages over present scanning methods, allowing much earlier detection and intervention for injuries that can cause cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and other disabling conditions.
Researchers at Mount Sina University i have found a way for human heart cells to regenerate, normally not possible with cells damaged by heart attack or failure. In 2014 with pig hearts and now with donated human heart cells, they show that reactivating a gene from infancy can repair damage and leave normal beating heart cells.
An analysis of 2024 data shows no country that has both a high democracy index and high levels of corruption. Worldwide, democracy is strongly correlated with low corruption, and conversely, countries that do not fairly and freely choose their leaders are more corrupt.
Allbirds founder and former New Zealand footballer Tim Brown talks to BBC’s Business Daily about what it took to start a natural-material, sustainable shoe business, his effort to revive the New Zealand wool industry, and the quest for a net-zero shoe.
Remote education during the pandemic led to a programme where prisoners can take a remote job at regular wages, said to contribute to lower recidivism. 25% of pay goes to any victim restitution owed, 10% to room and board, 10% to fines, and 10% to savings. With the rest prisoners have chosen to buy small perks, rebuild their lives outside, and help others.
Using an all-terrain vehicle that’s essentially the Jeep of wheelchairs, a New York non-profit called Soar Experience helps disabled people get on the trail. They lead free guided tours of the Mohonk Preserve, 8,000 acres of protected wetlands and forest in the Catskill Mountains, 90 miles north of New York City.
