In today’s edition of Squirrel News, New York City reports its lowest number of shootings on record, Norway pushes further ahead in the electric vehicle transition, and Chile unveils an 2,800km wildlife corridor to protect biodiversity.
The decline is credited to a precision policing strategy that placed an unprecedented number of officers on city streets, particularly in neighborhoods most affected by gun violence. The approach included thousands of additional officers assigned to foot patrols and targeted operations aimed at dismantling the city’s most violent gangs.
Source: CBS
Electric vehicles accounted for nearly all new car registrations in Norway last year, with fully electric models making up 96% of sales, according to official data released on Friday. Strong demand has reinforced the Nordic nation’s position as the global leader in the transition away from petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles.
Source: Reuters
Chile’s government is set to create the country’s 47th national park, protecting nearly 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of pristine wilderness and completing a wildlife corridor stretching 1,700 miles (2,800km) to the southernmost tip of the continent.
Source: The Guardian
The food supply on every continent, as measured by the calories it supplied, has gone up more than the corresponding population has grown. Though the data analysed shows large disparities between countries, the rise in the amount of food produced per person around the world has contributed significantly to the fall of extreme hunger and poverty.
Source: Our World in Data
Researchers say SleepFM can analyse brain activity recorded during a single night in a sleep laboratory to accurately predict a person’s risk of developing more than 100 different health conditions.
Source: Reuters
A study by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that every extra year of schooling, from primary education through university, reduces a person’s risk of death by about 2%, regardless of age, gender, or geographic location.
Source: Good Good Good
Assam is grappling with a growing plastic waste crisis. In the state capital of Guwahati, roughly 500,000kg of waste are generated every day, with less than one-third properly processed. One school has launched a model that tackles plastic pollution while keeping children in classrooms: each week, students arrive not with money, but with bags of plastic waste to pay their school fees.
Source: Reasons To Be Cheerful
Hisi Studio, founded by Angela Wanjiku, uses Braille beading to make it easier for visually impaired people to choose and style their clothes. Each piece also features a QR code tag that provides audio descriptions and care instructions when scanned, using tools such as Google TalkBack to read the information aloud.
Source: Good Good Good
The GPS collars coming into use on Wyoming ranches are allowing farmers to replace actual fences with virtual ones. It is a win-win situation: they are cheaper for farmers, open corridors for wildlife migration, and can very precisely protect native grasses while allowing cattle to eat invasive species.
Source: New York Times
The nonprofit American Prairie announced that it has now removed more than 100 miles of derelict barbed-wire fencing from its Montana land holdings, reconnecting habitats and allowing wildlife to roam freely once again.
Source: Good News Network
