284: Life's Key Ingredients

Hi everyone, it's been A Week. There's so much happening, accompanied by so much commentary, that it's impossible to keep up. Everyone has an opinion (so do we) but that's not very useful given all the noise. The best thing we can do at this point is remind all of our readers that the madness going down in Washington DC right now is not the only news story in the world. We'll leave it there. We hope this helps.

This week's top stories

Three big gender rights victories in Thailand, India and France
In a remarkable fortnight for global human rights, Thailand has extended free hormone therapy to nearly two thirds of the country's transgender population, India's Supreme Court has declared access to clean, gender-sensitive public toilets a fundamental right, and Europe's top court has protected women's bodily autonomy in marriage by ruling against forced marital relations in France.

Three countries have already eliminated a disease in 2025
Niger just became the first African country to eliminate river blindness, a tropical disease that once afflicted 8.5 million people in the country, Georgia has become the 46th country worldwide to eliminate malaria, bringing Europe close to becoming the world's first malaria free region, and Guinea has eliminated sleeping sickness, joining 15 other African countries that have achieved this milestone.

Asteroid sample reveals life's key ingredients preserved in space
NASA scientists have found the basic building blocks of life in a pristine sample from asteroid Bennu, including 14 amino acids used by living things and all five genetic code components. The 4.3-ounce space rock, collected in 2023, also contains minerals formed by ancient water, suggesting the early solar system had many of the ingredients needed for life. NASA

America's radical experiment in emptying youth prisons worked
In 2000, over 100,000 young Americans were locked up in juvenile detention facilities. By 2022, that number had plummeted by 75%, with 29 states experiencing even greater declines. The reduction came alongside major drops in youth crime - arrests for serious violent crimes by juveniles have fallen 78% from their peak in the 90s. New York Times

Brazil's rescue mission brings hope to Yanomami tribe
Two years after President Lula launched an emergency operation to save Brazil's largest Indigenous territory from illegal gold miners, hunger and infant mortality rates among the Yanomami are plummeting. Health centres have been reopened, malnutrition cases have dropped from 80 to 12 patients per day, and many mining operations have been expelled. Guardian

We suffered so much. We shed so many tears. We lost so many children … we were abandoned for so long. Now, the doctors have arrived.

Global air pollution has likely peaked
Emissions data of local air pollutants show that concentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, black carbon, and organic carbon are all in decline. Many of these damage human health and ecosystems as well as promote climate change. Our World in Data

Donald Trump versus market forces
The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects solar power to provide the majority of new capacity built through 2026, oil companies have no extra plans to drill baby drill, American automakers are plowing forward with electrification, and a coalition of two dozen US governors, representing nearly 55% of the US population, are redoubling commitments to slash planet-warming pollution.

DRC to create Earth's largest protected rainforest
The Democratic Republic of Congo has established one of the world's largest protected areas by ministerial decree - a 540,000 km² green corridor safeguarding Earth's largest tropical carbon sink. The initiative combines conservation with sustainable development, aiming to create half a million jobs while protecting the world's largest intact rainforest. Greenpeace

Scientists keep 'artificial sun' burning at record heat for 17 minutes
Researchers in China have achieved the longest-ever run of super-hot plasma, maintaining temperatures six times hotter than the sun's core for over 17 minutes. The team at the EAST facility heated plasma to 100 million degrees Celsius, breaking their previous record of about seven minutes. SCMP

China emissions - flatlining since March 2024
A record surge in clean energy kept China’s emissions below 2023 levels for the last ten months of 2024, however overall emissions still grew by 0.8% due to record energy demand in January and February. Somewhat disappointing after high hopes of a peak last year, but momentum remains strong - renewable energy deployment this year is expected to meet all new electricity demand. Carbon Brief

Solar overtakes coal in Europe for the first time in 2024
Renewables—including hydropower and bioenergy—supplied 47% of the bloc’s power in 2024, while fossil fuels accounted for 29%. That’s a significant shift from five years ago, when renewables made up 34% and fossil fuels supplied 39%. The EU has halved emissions since their peak in 2007. Ember

FDA approves first non-addictive pain drug that matches opioids
Journavx is the first pain medication that works as effectively as opioids without addiction risks. The drug blocks pain signals before they reach the brain, showing strong results in two large trials with 2,000 surgery patients. The breakthrough provides a new option for treating acute pain from surgery and injuries. NYT 🎁

First CRISPR therapy approved for sickle cell treatment in England
England's health regulators have approved gene-editing therapy for severe sickle cell disease. The treatment modifies patients' blood stem cells using before re-infusion, and will be made available via the NHS to patients aged 12 and over with severe complications where stem cell transplants are suitable but donors unavailable. "It marks a significant shift in treatment." Euronews

Nine new protected areas across South America
The Andes Amazon Fund is possibly the world's most effective conservation initiative almost nobody has ever heard about. In the past month, it's posted nine stories about new protected areas in Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia, totalling almost 10,000 km². That is not a typo. Some of these areas are crucial biodiversity hotspots, home to hundreds of species of unique fauna and flora.

If it bleeds, it leads

Research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism shows that news avoidance hit a record level in 2024, with 39% of people surveyed saying they actively avoid the news some or all the time - up from 29% in 2017. Respondents said the volume of information, long-running stories such as the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, and the negative nature of the news, make them feel anxious and powerless.

Open comments suggest that the intractable conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East may have had some impact. In a separate question, we find that the proportion that say they feel ‘overloaded’ by the amount of news these days has grown substantially (+11pp) since 2019 when we last asked this question.

And just in case you weren't worried enough already...