Capital Punishment, Mental Health in Rwanda and Air Pollution in Europe

Hi everyone there won't be a regular issue next week; instead, we'll be revealing a new project we've been hatching here at FTN HQ. We also wanted to let you know we're planning a change in our publishing schedule. As we've become better at gathering stories, the length of this newsletter has started blowing out, and many of you are saying it's difficult to read everything. To overcome this problem, we're soon going to move to two editions per week. We'll let you know well before we make the switch.

In other news, we have a new charity partner! Phola operates a mobile mental health service that travels around communities in Johannesburg, South Africa, that are struggling with gender-based violence, conflict, and poverty. Their caravan 'of joy and tears' is at the heart of everything they do, a place where tens of thousands of people have found healing, but it has reached the end of its run.

We are sending them $5,000 USD to buy a new caravan. This donation will allow them to keep providing culturally-relevant counselling services for underserved communities (including vulnerable children and women who have survived violence and abuse), break down barriers to mental health access, and bring hope and healing to those who need it the most. We are so grateful to all our paying subscribers for making this donation possible.

Become a paid subscriber to FTN, and make good news happen

It's US$80 a year, and one third of that goes straight to charities like Phola to use for equipment and supplies (no middle men). It's our way of putting our money where our mouth is, and we couldn't do it without the support of our readers. Also, you get a whole lot of clean energy and technology news, which will make you a much better person to sit next to at dinner parties.

Good news for people

Three-quarters of countries have now abolished the death penalty 
Amnesty International says there was notable progress last year: Malaysia repealed mandatory death penalties, Ghana's parliament passed two bills removing it altogether (and Kenya and Zimbabwe are considering similar proposals), Pakistan abolished it for drug-related offences, and Sri Lanka confirmed it would no longer carry out executions. World Coalition

Billions of dollars for tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria in Ethiopia, Kenya
The Global Fund has approved a grant of over $1 billion to Ethiopia to improve quality treatment and care for the diseases, praising the country’s steadfast commitment to tackling health challenges to date. In Kenya, a $461 million grant will boost health and community systems between 2024 and 2027, focusing on TB, leprosy, and lung diseases.

Rwanda’s remarkable efforts to rebuild mental health after genocide
Since 2005, the government and partners have embraced community-based psychotherapy methods to facilitate healing and peacebuilding, with survivors reporting significant improvements in mental health and suicide deaths dropping substantially. Restorative justice has also helped to normalise Hutu-Tutsi relations, and universal health coverage, implemented in 2006, has increased life expectancy from 56 to 70 years. Think Global Health

Desalination efforts around the world
Construction of Africa’s largest desalination plant has begun in Morocco, a $650 million project powered entirely by wind that will produce enough water to serve 7.5 million people. In Taiwan, a new plant will provide drinking water for 1.6 million residents in Hsinchu City by 2028, and in Namibia, a second desalination plant is expected to offer a vital lifeline to the drought-prone country by 2027.

'Left Behind' America stages remarkable comeback
Some of the country's worst-off counties in the Midwest and Southeast have bounced back since COVID-19, thanks to significant growth in employment and the establishment of new businesses in the last three years, marking the fastest economic expansion since the presidency of Bill Clinton: 'This is the kind of thing that we couldn’t have even dreamed about five or six years ago.' NYT

22 years after The Wire, Baltimore reports 36% decline in homicides
According to the Baltimore Police Department, these numbers for the first half of 2024 are on top of a 20% reduction in homicides in 2023. The new figures also show that non-fatal shootings declined by approximately 30% in H1 2024. City leaders have attributed this to community outreach and long-term efforts to regain public trust as well as 'the collective efforts of [the] entire public safety apparatus.' Hoodline

De-mining efforts ramp up in Ukraine
Defense Ministry specialists have already cleared 30,000 km² of mine-infested land since Russia's invasion; Türkiye, Romania, and Bulgaria are working together to ensure safer waters in the Black Sea after Russia mined Ukraine's coastline; and Japan just announced a joint project with Cambodia to share knowledge and technology to provide humanitarian mine action in Ukraine.

Swedish grandparents become eligible for paid parental leave 
The groundbreaking new law will allow parents to transfer a portion of their parental leave to grandparents, enabling the latter to receive payment for taking care of their grandchildren for up to three months during the child's first year. The country was also the first in the world to introduce paid parental leave for both parents in 1974. Independent

UK's new cabinet is the most representative ever of wider society
Keir Starmer’s Labour government has already broken several records: the new cabinet has the highest number of state-educated and female ministers in history, and LGBTQ+ MPs make up 11.6% of the governing party, the largest proportion of any parliament worldwide.

If it bleeds, it leads

On Monday this week, around 45,000 airplanes took off and landed in the United States. One of those planes lost a landing wheel while taking off from Los Angeles and later landed safely in Denver. Everyone was fine; nobody was injured. However, the incident made the news everywhere, because the plane was a Boeing.

The story was picked up by, among others, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, The South China Morning Post, Reuters, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, NBC, CNN, and ABC. All of them had some variation on this headline:

Forty-six days ago, the WHO and UNICEF released a report showing that over 200 million schoolchildren gained access to improved water, sanitation, or hygiene services between 2015 and 2023. Almost seven weeks later, this incredible story of human progress has not been reported by a single news publication anywhere in the world—and is nowhere to be found on social media.

So this is where we find ourselves. The possibility that something might have gone wrong (but didn't) on a single plane flight in America is now considered more newsworthy by every single media organisation on this planet than hundreds of millions of kids getting clean drinking water and proper toilet facilities at school.

The news sucks at its job.

More good news you didn't hear about

The 2023 poverty rate for Latin America and the Caribbean fell to its lowest level in the last two decades. In Morocco, multidimensional poverty dropped from 40% in 2001 to 5.7% in 2022. The US has pledged $1.58 billion to Gavi for malaria vaccines. Massachusetts reports a 10% drop in opioid-related overdose deaths, the largest single-year decline in two decades. The US FDA, responding to public pressure, is banning brominated vegetable oil in food products. A trial study suggests ketamine tablets significantly improve depressive symptoms in treatment-resistant depression. The International Labour Organisation revises global unemployment rate down to 4.9% due to ‘macroeconomic stability.' Global fertiliser affordability returns to pre-2019 average. The World Bank is launching a free ID campaign in Mozambique to bridge the identification gap. WHO removes Zimbabwe from list of high-TB-risk places and also reports significant declines in malaria cases and AIDS mortality. Benin residents welcome increased electricity access in 13 cities. A reminder for us all: Harvard researchers find that women who practise gratitude have a lower risk of mortality from all causes. Meet Ronin, your hero of the month.

Good news for the planet

China's power sector sees 3.6% fall in emissions
Clean energy generated a record-high 44% of China’s electricity in May 2024, pushing coal’s share down to a record low of 53%, seven percentage points lower than in May 2023, when it accounted for 60% of generation. With clean energy generation now expanding by more than the rise in electricity demand, fossil fuels saw their largest monthly fall in since the pandemic. Carbon Brief

Colombian deforestation fell to 23-year low in 2023
Last year, deforestation in Colombia fell by 36% thanks to a decline in environmental destruction across the Amazon region. About 792 square kilometres of the country was deforested, down from 1,235 square kilometres in 2022. This is good news for one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, home to thousands of plant and animal species. Reuters

Sturgeons return to Swedish waters for the first time in 100 years
Scientists have kicked off a 10-year project to reintroduce the Atlantic sturgeon, transferring 100 young sturgeons from a farm in Germany and releasing them into the cleaned-up waters of the Göta älv. The species lived in the river until the late 19th century but disappeared due to overfishing and pollution. Phys.org

To be a person who has the possibility to re-introduce a species that has been extinct nationally, it's a gift. It's probably the best thing I've done. Biologist Dan Calderon

South Sudan will protect the greatest mammal migration on Earth
African Parks and the South Sudanese government recently conducted a historic aerial survey showing the 'Great Nile Migration'—over six million antelope, including the tiang, reedbuck, white-tailed kob, and Mongalla gazelle—seasonally crossing the White Nile. For context, the Serengeti migration of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle amounts to around 2 million animals. African Parks

China cleans up its air and water
In 2023, the average density of PM2.5, a key indicator of air pollution, was 30 micrograms per cubic meter, almost 3 micrograms per cubic meter lower than the annual target. This represents a 16.7% decrease from 2019. China’s water also improved, with 89.4% of monitored sections registering above Grade 3 in the five-tier water quality system, up 1.5 percentage points year-on-year. People’s Daily

Air pollution continues to decline in Europe
In 2022, 16 EU Member States reduced emissions of the five main air pollutants, maintaining a downward trend since 2005. The reduction rate for some pollutant emissions is now levelling off—except for sulphur dioxide, which has already reached its target within 22 Member States. EEA

Eleven new biosphere reserves added to global list
The new designations are in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, The Gambia, Italy, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Spain, with two transboundary reserves, one of which spans Belgium and the Netherlands, with the other in Italy and Slovenia. The new reserves bring the global total to 759 sites in 136 countries, covering 7,442,000 km²—an area almost the size of Australia. UN

25-year restoration of Michigan’s Maple River is now complete
It's the first river in the US to return to a natural, free-flowing state. The decades-long project removed culverts and dams and replaced roads with free-spanning timber bridge structures to allow the water to flow through. 'This is one step of many to save Michigan's greatest resource: our Great Lakes; the source of drinking water, recreation and aesthetic for millions.' UpNorthLive

Debt-for-nature swaps take hold globally
Since the first debt-for-nature swap in 1987, over $380 million has been invested in projects across 14 countries to conserve critical tropical forests and coral reefs while supporting local and Indigenous communities. 'Debt-for-nature-swaps are more than an innovative financial mechanism; they are a means to keep the whole intact.' WWF

Ancient conservation practice restoring the Middle East
To combat desertification, communities across the Middle East are reviving the concept of the hima, a land-management practice dating back 1,400 years. Himas are areas of land that are set aside for rotational grazing or protected from hunting and logging. Lebanon has 31 himas covering more than 6% of the country’s land, resulting in improved biodiversity. Biographic

More music for those who will listen

India says it will sign the High Seas Treaty, joining 91 other countries. Florida has banned balloons to help save marine wildlife and seabirds. The UK's largest puffin colony has increased by a third since 2017. Nepal launches 10-year program to boost the critically-endangered Bengal florican. The newest Federal Duck Stamp has gone on sale in the United States; since 1934, the stamp has raised over $1.2 billion and conserved more than 6 million acres of habitat. A ban on ‘dirty fuel’—the most climate-damaging fuel for ships—has gone into effect in the Arctic. The protection of 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska from drilling and mining has been finalised. After years of reversals, sport hunters are banned from baiting black and brown bears in Alaska. A major initiative will restore mangrove forests along the banks of 52 rivers and canals in Khulna, Bangladesh. A landmark ruling in Suriname has granted interim protections to local and Indigenous communities to conserve their land. Author Barbara Kingsolver wrote the pledge for America’s Climate Corps, and it's awesome.

That's it for this edition, thanks for reading. We'll see you next week with our exciting news! Thank you again to all our paid subscribers for making the donation of that caravan to Phola possible. We love you.

Gus and Amy