Invisible space bubbles over the pyramids of Giza

A few weeks ago, Max Roser wrote an eye-opening post on charitable giving that reveals a staggering fact: the world's most effective charities are up to 100 times more impactful than average ones. This isn't just a minor difference, it's a revelation that should reshape how the world approaches philanthropy.

To put this in perspective, imagine two charities. Charity A, with average effectiveness, might save one life with a million-dollar donation. Charity B, among the most effective, could save 100 lives with the same amount. The implications are profound: we don't need to be more generous, we just have to choose more carefully, and we could multiply our impact by orders of magnitude.

With this in mind, we're making a US$5,000 donation to Helen Keller International, one of the four most impactful charities mentioned in Max's post. Their Vitamin A supplementation program can provide a child with vital supplements for an entire year for just $2. It's estimated that every $5,000 donated to this program saves one life.

One newsletter edition, for one human life. Seems like a pretty good deal.

Thanks to all of you for making this happen.

Towards the elimination of a Biblical scourge
A new WHO update on Hansen's disease—more commonly known as leprosy—shows that from 2014 through 2023, the number of new cases globally decreased by 14.6%, from 214,001 to 182,815. New leprosy cases among children also significantly dropped during this time, from 18,862 cases in 2014 to 10,322 in 2023, representing a decrease of 45.3%. WHO

Zimbabwe makes huge strides towards eliminating trachoma
Since holding its first mass drug administration campaign in 2016, Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health has reached and treated over 4.5 million trachoma sufferers in poor communities with the antibiotic azithromycin. Around 3,000 people with advanced trachoma have benefitted from successful surgeries, and trachoma prevalence is now reported in just 3 of Zimbabwe’s 63 districts. Gavi

India extends health coverage scheme to over-70s
Fulfilling a key election promise, the government has expanded its national medical insurance scheme to provide citizens aged 70 and above with annual coverage of 500,000 rupees (about $6,000) per family. The government already provides free health services to 500 million low-income people, and the new plan is expected to benefit an additional 60 million. Reuters

US household purchasing power restored to pre-COVID levels
The inflation-adjusted median income of US households has rebounded to 2019 levels, rising from the equivalent of $77,540 in 2022 to $80,610 in 2023, an increase of 4%. The proportion of Americans living in poverty has also fallen slightly, from 11.5% in 2022 to 11.1% in 2023. This income jump has been attributed to the unemployment rate falling to a 50-year low in 2023. AP

Domestic violence in America down by two-thirds in 30 years
In September 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Violence Against Women Act, the country's first federal law criminalising domestic violence and providing support for community-based efforts against sexual assault. According to the FBI, between 1993 and 2022, domestic violence rates dropped by 67%. President Biden, who authored and championed VAWA as a senator, has announced that future renewals will include over $690 million in grants to support survivors. PBS

America’s shoplifting epidemic: more fiction than fact 
OK, so immigrants aren’t eating pets, murder and crime rates are way down, and inflation is back to normal, but what about the huge wave of shoplifting? Well, it was more smoke than fire. Analyses show that many retailers’ merchandise losses have stabilised or improved, while mentions of 'shrink'—lost inventory as a percentage of sales—on companies’ earnings calls dropped 20% during the first two quarters of 2024 compared to 2023. CNN

The narrative that shoplifting exploded nationwide has been mostly unfounded. In reality, retail crime has not meaningfully gone up nationwide in the past few years, and it has even gone down in many places. Some retail analysts have suggested companies may have overblown the impact of shrink and theft to mask other problems. 

Skin cancer rates are dropping among Swedish adults 
Swedish researchers have reported that the risk of malignant melanoma has been decreasing in people aged 50 years and younger since 2015. Mortality rates among under-60s have also decreased. The declines have been attributed to increased awareness of sun protection, reduced access to sunbeds, less time spent outdoors, and increased immigration. EurekAlert

Curbing pesticide access has drastically reduced suicides in South Asia
In Nepal, doctors and regulators have long advocated for stricter pesticide regulations due to their use in suicides. In 2019, the country banned imports and sales of eight pesticides, adding two more to the list in July. Early data show a 30% drop in reported deaths, with no impact on agricultural output. Replace 'pesticides' with 'guns', and you've got a compelling case for the United States. Telegraph

'A massive success amidst a tragic daily reality'
The WHO has successfully completed the first round of its emergency polio vaccination campaign in Gaza. From 1st to 12th September, health workers provided novel oral polio vaccine type 2 to some 558,963 children in central, southern, and northern Gaza, working rapidly during nine-hour humanitarian pauses. A second round in four weeks’ time will provide a second dose of the vaccine to children to prevent it spreading internationally. UN

More good news you didn't hear about

• How the fight against sleeping sickness was won (we are closer than ever before to consigning 'the colonial disease' to history).
• Thailand has fully adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which strengthens legal protection and expands access to essential services for refugee children.
• Hunger and food insecurity are falling in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• The World Bank has approved a new $150-million loan to upgrade road infrastructure in the state of Bahia, Brazil, benefitting 2.35 million people.
• Six outstanding literacy programmes from Austria, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Panama recently received prizes from UNESCO.
• The FDA has approved a second Alzheimer’s drug that has been shown in clinical trials to moderately slow cognitive and memory decline.
• The FDA has also approved three new therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the last fifteen months.
• More than 50% of people with advanced melanoma now survive for at least ten years when they receive a double dose of a new immunotherapy drug; 15 years ago, the five-year survival rate was 5%. 
• In the shadow of war, life begins anew in a Congolese maternity ward.
• Hope amid the rubble - 84 community initiatives that are restoring learning in the Gaza Strip, alongside vital mental health and psychosocial support.
• The Nuwa Senchi project (‘strong woman’ in a local language) has provided domestic violence support to over 13,000 women in the Peruvian Amazon.
• Drones are delivering life-saving vaccines on demand to children in remote parts of Kisumu, Kenya.
• After a two-year project by UNICEF and the German government, Torit, a city in South Sudan, is now efficiently providing clean water to over 80% of its population.
• The real immigration crisis? Not enough immigrants.
• Case in point: Heman Bekele, a 15-year-old Ethiopian immigrant to the United States, who might change skin cancer treatment with just a bar of soap. 

Indistinguishable from magic

SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew home after a spectacular mission
The four-person crew touched down in Florida after a five-day trip to orbit. The mission represented several firsts: the world’s first commercial spacewalk, the highest Earth orbit ever travelled by humans—making SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon the first women to travel so far from Earth—and the first time a music video (for a Star Wars theme, no less) was recorded from space. CNN

That time when a tsunami make the Earth ring for nine days 
In September 2023, a nine-day seismic signal was detected by seismometers across the globe. Scientists traced the vibrations back to eastern Greenland but were left baffled by the cause. An almost-year-long collaboration between 68 scientists from 15 countries, with assistance from the Danish navy, has finally identified the cause: a mega-tsunami triggered by climate change. Quanta

New research suggests Earth might have once had rings
Researchers from Australia’s Monash University have provided evidence that Earth may have had a ring like Saturn’s some 466 million years ago. They posit that if Earth destroyed and captured a passing asteroid, forming a ring, it would explain several puzzles in our planet’s past, such as meteorite debris in sedimentary rocks, crater patterns, and high levels of tsunamis. The Conversation

Super-radar detects invisible space bubbles over pyramids of Giza
China has become the first country to detect equatorial plasma bubbles using an ionospheric radar with a range of 9,500 km that it built last year. These bubbles form from a loss of charged particles in Earth's upper atmosphere and can grow large enough to disrupt GPS and satellite communications. The perfect start to a Three Body Problem-style sci-fi story? Interesting Engineering

African researchers turning to AI for homegrown healthcare solutions
Fidele Ntie-Kang, a pharmaceutical chemistry professor at Cameroon’s University of Buea, is leading efforts to develop new drugs from Africa’s abundant biodiversity using AI to screen natural compounds: 'By tapping into our own natural and human resources and applying new technologies like AI, we can develop homegrown solutions to our healthcare challenges.' Currently, over 80% of Africans rely on traditional medicines made from over 5,000 plants. Gavi

US startups want to bring driverless tech to long-haul trucking
There are several driverless trucking startups operating in America. One of them, Aurora, has spent seven years preparing for a driverless trip down the Interstate 45 highway in Texas, which it hopes to complete before the year’s end. If successful, the technology has the potential to reduce the many thousands of fatal large truck crashes that take place every year. Ars Technica

Lab-grown stem cells could be game-changer for cancer treatment 
Researchers in Australia have developed a method to convert human cells, like hair, skin, or blood, into haematopoietic stem cells. These cells are often lost during cancer treatments, necessitating risky transplants. Though lab-grown cells have only been tested in mice, if successful in humans, the stem cells could be produced from the actual patient, reducing complications from donor mismatches. Cosmos

Newly-discovered gene linked to longer human lifespan
A huge body of research has been devoted to understanding why some individuals live longer than others. Now University of Copenhagen researchers have discovered that a particular protein known as OSER1 has a great influence on longevity in various animals, including fruit flies, silkworms, and humans. This could pave the way for new treatments for age-related diseases. University of Copenhagen

'She propelled us, like, 50 years with awareness'
In 2022, singer Céline Dion made headlines with her diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome, shining a global spotlight on a rare and underdiagnosed disease that has no cure. Researchers are now creating an SPS patient registry, and cell therapy biotech Kyverna Therapeutics recently received FDA approval to test a promising new cell therapy for SPS. Fierce Biotech

That's it for this edition, hope you enjoyed it. Apologies for the stupid Dad jokes, and thank you for making that donation to Helen Keller International possible. We could not do any of this without you.

We'll see you later this week. Keep an eye out for those invisible space bubbles.

With love,

Gus and Amy