Doomslayer: Progress Roundup
Faster growth in Africa, a huge new trade deal, the first vaccine for a deadly bat virus, and more.
Economics & Development
The International Monetary Fund predicts that in 2026, for the first time in history, Sub-Saharan Africa’s economies will grow faster than Asia’s—about 4.4 percent compared with Asia’s 4.1 percent.
In an op-ed in the Financial Times, Duvvuri Subbarao, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, argues that India may have graduated to a “higher growth trajectory” thanks in part to more responsible fiscal and monetary policy. He writes that in 2025, the country’s economy grew over 7 percent without a surge in inflation, a problem that has historically accompanied the country’s growth spurts.
Poverty in Buenos Aires fell to 17.3 percent in late 2025, down from 28.1 percent a year earlier.
After 25 years of negotiations, EU member states have approved a trade agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) that will lower tariffs on over 90 percent of goods traded between the two markets.
The Rising Tide: How Trade Lifts All Boats
Free exchange turns scarcity into abundance for rich and poor alike.
Health & Demographics
According to the World Health Organization, the number of people at risk of contracting trachoma, a bacterial eye infection, fell to 97 million in late 2025, down from 1.5 billion in 2002.
A vaccine for Nipah virus, a highly deadly bat-borne disease with no existing treatments, has entered phase 2 clinical trials for the first time.
Novo Nordisk is now selling the pill version of its weight loss drug Wegovy in the United States. The new medication is much cheaper than its injectable predecessor, potentially widening access to obesity treatment and putting downward price pressure on the weight-loss drug market.
Researchers at Ovo Labs, a fertility biotech startup, say they’ve found a way to reduce chromosome errors in human eggs, a major cause of fertility issues for older women. After restoring a protein that helps chromosomes separate correctly, the team observed abnormal chromosomes in 29 percent of treated eggs compared to 53 percent in a control sample.
OpenAI is launching a new health feature that lets people upload their medical records and other health data to ChatGPT, allowing the AI model to give more personalized medical advice.
Science & Technology
According to its annual progress report, Starlink expanded to 35 additional countries in 2025 and added 4.6 million subscribers, more than doubling its customer base.
Scientists have produced the first 3D images of Popocatépetl, a highly active volcano near Mexico City, revealing multiple magma pockets deep underground. The images give researchers a clearer view of the volcano’s structure and could eventually improve warnings for the millions of people living nearby.
Billionaires Eric and Wendy Schmidt are funding four advanced telescopes, including a space observatory akin to Hubble and multiple ground-based facilities. The most ambitious part of the plan is the timeline: all four are meant to be operational within just four years.
Utah has begun a pilot program to test whether artificial intelligence can safely renew medical prescriptions. The program is operated by Doctronic, a healthcare AI company that claims its system can perform the service faster, more cheaply, and just as responsibly as doctors.