Doomslayer: Progress Roundup

Jan 18, 2026

Economics & Development

According to the World Bank, poverty fell in three-quarters of countries between 2021 and 2024. The organization also estimates that 80 percent of countries saw poverty decline in 2025.

The critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguana is recovering after conservationists relocated some of the species’ last survivors to an island free of competing lizards.
The endangered flat-headed cat has been spotted in Thailand for the first time in 30 years. Previously, scientists had suspected that the elusive feline was extinct in the country.
Numbering just 384 individuals, the North Atlantic right whale is among the most vulnerable whale species in the world. Thankfully, its prospects may be improving; the population has grown about 7 percent since 2020, and scientists are reporting an unusually fruitful calving season this winter.
Fishermen around Scotland are catching increasing numbers of flapper skate, suggesting that the endangered fish is recovering in the area.

Amazon has struck a deal with Rio Tinto to supply US data centers with copper extracted by microorganisms. The company claims that the process, called bioleaching, produces pure copper from low-quality ore with far lower carbon emissions and water use than conventional smelting.

For the first time in 25 years, there is no drought anywhere in California.
Over the past few years, a number of widely publicized studies have made extreme claims about microplastic accumulation in the human body. But a recent investigation by The Guardian finds that much of the research is deeply flawed, with many reported detections likely driven by contamination and false positives. Critics say a commonly used detection method can mistake fats in human tissue for plastic, and that some studies report microplastic exposure that is simply “not biologically plausible.”

Hybrid rice, produced by crossing two genetically distinct parent varieties, typically produces much higher yields through a phenomenon called heterosis, or “hybrid vigor.” However, the benefit doesn’t extend to the next generation of seeds, which lose their yield advantage when replanted, forcing farmers to buy new seed every season. Scientists at the China National Rice Research Institute now claim they’ve solved that problem by creating hybrid rice that produces seeds that are genetically identical to itself, a long-sought breakthrough in rice breeding.
The share of Rwandan children with stunted growth fell to 27 percent in 2025, down from 33 percent in 2020. Acute malnutrition declined from 8 percent to 6 percent over the same period.

According to the annual report from the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for US cancer patients has crossed 70 percent, the highest ever recorded. The report also estimates that improved cancer treatment has averted around 5 million premature deaths in the US since 1991.

Stanford Medicine researchers have developed an AI model that can analyze sleep data to estimate a person’s future risk of more than 100 health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, and neurological disorders.
The FDA has instructed Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to remove suicide-risk warnings from their GLP-1 weight-loss drugs after concluding that the evidence doesn’t support the concern.

NASA is about to launch the first crewed mission in its Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and lay the groundwork for a long-term lunar presence. The upcoming mission will send four astronauts on a ten day journey around the Moon and back, marking humanity’s first crewed flight beyond low-Earth orbit in more than fifty years.
Despite a communications blackout, Iranian dissidents were able to share footage of state violence online using thousands of illegal Starlink terminals. One researcher at Amnesty International said that almost every video they analyzed during the protests was uploaded by someone with access to Starlink.
A Finnish startup is building glasses that automatically adjust your prescription based on what you’re looking at, using eye-tracking sensors and liquid crystals. They are marketing the device as a more flexible alternative to bifocal lenses.

There were just 97 murders in London last year, the lowest number since 2014. The murder rate was the lowest since 1997.
In 2025, New York City saw overall crime fall 3 percent, murders fall 20.2 percent, and robberies fall nearly 10 percent, according to the NYPD.
State Police data show a sustained decline in New Jersey shootings and car thefts.
The number of murders fell 32 percent last year in DC, and violent crime in general fell 29 percent, according to metropolitan police statistics.

South Korea has banned bear bile farming, a cruel traditional practice that typically involves confining bears to tiny cages for their entire lives.