Weekly Progress Roundup

May 11, 2025

The share of Indians in extreme poverty (living on less than $2.15 per day at 2017 prices) fell to just 2.3 percent in 2023, down from 16.2 percent in 2012, according to a recent brief from the World Bank.
97.5 percent of Nepalese municipalities now have access to electricity, along with over 90 percent of households.
Last week’s Iberian grid collapse also impacted the telecommunications network in Spain and Portugal, leaving many without service. As a result, record numbers turned to Starlink, which was able to provide a stable connection throughout the blackout.
Mobile phone use has grown dramatically over the last few decades, particularly in the world’s poorest regions.

Energy & Environment

Palmerston Island in the South Pacific is now rat-free, leading to surging crop yields and biodiversity.

Between 2017 and 2023, Latin Americans installed around 31 gigawatts of “distributed energy,” or energy produced close to its point of use—think rooftop solar panels. For context, one gigawatt is enough to power over 750,000 US homes.
Pakistan has seen similarly impressive growth in energy abundance, with its citizens importing 17 GW of solar panels in 2024 alone. According to Mustafa Amjad, a program director at a Pakistani energy think tank quoted by CNN, “There is no policy push that is driving this; this is essentially people-led and market driven.”
The Ontario government has approved what may become the first small modular reactor in the Western world, set to begin operation by 2030.

The Lundin Mining Corporation has found what they claim is the largest copper discovery in three decades, containing at least 13 million tons of the metal.

The amount of trash on European coasts fell by 29 percent between 2016 and 2021, according to a report from the European Commission. Progress was fastest around the Baltic and Mediterranean seas, which saw a 45 percent and 38 percent drop, respectively.

The drone delivery company Zipline is transforming healthcare in Ghana by ensuring fast and reliable access to medical supplies. According to a recent study, healthcare facilities in Ghana's Ashanti Region that gained access to Zipline's drone delivery service saw maternal deaths fall by more than half.
Southeast Asia is winning its battle against malaria. Between 2010 and 2020, annual malaria cases fell 80 percent, while annual deaths dropped by 77 percent. Many countries in the region are making progress toward eliminating the disease entirely.
Last week, an extraordinary story emerged about a snake collector named Tim Friede with an extreme level of snake venom immunity. Over the course of decades, Friede injected himself with over 700 doses of venom, 200 of which were from actual snake bites. Now, scientists are trying to use the antibodies in his blood to produce a universal antivenom. A good reminder that tolerance for eccentric behavior is an important condition for progress.

The Resilience lander, built by the Japanese company ispace, is set to touch down on the moon next month. If successful (this is their second attempt), ispace would become the third private company to land a spacecraft on the moon.
The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to let SpaceX launch Starship up to 25 times per year, loosening the previous limit of five annual launches and promising to significantly accelerate the rocket’s development.
Amazon has designed a robot that can sense through touch, allowing it to handle a wide range of objects. The robot’s job will be to stow items in bins—a job it is already performing better than most humans.
For the first time, researchers involved in the Vesuvius Challenge have read the title of an unopened Herculaneum scroll: On Vices by the philosopher and poet Philodemus.
Lidar, a remote-sensing technology that uses lasers to peer beneath forest canopies, is helping scientists uncover a continuous stream of knowledge about ancient American civilizations. Katarina Hall summarizes some of these findings in Reason Magazine:
Settlements once thought to be regional capitals have been revealed as mere suburbs of even larger metropolises. What seemed like natural hills have turned out to be long-lost pyramids. Ravines have been identified as remnants of ancient human-made structures. And what was considered simple trade has emerged as a far-reaching import/export system.