Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 12h

Read all about it @ipes-food.org.

ipes-food.org/brazil-beats...

A nation off the UN hunger map: Brazil shows people-first policies can conquer hunger. Brazil’s incredible success shows no one needs to go hungry.

ipes-food.org

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 12h

🇧🇷Brazil has been officially removed from the UN Hunger Map!

🧐Here's how they did it.

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 13h

🤔Why does it matter?

🫧Fully functioning services are a crucial aspect of preventing infections, reducing antimicrobial resistance, ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and responding to outbreaks and emergencies

cdn.who.int/media/docs/d...

cdn.who.int

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 13h

🧐Which ones?

👏Algeria,Bahrain, North Korea, Ethiopia, Hungary, India, Kuwait, Laos , Liberia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Niger, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, and Thailand.

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 13h

🌍📈The Daily Dose via @who.int 🌍📈

In 2025, 17 countries have substantially improved basic services in health care facilities, according to the WHO's Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, Health Care, Waste, and Electricity Services in Health Care Facilities Global Progress Report.

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 16h

😀3 Things That Went Right This Week😀

☀️ In the first half of 2025, renewables overtook coal as the world’s biggest source of electricity.

🇧🇫Burkina Faso raised the legal age for marriage to 18.

🧑‍⚖️ California will have the nation’s first AI safety law.

theprogressnetwork.org/early-onset-...

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 17h

"The real power lies with those who still dare to imagine a better future for this region," writes TPN member Faisal Saeed Al Mutar.

"Those who still believe that Arabs and Israelis, Sunnis and Shias, and liberals and conservatives can coexist without the sword between them."

Will This Two-Year Nightmare Finally Be Over?

Blessed be the peacemakers, for they carry the heaviest burden and receive the smallest applause. But history, in time, remembers them differently—as the ones who stood steadfast in the storm.

www.themiddleeastuncovered.com

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 1d

"It feels surreal, but there could actually be peace in Israel and Gaza," writes TPN member Isaac Saul for @tanglenews.bsky.social

"Compared to just a few weeks ago, the recent development is stunning."

www.readtangle.com/the-israel-h...

The Israel–Hamas peace plan.

Plus, what does the NSPM-7 domestic terrorism memo do?

www.readtangle.com

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 1d

🤔Is the rise in early-onset cancer real?

🧐Or is it an epidemic of diagnosis rather than disease?

🎙️Let's talk about it.

theprogressnetwork.org/early-onset-...

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 1d

🤔How did they do it?

🤝They hired a physics professor, Ramón Méndez Galain, to be the country’s energy secretary in 2008.

🌪️Within five years of taking the job, he had switched the country's energy mix from imported fossil fuels and hydropower to solar, wind, hydropower, and sustainable biomass.

He got an entire country running on clean energy. Can he do it again?

Ramón Méndez Galain helped Uruguay decarbonize its grid in just five years, with 98 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources.

www.washingtonpost.com

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 1d

🇺🇾☀️The Daily Dose via @washingtonpost.com ☀️🇺🇾

Uruguay fully decarbonized its grid in five years with 98% of its energy coming from renewable sources.

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 2d

🚗In 2018, a federal mandate required all new vehicles sold in the US had to be equipped with backup cameras.

📉Since then, the number of pediatric backover fatalities has plummeted by 78%.

www.kidsandcars.org/news/post/ba...

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 2d

😢It's the final episode of Season 7 of What Could Go Right?!

😍Don't worry. We shall return in 2026.

🎧Hosts TPN founder Zachary Karabell and TPN exec. director Emma Varvaloucas look back on 7 months of thought-provoking positive conversations.

link.chtbl.com/z1L9Oy7V

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 2d

⚡️Modern building codes now require safeguards like arc-fault circuit interrupters that cut power when wires start arcing behind walls, which can risk sparking sudden fires.

🌡️Appliance improvements like automatic space heater shutoffs and temperature controls.

US urban fire deaths have dropped sharply since 1980

Smoke alarms, sprinklers, safer products, and fewer smokers have cut US city fire deaths in half over four decades.

www.vox.com

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 2d

🤔How did this happen?

⏰Better smoke alarms

🚿More buildings have automatic sprinklers

💺The US adopted a national smolder-resistance standard for upholstered furniture in 2021

🚭People smoke less

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 2d

🔥📉The Daily Dose via @voxdotcom.bsky.social 🔥📉

Between 1980 and 2023, civilian fire deaths per capita have fallen by 62% in the US!

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 3d

👏Preschool enrollment soars in Morocco!

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 3d

🕊️Can the latest Gaza peace proposal actually work?

🎙️TPN member @ianbremmer.com discusses the current plan with the head of curation at TED Talks, Helen Walters.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E82...

Inside the Gaza Peace Plan | TED Explains the World with Ian Bremmer

YouTube video by TED

www.youtube.com

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 3d

🥳For the first time in 1,428 years, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be a woman!

👩‍⚕️The 105th Archbishop is Sarah Mullally, who was a former cancer nurse before joining the clergy.

⛪️The Church of England started ordaining its first female priests in 1994.

Sarah Mullally named the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in history of Church of England

Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London, has been named Archbishop of Canterbury, the first time a woman has been chosen as the spiritual leader of the Church of England.

apnews.com

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 3d

🧐Any new vaccines?

😮2024 saw the fastest routine vaccine rollout in @gavi.org's history: the world’s first malaria vaccines, now protecting millions of children across 23 African countries representing more than 70% of the world’s malaria burden.

www.gavi.org/news/media-r...

Gavi announces record-setting year for saving lives through immunisation

In 2024, Gavi-supported vaccines saved a record-breaking 1.7 million lives – 400,000 more than in 2023 – according to Gavi’s Annual Progress Report.

www.gavi.org

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 3d

🌏💉The Daily Dose via @gavi.org 🌏💉

According to Gavi's Annual Progress Report, Gavi-supported vaccines saved a record-breaking 1.7 million lives in 2024!

That's 400,000 more than in 2023.

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 4d

👀Check out how your state did!

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 4d

"Hegseth will be happy to know that the beard-growing contest was merit-based, color-blind and open to everyone on the ship, even the women."

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | ‘No more beardos’: Appearance trumps performance at Pentagon

Hegseth’s meeting with generals and admirals missed the real opportunity in gathering leaders.

www.washingtonpost.com

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 4d

"We were deep into deployment, and to help morale during those long days, the crew was excused from shaving," writes TPN member @drtedj.bsky.social.

"After a few weeks, facial-hair superlatives were handed out — grayest, longest, best overall and so on."

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The Progress Network @progressntwrk.bsky.social · 4d

🥳Burkina Faso has banned child marriage!

👏You now have to be 18 to get married there.

🙃Previously, the minimum age of marriage was 17 years old for girls and 20 years old for boys.

😬The country currently has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world.

Burkina Faso raises the legal age for marriage to 18 years old

Burkina Faso has adopted the bill for the new Personal and Family Code (CPF), changing the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 years old for both girls and boys.

www.girlsnotbrides.org

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