The diameter of planet Earth is 7,926 miles, and it’s inhabited by over 8 billion people. No matter how many articles you read, news outlets you follow on social media and conversations you have with colleagues about current events, there is no way you can possibly keep up with everything that happens around the globe. But if you’re looking to learn about a few things that you may not have been aware of, you’ve come to the right place.
Redditors have recently been discussing important events, discoveries and more that are occurring in real time across the planet, so we’ve gathered some of their replies below. Enjoy reading through this list, and be sure to upvote the information that you’d like more people to be aware of!
This post may include affiliate links.
I've got a peach cobbler going in the oven. Most people aren't aware of that.
Griffith University Queensland, Australia are about to start human trails on groundbreaking research into regenerating nerves in spinal cord injuries.
https://www.griffith.edu.au/research/impact/world-first-restore-spinal-function
The war on the poor! They have nowhere to go, can’t find work, can’t find food, and get kicked out of public places because they don’t have “business” being there. The shelters are over crowded, under funded, and picky about who they let in. Inflation has made it impossible to keep food in the house, and pay for the bills/rent. And the reasons they can’t find work are that they don’t have a stable place to put on their applications, can’t pass an interview( when they get one )because of the condition of their looks, and can’t get a call back because they don’t have a phone (because they chose to eat instead of paying a phone bill). It’s really bad. And it’s all brushed under the carpet because a Cheeto felon is running for president.
The amount of energy and emissions that AI is going to require/generate over the next 10 years completely undoes all of the environmental advancements we have made in the past 10 years.
While we weren’t paying attention, China used stem cells to reverse type 1 diabetes .
Bill in the US Senate to ban major corporations from buying homes (forgive me if even I missed a detail, hilarious how little coverage it's getting).
They should heavily tax anyone with multiple homes, incrementally increasing it the more homes you own. This wont have an enormous impact on the middle class that may of bought a second home but it would shake up the rich from hoovering up property. And why not embrace work from home more, then all those city office blocks, can help alleviate the the lack of available homes
War in Sudan. 50 million people in Sudan before it started, estimated 9 million people have been displaced and today 750 thousand are facing imminent starvation. For context there are about 5 million Palestinians total in West Bank and the Gaza Strip. I'm not trying to diminish what's happening in Palestine, just to point out how little attention Sudan gets relative to the size of the human impact it's having.
FYI, this is another Putin-related war. The RSF forces (basically, mercenaries formerly employed by the government) have been bankrolled since the early 2010s until last summer by Russia, with training by the infamous Wagner Group. Their scope was to seize power, in the meantime, they spent their happy time doing war crimes in the Darfur region. Last July, Putin -after previously offing Wagner's leader Prigozhin- negotiated a new agreement with the almost-defeated SAF (the closest thing to a state military remaining), providing military support in exchange for access to infrastructures -ports to resupply the Russian supported militias in central Africa- and a stop of sales of Iranian drones to Ukraine.
In late 2023, we saw the first-ever approval of CRISPR-based medicine: Casgevy, a cure for sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia (TDT).
There are almost 50 million people in modern slavery worldwide, and 12 million of them are children…….
The new Euclid telescope is actively taking pictures of space and piecing them together to make a map of our night sky, it just finished the first set.
These are worth looking at. https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Euclid_s_first_images_the_dazzling_edge_of_darkness
The Supreme Court is essentially on the ballot but most people don't think about that. They think they're just voting for president, but balance of power on the court is what's truly at stake. Several justices will likely retire in the next 4 years and the president appoints them.
whose bright idea for the supreme court judges to be appointed by a selected politician? How does that make sense? Where is the true separation of powers ? If a politician is allowed to assign people FOR LIFE to the highest court in the country that actually decides what is and isn't constitutional how is that unbiased and separate from politics?
Hurricane Helene flooded a factory that makes over half of the IV fluids we use. There is a terrible shortage that is impacting care.
Forests have started releasing more C02 than they use, insects are going extinct in the united states, and cyanobacteria and algae populations in the oceans have collapsed.
In like half the US it hasn't rained in a month and mount Fuji has like zero snow on it.
We may have basically found a treatment for late stage rabies It has been working pretty well in lab test with rats
Similarly we have found a possible treatment for age-related mental diseases such as Alzheimer's by basically reactivating certain healing factors in the brain of rats and the scientists are pretty confident that this should work in the humans too The era of people living to 120-130 is closer than you think, especially when you look at the fact that especially in healthier countries like Japan there are record high numbers of people living to be over 100.
A lot of people know, but I don't think people are aware enough that big tech companies get a pass on privacy invasions because the US government can subpoena information from them that the government itself is not allowed to collect. I truly believe this is why the US government is going after TikTok so hard because they're afraid of China using the data from the app the way the US uses data from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.
ETA: Also, if TikTok is forced to be sold to American ownership, then they join the American companies in collecting information from Americans and can be compelled by the government like the others.
This one is near and dear to me:
Cabozantinib (Cabometyx) is a chemotherapy d**g that may be a new treatment option for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The FDA accepted a supplemental New D**g Application (sNDA) for cabozantinib in August 2024, with a target action date of April 3, 2025. The d**g is intended to treat adults with well- or moderately differentiated pancreatic or extra-pancreatic NETs that are locally advanced, unresectable, or metastatic.
Multiple d***s are in/going in to human trials to regrow teeth.
Getting an new set of teeth at 40 would be much better than at 6, but I was not consulted on the original design.
yeah the human body has some serious design flaws that I think a focus group before launch could have helped with
Load More Replies...I think multiple penises in your mouth are supposed to regrow teeth? Not sure though it doesn't seem medically sound to me, I'm not a doctor though so I don't know
Load More Replies...Good news for me who just had genetically rubbish teeth that were further trashed by huge amounts of antibiotics as a baby/young child.
Load More Replies...And still not affordable for most of us who really need them.
A combination of d***s, you've seen it exaggerated in the news in recent years. But there are two main d***s: one to regrow the soft tissue kernel, and another that regrows the enamel. Combined they are moving towards trials that allow people to fully regrow missing teeth from the root up.
Would it be possible for you to rephrase this, so that most of us can what the hell you’re trying to say ?
They're being real dicks about it, possibly on drugs
Load More Replies...They should maybe read about Tithonus: eternal life but not eternal youth
Not to be the Debbie Downer here, but utter and complete social upheaval brought on by ecological and climate collapse.
We aren’t ready for the complete catastrophe that is just around the corner. News sources are barely reporting on the dangers of cascading systems let alone those that have already collapsed.
- AMOC
- BOE
- Natural Carbon Sink Overload
- Soil Quality
- Methane
- Ocean Acidification
- Wildlife Extinction
- the list goes on and on
We aren’t ready for the hell on earth that awaits us. And it’s going to happen much sooner than later.
Estimates of 2100 or end of century are straight up hopium at this point.
For those struggling with the acronyms AMOC is an ocean current system at risk of collapse. I still have no idea what BOE stands for unless the Bank of England poses an extinction level threat
In a handful of highly specific cases, people have actually been fully cured of AIDS.
Syria
1. We have Turkey actively fighting the Kurds in northern Syria, and actively working closely with Russia to do it.
1A. Turkey js a nato member who helping Russia and Turkey just bought a missile defense system from Russia.
2. The US last week bombed a Syrian airport. This is unusual in that the IS normally only fights ISIS in Syria, this was against a Syrian government controlled airport.
3. Iran is actively funding Hezbollah in their fight against Israel. Hezbollah who also support the Syrian government has fighters in Syria fighting.
4. Israel has bombed multiple targets in Syria including the capital.
5. All of this is like a quagmire of alliances, and it looks like the Middle East is just going to keep burning.
Well, to be honest Turkey bought s400s from Russia because the prices of US produced equivalent was way too expensive and came with way too many restrictions. Turkey even warned US that if the prices were not dropped it would have to go for Russian option before actually going and buying those. I thought US was all for free market? :D As for Turkey vs Kurds, well. That's an issue. My old country's approach for that particular problem is as complex as many conflicts in history. And just like many conflicts in history, the government is doing a p**s poor job of handling it. Especially Erdogan government is trying to be a recognized power in the area and ruining long established friendships along the way. A true travesty or previous policies. Did you know for instance until Erdogan's government Turkish army never purchased any offensive only type weapon systems? No long range attack ships, no long range missile systems etc. Just so it would not be seen as a threat. Until Erdogan that is
Just how badly our kids need more support at home so they can do well at school. Just how far behind socially and academically our kids are because they don't get enough help at home!
I'm a 5th grade teacher.
While I agree that kids need more support at home, I truly hope the OP isn't exclusively laying the onus on parents. The need for two incomes just to keep food on the table and a roof over heads, not to mention the lack of affordable healthcare and childcare is a HUGE problem in the States.
Taiwanese chip manufacturing plants being rigged with explosives in the event of a Chinese invasion and the increase of US Marines being deployed to Taiwan.
Did you know that the largest of Taiwan's chip manufacturing plants were destroyed in their last major earthquake. They've had to rebuild from scratch since then.
Data privacy erosion.. the mass surveillance is growing with companies and governments collecting extensive data on people.
There's a mining company preparing to blow a hole in
a pristine piece of desert in Nevada. Right next to that hole is a 10 acre spot where a tiny desert plant called Tiehms Buckwheat is eaking out a living.
There are 50% less Tiehms Buckwheat plants now than there were a decade ago because half the population disappeared virtually overnight.
The Bureau of Land Management, which will ultimately permit the mining company, said the plants likely disappeared because of rodents (although the rodents chose an odd time to decimate a plant they've lived next to for hundreds of years).
This little plant grows nowhere else on Earth. It has evolved to thrive in that soil - heavily laced with lithium.
And because lithium extraction is more important, that little plant will likely become extinct.
Worst Famine in Sudan in 40 years 25million people without food security as a civil war rages around them.
The Myanmar/Burma Civil War has been going on since 2021. Some 50,000 k*lled and millions displaced.
It’s been going on a lot longer than that. The country hasn’t had a legitimate government or internal stability since the military seized control in 1962. 2021 is simply when the military once again arrested and imprisoned the legitimate government, and resumed open control after a few years of nominal democracy.
A surprising number of animals are adapting to urban life in ways we barely notice.
We're running out of helium
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/01/775554343/the-world-is-constantly-running-out-of-helium-heres-why-it-matters
And yet this precious gas is still being openly wasted in balloons. 🤔
Last night in a hospital somewhere near my city, a man was brought in for a broken spinal cord from jumping off of a 2 story building, to try to k*ll himself. He and his girlfriend had been in an argument and he stood on the balcony, threatening to jump, and then did. Obviously survived, because a 2 story house is not tall enough to do the job. He proceeded to call his girlfriend from the hospital to break up with her. A few hours later, his girlfriend jumped off of a 3 story building, successfully k*lling herself.
The crazy s**t happening in the lives of others is always something baffling to me. It’s happening all the time, everywhere, and we have no idea.
A moment to late to change, that still eats at me. Very brief backstory. The father was having an affair, wanted a divorce, moving out. The mother wearing a nightie, wanders out into a very bad winter's night. They found her body huddled in a corner the next day. He stayed for the kids. Fast forward the kids are adults and moving out, the father has asked his mistress to marry him. The youngest venomously opposed it, telling his father he was dead to him if he married her. The father jumped off a multistorey carpark. Ironically I worked with both mistress for about three years and the son for about two years, work friends with both. About 18 months later. I'm waiting for my bus home when I get tapped on the shoulder, it's the son. He'd been in a mental facility for over a year and do I want to go for a pint. I had overtaxed my liver forcing me to stop drinking because of my own declining mental health; didn't feel fair to share that, so went home. He jumped off the viaduct that night.
Children of opiate addicts and overdose victims are growing into adults after a lifetime of being ignored and abandoned. Everyone is wonder why the young people are so sick, we have the stats. Millions of people addicted to substances and extreme substances that obliterate parental engagement is starting to show.
Im one of the flood into foster care in the 2010's, now even more parents are overdosing or have moved to fent from traditional hard substances They give their kid computers and then leave them until they are 18 if they don't abandon them physically.
Those kids are becoming sick adults and think they are flawed when they have been consistently disadvantaged their entire life. That adult who never feeds themselves well, doesn't pursue any of their goals or ideas, never spends on their needs, never plans for the future is a child who was ignored and taught their ideas and health weren't valuable or worth pursuing . They weren't taught how to strategically plan and coordinate a project.
Sick adults are child victims who didn't get help. And we are now seeing their apathy and illness rise in real time .
I am now going into year 7 being sober off opiates. My kids have never met the me that is actively addicted and I am very proud of that. If we didn't break kids we might not have to fix adults.
They discovered a new antibiotic that k*lls MRSA.
No, they discovered a structural class of compounds that, according to deep-learning AI, can fight off MRSA infections, backed up by very promising experimental results from mice studies. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06887-8
I learned today that North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to Russia.
A high school in Georgia has tested over 300 students and staff for tuberculosis because of exposure.
since a good chunk of this was quite depressing imma just leave this here: https://www.positive.news/
BP doesn’t create these; they’re a content aggregators. Average people submitted these to Reddit.
Load More Replies...I'm really, REALLY worried about the resurgence of illnesses that were almost eradicated and how nonchalant everyone is about it and underplay the lack of vaccines until it's late. Wake the f**k up.
Some good news: worried about fossil fuels? The U.S. (for example) has seen the rate of increase of solar-energy production regain its 35% per year growth rate from the pre-covid era. Solar energy is now cheaper than many fossil fuels. At its current growth rate, it will supplant all other forms of electricity production in less than eleven years, quadrupling every five years. Even if its rate of adoption quadruples only once more, it will replace all fossil fuels in 20 years. For some reason, the government's estimate of future energy use, which has utterly failed to preduct current growth, pictures adoption of solar energy SLOWING, which is bizarre because solar energy isn't based on comsumption; adoption slowing actually would require a collapse in the solar-energy industry, which no-one is predicting. (I estimate solar energy replacing 80% of fossil fuels by 2040; the resulting price collapse of fossil fuels which make it economically difficult to rid that last 20% without bans, but it's probably beneficial economically to maintain a niche market anyway.)
Kudos to the folks posting links with facts for us to corroborate. You're the MVP's.
since a good chunk of this was quite depressing imma just leave this here: https://www.positive.news/
BP doesn’t create these; they’re a content aggregators. Average people submitted these to Reddit.
Load More Replies...I'm really, REALLY worried about the resurgence of illnesses that were almost eradicated and how nonchalant everyone is about it and underplay the lack of vaccines until it's late. Wake the f**k up.
Some good news: worried about fossil fuels? The U.S. (for example) has seen the rate of increase of solar-energy production regain its 35% per year growth rate from the pre-covid era. Solar energy is now cheaper than many fossil fuels. At its current growth rate, it will supplant all other forms of electricity production in less than eleven years, quadrupling every five years. Even if its rate of adoption quadruples only once more, it will replace all fossil fuels in 20 years. For some reason, the government's estimate of future energy use, which has utterly failed to preduct current growth, pictures adoption of solar energy SLOWING, which is bizarre because solar energy isn't based on comsumption; adoption slowing actually would require a collapse in the solar-energy industry, which no-one is predicting. (I estimate solar energy replacing 80% of fossil fuels by 2040; the resulting price collapse of fossil fuels which make it economically difficult to rid that last 20% without bans, but it's probably beneficial economically to maintain a niche market anyway.)
Kudos to the folks posting links with facts for us to corroborate. You're the MVP's.