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In the headlines...

💔 There were at least two major incidents of gun violence in the U.S. yesterday: Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at a Utah college event, and two students were shot and injured at a Denver-area high school. This does not have to be our daily reality, and if you’re looking for ways to help stop gun violence in the future, here’s how to take action.

🇺🇸 Today is the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and as part of its annual remembrance of that day, a neighboring church and mosque in Tennessee will be joining forces to host a blood drive.

Environment & animals

New South Wales is creating one of its largest national parks to protect thousands of koalas and ban logging

In the state of New South Wales, Australia, the current government confirmed its creation of a great koala national park, adding 176,000 hectares of forest to existing reserves and creating one of the state’s largest national parks.

Not only will the park protect more than 12,000 koalas, it will also put an immediate moratorium on logging within its boundaries.

The decision comes after months of pressure from local environment advocates who had been frustrated with ongoing logging and long-time government promises to establish the national park.

Why is this good news? The protected area includes old-growth forests that are critical biodiversity hotspots for the entire world. They’re home to 100 threatened species, including koalas and greater gliders. When critical ecosystems thrive thanks to protection and conservation, it helps the planet, wildlife, and humans, too.

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More Good News

​Melinda Gates announced a $100 million investment in accelerating women’s health research. The investment will focus on areas of women’s health with the highest rates of mortality, including autoimmune disease, mental health, and cardiovascular health, looking at underresearched areas like chronic disease and menopause.

​Brazil has seen a 65% drop in the area of the Amazon rainforest burned by fire, thanks to more careful communities and heavy rain. It’s the lowest recorded amount of area burns, and the data also shows that across Brazil, both in the Amazon basin and beyond it, 54% fewer acres of landscape have been burned by fires.

​In a landmark case, a judge in Hong Kong ruled in favor of lesbian couples seeking parental recognition. The couple’s son was born through reciprocal in vitro fertilization, and the ruling is a step forward for the LGBTQ movement in a city that does not endorse same-sex marriages but is working toward a framework to recognize same-sex partnerships.

​As part of a long-term restoration project, 1,600 new seedlings were planted to boost a monarch butterfly pollinator habitat. As the monarch “super generation” is already beginning to migrate south to Mexico, many will make their way through Michigan’s Peninsula Point, which is the state’s most well-known migratory monarch waystation, with clusters of the butterflies roosting on cedar trees.

Housing

This futuristic, flood-resistant tiny home can be ‘dropped’ anywhere housing is needed

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good Data

With some of the safest roads in the world, the UK’s death rate per mile driven has declined 22-fold since 1950

In the 1920s and ‘30s in the United Kingdom, between 5,000 and 7,000 people died in road accidents each year. Today, that’s dropped to around 1,700 people dying in road incidents every year — about a quarter of what it used to be, despite there being 16 times more vehicles on the roads and 33 times as many miles driven.

That’s a 22-fold decrease in the death rate per mile driven. If the death per mile driven were as high as in 1950, the country would see 37,000 road deaths per year instead of 1,700.

Speed limits, the introduction of highways, well-designed roundabouts, cracking down on drunk driving, and other policies had the biggest impact in helping the country reach this point.

→ Read more​

Good Quote

→ More from Feal, a 9/11 first responder and survivor advocate​

More Good bits

🔬 Scientists are helping fight diseases that they’re managing themselves.

🏈 An NFL punter is raising money for clean water projects. (Instagram)

😍 These wind turbine designs are a beautiful sight.

👏 A pig kidney transplant patient just reached a huge milestone.

✈️ Aviation students are flying with history under their wings.

What’s good?

It really is wild to read back about just how NOT safe roads were — all over the world!

Were you surprised to read about how safe the UK’s roads are now?

Reply and tell me your reaction!

— Megan