Denmark is easing its abortion law for the first time in 50 years to allow women to terminate their pregnancies up to the 18th week. The new rules will also allow 15 to 17-year-olds to have an abortion without parental consent and will replace the five regional abortion consultations with a new national abortion board, to avoid local differences.
Denmark relaxes abortion law Read more
In a first-ever human clinical trial of four adult patients, an mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida quickly reprogrammed the immune system to attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal brain tumor.
In a first-ever human clinical trial of adult patients, an mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida reprogrammed the immune system to attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal brain tumor. The results mirror those in 10 pet dog patients suffering from brain tumors, as well as results from preclinical mouse models. The breakthrough will now be tested in a Phase 1 pediatric clinical trial.
New mRNA cancer vaccine triggers fierce immune response to fight malignant brain tumor Read more
Delegates overwhelmingly approved the changes, 692 to 51, during the United Methodist Church’s General Conference. Shortly after the vote, spontaneous celebrations erupted on the conference center floor. Hundreds of people began cheering and singing. One of the hymn lyrics distinguishable in the crowd was, “You are a child, you are a child of God.” The UMC is one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., with over five million members and 29,000 churches.
United Methodist Church lifts bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings Read more
Energy ministers from the G7 countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union — agreed at a meeting in Turin, Italy, to close all coal-fired generating stations in their countries by 2035 if not sooner. Putting an end date on coal — the most polluting of all fossil fuels — has been highly controversial at international climate talks. Until this point, Japan, which derived 32% of its electricity from coal in 2023 according to the climate advocate Ember, has blocked progress on the issue at past G7 meetings.
G7 agree to close all coal-fired generating stations by 2035 Read more
Cumulative global installed solar capacity in 2023 passed 1.4 terawatts (TW), which is tenfold larger than ten years ago and doubling every 3 years. At current growth rates (20% per annum), solar will pass fossil gas in 2024 and coal in 2025. Current growth rates also suggest that solar will approach 9 TW in 2031, when there will be more solar generation capacity than everything else combined.
Solar is now perhaps being installed faster than any technology in history Read more
There’s a global shortage of blood supplies needed for life-saving transfusions due to factors that include an aging population with a higher demand for it and a lack of volunteer donors. To help address this challenge, researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Lund University, Sweden, have used enzymes produced by a common gut bacteria to remove the A and B antigens from red blood cells, bringing them one step closer to creating universal donor blood.
Bacterial enzyme strips away blood types to create universal donor blood Read more
The Danish Energy Agency announced this week plans for the largest offshore wind tender in the country’s history, which could see anywhere from 6GW to 10GW awarded from six new sites. Denmark is currently operating total offshore wind capacity of 2.7GW, with the 1GW Thor Offshore Wind Farm to be completed in 2027. A further 3GW is expected to be built on the Bornholm energy island being developed between the Danish Energy Agency and Danish TSO Energinet.
Denmark plans massive 10GW offshore wind tender to insure against “Putin’s black gas” Read more
The number of unhoused people in Japan fell 8.0% as of January from a year earlier to 2,820, the lowest level since data began in 2003, the health ministry said in a recent survey report.
Number of houseless people in Japan hits record low Read more
Ten percent of the world’s tropical forests are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the DRC is losing 1.2 million acres of forest every year. To help address this, a Congolese government program aspired to plant 1 billion trees between 2019 and 2023, aiming to strengthen climate resilience, alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity, and achieved 90% of their goal.
Democratic Republic of the Congo plants more than 800 million trees between 2019 and 2023 Read more
In the 1990s, more than 60 people per 100,000 were killed in homicides each year, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Homicide was the cause of 15% of all deaths at the time. The homicide rate has fallen significantly since then, as the chart shows. In 2021, it was around 27 homicides per 100,000 people. The country’s rate is now much closer to the regional rate of the Americas, at 15 homicides per 100,000 people.
Colombia’s homicide rate has more than halved since the 1990s Read more
