🔥 The world has never burned this little since measurements began
Wildfires in Europe and North America are more extensive than before. At the same time, the global figures show a different picture. During the first half of 2026, global emissions from fires were the lowest ever measured, according to the European climate center Copernicus.
📉 HIV infections and AIDS deaths at lowest level in over 30 years
Seven countries have reduced new infections by almost 80 percent since 2010. New prevention medicines offer protection close to that of a vaccine.
🚗 Transport emissions are falling in Australia, thanks to EVs
Australia's transport emissions fell for the second consecutive year outside the pandemic, driven by growing EV sales and lower petrol consumption. The country's total greenhouse gas emissions dropped 2.1 percent in 2025 and are now 24.5 percent below 2005 levels.
☀️ Solar replaces coal as the world's largest source of electricity within six years
Solar overtakes coal as the world's largest source of electricity generation within six years, according to research firm BloombergNEF. Solar is the cheapest source of new electricity generation. Coal costs almost twice as much.
🏊♀️ 50 years ago no one dared dip a toe in the Detroit River, now people fish, paddle and swim there
Friends of the Detroit River is now launching the 14th and final priority habitat restoration project in the Detroit River. Thirteen are already complete. Every spring, millions of fish move up through the river to spawn.
💡 Warp News #333
👦 U.S. teenagers are drinking, smoking, and fighting less and less. 👮 Largest drop in violent crime and murder in the US since 1937. 🦝 The numbat was nearly extinct, now it is no longer classified as endangered.
👮 Largest drop in violent crime and murder in the US since 1937
Violent crime in the US fell by 9.3 percent in 2025, according to preliminary FBI figures. Murder fell by 18.1 percent and robbery by 18.5 percent.
🦾 AI is finally starting to help with grunt work (and my biggest fear)
There's a fear that constantly nags at the back of my mind. It makes me check and double-check, compulsively, and it never helps. Then one day it was gone.
🚑 261,000 Americans have their medical debt erased thanks to nonprofit
A total of $550 million in medical debt has been paid off through a donation. Every $10 donated removes an average of $1,000 in debt. The organization behind the effort has erased more than $40 billion in all 50 states so far.
👦 American teenagers are drinking, smoking, and fighting less and less
An American teenager today is about half as likely to die as a teenager in 1990.
💉 937 billion dollars in vaccine costs have saved 154 million lives and 15,000 billion dollars
That means every dollar invested has returned 16.06 dollars, and in low-income countries the return is even higher: 23.63 dollars per dollar invested.
🌌 The universe is now being filmed for ten years, and everyone gets access to the footage
The Vera Rubin Observatory is now photographing the entire southern sky and making all the data openly available. During a single test run, it discovered over 11,000 previously unknown asteroids, 33 of them near Earth.
🦝 The numbat was nearly extinct, now it is no longer classified as endangered
The numbat was close to extinction. By the late 1970s, only around 300 individuals remained. After more than 40 years of conservation work, the population has grown to between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals. The IUCN has now moved the species from the endangered category to near threatened.
💡 Warp News #332
📊 No rise in unemployment due to AI. 🛩️ The world's largest electric hybrid aircraft has flown for the first time. 🚭 Tobacco use in India has halved in twenty years.
📊 Payroll data from millions of Americans: no rise in unemployment due to AI
Since generative AI reached widespread use, many have warned that the technology would wipe out jobs on a large scale. Researchers at Stanford have analyzed payroll records for millions of Americans. Employment has grown by about 6% since late 2022, including in the occupations most exposed to AI.
📚 Top Reads
We're honored to present these top reads from world-class writers, who contribute to Warp News because they believe in our mission of spreading fact-based optimism all over the world.
🆙 Warp Levels - an idea to level up humanity
Humanity is doing the high jump without a bar. We have no goal. With Warp Levels, we determine what the next level for humanity should contain, so we can level up and make progress faster.
📚 Kevin Kelly: Focus on the biggest opportunities, not the biggest problems
We talk about some of the 450 advice in his new book, but also about his new project: Protopia - the hundred-year desirable future. And Kevin Kelly give advice for how Warp News should grow faster: "Wrap it around people and their dreams."
💡 A new mindset for humanity can impact billions of people now and in the future
If we succeed in giving humanity more optimism about the future, it will not only affect those living now but also all generations and billions of people who will live in the future.
💰 Wall Street legend: “Pessimists sound smart – optimists make money”
Jim O'Shaughnessy is a legendary investor on Wall Street. He shares what he thinks is the biggest opportunity for the future and explains how the world is going through a great reshuffle.
🔋 Northvolt and the benefit of understanding the future
The story of Peter Carlsson and Northvolt teaches us two lessons: You need to understand the future to see all the possibilities, and you must be a fact-based optimist to grab them.
💡 David Deutsch: Optimism, Pessimism and Cynicism
With so much progress in the world, how can pessimism still be widespread? It is because of cynicism, denying that “so-called-progress” is progress, argues David Deutsch, professor at Oxford University and one of the world's leading intellectuals on optimism.
