⚰️ Homicides per capita have fallen 14 percent since 2015
The global homicide rate dropped from 5.9 to 5.1 victims per 100,000 people between 2015 and 2024. In the ten years before 2015, the figure held steady at around 6 victims per 100,000 people. If the decline continues at the same pace, the rate will reach 4.5 victims per 100,000 people by 2030.
🐟 20,000 salmon return to the Klamath after the dams came down
In August 2024, excavation crews breached the last of four dams on the Klamath River in far northern California. For the first time in over a century, salmon could swim past the sites where the dams had stood. Chinook have recolonized close to 90 percent of their former range in the river system.
🧮 AI agents solved one of mathematics' hardest problems in 88 hours
10,000 AI agents found a solution to the Navier-Stokes problem, which mathematicians have worked on for decades. The problem is one of six Millennium Problems each carrying a prize of $1 million. If the result is confirmed, it is the first time AI has solved a major open problem in mathematics.
📊 AI has created a million new jobs in the US
AI has so far created around one million new jobs in the US, roughly five times more than the approximately 200,000 layoffs linked to the technology. Several occupations singled out as particularly exposed are growing instead. The number of paralegals rose by about 11 percent between 2023 and 2025.
🕵️ AI chatbots saw through Russian and Chinese disinformation in three out of four cases
Six chatbots and four search engines got 30 questions built on false claims spread by Russia, China and Iran. The chatbots debunked the claims on average about three times out of four. The chatbots failed less often than search engine results at challenging the false information.
🚕 Tesla's taxi without a steering wheel or pedals is now running in Austin
Unlike competitors Waymo and Zoox, which combine cameras with radar and lidar, Tesla builds the entire system on cameras. The company has 45 Cybercabs registered with the Texas motor vehicle authority and a total of 256 robotaxis operating without safety drivers across six cities.
📉 Emissions from deforestation and land use have fallen 32 percent since the 2000s
Until 1999, emissions held steady at around 6.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Between 2015 and 2024 they averaged 5 billion tonnes, and in 2025 they fell to 4.1 billion tonnes. The main reasons are that permanent deforestation has decreased and that new forest absorbs carbon dioxide.
⚖️ This is what the News Scale says about the (im)balance in news media
8,500 headlines and leads from 24 news outlets in 15 countries have been assessed on how positive, negative or neutral they are.
🚗 Electric car sales rise again and set records in 50 countries
Electric car sales rose 4 percent in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same quarter last year, while total global car sales fell by around 5 percent in the first half of the year.