Thread by @DrAlakbarov

Here are all the good things that happened in the world in 2018:

* Mexico is selling its $218.7 million presidential plane to use funds for poor communities
* South Korea closed its largest dog meat slaughterhouse

More good news from 2018:

* For the second time in history, a human-made object reached interstellar space
* Africa saw a huge and significant decline in FMG
* For the first time in Iran, women were allowed to attend men's sporting events

* For the first time, we were able to hear the sounds the sun makes and wind on Mars
* North and South Korea marched under one flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics
* Scientists developed a plastic-eating enzyme
* 157 new species discovered in Southeast Asia

#2018inReview

* New Zealand has stunned the energy industry by slapping a new cap on drilling for oil and gas in its waters as part of efforts to combat climate change.
* A study found dogs can be a powerful tool in diagnosing malaria

#2018inReview

* Researchers developed a 10-minute cancer test
* The UK has exceeded UN targets for HIV diagnosis and treatment
* North and South Korea vowed to formally end the Korean War.
* Iraq had its first parliamentary elections since the defeat of ISIS in the country

#2018inReview

* The first Muslim and Native American women were elected into US Congress
* Ireland voted and repealed its abortion ban
* Scotland became the first country to back teaching LGBTI issues in schools
* The European Parliament passed a full ban on single-use plastics

#2018inReview

* Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace agreement, signalling the end of a 20 year war, and reuniting thousands of families
* Ireland became the world’s first country to divest from fossil fuels
* Global suicide rates have dropped by 38% since 1994

#2018inReview

* In Malaysia voters fired a prime minister who could not adequately explain why there was $700m in his bank account
* South Africa has ditched a president, Jacob Zuma, who presided over the plunder of the state

#2018inReview

* Scotland became the first nation in the world to guarantee free sanitary products to all students
* Rwanda became the first low income country to provide universal eye care to all of its citizens

#2018inReview

* The Seychelles created a new 130,000 square kilometre marine reserve in the Indian Ocean
* The population of mountain gorillas, one of the world’s most endangered species, was reported to have increased by 25% since 2010

#2018inReview

5 Animals That Are No Longer Endangered in 2018:

* Panda
* Snow leopard
* Indian Rhino
* North American Gray Whale
* Southern White Rhino

#2018inReview

* Columbia created the largest protected tropical rainforest national park in the world
* UNESCO removed the Belize Barrier Reef, the second largest in the world, from its list of endangered World Heritage Sites

#2018inReview

* Spain to create new marine wildlife reserve for the migrations of whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea
* Niger planted 200 million new trees in three decades, the largest positive transformation of the environment in African history

#2018inReview

* The UN said that the ozone hole would be fully healed over the Arctic and the northern hemisphere by the 2030s
* Deforestation in Indonesia fell by 60%
* Following China’s ban on ivory last year, 90% of Chinese support it, ivory demand has dropped by almost half

#2018inReview

* South Africa, home to the world’s largest population of people living with HIV, shocked health officials by revealing a 44% decline in new infections since 2012
* Russians are drinking and smoking less than at any point since the fall of the Soviet Union

#2018inReview

* Paraguay eliminated malaria, the first country in the Americas since Cuba in 1973
* Germany released new figures showing that more than 300,000 refugees have now found jobs

#2018inReview

* Tunisia became the first Arab nation to pass a law giving women and men equal inheritance
* Bangladesh revealed that it had reduced its child mortality rate by 78% since 1990, the largest reduction by any country in the world

#2018inReview

* Repsol became the first major fossil fuels producer to say it would no longer be seeking new growth for oil and gas
* Global deaths from state based conflicts have declined for the third year in a row

#2018inReview

* Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world in 2012. Murders have decreased by half since then
* At least 32 countries around the world now have plastic bag bans in place — and nearly half are in Africa

#2018inReview

2018 was a big year for conservation. The world had some extraordinary new milestones for global health. Living standards improved for most people in the world. War, crime and violence continued their inexorable, long term decline.

#2018inReview

Dear kids,

Doing good in this world, and being kind and being honest and noble is really underrated. I always thought everyday people have enormous power, and they have enormous power for good, and if you're good to people, the world is a better place.

* After enacting the world’s toughest plastic bag ban, Kenya reported that its waterways were clearer, the food chain is less contaminated — and there are fewer ‘flying toilets.’

#2018inReview

* Malaysia announced it would not allow any further expansion of oil palm plantations, and that it intends to maintain forest cover at 50%
* 70% of the world’s population is reducing meat consumption or leaving meat off the table altogether.

#2018inReview

* Crime falls when you take in millions of refugees too. The number of reported crimes in Germany has fallen by 10%, to the lowest level in 30 years
* Afghanistan’s deadliest province for landmines, was declared free of explosive devices

#2018inReview

* 11 European nations either closed their coal fleets or announced they will close them by a specific date, including France by 2023, Italy and the UK by 2025, and Denmark and the Netherlands by 2030.

#2018inReview

* The share of black men in poverty in the US fell from 41% in 1960 to 18% today
* Nepal became the 54th country in the world, and the first country in South Asia, to pass a law banning corporal punishment for children

#2018inReview

* Pakistan’s parliament passed a landmark law guaranteeing basic rights for transgender citizens
* Chile passed a new law protecting the waters along its coastline, creating 9 marine reserves & increasing the area of ocean under state protection from 4.3% to 42.4%

#2018inReview