Public safety

Landmine clearing

Croatia declared free of landmines after 31 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

After more than three decades of meticulous and dangerous work, Croatia has officially been declared free of landmines. Stemming from the 1990s Homeland War, the clearance operations resulted in the safe removal of nearly 107,000 landmines and over 407,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance. Supported heavily by European Union funding, the 1.2 billion euro effort successfully reclaimed vast areas of agricultural land, dense forests, and national parks. This monumental achievement fulfills the country’s obligations under the Ottawa Convention, ensuring a much safer future for its citizens and providing an inspiring blueprint for post-conflict recovery worldwide.

Law enforcement officers in masks

California becomes first U.S. state to ban most law enforcement officers from wearing masks

By / / Good News For Humankind

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has signed a bill prohibiting most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business. The legislation, which is the first of its kind in the nation, is a direct response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles where masked federal agents made mass arrests. This new law is intended to increase transparency, boost public trust in law enforcement, and prevent people from impersonating officers to commit crimes. This is a progressive step that could serve as a model for other states, even as it faces legal challenges.

Baltimore reports historic drop in homicide rates

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Thousands of Arizonans now have a financial burden lifted off their shoulders, Gov. Katie Hobbs has announced. According to the Democratic governor, $429 million in medical debt has been erased for more than 352,000 Arizonans as part of a partnership between her administration and national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt. In 2024, Hobbs announced an initiative to erase $2 billion in medical debt for up to one million Arizonans.

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First Earth Fire Alliance satellite for detecting wildfires is now in orbit

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The FireSat constellation, which will consist of more than 50 satellites when it goes live, is the first of its kind that’s built to detect and track fires. It’s an initiative launched by nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance, which includes Google and Muon Space as partners, among others. According to Google, current satellite systems rely on low-resolution imagery and cover a particular area only once every 12 hours to spot large wildfires spanning a couple of acres. FireSat will be able to detect wildfires as small as the size of a classroom and deliver high-resolution visual updates every 20 minutes.

Marshall Islands flag

Marshall Islands signs treaty banning nuclear weapons in the South Pacific

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The Marshall Islands has become the 14th Pacific Islands Forum member state to join the South Pacific’s nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament treaty. The agreement, known as the Treaty of Rarotonga, was opened for signature on 6 August 1985 and entered into force on 11 December 1986. The current member states of the treaty are Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Landmine

Groundbreaking laser tech enables faster, safer landmine detection

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Researchers at the University of Mississippi have come up with a faster, more efficient method for detecting landmines – millions of which pose a lethal threat to people in war-ravaged countries all over the world. That could spell a safer future for people who live in 70 current and former war-torn countries around the world that are riddled with an estimated 110 million active landmines. These explosives caused 2,793 deaths globally in 2017, and that number tragically rose to 4,710 in 2022.

Women feeling lonely and sad

Washington State considers rape kit backlog ‘essentially eliminated’ 30,000 tests later

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In a moment Washington state officials say has been a long time coming, the state’s crime lab in Vancouver is declaring its sexual assault kit testing backlog “essentially eliminated.” Over the past decade, the lab has tested more than 30,000 kits. In 2019, House Bill 1166 required rape kits to be tested within 45 days as of May 2022. Today, the Washington State Patrol’s Vancouver Crime Lab reports 95% of kits are tested and DNA entered into a database in 45 days.

Hands making hear shape over transgender flag in background

Mexico City passes law requiring harsher sentences for anti-trans murderers

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Mexico City, Mexico has passed a local law banning murders against transgender women, a practice referred to in the country as transfemicidio (transfemicide). Murderers convicted under the law would face between 35 to 70 years in prison. Nearly 600 trans people in Mexico have been murdered between 2008 and 2021. At least 10 trans women have been murdered this year in Mexico City alone.

Silhouette of person holding fun

Crime in England and Wales has plummeted 80% in 30 years

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As of 2024, violence, burglary, and car crime have been declining for 30 years and by close to 90%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The drop in violence includes domestic violence and other violence against women. Anti-social behavior has similarly declined. While increased fraud and computer misuse now make up half of crime, this mainly reflects how far the rates of other crimes have fallen.