A look back at the happiest news stories of 2023

In a welcome reversal of trends, there are now more mountain gorillas, giraffes and buffalo in Uganda than there were in the 1980s, according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The number of elephants has quadrupled, and the almost-extinct East African black rhinos have also returned, with a population of about 30. Part of the resurgence is credited to tougher penalties for poachers.

India has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by one-third over the past 14 years, according to the news agency Reuters. T.P. Murukesan, known in India as "Mangrove Man," is just one pioneer of growing environmental consciousness. In his home state, Kerala, in southern India, he has planted about 100,000 mangrove saplings to protect against the effects of flooding.

Ryyan Alshebl, who arrived as a refugee from Syria in 2015, was elected mayor of a southwestern German village in April. Alshebl garnered an impressive 53.5% of votes cast in Ostelsheim. Eight months into his term, he is doing more than just taking international media requests: Alshebl is looking for new staff for the village kindergarten.

After over three years, the World Health Organization officially declared the end of the global coronavirus health emergency on May 5, 2023. COVID-19, which killed 20 million people worldwide, began to spread globally in early 2020. According to the WHO, COVID-19 is still circulating, but the world now has better tools to protect most people from a severe bout of the disease.

Forty days after a small aircraft crashed in the Colombian jungle, soldiers successfully found four missing children. The siblings, aged 4 to 13, fed themselves on wild passion fruit and mango, as well as discarded packaged foods. Their mother, the pilot and an Indigenous leader died in the accident.

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest slowed down in 2023. According to the Amazon conservation forest monitoring program, deforestation in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia has decreased by 56%. Satellite data from the Brazilian Space Agency confirmed the trend. In June alone, deforestation was down by about 40% compared with the same month in 2022.

In the 1990s, men were dying on average seven years younger than women. The gap is now smaller, at 5 1/2 years. Germany's Federal Institute for Population Research used data from seven European countries to arrive at the result in a study published in August. Reasons include less nicotine consumption, a healthier diet and better medical care.

Beginning in the autumn semester of 2022, more people from abroad studied at German universities than ever before. With a total of 370,000 students, Germany overtook Australia among the most popular countries to study in, the Education Ministry reported in September. Germany was in third place globally, after only the United States and the United Kingdom.

On International Freshwater Dolphin Day, 11 Asian and South American countries signed a declaration pledging to protect the cetaceans that live in rivers and similar bodies of water. The agreement is meant to halt the decline in South American populations of freshwater dolphins and boost their numbers in Asia. There are only six species of the aquatic mammals left.

Can we use artificial intelligence to combat natural disasters? Two pieces of academic research suggest the signs are promising. At the University of Copenhagen, AI was used to generate forecasting formula for the probability of giant waves. And researchers at the University of Austin in Texas developed an AI that can predict earthquakes with an accuracy rate of 70% one week in advance.

It was a Himalayan miracle: A horrific underground ordeal ended happily for dozens of workers trapped near the small Indian town Uttarkashi. On November 28, all 41 were rescued from a 4.5-kilometer highway tunnel that had collapsed on November 12 after a landslide. The workers were trapped behind tons of rock. Emergency services brought them out through a pipe 90 centimeters (3 feet) wide.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh made a revolutionary discovery, by detecting kidney disease using 3D eye scans. The more severely the kidneys were damaged, the thinner the individual layers of the retina were, the researchers concluded. Retinal screening allows kidney disease to be detected earlier. According to global estimates, about 5 million people die of kidney failure every year.

As of December 17, bus rides are free on Sundays in the Brazilian city of Sao Paolo, a measure that is supposed to help with social cohesion. The Indian state of Karnataka introduced a similar system in September, allowing free bus rides for about 40 million women, making it easier to find work and commute.

In its crackdown on bogus self-employment, the EU is beefing up the the rights of delivery and taxi drivers who work with firms such as Uber. About 5.5 million people work for such online platforms, including cab drivers and tradespeople. Under the new rules, they will have the same rights as employees. This also includes contributions to pensions, health and unemployment insurance.