Good news stories from 2023

It might feel like good news stories have been few and far between this year, with wars breaking out and the climate crisis ravaging four separate continents. 

But Christmas is also the time to take stock of what has gone right, and here a brighter picture emerges. All over the world, advances in science, medicine and technology have offered succour now and hope for the future, while cultural and sporting figures have continued to strive for excellence. 

Here at The Week we have selected six great news stories from 2023, to see you through to the New Year. Merry Christmas, and glad tidings to all our readers. 

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Malaria

Huge strides have been made in the fight against one of the world's deadliest diseases, with the first vaccine being approved in 2021. But it is the second, recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October, that offers the best chance so far of eradicating malaria. 

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, is cheaper and more effective, thus is more likely to close the huge supply-and-demand issue in Africa. 

Despite the warming planet challenging efforts, and rising cases in the US, there are other avenues of hope. Scientists are working on genetically modified mosquitoes that are unable to transmit the malaria parasite. 

Flora and fauna

Despite the ongoing climate crisis, there have been some remarkable good news stories in the environment. 

The previously near-extinct golden lion tamarin has made a dramatic comeback in the Brazilian rainforest, according to a study released in August. The snow leopard population in Bhutan is up nearly 40% since 2016, according to the WWF in September. Humpback whales are thriving along Australia's eastern coast, with a record 4,700 counted on one day in June. India's tigers have clawed their way back from extinction, according to a census in April. Native oyster reefs are being rebuilt and restored along Britain's coastlines, and the devastating deforestation of rainforests worldwide appears to have slowed this year. 

Women's sports

The popularity of women's sports has continued to grow rapidly worldwide. In August, a record was set for the highest attendance at a women's sporting event, with 92,003 people heading to Lincoln, Nebraska to watch a college volleyball game. 

In the UK, the Women's Super League match between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium in October broke football attendance records, with 54,155 people watching the game. 

And TV audiences in the UK also hit record-breaking highs. A report by the Women's Sport Trust in November found that women's sports fans watched an average of almost 10 hours of coverage between January and October 2022, enjoying the Women's World Cup, rugby women's Six Nations and the Solheim Cup in golf. That figure was up from 8hr 15min in 2022 and 3hr 20min in 2021.

Cancer treatment

A pill previously only used to treat breast cancer was approved as a preventative measure in November, which could stop nearly 300,000 women from contracting the common disease. Anastrozole became the first drug to be licensed for a new use under a pioneering medicines repurposing programme led by NHS England. 

In the same month, researchers announced that using two inexpensive chemotherapy drugs ahead of radiation to treat cervical cancer cut the risk of women dying of the disease, or it returning, by 35%. 

And 14-year-old Heman Bekele won the title of America's top young scientist for developing a bar of soap that could help treat skin cancer.

Art

In September the heirs of a Viennese cabaret artist murdered by the Nazis in 1941 won a 20-year battle to get back part of his prized art collection. 

Fritz Grünbaum, who died at the Dachau concentration camp, owned dozens of works by Egon Schiele and other artists, which his wife was forced to hand over after his arrest in 1938. Labelled "degenerate", the Schieles were sold to fund the Nazi party, and seven wound up in museums and private collections in the US. Now, these have been returned to Grünbaum's heirs. 

In other good news, a Dutch art detective recovered a stolen Vincent Van Gogh painting worth up to £5.2 million, more than three years after it was stolen.

Aids

There is also a clear way forward to ending Aids by 2030, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDs) declared in a hopeful report in July. It revealed that 2022 had the lowest number of new HIV infections in three decades, and that treatment had averted almost 21 million Aids-related deaths in the same time. Several countries, including Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Botswana, achieved "95-95-95" targets, meaning 95% of people with HIV know their status, 95% of people who know they are HIV-positive are on antiretroviral treatment and 95% receiving treatment are being virally suppressed.