After the "Covid years" in 2020 and 2021, some were waiting for 2022 with the hope of a better future.

Their optimism was however dampened a few weeks later by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Then, over the months, by the fear of food shortages, repeated climatic disasters or even the questioning of the right to abortion in the United States.

But, between scientific progress and human rights, some good news has nevertheless come to clarify the world news.

France 24 has selected some of this information which you may have missed.

  • Promising treatments for Alzheimer's disease

    sleeping sickness and

    AIDS

MRI of a healthy brain (left) and that of a brain with Alzheimer's disease (right).

© Dr. Timothy Rittman, University of Cambridge, AFP

Immense hope for the 55.2 million people with dementia in the world, especially for those affected by Alzheimer's disease.

The results of an advanced clinical study were published at the end of November in the reference journal The New England Journal of Medicine with promising results: a drug, lecanemab, would have reduced the cognitive decline of treated patients by 27%.

Unfortunately, the drug would also bring many side effects, sometimes serious.

Longer clinical trials are therefore needed to ensure that the benefits of treatment outweigh the risks. 

Another drug, acoziborole, developed in particular by the French Sanofi, could meanwhile help eradicate sleeping sickness by 2030, according to the medical journal The Lancet.

This parasitic disease, also known as the tsetse fly, permanently threatens 60 million people in Africa.

Until now, all existing treatments required hospitalization.

Acoziborole, on the other hand, is presented as a simple tablet, much easier to distribute to the population. 

Other good news in the medical field: a third person, the first woman, was able to cure AIDS thanks to an innovative treatment consisting of transplanting stem cells from umbilical cord blood, scientists announced in February.

Let's not forget the hopes raised by messenger RNA vaccines, developed against Covid-19, in the fight against cancer.

An American team has succeeded in developing one, with very good results on mice.

  • Tigers, gray wolves… almost extinct species are making a comeback 

A tiger photographed in Nepal, July 2022. Prakash Mathema, AFP

We often talk about the disappearance of species, linked to the biodiversity crisis, but, in 2022, scientists were also able to observe the opposite phenomenon, with endangered species coming back to life. 

Fifty years after losing its track, an Anatolian leopard was officially identified in Turkey in the spring.

Wild tigers, meanwhile, are finally 40% more numerous in the world than previously thought and their population seems to be increasing, announced the International Union for Conservation of Nature in July.

Same observation for gray wolves.

In France, their number has increased to 921 against 783 in 2021, according to the count of the French Office for Biodiversity.

This is excellent news when it is estimated that vertebrate populations have fallen by an average of 69% in less than 50 years, with dramatic consequences for the planet.

In this sense, the outcome of the COP15 Biodiversity held in Montreal in December is to be welcomed: countries around the world have concluded a historic agreement to halt the destruction of biodiversity.

This "pact of peace with nature" provides a roadmap aimed in particular at protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 and at releasing 30 billion dollars in annual conservation aid for developing countries.

  • States are stepping up their efforts to combat deforestation

Birds fly over a mangrove reforestation project in Egypt on September 16, 2022. Khaled Desouki, AFP

Several pieces of news can also be reassuring about the protection of forests, environments of paramount importance in the fight against climate change.

Among them, the re-election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as head of Brazil.

Upon his return to power, he promised to put an end to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest undermined by his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

“There is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon. We will do whatever it takes to bring deforestation and degradation to zero,” he assured during a speech on 16 November at COP27. 

For their part, the Member States of the European Union concluded on December 6 a historic agreement aimed at banning the import of products contributing to deforestation.

"This is truly a historic agreement! With this decision, the EU becomes the first trade bloc to adopt a law that acts on global deforestation. However, land conversion is the first cause of biodiversity loss in the world" , greeted Véronique Andrieux, director general of WWF France, with France 24.

  • The death penalty continues to decline around the world

Pins that read anti-death penalty slogans during a vigil against capital punishment outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, 2021 in Washington DC.

Alex Wong, Getty Images via AFP

In 2022, three new countries, Papua New Guinea, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea, passed legislation abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.

According to the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, a collective network campaigning for abolition, 111 countries have now completely abandoned this practice.

Most recently, on December 24, it was Zambia's turn to abolish this practice as well.

  • Several victories for LGBTQI+ rights around the world

Dancers perform with rainbow flags at the Gran Muthu Rainbow Hotel in Guillermo Key, Cuba, on November 27, 2021. Yamil Lage, AFP

In a referendum held in late September, Cubans voted overwhelmingly, 67%, in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, making Cuba the first communist country to to allow.

The law came into force only two days later and the first unions have already taken place.

In Japan, Tokyo has introduced a system of "partnership certificates" allowing homosexual couples to be treated the same as married heterosexual couples in all matters related to housing or social protection.

These certificates already existed in other prefectures of the country but by adding the capital, 60% of the population can now benefit from them.

The move has been hailed by LGBTQI+ activists as a breakthrough in the only G7 country that does not allow same-sex marriage.

Singapore's parliament has repealed a British colonial-era law that criminalized sex between men.

Even if not actively enforced, it carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.

  • Francia Marquez becomes Colombia's first Afro-Colombian vice-president

Colombian Vice-President Francia Marquez during an official ceremony in Bogota on August 19, 2022. Daniel Munoz, AFP

In Colombia, Gustavo Petro became the first left-wing president in the country's history.

At her side, Francia Marquez became the first Afro-descendant and ecofeminist woman to hold the post of vice-president.

Good news for the defense of the environment and human rights in the country.

"We, women, will eradicate the patriarchy of our country [...] We will fight for the rights of LGBTQI +, for the rights of our mother earth, for biodiversity", declared this activist and lawyer of 41 years on the evening of his victory, June 20, calling in parallel to "eradicate structural racism". 

  • Scotland makes sanitary pads available for free

Since August 15, sanitary protection has been available for free in Scotland Salim Dawood, AFP

Since August 15, sanitary protection is available free of charge in Scotland, for all women, thanks to the entry into force of a law against menstrual poverty - a first in the world.

The Scottish government, a pioneer in this field, has already been offering sanitary pads and tampons in schools and universities since 2018.

From now on, these products will also be available in all public places, including libraries, swimming pools, public gymnasiums and community centers.

A mobile phone application, PickupMyPeriod, has also been launched to find the nearest distribution points.

  • In the United States, the world of football grants equal pay for men and women

USA captain Megan Rapinoe celebrates winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.

Tiziana Fabi, AFP

Equal pay for equal work.

In May, the American football federation announced that it had ratified an agreement guaranteeing equal pay for its male and female players in selections.

An unprecedented agreement in the world of football and the culmination of a long fight for American players who, led by stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, had taken legal action on the subject.    

Concretely, the salaries between the women's and men's teams are now identical, whether for friendly matches or in competition.

Ditto for bonuses, including those paid by Fifa for participation in World Cups.

As for “commercial” revenues, in particular those linked to the broadcasting of matches or partnerships, they are now also shared equally between the two teams.

"This is truly a historic moment. These agreements change the sport forever here in the United States, and they have the potential to change the sport around the world," said US Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. 

  • The James-Webb

    Telescope

    offers snapshots of unknown parts of the universe

This first image from the James-Webb telescope, revealed on Monday July 11, shows "the cluster of galaxies SMACS 0723 as it existed 4.6 billion years ago", according to NASA.

via Reuters-NASA

On July 11, six months after its launch into orbit, the James-Webb Space Telescope delivered its first color image, a sumptuous snapshot showing galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago - " the deepest and clearest infrared image ever taken of the universe so far,” NASA said. 

Nebulae, exoplanets, clusters of galaxies… Since then, this "telescope of the century", the most powerful ever sent into space, has offered many new images of hitherto unknown or even unknown areas of the universe.

What hope, in the years to come, spectacular advances in astronomy. 

  • Nuclear fusion, a "major scientific breakthrough", bringing hope for the planet

A depiction of the fuel capsule used at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to achieve nuclear fusion.

PA

The United States announced in mid-December that it had, for the first time, obtained a "net energy gain" during a nuclear fusion experiment.

A major step, according to the scientists behind this feat, to demonstrate the viability of this technology which, according to them, could offer clean, infinite and inexpensive energy of the future.

However, it will be necessary to wait a long time before the commercial development of nuclear fusion as the obstacles remain numerous. 

>> To read also: Nuclear fusion: the "net energy gain", a "historic" step that has just been taken?

  • Germany is betting on soft mobility

A man boards a train in Dortmund, Germany on June 1, 2022, the first day of the €9 ticket trial.

Ina Fassbender, AFP

The car in the garage.

Other good news in the fight against climate change: 2022 was marked by several experiments aimed at promoting soft mobility.

Among them, Germany offered for three months this summer a pass at 9 euros to borrow all of its regional trains and municipal transport.

Despite some hiccups, including crowded trains, the operation is considered a success.  

In total, more than 52 million tickets were sold individually, to which must be added more than 10 million subscriptions.

"Nearly 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 have been saved in this way", according to the Federation of transport companies.

On the strength of this experience, the Transport Ministers of the sixteen German regions announced in mid-October the introduction of a single ticket from January 1, 2023, at €49 per month.

  • Cock-a-doodle Doo !

     French personalities in the spotlight

French astronaut Sophie Adenot, on November 23, 2022, at the European Space Agency, in Paris.

Benoit Tissier, Reuters

Even if the Blues did not manage to win a third Football World Cup, other French people managed to distinguish themselves in 2022. At 37, Hugo Duminil-Copin thus received the Fields medal, the highest distinction in mathematics, on July 5, for his work on "phase transitions".

These are "drastic changes in the behavior of matter", he explained in an interview with France 24. France remains the second richest country in Fields medalists, behind the United States.

On October 6, the French author Annie Ernaux, 82, became the first French woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The writer, author of "The Place" and "The event", was rewarded for "the courage and clinical acuity with which she discovers the roots, the distances and the collective constraints of personal memory", said explained the Nobel jury.

Finally, we now know the name of Thomas Pesquet's successor.

And it will be a French woman: Sophie Adenot.

At 40, this Air Force helicopter pilot has been designated by the European Space Agency to become the second French female astronaut in history.

"I dreamed of it when I was a little girl," she reacted to France 24, shortly after the announcement of her appointment on November 23.

She thus follows in the footsteps of one of her idols, Claudie Haigneré, who became the first French woman to go into space in 1996. 

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