10 Good Things Nobody Noticed, Like a Twice-a-Year Shot That Protects Against HIV

On June 5, 2026, South Africa began offering lenacapavir, an injection given once every six months that protects against HIV, at about 360 public clinics in six provinces. About 8.15 million people in the country live with HIV.

By the end of July, almost 18,000 people in Gauteng province alone had started on it, and by late August the province had received 57,231 starter packs. The government aims to reach close to 1 million people by the end of 2027.

On July 26, 2026, UNESCO added the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape to its World Heritage List, South Sudan’s first World Heritage site. Every year, an estimated 6 million white-eared kob, tiang and Mongalla gazelle move across it, the largest land-mammal migration in the world.

UNESCO also put the site on its List of World Heritage in Danger, which flags it for extra protection. South Sudan hopes the listing will bring visitors and jobs.

On Sept. 30, 2026, Fervo Energy’s Cape Station in Utah began selling electricity to the grid, the first commercial plant of its kind. Traditional geothermal plants use heat close to the surface; this one drills much deeper, where the rock is hotter, and pumps water through it to make steam.

The first block, a third of a planned 100-megawatt plant, took 23 months to build, and the site could one day produce up to 4 gigawatts. Geothermal power doesn’t depend on sun or wind.

Studland Bay in Dorset has one of Britain’s largest seagrass meadows, home to the protected spiny seahorse. It is also a favorite spot for boaters, whose anchors and chains tore bare patches in the grass. In 2021, 10 trial “eco-moorings” went in: a 2-meter screw drilled into the seabed with a stretchy line that never drags along the bottom.

A University of Southampton study found that the bare patches shrank by an average of 94% between 2021 and 2025, the Guardian reported in September. Volunteer divers say they now see more seahorses.

Since the fall 2025 semester, China has waived childcare and education fees for the final year of kindergarten. On Aug. 21, 2026, the Ministry of Finance said about 24 million children have benefited so far.

Families also get a tax-free 3,600 yuan, about $530, a year for every child under 3, and more than 25 million toddlers received it for 2026.

Cambodia’s critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins have grown to an estimated 118 animals after six calves were confirmed this year along a 75-mile stretch of the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces, Mongabay reported in October.

The dolphins bring visitors, and income, to riverside villages. About 20 of them live in the Kampi dolphin pool, a protected deep stretch of the river in Kratie, where local boat drivers take tourists out to see them.

Police in England and Wales recorded 176 knife homicides in the year to March 2026, 14% fewer than the year before and the lowest number since 1990–91, according to official figures published in July. That is 38% below the peak of 282 in 2017–18.

All homicides fell 7%, to 499, which the Office for National Statistics called the lowest level this century.

About half of the world’s vaccines are wasted every year because they get too warm or too cold on the way, scientists say. A British company has made a version of the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine that can be stored at up to 30°C, or 86°F, instead of in a fridge.

In its first human trial, with 60 healthy adults in Southampton, every participant had protective antibody levels against both diseases by day 28, with no serious side effects. The results were published in August 2026, and a larger trial with 160 people has begun.

On Sept. 18, Norway created the Andfjorden marine protected area, about 714 square miles of sea in the far north of the country, between the islands of Andøya and Senja. It runs from the coast out to the open ocean and includes Bleiksdjupet, a canyon 1,000 meters deep.

The area holds some of the best-preserved cold-water corals on Norway’s coast, along with sponge and kelp forests, and serves as a nursery and feeding ground for fish, seabirds and whales.

On Saturday, Oct. 17, Havenwoods State Forest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, celebrated the opening of a new Braille Trail, a 0.33-mile loop with audio stops and touch panels in Unified English Braille about the forest’s history, habitats, plants and animals. White canes are available to borrow for the walk.

The trail was designed with help from Milwaukee Public Schools specialists, the state Office for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Milwaukee Public Museum.