There’s no point trying to sugar-coat 2023. It’s been a catastrophe for Israel and Gaza. It’s been terrible for Ukrainian frontline troops and territorial integrity, for Sudan, the West Antarctic ice shelf and the idea that democracy can thrive all by itself in an age of mass disinformation. It’s been dismal for Dutch progressives, Fisker EVs, Stephen Soderbergh and Britain’s standing as a champion of human rights. It’s been too good for Putin, oil, gas, Orbán and Erdogan.
And yet. Why mark the solstice if not with brighter thoughts? They haven’t been abolished. Pause, zoom out and let the cursor drift and they can still float into focus like Apple Memories, or even real ones. In which spirit of AI-assisted curiosity, we bring you the first annual Tortoise list of gladdish tidings. Please nod along or even enjoy as warranted – and don’t miss the puzzle at the end.
Capital
The UK narrowly avoided recession in 2023. Growth stayed flat in Q3 after forecasts said it would shrink slightly.
The Windsor Framework and a decision to rejoin the EU’s Horizon science and technology partnership hinted at a step-by-step route back to a closer UK-EU relationship.
Odey Asset Management (OAM), an investment fund, shut down after multiple claims of sexual harassment against its founder, Crispin Odey. The claims were first reported by Tortoise.
Fox News paid $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought in the US by Dominion Voting Systems after Fox anchors knowingly spread baseless stories about corrupted vote counts in the 2020 election.
Technology
Toyota claimed a breakthrough in solid state batteries that it said would double the range of its EV battery packs and halve their cost, weight and charge time.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved “ignition” for the second time in a controlled nuclear fusion experiment, bringing humanity a step closer to a source of limitless power with negligible by-products.
Artificial intelligence helped discover new chemical compounds; solve previously unworkable mathematical problems; catalogue disease-causing genetic mutations; trace the geographic origins of wines and translate 5,000 year-old cuneiform clay tablets.
The EU agreed the world’s first comprehensive AI regulations in December, shortly after Hollywood’s actors and writers won limits on AI’s use in film and TV.
100 year-life
The head of NHS England said a combination of HPV vaccination and screening means that cervical cancer can be eliminated in the UK by 2040.
A malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford became the first to be recommended by the World Health Organization having met a 75 per cent efficacy target.
After 20 years with no new Alzheimer’s drugs, three immunotherapy treatments arrived in 2023 that clear amyloid plaques from the brain and slow down the disease.
The four-day week reduces stress, illness and staff churn while boosting revenue, a University of Cambridge study found. A sample of 61 firms reported, on average, 65 per cent fewer sick days and 57 per cent fewer staff leaving.
Rubi-Rose, Payton-Jane and Porscha-Mae Hopkins, now thriving toddlers, were officially named the world’s most premature triplets, two years after their birth at 22 weeks and five days at Southmead hospital in Bristol.
The world’s oldest Tortoise, known as Jonathan, celebrated his 190th birthday on St Helena in the South Atlantic.
Planet
Emissions from the power sector will likely peak this year, according to the IEA. Wind and solar provided 14.3 per cent of global electricity in the first half of the year, compared with 12.8 per cent in the first half of 2022.
At Cop28, 50 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies pledge to cut methane leaks to “near zero” by 2030. Methane is nearly 30 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2.
Also at Cop, 200 countries set up a loss and damage reparations fund to help those hardest hit by climate change. Rich countries promised to pay $700 million into it – a 0.2 per cent downpayment on the estimated $400 billion a year of adapting to climate change in poorer ones.
Ulez worked. After August’s expansion of the ultra-low emissions zone, 95 percent of vehicles in outer London are now compliant, meaning they emit little or no CO2. The figure for 2017 was 39 per cent.
Beavers are back in the UK. Hunted to extinction 400 years ago and reintroduced in 2002, January 2023 saw 254 beaver territories across Scotland, and a further 50 in the West Country.
The rate of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon dropped to its lowest level in six years, after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January. He has pledged to end deforestation by 2030.
Humpback whale populations have recovered to pre-whaling levels in some places. In Australian waters numbers increased 57 per cent in the past year alone, and scientists off Alaska had a 20-minute “conversation” with a humpback called Twain.
Geopolitics
Donald Tusk returned to power in Poland as prime minister at the head of a pro-EU coalition.
Ukraine became an official candidate for EU membership after 26 of 27 member states voted in favour and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán left the room to allow the vote to proceed.
41 Indian construction workers were safely rescued from a collapsed tunnel under the Himalayas after a landslide left them trapped for 17 days.
A French court issued an international arrest warrant for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad for war crimes over his complicity in the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians.
Culture
Malaysia repealed the mandatory death penalty for 11 serious crimes, a year after capital punishment was also abolished in Zambia, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Equatorial Guinea.
Nepal registered its first same-sex marriage, Latvia voted to legalise same-sex civil unions and courts in Peru and South Korea’s parliament recognised the legal status of same-sex couples.
Pope Francis formally approved blessings for same-sex couples in the Roman Catholic church, as part of an attempt to make the church more inclusive while maintaining a ban on gay marriage.
On 14 January, the Palestine national football team will be in Qatar to begin its campaign for the Asian Cup; the biggest tournament in the world’s most populous continent.
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