New York City recorded a 22% drop in reported rat sightings in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the previous year, putting it on track for the fewest sightings since the pandemic. The decline followed a citywide anti-rat campaign begun under former mayor Eric Adams, who appointed Kathleen Corradi as the city's rat czar in 2023, and a bin program requiring trash containers across the five boroughs.
Fewer rats mean cleaner streets and reduced disease risk for millions of New Yorkers.
At Columbia University Irving Medical Center, a terminally ill patient known only as Mr. Spencer was granted a final visit with his German shepherds, Bowie and Nikki. NYC Second Chance Rescue, founded by Jennifer Brooks, arranged the reunion with the hospital's medical team. Spencer died hours later, and the rescue is now finding the bonded pair a joint forever home.
A hospital and a rescue group honored a dying man's last wish by ensuring his dogs would be cared for.
Fieldworkers at Jantho Nature Reserve in Aceh, Sumatra, confirmed on May 22 that Bulan, a Sumatran orangutan rescued from wildlife traffickers and reintroduced seven years ago, had given birth to a male infant named Badar. The Lestari Ecosystem Foundation, which manages the reserve with Indonesia's forestry ministry, called it evidence reintroduced orangutans can build breeding populations.
It shows rehabilitated orangutans rescued from trafficking can successfully breed and rebuild wild populations.
Researchers identified a new seahorse species, Hippocampus amandavincentae, found among fish bycatch at Tuticorin harbour in southern India, and named it after UBC marine biologist Dr. Amanda Vincent. The 16-centimetre fish had gone unrecognized as distinct for over a century and likely ranges across the Indian Ocean from Mozambique to the Red Sea. The study was published in the journal Zootaxa.
The discovery honors decades of work by Dr. Vincent, who co-founded Project Seahorse to advance marine conservation.
Tian Rui, 39, a former rural courier in Yichang, Hubei province, made more than 200 trips in a year to remote mountain villages, visiting elderly parents on behalf of children working far away or overseas. Clients hire him to deliver medicine, food and birthday cakes, with his most distant client living in Bolivia, over 17,000km away.
It offers companionship and practical help to elderly parents left behind as China's rural youth migrate for work.
The UK Health Security Agency reported that RSV vaccination during pregnancy cut infant intensive care admissions by around 50% in its first full year. Across 20 NHS trusts monitored last winter, 63 infants under six months were admitted to intensive or high dependency units with confirmed RSV, down from prior levels. About 60% of women giving birth each month received the vaccine.
Fewer babies needed intensive care for a common respiratory infection because more pregnant women were vaccinated.