What Went Right: 27 years later, the last landmines are cleared

What Went Right is the weekly video podcast that brings you the top stories of progress from around the world. In every episode, Positive News chief digital editor Tom Pattinson and journalist and broadcaster Lucy Watson pick three of the week's most interesting positive developments – from climate solutions and scientific breakthroughs to advances in healthcare, ambitious community projects, conservation wins and tech innovations. Expect informed conversation, surprising stories and a closer look at the people and ideas behind positive change. This week on What Went Right: Kosovo reaches the end of a 27-year landmine clearance operation, the world edges closer to its global conservation target, researchers develop a potentially less invasive way to test for womb cancer, and scientists identify a new wild cat in Bolivia. 💣 Kosovo clears its last landminesTwenty-seven years after the Kosovo War ended, a major humanitarian mine-clearance operation has been completed. Tom and Lucy look at the extraordinary scale of removing explosives from a landscape, how cleared land can return to farming, tourism and everyday life, and why Kosovo’s hard-won expertise is now being used to help countries including Ukraine and Syria. 🌍 Can the world protect 30% of the planet?Almost 200 countries agreed in 2022 to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030, and new figures suggest progress towards that goal is gathering pace. What Went Right looks at what it actually means for an area of land or ocean to be “protected”, why marine conservation is much harder to police, and how involving Indigenous communities and local fishing communities can determine whether conservation succeeds in practice.The discussion also looks at the recovery of wildlife inside genuinely protected areas, the High Seas Treaty and the gap between declaring an area protected and stopping damaging activities such as illegal fishing, bottom trawling, drilling and logging. 🧪 A less invasive test for womb cancerAround 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with womb cancer each year, while many more undergo uncomfortable investigations after experiencing possible symptoms.Researchers at the University of Manchester are developing tests using urine and vaginal samples that could offer a far less invasive way of identifying women who need further investigation. Tom and Lucy discuss how the approach could reduce unnecessary procedures, ease pressure on NHS services and what still needs to happen before a new test could become part of routine healthcare. 🐆 A new wild cat is identified in BoliviaTo finish this week’s What Went Right, scientists have identified what appears to be a previously unknown wild cat in Bolivia’s cloud forests.Roughly the size of a domestic cat but carrying striking leopard-like markings, the discovery is a reminder of how much of the natural world remains undocumented. Tom and Lucy ask what else could still be living in some of the planet’s least explored habitats, even as those ecosystems face pressure from deforestation and human activity. Subscribe to Positive News and follow What Went Right for a new episode every week, plus the full weekly roundup of positive news, solutions and signs of progress from around the world. #WhatWentRight #PositiveNews #GoodNews #Conservation #WombCancer #Kosovo #Wildlife #ClimateSolutions #Nature #SolutionsJournalism