When sitting through Quarantine, it was easy to be overwhelmed by the monotony of the day-to-day. In 2020, it felt like the world was asleep. However, there was a ton of news still happening in the world. Many great stories were passed by because of the pressing pandemic and political issues that took center stage. While these stories were important, it was easy to be overwhelmed by the sobriety and lack of any variety. To catch people up on the outside world, here are five news articles that would have been big news, if it were not for 2020.

1. Kenyan elephants have a baby boom!

In this article, Deutsche Welle reports on how Kenya’s Elephant population doubled in only three decades. In 1989, there were approximately 16,000 elephants, and a survey in 2018 marked nearly 34,000.

Kenyan Tourism Minister Najib Balala said that the government had “managed to tame poaching in this country.”

Kenya made the announcement of their progress on August 12, 2020, World Elephant Day.

2. New ground broken for women in AIDS fight

In this article by the New York Times’ Apoorva Mandavilli, new research was announced about HIV prevention in women through a reduced method of medication. Instead of the 365 yearly doses of Truvada, previously the only available option for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), now a bi-monthly shot can replace the sometimes expensive pill. The study was conducted in a double-blind style, and had a 98% retention rate of subjects. Only four of the women receiving injections in the study were infected with HIV, and two of them had stopped receiving injections.

3. Falkland Islands landmine free after forty years

In November, the British Broadcasting Company reported that the Falkland Islands were finally landmine free. In 1982, when Argentina and Britain were at odds, nearly 13,000 mines were planted across the islands’ beaches. Now, the Falkland Islands have been declared mine-free, and the last shoreline, Yorke Beach, is open for business.

Dr. Barry Elsby, one of the eight legislative members over the 2,500 person population, said it “will be a good bit of closure for people who were here when the invasion happened and lived through the horrors of that time.”

4. Trusting A.I. with your money

The Wall Street Journal released an article in 2020 that presents yet another use for artificial intelligence: tracking and advising your money. Financial firms are now tracking behaviors of individual investors and sending robots to help them out. David Eckerly, a senior director at Personal Capital, said the approach was already showing results. Who knows how many more companies and fields will begin adapting A.I. in the new decade?

5. Rare blue bee rediscovery

Scientists were scared that the blue calamintha bee was gone; however, recently, scientists rediscovered the scarce animal in the wild jungle known as the state of Florida. The rare bee had not been spotted since 2016, five years after it had initially been discovered. Chase Kimmel, of the Florida Museum of Natural History, first rediscovered the bee in March.

He was so excited, he said, that “those first few nights were hard to sleep due to the anxiousness and excitement.”

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