2023 things are looking up - 29th December 2023

The second half of 2023 saw things looking up as people around the world found innovative approaches to solving problems.

In Denmark, officers no longer just patrolled the streets but could also be found gaming online. They were part of a special unit set up to help protect everyone surfing the web and deter criminals and cybercrime.

Sisse Birkebaek: "When we tell them about what our main target is, is just to be present and try to, to make it a safer place in the internet, especially for, for youngsters, then they are actually quite happy about it, especially the parents."

In Australia, sports women stole the limelight, as the 2023 Women's Football World Cup final was a battle between two teams who had never won the coveted prize - Spain and England. The match was played to a packed stadium of 76,000 fans and millions more around the world followed every kick.

Jolie Hill: "The fact that like 50-60 years ago, we weren't even allowed to play football in this country, and now we're here in the final of the Women's World Cup... I'm so proud of them. Like, genuinely, it, it does bring a tear to my eye."

India meanwhile reached for the moon - and got it! Securing its spot in the race for space, successfully landing its spacecraft Chandrayaan- 3 on the southern pole of the moon, marking a new chapter for the country and space research.

P Veeramuthuvel: "The entire mission operations, right from launch till landing, happened flawlessly as per the timeline. And, we became the fourth country to land, to demonstrate the soft landing onto the moon's surface and we became the first country to go to the near to the south pole of the moon."

Huge efforts in technological innovation have been put into advancing inclusion and diversity around the globe as well.

Deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing people came together at a concert in New York to enjoy classical music, all wearing wearable technology provided by Music: Not Impossible, which translated the sound onto the skin via vibration.

Flavia Naslausky: "As you know already, this was designed with and inspired by the deaf community. And along this journey, though, we realised that everybody wants to use it. This is about shared connections, shared experiences, bringing people together that otherwise wouldn't be together."

Similar efforts for greater inclusion have been made in the gaming world. Sony launched a playstation controller designed to make gaming easier for people with disabilities. The gaming giant had been facing pressure on this issue which has largely been ignored in the industry.

Melanie Eilert: "I can only play with my right hand. So the number of inputs I can do is limited.

Interviewer: And so how does this change your whole gaming experience?

Melanie Eilert: "So, with the external buttons I can attach, the number of buttons I can use increases."

Despite the innovative feats of people around the world, the planet continues to remind us of the imminent threat of climate change. And as the year came to a close, world leaders sat down together in Dubai to discuss the climate crisis and how they can mitigate its impacts. However, as they deliberated, we returned once again to the Arctic and the impact of climate change on the Inuit.

Erling Rasmussen: "But it's melting so maybe in a few years it's gone. It can be a problem. So I think in the future the city will have to get its drinking water from the ocean."