Our daily joyride around the world

🌍😊 The latest World Happiness Report rankings were just released. And Finland might as well change its national anthem to Pharrell’s “Happy,” because it ranked at the top of the list for the seventh year in a row – while the US fell from 15th last year to a record-low 23rd in 2024. The catalyst? American residents under 30 feel significantly worse about their lives compared to those aged 60+ – unlike in Central and Eastern Europe, where younger people typically reported higher levels of happiness than older folks.

🇧🇷 Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was indicted for allegedly falsifying his Covid vaccination status. The federal police indictment alleges that Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false information into a public health database to make it appear as though the then-president and others in his circle had received the Covid vaccine. Brazil’s prosecutor-general will now decide whether to file charges, which would then be judged by the country’s Supreme Court.

🌏 Air pollution is a major problem in Asia. All but one of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution are in Asia, according to new data from air-quality monitoring group IQAir. India was home to 83 of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution in 2023, all of which exceeded the WHO’s air quality guidelines by more than 10x. An estimated 6.7 million people die each year from air pollution-related health issues, per WHO data.