"Approximately 50% of Americans read so poorly that they are unable to perform simple tasks such as reading prescription drug labels." 

That is a sentence describing data from the National Literacy report, which just released its findings on literacy rates from 2022-2023. The report states that "54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level," and that "45 million are functionally illiterate." That data is staggeringly bad, but in fairness, prescription drug labels are an absolute pain to read. 

Headlines like those are far too common, and don't give us much hope for the future. However, from the state of the climate to thoroughly questionable policy decisions from governments around the world, there are also more pressing matters. Here are 20 headlines to sap up all of your optimism.