Respect for Marriage Act on White House becomes law in the U.S., formally recognizing same-sex marriages
The bill requires that the federal and state governments to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages performed by other states.
North & Central America
This archive covers progress stories from North and Central America, spanning the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the nations of Central America. Readers will find reporting on health, environment, community resilience, and policy advances across the region.
New blood cancer therapy successful in three-quarters of trial patients
The Phase 1/2 trial data from Janssen Research & Development covered hundreds of myeloma patients. Based on preliminary trial data, the FDA has granted it “Breakthrough Therapy” designation.
American fusion scientists claim net energy gain, in potentially huge renewables breakthrough
Fusion energy just cleared a barrier scientists have been chasing since the 1950s — producing more energy from a reaction than was needed to trigger it. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved this by blasting tiny hydrogen fuel capsules with lasers until they released roughly 20 percent more energy than the lasers delivered. The result doesn’t mean fusion power plants are imminent; enormous engineering challenges remain between this laboratory milestone and a working grid. But it does confirm that fusion’s central promise is physically real — and that gives scientists, investors, and policymakers something genuinely new to build on.
Experimental Naloxone vending machine in Cincinnati has reversed nearly 1,000 overdoses in two years
The machine dispensed more than 3,000 doses of naloxone and 10,000 drug test strips in the first year after it was installed in February 2021.
Oregon governor pardons over 45,000 marijuana convictions
Oregon Governor Kate Brown has announced today that she has issued pardons to everyone caught possessing up to an ounce of marijuana prior to its legalization in 2016.
Vaccine prolongs life of patients with aggressive brain cancer in new trial
Glioblastoma patients now have the most promising new treatment in nearly three decades, after a personalised vaccine more than doubled five-year survival rates in a large international trial. The vaccine works by extracting proteins from a patient’s own tumour and combining them with their white blood cells, training the immune system to recognise and destroy the cancer — with benefits seen even among those traditionally considered hardest to treat. If regulators approve it, this could signal a new era of personalised immunotherapy for cancers that have long resisted every available option.
U.S. regulators approve world’s largest-ever dam demolition and river restoration project in California
Removing four dams on California’s Klamath River will reopen more than 300 miles of salmon habitat, making it the largest river restoration project ever attempted. Federal regulators approved the $500 million plan unanimously, capping decades of advocacy led by the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley tribes, whose cultures and food systems have been bound to these fish since long before the first dam went up. “The Klamath salmon are coming home,” Yurok Chairman Joseph James said after the vote. As drought reshapes the American West, letting a major river run free again offers a powerful template for healing watersheds, honoring Indigenous leadership, and rethinking what aging infrastructure owes the living world.
Canada expands its pollution pricing rules
The federal carbon price floor was a charge of CAN$40 per ton on carbon emissions in 2021, and this fee will rise to CAN$170 per ton by 2030.
A historic number of LGBTQ candidates in the U.S won their elections this year
According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a record of at least 340 out LGBTQ people won – beating 2020’s record of 336 for the most in US history.
Mormon church endorses U.S. federal marriage equality bill
The 17-million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now supports a bill that codifies the recognition of same-sex marriages performed in any state by other states and the federal government.