GM commits to ending sales of gas-powered cars by 2035
GM’s CEO Mary Barra specifically announced that the company aims to be carbon neutral by 2040.
North & Central America
Illinois becomes first U.S. state to end cash bail system
In a huge win for racial justice, the state of Illinois is on the verge of becoming the first state to end wealth-based pre-trial detention.
Washington is the first U.S. state to hold a climate assembly
Eighty members of the public have been selected through a lottery to join the country’s first climate assembly in Washington. The assembly is constituted to deliberate on environmental issues.
President Biden overturns the ban on transgender military personnel
“President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,” the White House said in an emailed statement.
Tribe in Panama wins landmark case granting them 400,000 acres of ancestral forests
The Naso tribe will share management responsibilities of 400,000 acres of land within La Amistad National Park and Palo Seco Nature Reserve after the court granted them authority to create a comarca: a semi-autonomous tribal kingship, in the two parks.
U.S. FDA approves first-ever long-acting HIV medication
The monthly injection treatment replaces the need for some to take daily pills. The company says the price of the injections is comparable to the cost of the pill versions.
Joe Biden halts Keystone XL pipeline construction
The 1,700-mile pipeline was planned to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Joe Biden signs sweeping executive order fighting anti-LGBTQ discrimination
Biden’s order tells the heads of all executive agencies to ensure that they are interpreting bans on sex discrimination in U.S. federal law to also “prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Joe Biden moves to re-enter the U.S. into the Paris Agreement
Hours after being sworn in as the president of the United States, Joe Biden signed an executive order that will move the country to rejoin the Paris climate agreement — a strident reversal of America’s environmental policy over the past four years.
Kamala Harris becomes the U.S.’s first female, first black, and first Asian-American Vice President
Ms. Harris, who is of Indian-Jamaican heritage, was sworn in just before Joe Biden took the oath of office to become the 46th U.S. president. She has already broken historic barriers for women and people of color in the U.S.