New York

Woman in the shadows

New York State enacts new law offering sexual assault survivors stronger protections

By / / Good News For Humankind

The legislation, now signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul, mandates strict timelines for hospitals and law enforcement to collect and process evidence kits, integrating medical facilities into the state’s tracking system. It sets clear deadlines for police to retrieve kits for forensic testing. The law also quadruples the preservation period for unreported kits to 20 years, ensuring survivors have the time and control needed to seek justice on their own terms.

Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani elected New York City’s first Muslim mayor in historic win for progressives

By / / Good News For Humankind

Mamdani’s decisive victory, achieved through powerful community organizing, signals an embrace of democratic socialism and progressive ideals in the nation’s largest city and beyond. The result stands as a clear repudiation of President Trump and conservative national narratives, demonstrating that an inclusive, equitable platform can successfully win the highest offices and inspire historic political participation. This triumph sets a powerful precedent for diverse, grassroots, progressive leadership nationwide.

Aerial view of South Manhattan

New York becomes first U.S. state to require all-electric new buildings

By / / Good News For Humankind

Buildings are one of New York’s biggest climate polluters, responsible for nearly a third of the state’s emissions. In 2025, the state finalized the nation’s first statewide gas ban, requiring most new buildings to run on electric systems, with larger ones following in 2029. A federal court upheld the law, clearing the way for implementation. By ending fossil fuel hookups in new construction, New York is cutting a major source of greenhouse gases, improving air quality, and creating a model for other states—pushing the country closer to a future where all buildings help solve the climate crisis, not fuel it.

New York

New York City to get a $3 billion, 80,000-acre offshore wind farm

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New York City will soon be getting its own personal offshore wind farm. The Empire Wind 1 project just received a US$3 billion project financing package and is expected to go online in 2027, powering roughly half a million borough residents. A turbine-laden 80,000-acre plot of Atlantic Ocean – which is nearly half the size of NYC – could generate 810 MW if running efficiently at its designed capacity. That is around 3.19 TWh per year or roughly 6% of NYC’s overall consumption. Empire Wind 1 will be the first offshore wind project to connect directly to NYC’s electrical grid.

Power plant polluting

New York to fine fossil fuel companies $75 billion under new climate law

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New York state will fine fossil fuel companies a total of $75 billion over the next 25 years to pay for damage caused to the climate under a bill Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law at the end of 2024.
New York state will fine fossil fuel companies $75 billion over the next 25 years to pay for damage caused to the climate. The new law is intended to shift some of the recovery and adaptation costs of climate change from individual taxpayers to oil, gas, and coal companies. The money raised will be spent on mitigating the impacts of climate change, including adapting roads, transit, water and sewage systems, buildings and other infrastructure. Fossil fuel companies will be fined based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emitted between 2000 and 2018.

Depiction of intestines

“100% successful” cancer drug gets landmark U.S. FDA approval

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Hugely promising cancer drug dostarlimab is one step closer to being widely available, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted it Breakthrough Therapy Designation status. The drug, a programmed death receptor-1-blocking antibody, completely eradicated rectal cancer tumors without the need for surgery, radiation treatment, or chemotherapy. “Everyone on the clinical trial is doing great,” Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center gastrointestinal oncologist Andrea Cercek said. “So far, 42 people have completed treatment, and all of them have no evidence of disease. Side effects were quite mild and well tolerated.”

New York sign

New York passes Equal Rights Amendent passes

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New Yorkers have passed Amendment 1, branded the Equal Rights Amendment. The New York Constitution already forbids discrimination based on race, creed, or religion. Amendment 1 adds language that would prohibit denial of civil rights based on national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes or reproductive healthcare and autonomy. The amendment effectively guarantees a right to abortion and adds protections for trans New Yorkers.

Shot of a young male doctor standing with his arms crossed in an office at a hospital

Michael Bloomberg gives $600 million to four Black medical schools’ endowments

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Black Americans fare worse in measures of health compared with white Americans, an Associated Press series reported last year. Experts believe increasing the representation among doctors is one solution that could disrupt these long-standing inequities. In 2022, only 6% of U.S. physicians were Black, even though Black Americans represent 13% of the population. Almost half of Black physicians graduate from the four historically Black medical schools, Bloomberg Philanthropies said.