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In the headlines...

🗳️ Missouri voters rejected an effort to overturn their state’s abortion protections, ensuring that the procedure will remain legal and enshrined in the state constitution.

☀️ Texas regulators officially signed off on a plant to close a coal plants and replace it with enough wind, solar, and battery storage to produce enough power for 375,000 homes.

Global Health

The US approved the cheaper, generic version of a breakthrough HIV prevention drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic version of Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly HIV prevention drug administered via injection, considered the closest thing the world has to a vaccine.

The approval paves the way for the breakthrough drug to reach millions of people who need it, particularly in the countries hit hardest by the AIDS epidemic.

According to the United Nations, the drug could be the key to ending the AIDS epidemic globally by 2030.

Why is this good news? Manufactured and available in the United States, Lenacapavir costs $28,000 a year, but the generic version will cost just $40 per person per year, and will be made available to 120 low- and middle-income countries through a global partnership.

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More Good News

​For the first time, at least 100 Democratic women will serve in the U.S. House at the same time. The milestone culminates decades of work recruiting and fundraising for Democratic women by groups like Elect Democratic Women and EMILY’S List, founded in the 1980s.

​Voters in at least 38 jurisdictions across the country passed bans or restrictions on data centers in the midterms. (Gifted link) Widespread criticism of the facilities centers on their noise, water use, impact on electric bills, lack of public input, and that they feed into existing economic and political anxieties.

​Princeton alumni designed a first-in-the-world device to filter microplastics out of wastewater at scale. Already implemented in Atlantic City, the device mimics hydrophobic plants found in nature, which shed water on contact but also attract microplastic particles.

​The plant diversity under a solar farm in Japan is “indistinguishable” from a grassland. The 55 MW solar plant on a former golf course in central Japan has been mowed twice a year for the past five years, and is now home to plant communities resembling forest edges.

​Every fall, an entire island goes dark to save young seabirds. Since 2019, Corvo’s around 450 inhabitants switch off the lights for five nights to tackle the disastrous effects of artificial light on Cory’s shearwaters, a seabird endemic to the Atlantic Ocean.

LGBTQ+

Trans and nonbinary candidates in six US states just made history

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good data

The world is getting more of its electricity from renewable sources

In order to swiftly and effectively fight the climate crisis, the world needs to switch from fossil fuels to low-carbon power: renewables like solar and wind, and nuclear power.

While nuclear is contributing increasingly less to the global mix, renewables are an entirely different story, and the rapid growth of solar and wind in particular has dramatically increased the amount of electricity coming from renewable sources.

In 2000, nuclear and renewables made up a similar share of global electricity — in the last 25 years, renewables have increased to 34% of the world’s electricity, up from around 18%.

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More Good bits

🛶 Women will hold all of Minnesota’s highest offices. (Instagram)

🇮🇳 India is adding a ton of solar power manufacturing capacity.

🎃 A belated celebration of the winner of Halloween. (Reels)

🌵 Elections have good consequences, too! (May require login)

🚗 Europe is all-in on electric vehicles.

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