Extra! Extra! 5/25
What a week!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
It’s been a hell of a week, truly. I worried a bit that I wouldn’t be able to pull together enough good news for this list, as it’s frankly felt like quite a slog for the last several days.
But I was wrong, of course. Here we are once again with loads for which to be grateful.
These are hard days. Sometimes every hour feels like an eternity, and the cruelty and chaos can become numbing. AND YET. Good things are happening. They’re not all that’s happening, but the bad stuff isn’t all that’s happening, either.
So take a break, my dears. Set down your worries and just enjoy, for a few precious minutes, reading about what went right this week. We need to know something did, or we won’t have the morale to keep going.
And many good things did, indeed come to pass. So read about them, share the good news, and remember that your hard work is helping to make a better world.
Sending love. Have a great extra day off tomorrow. We’ll be back to it on Tuesday.
Celebrate This! 🎉
Calling for “freedom from partisan interference in programming,” administrative staffers at the Kennedy Center went public with a push to unionize following an overhaul of the institution by the Trump clan.
The MeidasTouch Podcast, a show critical of Trump, won Podcast of the Year at the Webby Awards.
Romania elected a centrist president in a major surprise after an intense campaign in which voters looked likely to propel another hard-right populist to lead a large European country.
In Tennessee former Republican speaker Glen Casada and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren were found guilty of corruption by a jury of their peers.
Trump’s support among Latino voters, including those who voted for him in 2024, is fracturing.
Kristi Noem spoke at a Coast Guard graduation ceremony in CT. Protestors showed up in style.
J.D. Vance was met by protesters ahead of his Naval Academy commencement speech.
Trump spoke at West Point and was met by protestors on both sides of the river.
Protesters outside of Trump’s crypto-corruption event chanted and displayed signs blasting the gala as a pay-for-play event.
Democrat Sam Sutton defeated his Republican opponent to win New York’s 22nd State Senate District special election — a district Trump won by 55 points in 2024.
The provision allowing the sale of public lands was removed from Republicans’ Budget Bill.
A federal judge ruled that President Trump's executive order targeting the law firm Jenner & Block is unconstitutional and permanently blocked the administration from enforcing it.
The U.K. officially ceded most of the Chagos Islands, a small chain in the Indian Ocean, to the African country Mauritius. It’s a huge win for indigenous Chagossians, who have long fought for the right to return to their homeland after they were expelled decades ago.
Postcards to Voters candidate Danielle Chesek was handily re-elected to the Scranton School Board. Chesek was the top vote-getter as she pursues a second four-year term on the board of the county’s largest school district. PTV’s slate of four candidates for the Lehighton Area School Board all came out winners, too.
The latest draft of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which passed the House Budget Committee on Sunday night, no longer includes a provision that critics have dubbed the “nonprofit killer bill.”
The Kennedy Center lost Yo Yo Ma to an alternative venue; they continue to hemorrhage ticket sales, donors, and performers after Trump took over.
Two different class action suits have been filed against Elon Musk’s America PAC, alleging that he promised to pay people, but didn’t. A third suit claims that “winners” of the “$1 million-a-day giveaway” to voters were predetermined.
Someone trolled Jim Jordan during a speech at a private event by playing “Send in the Clowns” as soon as he started speaking. Give that person a medal.
Around 18,000 people took part in the “Hands Across Chicagoland” protest that spanned 30 miles from Chicago to Aurora.
In a precedent-setting decision that both secures Indigenous rights and protects the Amazon rainforest, Colombia took a leading position in Latin America by formalizing Indigenous local governments.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Republicans’ request to hear their challenge to pro-voter amendments to the Michigan Constitution, approved by voters in 2018 and 2022. The amendments will now remain in effect.
Colorado law now explicitly protects transgender people from being deadnamed or misgendered in certain places under legislation signed into law Friday by Gov. Jared Polis.
Despite incurring a higher tariff rate than Tesla, Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD sold more pure battery electric vehicles in Europe than them for the first time ever last month — a “watershed moment” for the region’s car market.
Microsoft is purchasing up to 623K tons of “low-carbon cement” to reduce their construction emissions.
In 2024, deforestation declined in all six nature biomes in Brazil for the first time in six years — and total deforestation was 32.4% lower than in 2023. It’s the second year in a row of lower deforestation.
A federal judge blocked Trump’s firing of two Democratic members of a Privacy Oversight Board.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that geothermal energy in the Great Basin of Nevada and adjoining states could produce electricity equivalent to 10% of the current U.S. power supply.
The Supreme Court, in a 4-4 ruling, said Oklahoma cannot create the nation’s first religious charter school funded directly with taxpayer dollars.
A federal judge in Boston has blocked President Trump’s executive order to shut down the Department of Education. This is the most significant defeat to the administration’s effort to remake education and advance its Project 2025 platform to date.
That same judge also ordered the Department of Education to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs.
A new report finds that the popularity of labor unions has surged over the last ten years, while American sentiment toward big business has fallen.
The community of Springfield, Ohio — once targeted by President Trump — is giving driving lessons to Haitian immigrants in their own language, and it’s improving road safety.
In a “historic turnaround,” the city of Detroit’s population grew for the second year in a row, jumping by around 12,500 people, after consistently declining for over 50 years.
Target announced that sales fell more than expected in the first quarter, and the retailer warned they will slip for all of 2025. Ya think?
A new Data For Progress poll shows that 72% of voters have favorable attitudes about renewable energy like solar or wind, compared to just 18% who have unfavorable attitudes.
A judge blocked the Trump administration from forbidding Harvard from enrolling foreign students.
Emergency contraceptives are hitting shelves at 11,000 convenience stores in 48 states.
Over 75% of NYC’s vehicle fleet is green, a sign of the government’s progress toward climate goals.
Larry Krasner easily won his primary in Philadelphia, a boost to progressives and more broadly to the network of reform-minded DAs that have emerged over the last decade.
The foundation set up by Ron and Casey DeSantis is facing a criminal probe.
Carbon dioxide emissions in China were down 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, and by 1% in the past 12 months. It’s not because demand is down, either, but because renewables are up!
This week was the deadline for Congress to act on a resolution that could have overturned the ban on TCE. But thanks to your voices, your stories, and your pressure—Congress didn’t act. The ban on TCE stands.
The first four months of 2025 have seen the lowest count—four—of mass shootings with four or more fatalities since 2006.
Pope Leo XIV called on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Four major partners just left Paul, Weiss as a result of them making a deal with Trump.
Sesame Street announced it has found a new home on Netflix. Also, the show’s administrative employees, including early childhood education experts, fundraisers, producers, and paralegals, have unionized. Win win!
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction that will block the Trump administration’s unlawful reorganization of the federal government while the case proceeds.
An all-of-society approach to tackling femicide in Spain—from tougher penalties to prevention research to media attention—has led to a one-third drop in cases.
Various homicide databases show drops in the U.S. murder rate of up to 20 percent in the first quarter of 2025— this year could feature the lowest murder rate ever recorded since reliable data became available in the 1960s.
An Oregon man who quit his job at a tire company and liquidated his retirement savings to set sail for Hawaii with his cat, Phoenix, reached his destination Saturday.
Watch This! 👀
Here’s Joe Biden walking through the airport this week. Look at the love. Look at the applause. Beautiful. [H/T]
Thank you for lifting my spirits today and for all you to do help us endure this corrupt administration. I couldn’t do it without you.
Thank you Jessica- good news is always welcome!🙏