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shadowkatYes, it's that time again - for the weekly Good News Report from the American Resistance and it's Global Allies in the War against Fascism, Cancer, Disease, and Climate Change, or just trying to fight for kindness and general well-being overall.
As always, mileage may vary on what is good news, or good news may well be in the eye of beholder. You can also call it the Hope Report if you prefer.
Whatever floats your boat, as my father used to say.
1. A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit just blocked the Trump administration’s push to move forward with massive layoffs. The court denied the government’s request to overturn a lower court ruling, meaning the layoffs can’t happen, for now.
Go Here: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-court-wont-lift-judges-block-trumps-government-overhaul-2025-05-31/
"May 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday refused to allow President Donald Trump's administration to carry out mass layoffs of federal workers and a restructuring of agencies, leaving a lower court order in place that blocked the sweeping government overhaul.
The decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that, for now, the Trump administration cannot proceed with plans to shed tens of thousands of federal jobs and shutter many government offices and programs."
2.Despite RFK Jr.’s claims, the CDC did not remove COVID vaccines from the childhood immunization schedule. In updated guidance, the agency reaffirmed that healthy kids can still get the shot, if parents and doctors agree, through what’s called “shared clinical decision-making.”
Here: https://archive.ph/QmZtP#selection-257.0-257.68 (Washington Post)
3.Five nonprofits are suing the Trump administration to restore more than $820 million in federal grants for violence prevention and community safety programs. If the case moves forward, the plaintiffs could end up representing a class of more than 200 other organizations whose funding was cut.
Here: https://www.thetrace.org/2025/05/violence-prevention-grants-trump-lawsuit/
4.Tesla sales in Europe plunged 49% in April year-on-year on brand damage and competition, even as overall battery electric car sales rose in Europe 34% annually in April.
[Shows boycotts work]
5. A federal judge on Wednesday said she would grant bail to Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed by Harvard University, in an immigration case stemming from Ms. Petrova’s failure to declare scientific samples she was carrying into the country. “There does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis for the immigration officer’s actions” in stripping Ms. Petrova of her visa on Feb. 16, Christina Reiss, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Vermont, said in a court hearing.
Here:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/science/russian-scientist-harvard-charges.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=g&pvid=F478BEC9-ECB5-46F8-B2DA-CB4B869DC5FB (New York Times)
6. Wall Street aka the NY Stock Exchange has figured out how to handle the Tariff situation: "Wall Street has dubbed a new term, “TACO Trade,” or Trump Always Chickens Out, meaning he makes a threat, then pulls back. He did that once again this week, threatening the European Union on Friday, and pulling back on Sunday. As we passed the midpoint of his 90 day tariff pause, Trump has yet to finalize a single trade deal."
Here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-is-a-roller-coaster-ride-how-trumps-tariffs-turned-the-taco-trade-into-wall-streets-biggest-debate-130035800.html
7. Trump's global tariffs are BLOCKED by US Trade Court.
Upon hearing that, Dow futures jumped 400 points.
The scoop on the Tariff situation or what I like to call "the Texas Two Step" or the RumTum Tiger : https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/trump-tariffs-court-rulings-blocked-latest/
I honestly don't know what the Supreme Court will do?
8.Three of the four law firms that filed lawsuits against Trump’s punitive executive orders targeting them have prevailed. [Actually, I think they all have?]
Go here: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5326564-federal-courts-block-trump-orders/
9.The nine firms who capitulated are starting to feel the consequences.
Go HERE: https://theweeklylist.substack.com/p/the-worm-has-turned-on-law-firms?r=4jbtx
10.After the abrupt cancellation of The ReidOut at MSNBC, many wondered what was next for Joy-Ann Reid. Now we know. She’s launching The Joy Reid Show, a new podcast and YouTube series delivering her signature blend of political analysis, cultural commentary, and unfiltered conversation. She’s kicking it off with Amber Ruffin and Ras Baraka—and she’s doing it her way. See how Joy is reclaiming her voice and creating space for ours:
Go HERE: https://www.ebony.com/joy-reid-new-series-the-joy-reid-show-launches-youtube/ [Ebony]
11. A new immunotherapy trial has shown that cancer patients with tumors lived 40% longer thanks to a treatment using genetically modified CAR T-cells. Experts are calling the results groundbreaking, as the therapy represents a major advance in using the body’s own immune system to fight cancer more effectively.
Go HERE: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/may/31/immunotherapy-trial-helps-cancer-patients-with-tumours-live-40-longer
[The Guardian]
12.A new triple therapy for aggressive, advanced breast cancer has been shown to significantly slow disease progression, extend survival, and delay the need for further chemotherapy. The treatment combines two targeted drugs— inavolisib and palbociclib— with hormone therapy fulvestrant, leading to an average survival increase of seven months and delaying disease progression by nearly 10 months compared to the standard treatment.
Here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/31/breakthrough-breast-cancer-therapy-can-slow-advance-of-disease-and-prolong-survival
13. Nevada is set to become first to prohibit outdated and unnecessary tests on animals for household cleaning products
Go HERE: https://crueltyfreeinternational.org/latest-news-and-updates/nevada-one-step-cleaning-cruelty
14. 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.
Go HERE: https://www.politico.eu/article/romanian-presidential-election-results-nicusor-dan-george-simion/
15.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.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/22/high-court-judge-blocks-uk-from-concluding-chagos-islands-deal
16.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.
https://apnews.com/article/indigenous-colombia-land-rights-self-government-brazil-amazon-dcf2341bf8d60d82e3c641df164ade85?sh_kit=7a2950363f4b90b1881ae76c68d24551846eea9063b67a6a14e9fa39bc419e40
17. 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.
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/us-agency-says-geothermal-energy-nevadas-great-basin-could-play-larger-role-2025-05-22/?_hsmi=362948997
18. 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.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/detroit-population-growth-historic-duggan-census-michigan-1.7537342?sh_kit=7a2950363f4b90b1881ae76c68d24551846eea9063b67a6a14e9fa39bc419e40
19. The first four months of 2025 have seen the lowest count—four—of mass shootings with four or more fatalities since 2006.
https://archive.is/aC1el
20. 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. [See above...]
https://jasher.substack.com/p/how-2025-could-feature-the-lowest
21. 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.
https://www.dw.com/en/spain-a-whole-country-unites-against-femicide/video-72491867
22.Breaking the Silence: Europe Unites Against Alcohol Harm. The EU launched a new coalition of health organizations and experts to advocate for the reduction of alcohol-related illnesses, injuries, and deaths here at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress 2025. The European Health Alliance on Alcohol aims to reduce alcohol’s impact on health, raise public awareness, and advocate for the implementation of effective policies that save lives.
The World Health Organization (WHO) European Region has the heaviest alcohol consumption of all regions in the world, causing a significant reduction in life expectancy, especially among men. Approximately 800,000 lives are lost each year to alcohol. It is also a leading risk factor for disability, a major cause of more than 200 chronic diseases, and a factor in many injuries and mental health disorders. Despite this, cultural and societal narratives around alcohol use are at odds with the clinical evidence, fueling alcohol-related harm.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/breaking-silence-europe-unites-against-alcohol-harm-2025a1000b7i?ecd=WNL_conf_gastro_EASL-NON-SPON_250525_MSCPEDIT_etid7440076&uac=145753MX&impID=7440076
23. Pope Leo XIV called on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-leo-appeals-israel-allow-humanitarian-aid-gaza-2025-05-21/
24. A controversial museum at the Fort Branch Confederate Earthworks in North Carolina was recently destroyed by a falling tree. The museum was located at the Fort Branch Confederate Earthworks in North Carolina.
https://thencbeat.com/fort-branch-museum-destroyed-by-fallen-tree/
25.The U.S. Department of Defense wants new and existing defense contracts to give the Army the right to repair its own weapons, in a bid to save money and time by ending requirements to use original manufacturers for servicing.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/pentagon-seek-right-repair-provisions-army-contracts-2025-05-01/?taid=68142e328ac6120001258e70
26.Los Angeles schools superintendent says he’ll protect undocumented students “to the very end.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/nx-s1-5361232/la-superintendent-dhs-schools
27. India successfully conducted validation trials of an indigenously designed and developed multi-influence ground mine (MIGM) and an advanced underwater naval mine designed to operate against modern stealth ships and submarines. NDTV
Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb6R7ZzNtUk
[I don't know if I'd call this is good news, exactly? But the folks on FB loved it.]
28.Lebanese voted in the country’s first local elections in almost a decade.
Here: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-local-elections-rcna204708?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=68183c72925fde00013d930b
29. Leaders of some of the nation’s most prestigious universities have assembled a private collective to counter the Trump administration’s attacks on research funding and academic independence across higher education.
Here: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/elite-universities-form-private-collective-to-resist-trump-administration-95a14ff3?mod=djemalertNEWS&lctg=27193028
30.Reporters Without Borders exfiltrates Russian journalist and outspoken war critic who escaped house arrest. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on May 5 announced that it had facilitated Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash's escape from Russia to France.
Here: https://kyivindependent.com/reporters-without-borders-exfiltrates-russian-journalist-and-outspoken-war-critic-who-escaped-house-arrest/
[The Kyiv Independent]
31.Copenhagen, Denmark: The redesigned Enghaveparken manages extreme rainfall and demonstrates innovative climate resilience.
https://www.ft.com/content/69c2d5c8-004e-44f3-99e9-621216c25496 [Financial Times]
32. All Taylor Swift records are now property of Taylor Swift… Here’s one to celebrate. Taylor Swift‘s years-long saga to win back the rights to her first six albums will go down as one of the most significant storylines in the history of the modern music business… the conflict grew her own superstardom to stratospheric heights as the Taylor’s Version re-releases became massive hits in their own right. Swift isn’t the first artist to re-record her music, though the practice will forever be synonymous with her as she took on the ambitious task of recreating her old albums all over again, while also managing to record and release four new albums (Folklore, Evermore, Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department) and net the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. As Swift announced Friday, she’s officially bought back ownership of the records, bringing this chapter to a close.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/taylor-swift-buys-back-her-catalog-explainer-1236233783/
[Note: she gives to Food Banks in every city she performs.]
33.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. [LOL!]
Here: https://apnews.com/article/sailing-cat-phoenix-oregon-hawaii-d6dbdaea88e09c9b6d24fba61d8729a3?link_source=ta_thread_link&taid=6832c7026bb3b60001a7d933
34.A new study in Global Change Biology details the evolutionary change of Anna's Hummingbirds in the western U.S., finding their beaks have grown longer and more tapered to get the most from common backyard feeders.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/23/nx-s1-5409073/annas-hummingbird-backyard-feeders?utm_id=64830604&orgid=119&uniquet=INBy_Pt3zDakaFqpu4ebxw&utm_att1=
35.A member of the K-pop boy band Just B publicly came out as gay during a concert this week in Los Angeles. It’s a first for an active K-pop star.
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/south-korea/kpop-boy-band-justb-bain-gay-come-out-lgbtq-los-angeles-katseye-wassup-rcna202942
36.In a small CA town the Word Warriors are back! Word warriors fight back
Benton Street group selling yard signs featuring quotes from civil rights icons, others to counter Trump’s controversial policies and inspire action.
https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=34c41b00-0c4c-4707-9667-a94f6ff54fd0&appcode=PRE341&eguid=18f98173-7893-4228-b80b-2f33ded85015&pnum=1
37.Trump and the administration suffered a 96% loss rate in federal courts in the month of May. Those losses were nonpartisan: 72.2% of Republican-appointed judges and 80.4% of Democratic-appointed judges ruled against the administration. May was brutal for Trump in federal court: 96% loss rate. Even GOP-appointed judges have ruled against the admin 72% of the time. District courts are doing their job defending the Constitution. Soon the Supreme Court may be the only court unwilling to defend the rule of law.
With any luck the Supreme Court will get with the program - or face Impeachment from Congress down the road.
38.U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that 14 states can proceed with their lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency.” The administration had tried to dismiss the case, but Chutkan ruled the states had adequately supported their argument that “Musk and DOGE’s conduct is ‘unauthorized by any law.’” “The Constitution does not permit the Executive to commandeer the entire appointments power by unilaterally creating a federal agency…and insulating its principal officer from the Constitution as an ‘advisor’ in name only,” she wrote.
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-stepping-back-doge-final-form/
39.U.S. District Judge Richard Leon struck down Trump’s March 27 executive order targeting the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, more commonly known as WilmerHale. This law firm angered Trump by employing Robert Mueller, the Republican-appointed special counsel who oversaw an investigation of the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Leon, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, made his anger obvious. “[T]he First Amendment prohibits government officials from retaliating against individuals for engaging in protected speech,” Leon noted. “WilmerHale alleges that ‘[t]he Order blatantly defies this bedrock principle of constitutional law.’” Leon wrote: “I agree!” He went on to strike down the order as unconstitutional.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/27/trump-leon-wilmerhale-mueller.html
40.NPR and three Colorado public radio stations sued the Trump administration over Trump’s executive order that seeks to impound congressionally appropriated funds for NPR and PBS. The executive order said the public media stations do not present “a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” NPR’s David Folkenflik reported White House spokesperson Harrison Fields’s statement today that public media supports “a particular party on the taxpayers’ dime,” and that Trump and his allies have called it “left-wing propaganda.”
The lawsuit calls Trump’s executive order and attempt to withhold funding Congress has already approved “textbook retaliation.” “[W]e are not choosing to do this out of politics,” NPR chief executive officer Katherine Maher told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. “We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the First Amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/nx-s1-5413094/npr-public-radio-lawsuit-trump-funding-ban
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/1253209931/npr-trump-lawsuit-funding
41. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis today denied the administration’s motion for a 30-day extension of the deadline for it to answer the complaint in the lawsuit over the rendition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man sent to El Salvador through what the administration said was “administrative error.”
Despite five hearings on the case, the administration’s lawyers didn’t indicate they needed any more time, but today—the day their answer was due—they suddenly asked for 30 more days. Xinis wrote that they “expended no effort in demonstrating good cause. They vaguely complain, in two sentences, to expending ‘significant resources’ engaging in expedited discovery. But these self-described burdens are of their own making. The Court ordered expedited discovery because of [the administration’s] refusal to follow the orders of this court as affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.”
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.163.0.pdf
42.In Israel, when Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition tried to destroy judicial independence, people from all parts of society took to the streets. A broad, nonpartisan group came together to defend democracy and resist authoritarianism.
ETA:
43. Court orders US Agency for Global Media to release $12 million in funding to Voice Of America is Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), part of Voice of America, is funded by Congress with grants which are distributed through the Federal government's United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). RFE/RL sued USAGM to block it from withholding those *congressionally-appropriated* funds. And now the court has ordered USAGM to release those funds, some $12,174,979.
44. Greta Thunberg sets sail with brave individuals from around the world in an attempt to break the US-Israeli siege of Gaza and bring aid and hope to starving Palestinians. They’re doing this just weeks after a similar flotilla was attacked – allegedly by Israel – and 15 years after Israeli forces attacked the inaugural flotilla, killing nine people. Pretty stunning display of bravery to feed a starving population.
45.Good News! The National Weather Service is hiring again, after DOGE’s “brilliant” decision to lay off essential staff. Apparently, round-the-clock weather alerts don’t send themselves. Who would’ve guessed?
***
Reading: When Leaders Attack Judges as Enemies, the Global Authoritarian Play Book and How to Stop It
As always, mileage may vary on what is good news, or good news may well be in the eye of beholder. You can also call it the Hope Report if you prefer.
Whatever floats your boat, as my father used to say.
1. A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit just blocked the Trump administration’s push to move forward with massive layoffs. The court denied the government’s request to overturn a lower court ruling, meaning the layoffs can’t happen, for now.
Go Here: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-court-wont-lift-judges-block-trumps-government-overhaul-2025-05-31/
"May 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday refused to allow President Donald Trump's administration to carry out mass layoffs of federal workers and a restructuring of agencies, leaving a lower court order in place that blocked the sweeping government overhaul.
The decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that, for now, the Trump administration cannot proceed with plans to shed tens of thousands of federal jobs and shutter many government offices and programs."
2.Despite RFK Jr.’s claims, the CDC did not remove COVID vaccines from the childhood immunization schedule. In updated guidance, the agency reaffirmed that healthy kids can still get the shot, if parents and doctors agree, through what’s called “shared clinical decision-making.”
Here: https://archive.ph/QmZtP#selection-257.0-257.68 (Washington Post)
3.Five nonprofits are suing the Trump administration to restore more than $820 million in federal grants for violence prevention and community safety programs. If the case moves forward, the plaintiffs could end up representing a class of more than 200 other organizations whose funding was cut.
Here: https://www.thetrace.org/2025/05/violence-prevention-grants-trump-lawsuit/
4.Tesla sales in Europe plunged 49% in April year-on-year on brand damage and competition, even as overall battery electric car sales rose in Europe 34% annually in April.
[Shows boycotts work]
5. A federal judge on Wednesday said she would grant bail to Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed by Harvard University, in an immigration case stemming from Ms. Petrova’s failure to declare scientific samples she was carrying into the country. “There does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis for the immigration officer’s actions” in stripping Ms. Petrova of her visa on Feb. 16, Christina Reiss, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Vermont, said in a court hearing.
Here:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/science/russian-scientist-harvard-charges.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=g&pvid=F478BEC9-ECB5-46F8-B2DA-CB4B869DC5FB (New York Times)
6. Wall Street aka the NY Stock Exchange has figured out how to handle the Tariff situation: "Wall Street has dubbed a new term, “TACO Trade,” or Trump Always Chickens Out, meaning he makes a threat, then pulls back. He did that once again this week, threatening the European Union on Friday, and pulling back on Sunday. As we passed the midpoint of his 90 day tariff pause, Trump has yet to finalize a single trade deal."
Here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-is-a-roller-coaster-ride-how-trumps-tariffs-turned-the-taco-trade-into-wall-streets-biggest-debate-130035800.html
7. Trump's global tariffs are BLOCKED by US Trade Court.
Upon hearing that, Dow futures jumped 400 points.
The scoop on the Tariff situation or what I like to call "the Texas Two Step" or the RumTum Tiger : https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/trump-tariffs-court-rulings-blocked-latest/
I honestly don't know what the Supreme Court will do?
8.Three of the four law firms that filed lawsuits against Trump’s punitive executive orders targeting them have prevailed. [Actually, I think they all have?]
Go here: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5326564-federal-courts-block-trump-orders/
9.The nine firms who capitulated are starting to feel the consequences.
Go HERE: https://theweeklylist.substack.com/p/the-worm-has-turned-on-law-firms?r=4jbtx
10.After the abrupt cancellation of The ReidOut at MSNBC, many wondered what was next for Joy-Ann Reid. Now we know. She’s launching The Joy Reid Show, a new podcast and YouTube series delivering her signature blend of political analysis, cultural commentary, and unfiltered conversation. She’s kicking it off with Amber Ruffin and Ras Baraka—and she’s doing it her way. See how Joy is reclaiming her voice and creating space for ours:
Go HERE: https://www.ebony.com/joy-reid-new-series-the-joy-reid-show-launches-youtube/ [Ebony]
11. A new immunotherapy trial has shown that cancer patients with tumors lived 40% longer thanks to a treatment using genetically modified CAR T-cells. Experts are calling the results groundbreaking, as the therapy represents a major advance in using the body’s own immune system to fight cancer more effectively.
Go HERE: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/may/31/immunotherapy-trial-helps-cancer-patients-with-tumours-live-40-longer
[The Guardian]
12.A new triple therapy for aggressive, advanced breast cancer has been shown to significantly slow disease progression, extend survival, and delay the need for further chemotherapy. The treatment combines two targeted drugs— inavolisib and palbociclib— with hormone therapy fulvestrant, leading to an average survival increase of seven months and delaying disease progression by nearly 10 months compared to the standard treatment.
Here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/31/breakthrough-breast-cancer-therapy-can-slow-advance-of-disease-and-prolong-survival
13. Nevada is set to become first to prohibit outdated and unnecessary tests on animals for household cleaning products
Go HERE: https://crueltyfreeinternational.org/latest-news-and-updates/nevada-one-step-cleaning-cruelty
14. 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.
Go HERE: https://www.politico.eu/article/romanian-presidential-election-results-nicusor-dan-george-simion/
15.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.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/22/high-court-judge-blocks-uk-from-concluding-chagos-islands-deal
16.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.
https://apnews.com/article/indigenous-colombia-land-rights-self-government-brazil-amazon-dcf2341bf8d60d82e3c641df164ade85?sh_kit=7a2950363f4b90b1881ae76c68d24551846eea9063b67a6a14e9fa39bc419e40
17. 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.
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/us-agency-says-geothermal-energy-nevadas-great-basin-could-play-larger-role-2025-05-22/?_hsmi=362948997
18. 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.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/detroit-population-growth-historic-duggan-census-michigan-1.7537342?sh_kit=7a2950363f4b90b1881ae76c68d24551846eea9063b67a6a14e9fa39bc419e40
19. The first four months of 2025 have seen the lowest count—four—of mass shootings with four or more fatalities since 2006.
https://archive.is/aC1el
20. 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. [See above...]
https://jasher.substack.com/p/how-2025-could-feature-the-lowest
21. 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.
https://www.dw.com/en/spain-a-whole-country-unites-against-femicide/video-72491867
22.Breaking the Silence: Europe Unites Against Alcohol Harm. The EU launched a new coalition of health organizations and experts to advocate for the reduction of alcohol-related illnesses, injuries, and deaths here at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress 2025. The European Health Alliance on Alcohol aims to reduce alcohol’s impact on health, raise public awareness, and advocate for the implementation of effective policies that save lives.
The World Health Organization (WHO) European Region has the heaviest alcohol consumption of all regions in the world, causing a significant reduction in life expectancy, especially among men. Approximately 800,000 lives are lost each year to alcohol. It is also a leading risk factor for disability, a major cause of more than 200 chronic diseases, and a factor in many injuries and mental health disorders. Despite this, cultural and societal narratives around alcohol use are at odds with the clinical evidence, fueling alcohol-related harm.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/breaking-silence-europe-unites-against-alcohol-harm-2025a1000b7i?ecd=WNL_conf_gastro_EASL-NON-SPON_250525_MSCPEDIT_etid7440076&uac=145753MX&impID=7440076
23. Pope Leo XIV called on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-leo-appeals-israel-allow-humanitarian-aid-gaza-2025-05-21/
24. A controversial museum at the Fort Branch Confederate Earthworks in North Carolina was recently destroyed by a falling tree. The museum was located at the Fort Branch Confederate Earthworks in North Carolina.
https://thencbeat.com/fort-branch-museum-destroyed-by-fallen-tree/
25.The U.S. Department of Defense wants new and existing defense contracts to give the Army the right to repair its own weapons, in a bid to save money and time by ending requirements to use original manufacturers for servicing.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/pentagon-seek-right-repair-provisions-army-contracts-2025-05-01/?taid=68142e328ac6120001258e70
26.Los Angeles schools superintendent says he’ll protect undocumented students “to the very end.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/nx-s1-5361232/la-superintendent-dhs-schools
27. India successfully conducted validation trials of an indigenously designed and developed multi-influence ground mine (MIGM) and an advanced underwater naval mine designed to operate against modern stealth ships and submarines. NDTV
Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb6R7ZzNtUk
[I don't know if I'd call this is good news, exactly? But the folks on FB loved it.]
28.Lebanese voted in the country’s first local elections in almost a decade.
Here: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-local-elections-rcna204708?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=68183c72925fde00013d930b
29. Leaders of some of the nation’s most prestigious universities have assembled a private collective to counter the Trump administration’s attacks on research funding and academic independence across higher education.
Here: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/elite-universities-form-private-collective-to-resist-trump-administration-95a14ff3?mod=djemalertNEWS&lctg=27193028
30.Reporters Without Borders exfiltrates Russian journalist and outspoken war critic who escaped house arrest. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on May 5 announced that it had facilitated Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash's escape from Russia to France.
Here: https://kyivindependent.com/reporters-without-borders-exfiltrates-russian-journalist-and-outspoken-war-critic-who-escaped-house-arrest/
[The Kyiv Independent]
31.Copenhagen, Denmark: The redesigned Enghaveparken manages extreme rainfall and demonstrates innovative climate resilience.
https://www.ft.com/content/69c2d5c8-004e-44f3-99e9-621216c25496 [Financial Times]
32. All Taylor Swift records are now property of Taylor Swift… Here’s one to celebrate. Taylor Swift‘s years-long saga to win back the rights to her first six albums will go down as one of the most significant storylines in the history of the modern music business… the conflict grew her own superstardom to stratospheric heights as the Taylor’s Version re-releases became massive hits in their own right. Swift isn’t the first artist to re-record her music, though the practice will forever be synonymous with her as she took on the ambitious task of recreating her old albums all over again, while also managing to record and release four new albums (Folklore, Evermore, Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department) and net the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. As Swift announced Friday, she’s officially bought back ownership of the records, bringing this chapter to a close.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/taylor-swift-buys-back-her-catalog-explainer-1236233783/
[Note: she gives to Food Banks in every city she performs.]
33.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. [LOL!]
Here: https://apnews.com/article/sailing-cat-phoenix-oregon-hawaii-d6dbdaea88e09c9b6d24fba61d8729a3?link_source=ta_thread_link&taid=6832c7026bb3b60001a7d933
34.A new study in Global Change Biology details the evolutionary change of Anna's Hummingbirds in the western U.S., finding their beaks have grown longer and more tapered to get the most from common backyard feeders.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/23/nx-s1-5409073/annas-hummingbird-backyard-feeders?utm_id=64830604&orgid=119&uniquet=INBy_Pt3zDakaFqpu4ebxw&utm_att1=
35.A member of the K-pop boy band Just B publicly came out as gay during a concert this week in Los Angeles. It’s a first for an active K-pop star.
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/south-korea/kpop-boy-band-justb-bain-gay-come-out-lgbtq-los-angeles-katseye-wassup-rcna202942
36.In a small CA town the Word Warriors are back! Word warriors fight back
Benton Street group selling yard signs featuring quotes from civil rights icons, others to counter Trump’s controversial policies and inspire action.
https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=34c41b00-0c4c-4707-9667-a94f6ff54fd0&appcode=PRE341&eguid=18f98173-7893-4228-b80b-2f33ded85015&pnum=1
37.Trump and the administration suffered a 96% loss rate in federal courts in the month of May. Those losses were nonpartisan: 72.2% of Republican-appointed judges and 80.4% of Democratic-appointed judges ruled against the administration. May was brutal for Trump in federal court: 96% loss rate. Even GOP-appointed judges have ruled against the admin 72% of the time. District courts are doing their job defending the Constitution. Soon the Supreme Court may be the only court unwilling to defend the rule of law.
With any luck the Supreme Court will get with the program - or face Impeachment from Congress down the road.
38.U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that 14 states can proceed with their lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency.” The administration had tried to dismiss the case, but Chutkan ruled the states had adequately supported their argument that “Musk and DOGE’s conduct is ‘unauthorized by any law.’” “The Constitution does not permit the Executive to commandeer the entire appointments power by unilaterally creating a federal agency…and insulating its principal officer from the Constitution as an ‘advisor’ in name only,” she wrote.
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-stepping-back-doge-final-form/
39.U.S. District Judge Richard Leon struck down Trump’s March 27 executive order targeting the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, more commonly known as WilmerHale. This law firm angered Trump by employing Robert Mueller, the Republican-appointed special counsel who oversaw an investigation of the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Leon, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, made his anger obvious. “[T]he First Amendment prohibits government officials from retaliating against individuals for engaging in protected speech,” Leon noted. “WilmerHale alleges that ‘[t]he Order blatantly defies this bedrock principle of constitutional law.’” Leon wrote: “I agree!” He went on to strike down the order as unconstitutional.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/27/trump-leon-wilmerhale-mueller.html
40.NPR and three Colorado public radio stations sued the Trump administration over Trump’s executive order that seeks to impound congressionally appropriated funds for NPR and PBS. The executive order said the public media stations do not present “a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” NPR’s David Folkenflik reported White House spokesperson Harrison Fields’s statement today that public media supports “a particular party on the taxpayers’ dime,” and that Trump and his allies have called it “left-wing propaganda.”
The lawsuit calls Trump’s executive order and attempt to withhold funding Congress has already approved “textbook retaliation.” “[W]e are not choosing to do this out of politics,” NPR chief executive officer Katherine Maher told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. “We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the First Amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/nx-s1-5413094/npr-public-radio-lawsuit-trump-funding-ban
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/1253209931/npr-trump-lawsuit-funding
41. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis today denied the administration’s motion for a 30-day extension of the deadline for it to answer the complaint in the lawsuit over the rendition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man sent to El Salvador through what the administration said was “administrative error.”
Despite five hearings on the case, the administration’s lawyers didn’t indicate they needed any more time, but today—the day their answer was due—they suddenly asked for 30 more days. Xinis wrote that they “expended no effort in demonstrating good cause. They vaguely complain, in two sentences, to expending ‘significant resources’ engaging in expedited discovery. But these self-described burdens are of their own making. The Court ordered expedited discovery because of [the administration’s] refusal to follow the orders of this court as affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.”
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.163.0.pdf
42.In Israel, when Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition tried to destroy judicial independence, people from all parts of society took to the streets. A broad, nonpartisan group came together to defend democracy and resist authoritarianism.
ETA:
43. Court orders US Agency for Global Media to release $12 million in funding to Voice Of America is Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), part of Voice of America, is funded by Congress with grants which are distributed through the Federal government's United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). RFE/RL sued USAGM to block it from withholding those *congressionally-appropriated* funds. And now the court has ordered USAGM to release those funds, some $12,174,979.
44. Greta Thunberg sets sail with brave individuals from around the world in an attempt to break the US-Israeli siege of Gaza and bring aid and hope to starving Palestinians. They’re doing this just weeks after a similar flotilla was attacked – allegedly by Israel – and 15 years after Israeli forces attacked the inaugural flotilla, killing nine people. Pretty stunning display of bravery to feed a starving population.
45.Good News! The National Weather Service is hiring again, after DOGE’s “brilliant” decision to lay off essential staff. Apparently, round-the-clock weather alerts don’t send themselves. Who would’ve guessed?
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Reading: When Leaders Attack Judges as Enemies, the Global Authoritarian Play Book and How to Stop It