Good news roundup: All sorts of stuff to be hopeful and joyful about!
Hi everyone, this is the last blog post before I take my summer break. I’ll be back on September 1st with a tan and a new post.
The last few months have been a whirlwind of depressing news. However, there are tons of amazing, inspiring, courageous things happening all over the US and the world. We often don't hear about them because fascists want to keep us fearful.
So here are a few of them I've gathered from people on the internet, in no particular order. Grab your favorite beverage and click on some of these links; your nervous system will thank you. Add in the comment section any other good news you come across. And share this widely!
. The Supreme Court just ruled against Trump's quest to end birthright citizenship!
· DOGE fired a bunch of climate scientists. They banded together and launched climate.us, to keep us all informed.
· After 100,000 Albanians protested for 18 days over Jared-Kushner-backed plans to build a fancy resort on Albanian land, the European Parliament voted to support stronger measures to protect the land against development.
· New York passed a law that fines companies for using AI-generated people in ads and without letting people know. Hopefully it’ll inspire more transparency laws like this.
· Progressive candidate Janeese Lewis George, often compared to Zohran Mamdani, defeats centrist opponent in the primary and will likely become DC’s next mayor in November, proving once again that progressive candidates can and do win.
· France grants honorary citizenship to Palestinian civilians and journalists.
· In Scotland, after bottom trawling was banned, life on the seabed has tripled!
· Wolves, bears, horses, and other wildlife have returned to Chernobyl, including species that have not been there for a hundred years!
· A study in Ecuador finds that 90% of rainforest biodiversity recovers if left alone for 30 years after the land has been used by humans.
· There’s a breakthrough new treatment for ovarian cancer, one that targets cancerous tissues instead of treating the whole body, greatly reducing side effects and allowing patients to have much better quality of life.
· Adrienne White wins Georgia Senate seat after a close contest, blocking the GOP from forming a supermajority and boosting hopes for the midterms.
· China turns a desert into the world’s largest solar farm, almost the size of Singapore, and it’s transforming the land, bringing back vegetation from 1% to 80%! Sheep are now grazing under the panels!
· Also in China, the Mu Us Desert, the size of Belgium, over the past 70 years has been turned into a forest! 93% of it is now forest, thanks to generations of tree planting! This is considered one of the most successful ecological turnarounds ever!
· Mexico’s president officially recognizes Palestine as a state. President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, says “We believe that the Palestinian state must be recognized in all its fullness.”
· A Universal Basic Income experiment in Germany destroys the myth that giving people money makes them lazy. People continued working, but were more likely to advance in their careers and have better mental health and wellbeing.
· Republicans in Georgia back away from their racist efforts to gerrymander the state after significant protests and community organizing. They'll keep trying, but communities are mobilizing.
. The EU passes first-ever law to protect cats and dogs. The new law helps ensure cats and dogs are bred, kept, and placed on the market with fewer abuse.
· France passes “Ecocide” law that punishes corporations for several environmental damage, treating environmental damage as criminal activities punishable by fines and jail time.
· More ecocide laws are coming. Finland’s largest political party also backs ecocide laws as part of its platform.
· Hawaii passed a law to limit the influence of corporations on politics, dealing a blow to Citizens United and serving as a pathway for other states to do the same. Let's pass similar laws in every state!
· Hawaii also passed a law to shield providers and patients of gender-affirming care, protecting trans people and service providers against prosecution from out-of-state forces.
· Japan has found a way to grow trees ten times faster by planting trees with other native plants, forcing the trees to compete, which makes them grow much faster! In the process, there's more biodiversity too.
· China’s Ministry of Education passed groundbreaking measures to ban kids from using AI, require AI content to be clearly labeled, and prohibit certain AI content to be produced for children, among other regulations.
· California city Monterey Park has voted to permanently ban data centers, the first US city to do so.
· Seattle becomes the largest US city to pass a moratorium on data centers. It’s for a year. But hopefully it’s a start towards permanently banning them like Monterey Park did.
· Mexico changes constitution to pass sweeping labor reform, including reducing work hours without decreasing salaries, increasing labor inspections and oversight, and banning after-hours contact.
· Wikipedia bans AI-generated content. Who would have thought that Wikipedia, which our teachers warned us years ago against using, would be such a consistent source of truth among all the chaos.
· Virulently transphobic Nancy Mace finishes fifth in South Carolina’s Republican primary for governor. Fifth place is embarrassing for someone so high profile. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of her political career.
· In Rio de Janeiro, local leader Luis Cassiano is helping residents in favelas to build green roofs, helping to cool down houses and providing relief for much cheaper than traditional green roofs.
· A federal court dismisses the claim that being pro-Palestine/anti-Zionist is the same as being antisemitic. A huge win for free speech.
· A Superior Court judge declares an anti-trans referendum in Maine could not continue forward, due to signature forgery. The initiative, which seeks to ban trans students from sports and bathrooms, will not be on the ballot.
· Bolivia has been in an uprising against its center-right and Trump-supporting president Rodrigo Paz Pereira, with millions of people in a general strike for weeks demanding his resignation. This is how to do it. Strikes, seiges, blockades, for months!
· Bulgaria’s government resigned after a wave of protests led by mostly young people fed up with corruption and high living costs. Gen Z is losing patience and mobilizing.
· Illinois becomes the first state to let people sue ICE agents for violating their constitutional rights. That's right, people can sue individual ICE agents. All states should pass similar laws.
· The Supreme Court ruled that late mail-in ballots can still count, dealing a blow to the administration’s efforts to abolish mail-in voting.
· Carmel, Indiana has reduced car traffic, increased walking/biking, and lowering accidents by removing lanes and replacing traffic lights with tons of roundabouts. More trees, lower pollution, faster commute, fewer accidents? Let's put more roundabouts everywhere!
· Communities everywhere are fighting against Flock Surveillance, with people covering cameras with garbage bags and over 45 cities have cut contracts, with more on the way. If you have Flock in your city, here’s an article with information on how fight them.
· Batteries made from salt are coming! They have potential to replace the widely-use lithium batteries. Lithium mining is awful for the planet; salt is abundant and cheap and better environmentally. China is already mass-producing cars that run on these salt batteries. They do great when it's cold!
That's all for now. Keep hopeful and joyful, everyone, and make sure to get some rest and stay hydrated!
See you on September 1st!
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