Following intense backlash to its partnership with Flock Safety—a surveillance technology company that works with law enforcement agencies including ICE— Ring has announced it is canceling the integration.
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Once again, this newsletter has so much good news in it that it’s almost too long to fit within Substack’s limits. I had to cut items! That means that even though we’re living through the worst possible times, good things are still happening! Let’s keep focussing on, celebrating, and amplifying them, because that’s how we find the strength to keep going—and creating new victories!
So read this list, savor it, and then please share it. Let people know that these wins aren’t happening in a vacuum—they’re happening because people like YOU keep showing up and doing the work.
I literally couldn’t be more proud of you.
ENJOY!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Four Republican New Mexico candidates were disqualified after failing to meet ballot requirements. As a result, and if he rebuffs a primary challenge, U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján is set to avoid a Republican opponent in his bid for a second term
Hundreds of rabbis, cantors, and Jewish leaders protested outside of ICE headquarters in DC this week.
Chasity Verret Martinez defeated her Republican opponent in a Louisiana state legislative district that Donald Trump won by 13 points in 2024.
CA Governor Newsom just signed legislation delivering $90 million to reproductive health care providers across the state. This is to help them survive Trump’s brutal cuts in the OBBBA.
The Virginia Supreme Court said the state could hold a special election on Democratic lawmakers’ redistricting plan aimed at countering GOP gerrymanders nationwide.
Progressive activist Analilia Mejia has won the Democratic primary in a special election for New Jersey.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said that two officers who apparently lied in relation to a shooting are being investigated by the DOJ. This is the bare minimum but it hasn’t been happening, so I’m going to celebrate it.
In a rare defeat, three House Republicans bucked their leaders to block legislation that would have restricted Congress’ ability to strike down Trump’s tariffs.
A Montana court blocked a state law that would have required students to declare their intent to remain in the county after graduation to register to vote using their college address. If upheld, the measure would have barred thousands of students from voting in their own communities.
House Democrats successfully forced a vote to stop Donald Trump’s erratic trade war with Canada that has raised costs for working families and small businesses. The vote succeeded, with several Republicans crossing the aisles to vote with them.
Homeboy Industries, long known as one of the largest gang intervention and reentry programs in the world, has acquired the historic Monastery of the Angels in the Hollywood Hills, with plans to transform the 4-acre property into a residential addiction treatment center.
An Arkansas court blocked a state law that required signatures from at least 50 counties to be collected for an initiative to qualify to be on the ballot — a significantly higher threshold than the state constitution requires.
The 19 Buddhist monks doing a Walk For Peace reached their final destination, D.C., after more than 100 days and 2,300 miles of walking.
Michigan has filed a “groundbreaking” lawsuit against four major fossil fuel companies and the top U.S. oil lobbying group for its role in fueling both the climate crisis and rising energy costs, saying they acted as a “cartel.”
Downhill skier Breezy Johnson not only earned Team USA’s first gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics, but she was also the first openly LGBTQ+ athlete to win gold at the games.
A judge extended a block on a Trump administration effort to freeze funding for social services to five Democrat-led states, at the request of Minnesota, California, Illinois, New York, and Colorado.
A judge dismissed the deportation case of Narciso Barranco, an Orange County landscaper and father of three U.S. Marines who was taken into immigration custody last summer.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return a college freshman to the United States within two weeks after she was mistakenly deported to Honduras in November.
Health care workers in New York City reached a tentative agreement to end a strike at two of three major health systems that has lasted a month and involved nearly 15,000 nurses.
Oscar-nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood formally requested that a piece of music from their 2017 film “Phantom Thread” be removed from the new documentary about Melania Trump.
The factory worker who heckled Trump last month, Thomas “TJ” Sabula, did not get fired for calling Trump a “pedophile protector.” UAW says the 40-year-old is back working and does not have a negative mark on his personnel file.
A D.C. grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers involved in the ‘illegal orders’ video.
The DNC launched Local Listeners, a new program to engage over a million infrequent voters who voted in 2020 but sat out 2024 across key congressional districts and states.
After years of concern over pro skiers’ use of PFAS waxes, the Milan Cortina Games are the first Olympics without them.
A federal judge struck down a Texas law that bars the state from investing in companies that boycott fossil-fuel companies, saying the measure is unconstitutional and overly broad.
In an unexpected reversal, Trump approved a funding boost for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program — a much-needed utility-bill assistance program he proposed killing less than a year ago.
The U.K.’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 3% in 2024 compared to the year prior as the country got more power from renewables, imported more electricity, and closed its last coal power plant.
Americans now own more than 600,000 EVs that can double as emergency power sources for drivers’ homes.
Morgan McSweeney, the chief of staff to Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, resigned under pressure after days of political upheaval over his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as US ambassador.
Olympians representing Team USA have used their platforms to speak out against the Trump administration’s violent immigration raids in Minnesota and across the country.
Bad Bunny’s halftime show was the most watched in history. It was also AMAZING!!
A division of USAID relaunched as a nonprofit with $48 million in philanthropic backing.
The Trump administration has quietly withdrawn all federalized National Guard troops from U.S. cities, after its repeated attempts to surge forces into Democrat-run states encountered judicial roadblocks.
A federal judge in Illinois ruled that the Trump administration cannot rescind $600 million in public health grants allocated to four Democratic-led states, for now.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate the return to the U.S. of some alleged Venezuelan gang members who were unlawfully deported last March.
A federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Michigan officials that sought to force them to hand over voters’ private information.
The DOJ dropped felony charges against two Venezuelan men accused of hitting an ICE officer in Minnesota, after fresh evidence undermined the government’s version of events.
An immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk.
Kathy Ruemmler, a top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, has resigned after her close relationship to Jeffrey Epstein was revealed.
China’s CO2 emissions have now been ‘flat or falling’ for 21 months.
A judge ordered the federal government to provide California ICE detainees with medical care, attorneys and blankets.
A federal judge ruled that Sen. Mark Kelly is “likely to succeed on the merits” of his case against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and temporarily barred the Pentagon from moving forward with actions to punish Kelly.
A Missouri real estate developer will not sell a publicly subsidized 1-million-square-foot warehouse to ICE after local outrage led the Port Authority of Kansas City to cut ties with the firm.
in Virginia, Democrat Elizabeth Bennett-Parker clinched victory in a special election for state senate.
A gray wolf was seen in Los Angeles County for the first time in nearly a century, a milestone for the species
World Central Kitchen announced it’s now serving 1 million meals a day in Gaza.
Lead pollution has dropped 100-fold in the U.S. over the last century.
Pope Leo sent 80 electric generators and thousands of medical supplies to Ukraine.
New York City officials re-raised a Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument after it was taken down by the federal government earlier this week.
West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner ® is the latest in a string of Republican chief election officials to push back against the DOJ’s voter roll grab.
Hundreds of students from Western Carolina University walked over 1.7 MILES, to vote at their new polling location after the NC Elections board voted to close their on-campus polling site.
New York joined the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the UN’s global health agency.
The American Medical Association announced the launch of its own “evidence-based review process” of vaccine safety and efficacy for the next respiratory viral season
More than 1,400 mountain lions across California are now protected by the state’s Endangered Species Act.
The press gallery overlooking the U.S. House chamber was renamed after the abolitionist, writer, and presidential adviser Frederick Douglass in a bipartisan move brokered by Black lawmakers.
New Hampshire’s Republican governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed a bill that would have banned trans people from bathrooms, sporting events, and other spaces that align with their gender identity.
Todd Lyons, the acting chief of ICE, admitted to senators that federal immigration officers would have “no reason” to be at voting locations this November.
Trump’s corrupt threat to block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge is about to become a big albatross around the necks of GOP candidates in pivotal Michigan.
This week, new data came out showing that anti-Trump protests are roughly four times as common as they were at the same point in his first term. The backlash isn’t just in the polls, in other words. It’s everywhere.
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger endorsed a constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to people with felony convictions when they leave prison. State lawmakers passed the amendment and it will now appear on the state ballot.
Leaders in Chatham County, NC approved a moratorium that would ban the construction of data centers and cryptocurrency mining for a year in the county.
Pam Bondi was confronted by a protester when arriving at the Capitol for her disastrous hearing. The protestor shouted: “Bondi you are a disgrace to the American people! You protect pedophiles who systematically rape children!” 👏🏼👏🏼
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