In the headlines...

🏀 In a poetic “rebirth,” the WNBA’s Portland expansion team unveiled its new(ish) name and logo: the Portland Fire. The Fire was the name of the Rose City’s team during its previous WNBA run from 2000-2002.

🪧 Led by Catholic faith leaders and community members, hundreds of people marched from a church to Detroit ICE headquarters to try to deliver a letter calling for better treatment of immigrants. (Video)

Indigenous people

Young indigenous kayakers made a historic river journey after the ‘largest dam removal in US history’

For decades, Native people called for the removal of dams and the restoration of the Klamath River near the border of Oregon and California. Finally, four dams and three reservoirs were removed last year in the world’s largest dam removal project.

Leading up to the dam removal, Ríos to Rivers’ Paddle Tribal Waters project had been helping Native youth reconnect to the ancient river — teaching them to whitewater raft so that Native people would be the first to journey down the newly restored river.

And that historic journey is now complete: Youth from the Yurok, Klamath, Hoopa Valley, Karuk, and other tribes paddled 310 miles over a month from a Klamath River tributary to the Pacific Ocean.

Why is this good news? The Klamath River is a source of deep cultural significance for the Native tribes living in its basin, who see it as a living person they depend on and protect. Once the third-largest salmon-producing fish on the West Coast, before the dams, it also provided them with an abundance of food.

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👀 You may also like reading: Why dam removal is a climate solution​

More Good News

​Bosses in the UK will be banned from using NDAs to silence employees and cover up misconduct at work. The government’s overhaul of workers’ rights will create one of the toughest protection regimes in the world, giving millions of workers, including those in low-paid jobs, more confidence that inappropriate behaviour like discrimination and harassment in the workplace will be dealt with.

​An Indian American teen created an AI-powered app to help protect elderly individuals from online scams. Tejasvi Mano was inspired to create the app after her 85-year-old grandfather was nearly the victim of an online phishing scam, seeing it as the younger generations’ duty to help older generations navigate the digital world.

​Record volumes of solar power generation helped stabilize Europe’s grids through a recent heatwave. In the peak days of the heatwave, solar delivered up to 50 GW of power in Germany alone, generating more than one-third of the country’s electricity, and its 14 GW of battery storage and 10 GW of pumped storage stored some solar to use after sunset.

​Ozzy Osbourne collaborated with chimpanzees on abstract expressionist painting to raise funds for an ape sanctuary in Florida. Osbourne paints for peace of mind, and while he doesn’t usually sell them, he made an exception to raise funds for Save the Chimps, a sanctuary for chimpanzees who have been rescued from animal testing labs, poorly run zoos, and wildlife traffickers.

Related: Osbourne’s farewell concert on July 5 raised $190 million for charity​

People doing good

Following budget cuts and layoffs, national park rangers host a bake sale to take on $1.2 billion deficit

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good progress

People diagnosed with dementia are living longer than ever

Thanks to advancements in early detection and improvements in treatment and customized care, the life expectancy for people with dementia is longer than ever.

A new study analyzed data on more than 1.2 million people living with dementia globally. It found that in five of the eight regions studied, representing 84% of test subjects, people diagnosed with dementia have a lower risk of premature death.

Not only is this data good news for families of loved ones with a dementia diagnosis, both in planning for their care and in enjoying more time with them​, but it helps doctors and policymakers develop better treatment plans and health care policies.

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More Good bits

🩺 Doc says it’s time to hang out with people. In nature, if you can.

☀️ The sun has joined the revolution.

💧 In more good waterway news: Europe is restoring its dirtiest river.

🐶 An untrained seizure-detecting dog found his fur-ever home.

🪸 A fashion trend we (and Chappell Roan) can get behind.

What’s good?

I’m thrilled that those Indigenous youth have an opportunity to reconnect and experience such an integral part of their culture — after decades and decades of advocating for it. I have goosebumps!

What do you think of their historic kayak journey?

Reply to this email and let me know!

— Megan