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   Good morning/afternoon/evening/night to you, depending on where you are, and when you see this #NewstodonFriday thread! Here’s our weekly selection of stories from indie media outlets on everything from a holier-than-thou Texas legislator to an incredible scientific treatment that may have cured a little boy of a genetic illness. Plus, housing scams, Grok’s obsession with South Africa, and a word from The Boss. We love independent media, and we hope you’ll share these stories far and wide, comment (we’d love to see your recommendations for the best things you’ve read/watched/heard this week). And if you can afford to, please donate your money to these brilliant sites.⤵️

   #Media #Journalism #News #Newstodon #MastodonMigration #FollowFriday

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     • The Continent

     Speaking of South Africa… Here’s a slightly older story from @thecontinent about the United States’ reframing of the country as a pariah state, what President Cyril Ramaphosa can do about that, and why it’s important that he take action. “There is one concession, arguably the most important of them all, that South Africa simply cannot make: It cannot halt the ‘white genocide’ because no such thing exists, except in the imaginations of the white supremacists in Trump’s inner circle. And the racists really need to keep the ‘white genocide’ story alive in order for their ideology to make any sense at all,” writes Simon Allison.
     https://continent.substack.com/p/navigating-the-new-world-order

     #ElonMusk #SouthAfrica #WhiteGenocide #Africa #CyrilRamaphosa #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • The Conversation U.S.

     During Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, Congress has not asserted itself as an equal branch of the U.S. government. @TheConversationUS explores how this erosion of power happened long before Trump took office, as a result of the nationalization of politics and polarization along party lines. “A weak Congress paired with what historian Arthur Schlesinger called the ‘Imperial Presidency’ is a recipe for an unaccountable president, running wild without the constitutionally provided oversight and checks on power that the founders provided to the people through their representation by the first branch of government,” writes political scientist Charlie Hunt.

     https://theconversation.com/congress-began-losing-power-decades-ago-and-now-its-giving-away-what-remains-to-trump-254984

     #TrumpAdministration #Congress #USPolitics #Autocracy #Dictatorship #Government #Law #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

     Evan Prodromou repeated this.
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     • Flipboard Culture Desk

     On that note, some words from Bruce Springsteen, as shared by our @CultureDesk. "The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people, you and me," said the Boss at a show in Manchester, U.K. Here’s the video of his many anti-Trump remarks at the show.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZHWIYHlXOs&t=1s

     #BruceSpringsteen #TheBoss #Springsteen #TrumpAdministration #USPolitics #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • Knowable Magazine

     Add another item to the long, long list of things that scare us about climate change. @KnowableMag’s Sanket Jain writes about how conditions like cataracts, pink eye and keratitis are linked to heat, pollution and UV exposure.

     https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/health-disease/2025/how-climate-change-threatens-eye-health

     #Health #Medicine #EyeHealth #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Environment #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • ProPublica

     HomeVestors of America is a real-estate flipper known for its “We Buy Ugly Houses” advertisements. The business model: Independent franchisees buy up homes in need of a fast sale, renovate them, and sell them on at vast profit. It’s a win-win scenario — except when it isn’t. @ProPublica has run a series of stories on how home sellers are exploited by franchisees, which has led to the company making changes in its business practices. The latest article explores how one Texas franchisee exploited people who wanted to invest with him, in a Ponzi scheme that netted him millions and left them broke.

     https://www.propublica.org/article/homevestors-fraud-charles-carrier-texas

     #Money #Finance #HomeBuying #HomeInvestors #Texas #Dallas #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • 404 Media

     We all have subjects we know we talk about too much (sorry in advance for boring your ears off about politics/our new dog). In the case of X’s Grok AI, it’s white genocide. @404mediaco’s Matthew Gault writes about how, on the afternoon of May 14, Grok answered virtually every question it was asked, whether it was about baseball, video games or HBO, with a reference to South African politics and the widely debunked claims that Afrikaners there are victims of racism. “I think they're literally just taking whatever prompt people are sending to Grok and adding a bunch of text about ‘white genocide’ in South Africa in front of it,” said Matthew Guzdial, an AI researcher at the University of Alberta.

     https://www.404media.co/why-did-grok-start-talking-about-white-genocide/

     #Tech #Technology #AI #ElonMusk #SouthAfrica #Africa #WhiteGenocide #Grok #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • SFPublicPress

     Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, public editor of PBS, joined @SFPublicPress executive director Lila LaHood at a recent fireside chat to discuss the future of media. The conversation took place before President Trump had announced an executive order attempting to defund public media, but Sandoval-Palos was anticipating the move. “The threat is at the local station level. The bulk of rural stations around the country, and even some urban stations probably cannot stay open if they don’t have the support from the [Corporation for Public Broadcasting] CPB. Some stations, up to 60% of their budgets are made up by funds from CPB,” he said.

     https://www.sfpublicpress.org/responding-to-attacks-on-public-media-dei-and-democracy/

     #Media #PublicMedia #PBS #NPR #TrumpAdministration #USPolitics #NewsIndustry #MediaIndustry #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • DAME Magazine

     “Am I the last fat person in America?” asks @damemagazine’s Kate Bernyk. She writes about the rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, the message that delivers to fat people — ”Your body is a mistake, and now there’s finally a way to fix it,” — and why she doesn’t want to take medication to change her size. “The idea of eliminating any kind of body should terrify us — not just because it’s wrong, but because it’s unimaginative,” she writes.

     https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/05/15/am-i-the-last-fat-person-in-america/

     #BodyImage #Weigh #WeightLoss #Medicine #Health #Ozempic #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • Daniel Nichanian
     • BoltsMag.org

     @bolts is the best magazine for keeping your eye on America’s local politics, and possibly detecting if a shift is happening (were we the only ones glued to the Omaha, NE mayoral elections earlier this week)? Alex Burness writes about judge elections in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where a “slate of eight” progressive-endorsed candidates are running. Their supporters hope that the prospective judges, who come from public defender, social work and civil rights backgrounds, will have more understanding of the issues faced by criminal defendants. Check out the second list for @taniel’s list of elections to watch in May.

     https://boltsmag.org/allegheny-county-judge-elections-2025/
     https://boltsmag.org/whats-on-the-ballot/guide-to-elections-in-may-2025/

     #Pennsylvania #Philadelphia #PrisonReform #Law #Elections #LocalElections #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • Flipboard Science Desk

     Good news from @npr, as shared by our @ScienceDesk. A baby born in Philadelphia last August with a life-threatening genetic disorder was successfully treated with a gene-editing infusion developed using CRISPR technology. His genetic defect appears to have been fixed, at least partially reversing his condition.

     https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/15/nx-s1-5389620/gene-editing-treatment-crispr-inherited

     #Science #Medicine #GeneTherapy #CRISPR #GeneEditing #Genetics #Children #GoodNews #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • Texas Observer

     It must be exhausting, being Brian Harrison. The Republican representative for Ellis County in the Texas legislature is constantly outraged. ”About what, exactly, depends on the day,” says @TexasObserver’s Joelle DiPaolo. Here’s her story about how Harrison is just one in a long line of loud, dissenting hard-right legislators that aim to disrupt and change things — and that are turning off even the staunchest Republicans. “Harrison’s insatiable scorched-earth tactics and his holier-than-thou rhetoric have alienated his fellow House members to the point where valid criticisms remain unheard, or more often, ridiculed,” writes DiPaolo.

     https://www.texasobserver.org/brian-harrison-texas-lege-self-righteous-crusade/

     #Texas #TexasLegislature #Politics #TexasPolitics #BrianHarrison #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

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     • The New York Review of Books

     Has any country changed in the past quarter-century as much as China? While it’s still a deeply unequal society, living standards across the board have improved dramatically. Filmmaker Jia Zhangke documents this transformation in his latest movie, “Caught by the Tides,” a blend of fiction and non-fiction shot over the past 20 years and starring his wife, Zhao Tao, as Qiaoqiao. “Qiaoqiao is not so much a character as an avatar for a searching generation, her presence both affecting and affected by her surroundings, a constant reminder that the things we lose define us as much as the things we gain,” writes Dennis Zhou for @nybooks.

     https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/05/13/the-quantum-generation-jia-zhangke/

     #China #ChineseCulture #Cinema #Film #Movies #JiaZhangke #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday