It’s Friday! It’s nearly June! How the heck did that happen?! Here’s our #NewstodonFriday selection of stories from independent newsrooms and a few that caught the Flipboard editorial team’s eye. And while there’s hard-hitting journalism in there (we live in hard-hitting times), there’s more […]
Nine-year-old Jackie Cazare was one of the victims in the horrific Uvalde, Texas, shooting. In total, 19 children and two teachers were murdered. In the aftermath, Jackie’s uncle, Jess Rizo, became a regular at local government meetings. A year ago, he was elected to the Uvalde CISD school board […]
We were hoping for the summer of love, or at the very least, the summer of ice cream and going to the beach, but alas, @damemagazine tells us, it’s the summer of stagflation. Kaz Weida explains the difference between this and a common-or-garden recession, the signs that indicate the U.S. is […]
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 […]
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 […]
Fair warning: Some of the stories in this week’s #NewstodonFriday might make you angry — like David Armstrong’s report for @ProPublica on the incredible cost of the life-prolonging cancer drug he takes every day. And some will make you confused, such as @404mediaco's report on AI avatars in job […]
The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today. Here's a Flipboard Storyboard with the full list, plus some of the prizewinning stories, photos and illustrations. One particularly noteworthy winner is Ann Telnaes, who was awarded for her career as the Washington Post's editorial cartoonist — […]
And finally, to the sea cucumber. @KnowableMag deep dives into these diverse, spiny, slimy creatures, the threats they face, and how to protect them.
knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-w...
#Nature #Biology #Ecology #SeaCucumbers […]
Our @CultureDesk shared Lyz Lenz’s story for her newsletter, Men Yell At Me earlier this week, and we’re sharing it again. How could we not celebrate the sublime writing of Lenz on the subject of the drive to fight the declining birthrate, and Trump’s ambition to be the “fertilization […]
We’ve read more about Joe Rogan in the last couple of weeks than we really wanted to — first, with the Menswear Guy’s story for Bloomberg on his influential physique, and now, with @Daojoan’s article on the dangers of the Roganified male mystique, and what to do about it. “That pipeline doesn’t […]
Farmers struggle to make a profit at the best of times, and times just got worse. @gbhnews spotlights how cuts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s federal grant programs mean Massachusetts schools, food hubs and food pantries can’t buy fresh produce, and farmers are left with cases of […]
[CW: Discusses weight loss, diets, eating disorders]
Almond moms are parents who encourage their kids to follow strict diets. For @thexylom, Ann Nguyen writes about the pressure she experienced to stay thin, the clash between Western standards of skinniness and Asian values of “food is love,” […]
At a meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), the U.S. counselor for economic and social affairs, Edward Heartney, touted President Donald Trump as a protector of Indigenous women. It didn’t go well. @Toastie reports for @HighCountryNew about this, and some of […]
Users of Meta’s AI Studio can make bots to chat with — either for themselves or, if they’re influencers, their audiences. @404mediaco’s Samantha Cole was told by multiple bots that they were licensed therapists with multiple credentials and qualifications. She explores the potential harm of […]
“Ukrainians know how to find beauty in everything,” write Mariana Lastovyria and Veronika Romanova for @timkmak’s Counteroffensive. They talked to biologist Svitozar Davydenko about his year at the Akademik Vernadsky Station, in Antarctica, about his experiences there, and why Ukraine continues […]
When you fill in your sensitive medical data to shop for health insurance, the last place you expect it to go is LinkedIn. @themarkup’s investigation indicates that Covered California did exactly that as part of an advertising campaign. Via trackers, LinkedIn received info about gender […]
Last December, Bashar al-Assad was toppled as leader of Syria by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and fled to Moscow. Syrians celebrated, but now, some are worried that life after Assad may be no better. damemagazine@newsie.social’s Ryan Biller talked to Syrians about their fears of religious […]
What’s the best way to make something more efficient? If you’re DOGE, it’s to cancel a project that’s almost complete, and that would itself reduce government waste and make people safer. @SFPublicPress spoke to Jayson McCauliff, who was laid off from the U.S. Digital Service. His team was seven […]
The Trump administration talks about its desire to protect children, but many of its actions are harming them. @ProPublica looks at how: Cuts to programs that keep kids warm, fed, educated and safe. “Everyone’s been talking about what the Trump administration and DOGE have been doing, but no one […]
Texas’s House Bill 3225 is aimed at municipal libraries, and bans anyone aged under 18 from accessing “sexually explicit materials,” without defining what that is, restricts their access to the library’s general collection, even for school assignments, and more. Author Chris Barton testified […]
Fresh off the heels of the Canadian election, two more countries are heading to the polls this weekend. Our @NewsDesk shared a guide to the Australian election, while our @CultureDesk looked at how the Singaporean government is attempting to reach young voters. Both countries vote on May 3 […]
It’s Friday, and that means only one thing: The chance to sleep later than 6.40am for a couple of days unless you’ve got kids, in which case, sooooorrrry. Oh, and also, it’s #NewstodonFriday, where we share fantastic journalism from indie newsrooms and journalists! We’re kicking off this thread […]
Time for some optimism and connection from the Lone Star State. @TexasObserver shares a poem from Catherine Lu, “What Connects Us.” Here’s a section:
Is our love the horizon? A line where the sky
appears to meet the earth’s surface—
which means if you are the earth, then I am the sky—
which […]
Since 2017, it’s been a requirement of Texas law that an outside authority investigate all jail deaths. That’s not happening in Tarrant County, where at least 70 people have died in jail custody since the current sheriff, Bill Waybourn, took office eight years ago. Waybourn — a Republican — was […]
It was Shakespeare’s birthday this week (and his death day too). @gbhnews celebrated this by sharing a story about the only surviving scrap of a script in Shakespeare’s handwriting. It’s a revision to a play, “The Book of Sir Thomas More,” and it’s about refugees and immigration. In it, an angry […]
Political leaders don’t just need confidence — they need competence, and America’s problem right now is that the system can’t distinguish between the two. @Daojoan writes for her Index newsletter about the need for discernment. We need institutions, parties and leaders that know how to measure […]
It’s #NewstodonFriday once again, where we share stories from independent newsrooms and journalists, plus one or two from our editorial desks. We have two equally good, but very different pieces about the perils of confidence, a fantastic @ProPublica interview with Abigail Dillen (president of […]
