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Here’s a very topical story from the peerless @ProPublica, featuring Jon Husted, who will replace J.D. Vance as Ohio senator. Last May, he participated in a “Prayer at the Statehouse” ceremony organized by the Center for Christian Virtue. Here’s a look at how the influential advocacy group and its network of religious schools are benefiting from the state’s school voucher program.

https://www.propublica.org/article/school-vouchers-ohio-church-state-tax-dollars-private-religious

For generations, child services in Canada and the U.S. have been influenced by colonization, via boarding schools, the ’60s Scoop and more. For @thetyee, Tracy Sherlock writes about the fight in British Columbia for Indigenous people’s jurisdiction over their own children.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/01/17/We-Need-Take-Care-Own-Children/

If you, like everyone else of a certain vintage, spent hours playing Snake on your Nokia phone, you might be interested in this @404mediaco story about the Nokia Design Archive at Aalto University in Finland. The collection goes from the mid-’90s to 2017 and allows you to see the company’s design process and concept art for never-realized ideas like the “Cricket Collection” that could be worn behind the ear, tied around the ankles, or clipped to glasses.

https://www.404media.co/nokia-design-archive-aalto-university/

Liza Kalinina is a Russian who has actively protested against Putin’s regime since 2017. In fall 2023 she moved to Texas to study journalism. She writes for @TexasObserver about what happened when her husband, Igor Babkin, tried to join her in San Marcos and the perilous path for Russian asylum seekers.

https://www.texasobserver.org/lost-in-transit/

The announcement yesterday of David Lynch’s death was a shock to us all. For @TheConversationUS, Billy J. Stratton writes about Lynch’s skill at holding up a mirror to American society. “Lynch’s vital body of work warns that cruelty … isn’t really what we should fear most. It is, instead, those who laugh, cheer or simply turn away,” he writes.

https://theconversation.com/david-lynch-exposed-the-rot-at-the-heart-of-american-culture-247670

Almost from the moment of conception, genetic mutations start to occur in our bodies, and they continue to do so through our lives. “Only in recent years has technology been sensitive enough to catalog every genetic booboo. And it’s revealed we’re riddled with errors,” writes Amber Dance for @KnowableMag. Here’s her story on the causes and consequences of these.

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/health-disease/2024/we-are-all-genetic-mosaics-clones

Years ago, Nigerian writer Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya Okorie tried little green slimming pills at the encouragement of a chemist (pharmacy worker). It turned out they were full of senna, also used as a laxative. She writes for @thexylom about that experience, and how she’s learned to ignore the world’s weight-loss noise. Every waking day, I fight to love my body and not leave it at the mercy of people like that chemist,” she says. “Learning to be comfortable with my extra flesh is the hardest, most courageous thing I have had to do in my adult life.”

https://www.thexylom.com/post/perspective-take-the-green-pill-you-stay-out-of-wonderland

“Over the last few years, Ukraine’s firefighters have sadly become some of the world’s most experienced in fighting blazes in urban areas,” write the team at @timkmak’s Counteroffensive. They got advice from firefighters there on how to cope with the physical and emotional toll.

https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/ukraines-war-tested-firefighters

The lakeside town of Kigoma is a gateway from Tanzania to its neighbours, Zambia, the DRC and Burundi. Ships that sail across Lake Tanganyika form one of East Africa’s most important economic networks. But now, the two major boats, the MV Liemba (the oldest ferry in the world) and the MV Mwongozo are out of action. @thecontinent explains what that means for the people of one of Tanzania’s poorest regions.

https://continent.substack.com/p/boats-to-nowhere

18 months ago,@gbhnews’s Paris Alston interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris when she was in Boston for the NAACP Convention. She looks back at their encounter and the feelings of connection, pride and patriotism it still engenders. “Perhaps patriotism remains accessible for all who want it, no matter who is in the Oval Office. For now, that person is not a Black woman. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t still represent America,” she writes.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2025-01-17/to-be-female-black-and-patriotic

#KamalaHarris #BlackMastodon @blackmastodon #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday

Lastly, British stage and screen actor Joan Plowright died today. Our @CultureDesk shared a video of her with old friends Judi Dench and the late Maggie Smith, (a clip from “Tea With the Dames”) talking about continuing to work. “My agent in America said to me when he knew I couldn't do very much because of the eyesight going,” Plowright says. “And he said well if you do want to come over again we look around for a nice little cameo that Judi Dench hasn't got her paws on."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VxsyjMv1d8