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It’s been a week. Oh boy, has it been a week. Here’s our #NewstodonFriday thread of stories from the independent newsrooms that have made a home for themselves in the fediverse, plus a couple of important stories that our own desks shared. As always, please read and boost the stories in this thread, and support the brilliant newsrooms that produce them. And do share in the comments any stories or moments that have brought you joy in the past week. Or dog photos — those would be good too!
What characterized Trump’s day-one executive orders? @damemagazine says it was spite and destruction. The legal fightback is underway, but many orders will go by unchallenged and, writes Max Burns, “unnoticed except by the communities they upend and the citizens they harm.”
Republicans have a supermajority in South Carolina’s Senate: 46 members, and zero women. “Similar postelection stories are playing out across the Southeast, a region long defined by traditional culture and conservative politics. All but one state that held legislative elections last fall in this region saw losses of Republican women, including Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas and South Carolina,” writes @ProPublica’s Jennifer Berry Hawes. The rest of the country saw gains for women in legislatures — so why is this region bucking the trend?
https://www.propublica.org/article/republican-women-state-legislature-election-losses-south-carolina
For months or years, Canadians have spoken about their upcoming federal election as if the result is a foregone conclusion: The Conservatives are set for a huge win. But now, with the resignation of Justin Trudeau, @thetyee says the beleaguered Liberals can make a comeback. Here’s how.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/01/22/Why-Liberals-Hopes-Not-Dead-Yet/
The U.S. government is killing DEI programs, and if you have a Github account, you can see exactly the steps that the 18F digital services agency is taking to comply with the Trump administration’s new diktat. Here’s more from @404mediaco’s @jasonkoebler.
Meanwhile, and in spite of Trump’s plans to target the private sector in his clampdown on diversity, equity and inclusion, some companies are staying the course. Here’s @abc’s story, which was shared by our @CultureDesk, plus a link to Pew Research data that indicates what Americans actually think of DEI.
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/companies-sticking-dei-amid-backlash/story?id=118037109
Mycorrhizal fungi have been best friends with plants for 500 million years. In exchange for food from the plants, these root-dwellers help their hosts get nutrients, fight pathogens and improve tolerance to drought. @KnowableMag explains how researchers are exploring them as a means for saving endangered plants.
The Department of Justice has told state officials that they need to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they begin to execute Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Some attorneys general are pushing back. Here’s @gbhnews’s story on what’s happening in Massachusetts, California, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont,
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-01-23/states-push-back-against-doj-memo-warning-officials-to-work-with-ice
Indonesia has half the world’s known nickel deposits. @thexylom’s Garry Lotulung explains the effects on the environment and people, including the country’s last nomadic tribes.
How will Ukraine remember Joe Biden? @timkmak’s Counteroffensive covers the former president’s “checkered legacy.” “There’s a clear message in the results of American hesitancy: if the United States doesn’t stand up for democratic values, no one else is likely to lead,” writes Mak.
https://www.counteroffensive.news/p/bidens-bitter-legacy-on-ukraine
Can Trump really change the name of the Gulf of Mexico? @TexasObserver explores the Gulf’s history, its continued importance to scientists, and what 15th-century explorers called it (Chinese sea, anyone?)
https://www.texasobserver.org/name-gulf-mexico-america-history/
#GulfOfMexico #Trump #History @histodons #Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday
In December, Namibia elected its first woman president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who will take office in March if court proceedings over the results go her way. @thecontinent looks at who she is — “hawkish and conservative,” and the country she’ll be leading.
https://continent.substack.com/p/first-woman-president-crowned-after
Finally, today, @TheConversationUS sent us a wealth of stories that we are proud to showcase in our @stories-of-black-america-theculturedesk Magazine.
Here’s one from 2023 on poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, who, in his 1899 work “Sympathy,” wrote the immortal line, “I know why the caged bird sings!” and whose “In Dahomey” may have influenced “Hamilton.” “Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1900, Dunbar died from complications of the disease on Feb. 9, 1906,” writes Minnita Daniel-Cox “But his work survives.”
#BlackMastodon @blackmastodon #BlackHistory #BlackHistoryMonth
#Newstodon #NewstodonFriday #FollowFriday
