Greetings! Happy World Consumer Rights Day to those celebrating.

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🇨🇬 Congo votes, but few expect the script to change. Republic of Congo voted Sunday in a presidential election few expect to change power. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is seeking a fifth consecutive term. He is 82 and has ruled for 42 years. Six opponents challenged him, but analysts see no serious threat. Opposition parties called for a boycott instead of a close fight. Turnout looked thin as many voters shrugged at the outcome. The government shut down the internet nationwide during the vote. Traffic was also restricted across Brazzaville, the capital. Results are expected within two weeks. In an oil-rich state, the ritual of democracy looked more like confirmation.

🇪🇹 Ethiopia mourns as rain turns hillsides into graves. Ethiopia declared three days of mourning after landslides killed at least 80 people. The dead were recovered from the Gamo Zone in the country’s south. The slides hit after heavy rains pounded the area for days. Officials said many more people were still missing. Search crews kept digging as more rain complicated recovery work. Speaker Tagesse Chafo said the mourning period would begin Saturday. Regional officials also intensified the search for remaining victims. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said 3,461 people were displaced. In neighboring Kenya, flash floods have also killed dozens. East Africa’s rainy season is turning soil, homes, and lives into unstable ground.

📡 NewsGuard says Washington is coming for its oxygen. NewsGuard says a Trump-era Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation is threatening its business. The ratings company scores news outlets on accuracy and basic reporting standards. In court papers, the agency said congressional investigators tied the firm to actions against “disfavored media entities.” NewsGuard says the probe is political retaliation dressed as consumer protection. The company’s lawsuit says Newsmax and allied conservatives spent months pushing regulators to silence it. Newsmax has attacked NewsGuard since receiving a score of 20 out of 100. The conservative Media Research Center also accused the firm of favoring liberal outlets. Co-founder Steven Brill says his career is journalism, not partisan activism. NewsGuard argues its criteria are public, structured, and applied across outlets. What is sold as oversight now looks, to NewsGuard, like a warning shot at anyone grading the misinformation economy.

🍀 South Boston throws its annual green thunderclap. South Boston turned green again for one of the nation’s biggest Irish heritage celebrations. Hundreds of thousands lined the streets for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Confetti cannons fired as floats, bands, and marchers rolled through the neighborhood. A rider portraying Paul Revere shared the route with red-coated British reenactors. City officials slightly changed the parade route this year to manage the crowds. The event also brushes against Evacuation Day, which marks the 1776 departure of British troops from Boston. That overlap gives the party an extra layer of local mythology. Boston’s Irish roots are old, public, and commercially bulletproof. Even the pageantry carried civic muscle. In Southie, heritage is not background music, it is the main speaker stack.

🕴️ From slavery to the White House, the Ficklins kept serving. The Ficklin family served presidents for nearly eight decades inside the White House. Their story began with James Strother Ficklin, who was born enslaved around 1854 in Virginia. Later generations turned service work into institutional memory. The family served 13 presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama. Woodson Ficklin spent 44 years on the residence staff. He planned state dinners, Christmas parties, and major White House social events. In 1983, the Reagans invited him to a state dinner honoring Bahrain’s emir. His son Wrory Ficklin then spent 40 years on the National Security Council staff. Under Obama, Wrory rose to special assistant for national security affairs. In one family line, American history moved from bondage to the president himself.

📄 The SAVE Act may turn voting into a document hunt. The SAVE Act’s biggest change may be less about fraud than paperwork. The bill would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections. Noncitizen voting is already illegal in every state and is rare. A current passport would work, but only about half of American adults have one. An expired passport would not count. A certified birth certificate would count, but the hospital certificate signed by a doctor would not. A DD214 military discharge form would also fail because it does not list birthplace. Critics say the burden would fall hard on married women, rural voters, and people of color. The bill has no phase-in period, so new rules could bite quickly. In practice, the fight over election integrity may become a fight over who can find the right item fast enough.

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