Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 36m

With Israeli military withdrawing to pre-determined ceasefire lines, Hamas members beginning to re-assert their control. However, powerful clans also jockeying for position-some allied to Hamas’ ideological rival, Fatah movement, & some backed by Israel

theconversation.com/hamas-is-bat...

Hamas is battling powerful clans for control in Gaza – who are these groups and what threat do they pose?

Many clans and gangs are taking advantage of a security vacuum in Gaza to reassert their authority – some backed by Israel.

theconversation.com

Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 51m

Decline NZ smoking rates greatly accelerated after 2020 when Kiwis made safer nicotine vapes easier to get than deadly cigarettes. Kiwis have no vape black market which is huge in Australia @aliveadvocacy.bsky.social

CAPHRA Asia Pacific @caphra.bsky.social · 1h

❌ WHO’s abstinence-only policies are failing.
✅ New Zealand: smoking down from 16.4% (2011) to 6.9% (2024).
❌ Australia: prohibition fuels black markets.
Evidence is clear. #TobaccoHarmReduction #COP11
bit.ly/4nMlAqj

Reposted by Dr Alex Wodak AM

CAPHRA Asia Pacific @caphra.bsky.social · 1h

❌ WHO’s abstinence-only policies are failing.
✅ New Zealand: smoking down from 16.4% (2011) to 6.9% (2024).
❌ Australia: prohibition fuels black markets.
Evidence is clear. #TobaccoHarmReduction #COP11
bit.ly/4nMlAqj

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 11h

Recalcitrant opposition to safer ways than cigarettes of taking nicotine is heading to defeat sooner or later. Consumer demand is very strong & tobacco companies are very capable. Smoke-free is the future @sanho.bsky.social @jmenezes.bsky.social @gfn.events @alan

Clearing the Air @clearingtheair.bsky.social · 11h

Sweden to France: banning nicotine pouches is “as absurd as banning baguettes.” 🥖🇸🇪 This fight over harm reduction is about to heat up. #SmokeFree clearingtheair.eu/post/sweden-...

Sweden warns France and Spain over ‘absurd’ pouch bans

Sweden has stepped up its opposition to proposed nicotine pouch bans in France and Spain, sending formal letters to both governments and calling the measures “absurd.” The correspondence, signed by…

clearingtheair.eu

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 11h

Damn right! Bury cars (Cahill Expressway) & trains at Sydney’s Circular Quay & develop spectacular Gateway to city @paulbongiorno.bsky.social @quentindempster.bsky.social @m1ngthemerciless.bsky.social
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

The Quay to our glittering city? No, it’s a circular political graveyard

There have long been worthy visions for Circular Quay and its decrepit wharves. Their time has come.

www.smh.com.au

Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 13h

‘Decriminalization did not significantly alter drug use behaviours but offered notable psychological relief for participants. Subsequent recriminalization amendment then reversed these perceived gains’
harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Stable patterns, shifting risks: the impact of British Columbia’s decriminalization and recriminalization policies on drug use behaviours - Harm Reduction Journal

Background Canada’s historical reliance on criminal justice approaches to drug policy has intensified structural and social stigma, and high-risk behaviours among people who use drugs. In response to ...

harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 15h

Australia has been increasing cigarette excise for decades first to high & then to sky high levels under both ALP & LNP governments. See graph of last 50 years cig price vs CPI @jamomartin.bsky.social @edjegasothy.bsky.social

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 16h

Please try to persuade your uncle to switch from deadly combustible tobacco to smoke-free nicotine option @ianamossyd.bsky.social @algore09algor.bsky.social @jmenezes.bsky.social @aliveadvocacy.bsky.social

Kaya Wanu. @kayawanu.bsky.social · 17h

Please do. I had convinced my uncle to give up but then he found he could smoke for the same prices he was paying 3 years ago( a 50 gram pouch is now $150 retail but $40 blackmarket.

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 16h

See recent financial reports: PMI generates more gross profit from smoke-free products>cigarettes, though both significant. 2Q2025, smoke-free products make>42% PMI gross profit with this % steadily ⬆️. While cigs still ➡️large % to overall revenue, growth in smoke-free products drives profitability

Peter Davidson 🇦🇺 @petedavo.bsky.social · 16h

Ping @alexwodak.bsky.social

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 17h

Never trust anyone over 30! (except for me). Simon et al still trapped in battles against Big Tobacco when world now changed by vapes, heated tobacco products, snus & nicotine pouches!

Alan @algore09algor.bsky.social · 1d

Funny how quickly facts get forgotten when they don’t fit the narrative.

Back when honesty mattered, he recognised that switching from smoking to snus massively cut smoking rates.
Now? He pretends those same harm reduction principles don’t apply to vaping.

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 18h

Please contact your Federal MP & tell her you think cig excise has got to come down to affordable level & legal vapes have to be easier to get than deadly cigs! @aliveadvocacy.bsky.social @algore09algor.bsky.social @ianamossyd.bsky.social @aivl.bsky.social @jamomartin.bsky.social

Kaya Wanu. @kayawanu.bsky.social · 18h

Doing this while the Albanese govt has pushed prices so high every single smoker is now using the blackmarket online shop fronts are the least of thier problems.

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 18h

When nicotine demand so strong & you ⬆️restrictions legal supply, all you do is switch supply from legal to illegal. Neo-prohibition doesn’t work. Try some harm reduction-that really works @jamomartin.bsky.social @aliveadvocacy.bsky.social @drbfreeman.bsky.social @ianamossyd.bsky.social

a-cosh.bsky.social @a-cosh.bsky.social · 13d

Time to Shut the Shops: Experts Call for Fewer Tobacconists

A new editorial in the @anzjph.bsky.social highlights the urgent need to reduce the number of tobacco and nicotine retailers in Australia.

Anita Dessaix | @drbfreeman.bsky.social | Raglan Maddox | Emily Stone

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 19h

Hang on @publichealthaus.bsky.social! #Tobaccoindustry rapidly switching from deadly cigarettes to safer, smoke-free nicotine options & you’re trying to stop them! That’s insane! Smoking now plummeting in young people thanks to nicotine vapes etc! @jamomartin.bsky.social @ianamossyd.bsky.social

Public Health Association of Australia @publichealthaus.bsky.social · 19h

Fewer people are now #smoking, but the epidemic is not over yet.

1 in 5 adults are still #addicted, says WHO.

"The #TobaccoIndustry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people.”

WHO urges action to help people quit.

Read the report: shorturl.at/EUPCM

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 1d

SBS TV 3 part excellent documentary ‘The people versus Robodebt’ well worth watching. Deeply shocking. Callous incompetence. Morrison, Tudge, Stuart, Porter come out of very badly but some real heroes among public servants, families. @paulbongiorno.bsky.social @quentindempster.bsky.social

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 1d

Very important Netanyahu, HAMAS, & Iran not at this major meeting. Mahmoud Abbas should not have been there. Marwan Barghouti should have been there. Need new leaders

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

All living Israeli hostages freed and hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners released as Trump leads Egypt summit – as it happened

US president in Egypt alongside world leaders after Israeli families welcome hostages home and Palestinian detainees are freed

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 1d

Progress in difficult fields like harm reduction & drug law reform is slow. So generally requires several generations of contributors. But safer, smoke-free nicotine products are now rapidly replacing deadly cigarettes thanks to consumer power & commercial capability of tobacco industry

Neurobiólogo @jmenezes.bsky.social · 1d

In my country is around 15 years of stupidity, that is a lot of counts per year. For cannabis, it is around 100 years of counting that will need to be done. When time comes around these pseudo moralists will be gone, we all will, unfortunately

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 1d

2025 Nobel Economics Prize awarded for work on how sustained growth is achieved through “creative destruction” ie “an endless process in which new & better products replace the old.” Maybe like vaping etc replacing smoking cigarettes? @jgitchell.bsky.social @chancethegardener.bsky.social

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Reposted by Dr Alex Wodak AM

Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 2d

Future health historians will excoriate them for their dogmatic objections to #HarmReduction and stubborn adherence to stigma and coercion as the only "approved" way to "help" smokers. Future health economists will quantify how many deaths they caused by discouraging smoking cessation.

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 2d

#HarmReduction denialists can’t afford to engage in polite & respectful discussion with THR advocates because they know their own arguments are vy weak. At least #SimonChapman acknowledges smoke-free nicotine options are less risky than smoking @aliveadvocacy.bsky.social @drbfreeman.bsky.social

Charles A. Gardner, PhD @chancethegardener.bsky.social · 2d

That man, like many of his #HarmReduction denialist compatriates, blocks me on all social media. I am often blocked for simply saying "Thank you for sharing that information, but here is what official government surveys actuall show" (followed by links to the official surveys).

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 2d

As Donald Trump heads for Gaza peace Summit in Egypt, who is going and who is not going? What Worth reading
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

As Donald Trump heads to Gaza ‘peace summit’ in Egypt, who is going – and who isn’t?

Trump and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will co-host a summit of more than 20 world leaders in Sharm El Sheikh

www.theguardian.com

Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 2d

Party Guest:
I finally had an orgasm, and my doctor said it was the wrong kind.

Isaac Davis:
You had the wrong kind? I've never had the wrong kind, ever. My worst one was right on the money.

Manhattan. Woody Allen

Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 2d

Clive Bates makes overwhelming case against tobacco control advocates as human rights defenders! Well worth reading. How can denying smokers safer way to consume nicotine be defending human rights? @chancethegardener.bsky.social @jgitchell.bsky.social
pubpeer.com/publications...

PubPeer - Tobacco control advocates as human rights defenders: a call...

There are comments on PubPeer for publication: Tobacco control advocates as human rights defenders: a call for recognition (2025)

pubpeer.com

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 2d

Australia’s most powerful battery has injected its full 850 megawatt (MW) capacity into the grid for the first time as it nears full commissioning. Waratah Super Battery is rated at 850 MW & 1680 MWh

reneweconomy.com.au/australias-m...

reneweconomy.com.au

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Dr Alex Wodak AM @alexwodak.bsky.social · 2d

Spectacular performance of (mainly) Renaissance choral music by #Tallis Scholars in Sydney Opera House last night. Transformative experience. Beyond words. Grateful thanks to 10 singers & Peter Phillips.

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Reposted by Dr Alex Wodak AM

The Australia Institute @australiainstitute.org.au · 2d

Why is the gas industry notorious for paying so little tax, despite making billions in revenue?

Santos has made it 10 years in a row paying no tax!

@grogsgamut.bsky.social @elinorjohnstonleek.bsky.social
#auspol

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