Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ali McGrane

Mike Ingram @mikeingram.bsky.social · 5h

We've opened submissions for a special online issue of @barrelhouse.bsky.social. The Dirty Issue will be edited and produced by my students at Temple University. Send us your fiction, poems, art. More details on what we're looking for here, on Submittable:

Barrelhouse Submission Manager

Thanks for submitting your work to Barrelhouse! Before you proceed, a note about open and closed categories. If you don't see the category that fits your work, we're not open for that thing. We keep ...

barrelhouse.submittable.com

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Ali McGrane @alimcg.bsky.social · 2d

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Kent police apologise to protester threatened with arrest for holding Palestine flag

Force agrees to pay damages to Laura Murton, 43, who also had sign saying ‘Israel is committing genocide’

www.theguardian.com

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38 Degrees @38degrees.bsky.social · 5d

Our national parks are under threat.

The Treasury wants to weaken the laws that protect areas like Dartmoor and the Lake District by opening them up to bulldozers and roads!

Right now, Ministers are debating the plans, but no decision has been made yet. That means we still have time to stop it.

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Ali McGrane @alimcg.bsky.social · 6d

Phew, good to be out in the wild again. 💛🩶💙

View of a sandy beach, sea and sky - cloudy but with shafts of light breaking through.

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Cheryl Pappas @cherylpappas.bsky.social · 6d

I have a new (six-sentence) story up at
@gooseberrypielit.bsky.social, titled "I Dreamt of Dust."

Thanks to editor Jeff Harvey for publishing it!

gooseberry-pie.com/i-dreamt-of-...

A story titled "I Dreamt of Dust" features a black and white photograph of a field.

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Aieee-Iain Clark @iainjclarkart.com · 8d

Part of Russell T Davies' speech on being awarded Outstanding Contribution to Television at the Bafta Cymru awards. (via www.instagram.com/baftacymru)

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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 8d

NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses

Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is ‘pandering’ to Reform UK

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses

Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is ‘pandering’ to Reform UK

www.theguardian.com

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Jack Wallington @jackwallington.com · 8d

Autumn is coming www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘Fiery and spectacular’ rainbow of autumn colour set to bloom across UK

National Trust gardeners expect vivid hues and bountiful fungi, nuts and berries thanks to recent weather conditions

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 9d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 12d

‘Motherhood penalty’ costs women an average £65,618 in pay by time first child turns five.

This is followed by gender pay gap, pension gap, health gap; slow career progression, harassment and violence, unpaid carer work, retirement insecurity.

All women deserve justice.

‘Motherhood penalty’ costs women an average £65,618 in pay by time first child turns five

Women’s average monthly earnings fall by 42% compared with one year before birth, ONS study finds

www.theguardian.com

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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 11d

The ECHR is much more than a treaty. It’s a quiet promise - a shield against abuse of power, a lifeline for the vulnerable, a declaration of who we are as a nation. In an age of upheaval and division, we must not let it be torn up for political convenience

Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 11d

Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to change how judges interpret the European Convention on Human Rights – a move that risks weakening everyone’s protections.

The ECHR has become a convenient scapegoat for challenges around migration and sovereignty.

WE MUST PROTECT IT
youtu.be/Lmad4kujRhQ?...

🚨THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTS US ALL. WE MUST PROTECT IT

YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic

youtu.be

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Matt Kendrick @mattkendrick.bsky.social · 15d

This month's round-up of courses, workshops and events from your friendly neighbourhood freelancers:

fromthecoursesmouth.substack.com/p/oct-nov-25...

Includes stuff from @pleomorphic2.bsky.social @megpokrass.bsky.social @retreatwest.bsky.social @stillsquirrel.bsky.social

Oct / Nov 25: Upcoming courses, workshops & events

Here’s what’s coming up from your your friendly neighbourhood freelancers, lit mags and awesome independents over the next couple of months.

fromthecoursesmouth.substack.com

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Dave Gregory @courtlandavenue.bsky.social · 16d

Being #editor of a #literary #journal listed on the @duotrope.com ranking of the "25 Fastest Fiction Publishers" is like a singer-songwriter having a song on the #Billboard Hot 100 music chart.

@doricliterary.bsky.social debuted at #11.

MY HUMBLE LITTLE JOURNAL IS NOW #5!!
doric-literary.com

Screenshot of Duotrope's list of the 25 fastest fiction publications, showing Doric Literary in the #5 position with a mean average response time of a mere 1.4 days.

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 17d

Right. A bit more about what we’re up to.

Would love feedback, do stick a comment at the end. And do please consider signing up to find out more www.thenerve.news

open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

The free press fights back...

Introducing the Nerve. From the wreckage of my old newspaper, comes a new all-women, journalist-owned, independent publication. Join us!

open.substack.com

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Matthew Stewart @roguestrands.bsky.social · Dec 15

As parents, we're supposed to remember the first time we did stuff with our kids, but the last time is equally as significant, if not more.

This poem is from Whatever You Do, Just Don't (HappenStance Press, 2023), my second full collection...

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Ali McGrane @alimcg.bsky.social · 29d

👏 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Channel 4 to mark Trump’s UK visit with ‘longest uninterrupted reel of untruths’

Broadcaster to dedicate Wednesday night schedule to unpicking US president’s false or misleading statements

www.theguardian.com

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Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · Sep 15

This exchange says it all.

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Jack Wallington @jackwallington.com · Sep 14

Why isn’t THIS the front page story right now? Net migration to the UK halved from 2023 to 2024 (Government data shared by The Guardian). There is no problem with migration in the UK, it is fiction whipped up by the press. BBC News should be the one presenting these facts.

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Cheryl Pappas @cherylpappas.bsky.social · Sep 13

This is a wonderful story. These women could be characters in Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet!

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Defiant nuns flee Austrian care home for their abandoned convent in the Alps

Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita needed a locksmith to get back into their convent, defying Church leaders.

www.bbc.com

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · Sep 12

I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning

The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn't a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division

www.thenation.com

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Diane Simmons @scooterwriter.bsky.social · Sep 13

Hurry, hurry!

flashficfestuk.bsky.social @flashficfestuk.bsky.social · Sep 12

Did you come to the in-person #flashfiction festival in July. Subs for the red issue, 1st of the new rainbow series of festival anthologies close 14th Sept! Stories selected by @judehwriter2.bsky.social & @scooterwriter.bsky.social

a cartoon hand is pressing a send button on a screen .

ALT: a cartoon hand is pressing a send button on a screen .

media.tenor.com

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Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · Sep 11

Philp Larkin reluctantly agreed to do an interview with The Paris Review but only by post. It took him five months to answer the first set of questions. "It has taken rather a long time because, to my surprise, I found writing it suffocatingly boring."

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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · Sep 12

‘Five Houses’ Farage has a certain ring. And he owns, or has claimed to own, all of them. Which is four more than Angela Rayner does…
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Nigel Farage faces questions over who funded £885,000 Clacton constituency home

A BBC investigation raises questions about how the Reform UK leader's partner paid for a home in his constituency.

www.bbc.com

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38 Degrees @38degrees.bsky.social · Sep 9

Gambling companies are making billions in profit while outdated tax rules let them off the hook. A fairer tax could raise £3 billion - enough to scrap the cruel two-child limit and directly lift 500,000 children out of poverty overnight.

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · Sep 9

A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy showing a judge beating an unarmed protester with a gavel will be removed from a wall outside one of London’s most iconic courts /AP

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