Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lee @justlee.bsky.social · 17m

It is strange what kinds of stories the BBC finds interesting and which (like this one) it chooses not to report upon.

Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 37m

So it now appears the woman Farage and Gill were so close to has a direct link not only to Putin’s “Man in Ukraine” Medvedchuk, but his predecessor as President, Medvedev

These are top Russian agents.

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John Springford @johnspringford.bsky.social · 29m

The story includes this eye-popping fact.

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 31m

This is a fairly obvious slap down to Mike Huckabee’s idiotic social media freelancing yesterday, from someone a considerably closer to the White House.

Not sure there’s too much more to read into it than that, though it maybe starts to put Number 10 on the hook for Blair…

Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 40m

Interesting.

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Brendan May @brendanmay.bsky.social · 1h

The worst use of quotation marks in the history of human civilisation is in.

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Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 1h

We'll know 'gold standard' apprenticeships really are 'gold standard' when politicians think their own kids should do them rather than getting a degree.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 16h

if we'd treated their obvious baldfaced lies and deflections more like this over the past eight years maybe we wouldn't be in this situation

shocking how easy it is when you actually see it done

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17h

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 2h

I bang on about this a lot: I think the combination of a global pandemic, underregulated internet/SM, collapse/corruption of trustworthy media, plus now unregulated genAI, is a wildly toxic environment for radicalisation & mental health. We see the results of that in our politics & lives every day

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 15h

Everyone knows at least one person (normally, but not exclusively, a guy) whose gone properly mental due to net rabbit holes.

We see public figures regularly go mad and destroy themselves.

And we have, at a policy level, just decided to put our fingers in our ears and go nahnahnah

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 15h

Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 2h

It's a little understated that Bari Weiss is really a flat-out 'just-asking-questions' style climate change denier.

Eg, here she is saying the science is up for public debate rather than settled, publishing the work of a big-name denier influencer (Koonin), and boosting a fake controversy

Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
"Is Donald Trump a “dictator”? Did the events of January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., constitute an “insurgency”?

Is Joe Biden “sharp as a tack”?

Is the science of climate change “settled”?

Are Javier Milei of Argentina, Marine Le Pen of France, and the AfD party in Germany “far right”?

Is the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis a “conspiracy theory”? Was the persistence of the virus a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”? Does Anthony Fauci “represent science”?

Does Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, “promote hatred”? Do “fact-checkers” check facts?

Let’s ask a question about these questions: Why on Earth were we placed in a position of having to answer them?

In an open society, perspectives on reality confront one another in forceful competition. Each may contain some particle of truth—or at least some useful information.

So even the flat-earthers are allowed their say. Even the Bigfoot-seekers appear on the Discovery Channel. Somewhere among the nonsense, there may be something worth hearing.

Because we don’t precisely know where or when, the conversation is never over.

A vast diversity of perspectives should be promoted within an open society. It’s the intellectual equivalent of hybrid vigor.

If we all think alike, a single fatal error, being shared by all, could destroy the world.

These precepts are not original. They have long been part of the American DNA. The default, for us, has always been debate.

When certain subjects, like slavery, were made taboo and removed from the possibility of discussion, towering figures arose and terrible conflicts were fought to restore the balance.

However, the past four years have seen a sustained effort to overturn the principles of the open society. The just-departed administration, of which Biden was the decrepit figurehead, tried to impose, by threat or mandate, a version of reality that brooked no discussion.

Supported by its allies in the media, the academy, and the bureaucracy, the administrati…

Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
Climate change did not cause the LA fires says Steve Koonin in an essential conversation with our
@EmilyYoffe
:

https://thefp.com/p/climate-change-did-not-cause-the-la-fires-steve-koonin

Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
·
Sep 6, 2023
Gratified at the outpouring of responses to this important and courageous piece by
@PatrickTBrown31
.

https://thefp.com/p/i-overhyped-climate-change-to-get-published
From thefp.com
Bari Weiss
@bariweiss
·
Sep 5, 2023
"Savvy researchers tailor their studies to maximize the likelihood that their work is accepted. I know this because I am one of them.

Here’s how it works."

@PatrickTBrown31
with a must-read piece:

https://thefp.com/p/i-overhyped-climate-change-to-get-published

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Sam Joiner @samjoiner.bsky.social · 3h

New: How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution.

A boom in grid-scale storage is solving renewables’ reliability problem and extending the use of clean power.

Latest visual story w/ @nassosstylianou.bsky.social @samlearner.bsky.social @inari-ta.bsky.social

🔋👉 ig.ft.com/mega-batteri...

How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution

Vast battery units are shoring up grids and extending the use of clean power

ig.ft.com

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Lee @justlee.bsky.social · 2h

Some good news for once. Hostages on both sides being released.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 3h

The first seven Israeli hostages being freed in Gaza today are with the Red Cross, and will soon be handed to the Israeli military, the IDF confirms.

Lee @justlee.bsky.social · 2h

Will be interesting to see how ben-Gvir reacts. May be a good indicator of how this deal is going to play out.

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Greg Foster @gregfoster.org.uk · 11h

This is a really excellent piece and, I think, deeply insightful of our current moment’s predicament.

Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · Jul 21

"Abu Ghraib . . . was a leak, and people were shocked. Now similar degradation in 'deportations' is being intentionally broadcast for the entertainment of half the country"

www.liberalcurrents.com/the-politi/

The Politics of Humiliation

The politics of humiliation has moved to the center of the reactionary project under Trump II.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 5h

There is absolutely zero chance that a man who took $50,000 in cash in a paper bag from an FBI agent on camera would have been appointed to any position by any other president.

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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 15h

Everyone knows at least one person (normally, but not exclusively, a guy) whose gone properly mental due to net rabbit holes.

We see public figures regularly go mad and destroy themselves.

And we have, at a policy level, just decided to put our fingers in our ears and go nahnahnah

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 15h

Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.

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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 11h

Trump: “I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven. I think I’m not maybe heaven bound.

“I’m not sure I’ll make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.”

He’s been ruminating on his mortality a lot recently. Never used to. Knows something we don’t maybe.

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Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 14h

A BBC reporter ends his piece about the China spy trial collapse with the words "this story won't go away"
In contrast, the BBC newshounds have lost their sense of smell about Nathan Gill accepting Russian bribes.

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Republicans Against Trumpism @rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social · 13h

Trouble in paradise 🍿

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The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 13h

Fascinated how the guy who made superstars of Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Jordan Peterson, and Michael Knowles thought that unfettered racism and every phobia in existence wouldn't eventually include anti-semitism

Ben Shapiro warns that conspiratorial right is taking over social media

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Simon Pease @simonpease.bsky.social · 12h

Gove’s admission, reported here, that in their rush to make trade deals Conservative Ministers did not consider the long term and impact on British farming would disbar all of them from any further role in public life, in a sensible country.

Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 18h

Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-...

Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers

Michael Gove has admitted for the first time that the Australia and New Zealand trade deals negotiated by the former Tory government did not protect Britain’s farmers.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

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Max B 💙 🔶 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @maxbrockbank.com · 12h

When regional chairmen of Deform UK Ltd resign, they do it with feeling.

Sent to Fartrage by Patrick Sargent
Former Chairman, Middlesbrough & Thornaby East Branch
Former Parliamentary Candidate (2024) for Middlesbrough & Thornaby East
Former Interim Regional Director (North East)

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 20h

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

www.cbsnews.com

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 13h

Former Presidents consistently talk about the difficulty of getting good information as President, how everyone has an agenda, is telling them what they want to hear, etc.

Most Presidents make some effort to mitigate that well-known problem, but Trump's like "moar bubble, I want only bubble."

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 13h

For my piece today at @zeteo.com i wanted to truly underscore how punishingly stupid american fascism is now. Like, my original proposed headline for this was:

Our Democracy Is Imperiled Because One Old Man Won’t Stop ‘Yelling’ At His TV. zeteo.com/p/trump-addi...

Trump’s Addiction to Watching Fox Is Killing American Democracy

Our country is falling apart because one old man, Trump advisers and former administration officials say, won’t stop ‘yelling’ at his TV.

zeteo.com

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 14h

I thought this must be a spoof but it's true...

Angele @angeledehart.bsky.social · 18h

Another maga loser will gladly spend their hard earned $75 plus shipping for this horrible piece of trash. I hope it’s ends up like the trump watches missing the T.

Picture of cheap trump pink watch made in China missing the letter T which shows “Rump.” Statement reads: Customers upset with Missing ‘T’ in trump-branded watch that cost $640.

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Julie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 12h

So Kilmer Abrego-Garcia will not challenge a deportation to Costa Rica, who has agreed to for him residency, but DHS won’t agree to send him there because it’s not cruel enough.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

For weeks, Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who is married to a U.S. citizen, has made clear that he would not challenge his deportation if he were sent to Costa Rica, which has promised him legal residency and guaranteed that he would not be sent back to El Salvador.

But the Trump administration has refused to deport him to Costa Rica, and in an earlier hearing this week, Judge Xinis pressed the administration to consider the option or clarify why it was unacceptable.

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Tollytb🇮🇪🇪🇺🇨🇦🇬🇧 @tollytb.bsky.social · 23h

"Do you still get paid in Roubles Ted?"
🐢💨

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