Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 18h

NEW — I dug into the story of ICE abducting a 13-year-old boy in Massachusetts and moving him 500 miles across state lines without notifying his mother, local cop's complicity, and how the federal government's justification for such cruelty is already falling apart:

ICE took a 13-year-old they said had a gun. Local cops say he didn’t.

Now he's detained 500 miles away from his Massachusetts home.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 1d

here’s more context to the videos DHS is putting out from Chicago.

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Julianne McShane @juliannemcshane.bsky.social · 8h

NEW @motherjones.com: Nobody in that GOP group chat praising Hitler or making racist comments was a “kid,” as JD Vance claimed today

I tracked down their ages. (Weirdly, it seems nobody else did.)

Eight of the 11 in the group chat range from 24 to 35. Ages of others are unclear.

But… no “kids”!

No one in the GOP Hitler chat was a "kid"

We checked. Sorry, JD Vance.

www.motherjones.com

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 11h

ICE agents kidnapped a US citizen in Chicago because she didn’t “look” American to them. She even had her US passport on her. 🤬

ICE Detains Citizen After Saying She Doesn’t “Look Like” Her Last Name

She even had her U.S. passport on her.

newrepublic.com

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the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 10h

the government needs to stay shut down until the authoritarianism is meaningfully constrained or Republicans break the filibuster

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Trump: "We're just at the start. We're going to go into other cities that we're not talking about purposely. We're getting ready to go in."

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 10h

I wrote in february that the administration had an apartheid refugee policy. As usual though in this business it's better to be wrong in a way that powerful people like rather than right in a way they don't. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Afrikaner ‘Refugees’ Only

Trump wants to “promote the resettlement” of white South Africans.

www.theatlantic.com

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 10h

I have a lot of respect for Zolan Kanno-Youngs and @haleaziz.bsky.social and have talked to both many times in the past. That the Times lets them be so blunt about what is happening with the U.S. refugee admissions program is a good sign of how much the Trump admin is not even trying to deny it.

Zolan Kanno-YoungsHamed Aleaziz
By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz
Reporting from Washington

Oct. 15, 2025
Updated 3:44 p.m. ET

The Trump administration is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

The proposals, some of which already have gone into effect, would transform a decades-old program aimed at helping the world’s most desperate people into one that conforms to Mr. Trump’s vision of immigration — which is to help mostly white people who say they are being persecuted while keeping the vast majority of other people out.

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Anil Kalhan @akalhan.bsky.social · 10h

Proud to join this group of 39 Brown University alumni who are law professors in urging the university to reject the Trump-Vance presidency's enforced loyalty "compact": drive.google.com/file/d/1COIp...

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 10h

NEW: No Kings is this Saturday, and here are my tips for how to mitigate anxiety in large crowds. Feel free to share! youtu.be/nxpkVk9TGgQ?...

NO KINGS! Tips for Protesting with PTS and Anxiety

YouTube video by MSW Media

youtu.be

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 9h

I am sounding the alarm that the GOP is engaged in an all out attack voting rights and free and fair elections. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, and troops in blue cities are just some of the ways they are using to try to rig the rules to keep power in 2026 and beyond.

Pay attention and act!

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9h

would love to know where vought got the authority to shutdown a government agency established by statute

Reuters @reuters.com · 13h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 9h

that they left em masse, at least, seems like a good sign

Scott Nover @scottnover.bsky.social · 9h

NEW for @washingtonpost.com:

Pentagon reporters exited the building in unison Wednesday after turning in their badges, having refused to sign the Defense Department's press policy.

@nancyayoussef.bsky.social called it a “sad day for those who support a free press.”

Reporters leave Pentagon en masse after refusing to sign on to new rules

After turning in their press credentials, journalists covering the Defense Department walked out rather than comply with its restrictive new policies.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 9h

These. Were. Men. In. Their. 30s.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

No one in the GOP Hitler chat was a "kid"

We checked. Sorry, JD Vance.

www.motherjones.com

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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 4d

New reporting: many apparently fired at CDC in 'error'. This is a failure by design given that the admin does not care about fulfilling agency missions. This is the kind of error that should have political consequences.

Unserious people cause real-world harm.

🎁
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 4d

Seeing a lot of celebration of this as a win.

But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.

It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧵:

Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 4d

Nixon’s crimes look like harmless high school pranks compared to the now-daily unprecedented illegal & unconstitutional crimes being committed daily by this president & his staff

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 4d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · 5d

I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 4d

Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 4d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 4d

Qatari soldiers in Idaho will have better access to health care than Americans.

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David Noll @david.noll.org · 4d

Ladies and gentlemen, the meritocracy

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 5d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 4d

every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”

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George Conway 🇺🇸🚫👑🐸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 4d

If a pharmaceutical company could mass produce whatever compassion pills Marjorie Taylor Greene seems to have been taking lately, we could save the world

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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 4d

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

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Itai Sher @itaisher.bsky.social · 5d

An excellent response by MIT’s President Sally Kornbluf rejecting the Trump compact.

Other universities should do the same.

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