Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Tracey Spicer AM @traceyspicer.bsky.social · 10h

FFS.

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 15h

Sam Altman went from “AI will cure cancer" to "ChatGPT porn" in less than a month

ChatGPT boss predicts when AI could cure cancer

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
12:02 PM · Oct 14, 2025
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 6d

If profits shape the energy transition we need to understand the biggest profit event this century: the 2022 oil and gas price spike.

Very happy our paper is now out in Energy Research & Social Science. Thread by lead-author @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social 👇

Gregor Semieniuk @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social · 6d

🚨NEW PAPER🚨
We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

River or sankey diagram showing the allocation of profits from global oil and gas companies to quantiles of the US wealth size distribution via financial system intermediaries, such as asset managers, and categories of ultimate beneficiaries, such as business owners, pension funds and shareholders in listed companies. The scale is hundreds of billions of US dollars, and ultimately 50.4% of profits reaching the US personal wealth distribution go to the richest 1% of households.

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Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 22h

After two years of genocide in Gaza, western media still privileges Israeli lives - https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/even-after-two-years-genocide-gaza-western-media-still-privilege-israeli-lives

After two years of genocide in Gaza, western media still privileges Israeli lives

Mainstream coverage of the Israel-Hamas captives exchange exposes western media's enduring pro-Israel bias, as Israelis are humanised while Palestinians are erased from view

www.middleeasteye.net

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 2d

A reminder.

Humanity has never removed an atmospheric pollutant at a global, continental or, even, regional scale — we have only ever shut down the source and let nature do the clearing up. This is the case for chlorofluorocarbons and stratospheric ozone destruction, for sulfur dioxide and acid rain, and for sulfur and nitrogen oxides and photochemical smog. We must be prepared for CDR to be a failure, leaving us to rely on the environment to stabilize atmospheric CO₂ over thousands of years. This is another argument for rapid decarbonization.

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Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 2d

God forbid that we'd tax gas companies or tech giants or superannuation funds properly tho

Penny Allman-Payne @pennyallmanpayne.com · 2d

🚨 BREAKING: Brand new @ACOSS report finds 1 in 7 Australians are living in poverty, including 757,000 children. Millions of families are struggling while our leaders sit on their hands and let it happen.

Poverty in Australia 2025: Overview – Poverty and Inequality

povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au

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Tony Walker @walkertone.bsky.social · 2d

In case you have doubts regarding Israel’s PR concerns being the real motive behind the sale of US TikTok to the largest private donor to the IDF, rather than the “China security threat” narrative we’re being fed by MSM, then check out Netanyahu’s views on the matter.

www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-ea...

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Senator David Shoebridge @davidshoebridge.bsky.social · 2d

Leo Puglisi from @6newsau.bsky.social gave evidence to the parliamentary inquiry on the social media age ban - I asked him about the real impacts on young people. This isn't about protection, it's about control. You can't lock kids out of news and social connection and call it safety.

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Department of Angela @angelaisms.bsky.social · 2d

I see your brassicas and raise you a cabbage worm.

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CáitKate @cait05.bsky.social · 3d

He says that what is happening in Palestine is worse than his experience in a concentration camp. He's worth a listen.

But you are right. Jews have a long history of resisting the Zionists starting in 1948. global-politics.eu/albert-einst...

Albert Einstein’s 1948 Letter to the New York Times Comparing Israeli Politicians to Nazis

Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have ...

global-politics.eu

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Some Random Susan @anysusan.bsky.social · 3d

lots of people still don’t believe Team Trump want to crash the economy, likely because it’s hard for normal people to think like sociopaths

Sarah Kendzior is smart to invoke memories of 1980s corporate raiders. That should give many Boomers and some Gen X food for thought. We remember that crap.

Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social · 3d

On strikes, boycotts, and rethinking leverage when the government WANTS the economy to collapse:
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/panopticon...

Quotes from here: https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/panopticon-artists-your-questions

https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/panopticon-artists-your-questions

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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 3d

Every day is a good day to point out that 92% of Reform's donations were found to come from figures and groups linked to the fossil fuel industry. @desmog.com

Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Has Accepted £2.3 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests, Climate Deniers, and Polluters Since 2019 Election

Reform UK has received more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations...

www.desmog.com

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Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 3d

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 5d

The attack on @frediotto.bsky.social was seeded years ago by Roger Pielke Jr, who started arguing that this table from a recent @ipcc.bsky.social report proved that climate science cannot attribute extreme weather to climate change.

But Roger is of course lying. And we know this for 2 reasons.

🧵

CLIMATEWIRE
Climate critics try to discredit IPCC author for linking
disasters to global warming
By LESLEY CLARK, SARA SCHONHARDT, CHELSEA HARVEY | 10/09/2025
06:22 AM EDT Roger Pielke Jr. and oil industry supporters are attacking climate scientist Friederike Otto, whose
work has been used in lawsuits against polluters.

Table 12.12 | Emergence of CIDs in different time periods, as assessed in this section. The colour contesponds to the confidence of the region with the highest confidence: white cells indicate where evidence is lacking or the signal is not present, leading to overal bu confidence of an emerging signal.

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Pearls and Irritations @johnmenadue.com · 5d

Deforestation is a global catastrophe in slow motion. Despite the good intentions of many, it is still accelerating, as humans continue to gnaw, like termites, at the very foundations of the Earth’s life support system. @JulianCribb #TheHumanFuture #deforestation

The Earth uncloaked – A catastrophe in slow motion

Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough! In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now. – GP Morris 1837

johnmenadue.com

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marque lawyers @marquelawyers.com.au · 6d

Epic gaslighting by Labor - the Coalition is irrelevant, so choosing to negotiate with it is just political cover for failing to do the right thing

Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws

Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia's "broke...

www.abc.net.au

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Rod Moffatt @politikarma.bsky.social · 6d

Do you remember the deal @albomp.bsky.social and @australianlabor.bsky.social did with the LNP remnants to establish a # NACC
…and how has that turned out?
Not hard to forecast the effect of a duopoly ‘deal’ on environmental protections (a political oxymoron)
#auspol

Dr Richard Denniss @richarddenniss.bsky.social · 6d

I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit scared of any new ‘environment laws’ that Labor can get Matt Canavan and Andrew Hastie to vote for…I think they will be better described as ‘ how to build more mines faster laws’ www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws

Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia's "broke...

www.abc.net.au

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Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 6d

Still nothing. Hilarious.
Imagine being a media reporter who can't/won't report on this.

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 7d

BTW this National Press Club story hasn't been reported in any major news outlet yet. Indies like Lamestream, We Used to Be Journos, Pearls and Irritations etc all over it.

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Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 6d

Just so we’re clear: Labor is choosing to work with the worst possible party on environmental issues, instead of the Greens and teals who actually want environmental regulation.
And Watt is already admitting it won’t have a climate trigger …

Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws

Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia's "broke...

www.abc.net.au

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sasansandy.bsky.social @sasansandy.bsky.social · 6d

Important conversation. Wish we could hear more like this in msm. Key question is 'why not'

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 6d

Some frank words about the hollow rhetoric that now stands as Labor’s climate policy, and how its PR-first strategy has been rewarded by the media. Thanks to 7am

How Albanese killed the climate wars

Podcast Episode · 7am · 08/10/2025 · 15m

podcasts.apple.com

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sasansandy.bsky.social @sasansandy.bsky.social · 7d

'Wishful thinking' as distraction....
It's appalling that he should pretend and thus deceive...

Senator David Shoebridge @davidshoebridge.bsky.social · 7d

I asked if the Government would take steps to stop Australians fighting in the IDF while it is perpetrating a genocide

The Minister says he wishes for peace. What??

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 8d

It's Nobel Prize week! A good time to remember that the economics prize was created by Swedish bankers in 1968 (67 years after the 5 original Nobel prizes) against the wishes of the Nobel family, partly to legitimize neoclassical economics in the public eye and partly to help banks avoid regulation.

Philip Mirowski - Why Is There a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics?

YouTube video by New Economic Thinking

m.youtube.com

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Michael West @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social · 8d

Actually Albo .. didn't Australia abstain from a ceasefire vote in Oct 2023, saying "We can affirm Israel's right to defend itself"?

Just saying bc your second last par says "consistently part of intl pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza"

Anthony Albanese @albomp.bsky.social · 8d

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Candy Apple Grey @colourmepink.bsky.social · 11d

So the National Press Club - an association of journalists - doesn't wanna talk about all the journalists being deliberately targeted and murdered during a genocide because . . . it might upset the people that are targeting and murdering the journalists who were reporting on a genocide?

Umm, WTF?

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Glen @gergyl.bsky.social · 10d

"I, along with every other reporter I know who has worked in Gaza ... have reported a reality in Gaza that bears no resemblance to how it is portrayed by Israeli politicians, its military and many media outlets that serve as Israel’s echo chamber."

johnmenadue.com/post/2025/10...

Hedges Report: NPC Australia caves to Israel Lobby, cancels talk on our betrayal of Palestinian journalists

The National Press Club of Australia cancelled my talk on how the media, by amplifying Israeli lies, have betrayed Palestinian journalists, 278 of whom have been assassinated by Israel.

johnmenadue.com

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Ronni🧂Salt @ronnisalt.bsky.social · 10d

bsky.app/profile/cath...

The Cathy Wilcox @cathywilcox.bsky.social · 11d

You said it, Ronni.

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