Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ghost Fleet 2.0: The Three “Moneymaker” Shipping Lanes Keeping Putin Paid

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 13h

These are the 3 shipping lanes lining Putin's pockets: why is it so hard to fix rhis?
medium.com/the-strategi...

How the Danish Straits, the Aegean, and Kozmino’s spoofing cluster still funnel billions — plus the simple checks that could stop it

Breaking the Tackle: How a Scottish Referee is Smashing Rugby’s Glass Ceiling

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Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 17h

Everything you need to know about Tesla’s awful 2025:
medium.com/the-civic-le...

Hollie Davidson’s trailblazing journey proves excellence is universal — and rugby’s future depends on it

Apple AI Scorecard: Is Apple AI Hype or Help on Your iPhone

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 1d

Apple AI ranked, scored, and rated - by the numbers: biselin67.substack.com/p/apple-ai-s...

On-device AI, ChatGPT hand-offs, developer adoption—what matters now and what to watch before you switch it on at work.

biselin67.substack.com

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 1d

Introducing the EU-Taiwan Relations Tracker – Now Live!
After months of intensive development, the Iselin Group and the Europe-Taiwan Institute (歐洲台灣研究院) are thrilled to announce the launch of our comprehensive EU-Taiwan Relations Tracker.

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 1d

What the EU must now do in the face of Trump's tariffs. We must hold fast, amongst other things:
medium.com/the-civic-le...

EU–US Trade Deal: Keep the Tariffs, Save the Climate Rules

Why Brussels should lock in a tariff truce and refuse any bargain that weakens CBAM

Tesla 2025 Scorecard: Robotaxi Dreams, Semi Delays, and the One Business That’s Thriving

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 1d

Curious about how Tesla is going after the Musk-Trump travesty, after robotaxi failure, and dozens of broken Musk promises?
Here is my comprehensive Tesla Scorecard for 2025.
And it is GRIM!
medium.com/torque-theor...

We measured Musk’s January promises against October reality — Energy shines, autonomy stumbles, and margins stay thin

From Fringe to Power: How Europe’s Populist Right Won 2015–2025

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Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 1d

Wondering how the far right populists in Europe have claimed the foreground? Here's how: biselin67.substack.com/p/from-fring...

Data from 11 countries shows right-wing populism normalisation, not a blip—and what to watch next

biselin67.substack.com

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 1d

Tesla 2025 Scorecard. The most comprehensive look at the Tesla portfolio, and performance ranking. Have fun!
www.linkedin.com/pulse/tesla-...

Tesla 2025 Scorecard: Robotaxi Dreams, Semi Delays, and the One Business That’s Thriving

We measured Musk’s January promises against October reality—Energy shines, autonomy stumbles, and margins stay thin. January 2025.

www.linkedin.com

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 2d

Hybrid are beating EVs in every way right now; including price. Find the best deals, read for free: medium.com/torque-theor...

Stop Overpaying: 2025 Hybrids That Beat EVs on Real-World Costs

Lower fuel, simple service, smart resale — why the balanced ledger favors an “H” badge

From Fringe to Power: How Europe’s Populist Right Won 2015–2025

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 2d

The populist far right is winning Europe. This is why: open.substack.com/pub/biselin6...

Data from 11 countries shows right-wing populism normalisation, not a blip—and what to watch next

open.substack.com

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 2d

If you love the game of rugby, you will love this. Read it for free: medium.com/the-civic-le...

Breaking the Tackle: How a Scottish Referee is Smashing Rugby’s Glass Ceiling

Hollie Davidson’s trailblazing journey proves excellence is universal — and rugby’s future depends on it

“We’ll build it alone”: France’s fighter gamble Europe can’t ignore

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 2d

At a time when European defence desperately needs to be cohesive, we have this. Read it for free: medium.com/the-strategi...

Paris threatens to break formation; Berlin eyes plan B. The outcome will set costs, standards and sovereignty for decades

UN Security Council Reform Starts With One Test: Decision Integrity

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 2d

This is what UN Security Council reform would look like: medium.com/the-strategi...

RIP UN Security Council. Long live the UN Peace & Security Council; a bold reform model curing decades of dysfunction

Australia’s Ghost Shark undersea drone: from skunkworks to fleet in three years

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 2d

The new world of unmanned submarines: Australia’s Ghost Shark. medium.com/the-strategi...

A A$1.7 billion order, deliveries from January 2026, and a plan to flood the Indo-Pacific with autonomous undersea mass.

The Green Reversal That Isn’t: Why Your Gut Feels Right — but the Numbers Disagree

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 2d

It has felt since Trump came along, and far right populists winning, the green agenda was dead. Or being walked back, in Europe. But numbers say that isn't so. medium.com/the-civic-le...

Budgets tighten, rules wobble, and defence surges — yet clean-energy investment still doubles fossil spend

NATO’s ‘No-Fly Zone’ Talk Is Back — The Realistic Version That Actually Works

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 4d

Talking about a no-fly zone over Ukraine is great; but nothing happens because it won't work and because political will doesn't exist. But, here’s what will:
open.substack.com/pub/biselin6...

Why a NATO corridor of Patriots and NASAMS beats fantasy dogfights over Ukraine

open.substack.com

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Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 5d

Nothing quite as majestic as a talented woman showing men how it's done inside their own house of worship; the rugby stadium: brianiselin.com/breaking-the...

Breaking the Tackle: How a Scottish Referee is Smashing Rugby’s Glass Ceiling

Hollie Davidson’s trailblazing journey proves excellence is universal — and rugby’s future depends on it

Maria Corina Machado wins the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 5d

Maria Corina Machado wins the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Bravo both Ms Machado and the Committee: brianiselin.com/maria-corona...

Nobel Peace Prize is won by Venezuelan Maria Machado, a stainch defender of human rights, judicial freedom, and democratic rights.

Breaking the Tackle: How a Scottish Referee is Smashing Rugby’s Glass Ceiling

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 5d

Have you been following the trajectory of this wee Scots lass turning the male bastion of World Rugby Union on its head? Really something to see: brianiselin.com/breaking-the...

Hollie Davidson’s trailblazing journey proves excellence is universal — and rugby’s future depends on it

Ukraine’s New Assault Troops: Built to Break the Front

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 6d

Ukraine breathing new life into an old model: assault troops. Find our more:
brianiselin.com/ukraines-new...

Small groups, dark nights, fast breaches — the plan to outpace Russia’s mass with precision and tempo

Substack vs Medium: The 162 Years it will Take to Reach Subtack’s Promised Land

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Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 6d

A lot of people out there blowing smoke about Substack. "Oh, you must get a Substack".
Well, here are the numbers, and they're not pretty: open.substack.com/pub/biselin6...

Single-digit conversions, grim timelines, and the practical model that actually funds a writer’s life in 2025.

open.substack.com

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 6d

Australia finally getting to grips with homemade deterrence: Ghost Bat. If you need a free read, comment. brianiselin.com/how-australi...

How Australia Will Build Ghost Bat at Scale — and Change Deterrence Now

Robotics, composites, and sovereign software — how Australia turns doctrine into metal, fast

MQ-28 Ghost Bat Is Ready to Fight — Here’s the Playbook

Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 6d

Does anyone know anyone who ever got confused and ate one when they meant the other? And, if one person did, is it traumatic for an omnivore to once consume a plant-based burger? (because one presumes vega/vegetarians are more careful) Such a silly thing that simply diminishes the EP's stature.

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Brian Iselin (林百安) 🇦🇺/🇸🇪 (MAIPIO) @brianiselin.bsky.social · 7d

Australia's homemade Ghost Bat unmanned aerial fighting platform is at the "arming" stage. Find out more: medium.com/the-strategi...

Wedgetail-controlled swarms, software-driven updates, and the rules that keep autonomy lethal and lawful.