Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by David Kitching

Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 15h

"point out that North Sea oil doesn’t cut UK energy bills, and suddenly you’re censored"

This dismal government refuses to hear the truth as it prepares the way to give the green light to new oil and gas fields

Despicable and complete madness

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Academic axed from Labour conference panel for criticising energy policy

Sustainability expert was told panellists discussing North Sea oil and gas were meant to ‘agree entirely’ with each other

www.theguardian.com

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 18h

AI and crypto

Beware the Oligarchs’ Two Bubbles
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Beware the Oligarch's AI Bubble

They’re likely to burst.

open.substack.com

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 19h

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Bryan Godbe @bryangodbe.bsky.social · 19h

“Last year, 8.1m hectares (20m acres) of forest – an area roughly half the size of England – were burned, pulled or cut down, which was higher than the loss at the time of Cop26 in Glasgow, when the target of zero deforestation by 2030 was signed.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Dismal’ health of world’s forests is threat to humanity, report warns

Financial institutions pouring money into land clearance and undermining efforts to stop destruction, says Climate Focus

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by David Kitching

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 1d

Holding govts to ransom.

Goldman Sachs warns Rachel Reeves against tax rises on banks.

Banks happy to be bailed out, take QE, mis-sell products, not to be prosecuted for frauds, hike charges, pay lousy rates on savings.

Need windfall taxes. Raise top rate of income tax.

Goldman chief delivers warning to Reeves over bank tax hikes

David Solomon urged the chancellor during a private meeting last week not to hit the industry with savage tax rises in her crucial budget statement next month, Sky News learns.

news.sky.com

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Reposted by David Kitching

The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 1d

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation—the ocean system that stabilizes Earth’s climate—is weakening as global warming melts Greenland and freshens the seas. Its collapse could flood coasts and trigger mass migration. Civilization hangs in the balance.
open.substack.com/pub/theintel...

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Reposted by David Kitching

Dillon Mahmoudi @marxist.af · 1d

On tariffs, soy, & harm to US farmers: "... we should take this moment to reflect on why we use so much American farmland to feed pigs both at home and in China, giving fuel to an environmentally destructive industry."

Incredible piece by @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social

newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Trump’s Tariffs Should Force a Reckoning With America’s Soy Industry

The industry became the world’s second-largest not because of human demand for soy, but to feed China’s pigs.

newrepublic.com

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Reposted by David Kitching

Claire #FBPE ☘️ 🍉 🇺🇦 🇪🇺🐝 🦮🇮🇪🇧🇪 💙💚 @fbpech.bsky.social · 1d

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Could this ever happen to Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock , Michelle Mone and the rest ?
(There’s a long list)
Or is our politics and legal system:
a) a complete farce?
b) corrupt?
c) dependent on the expensive lawyers you can afford?
d) completely transparent?

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy ordered to go to jail next week

Sarkozy must go to La Santé prison in Paris after conviction over scheme to obtain election funds from Gaddafi regime

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by David Kitching

Hannah Fearn @hannahfearn.bsky.social · 2d

I'm so over these 'record number of millionaires planning to leave London/England/UK due to tax changes' etc nonsense.

There are a record number planning to leave because THERE ARE A RECORD NUMBER OF MILLIONAIRES FULL STOP. Up by a third in five years.

www.savills.co.uk/insight-and-...

Savills UK | Number of property millionaires increased by 34% over the past five years

Savills UK | News

www.savills.co.uk

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Reposted by David Kitching

Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 2d

We should be asking this
c o n s t a n t l y.

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 2d

The cynical, ignorant hypocrisy of the American right.

www.the-sentinel-intelligence.net/the-grip-tig...

The Grip Tightens

On media misinformation

www.the-sentinel-intelligence.net

David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 2d

"1 in 6 lab-confirmed bacterial infections were resistant to antibiotic treatments in 2023, with more than 40% of antibiotics losing potency against common blood, gut, urinary tract and sexually-transmitted infections between 2018 and 2023, records show."

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Sharp global rise in antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals, WHO finds

Experts describe findings as deeply concerning and predict 70% increase in related deaths by 2050

www.theguardian.com

David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 2d

"Across Europe, in the UK and the US, distrust and grievance daily deepen political dysfunction and social discord. Macron’s words apply, in fact, to almost any country espousing democratic principles."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

France is not alone in its political crisis – belief in a democratic world is vanishing | Simon Tisdall

The populist right offers a solution in the form of turning back the clock. Macron and his counterparts need to find a different answer fast, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall

www.theguardian.com

David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 2d

Orban and Putin are cut from the same cloth. Either the Hungarians need to get rid of him or Hungary's EU membership should be suspended. They take all they can get from the EU and give nothing back but problems.

Euromaidan Press @euromaidanpress.bsky.social · 3d

Orbán now says helping Ukraine is a “war plan” and wants every Hungarian to help block it.

He claims Hungary now faces a Brussels-led retaliation campaign involving spy charges and legal tricks.
euromaidanpress.com/2025/10/12/h...

Hungary’s Orbán launches petition against EU defense policy, calls it a “war plans,” targets Ukraine support against Russia

While offering zero support to Kyiv, the pro-Russian Hungarian leader launched a nationwide petition to block EU military aid for Ukraine.

euromaidanpress.com

Reposted by David Kitching

victoria1921.bsky.social @victoria1921.bsky.social · 4d

Reform is 5 homes, 'millionaire man of the people', Farage.
Loyal to 🇷🇺 🇺🇸 and an enemy of 🇬🇧

Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 4d

“Here Farage is, in Gill’s office, with Voloshyn’s wife Nadia, on the day Gill makes an intervention on behalf of Medvedchuk’s channels, with an employee of one of those channels, whose husband started bribing Gill to make these statements 6 days earlier”

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/11/s...

'Stunned?' Farage's Admission He Knew Nathan Gill but Not His Kremlin Associates Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny

Insiders have told Byline Times, it is 'inconceivable' the Reform Leader did not know about his close aide's pro Russian statements

bylinetimes.com

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 3d

Great book, if you're interested in science and what the world about you is actually made and how it works. Quantum physics very well explained.

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Reposted by David Kitching

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 3d

Glad to see Nigel Farage has finally remembered Nathan Gill, former leader of Reform in Wales - found guilty of taking bribes from Russia.

Maybe he'll now remember how much he took from Putin's propaganda broadcaster Russia Today for all his TV appearances when he was a MEP?

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 3d

I don't know what the proportion is of US vs other region users, but the majority of posts on the Discover, News and Worldnews feeds are by, and about, Americans. Often about people and places I've never heard of and not mentioning that quoted stats are for the US. Very US dominated it seems to me.

Reposted by David Kitching

Lord Dom B @lorddom.bsky.social · 3d

Since the Brexit referendum, the Telegraph has become the Pantomine Dame of confected outrage against the very thing it fought for and continues to uphold. The new Schengen Entry and Exit System isn’t sound border management but a “pointed insult”. Hilarious.

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Reposted by David Kitching

Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 3d

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

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POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 3d

Warning signs from an obscure part of the financial markets have got policymakers rattled, and one of their oldest and most profound fears may be about to get very real.

Warning signs of financial instability rattle policymakers ahead of IMF jamboree

Two big U.S. bankruptcies have revived memories of the last time the financial sector went bad.

www.politico.eu

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Reposted by David Kitching

George Tsakraklides @tsakraklides.bsky.social · 3d

“Humanity’s most defining quality is self-sabotage: humans came and went but the trees were the quiet winners in the end”
open.substack.com/pub/georgets...

They Came. They Danced. They Went Extinct.

I normally don’t expect a nature hike in the clean suburban air of my beach town to turn into a back-to-the future, post-apocalyptic excursion into the remnants of an extinct society.

open.substack.com

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 4d

"Powered by gravity and buoyancy alone, it travels in a slow sawtooth pattern, conserving energy while diving to depths of 1,000 metres. With a range of up to 15,000 kilometres per leg, Redwing is equipped to operate continuously for months at sea."

oceanographicmagazine.com/news/robot-s...

Robot submarine embarks on world first mission around the globe - Oceanographic

Called the Sentinel Mission, the five year voyage to circumnavigate the globe promises to transform our understanding of the world's ocean.

oceanographicmagazine.com

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 4d

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Baggage @carrieonbaggage.bsky.social · 4d

Meanwhile...
"The number of wild bee species in Europe at risk of extinction has more than doubled over the past decade, while the number of endangered butterfly species has almost doubled"

Number of wild bee species at risk of extinction in Europe doubles in 10 years

Number of endangered butterfly species also surging amid habitat destruction and global heating, finds study

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by David Kitching

Nick Langley @nicklangley.bsky.social · 4d

Some defence experts have called for climate finance to be considered part of national security spending.

The Guardian understands that some of his advisers want Starmer to skip the UN’s Cop30 climate summit, fearing that Reform will attack him for going.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

National security threatened by climate crisis, UK intelligence chiefs due to warn

Report by joint intelligence committee delayed, with concerns expressed that it may not be published

www.theguardian.com

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David Kitching @kitchingart.com · 4d

"To say bluntly what was on most every mind here, it’s entirely plausible that Britain, Germany and France are led by far-right nationalist parties by the end of the decade, and it’s not clear the traditional parties and leaders know how to stop it from happening."

www.politico.com/news/magazin...

The Tory Implosion Offers a Warning for Both Parties in America

Once the model for modern conservatism, Britain’s Tories are now flailing for relevance — and embracing Trump-style populism as a lifeline.

www.politico.com

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