Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 2d

I feel like this didn't get enough attention.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/h...

Kennedy Fires N.I.H. Scientist Who Filed Whistle-Blower Complaint

www.nytimes.com

1 42 77

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Dorit Reiss @doritreiss.bsky.social · 3d

CDC, its advisers quietly expand access to Covid-19 shot for pregnant women - likely without even realizing it: but the tables now reflect shared clinical decision making rather than "no recommendation", increasing access. politi.co/4mZJUUL via @politico.com @sophiegardner.bsky.social

CDC, its advisers quietly expand access to Covid-19 shot for pregnant women

The panel voted to undo an action by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which removed the vaccine from the immunization schedule for pregnant women.

politi.co

2 17 49

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Jack Mirkinson @jackmirkinson.bsky.social · 2d

This extraordinary piece from Gaza by Ali Skaik about the ceasefire made me cry. It contains so much—joy, grief, determination, love, sorrow, hope. Very proud to run it in @thenation.com today. Please read it. www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Then my sister Huda, 21, was awakened by a phone call. Her friend told her the ceasefire would begin at 12 PM. "A ceasefire! A ceasefire!" she shouted, her voice shaking with disbelief. The whole house erupted— some of us laughed, some of us cried, and all of us dared to hope, if only for a moment. My 10-year-old brother Abedrahim jumped from his mattress and danced around the room shouting, "The genocide is over! We'll finally eat chicken!"

I walked through the ruins of Al-Rimal to find a cafe with internet so I could submit my exam. The streets were unrecognizable. Shops were flattened. Homes were piles of ash and steel.

I ran into my friend Khaled Al-Saqqa, 27, the sole survivor of his entire family. When I told him about the ceasefire, his eyes filled with tears. “Why was I left to suffer alone?!” he asked. I had no answer. I simply hugged him and whispered, “God gives you strength.”

We’ll welcome back loved ones who fled to the south—but not all will return. The IOF killed many who sought safety in so-called “safe zones.” Among them was the family of my father’s cousin Yusuf. A midnight strike on September 28, 2025, hit the apartment next to theirs as they prepared to pitch a tent. His wife Nidaa, daughter Ruaa, 18, and son Hamoud, 11, with curly yellow hair, were killed. Yusuf survived, along with his daughter Aya, 21, who suffered a broken leg and pelvis, and Aboud, 17, who remembers hearing his mother’s last breath.

We will remember the martyrs—those who died teaching, reporting, healing, mothering, surviving. We will carry their memory like fire in our hearts. And we will begin again.

The real war is now. The war of healing. Of remembering. Of refusing to forget. Of restarting. Of chasing our dreams.

17 28

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 4d

Apropos of nothing, here's my essay for @newrepublic.com from earlier this year about Covid's continued influence on our lives, whether we like it or not:
newrepublic.com/article/1927...
(Thanks again to @dceiver.bsky.social for letting me write it.)

The Pandemic Never Ended

Five years after Covid arrived on these shores, many believe the anxieties of the plague years are in the rearview mirror. But the threat is far from over.

newrepublic.com

1 4 7

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Josh Cook @joshthelibromancer.bsky.social · 5d

Just a reminder! If you're buying books in support of #BannedBooksWeek buying from Amazon undercuts the broader project of social justice supporting the right to read is a part of. Get your banned books absolutely anywhere else!

Amazon is the invisible backbone of ICE’s immigration crackdown

Lobbying dollars and a cozy relationship with the government have given the tech giant an outsize influence in the Department of Homeland Security.

www.technologyreview.com

9 81 190

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 8d

If you like yelling about misuse of the passive voice, THIS IS IT.

CNN @cnn.com · 9d

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken. https://cnn.it/4pPCXIt

37 people arrested and American kids separated from parents after ICE raid at Chicago apartments | CNN

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken.

www.cnn.com

64 2.3K 8.2K

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 8d

But also www.hhs.gov/press-room/h... sounds “good” but only supported by republicans…

www.hhs.gov

3

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 8d

Hmm, could be. I mean Jean Marazzo was “placed on involuntary administrative leave and told she would be transferred to the Indian Health Service” but this feels different. www.cbsnews.com/news/nih-whi...

NIH whistleblower details clash over childhood vaccines with Trump administration: "We became inconvenient"

A former NIH official says she was removed after clashes over vaccines, accusing RFK Jr. and his deputies of posing "a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety."

www.cbsnews.com

2

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 8d

(Also, Medicaid cuts are about to kneecap the Indian health service further than its already been defunded)

3

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 8d

Something about this feels very ominous to me. The govt is demonizing places like New York but then abruptly sending its top public health people to areas with mysterious public health crises in red states (measles?)

Maya Kaufman @mayakaufman.bsky.social · 11d

NEWS: The federal govt is sending NYC’s top disease control official to Arizona for a months-long stint at an Indian Health Service facility.

That could complicate local infectious disease response efforts.

“If we have an outbreak, then we’re fucked,” a city health department staffer told me.

5 4 34

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Prism @prismreports.org · 9d

Trump’s health care cuts will negatively impact the communities that are already struggling most—people with disabilities, @lauralew105.bsky.social reports. When “people are dying in their districts,” lawmakers may then be compelled to recognize the government’s abandonment of vulnerable people.

Big Beautiful Bill' is deadly to vulnerable groups across the U.S.

Work requirements, increased red tape, and reduced eligibility for safety net programs will disproportionately impact poor people

prismreports.org

1 6 15

Reposted by Laura Weiss

ACLU @aclu.org · 10d

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

650 16K 32K

Reposted by Laura Weiss

AltSpaceForce 🚀🇺🇲 @altspaceforce.altgov.info · 11d

Day One

33 560 3.2K

Reposted by Laura Weiss

students-watch.bsky.social @students-watch.bsky.social · 11d

The number of people that go bankrupt every year from medical bills:

Canada - 0

Australia- 0

France - 0

Sweden - 0

Norway - 0

Spain - 0

Portugal - 0

UK - 0

Finland - 0

Iceland - 0

Germany - 0

United States - 326,000

150 1.9K 3.8K

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 11d

The awesome video team at the New York Times helped me make this video about the shutdown and Obamacare premiums.

260 2K 4.8K

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 12d

FUCK ICE FOREVER

Till Eckert @tilleckert.com · 12d

1/ DEVELOPING: A journalist was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital following another incident with an ICE agent at 26 Federal Plaza, an immigration court in NYC. The last I heard, he was getting X-rays for his lower back.

63 630 2.8K

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 12d

Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.

Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.

770 7K 15K

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Anodyne @anodynesix.bsky.social · 13d

"It's shameful ... that we live in the richest country in the world, yet we are cutting nearly a trillion dollars in lifesaving and life-sustaining health care for people who need it most."

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 13d

The Medicaid cuts will harm the most vulnerable and threaten to bring the already-failing healthcare system to its knees. Been at this one for a while @prismreports.org.
Thanks @newdisabledsouth.org @pnhp.bsky.social @soumya-goblue.medsky.social & more for comments
prismreports.org/2025/09/29/b...

Big Beautiful Bill' is deadly to vulnerable groups across the U.S.

Work requirements, increased red tape, and reduced eligibility for safety net programs will disproportionately impact poor people

prismreports.org

16 27

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 13d

The Medicaid cuts will harm the most vulnerable and threaten to bring the already-failing healthcare system to its knees. Been at this one for a while @prismreports.org.
Thanks @newdisabledsouth.org @pnhp.bsky.social @soumya-goblue.medsky.social & more for comments
prismreports.org/2025/09/29/b...

Big Beautiful Bill' is deadly to vulnerable groups across the U.S.

Work requirements, increased red tape, and reduced eligibility for safety net programs will disproportionately impact poor people

prismreports.org

3 12

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Prism @prismreports.org · 13d

Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is deadly to already vulnerable groups across the U.S., @lauralew105.bsky.social reports. Work requirements, increased red tape, & reduced eligibility for Medicaid & other safety net programs will disproportionately impact poor people of marginalized backgrounds.

Big Beautiful Bill' is deadly to vulnerable groups across the U.S.

Work requirements, increased red tape, and reduced eligibility for safety net programs will disproportionately impact poor people

prismreports.org

1 11 20

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 13d

That the government even has to subsidize premiums — and that they’re so unaffordable in the first place—is due to insurance company greed. www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/09/25/potential-government-shutdown-over-obamacare-tax-credits/86186415007/

www.usatoday.com

1

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 15d

😤 I feel this!!!

1

Reposted by Laura Weiss

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 17d

I’m at the New Yorkers Against ICE rally in Foley Square with hundreds of others.

Earlier today ICE agents threw a grieving wife of a detainee to the ground inside 26 Federal Plaza, just steps from here.

Elected officials @bradlander.bsky.social, @jumaane.bsky.social and others are speaking.

23 550 2.3K

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 17d

🫠

1

Laura Weiss @lauralew105.bsky.social · 17d

I looked for weeks from now… maybe I’ll call. Thanks!

1 1