Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 5m

we live in a post-truth society where anyone who wants to ruin you can start a salacious smear campaign that others will repeat ad nauseam, and that nothing can ever debunk because it's just taken as evidence for a deeper conspiracy.

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alyssa mercante @alyssamerc.bsky.social · 43m

Wild how, once I left Twitter, they stopped trying to do this about my every move.

Nathan Grayson @nathangrayson.bsky.social · 18h

collar gate is the latest instance of a trumped-up non-issue blossoming into a large-scale psychosis event – and possibly the dumbest. it's also the modern internet doing exactly what it was engineered to do

To be honest, I wouldn’t be mentioning this if not for the fact that it’s a microcosm of how online platforms work today: Somebody makes an accusation based on evidence that’s spurious at best, big names with something to gain (viewership or the downfall of a perceived enemy) uncritically boost it, internet sleuths obsessively piece together supporting evidence by amassing context-free clips and ignoring everything that doesn’t match their intended conclusion, and all of the aforementioned parties spread performatively apoplectic videos across Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and wherever else they can sucker in uninitiated normies.

Some version of this happens every week – every day, on a smaller scale – without fail. It accomplishes nothing aside from giving the disaffected masses a brief glimmer of what feels like purpose, but is actually a bloodsucking waste of their precious time on this dying planet. And of course, it provides platforms with sweet, sweet engagement numbers. As a result, platforms will probably never intervene to disrupt this corrosive dynamic, which has broken the general public’s ability to perceive anything resembling objective reality, even as society collapses around them and people like Piker attempt to identify the real reasons why (hint: they don't involve dog collars).

The internet has been like this at least since the Depp v. Heard trial, which wannabe sleuths similarly feasted on in 2022 while getting pretty much every important detail completely wrong. At least back then they were obsessing over something of consequence. Now they’ve taught viewers to regard every trumped-up non-issue they can surface with similar gravity.

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Dr. Samantha Montano @samlmontano.bsky.social · 57m

"This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors."

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 2h

Greta Thunberg: “Israeli soldiers hit, kicked, starved, and tortured me”

• They placed a flag next to me, and anytime the flag touched me, they kicked me
• Whenever I raised my head to look at Ben-Gvir, I was kicked
• She was filmed while stripped naked

Aftonbladet: tinyurl.com/a33vxatc

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 16m

That is profoundly illegal. You may not spend money on a purpose without funding. The constitution expressly forbids it, as does the ADA.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 16m

You can check the milpers accounts in the OMB apportionment website. There is no money transferred into those accounts for them to use. No money has been transferred from RDTE to milpers.

Instead, what happened? They spent RDTE money, which can only be used on RDTE, on milpers.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 19m

Most money has what's called a period of availability. You can go about obligating it only during that period. While it's illegal to not use it all (that's the illegal impoundments Trump has been doing all year), after that period of availability ends, you can't use it anymore.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 21m

The mechanism through which Trump is paying the troops is the most blatant large Antideficiency Act (ADA) violation in US history. It's also clearly willful. No one has been charged under the ADA before, but violations carry a two-year jail term. The statute of limitations is five years.

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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 2h

"The EHRC’s exclusionary interim guidance has had a devastating impact on trans people’s lives"

“Now the guidance has been withdrawn, so should the exclusionary policies that organisations rashly implemented in its aftermath. If not, they could find themselves in hot water.”

EHRC withdraws interim guidance encouraging trans exclusion

After six months of confusion and delay, the EHRC has taken down interim guidance rushed out in April. But the damage has already been done.

goodlawproject.org

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Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 4h

The EHRC has finally, five months after producing its wildly transphobic and, we believe, unlawful Interim Guidance now taken it down. Our judicial review challenge to that Interim Guidance will be heard in less than one month.

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Data Bear 🏳️‍🌈 @dataandpolitics.net · 2h

Three years after my husband died, I’m still trying to prove our life together was worth losing his family.

What I live with isn’t forgetting — it’s the blurring of memory.

On the third anniversary, I wrote about grief, memory, and continuing without answers.
www.dataandpolitics.net/the-blurring/

The Blurring

What I live with isn't forgetting, it's the blurring. A meditation on grief, memory, and continuing without answers three years after loss.

www.dataandpolitics.net

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Taylor Lorenz @taylorlorenz.bsky.social · 1h

I wrote about mass video surveillance and what the Hasan Piker dog controversy says about where our internet is headed.

Hasan Piker and the Future No One Is Ready For

The backlash that Piker is facing shows the consequences of a world where everyone is constantly being recorded and our internet is built to reward outrage and controversy.

www.usermag.co

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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 3h

Like many trans healthcare bans, the Fenway Health policy covers everyone up to age 19, including legal adults who are 18 years old.

Mainstream reporting consistently ignores this creeping ban on adult care, which extends the legal minority of trans adults to maximize the harms of delayed care.

snippet from the Boston Globe home page:
Under federal pressure, Fenway Health ends gender-affirming medical care for trans children
The community clinic, long a key institution for the LGBTQ+ community, treated 5,000 patients transgender patients in 2023, although its unclear how many were minors.

With "and young adults" added after children in red

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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 3h

Yeah, S3 glacier not going away and a superset.

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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 5h

yep. normalisation

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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 5h

yeah, they should really normalise rather than have a mega-regex like that. I put up a PR for that a while ago

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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 6h

💔💔

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 21h

1. In a major capitulation to Trump, Fenway Health, a center ostensibly dedicated to LGBTQ+ healthcare, has ended its trans care program under 19.

It could have fought for its patients. It chose instead to roll over.

Community members are devastated.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

Fenway Health Restricts Treatment for Patients Under 19 In Capitulation To Trump

“This is a fundamental betrayal to the core mission of Fenway and the patients they serve.”

www.erininthemorning.com

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Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 6h

as a child, did you dream you'd grow up to make a career out of obsessing over other people's genitals?

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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 6h

relieved to see this happen, and also, it certainly does seem to show that there never were security concerns about the Rafah crossing or aid entering, it was just using starvation as a weapon the entire time.

The Journal @thejournal.ie · 13h

Hamas has handed over four more bodies of hostages to Israel, leading Israel to allow Gaza's key Rafah crossing to reopen on Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinian territory.
jrnl.ie/6844804

Hamas hands over four more hostage bodies as 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza

Israel will allow Gaza’s key Rafah crossing to reopen on Wednesday for humanitarian aid.

jrnl.ie

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Danielle Navarro @djnavarro.net · 16h

"At the end of the day, if you're born a bloke, you're going to men's prison and we'll deal with you there."

So that's where we are in Australia. Everybody knows what she means here. She means that trans women get raped with government approval. That's how they "deal with us" in men's prisons.

Alastair Lawrie @alastairlawrie.bsky.social · 17h

More on the horrifying new policy of the NT Government, to send trans women to men's prisons, exposing them to significant risk of violence and sexual assault. #ntpol
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Advocates condemn NT leader's comments on trans women in female prisons

The Northern Territory government has doubled down on its stance against detaining transgender women in female prisons, as a local LGBTQIA+ group says it is "horrified" by the comments.

www.abc.net.au

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Kathryn Tewson @kathryntewson.bsky.social · 20h

Whooooooo.

MR. KHOJASTEH: Your Honor, with respect, do you
doubt the fact that a retainer [sic] is in place in -- a
detainer is in place?
THE COURT: I absolutely doubt the fact until I see
it. Because you know what? You all have taken a position over
and over again that you have done things lawfully, and then a
witness gets on the stand yesterday and admits you haven't done
it lawfully.
MR. KHOJASTEH: What did the witness say yesterday
that was unlawfully?
THE COURT: I'm not here to answer your questions,
sir. You're here to answer mine.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

A decade-long effort by immigration restrictionists to overturn Obama-era rules allowing the spouses of H-1B holders to legally work (people potentially here for decades while their spouse waits in employment visa backlogs) has now finally been put to bed.

Andrew Kreighbaum @kreighbaum.bsky.social · 1d

The Supreme Court passed on a challenge to employment eligibility for spouses of H-1B visa holders.

The DC Circuit had upheld the lawfulness of work permits for H-4 dependent visa holders last year.

#H1Bvisa #immigration #tech

Justices Pass on Hearing Challenge to H-1B Spouses’ Work Permits

The US Supreme Court has declined to consider a bid by immigration opponents to invalidate employment authorization for spouses of certain temporary foreign workers in the US.

news.bloomberglaw.com

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Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 1d

Our Judicial Review of the EHRC: we've published our formal written case - together with that of the EHRC and Bridget Phillipson - and they are very much worth a read. goodlaw.social/7gs4

An update in our judicial review of the EHRC’s interim guidance | Good Law Project

We’re publishing key documents in our legal challenge against the interim guidance issued by the EHRC in the wake of the For Women Scotland decision.

goodlaw.social

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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 1d

Summary military trial not by a jury of one's peers, with inadequate legal representation, gives one the impression that that system is not fair. Regardless of whether it's a system based on race or citizenship, I anchor more on the procedural fairness bits.

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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 1d

Yup, hard to see how many of these are fair trials.

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