Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 5h

The Spectator (owned by GBNews owner Paul Marshall - estimated wealth of £800 million) doesn’t like taxing wealth fairly.

I wonder how they got to this editorial decision?

Let’s tax wealth fairly, fund front line services & make hope normal again.

join.greenparty.org.uk

Polanski is talking nonsense about wealth taxes.

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 6h

(UK) “It’s really bad, I won’t lie to you” is what the pharmacist told me as she had to deny me the covid vaccine. I got the flu one, no problem. A 74 year old got denied bcs he isn’t 75, so he said he’ll do it next year bcs he cannot afford to pay for private. It’s really bad. 1/4

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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 7h

Boris Johnson, "I tried to get the scientists to say that lockdown was a bad idea"

*they all laugh*

There were 26,000 covid deaths because Boris Johnson ignored scientists and delayed the first lockdown by a week

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Richard Delevan @richard.wickedproblems.earth · 6h

The Pope, the Terminator, and a Wicked Problem walk into a bar.

If you told me 2 yrs ago I'd spend a week in the Vatican w them I'd say you were nuts. But then if 20 years ago you told me the Catholic Church would be standing up for climate science vs denialist freaks I'd have you committed.

Confessions of a Climate Pilgrim at the Vatican

The Pope, the Terminator, and a Podcaster walk into a bar...

news.wickedproblems.uk

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All Our Yesterdays @allouryesterdays.bsky.social · 6h

October 14, 1974 – UK Chief Scientific Advisor is warned about carbon dioxide build-up.

allouryesterdays.info/2022/10/13/o...

October 14, 1974 - UK Chief Scientific Advisor is warned about carbon dioxide build-up. - All Our Yesterdays

On this day, October 14 in 1974, a UK Cabinet Office civil servant tells his boss about this climate change issue, after having been told about it by German Professor Hermann Flohn. “The first example...

allouryesterdays.info

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 10h

To be effective, protest must be noisy, obstructive, annoying. No longer is this allowed. Now the last attribute of effective dissent – persistence – is also to be banned. But the moment protest ceases to be effective is the moment democracy dies. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Here’s what you need to know about Starmer’s illiberal protest curbs: they would have killed the Labour party at birth | George Monbiot

The rights we enjoy in the UK, and the movement the PM purports to lead, were built on protest. Those rights are in dire peril, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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Mark Ruffalo @markruffalo.bsky.social · 19h

Columbus bragged in letters about raping 9-year-old girls & selling them into slavery.

So of course, Trump is using him to replace Indigenous Peoples' Day,
calling Columbus the "first American hero."

Maybe he can rename it, Trump-Epstein-Columbus Day. #ReleaseTheEpsteinFiles

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 1d

Racism, conquest, extractive and exploitative trade, rape; all of these have always been live moral questions. There was never a moment of enlightenment where human progress allowed people to finally see that they were wrong. There have always been those saying that it was wrong.

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 1d

The notion that those who took part in slavery or conquest were merely abiding by the moral standards of their time necessary excludes those they targeted and kidnapped from those standards; *they* were never confused about this. But other white people were frequently disgusted by this stuff too!

George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 1d

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 18h

Really looks like that summit was merely an opportunity for men - and I think they were all men? - to make sure they were close to Trump while Trump was happy

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 1d

WTF is the head of FIFA doing at the summit?

FIFA President Gianni Infantino attending Donald Trump’s so-called “Gaza peace summit” in Egypt.

But sure, tell us again how “football and politics don’t mix.”
Absolutely insane.

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Edwin Heathcote @edwinheathcote.bsky.social · 21h

Parisian arcades.

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Mauro Biani @maurobiani.bsky.social · 18h

#palestina #Israele #Trump #Netanyahu #Hamas etc. etc. etc.
Giornata strana.
Come quando 3-4 cosche mafiose si accordano, momentaneamente, sulle spartizioni. Allora non sparano più, e le persone finalmente sono felici. Perlomeno sollevate.
Alcuni liberati dopo anni.
Ma non dirò grazie (...)

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Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 18h

As we all know, the right to protest is foundational to a functioning democracy. This is why my administration vigorously supports your right to do it quietly in your own home where no one can see it.

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 21h

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson's full statement, in which she says she will sign an EO permitting protest "only at the safety zone located at the ICE facility on Beach Street," is up on the village's website.

"There are too many protesters abusing their right to protest," Thompson says.

Image text:

Broadview Shrinks Protest Safety Zones

The following statement can be attributed to Village of Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson:

“The protests at the ICE facility on Saturday night degenerated into chaos. There were 15 arrests, and 10 of those were around the age of my own daughter. As a mother and a mayor, I am mad. Broadview didn’t choose to have the ICE facility in our community. But it’s here. And so are Broadview residents. There are too many protesters abusing their right to protest. Too many are raising their fists rather than their voices, creating chaos at the expense of the people who call Broadview home. Broadview residents lack the protestors’ privilege to return to calm, quiet neighborhoods for undisturbed rest.

Therefore, I have issued a new executive order, in consultation with the Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff, that permits protests only at the safety zone located at the ICE facility on Beach Street.

There will no longer be a designated protest safety zone at 2000 South 25th Avenue between Lexington and Fillmore.

Additionally, it has been only God’s grace alone that a protester has not been struck and killed by a motorist on 25th Avenue given how frequently protesters dash onto this busy, four-lane street. This new
measure will provide for both the serenity of residents and safety of protestors.

As I have repeatedly said, I respect, support, and defend the protesters’ free and – peaceful – speech against the outrageous injustices and deplorable unprovoked chemical arms attacks by ICE agents against American citizens, journalists, and ministers that put Broadview police and firefighters in harms’ way.

Nevertheless, my first priority is to defend public safety and the residents who live here and people who work here. They deserve stability, safety, and respect, a quality of life that is currently being denied to them. They deserve the love and kindness that they expect by being Broadview residents.”

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 18h

The Guardian did a profile of Linehan last month in which they described a 57 year old man’s years-long obsession with harassing trans people as “gender activism”

What’s next? Is Tommy Robinson a race activist?

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

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Clare M @clamc.bsky.social · 18h

“In the past 2 years, Israeli Occupation Forces have unlawfully detained over 409 Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza & West Bank. Testimonies from released healthcare workers and other Palestinians describe horrific conditions inside the detention facilities where brutality & torture are rife”

Fifty-five healthcare workers from Gaza are listed for release from Israeli detention today, while Israel continues to hold at least 115 more captives - Healthcare Workers Watch

Fifty-five healthcare workers from Gaza are listed among the Palestinians released from Israeli detention today as part of the exchange deal. While not all releases are confirmed yet, the list include...

healthcareworkerswatch.org

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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 18h

People who say "you can't possibly read everything you cite" are saying a lot about themselves, IMO.

It doesn't have to be a heavy lift. I spend about half an hour a day processing new-to-me papers by organizing them in my reference managers & adding topical tags so I can create bibliographies.

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PIK_climate @pik-potsdam.bsky.social · 1d

160 scientists, 23 countries, 1 report: The Global Tipping Points Report 2025, together with @exeter.ac.uk, highlights mounting risks across Earth’s systems, from melting glaciers & ice fields to slowing ocean currents, ice sheets & rainforests under pressure. Watch now👇
👉global-tipping-points.org

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Shematologist, MD @shematologist.medsky.social · 17h

Snuggle your babies, hug your kids, appreciate your partner, love your people, and be grateful for each day of health you’re fortunate enough to have.

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Shematologist, MD @shematologist.medsky.social · 17h

A few PSAs from your friendly neighborhood pediatric shematologist

🩸vitamin k in newborns is lifesaving
🩸vaccines save lives
🩸no kid should drink more than 20 ounces of milk a day
🩸babies don’t need chiropractors
🩸home births can go south super quickly even in the very best of circumstances

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East Anglia Bylines @eastangliabylines.co.uk · 22h

In today’s letter to the editor, a reader warns that proposals to deny welfare to EU citizens with Settled Status are not only morally wrong – they’re legally indefensible.

From Camilla Cucinotta

Letter to the editor: A civilised society does not withhold care based on citizenship

Letter to the editor

eastangliabylines.co.uk

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 17h

Microplastics are released from plastic when exposed to heat, including leaching from tea bags into hot tea and plastic containers releasing nanoplastics when microwaved. While health effects are still unclear, minimizing heating plastic is a simple way to reduce exposure.

Microplastics are everywhere. You can do one simple thing to avoid them.

The biggest sources of microplastics have one thing in common: Heat.

wapo.st

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 1d

Pushing for a cease fire so you can look good in a genocide you specifically enabled, at the same time as you’re assaulting your own democracy & waging war on your own cities, is never going to get you a prize for peace. If there’s a prize for hypocrisy and narcissism though, you’ve got a real shot.

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Reuters @reuters.com · 20h

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Monday it will cut nearly 550 jobs as part of a restructuring, not related to the current U.S. government shutdown.

reut.rs

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 1d

The right-wing campaign group that helped topple Roe v Wade in the US is now working to roll back abortion laws in the UK, with the help of Nigel Farage.

Its first step? Trying to create a debate around "free speech"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 1d

EVERYONE PREFERS HUMAN WRITERS, INCLUDING AI

By Wouter Haverals and Meredith Martin
@mmvty.bsky.social

EVERYONE PREFERS HUMAN WRITERS, INCLUDING AI

PREPRINT

• Wouter Haverals*
Center for Digital Humanities
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08540
wouter .haverals@princeton. edu

® Meredith Martin
Center for Digital Humanities
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08540
mm4@princeton.edu

October 13, 2025

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